The Story:
President Donald Trump has nominated Gina Haspel to serve as the nation’s new Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. The post is expected to become vacant because POTUS has also nominated the incumbent Director, Mike Pompeo, to head the State Department.
The Controversy:
Haspel is at present Deputy Director. She joined the CIA in 1985, and has spent much of her 33 years of service undercover.
Her elevation to the agency’s top job is controversial because of her time as the chief of base for a CIA “black site” in Thailand. Black sites are facilities used for the secret detention and enhanced interrogation of terror suspects. Many people believe that interrogation techniques employed at these sites amount to torture, and are war crimes as a matter of international law.
The Thing to Know:
There is reason to believe POTUS will face opposition to this appointment from within his own party. Kentucky’s Senator Rand Paul (R), in particular, has called the nomination “just absolutely appalling.”
