The CIA informed senators that it will allow them to review classified portions of nominee Gina Haspel's controversial 33-year career, all but one of it served in an undercover capacity, The Hill reports.
In a letter obtained by The Hill, the CIA told senators that it is "confident that the Committee and the full Senate can work with us on consideration of a nominee whose career was spent serving the country in classified operational assignments."
Haspel, tapped by President Donald Trump to replace Mike Pompeo as CIA director, is scheduled to have her confirmation hearing in May.
The CIA has been weighing the need to protect Haspel and its army of undercover operative while trying to placate intelligence committee Democrats who want as much as light to be shed on her career as possible.
"If the CIA were unable or unwilling to protect personnel's affiliation with the CIA and activities, not only would this benefit our nation's adversaries, future personnel may be less willing to accept dangerous job assignments, thereby significantly impairing the CIA's ability to conduct its clandestine intelligence mission," CIA congressional affairs head Jaime Cheshire wrote in the letter, The Hill reports.
Haspel ran a black site prison in 2002 where interrogations that veered into torture - namely, waterboarding - took place, a practice that has put her in the crosshairs of Democrats looking for a reason to block her confirmation.
Though "a large amount of information about the former [Rendition, Detention and Interrogation] Program has already been publicly acknowledged, CIA still protects information regarding personnel involved in the RDI Program as well as information about the operation and location of any overseas detention facilities," Cheshire wrote in the letter, The Hill reports.
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