Gabbard’s trip to Syria tied to pro-Assad group
STAR-ADVERTISER
Tulsi Gabbard
One of the organizers of a recent trip that U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard took to Syria conceded Monday that he and his brother had been members of a group called the Syrian Social Nationalist Party — which, according to news reports, has backed the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and has links to terrorist activities — but said they were no longer a part of the organization.
The comments to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser from Bassam Khawam, who sponsored and accompanied Gabbard on the trip, along with his brother Elie, come after a series of news reports raising concerns about who orchestrated Gabbard’s trip, during which she met with Assad. The Syrian president has been accused of war crimes and human rights violations during a civil war that has left hundreds of thousands dead and displaced about half of the country’s residents.
The admission could be politically awkward for Gabbard, who has advocated for Assad to remain in power and the U.S. to withdraw support for rebel groups, arguing that the aid was only getting into the hands of terrorist groups opposing the regime. Gabbard’s commentary after her return from Syria raised speculation from some that she had been unduly influenced by pro-Assad forces during a trip that she described as a chance to hear from all sides of the conflict.
On Sunday the Washington Post ran an opinion column by Josh Rogin headlined, “How Tulsi Gabbard became Assad’s mouthpiece in Washington.”
In a news release last week upon her return from the Middle East, Gabbard described the Khawam brothers only as “longtime peace advocates.”
It’s not clear whether Gabbard was aware of the Khawams’ connections with the Syrian Social Nationalist Party.
Don't miss out on what's happening!
Stay in touch with breaking news, as it happens, conveniently in your email inbox. It's FREE!
Erika Tsuji, a spokeswoman for the congresswoman, said by email that Gabbard had “no prior knowledge or relationship with Elie and Bassam Khawam.” She said Gabbard had been invited by former Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich, who also went on the trip.
Stories published last week in The Guardian and The Daily Beast reported that the Khawam brothers belonged to the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, which has been providing support to the Assad regime.
The Daily Beast reported that, according to the SSNP’s website, Elie and Bassam are still active in the organization and are “two of the key U.S.-based point men for the party — and, by extension, the Syrian dictatorship.”
The news site described the party as an “anti-Semitic political party accused of using female suicide bombers; of beating up Western and Arab journalists; helping U.S.-designated terrorist organization Hezbollah and the U.S.-sanctioned Syrian regime wage war in the Levant.”
Khawam later told The Hill in a story published Saturday the reports were “total garbage,” and denied any association with the Syrian Social Nationalist Party.
“They’re going to be hearing from our lawyers about all of this,” he told The Hill.
But on Monday he admitted in a statement — forwarded to the Star- Advertiser by Kucinich — that he and his brother had indeed been part of the group.
“While my brother Elie and I were formerly members of SSNP, we are no longer active and do not hold any official positions with SSNP. The SSNP played no role whatsoever with this trip or any previous trips in any shape or form,” Khawam said in the statement. “My brother and I received no money whatsoever from any outside source or any contribution to this trip.”
Khawam said the trip was organized by his nonprofit, AACCESS-Ohio, which isn’t “associated with any political party that subscribes or is inspired by racist ideology.”
Khawam, who didn’t return a phone call left at his office earlier in the day, did not say in his statement when he and his brother broke ties with the group.
Kucinich defended the Khawam brothers, saying that he had known the two Ohio residents for decades.
“In the time that I’ve know them they have worked tirelessly for peace and understanding among the nations of the Middle East,” Kucinich said by email. “Each of these brothers is well respected in their communities, and in the many conversations I’ve had with them, they have never expressed any sentiments of prejudice towards any group. These are individuals who stand for and work for peace. The recent reports to paint them as fascists or racists bear no resemblance to these two good men. The smears on them are calculated as attempts to divert attention from the underlying truth that covert intervention in Syria has been an unmitigated disaster for the United States.”
Gabbard said the whole debate was just distracting from the more important issues surrounding the Syrian conflict and her bill called the Stop Arming Terrorists Act, which aims to cut off U.S. aid to Syrian rebel groups.
“Unfortunately, rather than debating whether or not the United States should be funding and arming militant groups who are allied with and working under the command of al- Qaida, my critics, including Mr. Rogin, resorted to tactics of name-calling, guilt by association, and slander,” she said in emailed comments.
78 responses to “Gabbard’s trip to Syria tied to pro-Assad group”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Politics makes for strange bedfellows.
This is the simple truth: Those who disagree with Tulsi on the issue are incapable of defeating her with superior arguments and evidence. Therefore, they resort to name calling, and nitpicking. This is exactly what this article is. You can’t defeat Tulsi’s argument that we need to stop arming terrorists—so you come up with a dinky, manini opinion piece like this—and you have the gall to present it in the news section, not the editorial page.
