SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Gina Haspel speaks at the William J. Donovan Award Dinner, Oct. 2017. (Photo: The OSS Society/YouTube)
Gina Haspel Sought to Withdraw Nomination Over Torture Role: Washington Post
"The takeaway for every United States Senator should be that they need a lot more information about Haspel than they're currently getting," says ACLU's Faiz Shakir
May 06, 2018
President Donald Trump's pick to lead the CIA, Gina Haspel, sought to withdraw her nomination on Friday amid concerns that details about her role in the agency's torture program would sink the possibility of a successful confirmation, the Washington Post reported Sunday.
The Post reported: "Haspel told the White House she was interested in stepping aside if it avoided the spectacle of a brutal confirmation hearing on Wednesday and potential damage to the CIA's reputation and her own, the officials said."
According to the Post, citing information from four senior U.S. officials, Hapsel indicated her position to the White House when she was summoned there for a meeting to discuss that history. She then headed back to her CIA office. Later on Friday, senior White House aides including legislative affairs head Marc Short and press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders engaged in discussions with her there lasting "several hours."
It was only Saturday when the White House learned she would be going through with the nomination.
"The takeaway for every United States Senator," commented Faiz Shakir, the ACLU's national political director, "should be that they need a lot more information about Haspel than they're currently getting."
Sanders doubled down on her promotion of Haspel, tweeting on Saturday that there is "no one more qualified" and that "Any Democrat who claims to support women's empowerment and our national security but opposes her nomination is a total hypocrite."
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) quipped back: "Perhaps I missed it, but I don't see being complicit in torture as part of the agenda for either women's empowerment or our national security."
The revelations come days after the ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act demanding records related to "the new propaganda campaign that the CIA is now waging on behalf of Gina Haspel even as it hides her responsibility for torture and role in destruction of torture evidence."
Her confirmation hearing, set for May 9, was already expected to end with a close vote.
In the lead-up to the hearing, advocacy groups--who've said her confirmation would be a clear endorsement of torture--are sustaining their efforts to make sure senators block it.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
President Donald Trump's pick to lead the CIA, Gina Haspel, sought to withdraw her nomination on Friday amid concerns that details about her role in the agency's torture program would sink the possibility of a successful confirmation, the Washington Post reported Sunday.
The Post reported: "Haspel told the White House she was interested in stepping aside if it avoided the spectacle of a brutal confirmation hearing on Wednesday and potential damage to the CIA's reputation and her own, the officials said."
According to the Post, citing information from four senior U.S. officials, Hapsel indicated her position to the White House when she was summoned there for a meeting to discuss that history. She then headed back to her CIA office. Later on Friday, senior White House aides including legislative affairs head Marc Short and press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders engaged in discussions with her there lasting "several hours."
It was only Saturday when the White House learned she would be going through with the nomination.
"The takeaway for every United States Senator," commented Faiz Shakir, the ACLU's national political director, "should be that they need a lot more information about Haspel than they're currently getting."
Sanders doubled down on her promotion of Haspel, tweeting on Saturday that there is "no one more qualified" and that "Any Democrat who claims to support women's empowerment and our national security but opposes her nomination is a total hypocrite."
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) quipped back: "Perhaps I missed it, but I don't see being complicit in torture as part of the agenda for either women's empowerment or our national security."
The revelations come days after the ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act demanding records related to "the new propaganda campaign that the CIA is now waging on behalf of Gina Haspel even as it hides her responsibility for torture and role in destruction of torture evidence."
Her confirmation hearing, set for May 9, was already expected to end with a close vote.
In the lead-up to the hearing, advocacy groups--who've said her confirmation would be a clear endorsement of torture--are sustaining their efforts to make sure senators block it.
President Donald Trump's pick to lead the CIA, Gina Haspel, sought to withdraw her nomination on Friday amid concerns that details about her role in the agency's torture program would sink the possibility of a successful confirmation, the Washington Post reported Sunday.
The Post reported: "Haspel told the White House she was interested in stepping aside if it avoided the spectacle of a brutal confirmation hearing on Wednesday and potential damage to the CIA's reputation and her own, the officials said."
According to the Post, citing information from four senior U.S. officials, Hapsel indicated her position to the White House when she was summoned there for a meeting to discuss that history. She then headed back to her CIA office. Later on Friday, senior White House aides including legislative affairs head Marc Short and press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders engaged in discussions with her there lasting "several hours."
It was only Saturday when the White House learned she would be going through with the nomination.
"The takeaway for every United States Senator," commented Faiz Shakir, the ACLU's national political director, "should be that they need a lot more information about Haspel than they're currently getting."
Sanders doubled down on her promotion of Haspel, tweeting on Saturday that there is "no one more qualified" and that "Any Democrat who claims to support women's empowerment and our national security but opposes her nomination is a total hypocrite."
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) quipped back: "Perhaps I missed it, but I don't see being complicit in torture as part of the agenda for either women's empowerment or our national security."
The revelations come days after the ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act demanding records related to "the new propaganda campaign that the CIA is now waging on behalf of Gina Haspel even as it hides her responsibility for torture and role in destruction of torture evidence."
Her confirmation hearing, set for May 9, was already expected to end with a close vote.
In the lead-up to the hearing, advocacy groups--who've said her confirmation would be a clear endorsement of torture--are sustaining their efforts to make sure senators block it.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.