O'Bagy Shows The Road to Success: Lie for Obama, Kerry, and McCain on Syria‏

Barry Rubin

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper. --T.S.  Eliot

 

For one who has made a career as an international political analyst this is the equivalent to the end of the world.

Elizabeth O’Bagy was a Georgetown University graduate student. She wrote an article for Atlantic Monthly saying that most Syrian rebels are radical Islamists.

Of course. Everyone knows that, even the Syrian rebels.

But then O’Bagy got two new jobs. One was for the public relations’ organization that promoted the Syrian rebels-- Institute for the Study of War--who did not want to be thought  of as radical Islamists since it would hurt their chances of getting U.S aid. By the way, the group is run by someone who also supports Hamas. Might it be a Muslim Brotherhood front?

The other was at a consulting firm that was taking the Syrian Emergency Task Force which gets U,S. State Department dollars from an Obama Administration which wanted to give the money so they paid only if they were portrayed as moderates.

This is a conflict of interest.

But wait. There’s more. She then wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal that said the Syrian rebels are moderates.

The Wall Street Journal knew about the conflict of interest but said nothing. Why? Because they supported the Syrian rebels.

Now O’Bagy is all over the television news. Truth isn’t important it is simply what policy people support.

And then she is taking Senator McCain on a visit to Syrian rebels, organized by a man who supports Hamas with two al-Qaida participants attending.

/then Secretary of State John Kerry says he depends on O’Bagy’s lying and corrupt statements. Well, after all he paid for them!

But a small group of people with memories expose the lies. By the way, while O’Bagy has presented herself as a PhD, she wasn’t even accepted for the PhD program!

So because she is exposed as a liar, she is fired.

But what about the lies she told?

Nothing.

What about the  State Department taking advice from a Hamas supporter?

Nothing.

What about U.S. policy being based on the lie that Syrian rebels are moderate?

Nothing.

What about U.S. policy being made by Kerry and McCain without confronting the lie?

Nothing.

What’s the new act in the saga of O’Bagy?

She is rewarded for being a serial liar and a friend of the Muslim Brotherhood by being hired in McCain’s office. The senator says she is a good researcher.

When the history of this era is written—maybe by crayon—this saga will be the perfect example to use.

 

Professor Barry Rubin, Director, Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center http://www.gloria-center.org

Forthcoming Book: Nazis, Islamists, and the Making of the Modern Middle East (Yale University Press)

The Rubin Report blog http://rubinreports.blogspot.com/
He is a featured columnist at PJM http://pajamasmedia.com/barryrubin/. 
Editor, Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal http://www.gloria-center.org

Editor Turkish Studies, http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ftur20#.UZs4pLUwdqU