US President Donald Trump Tuesday, 13 March, tweeted that he replaced US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo, and appointed Gina Haspel as the new director of the CIA.
With the announcement, Haspel has become the first woman to head the CIA.
However, Haspel’s past hints at a dark inhuman chapter in her career.
Gina Haspel, 60, the former deputy director of the CIA, allegedly operated a "black site" prison in Thailand where suspects were waterboarded, The Guardian reported.
The waterboarding footage of two suspected al-Qaida members – Abu Zubaydah and Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri – was allegedly later destroyed with the help of Haspel, The Guardian quoting US officials, who told Reuters and Associated Press, as saying.
However, the case ended without any charges being filed by the US Justice Department. Even Thailand denied having any knowledge of the black site.
In 2016, Trump, in his first TV interview after taking charge, said that he was not against inhuman torture and that the US should "fight fire with fire."
Haspel holds a three-decade long international career with several senior positions in Washington like the National Clandestine Service for Foreign Intelligence and Covert Action. She was a part of the top representative of the CIA in London.
In an official statement, she said, “After 30 years as an officer of the Central Intelligence Agency, it has been my honor to serve as its deputy director alongside Mike Pompeo for the past year.
“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,” she said.
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