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A clear message displayed at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 8, 2013. (Photo: Justin Norman/flickr/cc)
#BlockHaspel: As Clock Ticks, Groups Ratchet Up Pressure to Stop Torturer Gina Haspel From Heading CIA
"Gina Haspel was complicit in torture and must not be promoted to CIA director," says the Center for Victims of Torture
May 04, 2018
As the White House steps up its defense of Gina Haspel with a 27-page talking points memo, advocacy groups are staging a last-ditch effort to block her nomination to lead the Central Intelligence Agency.
With just days before she faces the Senate Intelligence Committee, dozens of groups--including CodePink, ACLU, Indivisible and VoteVets--are taking to social media to highlight her role in the CIA's covert torture program and to urge constituents to demand their senators vote against her nomination.
\u201cThe use of torture runs through grim chapters in Latin American history. And many of those security forces engaged in torture were trained and equipped by the Pentagon and the CIA. To this day, the haunting legacy of torture remains. \n#BlockHaspel >> https://t.co/HkFqqRtSV1\u201d— Latin America Working Group (@Latin America Working Group) 1525446781
\u201cTorture is wrong. Always. Contact your senators now and urge them to speak out against torture by voting to #BlockHaspel https://t.co/4cIPJmJwTh\u201d— FCNL (Quakers) (@FCNL (Quakers)) 1525446667
\u201c"Enhanced Interrogation" is #TORTURE. And Torture Is A Crime. Gina Haspel was complicit in torture and must not be promoted to CIA director. #BlockHaspel\u201d— Center for Victims of Torture (@Center for Victims of Torture) 1525442291
\u201cIt is openly known that Gina Haspel ran a CIA secret prison that used torture techniques, including waterboarding, sleep deprivation and confinement. She should not be CIA director! SIGN and RT if you agree! https://t.co/kUrN0wUkei\u201d— CODEPINK (@CODEPINK) 1525291234
\u201cNominee for CIA Chief, Gina Haspel, helped torture people and then tried to cover it up. She ran a \u201cblack site\u201d prison where she oversaw waterboarding, beatings, and the starvation of people.\n\nWatch, share, and tell @SenFeinstein to hold strong against torture.\u201d— ACLU of Northern CA (@ACLU of Northern CA) 1525379302
\u201cCheck out our new site on Gina Haspel at https://t.co/7Ua6R0xa2F and start calling your Senators to tell them that they must publicly come out in opposition to Haspel\u2019s nomination! #BlockHaspel\u201d— Indivisible Guide (@Indivisible Guide) 1525384862
\u201cTODAY: Leading U.S. health professionals, bioethicists and public health experts urge Senate to #blockHaspel as @CIA director due to ongoing questions over her role in #torture and destruction of evidence https://t.co/vs01AHpUYX\u201d— Physicians for Human Rights (@Physicians for Human Rights) 1525376049
Torture experts are also taking to op-ed pages in major news outlets to say that if she is confirmed by the Senate, it will be nothing short of an endorsement of torture.
Writing at the Washington Post Thursday, Leonce Byimana, executive director of the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition, argued that President Donald Trump "openly embraces torture, and he wants to name a CIA director who has followed orders to use it on people. There's no telling what future orders Trump might give. But we can be sure that Haspel would follow them."
Yet "the agency's ruthless disregard for human dignity and fundamental rights in the Americas"--as well as "collective amnesia regarding the agency's abuses"--may be exactly what makes the CIA think Haspel is "perfect for the job," asserted James Cavallaro, a Stanford Law School professor and the director of the school's International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic and Human Rights Center.
Opposition to Haspel comes not only from anti-war and human rights experts but from retired members of the military as well. Last month, 109 retired generals and admirals wrote to members of the U.S. Senate to caution against her nomination, saying it "would send a terrible signal to confirm as the next Director of the CIA someone who was so intimately involved in this dark chapter of our nation's history."
The White House acknowledges that it'll be a close vote at her confirmation hearing May 9.
