John McCain is accused of posing with rebel kidnappers during his secret trip into Syria this week. The senator’s staff refutes the claims.
Buzzfeed reported:
Senator John McCain’s office is pushing back against reports that while visiting Syria this week he posed in a photo with rebels who kidnapped 11 Lebanese Shi’ite pilgrims.
The photo, released by McCain’s 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…
…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.
Of course, it should be noted that many of the “Lebanese Shia pilgrims” in Syria are in fact Hezbollah fighters.