The US Senate confirmed Gina Haspel on Thursday to be the country's first female director of the CIA, despite her ties to the agency's past controversial interrogation program.
The confirmation comes a day after the Senate Intelligence Committee voted 10-5 in favor of Haspel to lead the agency.
The nomination came under fire for Haspel's past ties to the CIA's former rendition, detention and interrogation activities, carried out in the years following the Sept. 11 attacks, with the use of so-called enhanced interrogation techniques like waterboarding, now widely considered torture.