Trump names former 'black site' prison
operator CIA deputy chief
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[February 03, 2017]
By Mark Hosenball
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A veteran CIA
clandestine service officer who ran one of the agency's "black site"
prisons set up after the 9/11 attacks was named deputy director of the
U.S. spy agency on Thursday by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Gina Haspel, who will serve under new Central Intelligence Agency
Director Mike Pompeo, was the first woman spy to reach the CIA's
second-highest position, and her selection won applause inside the
agency's Virginia headquarters and from many longtime U.S. intelligence
professionals.
However, Haspel once ran a secret CIA prison in Thailand where two
suspected al-Qaeda members were waterboarded, intelligence and
congressional officials said on condition of anonymity. She helped carry
out an order to destroy videotapes of the waterboarding, which simulates
drowning and is considered a form of torture, these people said.
Her promotion, combined with the possibility Trump could seek to reopen
black site prisons and has endorsed waterboarding, may be controversial,
despite the fact Pompeo and defense secretary James Mattis have rejected
so called "enhanced interrogation techniques."

A draft executive order requesting a review of whether the U.S. should
reopen CIA prisons in other countries and revisit other interrogation
methods not considered torture has been circulating within the White
House, but it is not clear if it will be issued, and if it is, whether
any nations would agree to host such facilities again, the officials
said.
"I appreciate Ms. Haspel's many years of service at the CIA, yet I want
some reassurance from her that she intends to comply with both the
spirit and the letter of the law, like Director Pompeo testified that he
would during his confirmation process," said Democrat Mark Warner, vice
chairman of the Senate intelligence committee.
Christopher Anders, the deputy director of the Washington office of the
American Civil Liberties Union, said he was "gravely concerned" about
Haspel's appointment.
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The lobby of the CIA Headquarters Building in Langley, Virginia,
U.S. on August 14, 2008. REUTERS/Larry Downing/File Photo -

Haspel has served in a number of overseas posts, including as chief
of a major CIA station, and although she was briefly acting head of
the National Clandestine Service in 2013, Senator Dianne Feinstein,
ranking minority member of the intelligence committee, opposed her
permanent promotion to that job.
Other veteran officials, though, praised Pompeo for choosing her.
"It speaks well of him for picking a seasoned veteran of the agency
who is widely and deeply respected by the workforce as well as those
outside the agency," said former Director of National Intelligence
James Clapper, who resigned on January 20 after 50 years of military
and intelligence service.
(Reporting by Mark Hosenball, additional reporting Dustin Volz;
Writing by John Walcott; Editing by Andrew Hay)
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