Before retiring from CIA in February 2017, I held a farewell meeting with Gina Haspel in her seventh-floor office. Ms. Haspel had just begun serving as deputy director of CIA. We share a common background in Russian operations, and our careers intersected both overseas and on two occasions when Ms. Haspel was my direct supervisor at CIA headquarters: first, when she was the chief of staff to the deputy director of operations, for whom I served as executive assistant; and second, when I was chief of Middle East operations and she was deputy director of operations.
During our conversation, it was clear Ms. Haspel was setting course with a strategy for managing our people and mission so that we could deliver the best intelligence to our policymakers. She was particularly focused on countering Russia President Vladimir Putin’s nefarious espionage and influence operations, which were targeting our homeland and allies.
{mosads}I witnessed firsthand over the years how Ms. Haspel regularly demonstrated the integrity and intellectual honesty to brief senior leadership on what they needed to know, even when it was not always what they wanted to hear. With deep substantive expertise on Central Eurasia and counterintelligence, Ms. Haspel was uniquely positioned to be a trusted adviser on Russia to the Trump administration.
As we discussed enhancing the CIA’s intelligence collection and analysis on other high priority targets including terrorism, proliferation, Iran, China and North Korea, Ms. Haspel emphasized how important it is to ensure our officers have the best training in operational tradecraft, language skills and cross-cultural awareness.
Ms. Haspel has a deep understanding and commitment to the CIA workforce. When she was the associate deputy director of operations and I was chief of Middle East operations, we held a ceremony to recognize officers who had successfully executed a high-risk, sensitive operation involving the exfiltration of a high-value source from a combat zone. Ms. Haspel made a point of recognizing our officers with laudatory comments about their creativity, operational execution and dedication. She comfortably immersed herself in our core mission with a deep understanding of operations and appreciation of the intelligence officers who conduct them.
Having served multiple times as a senior leader in headquarters and the field, Ms. Haspel is adept at collaborating within the CIA and the intelligence community. She can disentangle the most complex challenges by rallying stakeholders in common cause. She fosters an inclusive environment by respecting different backgrounds and viewpoints and strives for the 360-degree optic, which best serves the mission.
Congress should have no trouble recognizing the key traits that make Ms. Haspel the right choice to lead the CIA: integrity, substantive expertise in the art of intelligence, leadership excellence and commitment to our mission and people. She earned tremendous respect and admiration from CIA and U.S. government colleagues, as well as senior foreign leaders.
Yet some in Congress question whether to confirm Ms. Haspel because of her leadership position some 15 years ago. Ms. Haspel did not conceive of the plan to create black sites, nor did she write the White House policy and judicial review by which the CIA was authorized to implement the program including “enhanced interrogation techniques” under House and Senate Intelligence Committee oversight.
There has been much debate over the years about the efficacy, morality and ethics of the CIA’s detainee program. But we should be careful not to equate its motives, means and results with the type of torture to which Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was so brutally subjected.
Instead, we would be better served by placing on hold any premature conclusions about Ms. Haspel’s views of the program, both when she was involved and today with more than a decade of hindsight.
Soon enough, we will hear from her directly during her confirmation hearing. Based on her exceptional qualifications to lead the CIA with the highest moral and ethical standards, I am entirely confident Ms. Haspel will leave no doubt that our country’s national security would be best served if she were confirmed as the CIA’s next director.
Daniel Hoffman is a former chief of station with the Central Intelligence Agency. His combined 30 years of government service included high-level overseas and domestic positions at the CIA.