Pompeo Replacing Tillerson at State
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
The change was unceremoniously announced by Trump with Tillerson abroad.
On Tuesday, the president tweeted: “Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service!”
“Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all!”
More on her below, a disturbing choice, a hawkish Pompeo type with a gender difference.
Earlier articles explained Trump’s disagreements with Tillerson on the Iran nuclear deal, North Korea, deep State Department cutbacks, and other issues.
Hawkish administration generals run Trump’s geopolitical agenda, Tillerson out-of-the-loop on key decision-making.
His relationship with Trump soured long before today’s announcement. It came as no surprise – perhaps only surprising that it didn’t happen sooner.
It was likely a meeting of the minds. Trump wanted Tillerson replaced. He wanted out, preferring a graceful exit, not granted by the president.
Pompeo is the latest in a long line of rogue CIA directors. The agency’s diabolical agenda is incompatible with democratic values and rule of law principles.
It’s largely a global Mafia hit squad, its unchecked power threatening everyone. As long as the agency exists, no one anywhere is safe.
Pompeo is a neocon hawk, fully supporting Washington’s imperial agenda, its permanent war on humanity – beliefs incompatible with diplomacy.
Appointing him chief Trump administration diplomat is a giant step in the wrong direction.
He’s militantly anti-Russia, anti-Iran, anti-North Korea, anti-other sovereign independent governments, anti-world peace and stability.
He lied calling Iran “a very dangerous threat to the United States…the world’s largest state sponsor of terror (with) a significant foothold in Syria.”
He lied saying Russia is America’s “enemy,” its intervention in Syria (at the behest of its government) certainly…worse for the Syrian people.”
He lied claiming “America’s interests (involve) providing the conditions (for) a more stable Middle East.”
He lied calling Assad “a puppet of the Iranians…not a stabilizing influence in Syria.”
He lied calling Hezbollah an Iranian “proxy” force, pursuing an “expansionist” agenda with Tehran.
He lied claiming Russia isn’t combating ISIS in Syria. He lied saying Washington is “diligently working to defeat ISIS” it supports.
He lied calling North Korea an existential threat, saying it’s “a handful of months” away from being able to attack America with nuclear weapons.
He threatened Russia, saying “America has an obligation to push back against” Putin.
He’s a rogue actor, a disturbing choice as Trump’s chief diplomat. His undiplomatic record in Congress and at Langley should have automatically disqualified him.
Trump appointed Gina Haspel to replace him as new CIA director, currently serving as its deputy director.
She’s the first woman to head the agency, another disturbing choice, earlier running a Langley black site in Thailand, notorious for using torture during interrogations.
Post-9/11, she was involved in launching global black site torture prisons, along with the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program, abusing targeted individuals in secret global black sites.
Reportedly she was responsible for destroying incriminating videotapes, showing torture at the facility she ran along with others.
Like all CIA operatives involved in torture and other black activities, including top agency officials, she remains unaccountable for high crimes, rewarded instead of prosecuted.
Pompeo earlier said waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation methods don’t constitute torture. He called CIA operatives using them “patriots.”
In response to Haspel’s promotion to CIA director, ACLU legal director Jameel Jaffer called her “quite literally a war criminal.”
She’s a hawkish neocon like Pompeo, both officials cut from the same dirty cloth – fundamentally against policies just societies cherish.
Commenting on Pompeo replacing Tillerson at State, Russia’s upper house Federation Council committee on defense and security first deputy chairman Yevgeny Serebrennikov said Moscow will cooperate with Trump appointees, adding:
“We are pursuing a course of reducing tensions in relations between our countries, but our partners (sic) apparently do not share this aspiration.”
Pomeo and Haspel require Senate confirmation before assuming their new positions – expected to be rubber-stamp.
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