The Organization That Sent Tulsi Gabbard to Syria
The Ohio-based Arab-American group has been linked to the Assad regime and called anti-Semitic—charges its leader rejects.
The head of the group that organized and paid for Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard’s trip to Syria says he personally financed the trip in which the Hawaii Democrat met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, denied he had links to Assad or a controversial Syrian political party, and rejected news reports that said his group was anti-Semitic.
In an interview with , Bassam Khawam, a former executive director and current board member of the Arab American Community Center for Economic and Social Services (AACCESS-Ohio), said this wasn’t the first trip his Cleveland-based organization has coordinated for U.S. lawmakersto the Middle East. Founded in 1991 to serve the Arab-American community in Ohio, AACCESS has organized
