Contender for the post of head of the CIA for many years worked in Russia under the guise of - ForumDaily
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Переклад цього матеріалу українською мовою з російської було автоматично здійснено сервісом Google Translate, без подальшого редагування тексту.
Bu məqalə Google Translate servisi vasitəsi ilə avtomatik olaraq rus dilindən azərbaycan dilinə tərcümə olunmuşdur. Bundan sonra mətn redaktə edilməmişdir.

Contender for the post of head of the CIA worked for many years in Russia under the guise of

Wednesday was a difficult day for Gina Haspel, who spent just over two hours answering some of the most vexing questions from legislators as part of the Senate hearings on her candidacy for director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Haspel is no stranger - the daughter of an American military pilot, she grew up on air bases around the world, spending part of her childhood in Kentucky, a southern state known for its low levels of education and high unemployment.

Her first extended deployment as a CIA officer was to Africa, where she was surrounded mostly by men accustomed to giving orders and dominating. Haspel persevered and immediately after the African assignment went on a 15-year assignment in Russia.

The business trip coincided with the beginning of perestroika, the Gorbachev era, the collapse of the USSR and the end of the Cold War.

Thus, in the midst of Russiagate and tensions in Russian-American relations, a tough spy who knows the rules of the political establishment in Washington may take over the post of head of the CIA. Moreover, she is a woman and her nomination within the intelligence community is already historic: until then, the Central Intelligence Agency has always been led by men.

Besides, brilliantly fluent in Russian and Turkish. Before her, as far as is known from open sources, not a single head of the CIA owned Russian.

Haspel in Russia

Haspel worked undercover in Russia - her biography is still carefully censored and sanitized not only for the general public, but also for members of the Senate with the highest level of access to classified information. Until now, her stay on the territory of the Soviet Union, and then Azerbaijan and Russia, was unknown to the general public.

In Baku, she led the local CIA residency and was involved in a successful operation to capture two people accused of attacking US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

In 2001, she asked to be transferred from Russia to the CIA's counterterrorism center and went to work on one of the darkest days in US history - September 11, 2001. Employees of Langley, the department's headquarters, were evacuated due to the high likelihood of a terrorist threat, leaving only a few groups in the building. Haspel was in one of them.

Haspel later served two tours in the UK and returned to the US in early 2017 - the intelligence community report on Russian interference, “Steppe Grizzly”, released on January 6 of that year, was written without her participation. But it was Haspel and her opinion that played a key role in the recent expulsion of Russian diplomats after the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in the UK.

Haspel and torture

Since Haspel's move to the Counterterrorism Center in 2001, the CIA has gotten serious about tough counterterrorism operations, and Haspel soon became head of the CIA's office in Thailand, which used so-called "enhanced interrogation," which human rights activists consider torture.

In 2004, CIA methods were partially made public. Haspel and her boss, José Rodriguez, were the focus of investigations on the destruction of interrogation records. It lasted for several years, Haspel continued to work at the CIA and was later acquitted of the then deputy head of the CIA. In his opinion, Haspel simply carried out the order of its leadership, and did not take personal initiative.

It was these facts in her biography that became the main stumbling block when President Donald Trump first announced that he was nominating a former spy for the position of head of the CIA.

How did the American political establishment react to Haspel’s candidacy?

The reaction of the legislators was not long in coming: the Democrats, in particular Dayen Feinstein, demanded to provide them with new information on the candidate and did not conceal: Haspel should not count on their support.

The pressure was so strong that by the end of last week Washington Post and CNN with reference to its sources in the administration reported that the nominee for the post of head of the CIA is seriously considering rejection.

Haspel even told the White House that she was willing to withdraw her candidacy to avoid damage to her reputation, both for the CIA and her personal one.

Haspel was persuaded for two days - at the White House and in Langley, and by the end of the weekend she gave in. She was immediately supported by Trump, who wrote a tweet in her support.

“My highly regarded candidate for CIA Director, Gina Haspel, came under fire for being tough on terrorists. Thanks to such actions in this dangerous time, we have the most qualified person, a woman, who the Democrats are trying to force out because she was tough on terror! Win, Gina!” Trump tweeted.

Фото: Depositphotos

During the election campaign and after it, Trump said several times that he saw nothing wrong with simulating drowning: in his words, “it works.”

In turn, Haspel has repeatedly stated that she has not the slightest desire to return to this practice.

The night before the hearing, Haspel's opening statement was published: she promised lawmakers cooperation, and also that there would be no more torture.

In turn, 100 diplomats who headed US offices around the world, including former United States Permanent Representative to the UN Samantha Power, sent an open letter to the Senate asking not to approve Haspel as head of the CIA.

Senate interrogation with partiality

Haspel walked into the Senate on Wednesday without any family members, she is single and her parents watched on television, but with a large support group that included two of her CIA mentors and the wife of the previous director and now Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Several dozen people dressed in pink and armed with posters also appeared at the hearing. Even before the meeting, they loudly demanded not to approve the spy in the post.

Haspel, in a light jacket and light scarf, was all toughness and seriousness. She promised several times throughout the hearings that the CIA would never return to the “enhanced interrogation” program, even if it were formally allowed.

She was repeatedly asked about the destruction of videotapes of such interrogations, to which Haspel briefly noted that she had no legal grounds for storing them and that they contained information about CIA employees who might have suffered from its distribution.

Haspel refused to answer questions about the use of UAVs for the murder of suspected terrorists and the extradition of suspects to third countries, citing the secrecy of such information.

At the same time, she noted that she agrees with the findings of the intelligence community report regarding Russian intervention in the American elections and believes in the importance of investigating this episode.

For approval for the post of director of the CIA Haspel 51 need a voice from 100.

Read also on ForumDaily:

New CIA documents promulgated: what is known about the torture program

Why did Gina Haspel try to withdraw her candidacy for the post of head of the CIA

CIA will be headed for the first time by a woman: who is Gina Haspel

Miscellanea In the U.S. CIA Haspel
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