Mouaz Moustafa, a former Democrat congressional aide and current lobbyist who long pushed for U.S.-led regime change in Syria, attempted to smear Tulsi Gabbard, nominee for Director of National Intelligence, in an interview with Politico published online Thursday.
Moustafa, executive director of the advocacy group Syrian Emergency Task Force, gave a heavily biased, one-sided rant against Gabbard in the interview, which Politico uncritically published in full, with only a Gabbard spokesperson pushing back.
Moustafa is an associate of former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) and worked closely with U.S. officials during the Obama administration on trying to foment a civil uprising against then-dictator Bashar al-Assad by a number of different Syrian groups, including a branch of al-Qaeda.
Moustafa threatened to stop giving information to the U.S. government about Syria if Gabbard…