It’s the Washington Post, far from dinky.
No it was not the Washington Post, it was an opinion piece in the Washington Post by Josh Rogin, who has written several fact-free hit pieces on Tulsi on the WaPo opinion page. Besides, the Washington Post is well known for being against Tulsi and for Killary’s war to overthrow Assad.
Anyone who wishes to pass judgment on Tulsi’s visit to Syria needs to watch these short videos:
https://www.facebook.com/RepTulsiGabbard/videos/1250168668402978/
https://www.facebook.com/VoteTulsi/videos/1292634600792956/
Typical SA smear job. Just trying to find something to criticize Tulsi for. Why don’t you focus on the actual issues of importance?
What does this have to do with whether or not we should be directly or indirectly funding terrorists? What does this have to do with anything? This is another thing that SA has looked for that they can criticize Tulsi for. Does the Advertiser know that the paper factory that produced the paper that they print their slanted articles on may be run by a person who used to be a felon or who used to beat his wife? Tulsi cares about relieving the suffering that the Syrian people are undergoing because we are waging an illegal war to overthrow their government, and you are concerned about the political party of the pilot who flew the plane that Tulsi rode to go to Syria on.
What is so disturbing about this article is that the SA neglects to inform readers that the “rebels” that are being supported by United States, are in fact allies with and working under the command of al-Qaeda. The omission of facts from your article is evidence that the SA believes that the United States should continue supporting these militant groups who are raping Syrian children, torturing Syrian children and massacring Syrians of the wrong “faith” or for not supporting them.
Not only do you dishonestly leave out these facts, you falsely portray as factual the regurgitated opinions of two very anti-Gabbard bloggers (who pose as journalists). Irresponsible, reprehensible and unfair. Auwe!
exactly, There are a few reasons why this article is complete B.S. hit piece.
1. Their headline is a clever attempt to deceive readers into believing that Gabbard made some kind of “admission.”
2. They have dishonestly depicted as fact the opinions of biased opinions of two anti-Tulsi bloggers.
3. They have dishonestly portrayed facts as opinion, specifically the fact that U.S. taxpayer dollars are being used to support rebel groups who are allied with and work under the command of al-Qaeda. Here’s an article on the topic:
U.S. Support for Al Qaeda-Linked Rebels Undermines Syrian Ceasefire
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-hughes/us-support-for-al-qaeda-l_b_10089410.html
This SA reporter, Cocke, came from Civil Beat, which also looks for the negative not the positive when it comes to Gabbard. Tulsi is a little too independent for the SA and Civil Beat bigwigs, they want to take her down as does the Washington crowd.
SA was not smearing her. They were summarizing a national story about the trip. I think she has every right o investigate the circumstances of a complicated civil war most Americans do not understand. In the future, though, she needs to be careful about not being used by ex parte groups with a strong agenda. But then so do people used by pro-Israeli organizations and other organizations seeking to use Congressmen and women to get their interests addressed.
It’s completely a smear. The article does nothing to address the real issue at hand: the U.S. funding terrorists to take over Syria. The article is full of innuendo and guilt-by-association. Obviously the editors at Star Advertiser support ISIS and al-Qaeda in Syria and that’s why they are so against Tulsi’s trip.
So what if Elie and Bassam Khawam helped organizing her trip. That does not make her visit with Assad any less valuable. Better support Assad who had a better record than the rebels who are majority terrorists.
Unless you’re the Star Advertiser editorial team. They obviously think it’s better for Syrian children to be raped, tortured and killed by al-Qaeda and ISIS than for them to allowed to go to school and live their lives under Syrian president Assad.
Lol
I find it hard to sympathize with Assad, when he with the help of Putin has murdered 400,000 or more of his own people, and making 8,000,000 of his own people flee the country. Being invited by Assad to tour Syria, would be like having a US Congressman tour Nazi Germany
She was suckered by the left to screw up her career. Only Trump can save her now she needs to switch parties before it is too late.
No secret that she shares same views on Syria as the president.
