Gabbard is facing difficult questions over Snowden, surveillance program

President Donald Trump’s election to Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, faced difficult questions on Thursday from several Republican senators at her confirmation hearing needs.

Republicans have a narrow majority of 9-8 in the Senate Intelligence Committee, which holds the consultation and has the first vote on Gabbard’s nomination. The questions from some of the Republican members raised the possibility that Gabbard may not secure their support.

With Democrats in the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is expected to oppose her, Gabbard needs the votes of any Republican on the panel to keep his way to affirmation alive. If the committee fails to support her, the full Senate could still vote on her confirmation, but it would require a majority of 60 votes-a politically unlikely scenario.

As a democratic member of Congress and commentator, Gabbard portrayed Snowden – a former government contractor who leaked a tremendous trove of classified information – as a “brave Weistleblower” and urged him to be pardoned. During the interrogation of both Republican and Democratic Senators during the hearing, Gabbard refused to say if she thinks Snowden is a traitor, but said she would not seek a pardon for him if it was confirmed for the top intelligence job.

Gabbard struck another tone on Snowden than before and said he “broke the law” and that he should not have leaked so much secret information.

When Senator Susan Collins, R-Maine, Gabbard asked if she would seek a pardon or a drug addiction for Snowden, Gabbard replied secrets and (I) would not take action to go in for any actions related to Snowden. ”

When Collins followed up to confirm that she would not seek a pardon for Snowden, Gabbard said it was correct.

Senator James Lankford, R-OK, asked Gabbard twice if she thought Snowden was a traitor, but she refused to answer directly.

“I’m focused on the future and how we can prevent something similar from happening again,” Gabbard said.

Snowden was a contractor for the National Security Agency in 2013 when he leaked a number of secret information revealing details of America’s global surveillance operations. Snowden, who fled the country and resident in Russia, has been indicted for espionage.

Gabbard also faced detailed questions from Republicans about her many years of resistance to an electronic surveillance program that allows us intelligence agencies to intercept without a guarantee of foreigners outside the country to collect intelligence.

The program, which is authorized under section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Act, also allows US authorities to search through the data, including information that is otherwise collected from Americans who are in communication with the foreign targets.

Gabbard had previously opposed the program as abuse of civil freedoms. But a few weeks ago, she moved her attitude and said that she now supported the surveillance powers because amendments adopted last year had taken her concerns.

Senator John Cornyn, R-Texas, pressed Gabbard about his views on the need for a justification to search for Americans who appear in collected monitoring data and what criteria are required to get a justification.

Gabbard sidested question.

“Senator, it’s not for me to say,” Gabbard replied, saying it was up to Congress to decide.

But Cornyn opposed it would be her job as DNI to oversee the program.

“It would be for you to decide and for the lawyer to weigh in,” Cornyn said.

Gabbard’s previous position in section 702 puts her in accordance with many progressive democrats in Congress as well as Libertarian-Minded Republicans, but contrary to the national security hawk that dominate the Senate Intelligence Committee. Kash Patel, the president’s election for the FBI director, has also been an obvious opponent of the surveillance program.

If confirmed by the Senate as Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Gabbard would oversee 18 espion agencies with a budget of more than $ 100 billion and have the last word about which intelligence is delivered to the president.

As a presidential candidate, a member of Congress and a commentator supporting Trump’s campaign, Gabbard has been accused of repeating propaganda spread by Russia and the former Assad regime in Syria, including interrogation of US intelligence assessments, which the Syrian government carried out several chemical weapons attacks On its own people.

Gabbard rejected criticism during the hearing that she has been with us opponents and said it was scandalous to question her loyalty to the United States considering her career in the army and in politics.

Gabbard has previously rejected allegations that she is in line with authoritarian leaders or undermines US interests.

She maintains that she comes under attack to question Washington’s national security institution and oppose US military “regime shifts” interventions, including the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Gabbard has come under intense criticism of her 2017 meeting with Syria’s then dictator Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, and comments she made afterwards, who seemed to embrace the regime’s portrayal of the country’s civil war. But Gabbard has said that she was just exploring ways to end the war and that any peace settlement would require dialogue with Syria’s government.

Her supporters also note that she has maintained a security preparation for years, a sign that she can trust classified information. A spokesman for the former legislature said Gabbard, a Colonel in Army Reserve, has an active secret security clearing of the top and has never violated the confidentiality rules of classified information.