Gabbard under Fire for Just Asking: Prove Al-Assad Used Chemical Weapons

Local Editor

Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard provoked a backlash from senior Democrats after refusing to take Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's complicity in the Idlib chemical attack at face value and demanding proof.

Speaking live on CNN in the aftermath of the US missile strike against the Syrian airfield near Homs, Gabbard said she remained skeptical of the allegations, and reminded the host of the destructive invasions in Libya and Iraq, the latter based on a false intelligence pretext.

The Democratic representative from Hawaii also called out US President Donald Trump for the reckless and unconstitutional attack.

The remarks infuriated some "progressive" Democratic figures, including former Democratic National Committee [DNC] chair Howard Dean and former Hillary Clinton policy director Neera Tanden, now the President of the Center for American Progress, a pro-Democratic Party think tank.

The two suggested on Twitter that Gabbard, who also famously visited Syria for a covert fact-finding mission, should be expelled from Congress for her doubt of "al-Assad's guilt."

In an interview to the channel which aired on Saturday, Gabbard refused to be convinced by the undisclosed evidence that Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson have cited when justifying the launch of 59 Tomahawk missiles against a Syrian airbase.

Despite being repeatedly pressed by CNN's Wolf Blitzer to unconditionally accept the so far unrevealed intelligence, Gabbard retorted: "Last time I checked, Wolf, the Congress has the authority and responsibility for declaring war, for authorizing use of military force."

"Whether the President or the Pentagon or the Secretary of State say they have the evidence the fact remains that they have not brought that evidence before Congress, they have not brought that evidence before the American people and have not sought authorization from Congress to launch this military attack on another country," Gabbard said.

She went on to argue that the US has been waging an illegal proxy war aimed at toppling the Syrian government "for years," which has only resulted in the "suffering of the Syrian people, hundreds of thousands of people dead, millions of refugees and the strengthening of terrorist groups in Syria like Al-Qaeda and ISIS [Daesh/ISIL]."

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team