Let's talk about war criminal Gina Haspel

[VivaRevolution]

More Than 100 Retired Military Leaders Raise Concerns About CIA Nominee Gina Haspel

100 retired military leaders have joined the list of outside groups voicing concern about President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Central Intelligence Agency.


In a letter to members of the U.S. Senate, 109 retired generals and admirals said they were “deeply troubled” by the prospect of Gina Haspel being named CIA director given her links to the former U.S. torture program.

“We devoted our lives to the defense of our country. We know that fidelity to our most cherished ideals as a nation is the foundation of our security,” the letter reads. “It would send a terrible signal to confirm as the next Director of the CIA someone who was so intimately involved in this dark chapter of our nation’s history.”

https://www.google.com/amp/amp.timeinc.net/time/5250440/gina-haspel-retired-military

__________________________________________________


So I don't give a shit if you support torture. If you do, I will tell you the same thing I tell the gun grabbers, and those turn coat traitors in the alphabet agencies that think it is OK to violate the 4th amendment.

If you don't like a law. Then you need to vote to change the law.

You want to ban guns, fine, I disagree, but pass a constitutional amendment and you can ban guns.

Want to spy on everyone to feel safer, fine, pass a constitutional amendment, and we can spy on everyone.

If you want to torture people, then pass a law that says it is legal to torture.

If not, you are a criminal. In the case of Gina Haspel, she is a war criminal, and even worse a neo-con.

Shame on this country if she is confirmed as CIA director, and shame on you Trump supporters if you continue your support.

 

[Jesus H. Sherdog]

Great OP. I have to agree with all of that. We need to show not only the world, but ourselves, that torture is not acceptable and not aligned with American principles.

 

[Son of Jamin]

 

[Fawlty]

Easy to forget about this horrible person with all the other horrible people skulking around these days.

 

[xcvbn]

Good thing Trump knows more than these generals and admirals

 

[MadSquabbles500]

Is this Haspel lady like a female James Bond or Atomic Blond/Natasha Romanov? LOL torture is a tool intelligence services have been using forever. She probably just in the admin at the time. Plus I am sure these "military leaders" have their fair share of death and destruction.

 

[Trotsky]

Great OP. I have to agree with all of that. We need to show not only the world, but ourselves, that torture is not acceptable and not aligned with American principles.

Luckily, we didn't recently elect a reactionary child who has openly kept the use of torture on the table.

 

[VivaRevolution]

I went to prison for disclosing the CIA’s torture. Gina Haspel helped cover it up.
By John Kiriakou

March 16,
President Trump has nominated Gina Haspel, a 33-year CIA veteran, to head the agency. (Victoria Walker, Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)



I was inside the CIA’s Langley, Va., headquarters on Sept. 11, 2001. Like all Americans, I was traumatized, and I volunteered to go overseas to help bring al-Qaeda’s leaders to justice. I headed counterterrorism operations in Pakistan from January to May 2002. My team captured dozens of al-Qaeda fighters, including senior training-camp commanders. One of the fighters whom I played an integral role in capturing was Abu Zubaida, mistakenly thought at the time to be the third-ranking person in the militant group.

By that May, the CIA had decided to torture him. When I returned to CIA headquarters that month, a senior officer in the Counterterrorism Center asked me if I wanted to be “trained in the use of enhanced interrogation techniques.” I had never heard the term, so I asked what it meant. After a brief explanation, I declined. I said that I had a moral and ethical problem with torture and that — the judgment of the Justice Department notwithstanding — I thought it was illegal.

Unfortunately, there were plenty of people in the U.S. government who were all too willing to allow the practice to go on. One of them was Gina Haspel, whom President Trump nominated Tuesday as the CIA’s next director.

Putting Haspel in charge of the CIA would undo attempts by the agency — and the nation — to repudiate torture. The message this sends to the CIA workforce is simple: Engage in war crimes, in crimes against humanity, and you’ll get promoted. Don’t worry about the law. Don’t worry about ethics. Don’t worry about morality or the fact that torture doesn’t even work. Go ahead and do it anyway. We’ll cover for you. And you can destroy the evidence, too.


Described in the media as a “seasoned intelligence veteran,” Haspel has been at the CIA for 33 years, both at headquarters and in senior positions overseas. Now the deputy director, she has tried hard to stay out of the public eye. Mike Pompeo, the outgoing CIA director and secretary of state designee, has lauded her “uncanny ability to get things done and inspire those around her.”

I’m sure that’s true for some. But many of the rest of us who knew and worked with Haspel at the CIA called her “Bloody Gina.”

