Sen. Rand Paul plans to vote against Gina Haspel’s nomination to head the CIA, despite the retraction of news story that had claimed Haspel ran a Thailand site that conducted enhanced interrogation against terrorism suspects.
Paul spokesman Doug Stafford said despite the retraction, Paul believes Haspel, during her tenure at the CIA after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, “was instrumental in running a place where people were tortured.”
ProPublica announced Thursday it “erred when it reported in 2017 that Haspel was in charge of a secret prison in Thailand during the infamous interrogation of an al-Qaida suspect.”
But Stafford said the ProPublica retraction was of just “one anectdote” that claimed Haspel took pleasure in the waterboarding of Abu Zubaydah.
“Senator Rand Paul was quoting a Pulitzer-Prize winning reporter,” Stafford said, citing the author of the now-retracted article’s claim. “Regardless of the retraction of one anecdote, the fact remains that Gina Haspel was instrumental in running a place where people were tortured. According to multiple published, undisputed accounts, she oversaw a black site, and she further destroyed evidence of torture. This should preclude her from ever running the CIA.”
ProPublica said in the correction, “It is now clear that Haspel did not take charge of the base until after the interrogation of Zubaydah ended.”
But it went on to say: “The New York Times, which also reported last year that Haspel oversaw the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah and another detainee, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, published a second story this week making the same point. It quoted an unnamed former senior CIA official who said Haspel did not become base chief until late October of 2002. According to the Times, she was in charge when al-Nashiri was waterboarded three times.”
Paul’s opposition could make it impossible for Haspel to win confirmation without Democrats who could unite against her, imperiling her nomination to succeed CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who President Trump has selected to serve as secretary of state.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said he is undecided, and Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., has been absent due to cancer treatment. McCain said he has questions about Haspel’s involvement in post-Sept. 11 interrogations of suspected terrorists.
Haspel, 61, has served at the CIA for more than three decades and is now deputy director. She would be the first woman to head the agency if she is confirmed.
