If, as is increasingly expected, Joe Biden nominates former acting CIA Director Michael Morell to be permanent director of the Central Intelligence Agency, then he can expect an all-out war from the left and from many civil libertarians.
That is the consensus of opinion in the intelligence community. Morell, while generally liked for his criticism of President Donald Trump as a CNN commentator, is nonetheless considered a "no-go" for the left because of his past defense of Enhanced Interrogation Techniques, or EIT — which critics say is a euphemism for torture.
"No torture apologist can be confirmed as CIA director," Senate Intelligence Committee member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., told CNN in November. "It's a non-starter."
Christopher Whipple, author of the book “The Spymasters: How the CIA Directors Shape History and the Future,” agrees there could be a major confirmation battle if Morell is appointed.
“Morell’s views on EITs are nuanced,” he told Newsmax. “He has called waterboarding ‘torture’ but has defended other techniques that he says disrupted plots and saved lives. But those nuances do not impress his progressive critics.”
Morell, 62, is a 33-year veteran of the CIA and rose to become its deputy director under President Barack Obama in May 2010. In both July 2011, when then-Director Leon Panetta became defense secretary, and in November 2012, when then-Director David Petraeus resigned, Morell served as acting director until the president sent a nomination for a permanent replacement to the Senate.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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