Andrew Sullivan is outraged at the thought that Gina Haspel, chief of staff to Jose Rodriguez, who was in charge of “enhanced interrogation” of prisoners gathered up in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, and chief advocate for destruction of the tapes of the actual torture sessions, has been nominated for the post of CIA Director, assuming current Director Pompeo is confirmed for the Secretary of State position. After covering her heinous alleged acts and how their there is no defense for them, Andrew concludes:
In a fateful decision, President Obama decided to give complete legal immunity for war crimes committed by agents of the CIA. Haspel then cannot be prosecuted, as she should be under domestic and international law. She was not fired; no one, in fact, was disciplined for these atrocities. But to actually reward someone who has committed war crimes with promotion, and then to elevate her to the highest position in Western intelligence, is a whole new level of depravity. It sends a very clear message: that anyone committing war crimes in the future will be celebrated, not disciplined, rewarded, not punished, that torture is justifiable, even worth reviving, as our future secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, opined only last year. It would amount to a full-on endorsement of torture by the United States, and a signal to the entire world that it can be justified. This is a profound threat to human rights globally and to the long tradition of American warfare, initiated by George Washington no less, in which the use of torture has always been regarded as exactly the kind of barbarism America was founded to overcome. It would be the final nail in the coffin that used to be the West.
Maybe in the era of Trump, that coffin is already covered in dirt. But if senators want to retain any semblance of the notion of American decency, if they are to honor the countless men and women in the CIA and military who for decades have resisted the impulse to torture, if they are to respect those who fought the torture-states of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, and if they also want to remember those Americans, like John McCain, who were once subject to exactly the kind of torture Haspel authorized, they will vote down the nomination. If this line of defense falls, we are truly lost in a vortex of self-perpetuating evil. We will have abolished something deep and essential in the soul of America.
We will be a dungeon on a hill.
It’s difficult to argue with Andrew’s position, and I have no intention of doing so. I’ll simply add this is a blot on the honor of every Trump supporter of every stripe. As we can see, that group is actually growing, according to Gallup, which now has him over 40% approval. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I’m appalled, and can only attribute these disgracefully high numbers to ignorance. In a sea of information, it can be difficult to find the critical information.
The inability to bring these war criminals to justice is one of the most galling decisions of President Obama.
