The Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Gina Haspel is a “disgusting murderous criminal” who was promoted to CIA chief for her role in inflicting torture on terror suspects, an American scholar and political commentator says.
“She tortured people; she was a torture specialist; I guess that’s how you rise to the top of the CIA these days; is by specializing in inflicting horrific suffering on your fellow human beings, and in this case on innocent ones,” said Kevin Barrett, an author, journalist and radio host in Madison, Wisconsin.
“Gina Haspel is one of the most disgusting murderous criminals walking on the face of the earth,” Barrett told Press TV during a phone interview Friday.
The torture sessions that she oversaw in the wake of 9/11 were used to elicit false confessions, Barrett said.
The CIA in the past year has shifted its resources away from terrorism and has focused on regional powers such as Russia and Iran, the spy agency’s director said on Thursday.
“Our Russia and Iran investment has been strengthened after years of falling behind our justifiably heavy emphasis on counter-terrorism” in the wake of 9/11,” she said.
Haspel made her remarks in a speech at Auburn University in the state of Alabama, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Her statement comes as Iran has identified 290 CIA agents across different countries, forcing the US to form a special committee to reassess its cloak-and-dagger operations.
Iran’s Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi said on Friday that Tehran has identified 290 CIA agents across different countries.
“CIA operatives in those countries were identified and arrested and the contacts of the US intelligence agency with its sources were disrupted in such a way that a committee to assess the failure was set up in America,” Alavi said during Friday prayers in Tehran.
Alavi said his ministry has shifted from focusing on defensive counter-intelligence to conducting offensive operations.