Gina Haspel

Gina Haspel
6th Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency
Assumed office
February 2, 2017
President Donald Trump
Preceded by David Cohen
Director of the National Clandestine Service
Acting
In office
February 28, 2013 – May 7, 2013
President Barack Obama
Preceded by John Bennett
Succeeded by Frank Archibald
Personal details
Born Gina Cheri Haspel
(1956-10-01) October 1, 1956

Gina Cheri Haspel (born October 1, 1956) is an American intelligence official. She joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1985.[1] In 2002, she oversaw the torture of two terrorism suspects and later took part in ordering the destruction of videotapes documenting the brutal, ineffectual torture held at a secret prison.[1] In February 2017 she was appointed by President Donald Trump as Deputy Director of the CIA.[1][2][3] She is the "first female career CIA officer" to receive that appointment, although she is the second woman, as Avril Haines had been appointed by Barack Obama in 2013.[4][5]

Service with CIA

Haspel ran a "black site" CIA prison located in Thailand in 2002.[6][7] The site was codenamed "Cat’s Eye" and held suspected al Qaeda members Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri and Abu Zubaydah for a time. The Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture specifies that during their detention at the site they were waterboarded and interrogated using no longer authorized methods.[8][9] Declassified CIA cables specify that Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times in a month, was sleep deprived, kept in a "large box", had his head slammed against a wall and he lost his left eye. Zubaydah was deemed, by the CIA interrogators, to not be in possession of any useful intelligence (Interrogation of Abu Zubaydah).[10]

Haspel later was the chief of staff to Jose Rodriguez, who headed the CIA's Counterterrorism Center. In his memoir, Rodriguez wrote that Haspel had "drafted a cable" in 2005 ordering the destruction of dozens of videotapes made at the black site in Thailand.[9]

In 2013, John Brennan, then the director of Central Intelligence, named Haspel as acting Deputy Director of the National Clandestine Service, which carries out covert operations around the globe.[11] However, she was denied the position permanently due to criticism about her involvement in the Rendition, Detention and Interrogation program.[12] Haspel as also served as the Deputy Director of the National Clandestine Service for Foreign Intelligence and Covert Action.[6]

Haspel is the recipient of the George H. W. Bush Award for excellence in counterterrorism, the Donovan Award, the Intelligence Medal of Merit and the Presidential Rank Award.[1]

On February 2, 2017, President Donald Trump appointed Haspel deputy director of the CIA. On February 8, 2017, several members of the Senate intelligence committee urged Trump to reconsider his appointment of Haspel as Deputy Director.[13] Senator Sheldon Whitehouse quoted colleagues Ron Wyden and Martin Heinrich who were on the committee:

I am especially concerned by reports that this individual was involved in the unauthorized destruction of CIA interrogation videotapes, which documented the CIA’s use of torture against two CIA detainees. My colleagues Senators Wyden and Heinrich have stated that classified information details why the newly appointed Deputy Director is 'unsuitable' for the position and have requested that this information be declassified. I join their request.

On February 15, 2017, Spencer Ackerman reported on psychologists Bruce Jessen and James Mitchell, the architects of the enhanced interrogation program that was designed to break Zubaydah and was subsequently used on other detainees at the CIA’s secret prisons around the world. Jessen and Mitchell are being sued by Sulaiman Abdulla Salim, Mohamed Ahmed Ben Soud, and Obaid Ullah over torture designed by the psychologists. Jessen and Mitchell are seeking to compel Haspel, and her colleague James Cotsana, to testify on their behalf.[14][15]

Criminal charges

December 17, 2014 the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights pressed Criminal charges against unknown CIA operatives, after the US Senate Select Committee published its report on torture by US intelligence agencies.

