More Trouble for Elizabeth O'Bagy and the Syrian Emergency Task Force

Fox News reports that Elizabeth O’Bagy, John Kerry’s Syria “expert,” vouched for a Syrian rebel group that posted blatantly anti-American imagery.

Elizabeth O’Bagy, a pro-Syrian opposition analyst whose credibility has come under fire, might have even more explaining to do – as court documents show she once vouched for a rebel group whose website displayed extremist and anti-American images.

Among the pictures was one showing a burning U.S. Capitol.

O’Bagy was fired earlier this week by the Institute for the Study of War for allegedly lying about her academic credentials. Her writings had been used by U.S. officials to bolster their case for military action against the Assad regime.

O’Bagy discussed the rebel group in question in a June 19, 2013 signed affidavit filed in the case of American Eric Harroun, who was indicted for fighting alongside the terror group al-Nusra in Syria.

O’Bagy’s signed declaration, which included a breakdown of rebel groups and their varying degrees of affiliation to Al Qaeda-linked terrorists, was used by Harroun’s defense to argue that the former Army medic had actually fought with a splinter group and not a terrorist one – a group tied to the one O’Bagy described.

In the document, O’Bagy said she had reviewed the apparent Facebook page for the Al Aqsa Islamic Brigades, and found no signs of jihadist leanings.

O’Bagy was fired by the Institute for the Study of War earlier this week for falsely claiming that she has obtained her Ph.D. She is still affiliated with the Syrian Emergency Task Force. At the beginning of this week, the SETF had four staffers in Washington including O’Bagy. Walid Shoebat says that SETF’s numbers are down to two. Without explanation, its communications director has been scrubbed from its web site.

The departed comms director is Cassie Chesley. She was still listed on the SETF’s website as of September 10, but is gone now.

Chesley’s unexplained departure follows the unexplained departure of Research Associate Ahmad Soliman, who has ties to the Islamist Society of North America and the Muslim Student Association, both Muslim Brotherhood fronts.