15:06 GMT +307 December 2019

LIVE:Yellow Vests Demonstrators Gather for Rally in Paris - Video

President Donald Trump, accompanied by CIA Director-designate Rep. Michael Pompeo, left, waits to speak at the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley, Va., Saturday, Jan. 21, 2017

'Pro-Torture Picks': Human Rights Watch Slams Pompeo's Appointment

© AP Photo / Andrew Harnik

05:17 14.03.2018Get short URL

130

Subscribe

https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/images/106248/23/1062482332.jpg

Sputnik International

https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png

Sputnik

https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png

https://sputniknews.com/us/201803141062503761-usa-human-rights-watch-pompeo/

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The US Senate should block Mike Pompeo's nomination to be the next secretary of state and Gina Haspel's candidacy to become the CIA director due to their history of support of torture, the advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a press release

"Given their histories, the potential for Pompeo and Haspel to endorse abusive practices and lend support for their use abroad should convince the Senate to reject both nominations," the release said on Tuesday.

President Donald Trump announced earlier in the day he was replacing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with current CIA Director Mike Pompeo. Gina Haspel, a CIA deputy director, was tapped to take Pompeo's job.

A detainee from Afghanistan is led by military police with his hands chained at Camp X-Ray at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in this Feb. 2, 2002, file photo

© AP Photo / Lynne Sladky, File

'Terrible' Decision: Trump's Guantanamo Order Contradicts US Values - Lawyer

The advocacy group said Pompeo has not denounced the US government's use of interrogation techniques and mass surveillance. Therefore, the Human Rights Watch warned Pompeo's views would hurt the international community, if he was confirmed as secretary of state.

According to the New York Times, Haspel oversaw the interrogation of a detainee, Abu Zubaydah, who was waterboarded 83 times in a single month before interrogators concluded he had no useful information.

The Senate is set to hold confirmation hearings for both candidates in April.

Related:: Trump Ousts Tillerson as Sec of State, Will Replace Him With Pompeo

: CIA Would Put US Lives at Greater Risk if It Does Not Work With Russia - Pompeo

: N Korea 'Handful of Months' Away from Capability to Attack US - Pompeo

: Tillerson Out at State? Pompeo In?; Trans Visibility vs Trans Rights

: Activist: Expect War with Iran, North Korea if Pompeo Becomes Secretary of State

Tags:

Mike Pompeo, appointment, torture, critics, Human Rights Watch, Gina Haspel, United States

Community standardsDiscussion

Comment via FacebookComment via Sputnik

Сomment
Thank you! Your comment will be reviewed by the moderator for compliance with the Rules
Add more
Post limit reached. Please try again in a minute.
Your comment contains a link, so it can't be published on our site

Сomment

Community standards

The fact of registration and authorization of users on Sputnik websites via users’ account or accounts on social networks indicates acceptance of these rules.

Users are obliged abide by national and international laws. Users are obliged to speak respectfully to the other participants in the discussion, readers and individuals referenced in the posts.

The websites’ administration has the right to delete comments made in languages other than the language of the majority of the websites’ content.

In all language versions of the sputniknews.com websites any comments posted can be edited.

A user comment will be deleted if it:

does not correspond with the subject of the post;
promotes hatred and discrimination on racial, ethnic, sexual, religious or social basis or violates the rights of minorities;
violates the rights of minors, causing them harm in any form, including moral damage;
contains ideas of extremist nature or calls for other illegal activities;
contains insults, threats to other users, individuals or specific organizations, denigrates dignity or undermines business reputations;
contains insults or messages expressing disrespect to Sputnik;
violates privacy, distributes personal data of third parties without their consent or violates privacy of correspondence;
describes or references scenes of violence, cruelty to animals;
contains information about methods of suicide, incites to commit suicide;
pursues commercial objectives, contains improper advertising, unlawful political advertisement or links to other online resources containing such information;
promotes products or services of third parties without proper authorization;
contains offensive language or profanity and its derivatives, as well as hints of the use of lexical items falling within this definition;
contains spam, advertises spamming, mass mailing services and promotes get-rich-quick schemes;
promotes the use of narcotic / psychotropic substances, provides information on their production and use;
contains links to viruses and malicious software;
is part of an organized action involving large volumes of comments with identical or similar content ("flash mob");
“floods” the discussion thread with a large number of incoherent or irrelevant messages;
violates etiquette, exhibiting any form of aggressive, humiliating or abusive behavior ("trolling");
doesn’t follow standard rules of the English language, for example, is typed fully or mostly in capital letters or isn’t broken down into sentences.

The administration has the right to block a user’s access to the page or delete a user’s account without notice if the user is in violation of these rules or if behavior indicating said violation is detected.

Users can initiate the recovery of their account / unlock access by contacting the moderators at moderator@sputniknews.com

The letter must contain:

Subject - the restoration of account / unlock access
User ID
An explanation of the actions which were in violation of the rules above and resulted in the lock.

If the moderators deem it possible to restore the account / unlock access, it will be done.

In the case of repeated violations of the rules above resulting in a second block of a user’s account, access cannot be restored.

To contact the team of moderators, write to moderator@sputniknews.com