Archiv: Gina Haspel


10.06.2023 - 17:44 [ New York Times ]

An Abrupt Move That Stunned Aides: Inside Trump’s Aborted Attack on Iran

(Sept. 21, 2019)

That about-face, so typically impulsive, instinctive and removed from any process, proved a decision point for a president who has often threatened to “totally destroy” enemies but at the same time has promised to extricate the United States from Middle East wars. It revealed a commander in chief more cautious than critics have assumed, yet underscored the limited options in a confrontation he had set in motion.

Three months later, some of Mr. Trump’s own allies fear the failure to follow through was taken by Iran as a sign of weakness, emboldening it to attack oil facilities in Saudi Arabia this month. Mr. Trump argues his decision was an expression of long-overdue restraint by a nation that has wasted too many lives and dollars overseas.

26.10.2020 - 09:12 [ Axios.com ]

Scoop: Trump‘s post-election execution list

If President Trump wins re-election, he‘ll move to immediately fire FBI Director Christopher Wray and also expects to replace CIA Director Gina Haspel and Defense Secretary Mark Esper, two people who‘ve discussed these officials‘ fates with the president tell Axios.

The big picture: The list of planned replacements is much longer, but these are Trump‘s priorities, starting with Wray.

26.10.2020 - 09:03 [ theHill.com ]

Trump has list of top intelligence officials he‘ll fire if he wins reelection: report

President Trump plans to fire several top officials in the national security sphere should he win reelection in November, Axios reported Sunday.

The president plans to fire Defense Secretary Mark Esper, CIA Director Gina Haspel and FBI Director Christopher Wray, two people familiar with his decisionmaking told the news outlet. White House officials declined to comment on personnel matters.

05.10.2020 - 02:50 [ RealClearPolitics.com ]

Federalist‘s Sean Davis: CIA Director Haspel Personally Blocking Declassification Of Documents That Will Reveal Truth About Russiagate

„Unfortunately those releases and declassifications according to multiple sources I‘ve talked to are being blocked by CIA director Gina Haspel who herself was the main link between Washington and London,“ Davis said. „As the London station chief from John Brennan‘s CIA during the 2016 election. Recall, it was London where Christopher Steele was doing all this work. And I‘m told that it was Gina Haspel personally who is blocking a continued declassification of these documents that will show the American people the truth of what actually happened.“

01.02.2020 - 04:43 [ Philip M. Giraldi / antikrieg.com ]

Die Folterer und die ‚tickende Bombe‘: wie Folter zur Routine im globalen Krieg gegen den Terror wurde

Letzte Woche fand in einem Gerichtssaal in Guantanamo Bay eine Anhörung statt, bei der einer der Psychologen, die das Folterregime der Central Intelligence Agency entwickelt haben, unter Eid aussagte.

01.02.2020 - 04:40 [ Philip M. Giraldi / Strategic Culture Foundation ]

The Torturers and the ‘Ticking Bomb’: How Torture Became Routine in the Global War on Terror

Last week there was a hearing at a Guantanamo Bay courtroom in which one of the psychologists who devised the Central Intelligence Agency torture regime testified under oath.

12.01.2020 - 16:04 [ New York Times ]

Seven Days in January: How Trump Pushed U.S. and Iran to the Brink of War

But the United States also sent secret messages through Swiss intermediaries urging Iran not to respond so forcefully that Mr. Trump would feel compelled to go even further. After it did respond, firing 16 missiles at bases housing American troops without hurting anyone as a relatively harmless show of force, a message came back through the Swiss saying that would be the end of its reprisal for now. The message, forwarded to Washington within five minutes after it was received, persuaded the president to stand down.

21.06.2019 - 16:27 [ Donald J. Trump, President of the United States / Twitter ]

….On Monday they shot down an unmanned drone flying in International Waters. We were cocked & loaded to retaliate last night on 3 different sights when I asked, how many will die. 150 people, sir, was the answer from a General. 10 minutes before the strike I stopped it, not….

….proportionate to shooting down an unmanned drone. I am in no hurry, our Military is rebuilt, new, and ready to go, by far the best in the world. Sanctions are biting & more added last night. Iran can NEVER have Nuclear Weapons, not against the USA, and not against the WORLD!

21.06.2019 - 16:26 [ Spiegel.de ]

Geplanter Vergeltungsschlag: Trump will Angriff auf Iran zehn Minuten vor Start gestoppt haben

Donald Trump hat einen Militärschlag gegen Iran nach eigenen Angaben kurzfristig abgesagt. Die Zahl der Todesopfer wäre im Vergleich zum Drohnen-Abschuss „unverhältnismäßig“ gewesen, sagte der US-Präsident.

