[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 76 (Thursday, May 10, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2613-S2614]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Nomination of Gina Haspel

  Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I rise to talk about an extremely 
qualified person who has been nominated to be the next Director of the 
Central Intelligence Agency.
  I just left a meeting with Gina Haspel, who is a woman who has spent 
her entire career at the Central Intelligence Agency protecting our 
country. Over the decades, she has been in the field a number of times 
and has been in a number of dangerous situations. She has been an 
analyst. She has been in leadership. She is currently the Deputy 
Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. By the way, she is the 
first woman who has ever been the Deputy Director of this Agency. Of 
course, she would be the first woman Director if she is to be 
confirmed.
  I had an opportunity to talk to her about a lot of issues, including 
the morale at the CIA and how people feel about her being the Director. 
As you can imagine, folks over there are extremely excited about this--
one of their own, someone they know and trust. They understand she has 
their interests at heart. I think it would be terrific for that Agency 
to have someone with her capability. She would be only the second 
Director in the history of that Agency who came up through the ranks.
  I also went down to what is called the SCIF, which is a place where 
you can look at classified information. This week, I had the 
opportunity to review her background, not just what is available 
publicly but also what is in a classified form. Suffice it to say, I 
was very impressed.
  I spent my time looking at her record, looking at her background, 
talking to her personally, talking to other people in the intelligence 
community to understand the impact she would have on the men and women 
of that Agency. I can state that I truly believe she is not only 
qualified, but she may be the most qualified person you could think of 
to run this Agency, and she will be good for the Agency.
  I have the opportunity, when I go around the world to make visits on 
behalf of the Foreign Relations Committee--I am a member of the Foreign 
Relations Committee--to meet with CIA personnel. I was in Ukraine, in 
the Czech Republic, in Germany over the Easter break, with our troops 
on Easter, and had the opportunity to meet with some of the CIA 
employees overseas. I can just state, you would be so proud if you had 
the opportunity, as I have had, to meet with some of these people and 
talk to them about what they are doing every day to help protect us and 
the risks they take every day to help protect us on behalf of our 
national security.
  Who better to provide the President of the United States with the 
sort of intelligence analysis needed to deal with so many challenges we 
face around the world than someone who has been in the trenches, who 
has been one of those people out in the field like the folks I met with 
as recently as last month? She is someone who has a deep understanding 
of intelligence operations.
  By the way, she is not political at all--not a Republican, not a 
Democrat. She is a career professional. What better Agency than the 
Central Intelligence Agency to have someone who is a consummate 
professional? I believe that is one reason she has such strong support 
from former CIA Directors. You probably have seen this, but former 
Secretaries of State and former CIA Directors have come forward to 
support her, including Republicans and Democrats. The list includes 
Leon Panetta, John Brennan, and James Clapper, who were all 
intelligence leaders in the Obama administration. They have come out in 
support of Gina Haspel. It is easy to see why she is so widely 
supported.
  Let me share one quick account I have read about. She is probably too 
modest to talk about it. One of her assignments was in a difficult part 
of the world, a dangerous part of the world. She was a station chief 
there. She got news that there were two senior al-Qaida associates 
linked to the Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. You may remember 
those horrible bombings. They were on their way to the country where 
she was stationed. With that little bit of information, she went to 
work. As a result of her swift actions and her dedication and 
intensity, she actually went full time, 24/7--they say she slept on the 
office floor to the extent she slept at all--and she was able to 
determine that these terrorists had gone to a particular hotel. 
Intelligence tracked them there, and after a firefight, they were 
apprehended. These two evil men who had killed so many people in Africa 
through terrorist attacks were stopped, but just as important, their 
computers were seized, and their computers revealed the next terror 
plot they were planning. Lives were saved, and Gina Haspel was awarded 
by George H.W. Bush the Award for Excellence in Counterterrorism.
  So she has received a lot of honors like that throughout her career. 
I tell you that story just to give you a sense of who this woman is 
because I think when we hear debate in this Chamber and talking back 
and forth, sometimes we forget the fact that these people do work in 
dangerous situations to protect us.

  She has been in situations where gunshots have been fired upon her 
vehicle, as an example. She is one of those people who all of these 
years has been out there serving us, and now for us not to support her, 
I think would be the wrong thing to do.
  I look forward to the confirmation. It will be another first for her, 
the first woman Deputy Director, the first woman Director, but that is 
not why she is doing it. She is doing it, as she told me today, because 
she is a patriot.
  She is from Kentucky, right across the river from where I live in 
Cincinnati, OH. She grew up as a kid who believed in patriotism and 
service and protecting our country, and she has devoted her life to 
this.
  One final point I hope some of my colleagues who might be listening 
or who are undecided might think about. This is an incredibly dangerous 
world we live in right now. Unfortunately, we face a lot of dangers. I 
just had the chance to talk to Gina Haspel about what is happening with 
regard to Iran, Syria, and the latest news with regard to the conflict 
between Israel and Syria. We had a chance to talk at some length about 
what is happening with regard to the Russian influence in Eastern 
Europe and particularly what is going on on the eastern border of 
Ukraine--the line of contact where I was a month ago, learning some of 
the challenges we now have with getting good intelligence with regard 
to what is happening in that part of the world. We talked about issues 
relating to North Korea and the recent return of the three hostages. I 
can just state, without going into detail, this woman knows the world. 
There would be no on-the-job training. She has been Deputy Director for 
18 months, but long before that she had a grasp of what is going on 
around the world. She knows the people around the world, and she knows 
her senior leadership team as well. She is a woman who is prepared to 
step forward at a time when we cannot afford mistakes, when we need to 
have somebody who has that experience.
  I would just say to the families we all represent, we are charged 
with voting up here, but ultimately we are charged with representing 
millions of Americans, each of us in our respective States. Think about 
their safety and think about whom you would want--whom you would want 
in that position. I would challenge my colleagues to think of somebody 
who is better qualified.
  I know there are some concerns that have been raised by some of my 
colleagues about actions that were taken by the CIA immediately after 
9/11. One, we have to put ourselves in that mindset after 9/11 and the 
great dangers we faced. Certain decisions were made that were 
considered absolutely legal. In fact, the congressional leadership, the 
so-called Big Eight, including the Intelligence Committee, Democrats 
and Republicans, were all read into it and knew what was going on and 
were approving of it. In fact, some would say that some Members of 
Congress even pushed the CIA to do even more in terms of interrogating 
people and getting more information to reveal thoughts that were being 
planned to save lives.
  I understand there is new thinking about that, and Gina Haspel 
herself

[[Page S2614]]

said in her testimony yesterday that she has evolved her thinking about 
that, but I would ask those same Members who were talking about what 
happened in the early 1990s to think about what is happening today and 
to wonder who could be more qualified.
  By the way, if she is not qualified, that means a number of other 
people, such as anybody in a senior leadership role at the CIA who 
happened to have been there at that time, would not be qualified, 
including John Brennan would not be qualified, who got a large 
bipartisan vote in this body to be the Director of the CIA, even though 
he was in a higher leadership role at that time at the CIA.
  So, again, I hope she will be confirmed. I think she will be 
confirmed, but I do hope that any colleagues who are wondering which 
way to go will think about where we are today. It is a dangerous and 
volatile world. We do need somebody who has that experience, knowledge, 
background, and wisdom that comes with years of experience borne of 
actual experience in the field. And to have this smart, decent, well-
qualified woman not be confirmed would be not just bad for the CIA but 
bad for our country and indeed bad for what all of us hope for, which 
is a more peaceful world and one where we do have the kind of 
intelligence we need to be able to keep that peace.
  Thank you, Mr. President.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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