Her career is not srewed up. People trying to make something out of nothing. Would have been way better for Congressmen to visit Saddam Hussein alter the first Iraq War and see for themselves if he truly restarted his chemical weapons program as Secretary of State Powell said he did, which turned out to be a LIE by George Tenet, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz. Gabbard’s visits to Syria and Assad has NOTHING to do with being a mouthpiece or agreeing with Assad and his regime. If American leaders such as those in Congress treat Assad and Syria like Sadam Hussein after the 1st Iraq war, history will more likely destined to repeat itself and Americans lives and asests could be wasted all over again when painting a B S narrative of Assad by the Obama administration including Hillary Clinton. Assad is no nice guy but neither is blindly supporting his opponents and the Demos demanding regime change such as in Libya and Iraq. The situation is way too complicated for American leaders like Gabbard to NOT visit places like Syria and its leader Assad. And what Gabbard did was potentially truly dangerous to herself because if Assad truly hated the US and was sympathetic to Al Qaeda or Isis, he could have indirectly arranged her kidnapping to Isis or execution but claimed ignorance on the matter by sacrificing some of his own people as cover. If that happened, the whole world, including all Americans would know Assad’s true nature. It tooks guts for Gabbard to do what she did and to help find out the TRUTH for the ever changing and complicated situation in the Middle East including Syria, you need to send ‘scouts’ out with high personal risk to probe.
PS: In the 1970’s it was Congressman Leo Ryan who from reports of Americans being held against their will in Guyana, took it upon himelf to go out to the Jonestown camp in the jungle of Guyana to see for himself if the reports were true. It was true and Jim Jones was so fanantical that he murdered Congressman Ryan and his small group and then went on to murder around 900 of his followers, including women and children. People have become so partisan that they are easily duped with fake news that come out from the party they are blindly loyal to. American military and elected leaders need to get more involved in the Middle East by actually getting out of their cozy, safe office in DC and do what Gabbard did, BEFORE Americans military forces are committed to fight in the Middle East or demanding ‘regime change’
I couldn’t agree with you more. The fake news about the situation in Syria and how people are like blind sheep listening to it without questioning is mind-boggling. That’s exactly why Tulsi went to Syria herself to see the situation firsthand. Yet the media is so screwed up that they try to criticize her for being thorough and conscientious rather than try to actually listen to her and learn from what she found out. Can you imagine any Star Advertiser reporters risking their lives to go to Syria? Meanwhile, as you pointed out, if our Congress members had taken the time and risk to go to Iraq, as Tulsi went to Syria, over 5,000 American service members would still be alive, 500,000 Iraqi children would not have been killed, and the U.S. could have spent over $1 trillion on healthcare, education, infrastructure and other valuable resources rather than wasting it all — only to have the hospitals and schools we built in Iraq blown up and our weapons, tanks, artillery, etc. all commandeered by ISIS.
Inverse, Pretty good summary of the events involving Ryan and Jones and the Jonestown massacre. Another historical footnote: this is the context from which the popular phrase “drink the Kool-Aid” actually derives. The residents of the compound partook of poisoned Kool-Aid.
Your right about her and what she did, she got my vote. Saw her here at the airport when they opened up the Nisei display at the inter island terminal, lots of mainland people recognized her and actually stopped to listen and caused a little bit of a blockage and I mean that in a positive way. When other speakers got up, crowd got smaller.
If elections were now Tulsi would win by a great landslide. She makes more sense than most politicians.
Yes of course, she’s the answer the people are looking for.
I have to laugh at all these comments. Most of you are the same people who are bashing Mr. Trump.
Now you know how it feels when people just report one side of the story.
I wish she would focus on our homeless problem, the Micronesian refugee problem, the cost-of-living problem. You know all the problems in her home state.
you 2 need to get off the koolaid….
I would like to hear her explanation of this revelation……
All this means is she can be easily duped by anyone dangling a perceived benefit for her political career. In other words, a real political lightweight trying to punch outside of her league. No brains or common sense. Just another pretty talking head.
Tulsi is at time naive and lacks real education, experience or savvy. Trump turned her down for a position in his administration because he saw that she might be a liability and a lightweight. That said, she does make a good point, made by many others, that the USA made a mess of Afghanistan and Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East. She is right that many of the warring groups against Assad sold their USA weapons to ISIL. It is indeed a mess.
Too bad she doesn’t worry more about Hawaii where she might do some good if she did. Her “educational tour” accomplished little and will not enhance her political career which she seems most concerned about. She is an opportunist like her father who dumped the Republican party to become a Democrat strictly for political expediency.
If Tulsi succeeds in convincing the neocon/neoliberal warhawks in Congress to stop spending trillions of dollars in the Middle East toppling secular dictators and instead invest that money to rebuild our nation here at home–then that would be a tremendous boon for Hawaii and our country because we can use that money to repair our roads, improve our infrastructure, invest in education, etc.
why you do that sista?
dumb move
auwe as wy hod!
So silly
Wish Tulsi would be MORE for Hawaii and less for Tulsi. That’s OK, soon she would be working for the Trump administration and hope we can replace her with someone who can take care our Hawaii needs.
