Trump Should Withdraw Haspel Nomination, Intel Vets Say
Two dozen former U.S. intelligence officers urge President Trump to rescind Gina Haspel’s nomination to lead the CIA, citing torture that she oversaw while supervising a black site prison, as well as her role in destroying evidence.
Dissenting comment by Robert Steele below the fold.
ROBERT STEELE: I disagree with my colleagues, who mean well but who are not considering the larger possibilities. Gina Haspel will probably NOT rise to the opportunity, but I have given her every consideration in my posted five conditions and she can take them or leave them as she sees fit. There is nothing “central” or “intelligent” about CIA in its current configuration. I believe that Gina Haspel has paid some very heavy dues to get to the top in a t toxic culture dominated by overweight white men very proud of the fact that the Directorate of Operations (DO) has the highest rates of alcoholism, adultery, divorce, and suicide, in roughly that order, in the USG if not the world. I myself have 22 suicides by actual count in my professional past, and I stopped counting the drunks, cheats, and divorcees long ago — spies pay a heavy price for being spys, but in the absence of effective leadership, they sink to the bottom of a self-made cesspool. CIA recruits C+ “go along” types because they cannot keep “A+” self-starters who will not tolerate the toxic culture that prevails there. My class in 1979, one of two (the other was in 1982) where the profile was changed to A+ self-starters quit en mass within five years — I lasted nine, mostly because I had three phenomenal bosses far from the norm — Jack Devine in the DO and Boyd Sutton in the DI — and Bill Donnelly as DDA seconding me to Sandy Toth in OIT on a project that was briefed to Bill Casey. When Casey died we were all toast.
See Especially:
Robert Steele: Gina Haspel’s Confirmation Challenge
See Also:
Intelligence Reform @ Phi Beta Iota
