Blame Hamas, again and again “Let's remember that the Hamas terrorist organisation has been inciting violence for years, long before the United States decided to move our embassy,” US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said last week. “This is what is endangering the people of Gaza. Make no mistake, Hamas is pleased with the results from yesterday.” These were Haley's words, the talking points on Tuesday 15 May at Security Council of the United Nations — words which simply echoed the same blame that White House senior adviser Jared Kushner mentioned in his speech from Israel earlier Monday, when he said the protesters were “part of the problem and not part of the solution”. “The responsibility for these tragic deaths rests squarely with Hamas,” he said. “Israel has the right to defend itself.” Similar words and blames were repeated from spokespersons of White House and State Department. At the White House daily press briefing, Principal Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah told the reporters that moving the US embassy is “a recognition of reality,” and added, “for decades we've walked on eggshells pretending Jerusalem isn't the capital of Israel, when it obviously is.” Shah described Palestinian protests as a “rather cynical exploitation of the situation” and also “a gruesome and unfortunate propaganda attempt.” And.... “we believe Hamas bears the responsibility,” he told the reporters. Fox News and other conservative media outlets that same day, 15 May, criticised The New York Times and liberal media because they “ignored Hamas angle” in their coverage of the “violence in Gaza,” and they were critical of “Israel's right to defend itself.” “Who among us would accept this type of activity on your border? No one would,” US Ambassador Nikki Haley told Security Council members as she defended Israel's response. “No country in this chamber would act with more restraint than Israel has. In fact, the records of several countries here today suggest they would be much less restrained.” Later Haley walked out of the chamber when the Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour, started to address the council. To whom it may concern: It seems that the talk about the so-called “ultimate deal” in the Middle East is now on hold, until further notice. The first woman to lead CIA The Senate last Thursday,17 May, confirmed Gina Haspel to lead the CIA. Senators voted 54-45 to confirm Haspel, making the 61-year-old Kentucky native the nation's first female CIA director, after having a 33-year career with the spy agency. Haspel's nomination, as described, “has been controversial;” there were many questions and “tough criticism” regarding her oversight in 2002 of a secret “black site” in Thailand, where — as it was reported — suspected terrorists were subjected to “enhanced interrogation,” “coercive interview,” waterboarding and other torture techniques — those techniques and practices that were later banned. Haspel was also questioned about her involvement in the destruction of 92 videotapes that showed prisoners being waterboarded. Waterboarding as a torture technique “simulates the experience of drowning”. “Ms Haspel's role in overseeing the use of torture by Americans is disturbing. Her refusal to acknowledge torture's immorality is disqualifying,” Senator John McCain (R-AZ) said in a statement. Vietnam War veteran and national hero McCain, along with other opponents to Haspel's nomination, argued that “her involvement in the torture programme should disqualify her from running the agency.” “Gina Haspel is the most qualified person the president could choose to lead the CIA and the most prepared nominee in the 70-year history of the agency,” said the Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC). “She has acted morally, ethically and legally, over a distinguished 30-year career and is the right person to lead the agency into an uncertain and challenging future.” “While I won't condemn those that made these hard calls, and I have noted the valuable intelligence collected, the programme ultimately did damage to our officers and our standing in the world,” Haspel wrote in a letter to Senator Mark Warner (D-VA). “With the benefit of hindsight and my experience as a senior agency leader, the enhanced interrogation programme is not one the CIA should have undertaken.” At her confirmation hearing, 8 May, Haspel promised the Senate Intelligence Committee that she would not restart the CIA's torture programme, even if pressured to do so by President Trump. The recently declassified CIA timeline of Haspel's long career shows she worked in the late 1980s and early 1990s in Africa and Europe. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Haspel became an intelligence-operations officer in Russia operations. Her language skills include Spanish, French, Turkish and Russian. In 2001, she was transferred to counterterrorism as the agency mounted a massive response to the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington.
