Don’t listen to those (like this CNN editorial masquerading as reporting) complaining that she was too tough on terrorists. Gina Haspel is a great choice to replace Mike Pompeo as CIA director.
First off, she knows the nuts and bolts of human intelligence from the inside out. As a career CIA officer in the agency’s operations (or spying) arm, Haspel spent the early part of her career recruiting agents in the field to give their secrets to the U.S. But after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Haspel played a supervisory role at a CIA black site in Thailand and later, was a crucial leader in offensive counterterrorism operations under CIA clandestine service legend, Jose Rodriguez.
Haspel’s courage in taking the fight to the enemy and extracting high grade human intelligence speaks to an all too rare kind of public servant: one who matches high skill to a willingness to take politically toxic risks to serve U.S. interests. Haspel could have left the CIA for a highly lucrative private sector job that offered far better hours and far less stress. Instead, she chose to keep serving the country.
But in her willingness to take risks for the nation, Haspel makes a natural replacement for Mike Pompeo.
Pompeo’s tenure at CIA has been positively defined by his encouragement to operations officers to take greater risks in the pursuit of higher value intelligence gains. As deputy director under Pompeo, it is likely that Haspel shares Pompeo’s affinity for high-risk enterprising. If not, Pompeo would not likely have recommended her to the president.
And in that, President Trump also deserves credit here. After all, Trump is often accused of politicizing the intelligence process, and sometimes does so, as with his comments on Russia at various times. Yet here, he has appointed a career professional rather than a lackey. The distinction is crucially important in an era in which the U.S. faces a diversity of threats from terrorism to state instability to rising challenges from China and Russia.
Ultimately, it is telling that former CIA directors from John Brennan to Mike Hayden are lining up behind Haspel’s nomination. They recognize that Haspel retains the trust of her workforce and the competency to objectively represent its products and interests at the White House.
While Democrats will regurgitate their fake news torture report in order to oppose Haspel’s nomination, Trump and Republicans should reach out to nonpartisan patriots like Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, and give Haspel their full support.
