Trump Nominates Gina Haspel as CIA Director Despite Role in Torture Program and Evidence Destruction

President Donald Trump announces his nomination of Gina Haspel to serve as CIA Director, making her the first woman nominated for the position despite her direct involvement in the CIA’s torture program and destruction of interrogation videotapes. Haspel ran the CIA’s “Cat’s Eye” black site in Thailand in 2002 where detainees including Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri were waterboarded and tortured, and later helped draft the cable authorizing destruction of 92 torture tapes—evidence that was under legal preservation orders. The nomination represents a shocking embrace of officials who committed and concealed war crimes, rewarding impunity with promotion to the agency’s highest position.

Declassified CIA cables reveal Haspel’s central role in the torture program. As Chief of Base at the Thailand black site in late 2002, she oversaw and documented the waterboarding and torture of al-Nashiri, who was subjected to torture beginning “Day One” of his detention on November 15, 2002. CIA cables show interrogators used stress positions so severe that a medical officer warned al-Nashiri’s shoulders would be dislocated. Haspel’s cables describe the torture in clinical detail while documenting that it failed to produce useful intelligence. After al-Nashiri was transferred to a black site in Poland, the torture continued, but the Thailand facility under Haspel’s leadership established the template for CIA’s most extreme techniques.

In 2005, Haspel served as chief of staff to Jose Rodriguez, head of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service, when Rodriguez ordered destruction of the torture videotapes despite objections from CIA and White House lawyers. Haspel helped draft the cable requesting authority to destroy the tapes and worked with CIA lawyers to obtain approval for the destruction. The 92 videotapes contained hundreds of hours of graphic evidence of waterboarding and torture that was required to be preserved due to ongoing court cases, congressional inquiries, and the 9/11 Commission’s explicit request for all interrogation records. The destruction constituted obstruction of justice, yet neither Rodriguez nor Haspel faced prosecution.

The nomination sparks immediate controversy and opposition from human rights organizations, Senate Democrats, and notably from CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou—the only person imprisoned in connection with the torture program, convicted for revealing its existence to journalists. Kiriakou writes, “I went to prison for disclosing the CIA’s torture. Gina Haspel helped cover it up.” The Center for Constitutional Rights calls the nomination “an affront to the rule of law” and warns it sends “a dangerous and shameful message, domestically and around the world, of total impunity for torture when the United States is the perpetrator.”

Despite the controversy, the Senate confirms Haspel as CIA Director on May 17, 2018, by a vote of 54-45, with six Democratic senators joining Republicans in support. During her confirmation hearings, Haspel refuses to acknowledge that torture is morally wrong or illegal, stating only that torture is not an “appropriate tool” given current legal and policy restrictions. She deflects questions about her specific role, claiming most details remain classified. Her confirmation represents the ultimate validation of the torture program—not only did architects and perpetrators escape prosecution, but active participants in torture and evidence destruction are rewarded with the highest intelligence position in government. The elevation of Haspel signals to CIA personnel and the world that war crimes carry no consequences for American officials, and may even be career-enhancing.