Gail Helt

Last updated
Gail Helt
Occupation(s)Intelligence officer, university professor

Gail Helt is a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) analyst who publicly criticized the CIA's Gina Haspel (who was involved in the CIA's torture program) after Donald Trump picked Haspel to head the CIA in 2018. [1] [2]

Contents

A 2019 press report stated that Gina Haspel had been assigned to one of the CIA black sites at Guantanamo [3] and quoted Helt as saying there had been "a lot of shadiness" in the CIA's narrative about Gina Haspel's career, and that she (Helt) would find it "unsurprising" to learn that Haspel had been in charge at Guantanamo. Helt also said she had been told as late as 2013 that some of the controversial recordings of Abu Zubaydah's torture by the CIA had not been destroyed in 2005, as the CIA had maintained following their 2008 acknowledgment of having made the recordings.

Gail Helt became a CIA analyst in 2003. In 2014, Helt left the CIA and became director of the Security and Intelligence Studies Program at King University in Bristol, Tennessee, and the following year, she publicly opposed the decision of Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam to bar Syrian refugees from trying to settle in the state. [4] Helt argued that vetting the backgrounds of refugees was sufficient to protect against jihadist sleeper agents.

Following outgoing President Donald Trump's 2021 attempts to disrupt the smooth transfer of power to his democratically elected successor Joe Biden in the January 6 U.S. Capitol riot, Gail Helt stated that Trump's handling of the riot and protests reminded intelligence officials of similar attempts by dictators in failed states. [5]

Helt owns a painting made by a former Guantanamo captive [6] and has said the painting reminds her of our common humanity.

Education

Education [7] [8]
Bachelor of Science University of Nebraska at Kearney
Master of Arts Iowa State University
Incomplete PhD University of Arizona Helt was working on her PhD in 2003, when she joined the CIA

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Spencer Ackerman (2018-05-01). "Ex-CIA Official Says Some Torture Videotapes May Still Exist". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2018-05-01. But the now-retired analyst, Gail Helt, said she memorialized their conversation in a notebook she kept at the time, a copy of which The Daily Beast has seen. Haspel's nomination has compelled her to disclose what she heard, Helt said.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. ↑ Nafeesa Syeed (2018-04-19). "The CIA Is Getting a Private-Sector Makeover". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 2018-05-01. Ultimately, efficiency might not be the best match for intelligence work. There are built-in checks—whether in producing an analytical report or collecting information—that purposely slow down the process. "There are some places where efficiency should not be the goal," Gail Helt, a former CIA analyst who is now professor and director of the Security and Intelligence Studies program at King University in Bristol, Tenn. "There needs to be some higher level of accountability than just the chief of station or a case officer who is charged with getting information. That is an incredibly risky proposition," removing layers of oversight.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ↑ Carol Rosenberg (2019-01-08). "Did CIA Director Gina Haspel run a black site at Guantánamo?". McClatchy News Service. Retrieved 2019-10-11. An official CIA timeline of Haspel's 33-year career notes that the agency won't disclose 30 short-term, temporary duty assignments she held over the course of her career, suggesting they were covert. "Was one of those at Guantánamo for a couple of months?," said Helt. "I don't have personal knowledge of that, and couldn't discuss it if I did. But it doesn't surprise me."{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. ↑ Tiana Bohner (2015-11-16). "Reaction to Gov. Haslam's statement against Syrian refugees entering Tenn". WCYB TV. Retrieved 2018-05-01. Millions of people are considered refugees in their own country of Syria. After seeing this, a professor at King University has been raising funds to send overseas. Gail Helt also worked for the CIA for more than decade before joining King.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. ↑ Greg Miller (2020-06-02). "CIA veterans who monitored crackdowns abroad see troubling parallels in Trump's handling of protests". Washington Post . Retrieved 2020-06-03. ‘I've seen this kind of violence,’ said Gail Helt, a former CIA analyst responsible for tracking developments in China and Southeast Asia. ‘This is what autocrats do. This is what happens in countries before a collapse. It really does unnerve me.’{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. ↑ Carol Rosenberg (2018-12-21). "Did Pentagon ban on Guantánamo art create a market for it? See who owns prison art". McClatchy News Service . Retrieved 2019-10-11. ‘I find it inspiring that people in the worst moments of their lives, the darkest days, could still remember the beauty in this world and depict it in some way,’ said Gail Helt, a former CIA analyst who recently purchased a piece of art from freed Yemeni detainee Abdul Malik Wahab al Rahabi.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  7. ↑ "The Director". King University . Retrieved 2018-05-01. Her research interests include democratization, the decline of US influence around the world, and Asian politics. She has a MA in Political Science from Iowa State University, and completed 30 hours of PhD coursework at the University of Arizona before being recruited by the CIA.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. ↑ "Staff and Faculty" (PDF). King University . Retrieved 2018-05-01.

