Last month President Donald Trump signaled another shuffling of key posts: Rex Tillerson was shown the door, CIA boss Mike Pompeo was offered the position of Secretary of State, and the CIA's second-in-command, Gina Haspel, was proposed to lead the agency. Haspel has subsequently been in the media limelight, and this week will be further scrutinized during her Senate confirmation process, during which senators are sure to question her record on torture and extralegal detention. In the latest twist, over the weekend it was rumored that Haspel was considering withdrawing from consideration. In response Trump dismissed objections against her nomination, tweeting that Haspel had simply been “too tough on Terrorists”—as if to say, “what's the harm in that?”
Legal and moral queries should dominate the confirmation process. The work carried out by the CIA should be viewed as an exercise of American power, and the officials tasked with running it should therefore be beholden to the same legal and moral order that governs the rest of our democracy.
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