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No Feminist Fanfare for Gina Haspel
Etched into the wall of the main lobby at the CIA is a Bible verse: “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:32
I watched the well-covered grilling by Congress of Gina Haspel for CIA Director but struggled to find headlines when she was confirmed as the first woman to lead the CIA. The media gave it barely a token of coverage. I winced as some members of Congress zeroed in on her regarding the interrogation of suspects involved in 9/11. Ms. Haspel repeatedly stated that while she was chief of the Thailand site where enhanced interrogation of three 9/11 suspects occurred, her role was that she ordered tapes destroyed that were leaked to the press, showing the identities of undercover officers that she wanted to protect. Any interrogation methods were approved by the president. A written documentation remained for the record.
Where was their memory? They say the masterminds behind the attack, where thousands lost their lives that day, and during which Democrat Bill Clinton was president, took five years to implement. George W. Bush had barely been in office eight months, after a hotly contested election where the transition period was deliberately made difficult. Back up….
In the book The Art of Intelligence, Lessons from a Life in the CIA’s Clandestine Service by Henry A. Crumpton, the CIA asked him to organize and lead the Afghanistan campaign. Prior to 9/11, he said the CIA had been grossly defunded and politicized to the point of reducing actual intelligence officers around the world to a bare minimum. Past thinking was “the cold war was over,” and it wasn’t needed. This direction, and the haste to rectify after, realizing the need once again of real intelligence gathering, always comes from the highest level — the president. He said we were woefully behind the eight ball after the attack and had little time to come up to speed. Mr. Crumpton was tasked with helping to rebuild the intelligence community, both foreign and domestic, and quickly. He agreed that complacency across the world for the prior fifteen years allowed evil to gain a foothold. His book illustrated the point that there is no replacement for human resources, direct human contact for penetrating evil at its source. Therein lies the sacrifice of service.
The Book of Honor by Washington Post journalist Ted Gup begins with the dedication “To the sons and daughters of the CIA’s stars, named and unnamed alike, and in memory of my father, who told me the only thing a man may hope to leave behind is a good name.” The book begins with a star among stars on the wall, the story of Douglas Seymour Mackiernan, who led a mission against communism in the 1940s. This first chapter is so incredible, the mission, the conditions, the stamina, his courage, and legacy, that I wept after reading it. He was one officer among many. There are pictures and details for each story, rare in this business, of the families and sacrifice that few know or are ever acknowledged.
Ms. Haskel joined the CIA at 28 years old. She has served our country for almost 35 years so far, including during one of the saddest moments our country has ever known, stationed in some of the darkest regions of the world, Ethiopia, Thailand, parts of Eurasia, Turkey, and Azerbaijan. Yet her many accomplishments and personal sacrifices made little difference to women who champion women, who push for the glass ceiling’s removal.
From Wikipedia:
More than 50 former senior U.S. government officials, including six former Directors of the CIA and three former directors of national intelligence, signed a letter supporting her nomination. They included former Directors of the CIA John Brennan, Leon Panetta and Michael Morell, former Director of the NSA and CIA Michael Hayden, and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Haspel has received a number of awards, including the George H. W. Bush Award for excellence in counterterrorism, the Donovan Award, the Intelligence Medal of Merit, and the Presidential Rank Award.
An outstanding résumé.
Some members of Congress, who also serve on the Foreign Intelligence Committee, stated some of the reports that are reviewed keep them awake at night, but knowing that she would be in charge, they would sleep better. How many bosses say that to a prospective candidate? I also remembered Ms. Haskel stating during her hearings that just last year, seven more stars were added to the wall — in one year. Just reading the story of one person behind one star was difficult. Evil never takes a vacation — neither do the boots on the ground in the intelligence community. Imagine her job.
She was tapped by President Trump to lead the CIA, the first woman in its 70-year history to hold this position, not because she is a woman, but because she was voted the best qualified for the job. She accepted the role with no accolades or cheering from the feminist bandstand. Another glass ceiling removed, but I guess she wasn’t holding the right banner. How does glass shatter and no one hears it?
I still don’t know her political persuasion and that’s fine — it wasn’t discussed. She stated her loyalty is to the United States and to the Constitution, to protect and defend. The Bible verse/motto to reveal the truth so freedom can triumph, to become invisible to find the hidden that seeks to harm before it can, is the mission. She’ll pass the stars on the wall each day, as they grow in number, and quietly continue to lead the fight for freedom from behind the scenes.
Congratulations to CIA Director Gina Haspel, and thank you for your lifelong dedication to our country.
