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February 23, 2017

White House Tries to Shield Top CIA Official from Torture Testimony
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The Trump administration is seeking to shield a high-ranking
intelligence official from testifying over her role in torturing
prisoners at a secret CIA "black site." In a court filing, the Justice
Department says it will assert a state secrets privilege to shield CIA
Deputy Director Gina Haspel from being deposed in a civil trial against
psychologists James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen. The pair are being sued
for overseeing the torture of four men, one of whom died in CIA custody.
Haspel was reportedly present at a CIA black site in Thailand in 2002 as
interrogators carried out Mitchell and Jessen's program of
waterboarding, beatings, sleep deprivation, starvation and other forms
of torture. This month, the former acting director of the CIA confirmed
that in 2005 Haspel personally oversaw the destruction of videotapes
showing torture at the black site.


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