Nearly 250 Jewish Clergy Oppose Trump’s CIA Nominee, Citing Torture Record
Donald Trump Image by Getty Images
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Nearly 250 Jewish clergy have signed a petition opposing President Trump’s nominee to lead the CIA, citing her role in the George W. Bush-era torture of prisoners.
“Given (Gina) Haspel’s role in the CIA’s now-defunct torture program, a vote to confirm her is incompatible with any kind of meaningful commitment to the prohibition on torture and so-called ‘enhanced interrogation,’” said the petition to be sent to the Senate, which had garnered 245 signatures by Monday evening, two days before Haspel’s confirmation hearings. “Her oversight of a CIA black site is an extreme moral offense that overrides any other qualifications she might have to serve as the head of the CIA.”
The petition was organized by T’ruah, a rabbinical human rights group with 2,000 affiliated cantors and rabbis across the Jewish religious spectrum.
Haspel, a CIA veteran of 33 years, in 2002 supervised a CIA secret interrogation site in Thailand, where torture methods, including waterboarding, were used. Several years later, she was involved in the destruction of dozens of videotapes depicting torture as Congress examined the methods more closely. She was never charged.
President Barack Obama ended “enhanced interrogation techniques” on his second day in office. Trump has said he favors them under certain circumstances.
“My highly respected nominee for CIA Director, Gina Haspel, has come under fire because she was too tough on Terrorists,” Trump tweeted on Monday. “Think of that, in these very dangerous times, we have the most qualified person, a woman, who Democrats want OUT because she is too tough on terror. Win Gina!”
Haspel, currently the deputy CIA director, would replace Mike Pompeo, whom Trump recently named as secretary of state.
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
