Wyden Responds to CIA’s Selective Declassification on Haspel’s Record
Washington, D.C. – Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, issued the following statement in response to the selective declassification of documents relating to the background of Gina Haspel, who is nominated to serve as director of the Central Intelligence Agency:
“The Morell report confirms some extremely troubling facts about Deputy Director Haspel and the destruction of interrogation videotapes. She didn’t just draft the cable that authorized the destruction of the tapes, she played a key role in events surrounding the drafting of the cable. Unfortunately, the Morell report is highly incomplete, raising far more questions about Ms. Haspel than it answers. The administration needs to release much more information about this episode, including the extensive record described in the Morell report,” Wyden said.
“Direct participation in the destruction of evidence is an extraordinarily serious matter. Members of the Senate who are considering Ms. Haspel’s nomination should be particularly concerned, given the interest CIA officials had in destroying the tapes before an investigatory commission proposed in the Senate would discover them.
“Finally, as I have said in the past, my concerns about Ms. Haspel are far broader than this episode or anything else that has appeared in the press.”
###
Next Article Previous Article
