Senate confirms Gina Haspel as CIA director

SB85

Well-Known Member
The Senate on Thursday confirmed Gina Haspel as the next CIA director despite opposition from most Democrats and a handful of Republicans who blasted her role in the agency’s enhanced interrogation program.

Lawmakers confirmed her in a 54-45 vote. Six Democrats voted in favor of Haspel including several who face tough re-election races in November: Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Bill Nelson of Florida. The other two were Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire.


Two Republicans voted against Haspel — Jeff Flake of Arizona and Rand Paul of Kentucky.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in his home state for cancer treatment, did not vote. The Arizona senator, who was tortured as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, was among the few Republicans who came out against Haspel, announcing his opposition in a recent statement.

Haspel is the first woman to serve as director of the CIA, succeeding Mike Pompeo, who was recently confirmed as secretary of state.

Haspel did not apologize for her role using enhanced interrogation techniques after 9/11 at her confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee earlier this month and while she said torture doesn’t work, she also said that she believed the agency had obtained “valuable intelligence” through enhanced interrogation techniques that had helped to prevent terrorist attacks.



Haspel, who has spent 33 years at the CIA, had served as the agency's director since February 2017 and as acting director for several weeks. Earlier in her career, after 9/11, she ran a CIA black site in Thailand where U.S. officials have previously told NBC News an al Qaeda detainee, allegedly the mastermind of the USS Cole bombing, was waterboarded three times and confined to a small box. Haspel later drafted a cable ordering that videotapes of CIA interrogations be destroyed. Her precise role is classified to the public.

In her recent testimony, Haspel argued that the tapes were destroyed because she was following orders from her superior and that there was concern at the agency about the security risks the tapes posed to CIA officers who appeared in them.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/senate-confirms-gina-haspel-cia-director-n875141
 

Padawanbater2

Well-Known Member
Lawmakers confirmed her in a 54-45 vote. Six Democrats voted in favor of Haspel including several who face tough re-election races in November: Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Bill Nelson of Florida. The other two were Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire.
It sure is good these Democratic Senate seats aren't held by Republicans
 

Padawanbater2

Well-Known Member
I hope dems are upset being as 6 members of their party helped to elect a nut job
They helped elect a war criminal to one of the top positions in the country. Without the votes from Democratic Senators, Haspel wouldn't have been confirmed. Hopefully the voters in those states vote each and every one of them out of office in the midterms.

Think about Haspel's justification for torturing people: I was just following orders. If you're a Nazi you get the noose, if you're an American, you get confirmed to CIA director
 

SB85

Well-Known Member
They helped elect a war criminal to one of the top positions in the country. Without the votes from Democratic Senators, Haspel wouldn't have been confirmed. Hopefully the voters in those states vote each and every one of them out of office in the midterms.

Think about Haspel's justification for torturing people: I was just following orders. If you're a Nazi you get the noose, if you're an American, you get confirmed to CIA director


It's time for the people on both sides to start holding these politicians responsible/ stop making excuses for them because they may be apart of the same party
 

Padawanbater2

Well-Known Member
It's time for the people on both sides to start holding these politicians responsible/ stop making excuses for them because they may be apart of the same party
Hell yes. Democrats need to stop blaming progressives for not voting for them and actually offer something progressives want to vote for. The idea that Democratic politicians are entitled to votes just because the Republican is terrible is naive thinking. Progressives won't come out to vote for Republican light. Progressives will come out to vote for actual progressives, just like they did in Pennsylvania and Oregon on Tuesday. An actual progressive in PE defeated an incumbent Lt. Governor for the first time in history by running on a progressive platform. The evidence is there.
 

Rob Roy

Well-Known Member
The problem is that many folks aligned to certain parties won't speak out/request these loony bins be held accountable.
I don't align with any political parties, since every one of them claims the right to rule people who aren't harming others, while claiming to "protect" freedom at the same time.

How they spend the loot and who leads the government horde is the distraction to keep the sheep looking at the wrong things. It's both amusing and frighteningly effective.
 

SB85

Well-Known Member
I don't align with any political parties, since every one of them claims the right to rule people who aren't harming others, while claiming to "protect" freedom at the same time.

How they spend the loot and who leads the government horde is the distraction to keep the sheep looking at the wrong things. It's both amusing and frighteningly effective.


I'm not apart of any party myself, I just feel even though others may be aligned, there is no way they should just sit back and accept the crimes against humanity.
 

Rob Roy

Well-Known Member
I'm not apart of any party myself, I just feel even though others may be aligned, there is no way they should just sit back and accept the crimes against humanity.

It's easier to identify individual statutory criminals, than criminals who hide behind legal excuses and government privilege. Of course many statutory criminals aren't really criminals at all, and all government acts by definition begin with criminal actions.

The evil ingenuity of government is it spreads blame so well and passes the buck onto "well that's just the systems fault" and has so many people thinking it is a "necessary evil" that culpability for criminal acts is harder to define.

Nothing will change until people stop believing in two things at the same time. It happens one mind at a time.
 

thetr33man

Well-Known Member
If u think a little water on the face is torture, pray u never get detained in a country that uses real torture techniques!
 
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