The CIA will not let me repeat her résumé or the widely reported specifics of how her work fit into the agency’s torture program, calling such details “currently and properly classified.” But I can say that Haspel was a protege of and chief of staff for Jose Rodriguez, the CIA’s notorious former deputy director for operations and former director of the Counterterrorism Center. And that Rodriguez eventually assigned Haspel to order the destruction of videotaped evidence of the torture of Abu Zubaida. The Justice Department investigated, but no one was ever charged in connection with the incident.

CIA officers and psychologists under contract to the agency began torturing Abu Zubaida on Aug. 1, 2002. The techniques were supposed to be incremental, starting with an open-palmed slap to the belly or the face. But the operatives where he was held decided to start with the toughest method. They waterboarded Abu Zubaida 83 times. They later subjected him to sleep deprivation; they kept him locked in a large dog cage for weeks at a time; they locked him in a coffin-size box and, knowing that he had an irrational fear of insects, put bugs in it with him.

Rodriguez would later tell reporters that the torture worked and that Abu Zubaida provided actionable intelligence that disrupted attacks and saved American lives. We know, thanks to the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on CIA torture and the personal testimony of FBI interrogator Ali Soufan , that this was false.

Related: [Torture is not a public relations problem]

I knew what was happening to Abu Zubaida because of my position in CIA operations at the time. I kept my mouth shut about it, even after I left the CIA in 2004. But by 2007, I had had enough.


Do we Americans want to remain a nation that tortures people, like North Korea, China and Iran? Are we proud of the era when we snatched people from one country and sent them to another to be interrogated in secret prisons? Do we want to be the country that cynically preaches human rights and then violates those same rights when we think nobody is looking?

Our country cannot afford that. We cannot look the other way. We cannot reward the torturers. Gina Haspel has no business running the CIA.




https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wa...07884e-27f8-11e8-874b-d517e912f125_story.html

 

[woodguyatl]

Is this Haspel lady like a female James Bond or Atomic Blond/Natasha Romanov? LOL torture is a tool intelligence services have been using forever. She probably just in the admin at the time. Plus I am sure these "military leaders" have their fair share of death and destruction.

I assume you are kidding. She ran a black site in Thailand that tortured detainees including waterboarding one 83 times, locking him a dog cage for weeks, and locking him in a coffin full of bugs.

When Congress started to investigate the torture claims she drafted a memo ordering the destruction of the Thailand torture video tapes.

"In 2005, Haspel was the chief of staff to Jose Rodriguez, Director of the National Clandestine Service. 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 in response to mounting public scrutiny of the program."

 

[Andy Capp]

Yes, it's people like her you can blame for Omar Kadr getting his big cash payoff, not Justin Trudeau.

 

[Seaside]

More Than 100 Retired Military Leaders Raise Concerns About CIA Nominee Gina Haspel

100 retired military leaders have joined the list of outside groups voicing concern about President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Central Intelligence Agency.


In a letter to members of the U.S. Senate, 109 retired generals and admirals said they were “deeply troubled” by the prospect of Gina Haspel being named CIA director given her links to the former U.S. torture program.

“We devoted our lives to the defense of our country. We know that fidelity to our most cherished ideals as a nation is the foundation of our security,” the letter reads. “It would send a terrible signal to confirm as the next Director of the CIA someone who was so intimately involved in this dark chapter of our nation’s history.”

https://www.google.com/amp/amp.timeinc.net/time/5250440/gina-haspel-retired-military

__________________________________________________


So I don't give a shit if you support torture. If you do, I will tell you the same thing I tell the gun grabbers, and those turn coat traitors in the alphabet agencies that think it is OK to violate the 4th amendment.

If you don't like a law. Then you need to vote to change the law.

You want to ban guns, fine, I disagree, but pass a constitutional amendment and you can ban guns.

Want to spy on everyone to feel safer, fine, pass a constitutional amendment, and we can spy on everyone.

If you want to torture people, then pass a law that says it is legal to torture.

If not, you are a criminal. In the case of Gina Haspel, she is a war criminal, and even worse a neo-con.

Shame on this country if she is confirmed as CIA director, and shame on you Trump supporters if you continue your support.

americans like you are awesome i respect you. but reading about this woman she seem fairly standard of what the imperalist military complex would want. i pro death penalty but anti torture. but as bad as torture is is it ruthless and does i think make many people fear. The russian, chinese, turkish, are all ruthless security agencies and they likely all torture.

 

[Madmick]

I read the letter. I didn't see anything but allegation and conjecture.

