Gina Haspel told lawmakers Wednesday that, if confirmed as CIA director, she would not allow the agency to undertake any action she considered morally objectionable, even if it was deemed legal or ordered by the president.
“My moral compass is strong. I would not allow CIA to undertake activity that I thought was immoral, even if it was technically legal. I would absolutely not permit it,” she composedly told lawmakers on the Senate’s intelligence panel.
Haspel later said under questioning from Maine Republican Susan Collins that she did not believe the president would ask her to waterboard a suspect. But pressed again by New Mexico Democrat Martin Heinrich on how she would respond if he did, Haspel said, “I would not restart under any circumstances an interrogation program at CIA. Under any circumstances.”
California Democrat Kamala Harris and others on her side of the dais asked Haspel about her personal views on the moral dimensions of the interrogation program, and whether she would follow orders to carry out “morally questionable behavior that may seem to violate a law or treaty,” as the panel’s top Democrat, Mark Warner, said.
“I believe very strongly in American values and America being an example to the rest of the world,” Haspel said when asked by Heinrich whether the enhanced interrogation techniques are fundamentally consistent with American values. “That is why I support the fact that we have chosen to hold ourselves to a stricter moral standard.” Neither Harris nor Heinrich appeared satisfied with her answers.
Arizona senator John McCain also expressed dissatisfaction with her answers late Wednesday, and in a statement urged the Senate to vote against Haspel. “Her refusal to acknowledge torture’s immorality is disqualifying,” he said. “The Senate should exercise its duty of advice and consent and reject this nomination.”
The CIA nominee’s past involvement in the agency’s controversial detention and interrogation program took center stage during her confirmation hearing Wednesday. Haspel has spent most of her 33 years at the agency in the clandestine service. That includes some time overseeing an agency ‘black site’ in Thailand where al Qaeda suspects were waterboarded. Then, in 2005, she was also involved in the destruction of 92 videotapes that captured the interrogation of one detainee.
“I absolutely was an advocate,” of destroying the tapes, Haspel said Wednesday, “if we could within and conforming to U.S. law, and if we could get policy concurrence to eliminate the security risk posed to our officers by those tapes.”
She said that she has never watched the tapes, and that her then-boss ordered the tapes to be destroyed. Haspel said there were concerns that, if the tapes were leaked, the identities of CIA officers depicted on them would be revealed. She stressed that there is a “complete and written, detailed record of the interrogations.”
Haspel said she was told the interrogation program had been approved by the “highest legal authority,” but conceded that the CIA “was not prepared to conduct a detention and interrogation program.”
“I fully support the standards for detainee treatment required by law,” she said in her written testimony.
Harris asked Haspel Wednesday if she agreed with remarks President Trump made on the campaign trail that “torture works.”
“I don’t believe that torture works,” Haspel responded, and added: “we got valuable information from debriefing of al Qaeda detainees and I don’t think it’s knowable whether interrogation techniques played a role in that.”
The roughly three-hour hearing maintained a tense atmosphere. Haspel’s testimony was punctuated by impassioned protesters, one of whom yelled “Bloody Gina! You are a torturer!” Later in the hearing, former CIA analyst Ray McGovern approached the velvet rope that separates the audience from the rest of the room and began shouting in protest. Clad in a dark suit, he grabbed the rope and struggled against officers who were attempting to clear him from the room. Minutes later, after the hearing had resumed, yelling could be heard next door.
Democratic senators criticized Haspel, who is currently acting director of the agency, for what they described as selective and superficial declassification of information related to her three-decade career there.
“The CIA selectively declassified only small pieces of information to bolster your nomination while keeping damaging information under wraps,” said California senator Dianne Feinstein, who led efforts on the panel’s “torture report” in 2014. “Given the CIA’s refusal to make your record public, I’m very limited in what I can say.”
Feinstein noted in her remarks that she liked Haspel personally “very much” and said Wednesday was “probably the most difficult hearing in my more than two decades.”
Haspel told Feinstein that more information has not been declassified because of the agency’s classification guidelines, and that she did not think it right to make an exception for herself.
“It has been suggested to me by my team that if we tried to declassify some of my operational history, it would help my nomination,” she said. “I said that we could not do that. It is very important that the director of the Central Intelligence Agency adhere to the same classification guidelines that all employees must adhere to.”
The CIA nominee will likely need at least some Democratic support, since the GOP holds a narrow majority in the Senate and Kentucky senator Rand Paul said in March that he would oppose the Kentucky-born nominee. West Virginia senator Joe Manchin, who was spotted giving Haspel a hug before the hearing, announced Wednesday that he would support her.
Update: This post has been updated to include a statement released Wednesday by Arizona senator John McCain.
