28 Facts About Gina Haspel

Gina Cheri Walker Haspel was born on October 1,1956 and is an American civil servant who was the director of the Central Intelligence Agency from May 21,2018, to January 20,2021.

Gina Haspel was the agency's deputy director from 2017 to 2018 to Mike Pompeo, and became acting director on April 26,2018, after Pompeo became US secretary of state.

Gina Haspel was later nominated and confirmed to the role, making her the first woman to become CIA director on a permanent basis.

Gina Haspel's father served in the United States Air Force.

Gina Haspel was a student at the University of Kentucky for three years and transferred for her senior year to the University of Louisville, where she graduated in May 1978 with a Bachelor of Science in languages and journalism.

Gina Haspel received a paralegal certificate from Northeastern University in 1982 and worked as a paralegal until she was hired by the CIA.

From 1996 to 1998, Gina Haspel served as station chief in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Between October and December 2002, Gina Haspel was assigned to oversee a secret CIA prison in Thailand Detention Site GREEN, code-named Cat's Eye, which housed persons suspected of involvement in Al-Qaeda.

Gina Haspel has attracted controversy for her role as chief of a CIA black site in Thailand in 2002 in which prisoners were tortured with so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques", including waterboarding.

Gina Haspel's involvement was confirmed in August 2018 when a Freedom of Information lawsuit by the George Washington University-based National Security Archive brought to light CIA cables either authorized or written by Gina Haspel while base chief at the Thailand black site.

In late October 2002, Gina Haspel became a chief of base for a "black site" CIA prison located in Thailand.

Gina Haspel worked at a site that was codenamed "Cat's Eye", which would later become known as the place where suspected al Qaeda terrorist members Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri and Abu Zubaydah were detained and tortured with waterboarding.

In March 2018, US officials said Gina Haspel was not involved in the torture of Zubaydah, as she only became chief of base after Zubaydah was tortured.

ProPublica and The New York Times issued corrections to their stories but noted that Gina Haspel was involved in the torture of al-Nashiri.

Gina Haspel played a role in the destruction of 92 interrogation videotapes that showed the torture of detainees both at the black site she ran and at other secret agency locations.

From 2004 to 2005, Gina Haspel was Deputy Chief of the National Resources Division.

Gina Haspel served as the deputy director of the National Clandestine Service, deputy director of the National Clandestine Service for Foreign Intelligence and Covert Action, and chief of staff for the director of the National Clandestine Service.

In 2005, Gina Haspel was the chief of staff to Jose Rodriguez, Director of the National Clandestine Service.

At the Senate confirmation hearing considering her nomination to head the CIA, Gina Haspel explained that the tapes had been destroyed in order to protect the identities of CIA officers whose faces were visible, at a time when leaks of US intelligence were rampant.

In 2013, John Brennan, then the director of Central Intelligence, named Gina Haspel as acting director of the National Clandestine Service, which carries out covert operations around the globe.

Gina Haspel is undoubtedly the right person for the job, and the Committee looks forward to working with her in the future.

Once confirmed by the Senate, Gina Haspel became the first woman to serve as permanent Director of the CIA.

McCain further called upon Gina Haspel to commit to declassifying the 2014 Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture.

On May 9,2018, Gina Haspel appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee for a confirmation hearing.

Gina Haspel was officially sworn in on May 21,2018, becoming the first woman to serve as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency on a permanent basis.

On January 29,2019, during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, Gina Haspel reported that the CIA was "pleased" with the Trump administration's March 2018 expulsion of 61 Russian diplomats following the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal.

Gina Haspel added that the CIA did not object to the Treasury Department's decision in December 2018 to remove sanctions on three Russian companies tied to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Several fact-checking projects debunked these claims, and were unable to find any evidence that Gina Haspel had died or that a raid had taken place.