The Senate has been urged to carry non-public briefings on Tulsi Gabbard, Donald Trump’s nominee for director of nationwide intelligence, as a result of her alleged “sympathy for dictators like Vladimir Putin and Syrian chief Bashar al-Assad” and different points.
In an open letter addressed to the present Senate majority chief Chuck Schumer and incoming majority chief John Thune, almost 100 former US diplomats and nationwide safety and intelligence professionals lambasted Gabbard for her lack of intelligence expertise, conspiracy theories concerning Russia’s plan to invade Ukraine in 2022. They additionally focused her for “aligning herself with Russian and Syrian officers” after a “uncoordinated” assembly with Assad in Damascus in 2017.
Among those that signed the letter have been former nationwide safety adviser Anthony Lake, former deputy secretary of state Wendy Sherman, and former NATO deputy secretary basic Rose Gottemoeller.
If confirmed by the Senate, Gabbard will develop into Trump’s intelligence advisor and the primary Hindu Congresswoman to carry the place of head of the US espionage company. Earlier, Gabbard was a consultant from Hawaii within the US Congress.
The authorities urged the Senate to “totally train its constitutional recommendation and consent function” by conducting the mandatory hearings and due investigation.
It additional requested Senate committees to look at Gabbard’s credentials in non-public in a bid to safeguard intelligence procedures and sources.
Also Read: Who is Tulsi Gabbard? First Hindu Congresswoman appointed by Donald Trump as US intelligence director
What Tulsi Gabbard has to say?
Gabbard has denied these accusations, claiming they’re a smear marketing campaign and that her anti-interventionist stance on Syria and Ukraine has been misinterpreted.
“These unfounded assaults are from the identical geniuses who’ve blood on their fingers from many years of defective ‘intelligence’,” stated Alexa Henning, a Gabbard spokesman for the Trump marketing campaign.
Gabbard has portrayed herself as a staunch advocate of Israel and the “struggle on terror” whereas denouncing US conflicts with nations resembling Iran and Russia.
She additionally denounced Trump’s option to kill Iranian basic Qassem Suleimani as a “unlawful and unconstitutional act of struggle.”
In 2020, the US executed the influential Iranian navy chief, Major General Qassem Soleimani.
According to The Guardian, the letter additionally emphasised Gabbard’s on-line statements implying that US-funded amenities in Ukraine have been creating organic weapons and her vocal skepticism concerning Assad’s use of chemical weapons on civilians.