Published time: September 27, 2013 22:03
U.S. Sen. John McCain.(AFP Photo / Alex Wong)
The Washington scholar who was cited by US leaders calling for a military strike on Syria, only to lose her job for fabricating her academic credentials, has been hired by the office of US Senator John McCain, Foreign Policy magazine reports.
Elizabeth O’Bagy was formerly employed by the Institute for the
Study of War, where she quickly became a respected voice on the
ongoing conflict between Syrian President Bashar Assad and
opposition forces. McCain and US Secretary of State John Kerry
once read from an editorial O’Bagy wrote in the Wall Street
Journal when advocating for a military strike in front of
Congress.
O’Bagy was fired from the Washington, DC based think-tank shortly
thereafter, when it was revealed that she did not have a combined
masters/PhD from Georgetown University as she had claimed.
“Elizabeth is a talented researcher, and I have been very
impressed by her knowledge and analysis in multiple briefings
over the last year,” McCain told Foreign Policy in a statement. “I
look forward to her joining my office.”
The article McCain and Kerry referenced argued the US
should send arms to Syrian rebels, claiming that “contrary to
many media accounts, the war in Syria is not being waged
entirely, or even predominantly, by dangerous Islamists and
Al-Qaeda die-hards.”
Kerry said it was a “very interesting article” and that he
was impressed by O’Bagy’s “enormous” experience.
O’Bagy, 26, also spent time as the political director of the
Syrian Emergency Task Force, which she failed to disclose to the
Wall Street Journal before her opinion piece was published. The
Syrian Emergency Task Force is an advocacy group that lobbies on
behalf of Syrian rebels in Washington. The newspaper was later
criticized for what some journalists said was a delayed reaction
in disclosing that affiliation alongside O’Bagy’s column.
O’Bagy has said she was not employed by the group, only working
as a contractor, and was not affiliated with any lobbying
efforts. She later acknowledged facilitating a meeting
between the group and with commanders from the Free Syrian Army.
While she was fired from the Institute for the Study of War for
stretching her credentials, Kimberly Kagan, the group’s founder,
refused to discount any of O’Bagy’s work.
“Everything I’ve looked at is rock solid,” Kagan told
Politico at the time. “Every thread that we have pulled upon
has been verified by multiple sources.”
Copyright: RT