Morrell, who has served as deputy director of the CIA under President Barack Obama and twice as the agency’s executive director, is a contender for a full-time role under Biden, who, according to two sources familiar with the matter, remains in the mix for other jobs.
But members of Biden’s own party – the Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, a member of the intelligence committee, has been sharply criticized for voting on whether to endorse any candidate for the job.
“No harassing person can be confirmed as the director of CNA,” Wyden told CNN. The so-called “advanced interrogation” of the terrorist agency was both effective and ethical – it goes beyond claims, CNN told Wyden. Other officers who faced investigations into the agency’s handling of detainees at black spots, including former director John Brennan and current director Gina Haspel.
Wyden’s opposition to appointing Morrell as Biden could jeopardize the possibility of being tapped for the job, even though his name has long been announced as a contender. Multiple sources familiar with the internal transition discussions told CNN that the decision remains in the air and there is no clear front-runner for the role.
As such, Biden did not announce his candidacy for director of the CIA on Tuesday, although he faced practical criticism from the director of national intelligence, Avril Haynes, who accused him of complicity, including several other important national security positions, including the choice of director of national intelligence. His election was officially unveiled. The use of torture by the CIA after 9/11 or in “advanced interrogation techniques”.
Given his leadership experience in the agency, Morrell’s name has repeatedly surfaced in recent weeks as a possible choice for CIA director. But while he is being considered a possible choice by some Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Wyden made it clear that he would vote against Morrell’s confirmation because of his public comments on the issue of torture and resistance to congressional oversight.
A congressional aide said Morrell’s earlier remarks about the CIA’s advanced interrogation techniques and his earlier resistance to congressional oversight were a problem.
In a 2015 report prepared by Army staff, California Democrats investigating the CIA’s advanced interrogation program condemned Morrell for repeatedly contradicting internal agency cables related to suspected al Qaeda operatives and attempts to extract information from his references to the study. Misconceptions about the effectiveness of measures such as waterboarding.
“Michael Morrell is one of our smartest, most dedicated and hard-working intelligence officers. He has had both Democrats and Republicans for decades,” Nick Shapiro, a former CIA deputy chief of staff who currently serves as Morrell’s spokesman, told CNN. Yes, they were with President Bush on 9/11 and they were with President Obama when we removed Osama bin Laden.
“Morrell was not involved in the creation of the EIT program in any way and did not learn about it until 2006, four years after it began. Waterboarding is really annoying. “
“Morrell believes there were many errors in the EIT program and wrote extensively on them,” Shapiro said.
Still, involvement and public support for the CIA’s advanced interrogation program is an issue for Morrell and other individuals who have already been nominated for top intelligence posts by Biden.
Some progressives questioned Haynes’s record on sensitive issues and accused him of complicating the CIA’s torture program.
While serving as deputy CIA director from 2013 to 2014, Haynes decided not to punish agency employees who accused the Senate Intelligence Committee of improperly accessing computers during their investigation of the CIA’s use of escalating interrogation techniques – a controversy that plagued Democrats. On the panel.
When he was nominated for the job in 2018, he supported Haspel and George W. The Bush-era CIA has faced criticism for its involvement in the implementation of interrogation programs, including a report that was run in a “black site” prison. .
At the time, she had disagreed with many Democrats on the panel over her support of Haynes’ Haspel, and that’s an important issue for some in the party.
“Haynes has an unfortunate record of frequently harassing and concealing torturers. Her pressure to give maximum response to the torture report, her refusal to discipline CIA personnel who hacked the Senate, and her vocal support for Gina Haspel – which was also argued by the pro-group. David Siegel, founder and executive director, told CNN that Democrats as Trump’s White House were almost unanimously opposed to the then-nominated candidate to lead the CIA – his confirmation should be questioned during the process.
But Morrell’s comments have been hailed as a useful tool to “torture” him, for some Democrats it would be more serious if he were nominated as CIA director, raising more questions about who Biden will choose to head the agency in the coming days. Is.
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