Attribution

The content of this article was first written in Citizendium.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abu Zubaydah</span> Saudi Arabian Guantanamo detainee

Abu Zubaydah is a Palestinian citizen born in Saudi Arabia currently held by the U.S. in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. He is held under the authority of Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists (AUMF).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Udon Thani</span> City municipality in Thailand

Udon Thani is a city in Isan, the capital of Udon Thani Province and the sixth largest city in Thailand. The city municipality had a population of 130,531 people as of 2019, while Udon Thani's urban area, Mueang Udon Thani, has a population of approximately 400,000. Udon Thani is one of four major cities in Isan, the others being Nakhon Ratchasima, Ubon Ratchathani, and Khon Kaen. Together they are known as the "big four of Isan".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Riduan Isamuddin</span> Indonesian Islamist militant imprisoned in the US (born 1964)

Riduan Isamuddin, also known by the nom de guerreHambali, is the former military leader of the Indonesian terrorist organization Jemaah Islamiyah (JI). He is currently in American custody at Guantanamo Bay detainment camp in Cuba. He is currently awaiting trial in a military commission.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mustafa al-Hawsawi</span> Saudi Arabian terrorist

Mustafa Ahmed Adam al-Hawsawi is a Saudi Arabian citizen. He is alleged to have acted as a key financial facilitator for the September 11 attacks in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri</span> Alleged al-Qaeda mastermind

Abd al-Rahim Hussein Muhammed Abdu al-Nashiri is a Saudi Arabian citizen alleged to be the mastermind of the bombing of USS Cole and other maritime attacks. He is alleged to have headed al-Qaeda operations in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf states prior to his capture in November 2002 by the CIA's Special Activities Division.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ray McGovern</span> US CIA officer turned political activist

Raymond McGovern is an American political activist and former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer. McGovern was a CIA analyst from 1963 to 1990, and in the 1980s chaired National Intelligence Estimates and participated in preparing the President's Daily Brief. He received the Intelligence Commendation Medal at his retirement, returning it in 2006 to protest the CIA's involvement in torture. McGovern's post-retirement work includes commenting for RT and Sputnik News, among other outlets, on intelligence and foreign policy issues. In 2003 he co-founded Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).

Extrajudicial prisoners of the United States, in the context of the early twenty-first century War on Terrorism, refers to foreign nationals the United States detains outside of the legal process required within United States legal jurisdiction. In this context, the U.S. government is maintaining torture centers, called black sites, operated by both known and secret intelligence agencies. Such black sites were later confirmed by reports from journalists, investigations, and from men who had been imprisoned and tortured there, and later released after being tortured until the CIA was comfortable they had done nothing wrong, and had nothing to hide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shawki Awad Balzuhair</span> Yemeni Guantanamo detainee

Shawki Awad Balzuhair is a citizen of Yemen, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Brennan (CIA officer)</span> Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2013 to 2017

