Former CIA Director Oversaw Torture of USS Cole Bombing Suspect in a Black Site in Thailand

Former CIA director Gina Haspel was the head of a Thai black site where the alleged torture of a terrorist suspect was sanctioned.

Based on the New York Times report, she was there when one of the prisoners was subject to torture mentioned in court testimony.

Inhumane Treatment of Prisoners by the CIA

The ex-CIA official who ran the agency as director for the CIA base in Thailand during 2002, as revealed by the NYT last Friday, reported RT.

Claims that state she looked over interrogation sessions of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri connected with the bombing of USS Cole, who underwent waterboarding said the outlet. The testimony came from a psychologist taking part in the torture who identified the al-Nashiri.

In a Guantanamo Bay court hearing wherein James Mitchell said he saw how the prisoner was covered with a cloth and water poured over his face by another interrogator, cited Law Dragon.

Strapped to a gurney while getting tortured, the prisoner was changed from lying to standing up in between intervals in the waterboarding, said the psychologist. More details like Al-Nashiri covered with a hood on sometimes or stark naked, other times he was in a small box, slapping, head slammed into a burlap wall revealed the CIA psychologist.

Former CIA director familiar with torture methods was revealed and sent memos to Washington about the torture of the prisoner and what they learned from the CIA Thai black site. But the psychologist revealed what she did in the Thailand base.

Haspel knew torture methods and informed Washington of the information learned from Al-Nashiri's sessions. However, Mitchell's testimony offered a more detailed peek at her work in Thailand, noted Laos News.

What Did Al-Nashiri do?

Abd Al-Rahim Al-Nashiri is the alleged mastermind of the attack on the USS Cole with 17 US Navy casualties in 2000. The Times stated how the military judge for the criminal case against the prisoner allowed Mitchell's testimony due to destroyed evidence by the CIA who did the torture to Al-Nashiri and another prisoner in Thailand, mentioned Fars News.

The CIA director admitted to ruining 92 interrogation tapes showing Abu Zubaydah's torture; he is the first terror suspect targeted by the post 9/11 torture program. Served as chief of staff to CIA ops chief Jose Rodriguez Jr. and was the CIA Director in the Trump era from April 2018 to January 2021.

Haspel Confirmed as CIA Chief

Before Haspel was confirmed as CIA director, she said she was not in the destroyed video and answered no when asked whether part of Al-Nashiri's torture was the answer to Senator Dianne Feinstein's (D-California) question. The internal review of the CIA found her faultless in destroying the tapes.

Despite opposition by a bloc of senators criticizing her and the Central Intelligence Agency, she got the directorship in 2018 and was the first woman to head the agency.

Further probes reveal interrogators wanted to end the torture due to answered questions by Al- Nashiri, but the higher official said to continue and moved to another site. The torture of Al-Nashiri and Zubaydah was controversial and commented on by the ECHR in 2018.