London’s The Economist magazine published an article dated Jan. 15, which marshals the various arguments it recommends be used to stop the U.S. Senate from approving President Trump’s nomination of Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence. Gabbard is detested and feared by the British Establishment and intelligence community—and their Washington sidekicks—because she is an outsider whom Trump could use to take down significant portions of the intelligence community permanent bureaucracy that has run the U.S. for decades.
The Economist article first reports on Gabbard’s “controversial trip to Syria in 2017” and her meeting with President Bashar al-Assad, but suggests that focusing on that would be barking up the wrong tree. “According to interviews with participants and others familiar with the episode … (Gabbard) was serving as a conduit between Mr. Trump and Mr. Assad.… On Jan. 16th, four days before Mr Trump’s inauguration, Ms. Gabbard met Mr. Assad and asked if he would speak directly to Mr. Trump after the latter became President, according to one of the people familiar with her visit.”