 

[Social Distance Warrior]

Wood....with a shit load of S&M

 

[MadSquabbles500]

I assume you are kidding. She ran a black site in Thailand that tortured detainees including waterboarding one 83 times, locking him a dog cage for weeks, and locking him in a coffin full of bugs.

When Congress started to investigate the torture claims she drafted a memo ordering the destruction of the Thailand torture video tapes.

"In 2005, Haspel was the chief of staff to Jose Rodriguez, Director of the National Clandestine Service. 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 in response to mounting public scrutiny of the program."

The CIA did not just recently learn how to use illegal methods of interrogation. We have had previous CIA directors with no experience in intelligence, yet presided over such activities anyways. Haspel, at least, has the operational knowledge. People seem to make a big deal when the story breaks about detainees being tortured, but I sure in the back of the public mind, they know it already happening even if not making news. They ought to make a big fuss about every new director and what his policy will be regarding illegal interrogation. But you usually hear no hoopla about that.

Unless you voted Rand Paul, Gary Johnson or other with extreme non-interventionist tendencies and campaign slogans, then is pointless being upset over nomination of someone within the CIA ranks for its head honcho. Under the other popular candidates, would these undesired practices have ceased to exist? Probably not, so it makes no difference who the head honcho at Langley is anyways.

 

[woodguyatl]

The CIA did not just recently learn how to use illegal methods of interrogation. We have had previous CIA directors with no experience in intelligence, yet presided over such activities anyways. Haspel, at least, has the operational knowledge. People seem to make a big deal when the story breaks about detainees being tortured, but I sure in the back of the public mind, they know it already happening even if not making news. They ought to make a big fuss about every new director and what his policy will be regarding illegal interrogation. But you usually hear no hoopla about that.

Unless you voted Rand Paul, Gary Johnson or other with extreme non-interventionist tendencies and campaign slogans, then is pointless being upset over nomination of someone within the CIA ranks for its head honcho. Under the other popular candidates, would these undesired practices have ceased to exist? Probably not, so it makes no difference who the head honcho at Langley is anyways.

You said "She probably just in the admin at the time." I pointed out that she was much more involved than that would imply.

Regardless of my position on whether torture is OK, I don't understand your willingness to accept that the CIA intentionally destroying evidence requested by Congress is OK. The CIA ought not to be able able to operate without Congressional oversight.

 

[tkotom]

All within 8 years the Obama admin brought back slavery in Libya and funded an insurection in Syria that resulted in the largest humanitarian crisis in the history of the known universe. Children being raped, dismembered and fed to their own parents. But you pretend to be morally outraged at this woman - while not batting an eye at maybe the most famous man or top 5 to ever live - wherever she crawled out from. You also provide no hard sources.

 

[Madmick]

All within 8 years the Obama admin brought back slavery in Libya and funded an insurection in Syria that resulted in the largest humanitarian crisis in the history of the known universe. Children being raped, dismembered and fed to their own parents. But you pretend to be morally outraged at this woman - while not batting an eye at maybe the most famous man or top 5 to ever live - wherever she crawled out from. You also provide no hard sources.

Jesus, you're a hysterical Russian shill.

 

[Judge]

More Than 100 Retired Military Leaders Raise Concerns About CIA Nominee Gina Haspel

100 retired military leaders have joined the list of outside groups voicing concern about President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Central Intelligence Agency.


In a letter to members of the U.S. Senate, 109 retired generals and admirals said they were “deeply troubled” by the prospect of Gina Haspel being named CIA director given her links to the former U.S. torture program.

“We devoted our lives to the defense of our country. We know that fidelity to our most cherished ideals as a nation is the foundation of our security,” the letter reads. “It would send a terrible signal to confirm as the next Director of the CIA someone who was so intimately involved in this dark chapter of our nation’s history.”

https://www.google.com/amp/amp.timeinc.net/time/5250440/gina-haspel-retired-military

__________________________________________________


So I don't give a shit if you support torture. If you do, I will tell you the same thing I tell the gun grabbers, and those turn coat traitors in the alphabet agencies that think it is OK to violate the 4th amendment.

If you don't like a law. Then you need to vote to change the law.

You want to ban guns, fine, I disagree, but pass a constitutional amendment and you can ban guns.

Want to spy on everyone to feel safer, fine, pass a constitutional amendment, and we can spy on everyone.

If you want to torture people, then pass a law that says it is legal to torture.

If not, you are a criminal. In the case of Gina Haspel, she is a war criminal, and even worse a neo-con.

Shame on this country if she is confirmed as CIA director, and shame on you Trump supporters if you continue your support.

Can you either post the evidence she is a war criminal or admit you don't know what the term means....not what you feel it means but what it means in the real world.

 

[PolishHeadlock]