June 7, 2017 the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights called on the Public Prosecutor General of Germany to issue an arrest warrant against Haspel over claims she oversaw the torture of terrorism suspects. The complaint against her is centered on the case of Saudi national Abu Zubaydah.[16][17][18]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Gina Haspel Selected to be Deputy Director of CIA". Central Intelligence Agency. February 2, 2017. Archived from the original on 2017-02-03. Retrieved February 2, 2017. Ms. Haspel is the first female career CIA officer to be named Deputy Director.
  2. ↑ Glenn Greenwald (2017-02-02). "The CIA’s New Deputy Director Ran a Black Site for Torture". The Intercept. Retrieved 2017-02-03. That CIA official’s name whose torture activities the Post described is Gina Haspel. Today, as BuzzFeed’s Jason Leopold noted, CIA Director Mike Pompeo announced that Haspel was selected by Trump to be Deputy Director of the CIA.
  3. ↑ "Gina Haspel becomes first female CIA deputy director". WDSU. 2017-02-02. Archived from the original on 2017-02-02. Retrieved 2017-02-03.
  4. ↑ Suman Varandani (2017-02-03). "Who Is Gina Haspel? 5 Facts About Trump's CIA Deputy Director Pick". International Business Times. Retrieved 2017-02-03. Haspel joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1985, and spent most of her career undercover. She has been part of several controversies, including her involvement in several torture programs conducted by the U.S. She also ran waterboarding and other interrogation techniques at some of CIA's "black sites" or secret prisons. She has not yet been indicted for war crimes.
  5. ↑ Paul Handley (2017-02-02). "Woman tied to secret interrogations to be CIA No. 2". Washington DC: Yahoo News. Retrieved 2017-02-03. A longtime CIA clandestine operations official reportedly involved in its much-criticized "black site" interrogations after the 9/11 attacks was named number two at the US spy agency Thursday.
  6. 1 2 Riechmann, Deb (February 2, 2017). "Seasoned spymaster linked to waterboarding named CIA deputy". San Francisco Chronicle. AP.
  7. ↑ Bonner, Raymond (February 22, 2017). "CIA Cables Detail Its New Deputy Director’s Role in Torture". ProPublica.
  8. ↑ Toosi, Nahal (February 2, 2017). "Trump taps former 'black site' prison operator for CIA deputy". Politico.
  9. 1 2 Miller, Greg (February 2, 2017). "CIA officer with ties to ‘black sites’ named deputy director". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 3, 2017.
  10. ↑ Sleight, David (February 22, 2017). "In Their Own Words: CIA Cables Document Agency’s Torture of Abu Zubaydah". ProPublica.
  11. ↑ Filkins, Dexter (3 February 2017). "The New CIA Deputy Chief's Black-Site Past". The New Yorker.
  12. ↑ Miller, Greg (May 7, 2013). "National Security CIA selects new head of clandestine service, passing over female officer". Washington Post.
  13. ↑ Katie Bo Williams (2017-02-08). "Third Dem urges removal of Trump's pick for top CIA deputy". The Hill. Retrieved 2017-02-14. Trump’s pick of 30-year veteran Gina Haspel to serve as deputy director of the CIA — which is not a Senate-confirmable position — has reinvigorated fears that the administration is weighing a return to the use of banned techniques now considered torture, such as waterboarding and sleep deprivation.
  14. ↑ Spencer Ackerman (2017-02-15). "Deputy CIA director could face court deposition over post-9/11 role in torture". The Guardian. Retrieved 2017-02-15. In a court filing on Tuesday, attorneys for two CIA contract psychologists who helped design the agency’s brutal interrogations for terrorism suspects have asked a federal judge to order Gina Haspel, a career CIA officer recently appointed as the agency’s No2 official, to provide a deposition discussing her allegedly pivotal involvement in an episode the CIA has tried repeatedly to put behind it.
  15. ↑ Spencer Ackerman (2017-02-22). "DoJ moves to prevent CIA official from detailing role in Bush-era torture". New York City: The Guardian (UK). Retrieved 2017-03-27. The government asked the court to permit it to formally submit on 8 March its state-secrets argument preventing them and another CIA witness, James Cotsana, from being deposed. It is believed to be the first assertion of the state secrets privilege under the Trump administration.
  16. ↑ Ben Knight: NGO seeks arrest warrant for Donald Trump′s deputy CIA director, Deutsche Welle, June 7, 2017
  17. ↑ US News/ AP: Rights Group Asks Germany to Arrest CIA Deputy Director, 7. June 2017
  18. ↑ Christian Fuchs: CIA: Trump's Darling, Die Zeit, 7. June 2017 (in English)
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