The appointment of a new Deputy Director of Analysis at the CIA shows how the vocabulary of the intelligence profession evolves to clarify (or conceal) the agency’s mission. Cynthia Rapp, a career CIA official in charge of preparing the President’s Daily Brief, will head the component of the agency that used to be called the...
Tag: Gina Haspel
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Beth Kimber Becomes First Woman to Run the CIA’s Clandestine Service
This appointment is testament to the enduring influence of John Brennan at today’s CIA. To the distress of some traditional officers, Brennan insisted on diversity as a fundamental institutional value for an intelligence agency. The appointment of Gina Haspel and now Beth Kimber are part of his legacy. The CIA workforce is now nearly 50...
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For Senatorial Women, the First Female CIA Director Is an Issue
CIA directors rarely figure in partisan political campaigns but Gina Haspel has become an issue in two U.S. Senate campaigns.
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CIA Chief Heard Recording of Khashoggi Killing
Gina Haspel is well-qualified for her intelligence gathering mission to Turkey in the Khashoggi affair. Haspel is known to have served as an intelligence officer in Turkey and one top former CIA official told me she speaks Turkish. So Haspel was able to talk, without interpreters, Hakan Fidan, chief of the Turkish intelligence service, the MIT....
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New Gina Haspel Cable Discloses Her Mistake on Torture
The National Security Archive has obtained new details about the torture tactics of CIA director Gina Haspel and her mistaken belief that extreme measures were necessary. The key document comes from November 2002, a little more than a year after 9/11 attacks. Top CIA officials feared another attack was coming. Haspel was running a “black site” in...