Gail Helt
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]
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
[edit]| 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
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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.
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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.
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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."
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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.
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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.’
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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.
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"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.
- ^ "Staff and Faculty" (PDF). King University. Retrieved 2018-05-01.