Following the confirmation of Rep. Mike Pompeo to the head of the Central Intelligence Agency, Amnesty International USA executive director Margaret Huang released the following statement:
“Mike Pompeo’s confirmation is a clear sign that Congress has not done enough ‘extreme vetting’ of President Trump’s nominees’ views on human rights. While Pompeo sailed through his confirmation hearing, his written answers to the Senate contradict his earlier testimony and could lay the groundwork for the agency to return to torture and secret detention. Torture is a war crime and a grave human rights violation. Moving forward, Congress needs to aggressively scrutinize Pompeo’s CIA to ensure there is no backsliding into torture in the name of security.”