WaPo Positions Support for Torturer as Vote for Feminism (I am going to be ill. what BS)
"The brutality inherent in the business of building and maintaining the US empire isnt one we should be praising women, nor anyone else, for their role in."
WaPo Positions Support for Torturer as Vote for Feminism
"It should be the role of the media to draw attention to Haspeland the CIA at largefor their work perpetuating the country's long, bloody campaigns around the world, rather than cheerleading her as some kind of feminist hero."
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Central Intelligence Agency Deputy Director Gina Haspel is sworn in before the Senate Intelligence Committee during her confirmation hearing to become the next CIA director in the Hart Senate Office Building May 9, 2018 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
As the war over Gina Haspels nomination to lead the Central Intelligence Agency has waged on this week, weve been gifted an incredible batch of corporate media apologias for the CIAs decades-long legacy of torture, extrajudicial killings and civil liberties violations. Perhaps most remarkably, these outlets have spent hundreds of words arguing that Haspel should be confirmed as the next director of the CIAdespite having overseen a black site prison where detainees were brutally tortured, and directing the destruction of evidence of this illegal and inhumane practicebecause its the feminist thing to do.
This was the perfect line for the Trump administrations Haspel pusha notion informed both by the Republicans elementary understanding of identity politics and their obsession with calling out perceived liberal hypocrisy: After all, how could any self-respecting Democrat vote against a woman to usher the United States international spying apparatus into its next no doubt sinister phase?
White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders made this point plainly in a tweet last week, saying: Any Democrat who claims to support womens empowerment and our national security but opposes her nomination is a total hypocrite. One small step for Gina Haspel is one giant leap for little girls everywhere who dream of growing up to become government interrogators! Trump himself touted that, in addition to being the most qualified person for the job, Haspel is also a womana convenient data point for an administration thats handed a staggering 80 percent of its top jobs to men (most of them also very wealthy and white).
And, shamefully enough, members of the media fell right in line to push this abominable narrative, with two of the most egregious examples published by the Washington Post. On Tuesday, Post features writer Ian Shapira published a story (5/8/18) highlighting all the brave female spies whove fought for our freedoman honorable legacy that would count Haspel as its heir apparent, if only the Senate would confirm herunder the headline: Gina Haspel Isnt the CIAs First Woman to Face Sharp Skepticismor to Fight Back. The bulk of the piece is dedicated to highlighting characters like Virginia Hall, the legendary spy who evaded capture by the head of the Gestapo on just one leg, and the role of women like Jennifer Matthews, who led a team of operatives hunting Osama bin Laden before she was killed in Afghanistan along with six other CIA operatives.
The piece just once mentions the most weighty criticism of Haspelthat she ran a secret CIA black site prison in Thailand and was deeply involved in carrying out and covering up the agencys illegal torture program. Before Haspels arrival at the notorious black site, Abu Zubayah, a Saudi-born Palestinian citizen whos now considered a forever prisoner of Guantanamo Bay, was subjected to water torture 83 times. Under her direct supervision, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi-born Palestinian citizen, was also subjected to prolonged torture and brutal interrogation in Thailand.
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https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/05/12/wapo-positions-support-torturer-vote-feminism
InAbLuEsTaTe
(24,122 posts)malthaussen
(17,187 posts)... at least in the public sphere. Those who operate in public have become so used to manipulating symbols, that they have lost all cognizance of meaning.
-- Mal
niyad
(113,259 posts)Nitram
(22,791 posts)The problem with this statement is that this is only one article among dozens that the paper has published on Haspel. The vast majority have thoroughly reported and/or expressed the well-deserved criticism and misgivings many of us have about Haspel's nomination. The article addressed in this OP was only written to place Haspel in the context of the history of women working for the CIA, a very limited and focused perspective. Check out these articles if you believe the "WaPo Positions Support for Torturer as Vote for Feminism."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/gina-haspel-confirmed-as-cia-chief-despite-scrutiny-of-her-role-in-interrogation-program/2018/05/17/c1b47ec2-59f5-11e8-b656-a5f8c2a9295d_story.html?utm_term=.88a81478aabf
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2018/05/15/video-what-happened-to-the-tapes-gina-haspels-role-in-destroying-evidence-of-the-cias-torture-program/?utm_term=.05a3bf803311
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2018/05/11/gina-haspels-fitness-to-lead-the-cia-after-torture-as-lambasted-by-cartoons/?utm_term=.5f039c736351
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/haspel-wont-torture-again-but-would-she-stand-up-to-trump-on-the-next-test/2018/05/10/7b0abb8a-5496-11e8-a551-5b648abe29ef_story.html?utm_term=.c58749bc2b1e
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/gina-haspel-fails-the-test/2018/05/10/02cefde6-545c-11e8-9c91-7dab596e8252_story.html?utm_term=.3b48e3d5f2bc
https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/editorial/opinion--gina-haspel-you-lost-your-way/2018/05/10/5d1fc234-5462-11e8-a6d4-ca1d035642ce_video.html?utm_term=.eb49c8ca181c
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2018/05/10/daily-202-why-john-mccain-is-voting-against-gina-haspel-to-lead-the-cia-and-why-it-matters/5af36bb030fb04258879942c/?utm_term=.6a37692ee8c0
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2018/05/09/its-time-to-hold-the-cia-accountable-gina-haspels-hearing-is-the-best-place-to-start/?utm_term=.1eaa99d65eeb
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/whitehouse/the-latest-senate-to-vote-thursday-on-cia-nominee-haspel/2018/05/17/63e14b78-59fe-11e8-9889-07bcc1327f4b_story.html?utm_term=.ca6a848f28d8
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/confirming-gina-haspel-would-be-a-direct-endorsement-of-torture/2018/05/03/098b1c78-4994-11e8-8b5a-3b1697adcc2a_story.html?utm_term=.7d6d57e4fae1
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2018/05/11/cia-director-nominee-haspel-and-destruction-of-interrogation-tapes-contradictions-and-questions/?utm_term=.740840d1c010
niyad
(113,259 posts)Hortensis
(58,785 posts)"fake news"-level hit on the WaPo. I take the WaPo and knew immediately this was dishonest spin.
MediaBiasFactCheck rates Commondreams with far left bias and a clearly misleading "high" for factual reporting. (Note that a medium's leaving out all facts that don't support the theme being pushed does not count against a factual accuracy rating.)
I give Commondreams an F for this article for attempting to deceive and betray their readers' trust. No passes should ever be given for using headlines to deceive. Rather, we should apply a multiplier factor to all headline deceptions since most people don't read further. And don't dishonest media know and use it.