Donald Trump’s pick for head of the Central Intelligence Agency, Gina Haspel, reportedly oversaw a black site prison in Thailand where terrorism suspects were tortured. She briefly ran the prison in 2002, anonymous officials told the Associated Press.
If the US Senate confirms Haspel, she would be the first female director of the agency, but the historic significance of her nomination was immediately overshadowed by her reported link to the black site, where two suspected al-Qaida members were waterboarded.
“The fact that she’s been able to stay in the agency, rise in the agency and now is in line to be director should be deeply troubling,” Larry Siems, author of the Torture Report, a book analysing government documents relating to Bush-era torture released in 2014, told the Guardian.
Haspel also drafted a cable ordering the destruction of CIA interrogation videos in 2005.
Haspel should have been prosecuted and sacked for her crimes. Instead, she's been repeatedly promoted. And now, a torturer is going to be positioned to implement Trump's psychotic dream. And the price will be paid by the entire world - because if there's one thing we know about torture, its that it produces more terrorists.