News Release

Trump’s Nominees: Pompeo at State, Haspel at CIA: * Targeting Iran * Torture

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See: “Under Trump, Brags Mike Pompeo, CIA Will Be ‘Much More Vicious Agency.'” See from November 2017 by Eli Clifton: “Did Trump Greenlight Neoconservative Takeover of State Dept. and CIA?” which states: “Donald Trump is likely to replace Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo … Pompeo, who was one of the House’s most consistent anti-Iran voices, was already ‘argu[ing] against the [Iran] deal’ when he took over at the CIA, according to a report in July. The fact that Pompeo was engaging in the administration’s internal debate raises serious questions about the potential politicization of intelligence-gathering and analysis under the Trump administration, echoing the process that led to the false intelligence assessments widely disseminated in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq.”

See: “Mike Pompeo’s Disturbingly Consistent Friendships with Anti-Muslim Bigots.” Also, Institute for Public Accuracy news release: “Pompeo at CIA: Iran Belligerence, Pro-Torture, Pro-Surveillance.”

See from the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights: “Germany: CIA deputy Gina Haspel must face arrest on traveling to Europe.”

See from the New York Times, February 2017: “Gina Haspel, C.I.A. Deputy Director, Had Leading Role in Torture,” “Mr. Zubaydah alone was waterboarded 83 times in a single month, had his head repeatedly slammed into walls and endured other harsh methods before interrogators decided he had no useful information to provide.”The sessions were videotaped and the recordings stored in a safe at the CIA station in Thailand until 2005, when they were ordered destroyed. By then, Ms. Haspel was serving at CIA headquarters, and it was her name that was on the cable carrying the destruction orders.”

Available for interviews:

MELVIN GOODMAN, goody789 at verizon.net
Goodman was an analyst at the CIA for 24 years. His books include Whistleblower at the CIA: An Insider’s Account of the Politics of Intelligence and National Insecurity: The Cost of American Militarism.

JEFFREY KAYE, jeffkaye at sbcglobal.net, @jeff_kaye
Kaye is a clinical psychologist and an independent journalist who has written extensively on torture. He said today: “Haspel is not the first government official with involvement in torture, or other types of war crimes. This is a government with no accountability. But her hands are particularly dirty, having both run a secret CIA torture prison, and then covering up its felonies. Her nomination is a moral depravity. …

“In the outcry about the nomination of torturer Gina Haspel to head the CIA, there’s no mention that U.S. official interrogation policy has included torture techniques like isolation and sleep and sensory deprivation, even during the Obama administration. Haspel’s nomination is the logical consequence of such silence.” See Kaye’s pieces including “CIA Psychologist’s Notes Reveal True Purpose Behind Bush’s Torture Program.”