Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) just finished his five minutes of grandstanding, during which he scolded Gina Haspel about the technical process of digitizing video tapes from 15 years ago, arguing “it’s not that complicated.” If Heinrich were a Republican, liberals everywhere would be screaming: “Mansplaining!”
It’s worth noting that during that same period of time (2002-2005), while Haspel was on the front lines trying to keep our country safe, Mr. Heinrich was apparently breaking state law by failing to register as a lobbyist at his newly-formed “Heinrich Consulting” business.
People in glass houses…
VIDEO: Sen. Martin Heinrich Mansplains Gina Haspel: “It’s Not That Complicated”
SEN. HEINRICH: Let's move on to the videotapes. You told me earlier this week that you supported the decision of the CIA’s deputy director of operations to order the destruction of those videotapes depicting the use of EITs. Would you still support that order today?
HASPEL: Senator, I would not. I think it's -- as I said, it's very important that people learn. Experience is a good teacher and the piece that was missing from the tapes was making sure that we had all the stakeholders concurrence. There's also another very important leadership lesson and as director of CIA when your officers are concerned about their physical security you can't let it languish in your inbox for three years with no action.
SEN. HEINRICH: We should support that security. Why couldn't the agency have simply digitized that video and then blacked out the faces of any agents in those videos? Why actually destroy the videotapes? Doesn't that feel like a cover up even if it isn't?
HASPEL: Senator, I don't think we were worried about official release. This was at a time when the entire program was the subject of unauthorized leaks and someone was found guilty of those unauthorized leaks so the concern was an irresponsible leak of our officers' faces to the world, not an official release.
SEN. HEINRICH: No, I understand that, but if you would have blacked out the agents' faces, destroyed the videotapes and kept a digital record that would have addressed those security concerns.
HASPEL: Senator, I’m just not a technical person so --
SEN. HEINRICH: It's not that complicated.
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