For her eyes only

One of the most chilling people I ever met in 35 years in the newspaper businesses was a doctor from Boston. She coldly explained in very graphic details how she force-fed detainees in prison cells in Guantanamo Bay twice a day while they were forcibly confined and strapped into an apparatus that would not be out of place in a medieval torture chamber. And after the process was done, the force-fed detainee would be left for an hour or so, to make sure he wouldn’t attempt to induce vomiting. It’s all for their own good, she explained to me at the medical centre in Guantanamo Bay some years back. I often think of that doctor, and I wonder how she sleeps at night. Her tour of duty in Guantanamo Bay is long done, and she probably tucks her children into bed each night.

The news on Tuesday, that United States President Donald Trump is nominating Gina Haspel, 61, to be the new Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) brought that doctor fresh to my mind, and both have a lot in common — the notion of torture doesn’t bother them. Nor the abuse of power; the treatment of detainees; the complete abrogation of human rights; the ability to thrive in dark corners and in dark places; an ability to overlook legal niceties and rights and the rule of law — all mean nothing.

Haspel is a veteran of the CIA and has been involved in several acts that the Langley-based agency has ever been involved in — at least those we publicly know. And with the way things have been going over the past 17 years, I suspect there’s a lot more that we don’t know about.

If you wanted to write a Hollywood movie about the CIA, spies, and the cold hands that do the dirty work, then Haspel is your man. And that she’s a woman, I find that even all the more chilling.

By all accounts, those in the intelligence community — how quaint it must be to be in such a club — support her nomination. After all, she has a very proven track record of overseeing a secret CIA prison in Thailand. That site was code-named “Cat’s Eye” and was operated during the tenure of former United States president George W. Bush. And Haspel ran it and oversaw the tortures, including waterboarding, that took place.

Two suspected members of the Al Qaida terror group were subjected to waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques at the Cat’s Eye.

Haspel is generally held in high regard at the CIA, working as deputy director under Mike Pompeo, whom Trump nominated to be the next Secretary of State on Tuesday after firing Rex Tillerson from the post. Haspel joined the CIA in 1985 and spent most of her career undercover, as per the New York Times. She is the recipient of a Presidential Rank Award — the most prestigious award in the federal civil service.

If confirmed by the Senate, Haspel would become the first woman to lead the Central Intelligence Agency.

But she could face close scrutiny in her confirmation hearings over her involvement in “black site” facilities, so called because their existence is unacknowledged by the US government.

Her nomination faces an uncertain fate in the Senate, which Trump’s fellow Republicans control 51-49. She could be opposed by all the Democrats, and some Republicans may also oppose her, including Senator Rand Paul.

I have nothing but the height of respect for Senator John McCain, who was himself tortured for years following his capture over North Vietnam, and he still carries the scars of his time there. And when he speaks out on torture, he’s a man of conscience and authority.

“The torture of detainees in US custody during the last decade was one of the darkest chapters in American history,” Republican Senator John McCain said. “Ms Haspel needs to explain the nature and extent of her involvement in the CIA’s interrogation programme during the confirmation process.”

In 2009, days after taking office, Democratic president Barack Obama banned “enhanced interrogation techniques”, including waterboarding, and ordered the closure of the secret detention sites. While campaigning in 2016, then candidate Trump defended the torture of detainees, saying it “works”. He has not taken any action to reverse Obama’s policy, but Haspel’s nomination will fan concerns. The current president, too, wants to keep the Guantanamo Bay prison complex open, no doubt filling it with bad dudes and badder hombres.

On Tuesday, some US intelligence officials said reports of her alleged involvement in interrogations involving torture were false. But they did not immediately provide details, Reuters reports. They did not, however, dispute her involvement in drafting orders to destroy videotapes of harsh interrogation techniques, which was reported in the book Hard Measures by Jose Rodriguez, her boss in the agency at the time, and former CIA spokesman Bill Harlow.

Haspel herself said she was “humbled” by the opportunity.

“After 30 years as an officer of the Central Intelligence Agency, it has been my honour to serve as its Deputy Director alongside Mike Pompeo for the past year,” Haspel said in a statement on Tuesday. “I am grateful to President Trump for the opportunity, and humbled by his confidence in me, to be nominated to be the next Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.”

And no doubt too, that doctor living with her family again in Boston would have cheered Haspel’s nomination. Yep, it’s a tough job and someone has to do it. I just wonder what they tell their children.

— With inputs from agencies