WASHINGTON – The Center for Victims of Torture™ (CVT) released the following statement in response to today’s confirmation hearing of Gina Haspel for CIA director.

“Today’s hearing didn’t just fail to assuage our concerns about Ms. Haspel, it added new ones.

“Ms. Haspel’s repeated refusal to say that what the CIA did as part of its torture program was immoral is unconscionable.

“In a shocking new development, Ms. Haspel would not answer a pointed question about whether she pushed for the program to be continued or expanded in 2007, which was after the horrors at Abu Ghraib broke, after Congress thought it had put this issue to rest with the Detainee Treatment Act, and even after the justice department had stopped approving waterboarding.

“What’s more, Ms. Haspel provided no additional information about her role in torture, and would not agree to recuse herself from deciding what information about her own nomination gets made public.

“Under these circumstances, supporting her would fly in the face of meaningful commitments both to the prohibition on torture and to the Senate’s constitutional advice and consent responsibilities.” – Scott Roehm, CVT director of the Washington office

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The Center for Victims of Torture is a nonprofit organization headquartered in St. Paul, MN, with offices in Atlanta, GA, and Washington, D.C.; and healing initiatives in Africa and the Middle East.