Pompeo Brings Little Experience to the Agency
The full U.S. Senate has confirmed Kansas Tea Party Republican U.S. Congressman Mike Pompeo to become the next Director of the CIA. Pompeo, like most of President Donald Trump‘s nominees, is not qualified to lead the nation’s top human intelligence gathering service. The vote is currently 66-33. 51 votes were needed.
Pompeo, who holds a law degree from Harvard, is just beginning his fourth term as a representative. He has served on the House Intelligence Committee and has supported torture, falsely claiming it “led directly to the capture of Osama bin Laden.”
Pompeo, like President Trump, is extremely anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant.
In November, The Guardian reported that as “a congressional candidate in 2010, Pompeo had to personally apologise for a tweet his campaign sent out promoting an article that called his opponent Raj Goyle, an Indian-American Democrat, a ‘turban topper’ who ‘could be a muslim, a hindy, a buddhist etc who knows.’ His campaign also put up billboard ads encouraging people in the area to ‘vote American.'”
But Slate notes, “Last year after a trip to the Middle East, Pompeo warned against conflating Muslims with extremists.”
“You don’t find many Thomas Jeffersons over there,†Pompeo said. “Once you accept that … the line needs to be drawn between those who are on the side of extremism and those who are fighting against them, of whatever faith we may find them.â€
“There are many Muslims of good will and despise this extremism as much as anyone of any other faith.â€
Rep. Pompeo also sat on the House Benghazi Committee, and has ruthlessly attacked former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. He even claimed Benghazi “is worse, in some ways” than Watergate.
The New York Times reports Pompeo “was often an unyielding critic of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — accusing her of orchestrating a wide-ranging cover-up of the Benghazi attacks.”
Pompeo, who has little intelligence experience, will replace President Barack Obama’s CIA director, John Brennan, who retired on January 20 rather than serve under President Trump.
Brennan, who was the Director of the CIA for the past four years, also served as Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism under Pres. Obama, and Acting Director of the National Counterterrorism Center under President George W. Bush. He is fluent in Arabic and is a 25-year veteran of the CIA.
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