21.06.2019 - 15:16 [ Adam Schiff, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee ‏/ Twitter ]

Today, a group of us met with the President on Iran. We urged him to de-escalate tensions and avoid miscalculation. Iran wants to drive a wedge between the U.S. and our allies. We shouldn’t let them. I also reminded him: there’s no congressional authorization for war with Iran.

(20.06.2019)

21.06.2019 - 15:14 [ Laura Walker / Twitter ]

Senior administration officials said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; John R. Bolton, the national security adviser; and Gina Haspel, the C.I.A. director, had favored a military response.

(20.06.2019)

21.06.2019 - 15:04 [ cbs12.com ]

Officials leave White House after Iran meeting

(20.06.2019)

The White House invited House and Senate leaders and Democrats and Republicans on the House and Senate intelligence and Armed Services committees to meet with President Donald Trump on Thursday.

15.05.2019 - 03:43 [ Real Clear ]

Bernie Sanders: John Bolton Wants To Lie Us Into War In Iran Like He Did In Iraq, Like They Did In Vietnam

„It is almost impossible to imagine that after the horror of the war in Iraq when we were lied to by the Bush administration and one of the leading architects was this very same, John Bolton,“ Sanders said.

15.05.2019 - 03:28 [ Gareth Porter, / antiwar.com ]

Bolton Is Spinning Israeli ‘Intelligence’ to Push for War Against Iran

The Israeli delegation, led by national security adviser Meir Ben Shabbat, met with Bolton and other unnamed officials in the White House, according to Ravid, to discuss possible Iranian plans. Bolton himself tweeted on April 15 about his meeting with Shabbat:

Great meeting with Israeli National Security Advisor Meir Ben-Shabbat today. The close United States-Israel strategic partnership reflects the tremendous strength of the ties between our governments and the citizens of our two allied countries.

15.05.2019 - 01:58 [ The Guardian ]

No increased Iran threat in Syria or Iraq, top British officer says, contradicting US

The general’s comments are likely to heighten concerns that fabricated or exaggerated intelligence may be being used by administration hawks led by the national security adviser, John Bolton, to further the case for war against Iran, in a manner reminiscent of the buildup to the Iraq invasion.

14.05.2019 - 10:39 [ Radio Utopie ]

Wie auch der nächste Anlauf zum Krieg gegen den Iran in sich zusammenfällt

Die verbleibenden Vertragspartner des internationalen Atomabkommens J.C.P.O.A. außer dem Iran, also die Regierungen von Russland, China, Deutschland, Frankreich, Großbritannien, sowie die „Europäische Union“, heucheln weiter bis zum Erbrechen und versuchen Zeit zu schinden, bis die internationale Kriegslobby – der sich selbst angehören – den diesbezüglich einzig relevanten Entscheider, den „Führer der Freien Welt“, die Spitze der real existierenden Hierarchie auf dem Planeten, in den nächsten Massenmord bzw Angriffskrieg gequatscht hat: U.S.-Präsident Donald Trump.

Der hat, wie immer, keine Ahnung von gar nichts. Das hat er mit der Menschheit gemein. Ändert sich das, macht es *puff* und auch der nächste Anlauf des seit Jahrzehnten ablaufenden Programms zur Zerstörung und Eroberung des Iran löst sich wieder einmal in Luft auf.

Bereit, wenn Ihr es seid.

14.05.2019 - 08:44 [ @YadiraVargasTi1 / Twitter ]

Good afternoon Mr. Amb. Bolton and Mr Meir Ben Shabbat .

(15.04.2019)

14.05.2019 - 08:41 [ New York Times ]

White House Reviews Military Plans Against Iran, in Echoes of Iraq War

As recently as late April, an American intelligence analysis indicated that Iran had no short-term desire to provoke a conflict. But new intelligence reports, including intercepts, imagery and other information, have since indicated that Iran was building up its proxy forces’ readiness to fight and was preparing them to attack American forces in the region.

14.05.2019 - 08:30 [ Axios ]

NYT: Pentagon presented plan to deploy 120,000 troops in case of Iran escalation

Details: The plan was reportedly presented during a meeting about the Trump administration‘s broader Iran policy, attended — among others — by Bolton, CIA director Gina Haspel, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats. It‘s unclear if President Trump has been briefed on the details of the plan, which did not call for a land invasion of Iran, but requested a similar number of troops involved the U.S.‘ 2003 invasion of Iraq, per the Times.

12.05.2019 - 20:07 [ NBC News ]

Trump‘s top intelligence and military advisers held unusual meeting at CIA on Iran, officials say

(09.05.2019)

Five former CIA operations officers and military officials said that in the past, such meetings have been held at CIA headquarters to brief top officials on highly sensitive covert actions, either the results of existing operations or options for new ones.

