Letter Signed by ‘National Security Professionals’ Against Tulsi Gabbard Includes Unfounded Smears

A letter signed by nearly 100 “national security professionals” against Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence contains smears rather than facts, according to a closer review by Breitbart News.

The letter was published earlier this month by Foreign Policy 4 America, a left-of-center, Soros-funded organization founded in response to President-elect Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016, according to InfluenceWatch.org.

The letter, signed by a number of former Obama and Clinton administration officials and partisan retired military officers, claimed that following Gabbard’s trip to Syria in 2017, she “aligned” herself with Russian and Syrian officials.

It said, “She publicly cast doubt on U.S. intelligence reports and overwhelming public reporting that Assad carried out chemical weapons attacks against Syrian civilians, giving credence to the debunked conspiracy that the attack was staged by agents of the United Kingdom.”

Rather, after her trip to Syria, Gabbard did not say she did not believe Assad carried out the attacks. She said it was “irrelevant” what anyone believed, but that she wanted “evidence and facts.”

She said in an April 7, 2017, interview on CNN:

What I believe, what you believe or others believe, is irrelevant. What matters here is the evidence and the facts. If President Assad is found to be responsible after an independent investigation for these horrific chemical weapons attacks, I’ll be the first one to denounce him, to call him a war criminal and to call for his prosecution the International Criminal Court make sure that those consequences are there.

She added, “…all I’m saying is that we have an executive branch of government and a legislative branch of government, and we need to see the evidence. Congress and the American people need to see and analyze this evidence and then make a decision based on that, whether or not an authorization of U.S. military force is necessary, and what I’m telling you is that that hasn’t happened. I have not seen that independent investigation occur, and that proof presented showing exactly what happened. And there are a number of theories that are out there on exactly what occurred that day.”

The letter cites as an example of her casting doubt on whether Assad carried out the attacks was a statement on her website that did not absolve Assad, but rather, said, “There is evidence that both the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad as well as the armed opposition groups aligned against him have used chemical weapons (CW) during the Syrian war.”

RELATED: Tulsi Gabbard Blasts Biden: “He Has Betrayed Us All”

The letter also states that Gabbard “released a video insinuating that U.S.-funded labs in Ukraine were developing biological weapons and that Ukraine’s engagement with NATO posed a threat to Russian sovereignty, both arguments initially used by Russia to justify its illegal invasion of Ukraine.”

Gabbard in the video did not say U.S.-funded labs in Ukraine were developing biological weapons, she said, “According to the US government, these bio-labs are conducting research on the use of pathogens” — a statement that was supported by then-Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland.

Nuland told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in March 2022, “Ukraine has biological research facilities, which, in fact, we are now quite concerned…Russian forces may be seeking to gain control of. So we are working with the Ukrainians on how they can prevent any of those research materials from falling into the hands of Russian forces should they approach.”

In addition, a recent Wall Street Journal article admits that the U.S. was funding the bio-labs. It said: “U.S. funding of Ukrainian biological labs has focused on efforts to improve security and prevent the escape of pathogens.”

Furthermore, a March 20, 2022 Wall Street Journal article also confirmed that the U.S.-funded labs were working with “dangerous biological materials”:

On his first official visit abroad, the new senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, was taken to a facility in Ukraine where the U.S. helped scientists working with dangerous biological materials. But rather than produce biological weapons, U.S. officials in that ramshackle building were trying to prevent lethal pathogens from falling into the hands of terrorists.

The letter also states, “Her sympathy for dictators like Vladimir Putin and Assad raises questions about her judgment and fitness,” but fails to mention that Gabbard has called Assad a “brutal dictator”

Gabbard has also criticized Putin multiple times as well.

On April 3, 2022, she posted:

President Putin, not only is your brutal attack on Ukraine reprehensible, it has been a huge geopolitical error which has already cost Russia dearly. Those costs will get higher every day you remain in Ukraine. So it is in the best interest of the Russian people and the people of Ukraine, that you pull your forces out now. It is still not too late to salvage the kinship felt between the Russian and Ukrainian people, as expressed in this video clip from a Ukrainian soldier.

Gabbard later posted on X on February 25, 2022:

On a visit to Ukraine, I met a number of everyday Ukrainians who have become good friends over the years. Some are stuck in Kyiv, others trying to get to the Poland border. They’re scared & worried for their families. Please join me in praying for their safety and the safety of all Ukrainians. Please join me in calling on US, Russian, and Ukrainian leaders to SERIOUSLY negotiate an end to this war (not just political posturing); and call on Putin to end his crackdown on anti-war Russian protestors.

It also claimed that Gabbard would be the “least experienced Director of National Intelligence since the position was created.”

“Prior directors had executive branch experience working on intelligence matters or served on a congressional intelligence committee. Most have also had significant management experience,” it said.

However, as retired three-star Air Force General Dan Leaf recently pointed out in an op-ed, the current DNI, Avril Haines, had a background in physics and law, not intelligence.

Leaf wrote in the Washington Times: “Those who decry Ms. Gabbard’s qualifications for the role must think that the current director’s background — degrees in physics and law, an inside-the-Beltway existence since 2003 — outweigh Ms. Gabbard’s military service, including combat deployments and time on the House Armed Services Committee. Perhaps Director Avril Haines has a long list of accomplishments that Americans don’t know about.”

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