Senate Confirms Torturer to Lead C.I.A., Completes Trump’s War Cabinet

 In Senate, torture, Trump Administration

Washington, D.C. — May 17, 2018 — In response to the Senate voting to confirm Gina Haspel as C.I.A. Director, Paul Kawika Martin, Peace Action’s Senior Director for Policy and Political Affairs, released the following statement:

“The confirmation of Gina Haspel marks the completion of President Trump’s new war cabinet. We now have a Bush-era neocon serving as national security advisor, an Islamophobic war hawk as Secretary of State, and a torturer as C.I.A. Director.

“What’s remarkable about Haspel is that she’s shown no remorse for her role in torturing people, focusing her remorse instead on the negative perception the torture program generated for the C.I.A. Beyond the moral bankruptcy and illegality under international law, torture elicits bad information, undermines the United States’ international credibility and fuels violent extremism, which is exactly why confirming someone who played such a central role in the C.I.A.’s torture program is so dangerous.”

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Founded in 1957, Peace Action (formerly SANE/Freeze), the United States’ largest peace and disarmament organization, with over 100,000 paid members and nearly 100 chapters in 36 states, works to abolish nuclear weapons, promote government spending priorities that support human needs, encourage real security through international cooperation and human rights and support nonmilitary solutions to international conflicts. The public may learn more and take action at www.PeaceAction.org.

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