Just following orders? Or worse?

Having a Torturer Lead the C.I.A.

People who resigned rather than torture or supervise others doing the torturing are no longer with the CIA, but Trump could have reached out to one of them.

People whose careers meant more to them, people whose ethos required enforcing or carrying out policies they personally disagreed with, people whose only defense, now, is that they were just following orders and, worst of all, people who were personally committed to torturing, are still in the agency and now fill its upper levels.

Of course the Duce chose one of them to head up the agency.

President Trump has displayed enthusiasm for brutality over the past year. 

He has told the police to treat suspects roughly, praised President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines for murdering people suspected of drug ties and called for the execution of drug dealers.

But one of his most unsettling beliefs is still his acceptance of the value of torture. 

“In my opinion, it works,” he told Sean Hannity of Fox News early last year.

Previously, anyone alarmed by Mr. Trump’s cavalier embrace of government-sanctioned cruelty was reassured by his vow to accept the advice of his defense secretary, Jim Mattis, who opposes torture and promised at his Senate confirmation hearing that he would uphold American and international laws against it.

Now we have reason to be uneasy yet again.

. . . .

Few American officials were so directly involved in that frenzy of abuse, which began under President George W. Bush and was ended by President Barack Obama, as Gina Haspel.

On Tuesday, in announcing that he had dismissed Rex Tillerson as secretary of state and was replacing him with Mike Pompeo, the C.I.A. director, Mr. Trump said that Mr. Pompeo’s successor would be his deputy, Ms. Haspel.

On the other hand, bear in mind that Pompeo, Trump's first CIA boss, was himself an advocate of the use of torture - waterboarding and other "enhanced" or "harsh interrogation techniques" - back in the day.