Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden ripped the Trump administration on Tuesday for the appointment of Gina Haspel to lead the CIA over Haspel’s former management of CIA black site prisons.
Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden ripped the Trump administration on Tuesday for the appointment of Gina Haspel to lead the CIA over Haspel’s former management of CIA black site prisons.
In a series of tweets, the former contractor who fled the country after exposing classified information in 2013 about U. S. government surveillance programs attacked Haspel for her role in the torture of detainees at a CIA secret prison in Thailand.
„Interesting: The new CIA Director Haspel, who „tortured some folks,“ probably can’t travel to the EU to meet other spy chiefs without facing arrest due to an @ECCHRBerlin complaint to Germany’s federal prosecutor,“ wrote Snowden, referring to a complaint filed by the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights.
„Are these really the values the US should be promoting? The CIA might as well start issuing uniforms decorated with skulls and lightning bolts,“ he added.
Snowden did not immediately respond for a request for comment from The Hill on Haspel’s nomination.
Haspel faced criticism from many on the left on Tuesday after Trump’s announcement for her role in the U. S.’s widely controversial enhanced interrogation programs used at secret CIA facilities around the world.
Trump made the announcement that Haspel would replace CIA Director Mike Pompeo on Tuesday, at the same time announcing that Pompeo would replace Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was fired.
„Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State,“ Trump tweeted Tuesday morning.
„He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all!“
