Veteran spy Gina Haspel will become the first female director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Six Democrats joined Republicans in a Senate confirmation vote. The 54-45 vote split both parties. It was the closest vote for a CIA nominee in nearly 70 years.
Haspel has spent nearly all of her 33-year CIA career in undercover positions. She’s worked in Africa, Europe, and classified locations around the globe.
Many CIA senior intelligence officials supported Haspel, including six former CIA directors and three former national intelligence directors. They say she’s earned the opportunity to lead the nation’s premier spy agency.
National Intelligence Director Dan Coats says Haspel has integrity and both frontline and policymaking expertise. “We salute Director Haspel, a trailblazer who today becomes the first woman to lead the CIA,” Coats says.
Haspel’s opponents object to promoting the supervisor of a detention site in Thailand—a place where interrogators tortured terror suspects. Several senators also complain that Haspel didn’t completely answer questions about her role in the torture program. They question her rejection of the now-banned techniques.
Haspel has vowed never to restart such a program. She says her “strong moral compass” would prevent her from carrying out any presidential order she found unacceptable. That was enough to coax some senators to vote “yes.”
The six Democrats who voted say they did so because they believe her experience is essential in confronting today’s threats from U.S. adversaries like Russia, North Korea, China, and Iran.
(AP Photo: New CIA Director Gina Haspel testifies during a U.S. Senate confirmation hearing.)