18.01.2019 - 02:05 [ KBS ]

Südkoreas Geheimdienstchef besuchte am Wochenende Washington

Suh sprach offenbar mit CIA-Chefin Gina Haspel und tauschte Informationen über die Bewegungen in Nordkorea aus, um die Verhandlungen über die Denuklearisierung zwischen Nordkorea und den USA voranzubringen.

21.05.2018 - 06:20 [ Paul Craig Roberts / antikrieg.com ]

Demokraten bestätigen Folterin als Direktorin der CIA

Wie wurde eine Person, die sowohl in den USA als auch vor dem Internationalen Strafgerichtshof wegen der Führung eines Foltergefängnisses auf der Anklagebank sitzen sollte, zur Direktorin der US Central Intelligence Agency bestimmt? Was ist das ganze Washingtoner Gerede über die Verteidigung der Menschenrechte, wenn eine Folterin mit geheimen Operationen beauftragt wird?

16.05.2018 - 18:20 [ Fatima Boudchar / New York Times ]

I Have a Few Questions for Gina Haspel

(8.5.2018) Some of what they did to me in that prison was so awful I can’t talk about it. They hit me in the abdomen just where the baby was. To move me, they bound me to a stretcher from head to toe, like a mummy. I was sure I would shortly be killed.

For the rendition flight to Libya, I was taped to a stretcher again. The tape caught the corner of my eye. It stayed that way, my eye taped open, tears streaming down my face, for more than 14 hours.

After I spent several weeks in a Libyan prison, Colonel Qaddafi’s spies dragged a crib into my cell. I was gravely ill. If I lived through this, I thought, I would be forced to give birth, alone, in this filthy cell.

16.05.2018 - 18:00 [ Glenn Greenwald / Twitter ]

As someone who has closely watched and reported on DC Democrats for years, seeing them spend a year parading around as „Resistance“ warriors – only to watch them ensure Trump‘s choice of a torturer be confirmed as CIA chief – is the opposite of surprising

16.05.2018 - 17:57 [ Washington Post ]

Gina Haspel, Trump’s pick to lead CIA, wins support of Senate Intelligence Committee

The Senate Intelligence Committee moved Wednesday to recommend Gina Haspel for CIA director, setting up a floor vote that her opponents say will signal to the world whether the United States condemns or condones torture.

12.05.2018 - 14:59 [ Washington Post ]

CIA director nominee Haspel and the destruction of interrogation tapes: Contradictions and questions

In preparation for her hearing, the CIA declassified a 2011 internal disciplinary review, written by then-deputy CIA director Michael Morell, that Haspel and her allies have said exonerated her.

“I have found no fault with the performance of Ms. Haspel,” Morell wrote. He essentially said she was a “good soldier” who followed orders, including an order to draft the cable to destroy the tapes.

11.05.2018 - 04:42 [ WSWS ]

US Senate pays homage to CIA torturer

The hearing was characterized by gushing tributes from both Democrats and Republicans to the work of an agency long ago dubbed “Murder, Inc.” for its crimes around the world, including the organization of political assassinations, the creation of terrorist armies and the orchestration of fascist-military coups.

10.05.2018 - 21:47 [ New York Magazine ]

Cheney Endorses Haspel and a Return to Torture

But it was probably an unwelcome development for the embattled CIA director nominee that Cheney chose to combine warm words for her with a call for a return to the “enhanced interrogation” techniques that have marred her record and which she is promising to eschew.

10.05.2018 - 21:45 [ CNN ]

National security officials preparing contingency plans if Haspel‘s nomination fails

(7.5.2018) National security officials and some Republicans are preparing contingency plans in case President Donald Trump‘s nominee to lead the CIA, Gina Haspel, falters amid questions about her past role in the George W. Bush-era extreme interrogation program and destruction of videotapes of waterboarding, five sources familiar with the matter tell CNN.

07.05.2018 - 13:44 [ weekly Standard ]

White House Watch: Trump CIA Nominee Hits Speed Bumps

But by selecting Haspel, who had been with the CIA for more than three decades, Pompeo endeared himself to the rank-and-file early. Her position signaled that Pompeo would be willing to defend the CIA’s counterterrorism work, including the enhanced interrogation program that endangers her nomination today, against a growing push from Capitol Hill and elsewhere against it.

21.04.2018 - 02:43 [ ACLU ]

Senators: Demand the CIA release Haspel‘s torture record

Gina Haspel is best known for running a “black site” torture prison in Thailand during the George W. Bush administration. The prison she ran was the first to test some of the CIA’s most brutal and criminal tactics – including waterboarding, beatings, starvation, and locking men for hours in coffin-like confinement boxes. Press reports place Haspel in charge of the prison when a man was waterboarded multiple times. These torture methods became a template for a program applied to scores of detainees held in a network of secret CIA prisons.