The hysterical onslaught against Tulsi Gabbard, Donald Trump’s nominee for Director of National Intelligence, continues without letup. This week, 100 former U.S. diplomats, intelligence, military and national security officials, issued an open letter, directed to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and incoming Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), demanding closed-door hearings on Gabbard to examine her alleged “sympathy for dictators” naming Vladimir Putin and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Britain’s The Guardian reported on Dec. 5. EIRNS has not seen the letter, which is widely covered in media. The Punch Bowl’s Andrew Desiderio posted a photo of the letter on his X account.
The letter’s signers demand that the Senate “fully exercise its constitutional advice and consent role … including through appropriate vetting, hearings and regular order” to examine every facet of Gabbard’s public (and probably private) life, to review her qualifications to manage “the protection of our intelligence sources and methods.” It repeats the litany of accusations against her, as sympathizing with Russian President Putin, criticizing U.S. “regime change” wars, as in Syria, and charging that after Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, Gabbard had insinuated that “U.S. funded labs in Ukraine were developing biological weapons, and that Ukraine’s engagement with NATO threatened Russia’s sovereignty.”
