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		</div><p>The US Senate has approved the appointment of Donald Trump&#8217;s nominee Mike Pompeo to run the CIA, despite claims that he has been less than transparent about his positions on torture, surveillance and Russia&#8217;s election meddling.</p>
<p>Mr Pompeo, whose appointment was approved by 66 votes to 32, takes the helm of America&#8217;s top spy agency at a crucial time for US national security as intelligence, traditionally a non-partisan issue, has been thrust into the political arena.</p>
<p>President Trump has been critical of intelligence agencies after their assessment of Russian involvement to help him win the election, but has also has said he is fully behind them.</p>
<p>Senate Republicans hoped to vote on Mr Pompeo&#8217;s nomination on Friday, after Mr Trump&#8217;s inauguration, but Democrats succeeded in stalling action until they could hold a debate.</p>
<p>Senator Ron Wyden said Mr Pompeo was the &#8220;wrong man for the job&#8221;.</p>
<p>&#8220;He has endorsed extreme policies that would fundamentally erode liberties and freedoms of our people without making us safer,&#8221; the Oregon Democrat said.</p>
<p>He said Mr Pompeo&#8217;s answers to questions from some senators had been &#8220;vague&#8221; and &#8220;contradictory&#8221;, making it impossible to know what he believed.</p>
<p>&#8220;I see no real commitment to transparency and his views on the most fundamental analysis of the day &#8211; the involvement of Russia in our election &#8211; seemed to shift with those of the president,&#8221; Mr Wyden said.</p>
<p>In written responses to questions from the Senate on January 3, Mr Pompeo said only that intelligence agency assessments in general should be taken seriously.</p>
<p>After Mr Trump conceded Russia was behind the campaign hacks, Mr Pompeo told the Senate intelligence committee that particular assessment was &#8220;solid&#8221;.</p>
<p>&#8220;We need a CIA director who is direct about his beliefs and his assessments,&#8221; Mr Wyden said.</p>
<p>But Republican senator Richard Burr, chairman of the intelligence committee, said Democrats were playing politics in its efforts to delay and derail Mr Trump&#8217;s choice to run the CIA.</p>
<p>One of Mr Trump&#8217;s first stops as president was at the CIA&#8217;s headquarters in Northern Virginia on Saturday, where he made a speech that focused more on falsely accusing the media of lying about how many people attended his inauguration than on the role the CIA plays protecting the US.</p>
<p>Standing in front of a memorial for fallen CIA agents, he assured intelligence officials: &#8220;I am so behind you.&#8221;</p>
<p>He made no mention of his repeated criticism of the intelligence agencies following the election, including his public challenges of their high-confidence assessment that Russia meddled in the White House race to help him win.</p>
<p>In its final days, Barack Obama&#8217;s administration announced intelligence findings that Russia interfered with the 2016 presidential election with the goal of getting Mr Trump elected.</p>
<p>Mr Trump himself has denied most of the assessment, though eventually conceded Russia was behind the hacking of Democratic emails during the campaign.</p>
<p>Mr Pompeo, a conservative Republican from Kansas and a member of the House of Representatives intelligence committee, faced a mostly friendly confirmation hearing on January 12.</p>
<p>He enrolled as a teenager at the US Military Academy at West Point, New York, and graduated first in his class in 1986, serving in the army at a time when the Soviet Union was America&#8217;s number one adversary.</p>
<p>Later, at a swearing-in ceremony for Mr Pompeo, US vice president Mike Pence praised his &#8220;wealth of experience&#8221; and &#8220;character&#8221; and said he was &#8220;stepping up to lead the finest intelligence-gathering operation the world has ever seen&#8221;.</p>
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