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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.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 19 2018, @10:32PM (5 children)
It's not illegal just because you hate it. Nothing in our law made the torture illegal.
Although "international law" is a farce, used only when democracies win wars, we can pretend it is legit. The actions are still not illegal.
For multiple reasons, most of the people were not even covered by treaties like the Geneva convention. (for example, by not wearing uniforms)
Fuck, it was a war zone. Obama could have dropped a nuke.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 19 2018, @11:34PM
Torture is absolutely illegal (being cruel and unusual), including according to international law.
Which doesn't somehow make torture legal. Not to mention that zero due process was involved, and there are good reasons to suspect that many of the detainees were completely innocent.
Nope. Gitmo was not a war zone. Things are different after you capture someone.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 19 2018, @11:51PM (2 children)
You're one of those (the majority of??) USAians who have allowed your addled, rarely actually used, brain to believe that if your gov't does something, then it's not illegal.
(Very Nixonian of you.)
The Geneva Accords, of which USA is a signatory, definitely outlaws the torture of prisoners.
That is a treaty and a treaty that has been ratified by the Senate has the force of law.
So, you're not just wrong, you're a flag-waving idiot who's spouting gibberish as well.
Carl Schurz was a German-born[1] revolutionary who served as a general office in the Union Army, US senator from Missouri, and Secretary of the Interior.
So, a really smart and able dude.
A lot of folks remember a bit of something he said: "My country, right or wrong".
It is shameful that very few know more of that.
"My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right." [google.com]
[1] Sadly, not being a native-born USAian, he was never eligible to be president.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 20 2018, @12:27AM (1 child)
I'll start with the obvious: the Geneva Accords do not apply to a random thief in his own country. We could punish him by cutting off his hand, as Saudi Arabia would, and this torture would not violate the Geneva Accords.
So, some people are not covered. It's only specific people in a war zone who are covered.
Spies are not covered. Traitors are not covered. People who fight without uniforms are not covered. People who fight without the approval of their nation-state are not covered. People representing a nation-state that hasn't ratified the Geneva Accords are not covered.
ISIS, the Taliban, and Al Qaeda have all failed to ratify the Geneva Accords. Generally, they also fail to fight in uniform.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 20 2018, @02:33AM
As others have noted below, USA.gov has outlawed torture via numerous legal measures.
BY LAW, TORTURE DONE BY A USAian IS A CRIMINAL ACT.
in his own country
That USAians believe that they have sovereignty to do whatever they want to outside their own borders is simply arrogance.
It takes a special kind of twisted brain to think it's OK to pull that shit.
You certainly wouldn't tolerate someone from another county coming here and doing that.
...and BTW, the Constitution states
Note that is does NOT say "no citizen of the USA" nor does it say "no one residing in the USA".
It says NO PERSON.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Sunday May 20 2018, @01:27PM
Who says otherwise? It's illegal for two reasons. First, the US has an amendment, the 8th Amendment which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment - torture counts. Second, because the US has signed treaties, which have the force of law in the US, which prohibit torture explicitly.