Former CIA analyst dragged from Haspel hearing by Capitol Police after anti-torture protest

Former CIA analyst and anti-war activist Ray McGovern was forcibly removed from the US Senate hearing where Gina Haspel, President Donald Trump’s nominee for CIA director, was answering questions about her record on torture.

McGovern was dragged from the room by Capitol Police after demanding that Haspel answer questions put to her about the waterboarding of terror suspects at a CIA “black site” in Thailand.

As McGovern struggled, police repeatedly shouted at him to “stop resisting!” Due to the commotion in the room, it was unclear exactly what McGovern said to Haspel. He wrote an opinion piece headlined, “Will a Torturer Become CIA Director?” ahead of the nomination hearing, claiming that the torture is not only immoral, but fails to give the correct intelligence.  

Before the McGovern incident, Haspel was interrupted by another lone protester. A woman, wearing a red t-shirt and shouting “Bloody Gina!” and “you are a torturer!” was also removed by police.

“Bloody Gina” was the nickname given to Haspel by her CIA colleagues, according to whistleblower John Kiriakou, who also claimed that Haspel personally tortured people because she “enjoyed it”.

Haspel was grilled by the Senate Intelligence Committee on topics ranging from the CIA’s failure to declassify documents related to her history at the agency, to her willingness to blindly follow "immoral" orders and her role in the destruction of CIA tapes depicting harsh interrogation methods.

McGovern is a frequent guest on RT where he has talked about the CIA's history of lying to the American public.​