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Ex-CIA Chief: Trump's CIA Pick Needs 'Appropriate Scrutiny'

Gina Haspel, President Trump's nominee for CIA director.
mronline.org
Gina Haspel, President Trump's nominee for CIA director.

A former top intelligence official says U.S. senators should give "appropriate scrutiny" to President Donald Trump's nominee to run the CIA for her role in the agency's waterboarding of terror suspects.

Former CIA Director John Brennan said in a Wednesday speech in Salt Lake City that the Senate intelligence committee that will vet nominee Gina Haspel should be fair but ensure Haspel did not inappropriately overstep her authority in the interrogation program.

Haspel, who is now deputy CIA director, oversaw a secret CIA prison in Thailand from 2003 to 2005 where top terror suspects were waterboarded. She later helped carry out an order to destroy waterboarding videos.

Trump nominated Haspel on Tuesday after firing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and nominating CIA Director Mike Pompeo to take Tillerson's job.

Brennan served as CIA director under President Barack Obama.