Summary
President Donald Trump's nominee to be CIA director said Wednesday that she does not believe torture works and she would not carry out any presidential order she thought was immoral.
Haspel said Wednesday she doesn't believe Trump would ask her to resume waterboarding and that CIA must undertake activities consistent with American values.
Haspel said that she agrees with others at the CIA who have said that valuable information was obtained during the debriefing of al-Qaeda detainees.
Haspel said the spy agency learned "tough lessons" from its use of harsh detention and interrogation tactics on terror suspects after 9/11 .
Committee chairman Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., who supports Haspel, stressed that said the hearing was not about the now-defunct CIA interrogation program, but about who should lead the agency in the future as it faces current threats to U.S. national security.
Haspel's critics outside Congress argue that anyone who willingly participated in one of the CIA's darkest chapters should not head the spy agency.
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