Birmingham-Southern College President Gen. Charles Krulak (Tom Coiner/Birmingham-Southern College)

By General Charles C. Krulak, USMC (ret.), who was the 31st Commandant of the Marine Corps and former president of Birmingham Southern College.

After the attacks of September 11, our nation's leaders succumbed to fear, departed from American ideals, and put in place a policy of torture. Sold as a boon to U.S. nation security, the CIA's "enhanced interrogation" program in fact weakened it. That's why I, along with over a hundred other former generals and admirals, spoke out against the program.

Fortunately, in 2015, 78 senators--including Alabama's Richard Shelby--voted for the McCain-Feinstein amendment, which affirmed the illegality of "enhanced interrogation" techniques and went a long way toward rebuilding the bipartisan consensus against torture.

But now, in a potential major setback, President Trump has nominated for CIA director a person who was intimately involved in the torture program. While the public record is incomplete, there are uncontested reports that Gina Haspel ran a black site prison where at least one detainee was repeatedly tortured. In addition, Haspel held senior positions within department of the CIA that were responsible for directing the program, which was rife with mismanagement and abuse.

Before they vote on Haspel's nomination, senators--including Richard Shelby and Doug Jones--have an obligation to ascertain the nature and extent of her involvement in torture. They should insist on full declassification, with appropriate redactions to protect security, of all information regarding her role in torture. If and when they confirm that she indeed played a role, they should reject her in the name of national security and the rule of law.

Well-respected former intelligence officials have spoken highly of Haspel's long record of service. Yet whatever her contributions, they cannot excuse her involvement in torture and other unlawful abuse of detainees. Nor does the claim that she was "just following orders" exonerate her. Our country did not accept this rationalization after World War II, and we should not accept it now. Waterboarding and other forms of torture were manifestly illegal. People in the government, regardless of their level, had a legal and moral duty to refuse to carry out these actions, and to report them.

There is strong evidence, moreover, that Haspel's disturbing conduct went beyond even "enhanced interrogation." Public reports suggest she supervised or otherwise had a key role in the interrogation program at a time when abuses were even more brutal than what was authorized by the discredited legal memos. She also appears to have pushed for and participated in the destruction of 92 videotapes of torture including torture she supervised--over the objections of congressional leaders, intelligence and Department of Justice officials, and White House counsels. This act alone would be sufficient reason to oppose her nomination.

The embrace of torture cost our nation dearly, and we're still paying the price. It increased the risk to our troops, hindered cooperation with allies, alienated populations whose support we need in the struggle against terrorism, produced bogus information that impeded investigations, and handed a priceless public relations tool to terrorist groups.

To promote to CIA chief a person complicit in torture and the coverup would send precisely the wrong message to the world. Conversely, the Haspel nomination offers senators a valuable opportunity to solidify further a ban against torture that should have never been violated. By making the correct choice on Haspel, they could, perhaps once and for all, close the book on this shameful chapter in our history.