Tag: Torture

In an interview with CNN's Brianna Keilar, Syrian prison survivor Omar Alshogre describes the brutal torture he endured daily including electric shock, his finger nails being torn out and his family dying in his arms. #CNN #News

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) presses President Donald Trump's CIA Director nominee Gina Haspel on whether she believes torture interrogation techniques are immoral.

Gina Haspel, Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the CIA, offered to withdraw her nomination, two senior administration officials said on Sunday, amid concerns that a debate over a harsh interrogation program would tarnish her reputation and that of the CIA. 'Trump's going to be forced to resign': Stormy Daniels' lawyer predicts a fall Read more On Friday, as White House officials prepared Haspel for a confirmation hearing on Wednesday, aides sought additional details about her involvement in the CIA’s now-defunct program of detaining and brutally interrogating terror suspects after 9/11, a program that involved techniques widely condemned as torture. They said the acting director of the CIA was reassured that her nomination was still on track. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity. The news was first reported by the Washington Post. She is expected to reiterate that publicly this week. Haspel, one official said, was wary of suffering the same fate as failed veterans affairs nominee Ronny Jackson and of dredging up the CIA’s troubled past. After Haspel’s offer to withdraw, White House aides worked to reassure her that she had the president’s support. As with other nominations, this one hit a roadblock but is back on track, said a third administration official. Gina Haspel will be perfect for the job | James Cavallaro Read more The CIA has sent materials to the Senate, some classified, that the lawmakers can read to better understand not only Haspel’s work in the Counterterrorism Center, which oversaw the harsh interrogation program, but also other aspects of her 33-year career, including more than 30 years undercover.

The Story: With the nomination of Gina Haspel to be the next CIA Director, the issue of torture, or of "enhanced interrogation," has become a...

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...

Donald Trump’s pick for head of the Central Intelligence Agency, Gina Haspel, reportedly oversaw a black site prison in Thailand where terrorism suspects were tortured. She briefly ran the prison in 2002, anonymous officials told the Associated Press. Deputy CIA director could face court deposition over post-9/11 role in torture Read more If the US Senate confirms Haspel, she would be the first female director of the agency, but the historic significance of her nomination was immediately overshadowed by her reported link to the black site, where two suspected al-Qaida members were waterboarded. “The fact that she’s been able to stay in the agency, rise in the agency and now is in line to be director should be deeply troubling,” Larry Siems, author of the Torture Report, a book analysing government documents relating to Bush-era torture released in 2014, told the Guardian. A US justice department investigation into the tapes’ destruction ended without charges, but the event helped spark a landmark investigation into US detentions and interrogations. Christopher Anders, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Washington legislative office, claimed Haspel “was up to her eyeballs in torture”. “Gina Haspel was a central figure in one of the most illegal and shameful chapters in modern American history,” he said in a statement. Haspel joined the CIA in 1985 and has extensive overseas experience. If confirmed by the Senate, Haspel will take up Pompeo’s post. He has been selected to take over the secretary of state job, succeeding Rex Tillerson.