Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) is calling on President-elect Joe Biden not to nominate torture defender Mike Morell as the head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

 

PDA is also calling on the U.S. Senate not to approve Biden’s nominee for the Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, a torture enabler.

 

We must insist that there are no torturers in the new administration, and that all U.S. policy—both foreign and domestic—reject war criminality and respect everyone’s fundamental human rights.

 

Morell, a CIA analyst under Bush and Deputy and Acting CIA Director under Obama, has defended the agency’s “enhanced interrogation” program, objecting to use of the word “torture” to characterize waterboarding, sleep deprivation, starvation diets, sexual humiliation, hypothermia, and painful bodily contortions. Morrell also falsely claimed that torture “worked” in foiling terrorist plots. In addition, Morell defended the CIA’s destruction of nearly 90 videotapes documenting brutal interrogations at CIA black site prisons.

 

As CIA Deputy Director from 2013-2014, Avril Haines overruled the CIA Inspector General in choosing not to punish agency personnel accused of hacking into Senate Intelligence Committee’s computers during their investigation on the CIA’s use of torture. She was also part of the team that suppressed evidence of CIA torture by redacting the Senate Intelligence Committee’s landmark torture report, reducing a 6,000-page document to 500 pages.

 

So, please write your Senators and let them know that there must be no torture apologists in the new administration.

 

Also, please donate to support PDA’s never-ending campaign in support of peace and human rights.