US President Donald Trump has named Gina Haspel, a veteran CIA clandestine service officer who once ran a “black site” prison, deputy director of the spy agency.
Haspel’s selection on Thursday won applause inside the CIA and from many career intelligence officials as the first woman to reach the agency’s second-highest position.
However, Haspel was once in charge of a CIA prison in Thailand where two suspected al-Qaeda members were waterboarded.
Her promotion came amid reports that Trump is preparing an executive order to reopen the overseas “black site” prisons, where the CIA held terrorist suspects before former President Barack Obama closed them
Christopher Anders, the deputy director of the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union, said he was “gravely concerned” about CIA Director Mike Pompeo’s decision to pick Haspel as his deputy.
“Pompeo must explain to the American people how his promotion of someone allegedly…