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Friday, 05/11/2018 9:28:12 AM

Friday, May 11, 2018 9:28:12 AM

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McCain May Be the ‘Conscience of the Senate.’ Is Anybody Listening?
By Sheryl Gay Stolberg
May 10, 2018

WASHINGTON — For more than three decades, Senator John McCain, who was brutally tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, has been a powerful and persuasive voice in Congress on matters of interrogation and the conduct of war.

But in the twilight of his career, as he battles brain cancer at his Arizona ranch, far from President Trump’s Washington, the potency of his moral suasion has faded as voices of ridicule in his own party rise.

Less than 24 hours after Mr. McCain, Republican of Arizona, released an agonized statement in which he said he could not support the confirmation of Gina Haspel to direct the C.I.A., his best friend in the Senate, Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, announced his support for Ms. Haspel, who once oversaw a C.I.A. secret prison where a terrorism suspect was tortured.

Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, who is also close to Mr. McCain and previously has sided with him on issues of torture, is also voting for Ms. Haspel.

Kelly Sadler, a White House aide, dismissed Mr. McCain’s views while speaking behind closed doors to congressional communications staff members, saying: “It doesn’t matter. He’s dying anyway.” On Fox Business, a commentator impugned Mr. McCain’s integrity, suggesting that torture had worked on “Songbird John,” a gasp-inducing slur that nonetheless changed none of the dynamics in the Senate. (The show’s host, Charles V. Payne, later apologized.)

“He’s the conscience of the Senate when it comes to this,” Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, said, wondering aloud how much sway Mr. McCain will have. “We’ll see how many people listen to the conscience.”

At least one Republican colleague of Mr. McCain, Senator Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, said bluntly that he would not. “Obviously not with me,” he declared, asked if Mr. McCain’s views on Ms. Haspel carry any weight. “McCain’s not always right and never has been.”

At her confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Ms. Haspel, a 33-year C.I.A. veteran who has been leading the agency as its acting director, vowed that she would not start another interrogation program like the one developed under former President George W. Bush after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Mr. McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has long maintained that the program, which involved brutal techniques like sleep deprivation and waterboarding, was both illegal and ineffective. Ms. Haspel’s testimony was apparently not enough for him.

“Ms. Haspel’s role in overseeing the use of torture by Americans is disturbing,” Mr. McCain wrote in a statement Wednesday night. “Her refusal to acknowledge torture’s immorality is disqualifying.”

With Mr. McCain absent from the Senate and unable to vote, and Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, opposing Ms. Haspel, Senate Republican leaders will most likely need at least one Democratic vote for Ms. Haspel’s confirmation, and Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, has said he will support her. But if Mr. McCain can persuade at least one additional Republican to oppose Ms. Haspel, the nominee could be doomed.

That, however, is a big if.

Senator Jeff Flake, Mr. McCain’s fellow Arizona Republican, said Thursday that he remained undecided about Ms. Haspel, though he said Mr. McCain’s views would have “considerable” weight.

“He’s the only one who’s been through this,” Mr. Flake said, adding, “I obviously share his views on torture, and I always have, so his views mean a lot.”

In a chamber where so much is determined along party lines, Mr. McCain appeared to find more support among Democrats than within his own party.

“People around here would be lying to you if they said that it didn’t weigh on them,” said Senator Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat facing a tough re-election fight this fall. “I can’t imagine anybody who has more authority on this subject than John McCain — in the whole country.”

Ms. Haspel, 61, oversaw a secret prison in Thailand in 2002 while a Qaeda suspect was waterboarded there, and is also under scrutiny for her conveyance of an order from her superior to destroy 92 videotapes documenting harsh interrogations.

While she told senators at her confirmation hearing this week that the C.I.A. should never resume the brutal interrogations, she maintained that officers should not be judged for their actions more than a decade ago.

“I’m not going to sit here, with the benefit of hindsight, and judge the very good people who made hard decisions, who were running the agency in very extraordinary circumstances,” she said.

Mr. McCain was instrumental in putting such interrogations to a halt. Teaming with Republican allies like Mr. Graham, Ms. Collins and Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, along with Democrats, he added the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 to a defense-spending bill over the objections of the Bush administration, demanding that the C.I.A. adhere to to Army’s interrogation procedures.

With that law in place, Mr. Graham said he could look beyond Ms. Haspel’s past: “Ms. Haspel has rejected the interrogation policies of the past. She is fully committed to following the law that prevents future abuses. This law, among others, includes the Detainee Treatment Act, which I helped author.”

By and large, Ms. Haspel’s backers in the Senate spoke gently of Mr. McCain.

“His words always have a powerful impact, particularly given his experience in Vietnam,” Ms. Collins said.

Mr. McCain, who has not been at work in the Senate since December, has been entertaining a steady stream of visitors at his ranch as he undergoes physical therapy for the debilitating side effects of his cancer treatment. Mr. Graham said he spent Monday and Tuesday with Mr. McCain, and pronounced himself “pleasantly surprised” at the Arizona senator’s condition.

They watched an old movie — “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,” a 1962 Western about a senator — together, and Mr. McCain kept up a running (and R-rated) commentary, Mr. Graham said. They also spoke briefly about Ms. Haspel, Mr. Graham said, adding, “He knew where I was going to be.”

Noting that Ms. Haspel said the torture program would not resume, Mr. Graham added: “I would say this about John McCain: He won. He won the debate. The new C.I.A. director agrees with him.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/10/us/politics/john-mccain-torture-gina-haspel.html?

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