John Owen Brennan is a former American intelligence officer who served as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from March 2013 to January 2017. He served as chief counterterrorism advisor to U.S. President Barack Obama, with the title Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, and Assistant to the President. Previously, he advised Obama on foreign policy and intelligence issues during the 2008 election campaign and presidential transition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abdu Ali al Haji Sharqawi</span> Yemeni alleged Al-Qaeda associate (born 1974)

Sharqawi Abdu Ali al-Hajj, also known as Riyadh the Facilitator, is a Yemeni alleged Al-Qaeda associate who is currently being held in the United States' Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. He is accused of being a 'senior al-Qaida facilitator who swore an oath of allegiance to and personally recruited bodyguards for Osama Bin Laden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lists of former Guantanamo Bay detainees alleged to have returned to terrorism</span>

Semiannually, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) publishes an unclassified "Summary of the Reengagement of Detainees Formerly Held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba". According to ODNI's most recent Reengagement Report, since 2009, when current rules and processes governing transfer of detainees out of Guantanamo were put in place, ODNI assess that 5.1% of detainees – 10 men total, 2 of whom are deceased – are more likely than not to have reengaged in terrorist activities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Kiriakou</span> American counter-terrorism consultant

John Chris Kiriakou is an American author, journalist and former intelligence officer. Kiriakou is a columnist with Reader Supported News and co-host of Political Misfits on Sputnik Radio.

Asadullah Jan is a citizen of Pakistan who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 47. Joint Task Force -- Guantanamo analysts estimated he was born in 1981. However, he has stated that he was only sixteen when he was captured in 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tolfiq Nassar Ahmed Al Bihani</span> Saudi Arabian Guantanamo Bay detainee

Tolfiq Nassar Ahmed Al Bihani is a citizen of Saudi Arabia held in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 893.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muhammad Rahim al Afghani</span> Afghan detainee in Guantanamo

Muhammad Rahim is an Afghan national who is held in captivity by the United States Government at Guantanamo Bay. He was born in eastern Afghanistan. Muhammad Rahim worked for an Afghan government committee that worked to eliminate opium poppies from the nation. He was forced to leave his job by the Taliban. In 1979, Rahim fled Afghanistan with his brother over the border of Pakistan. Their departure was triggered by the Soviet Union invasion into Afghanistan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Avril Haines</span> American lawyer (born 1969)

Avril Danica Haines is an American lawyer currently serving as the director of national intelligence in the Biden administration. She is the first woman to serve in this role. Haines previously was Deputy National Security Advisor and Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the Obama administration. Prior to her appointment to the CIA, she was Deputy Counsel to the President for National Security Affairs in the Office of White House Counsel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abdel Malik Ahmed Abdel Wahab Al Rahabi</span> Citizen of Yemen who was held in extrajudicial detention by the United States

Abdel Malik Ahmed Abdel Wahab Al Rahabi is a citizen of Yemen who was held in extrajudicial detention by the United States from December 2001 to June 22, 2016. He was one of the first twenty captives transferred to the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba, on January 11, 2002, and was held there until he was transferred to Montenegro, which granted him political asylum.

Fran Moore is an American former Central Intelligence Agency executive. Her positions at the agency included Director of Analysis from 2010 to 2014, Deputy Director of Intelligence, Deputy Director of Analytic Programs, Director and Deputy Director of Terrorism Analysis in the Counterterrorism Center, and Chief and Deputy Chief of Counterintelligence Analysis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gina Haspel</span> American intelligence officer (born 1956)

Gina Cheri Walker Haspel is an American intelligence officer who was the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from May 21, 2018, to January 20, 2021. She was the agency's deputy director from 2017 to 2018 under Mike Pompeo, and became acting director on April 26, 2018, after Pompeo became U.S. secretary of state. She was later nominated and confirmed to the role, making her the first woman to become CIA director on a permanent basis.

James Cotsana is a security consultant, and former official of the Central Intelligence Agency whose testimony has been sought over how the CIA authorized, and implemented the clandestine use of torture, in its network of secret interrogation sites, commonly known as "black sites".

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.