Dan Nowicki

The Republic | azcentral.com

U.S. Sen. John McCain is one of the most vocal proponents of attacking the terrorist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, and has increased the urgency since last week's beheading murder of kidnapped journalist James Foley.

But McCain, R-Ariz., has come under fire from the left-leaning organization VoteVets.org for allegedly posing for a photo in 2013 with "ISIS fighters," a charge the group has been unable to back up and that McCain calls a fabrication.

The photo was taken during a surprise May 2013 trip McCain took to Syria to meet with rebel leaders in the civil war against President Bashar Assad's regime. Then and now, McCain is a passionate advocate for helping the moderate Free Syrian Army, which has been battling both Assad's forces and the extremists. In June, President Barack Obama's administration proposed a $500 million plan to arm and train the moderate Syrian opposition.

McCain's photo with the Syrian rebels misidentified as ISIS fighters has caught fire on social-media platforms such as Twitter. It was distributed in a VoteVets fundraising e-mail dated Tuesday, the same day that ISIS released a grisly video documenting Foley's murder.

"While he was there (in Syria), he paused for some photos — including some with ISIS militants," VoteVets chairman Jon Soltz, an Iraq War veteran, wrote in the e-mail that featured the photo. "Today, just over a year later, he wants to fight ISIS in Iraq — ostensibly against the weapons he wants to provide them in Syria."

McCain's camp pushed back hard, characterizing the VoteVets charge as a lie. The senator's office noted that not only has the Obama White House come around to the idea of arming the Free Syrian Army, but former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said in an interview that the U.S. failure to help establish "a credible fighting force ... left a big vacuum, which the jihadists have now filled."

And ISIS recently singled out McCain as "the enemy" and a "crusader" in a propaganda magazine.

"It is shameful that the liberal group VoteVets would completely fabricate this obviously false smear, but it just shows how far some of President Obama's defenders will go to attack anyone who criticizes his failed foreign policy," McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said.

In a meeting Thursday with The Arizona Republic's editorial board, McCain said a Hezbollah-controlled newspaper in Beirut was the first to make unfounded accusations about the men in the photo.

One of the men with McCain is Gen. Salim Idris, who at the time chief of staff of the Free Syrian Army's Supreme Military Council. He was removed from the post in February. Another is Mouaz Moustafa, executive director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, a Washington, D.C.-based group that encourages U.S. intervention on behalf of the moderate opposition and organized McCain's visit. A third man who had been disputed in the past has since been identified "as one of the brigade commanders for the Free Syrian Army," McCain said.

He was with the Northern Storm Brigade, a force affiliated with the Free Syrian Army that has battled ISIS, McCain's office clarified.

"It's foolishness," but the false charge "just bangs around the Internet," McCain said.

Asked by The Republic for documentation or a source for its claim that the McCain photo included ISIS militants, VoteVets could not provide any evidence, but did pass along an Aug. 18 Washington Post column by Souad Mekhennet that makes the point that some "factions" of the Free Syrian Army have joined ISIS. The column didn't relate to anyone in the McCain photo.

"For years, Senator McCain couldn't stop talking about the need to arm Syrian rebels, like the Free Syrian Army, which splintered with many ending up under ISIS," Soltz told The Republic in an e-mailed statement. "When we say he took photos with ISIS fighters, we mean that he took photos with representatives of forces that he supported, many of which later became ISIS. It's frightening to think what ISIS would be today, if John McCain had his way, and if we had sent even more weaponry their way."

A representative of the Syrian Emergency Task Force called attempts to link the men in the photo to ISIS "fairly ridiculous."

"None of those people worked for, or has since worked, ever, for ISIS," said Joel Bombardier, a program officer with the task force.

And suggestions that the Free Syrian Army has been co-opted by ISIS in a major way are "absolutely not accurate," he added.

"They actually are actively fighting ISIS in major cities," Bombardier said.

McCain is not backing off his belief that the United States needs to give the moderate opposition in Syria a big boost.

"The Free Syrian Army has taken a real beating, and they are in very desperate straits, particularly around Aleppo," McCain said Friday after an event at the Boeing Co.'s Mesa facility. "Now we have increased some, in the last couple months, some help to the Free Syrian Army, but they need a lot more. ... They need massive increases in assistance. They're being attacked by both Bashar Assad and by ISIS and it's an unfair fight."

Nowicki is The Republic's national political reporter. Follow him on Twitter at @dannowicki.