Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern was forcibly removed from Wednesday’s US Senate confirmation hearing for Gina Haspel, nominee for CIA director, RT reports.
The hearing was broadcast live on several major U.S. television news networks. McGovern and other anti-torture activists were present at the hearing, including a woman who was seen on live television shouting “Bloody Gina!” prior to McGovern being dragged out of the room by Capitol Police.
McGovern demanded that Haspel answer questions about waterboarding of terror suspects at a CIA “black site” in Thailand. Watch:
Read McGovern’s “Will a Torturer Become CIA Director?”, an article he penned for Consortium News prior to the Haspel hearing. On the morality of torture, he writes:
“[…] torture is intrinsically evil: always wrong. It is also against international and domestic law, of course. But torture is not wrong because it is illegal. It is the other way around. Torture is illegal because it is just flat wrong—always.”
McGovern also writes about former CIA Director John Brennan’s “checkered career” as an advocate for torture, and that Brennan is on record defending “extraordinary rendition,” secret prisons abroad and “enhanced interrogation techniques.”
‘Bloody Gina!’ Protest breaks out during #Haspel Senate hearings https://t.co/pqTvO90ADP pic.twitter.com/N5SjuQxErI
— RT (@RT_com) May 9, 2018
The nickname “Bloody Gina” was given to Haspel by her CIA colleagues, according to whistleblower John Kiriakou. If her confirmation goes through, that nickname is sure to stick.
McGovern was a guest on ‘Patrick Henningsen LIVE’ in 2016.
