Several CIA documents recently declassified by the US-based National Security Archive, based at George Washington University, have shown that the new head of the agency, Gina Haspel, personally supervised the torture of a detainee and ordered the destruction of videos that could be used. as evidence. This was announced on April 26 by the NGO itself in a press release.
"The nominee by the Trump administration to be CIA director, Gina Haspel, personally supervised the torture of a CIA detainee in 2002 that led to at least three sessions of the 'submarine' [a form of torture by immersion in water ], and then drafted a telegram in which he ordered the destruction of the videotape, "reads the National Security Archive statement.
In addition, according to the institution's statement, Haspel held a senior position in the CIA when the agency "lied" to the presidents, legislators and the public "about the effectiveness of torture to obtain useful information."
Haspel supported torture initiatives over several years: in November 2002, when she was the head of a CIA base in Thailand, she supervised and supported the torture program of two psychologists, James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, until the In 2009, President Obama put an end to this program.
The documents cited by the National Security Archive include 12 telegrams that Haspel wrote personally or authorized, which describe in detail several torture sessions in the 'black siege' of Thailand, led then by the current CIA head. The tortures were documented on videotapes, which were then destroyed, said National Security Archive.
On April 26, the same day that the NGO report was released, Gina Haspel officially assumed the position of new acting director of the CIA, after Mike Pompeo was approved by the US Senate. as Secretary of State.
On April 25, a day before the appointment, up to 109 retired American generals and admirals in a petition urged lawmakers to reject Haspel's appointment as "intimately involved in torture."
The petition cited "unrefuted reports" that Haspel ran a secret prison in one of the so-called "black sites" of the CIA and mentioned his role in overseeing the agency's controversial interrogation program, "full of abuses and examples of maladministration".