Spencer Ackerman, at Daily Beast, wrote a profile of Avril Haines, who Joe Biden has now picked for nomination to the cabinet position of Director of National Intelligence.
Haines’ life up to age 30, when she entered government service, is rather atypical of national security officials.
Ackerman’s profile of her is, in my opinion, fair and informative. It lets readers come to their own conclusions about her suitability for the position.
This extract is from the introduction of the piece:
To activists, security experts, congressional aides who are more left than liberal—as well as mainstream human rights campaigners and at least one ex-senator—Haines’ elevation is worrisome or unacceptable. She approved an “accountability board” that spared CIA personnel reprisal for spying on the Senate’s torture investigators, and was part of the team that redacted their landmark report. After the administration ended, Haines supported Gina Haspel for CIA director, someone directly implicated in CIA torture, a decision that remains raw amongst progressive activists. Until late June, she consulted for the Trump-favorite data firm Palantir, which emerged from the CIA.
…
To Obama administration alumni who are more liberal than left, the antipathy for Haines is stunning. Haines was perhaps the leading voice inside the administration for restricting the drone campaign. She was “a voice of restraint on all counterterrorism issues,” said Harold Koh, the former State Department legal adviser. As deputy national security adviser, she was principally responsible for increasing refugee admissions against massive nativist headwinds. Haines, her old colleagues say, kept pressing to transfer detainees out of Guantanamo Bay when others conceded defeat.