Senate confirms Gina Haspelin at the helm of CIA.

Haspel, who becomes the first female director of the CIA, is a 33-year-old veteran in this agency who after Mike Pompeos left served as chief in office.

After the senator vote, the result was 51 pro and 43 against its candidacy in the 100-member room, where the simple majority for approval sufficed.

Haspel was confirmed despite fierce controversy over its links with the harsh methods of questioning suspects, including “waterboarding”, a kind of stimulating drowning widely considered torture, in the early years following the September 11th attacks in the US.

An undiscovered officer during most of her career at the CIA, Haspel was sent to Thailand in 2002, where the agency developed brutal interrogation methods in a secret prison. Three years later, it drafted a cable, which ordered the destruction of videocassettes of these undesirable situations, follows the TCh.

She received confirmation despite the republican senator John McCain, who is missing in Washington all year after struggling with brain tumors, called on the Senate not to vote in its favour. Tortured himself while in Vietnam, McCain said her approval would send the wrong message.

But Haspel has had powerful support from President Donald Trump's administration, from many of the current and former secret service officials, as well as from many lawmakers, including Democrats.