CIA/NOMINATIONS/TORTURE/TRUMP PEOPLE: “President Donald Trump’s nominee to be CIA director, Gina Haspel, said the agency should not have undertaken a past harsh interrogation program, while asserting that the program yielded ‘valuable intelligence.’ The Senate Intelligence Committee is due to vote on Wednesday [5-116-18] on whether to approve Haspel. Despite criticism of her nomination because of her past ties to the CIA’s former rendition, detention and interrogation activities, Haspel is expected to be approved with the support of all eight committee Republicans and at least one of its seven Democrats. She is expected to be confirmed by the full Senate as soon as next week, although that vote likely also will be close. Haspel pledged at her confirmation hearing that she would never restart the program, in place in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, but did not go as far as saying it should not have been started.”
-Patricia Zengerle, “Trump CIA nominee: U.S. should not have undertaken harsh interrogations,” Reuters, May 15, 2018 10:01 am