\u201cLet\u2019s FACT CHECK @PressSec \n\nWhile at the @CIA Gina Haspel successfully:\n\n\u2705 endangered the lives of US Troops\n\n\u2705 undermined our morale authority \n\n\u2705 tortured prisoners which results in false information during interrogations!\n\nTell your US Senator: #BlockHaspel https://t.co/1MPlDheU9i\u201d— VoteVets (@VoteVets) 1525395586
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As the White House steps up its defense of Gina Haspel with a 27-page talking points memo, advocacy groups are staging a last-ditch effort to block her nomination to lead the Central Intelligence Agency.
With just days before she faces the Senate Intelligence Committee, dozens of groups--including CodePink, ACLU, Indivisible and VoteVets--are taking to social media to highlight her role in the CIA's covert torture program and to urge constituents to demand their senators vote against her nomination.
\u201cThe use of torture runs through grim chapters in Latin American history. And many of those security forces engaged in torture were trained and equipped by the Pentagon and the CIA. To this day, the haunting legacy of torture remains. \n#BlockHaspel >> https://t.co/HkFqqRtSV1\u201d— Latin America Working Group (@Latin America Working Group) 1525446781
\u201cTorture is wrong. Always. Contact your senators now and urge them to speak out against torture by voting to #BlockHaspel https://t.co/4cIPJmJwTh\u201d— FCNL (Quakers) (@FCNL (Quakers)) 1525446667
\u201c"Enhanced Interrogation" is #TORTURE. And Torture Is A Crime. Gina Haspel was complicit in torture and must not be promoted to CIA director. #BlockHaspel\u201d— Center for Victims of Torture (@Center for Victims of Torture) 1525442291
\u201cIt is openly known that Gina Haspel ran a CIA secret prison that used torture techniques, including waterboarding, sleep deprivation and confinement. She should not be CIA director! SIGN and RT if you agree! https://t.co/kUrN0wUkei\u201d— CODEPINK (@CODEPINK) 1525291234
\u201cNominee for CIA Chief, Gina Haspel, helped torture people and then tried to cover it up. She ran a \u201cblack site\u201d prison where she oversaw waterboarding, beatings, and the starvation of people.\n\nWatch, share, and tell @SenFeinstein to hold strong against torture.\u201d— ACLU of Northern CA (@ACLU of Northern CA) 1525379302
\u201cCheck out our new site on Gina Haspel at https://t.co/7Ua6R0xa2F and start calling your Senators to tell them that they must publicly come out in opposition to Haspel\u2019s nomination! #BlockHaspel\u201d— Indivisible Guide (@Indivisible Guide) 1525384862
\u201cTODAY: Leading U.S. health professionals, bioethicists and public health experts urge Senate to #blockHaspel as @CIA director due to ongoing questions over her role in #torture and destruction of evidence https://t.co/vs01AHpUYX\u201d— Physicians for Human Rights (@Physicians for Human Rights) 1525376049
Torture experts are also taking to op-ed pages in major news outlets to say that if she is confirmed by the Senate, it will be nothing short of an endorsement of torture.
Writing at the Washington Post Thursday, Leonce Byimana, executive director of the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition, argued that President Donald Trump "openly embraces torture, and he wants to name a CIA director who has followed orders to use it on people. There's no telling what future orders Trump might give. But we can be sure that Haspel would follow them."
Yet "the agency's ruthless disregard for human dignity and fundamental rights in the Americas"--as well as "collective amnesia regarding the agency's abuses"--may be exactly what makes the CIA think Haspel is "perfect for the job," asserted James Cavallaro, a Stanford Law School professor and the director of the school's International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic and Human Rights Center.
Opposition to Haspel comes not only from anti-war and human rights experts but from retired members of the military as well. Last month, 109 retired generals and admirals wrote to members of the U.S. Senate to caution against her nomination, saying it "would send a terrible signal to confirm as the next Director of the CIA someone who was so intimately involved in this dark chapter of our nation's history."
The White House acknowledges that it'll be a close vote at her confirmation hearing May 9.
\u201cLet\u2019s FACT CHECK @PressSec \n\nWhile at the @CIA Gina Haspel successfully:\n\n\u2705 endangered the lives of US Troops\n\n\u2705 undermined our morale authority \n\n\u2705 tortured prisoners which results in false information during interrogations!\n\nTell your US Senator: #BlockHaspel https://t.co/1MPlDheU9i\u201d— VoteVets (@VoteVets) 1525395586
As the White House steps up its defense of Gina Haspel with a 27-page talking points memo, advocacy groups are staging a last-ditch effort to block her nomination to lead the Central Intelligence Agency.
