McCain Wasn’t Posing With Rebel Kidnapper, Spokesman Says

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Buzzfeed: WASHINGTON Senator John McCains office is pushing back against reports that while visiting Syria this week he posed in a photo with rebels who kidnapped 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims.

The photo, released by McCains office, shows McCain with a group of rebels. Among them are two men identified in the Lebanese press as Mohamed Nour and Abu Ibrahim, two of the kidnappers of the group from Lebanon.

A McCain spokesman said that no one who met with McCain identified themselves by either of those names.

In coordination with the Syrian Emergency Task Force, Senator John McCain traveled to and from Syria with General Salim Idris, the chief of staff of the Supreme Military Council of the Syrian opposition, to meet with two senior Free Syrian Army commanders, said McCain spokesman Brian Rogers on Wednesday in an email to BuzzFeed. None of the individuals the senator planned to meet with was named Mohamad Nour or Abu Ibrahim. A number of other Syrian commanders joined the meeting, but none of them identified himself as Mohamad Nour or Abu Ibrahim.

As the Syrian Emergency Task Force has said: Senator McCain did not go to Syria to meet with anyone named Mohamad Nour or Abu Ibrahim. Two members of our organization were present in the meeting, and no one called himself by either name.

Rogers said that if the man in the photo turns out to actually be Mohamed Nour, that is regrettable.

A number of the Syrians who greeted Senator McCain upon his arrival in Syria asked to take pictures with him, and as always, the Senator complied, Rogers said. If the individual photographed with Senator McCain is in fact Mohamed Nour, that is regrettable. But it would be ludicrous to suggest that the senator in any way condones the kidnapping of Lebanese Shia pilgrims or has any communication with those responsible. Senator McCain condemns such heinous actions in the strongest possible terms, Rogers said.

________

 

Photo-op fail.

[Pepper]

Morons in Arizona elected him and others have to pay the consequences.

[Valin]

"John's McCain's a great American, a terrible senator, a lousy Republican"

Hugh Hewitt

[Valin]

McCain: Regrettable if photo was taken with Syrian rebel kidnappers

Jeremy Herb

05/30/13 03:59 PM ET

 

A spokesman for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Thursday that it would be "regrettable" if the lawmaker had posed for a photograph with Syrian rebels involved in kidnapping Lebanese Shiite pilgrims.

The spokesman cautioned, however, that no one had identified themselves by the alleged kidnappers' names during McCain's meetings with opposition forces in Syria over the weekend.

 

(Snip)

 

A number of the Syrians who greeted Senator McCain upon his arrival in Syria asked to take pictures with him, and as always, the Senator complied. If the individual photographed with Senator McCain is in fact Mohamed Nour, that is regrettable.

[clearvision]

Quite a regrettable statement. They did not identify themselves as being "bad" rebels.

[SrWoodchuck]

He's lucky that he wasn't given a room for a few years in a Hanoi Damascus Hilton.....