“Do we want to be a nation whose CIA Director will not be able to visit the heads of counterpart services for fear of arrest under the principle of universal jurisdiction for the torture she is known to have led? Are we proud of the era when we snatched people from one country and sent them to another to be interrogated in secret prisons? Do we want to be the country that cynically preaches human rights and then violates those same rights when we think nobody is looking?” Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity MEMORANDUM for the Members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence

Former CIA officer Ray McGovern was forcibly removed from Gina Haspel confirmation Senate hearing for protesting. Follow us on Twitter: @Intel_Today

Ray McGovern served as a CIA analyst from the administration of John Kennedy to that of George H.W. Bush, and prepared the President’s Daily Brief for Nixon, Ford, and Reagan.

During the hearing, Senator Jack Reed — Democrat Rhode Island — was asking Haspel about the morality of “enhanced interrogation techniques” and how she would react if a CIA officer was waterboarded by terrorists.

“Sorry to interrupt here,” McGovern said, standing up in the audience. “Senator Wyden, you deserve a direct answer.”

Five Capitol Police officers quickly detained him, warned him to stop resisting, and threw him out of the hearing in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee. In the process, they dislocated his shoulder.

McGovern has been jailed. He is charged with a felony for “resisting arrest,” rather than for a misdemeanor of disrupting a government proceeding.

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REFERENCES

Will a Torturer Become CIA Director? by Ray Mc Govern — Consortium News

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Former CIA officer Ray McGovern Forcibly Removed from CIA Haspel Senate Hearing