As I write this, Gina Haspel is testifying at her confirmation hearing to head the Central Intelligence Agency.
Much of the criticism of her has to do with her stance on torture, and destruction of the proof of that torture. Among the “horrors” include the waterboarding of al-Qaeda terrorists Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri and Abu Zubaydah at a black site CIA prison in Thailand, where Haspel served as the chief of the base. Al-Nashiri is currently on trial for war crimes and likely faces the death penalty, while Abu Zubaydah has been in something of a legal purgatory.
It’s the treatment of those two terrorists that are forming the case against Haspel, and another, more well known al-Qaeda figure, wants to join the national debate to oppose Haspel.
According to the Washington Times:
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is backing the Senate intelligence panel’s Democrats prior to Wednesday’s hearing on whether to confirm the longtime CIA agent to lead the organization.
Mohammed asked a military judge at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba to share six paragraphs he had written about Ms. Haspel with the Senate panel.
It is not known whether Ms. Haspel played any personal role in Mohammed’s interrogation. After his 2003 capture in Pakistan, he was held and interrogated at secret CIA facilities in Afghanistan and Poland.
I literally cannot think of something that would help Haspel more than the September 11th mastermind opposing her (unless perhaps Bin Laden himself could testify).
Mohammad was waterboarded 183 times, slapped, slammed against a wall, stripped naked for the purpose of humiliation, and given unnecessary rectal examinations during his captivity. The public is already aware of these details, but it’s hard to imagine many people feeling sympathy given the character of the man subjected. Relative to the torture that the 2,996 suffered on 9/11, and the ongoing agony many first responders are still suffering, Mohammad got it easy.
Hopefully, he is allowed to testify. I can’t think of anything that would torpedo Haspel’s confirmation process and quicker.
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