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Sunday, September 29, 2013 | RubinReports | By 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

(image grab from Foxnews Live)

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 O’Bagy also wrote articles portraying Syrian rebels as moderates.]

One was for a consulting firm, the Institute for the Study of War, that would get U.S. State Department dollars from an Obama Administration which wanted to give the money to those who portrayed the Syrian rebels as moderates.

The other was an advocacy group, the Syrian Emergency Task Force, a public relations firm for the Syrian rebels which also wanted to Syrian rebels portrayed as moderates to get U.S aid. By the way, the group is run by someone who also supports Hamas and is probably a Muslim Brotherhood front.

These were conflicts 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?

Not does anyone pay any price.

On the contrary, she is rewarded for being a serial liar and a friend of the Muslim Brotherhood (at your taxpayer expense) 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.

And here is an advisor to the DHS [Department of Homeland Security] — just promoted — who is proud to have the symbol for the Islamic Revolution, R4BIA, on his twitter profile. He’s also using his twitter profile to claim that any Christians slaughtered by Muslims probably had it coming because they must have insulted the Muslims first. Nice guy. He was personally appointed to his post at the DHS by Janet Napolitano.

Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His next book, “Nazis, Islamists and the Making of the Modern Middle East,” written with Wolfgang G. Schwanitz, will be published by Yale University Press in January 2014. His latest book is “Israel: An Introduction,” also published by Yale. Thirteen of his books can be read and downloaded for free at the website of the GLORIA Center including “The Arab States and the Palestine Conflict,” “The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East” and “The Truth About Syria.” His blog is Rubin Reports. His original articles are published at PJMedia.