Gina Haspel is set to become the first female director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in its 71-year history after being nominated by US President Donald Trump for the position last week.
The decision to appoint CIA director Mike Pompeo as the new secretary of state - following Rex Tillerson’s unceremonious dismissal - clears the path for Haspel, his deputy, to take over as head of the intelligence agency, pending the approval of the Senate.
But while her appointment would represent a milestone for female representation in Washington’s corridors of power, her alleged role in CIA torture programmes in the wake of 9/11 could sink her nomination.
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So who is Haspel, and what are the allegations against her?
The 61-year-old’s CIA biography states that she joined the agency in 1985 and has “extensive overseas experience and served as chief of station in several of her assignments”, earning a number of honours, including the George H.W. Bush Award for excellence in counterterrorism.
However, according to a report in The New York Times in February last year, she played a direct role in the agency’s “extraordinary rendition” programme, under which suspected militants were remanded to foreign governments and held at secret facilities, where they were tortured by CIA personnel.
It is alleged that Haspel oversaw one of these secret “black site” prisons in Thailand, where two terrorism suspects, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, were subjected to waterboarding.
Citing a book written by one of the interrogators involved, independent news website ProPublica reported last year that Haspel spoke directly with Zubaydah, accusing him of faking symptoms of physical distress and psychological breakdown.
Haspel reportedly told Zubayah during his interrogation: “Good job! I like the way you’re drooling; it adds realism. I’m almost buying it. You wouldn’t think a grown man would do that.”
ProPublica last week issued a correction, admitting it had misunderstood its source on Haspel’s role in the torture programme and the timeline of her employment at the prison. Haspel did not arrive at the prison in question until after Zubayah had been waterboarded.
However, the correction does not get Haspel off the hook completely, says The Guardian. The agency-sanctioned waterboarding of Nashiri did take place on her watch, and was confirmed in 2008 to have taken place by then-CIA director Michael Hayden.
The torture sessions at the prison were videoed and stored at a secure location within Thailand until 2005, when Haspel ordered that they be destroyed, The New York Times reports.
Senator Rand Paul last week became the first Republican to openly oppose Haspel’s appointment, quoting the erroneous ProPublica article and saying of Haspel’s now-disproven behaviour toward Zubayah: “When you read that, sort of the joyful glee at someone who’s being tortured, I find it just amazing that anyone would consider having this woman for head of the CIA.
“So my opposition to her is over her direct participation in interrogation and her gleeful enjoyment at the suffering of someone being tortured.”
Paul said on Sunday that he will vote against appointing Haspel to the role, despite the retractions. A spokesperson for the senator said: “Regardless of the retraction of one anecdote, the fact remains that Gina Haspel was instrumental in running a place where people were tortured.”
If Paul goes ahead with his threat, it could potentially upsetting the Republicans’ one-seat advantage on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Senate Republican leaders would need to decide if they would submit the nominations to a vote on the Senate floor without committee approval - a move which is technically possible but hardly auspicious, says CNN.
