Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

Politics
posted by Fnord666 on Saturday May 19 2018, @06:09PM   Printer-friendly

Veteran spy Gina Haspel will become the first female director of the CIA after six Democrats joined Republicans in a Senate confirmation vote that overrode concerns about her role in the spy agency's harsh interrogation program after 9/11.

Thursday's 54-45 vote split both parties, and the margin was the closest for a CIA nominee in the nearly seven decades that a nod from the Senate has been required. Haspel, who has spent nearly all of her 33-year CIA career in undercover positions, is the first career operations officer to be confirmed since William Colby in 1973.

Haspel, 61, is a native of Kentucky but grew up around the world as the daughter of an Air Force serviceman. She worked in Africa, Europe and classified locations around the globe and was tapped as deputy director of the CIA last year.

Source: Fox News

Also at the New York Times, CNN[warning: autoplay video], and Vox among others.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 19 2018, @08:13PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 19 2018, @08:13PM (#681651)

    > the US has declared unequivocally that it is now counted on the bad team

    Not so much "now" as "ten years ago". Obama administration continued most of Bush's post-9/11 atrocities, and introduced some new ones just in case. If indiscriminate drone bombings of civilian targets doesn't mark you as evil, nothing does. Doubly so since the bombings are done in countries US is not even at war with, which means that they can't even surrender. I mostly liked Obama, but both his and Bush's administrations need to be tried for war crimes.

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +1  
       Informative=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Informative' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   1  
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 19 2018, @09:38PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 19 2018, @09:38PM (#681666)

    I mostly liked Obama, but both his and Bush's administrations need to be tried for war crimes.

    Mostly? He was a typical warmongering, authoritarian neo-liberal controlled by corporations. I won't even give him credit for the ACA, since even though it might the situation a bit better, the democrats had a supermajority at one point and didn't even seriously attempt to get singlepayer or even a public option. Even when he got something right, it was only a baby step in the right direction (Dodd-Frank). And to me, anyone who is okay with conducting mass surveillance (which is unconstitutional in the US) on the populace is automatically subhuman garbage.

    The absolute best that can be said about Obama is that he was somewhat less evil than his Republican challengers and Clinton.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 21 2018, @04:40AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 21 2018, @04:40AM (#682047)

      Not wrong, but 43% of the population vote for the "other" team who openly advocate more war, more torture and solutions involving nuclear war. But them Dems, huh? Weak and no moral guidance.