YEREVAN, MAY 18, ARMENPRESS. The US Senate has confirmed Gina Haspel to be director of the CIA. Haspel was nominated by President Donald Trump and became the first woman to lead the American intelligence agency.

Haspel was approved despite harsh opposition over her links to the CIA's use of severe interrogation methods, including waterboarding, a method considered torture, in the years after the 9/11 attacks.

For most of her career in the CIA, Haspel was an undercover officer.

In the early 2000s she served as CIA station chief in Thailand where she was involved in controversial interrogations in a secret prison.

US President Donald Trump nominated Haspel, then deputy director, in March to succeed Mike Pompeo as CIA director. Haspel became acting director after Pompeo was confirmed as secretary of state.

ENGLISH: Editor/Translator - Stepan Kocharyan