Published in General
There was an excellent column in NRO about the feminist warrior Senator Kirsten Gillibrand who goes on endlessly how the country would be so much better if only, you know, more women were in positions of power. Then it lists all the women who have been nominated for high executive and judicial positions that she voted NOT to confirm.
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/kirsten-gillibrands-empty-gender-rhetoric/
Wait just a minute…she was supported in writing by John Brennan, James Clapper, Michael Hayden…do I still have time to change my mind about giving her my support? I know, it’s too late now. She certainly appeared to have deserved this promotion and seems highly capable of shining in this position. I would definitely have listed some of the other 50 names of endorsers rather than the ones you chose.
I tried to like this five times, but Max wouldn’t let me. Perhaps Langley could help.
FSC,
There was no feminist fanfare for Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher according to most authorities was the most effective British PM in the last century excepting only Winston Churchill. Yet, the leftist common culture could not forgive her sin of being a conservative. If Gina Haspel turns out to be the most effective spy chief since Wild Bill Donovan, I doubt the left will forgive her for her conservative politics.
They are incapable of giving credit where credit is due. Thus to discuss the left without discussing their bias is a hopeless task.
Regards,
Jim
I’m still annoyed at the hypocrisy of those Democratic Senators who reviewed and approved the enhanced interrogation techniques used by the CIA, but who are now “shocked, shocked” to find that we were not treating captured terrorists like stray puppy dogs who had followed us home. Just like so many of those same Democrats voted for the war in Iraq, but their support suddenly disappeared when the political winds blew. Hypocrites! Hypocrites! That’s the real story here. Or at least one of them. It’s always most interesting to find the story that doesn’t get mentioned.
I read the biography of Margaret Thatcher that Claire Berlinski wrote. It was outstanding. Prior to that, I didn’t realize what a great woman she was. I was a young flake during her rein, going to Clash concerts and a card-carrying liberal. She wasn’t ‘modern’ – what an idiot I was. I believe Gina Haspel will also be outstanding as Director. PS – Does anyone know how Claire is doing?
We seemed to be saturated in stories lately that ‘weren’t mentioned’……interesting times.
It’s great that Trump didn’t win….had he done so we never would have had a woman head up the CIA, or DHS or Small Biz or Secretary of Transportation or at the UN or Education or head up the RNC or become a senior counselor or Press Secretary or…..WHAT??
No!!
Trump won? UH-oh….Never mind!
Re: # 6
I’m also wondering how Claire Berlinski is doing.
I guess if the left believes not all women have vaginas, then it is easy to believe not everyone who has a vagina is a woman. Regardless of that person’s declaration.
Yes – Nikki Haley alone has completely shaken the UN and our adversaries out of their stupor!
You don’t seem to understand: Glass ceilings, whether they be gender-based or race-based, can only be broken by progressive Democrats. For example – if the first African American to be Secretary of State is a Republican, or (gasp) the first African American woman to be Secretary of State is a Republican – it doesn’t count. Got it?
File this under the heading Leftist Hypocrisy Knows No Bounds.
Conservative women aren’t real women and therefore deserve to be written out of their gender, in the eyes of those on the left, in the same way that African-Americans or Latinos who aren’t liberal Democrats are denounced as traitors to their races. You’re not allowed to have free will of thought if your race or gender is considered part of the progressive coalition and those who don’t follow the hive-mind demanded by the left suffer some of the worst demonization, to where their accomplishments are downgraded or whitewashed from the record (if you went by the hype today, you’d think that the Notorious RBG, and not Sandra Day O’Connor, was the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court).
I don’t know to this day what political party Gina Haspel is part of, what her political views are at all. I don’t want to know. Doesn’t her outstanding, lifelong service to our country surpass that? But these are very different times and political party grabs at the highest levels of our government are appearing to be just the tip of the iceberg. After 18 months, Hillary is still complaining that she’s not over the election loss? Who wants power that badly and why that they’re still talking about it? I remember when everyone was pushing W to run, he was so reluctant, seeing what his family and dad went through, what it puts families and spouses through. You can still do great things in the private sector.
Superb. Like fine poetry.
Thank you
They hate it when we have the first woman or black anything, so they try to make it not count. It doesn’t fit the cartoonish version of us that they love to promulgate. How can we be the keep-women-barefoot-and-pregnant White Supremacists they want us to be if there’s Condoleeza Rice staring them right in the face.
I am neither a feminist or a woman, but I welcome having a capable person as the head of the CIA.
Gina Haspel is no more a woman than Sarah Palin.
Hrm, that’s an interesting thought. In this age of self-identification, what makes a woman more of a woman? Identity politics, no doubt. Can we look forward to when interviews, when asking how we self-identify our gender, demand that we respond with the appropriate interpretive dance? It will make for tedious confirmation hearings.