Tulsi Gabbard suffers from 'dictator sympathy', allege 100 US ex-officials

As many as 100 formerdiplomats, intelligence, and national security officials of the US have urged the Senate to hold a closed-door briefing on President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Director of Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. They have cited concerns over Gabbard's alleged "sympathy for dictators like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad", and her lack of experience in the field of intelligence.

The officials, in an open letter, alleged that Tulsi Gabbard's public sympathy for Putin and Assad "raises questions about her judgement and fitness", according to The Guardian.

Gabbard, in the Trump administration, will be serving as the first Hindu Congresswomen who will sit atop the US spy agency and will act as Trump's intelligence advisor. Gabbard is a former United States Representative from Hawaai.

In the open letter, which was addressed to current Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer under Joe Biden's administration and incoming majority leader John Thune, the officials criticised Gabbard for embracing conspiracy theories about the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, and "aligning herself with Russian and Syrian officials" after an "uncoordinated" meeting with Assad in Damascus in 2017, according to The Guardian.

Russia invaded Ukraine nearly three years ago, on February 24, 2022.

The letter was signed by notable figures such as former deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and former national security adviser Anthony Lake.

In the letter, the officials called on the Senate to "fully exercise its constitutional advice and consent role" through appropriate vetting and hearings.

It also urged Senate committees to review Gabbard’s qualifications in closed sessions to ensure the protection of intelligence sources and methods, reported The Guardian.

Gabbard has dismissed these allegations as a smear campaign, saying her anti-interventionist views on Syria and Ukraine have been misunderstood.

"These unfounded attacks are from the same geniuses who have blood on their hands from decades of faulty ‘intelligence’," said Alexa Henning, a spokesperson for Gabbard with the Trump team.

Gabbard has positioned herself as a strong supporter of Israel and the "war on terror" while criticising US rivalries with countries like Russia and Iran.

She had condemned Trump’s decision to assassinate Iranian general Qassem Suleimani as an "illegal and unconstitutional act of war".

Major General Qassem Soleimani, the powerful Iranian military commander killed in a US operation in 2020.

The letter also highlighted Gabbard’s public doubts about Assad’s use of chemical weapons against civilians and her online posts suggesting that US-funded labs in Ukraine were developing biological weapons, according to The Guardian.