The slow pace of new public releases on CIA Deputy Director Gina Haspel's background has only emboldened progressive activists who see her involvement in the use of harsh interrogation techniques as inherently disqualifying. | CIA via AP CIA’s latest push for Haspel slammed by left Liberal activists say the spy agency is selectively declassifying information in a bid to boost her nomination.

The CIA on Tuesday released a broad timeline of Gina Haspel’s career, part of an ongoing push to coax her imperiled nomination to lead the spy agency past undecided senators in both parties.

But the new information is only fueling further pushback from liberal and human rights groups outraged over Haspel’s role in the George W. Bush administration’s use of brutal interrogation tactics on detained terrorist suspects.


Newly confirmed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ultimately won over five of the 15 Senate Democratic Caucus members who had previously backed him as CIA director, but Haspel has no similar base of support — and a more target-rich background for the left.

The latest two-page CIA timeline offers basic job titles for Haspel ahead of her May 9 confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Its release follows the declassification of an internal 2011 memo that absolved her of impropriety in the destruction of videotapes said to have shown waterboarding and other instances of torture later outlawed by Congress.

However, the memo offered little reassurance to many Senate Democrats, who were already demanding more transparency from the CIA, and won Haspel no new commitments of support from the handful of swing votes. With Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) already opposed to President Donald Trump’s nominee, she will need some Democratic backing to get confirmed in a chamber split 51-49.

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One key undecided senator, Republican Susan Collins of Maine, said in a recent interview that the 2011 memo was “very thorough” and “satisfies my concerns about the role that she did not play in the destruction of the videotapes.”

That release from the CIA addresses “one very important issue, but there are still other issues,” added Collins, an intelligence panel member. Among them, Collins said, is the importance of more clarity about “her role in overseeing the interrogation of detainees." Haspel reportedly was once in charge of a clandestine CIA "black site" at which waterboarding took place.

The slow pace of new public releases on Haspel's background has only emboldened progressive activists who see her involvement in the use of harsh interrogation techniques as inherently disqualifying. The liberal group Indivisible, for instance, has made her defeat its top federal policy priority and accused the CIA of withholding key material.

"We’re not playing on an even playing field here," the group's foreign policy manager, Elizabeth Beavers, said in an interview. "The CIA is choosing to selectively declassify information about her and putting people in a spot where they aren’t able to fully engage in fleshing out the worst parts of her record."

The career timeline released Tuesday shows that Haspel served in the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center from 2001 to 2004 and became chief of staff at the directorate of operations in 2005, the year that the controversial videotapes were destroyed. The recently declassified CIA memo, the result of a disciplinary review, found that she “acted appropriately” in writing a cable ordering the tapes’ destruction at the request of her boss.

Another undecided intelligence committee member, Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), said in a recent interview that he is “still looking for more” disclosure on that front.

“I’m not satisfied on this issue, and that’s the issue I’m mostly concerned about,” King, who caucuses with Democrats and supported Pompeo, said late last week.

King said he would make no final decision on Haspel’s bid until after her hearing but endorsed a request from the intelligence panel’s vice chairman, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), for a copy of the report prepared by a Department of Justice special prosecutor who declined to charge any CIA officials in the videotapes’ destruction.

Even as senior Republicans lauded Haspel for doing her duty regarding the videotapes, her opponents off Capitol Hill seized on the internal memo as fodder for the case against her.

"Do we really want someone who is just going to do what she is ordered to do, or do we want someone who is going to speak truth to power?" Raha Wala, national security advocacy director at Human Rights First, asked in an interview.

The CIA has also offered to let senators view classified material about Haspel’s record in a secure setting, but Democratic critics have said that’s insufficient — and that more information should be declassified and made available to the broader public.

Among the swing votes seen as in play in the Haspel confirmation battle are Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), the latter of whom opposed Pompeo for CIA but supported him for State amid a reelection challenge from Republican Gov. Rick Scott.

Other red-state Democratic incumbents facing voters in November will also come under pressure from the right. The Republican National Committee is already gearing up to replicate its pro-Pompeo messaging strategy, which targeted that crop of politically vulnerable Democratic senators, according to an early copy of its plans shared with POLITICO.

One part of the RNC campaign focuses on the public praise Haspel already has won from five veterans of the Obama-era intelligence community.

"If red state Democrats plan to oppose the first female CIA director because of terrorist interrogations that occurred in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, it’ll put them to the left of all the Obama administration officials who say she’s universally qualified," RNC spokesman Michael Ahrens said by email.

And while Trump may be closer with Pompeo than Haspel, the White House is already backing up the CIA’s internal effort to boost her prospects.

A news release about the veteran spy, posted Tuesday to the White House’s website, portrays Haspel as a female trailblazer in a male-dominated agency: “When Haspel first took over as a Chief of Station in a tumultuous capital abroad, the skepticism of some of her male colleagues was obvious. It didn’t take long for her to prove the doubters wrong.”

Faiz Shakir, national political director for the ACLU, predicted that opposing Haspel would prove politically beneficial to any senator heading into the midterms.

Her confirmation provides red-state Democrats "a good opportunity to stand up loudly and proudly and say 'we want to serve as accountability and checks on the system'," Shakir said in an interview. "That argument serves you well no matter where you are."

But the agency's combination of partial declassification and total promotion of Haspel has some critics concerned that the strategy could hurt their campaign against her confirmation.

As one activist working against the nomination put it, on the condition of anonymity: “I just think we’re getting screwed by the CIA’s very successful propaganda campaign — totally selective declassification.”