In advance of today’s hearing before the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Gina Haspel’s nomination to Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Amnesty is calling on the Committee to vote No.
“Ever since President Trump nominated Gina Haspel to become CIA Director, we have called for her nomination to be withdrawn pending proper investigation and declassification of her alleged role in the CIA’s program of torture and enforced disappearances. No such investigation has been initiated or conducted, so as things stand, the nomination should not proceed. Simple as that.” said Daphne Eviatar, Director of Security with Human Rights at Amnesty International USA.
“A nomination hearing is not the place to establish the truth about the nominee’s alleged role in crimes under international law. Senators should block this nomination.”
Published accounts by former officials and others involved in the CIA’s secret detention program indicate that Haspel may not only have been directly involved in running a CIA “black site” in 2002, but to have “run” the CIA interrogation program more broadly for a period, and to have been involved in covering up possible evidence of crimes under international law.
Background: Amnesty International takes no position on the appointment of particular individuals to government positions, unless they are reasonably suspected of crimes under international law. The organization has previously called for crimes under international law committed in the CIA secret detention program to be fully investigated. Enforced disappearance and torture are crimes under international law. Anyone involved in such crimes should be brought to justice in full and fair trials.
For more, read Amnesty’s USA Truth Be Told report: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/amr51/8146/2018/en/