With just days before she faces the Senate Intelligence Committee, dozens of groups--including CodePink, ACLU, Indivisible and VoteVets--are taking to social media to highlight her role in the CIA's covert torture program and to urge constituents to demand their senators vote against her nomination.
\u201cThe use of torture runs through grim chapters in Latin American history. And many of those security forces engaged in torture were trained and equipped by the Pentagon and the CIA. To this day, the haunting legacy of torture remains. \n#BlockHaspel >> https://t.co/HkFqqRtSV1\u201d— Latin America Working Group (@Latin America Working Group) 1525446781
\u201cTorture is wrong. Always. Contact your senators now and urge them to speak out against torture by voting to #BlockHaspel https://t.co/4cIPJmJwTh\u201d— FCNL (Quakers) (@FCNL (Quakers)) 1525446667
\u201c"Enhanced Interrogation" is #TORTURE. And Torture Is A Crime. Gina Haspel was complicit in torture and must not be promoted to CIA director. #BlockHaspel\u201d— Center for Victims of Torture (@Center for Victims of Torture) 1525442291
\u201cIt is openly known that Gina Haspel ran a CIA secret prison that used torture techniques, including waterboarding, sleep deprivation and confinement. She should not be CIA director! SIGN and RT if you agree! https://t.co/kUrN0wUkei\u201d— CODEPINK (@CODEPINK) 1525291234
\u201cNominee for CIA Chief, Gina Haspel, helped torture people and then tried to cover it up. She ran a \u201cblack site\u201d prison where she oversaw waterboarding, beatings, and the starvation of people.\n\nWatch, share, and tell @SenFeinstein to hold strong against torture.\u201d— ACLU of Northern CA (@ACLU of Northern CA) 1525379302
\u201cCheck out our new site on Gina Haspel at https://t.co/7Ua6R0xa2F and start calling your Senators to tell them that they must publicly come out in opposition to Haspel\u2019s nomination! #BlockHaspel\u201d— Indivisible Guide (@Indivisible Guide) 1525384862
\u201cTODAY: Leading U.S. health professionals, bioethicists and public health experts urge Senate to #blockHaspel as @CIA director due to ongoing questions over her role in #torture and destruction of evidence https://t.co/vs01AHpUYX\u201d— Physicians for Human Rights (@Physicians for Human Rights) 1525376049
Torture experts are also taking to op-ed pages in major news outlets to say that if she is confirmed by the Senate, it will be nothing short of an endorsement of torture.
Writing at the Washington Post Thursday, Leonce Byimana, executive director of the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition, argued that President Donald Trump "openly embraces torture, and he wants to name a CIA director who has followed orders to use it on people. There's no telling what future orders Trump might give. But we can be sure that Haspel would follow them."
Yet "the agency's ruthless disregard for human dignity and fundamental rights in the Americas"--as well as "collective amnesia regarding the agency's abuses"--may be exactly what makes the CIA think Haspel is "perfect for the job," asserted James Cavallaro, a Stanford Law School professor and the director of the school's International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic and Human Rights Center.
Opposition to Haspel comes not only from anti-war and human rights experts but from retired members of the military as well. Last month, 109 retired generals and admirals wrote to members of the U.S. Senate to caution against her nomination, saying it "would send a terrible signal to confirm as the next Director of the CIA someone who was so intimately involved in this dark chapter of our nation's history."
The White House acknowledges that it'll be a close vote at her confirmation hearing May 9.
\u201cLet\u2019s FACT CHECK @PressSec \n\nWhile at the @CIA Gina Haspel successfully:\n\n\u2705 endangered the lives of US Troops\n\n\u2705 undermined our morale authority \n\n\u2705 tortured prisoners which results in false information during interrogations!\n\nTell your US Senator: #BlockHaspel https://t.co/1MPlDheU9i\u201d— VoteVets (@VoteVets) 1525395586
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