Hear you, like the how to resolve the homeless issue instead of gallivanting all over her creations?
@ miz
hey hey hey stop throwing Tulsi(D) toward POTUS Trumps way! She belongs to HAWAII’s Democratic Party…period!
You want a porkbarrel shoveler like Daniel Innoye? That ilk is ruining the country with nothing in mind than grabbing pork instead politics.
How come the Star Advertiser hasn’t done an expose of the fact that we and our allies like Saudi Arabia and Turkey have been indirectly and directly helping al-Qaeda and ISIS in Syria? Tulsi is courageously putting her life on the line to expose the truth (a job YOU should be doing) and your response is to try to cut her down. Your disgusting effort to undermine Tulsi’s attempt to stop this illegal war makes you responsible for the suffering that this war has inflicted upon the Syrian people.
Opportunistic is not courage.
Check source of Khawam brothers income?
This is so disgusting. Maybe next she should go buddy up to the dictator in North Korea. Both have killed millions of their own people.
So I guess you prefer war? If the Nixon Administration hadn’t talked to the communist leaders of Vietnam, that war would still be going on. If our government had taken the calls of Gaddafi’s son when he was trying to negotiate peace, then the chaos, loss of life, and ISIS stronghold in Libya could have been prevented. If we had been willing to talk to Saddam Hussein, then we could have seen that he didnt have weapons of mass destruction and was actually our ally in fighting terrorism in the region–but instead we destroyed that country and killed thousands of people by toppling him.
The Syrian people are begging for peace. If people like you and the Star Advertiser would actually hear the message Tulsi brought back from the Syrians she met in Aleppo, opposition leaders, the mothers of children who were raped and killed by so-called moderate rebels, the children of parents who were shot down in front of them by so-called moderate rebels–you would understand that by arming the so-called militia groups who are working with and under al-Qaeda and ISIS to overthrow the Syrian government, we have fueled and prolonged this brutal war which has killed hundreds and thousands of people, created millions of refugees, and strengthened al-Qaeda and ISIS in the region.
The humane thing to do is to support Tulsi’s Stop Arming Terrorist Act. Without the weapons and money the US, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, other Gulf States, Turkey are giving directly and indirectly to terrorists trying to overthrow the government, the militant groups would gradual lose strength, the brutal war would end, and the Syrians can start to rebuild their country and work on government reforms. Without peace, they have no chance.
I stand with Tulsi for the Syrian people.
irt gccp you talk about “we”
what, tulsi got some menehune’s in her front pocket?
auwe as wy hod!
“We” referring to the United States, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, other Gulf States, Turkey who are arming and funding militant groups working with Al-Qaeda to topple the Syrian government.
GCCP, you get it. Now, dig a little deeper, and take a hard look at the origin of this Middle Eastern mess. Contemplate the willingness of the American people to take the government’s explanation for 9/11. Ask yourself how it was that Bldg 7, having experienced only minor fires on two floors, which the NYFD was prepared to extinguish, suddenly imploded into its own footprint. Remember the Bush administration’s exhortations to rally in the fight against Al Queda, which it claimed was responsible for the attack, with Iraq’s help. And reflect on where we have come, to the point that we, meaning all those countries you mentioned, are now actively arming ISIS, an even more radical version of Al Queda. Then ask yourself: who stands to benefit from the carnage?
What’s disgusting is that our own taxpayer dollars have been going to jihadi terrorists in Syria who are killing, raping and torturing innocent people there in the attempt overthrow Assad and establish an Islamic caliphate.
agree
She lucky she was able to leave there. Could have also been kidnapped or even killed. Syria is just not the place to be let alone visit.
Geez, Tulsi. You got played. Thought you were smarter than this.
Whatever made you think she was smart? She got in cause people can’t stand Mufi. Period.
Finally we are hearing the rest of the story. Dig deeper and maybe we’ll find more!!
Ms. Gabbard is catching flack because she’s trying to do something, much like President Trump. Whether you’re a Democrat, Republican, or Independent, you have to ask yourself, do you really want to stay on the same path as the last 8 years? Does leading from behind work? Do you want an international body deciding who should enter the U.S. and how much the U.S. should fund international projects. Notice how the long term Congressmen and Senators take little action to solve problems, but they’re ready to jump all over anyone who is against the status quo.
old hawaiian saying..
(in hawaiian)
“no put your finga in somebody elses poi bowl”
tulsi eat from your own poi bowl
auwe as wy hod!
Wish she and her corhorts in DC from Hawaii would spend more time championing Hawaii issues. Hawaii first, limelight second
Despite Tulsi Gabbard being one the most flagrant self promoters in Hawaiian history, I have to agree with her assessment. Sometimes, in parts of the world that do NOT respect life the way the USA does, the lesser of 2 evils is the answer. Assad let almost all faiths live together and Syria was peaceful. Yes, human rights were unheard of, but look at the former Yugoslavia. While Tito ruled, everyone got along. When he died, chaos broke out and you have, what, 7 different countries that tried to exterminate each other. Tito ruled with the Iron Fist as Assad does. SOMETIMES, THAT IS the best option. Look at Libya, as soon as Khadafy was eliminated a civil war broke out, in Iraq, when Saddam Hussein was overthrown ISIS was born. The USA has to learn it CANNOT solve all foreign problems that force has minimized !!
The expression on her face says it all, great pic for the article.
She had no clue? Amazing that she not know their backgrounds.
I already saw this article above. Stop repeating articles in the same edition.
The problem with this article is that it dishonestly implies that Tulsi Gabbard’s views were influenced by her visit to Syria, when in fact, her views obviously have not changed. She was against the illegal counterproductive war to overthrow the Syrian government for years, and she introduced her Stop Arming Terrorists bill long before she went to Syria. So Ms. Cocke, unless you show evidence that her views were changed, then your claim that she was influenced by some evil force in Syria is patently baseless and false.
I have a prediction. The next big “expose” by Sophie Cocke/SA will be a smear piece on Tulsi’s religion. I guarantee it. Anyone want to bet? They’re just waiting for the right opportunity.
Tulsi could prevent this, as well as get on the good side of the MSM by becoming a Muslim. No one would dare criticize her for her religion or anything if she did that.
This gal is exhausting to keep up with …..
This is a hit piece on Tulsi. People in the intelligence service and our Special Service, SEALS, etc all know that the Obama/Clinton/Kerry administration have been arming and training
the so called “moderate islamic rebels who were fighting against Assad. Unfortunately, the so called “moderate islamic rebels never existed and in reality were ISIS and other Islamic
affiliated groups whose goal was to overthrow Assad and establish their Islamic Caliphate so they could pursue their worldwide Jihad. The overthrow of Kadafi in Libya and Hussein
in Iraq, and Assad in Syria was all sponsored by the US both in terms of money, training and arming the islamic groups. The US consulate in Bengazi was involved in smuggling arms
to these groups.
Tulsi is the only one of our congressional delegation who has not drunk the Kool-aid and is telling you what the real reality is in the Middle East.
Tulsi is out for herself and doesn’t give a rip about Hawaii. She’s gone rogue just like the Donald! Politics has the same connotation as a reality show!
That’s patently false. But you’d never know it because the Star Ad never prints nice stories about the support Tulsi has for Hawaii. You’ll have to go to her websites and read the press releases about Hawaii, veterans, Native Hawaiians, etc. that they never use. it’s called using the media megaphone to tear down a good person, veteran, Congresswoman they can’t control.
That’s a real stretch.
“let’s keep the war over there as a civil sectarian war between Shia and Sunni factions to recover from the conflict coming here in the attack on the twin towers”. A senior CIA official.
when can we start talking about the real issue here? This article feels like an attempt to obscure the truth by attempting to smear and slander the messenger. The truth is that our government is arming terrorists. The money that we need here at home is being used towards unimaginable human suffering. I want to know how we are going to stop this. I believe Tulsi sees the big picture and her decisions and agenda as a Congress person and Army Major have always been about peace and prosperity. Ending these wars would accomplish that mission.
I think she means well but I really need her to focus on the issues plaguing our state. We have so much that needs fixing here. Focus on us please. Regardless of how much she may or may not have done already for us, our issues are still here and her running around the Mid-East is not helping us one bit. Focus! If she can’t do that, all I can do is not vote for her next time.
She seems smart enough but looks like she wants a higher position on the hill. Representing Hawaii doesn’t seem like a priority unfortunately. As for the trip, she needs to take responsibility … period.
Tulsi Gabbard + Bashar al-Assad = Donald Trump + Vladimir Putin.
Only Hawaii politician who I see doing anything. The others are focused on what a bad Hombre the President is or about global warming rather than doing anything about homelessness in Hawaii.
Gabbard just wants the publicity. She forgets that she is a very minor player on the world scene.
So….who is lying and who is telling the Truth?
the new jane fonda
The U.S. needs to get out of Syria and stop trying to overthrow foreign governments (i.e., Lybia, Iraq).
Tulsi should be careful not to let her ambition ruin a bright future in politics.