So now you know where Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard was instead of attending the presidential inauguration (on a secret “fact-finding” mission to Syria), but you really still don’t know why.

Different media sources – locally, nationally and internationally – have characterized Gabbard as a “stooge,” “selfish” and “Assad’s mouthpiece” for pandering to Bashar Assad, Syria’s dictator, who one day will be enshrined in a dark corner of humanity’s Hall of Shame.

In case you missed it, our representative from Hawaii hung out with this tyrant and returned to spout his assertions, including Bizarro World rhetoric that Americans support terrorist groups that commit war crimes and also shouldn’t be a policeman and stand in the way of other countries, such as Russia (while they are committing war crimes). In other words, she argued, it’s really not our responsibility or job to intervene when these mass atrocities are taking place in the world.

Assad’s depravity includes such lowlights as: more than 400,000 people dead (the United Nations has given up counting), more than 10 million people fleeing their homes in fear (with about half of those escaping the country, creating a “refugee crisis”) and industrial-scale torture and killings of his enemies, including children of all ages.

This guy and his regime are so insanely evil that the minions take quick pics of their victims for posterity (even the Nazis didn’t do that), and Assad “double taps” when he attacks civilians, bombing them once, then waiting for medical personnel to arrive before bombing them again, slaughtering doctors and nurses. His mantra: “Kneel or starve.”

To put it more poetically, Stephen O’Brien, the United Nations under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, described Syria last month as “a slaughterhouse, a complete meltdown of humanity, the apex of horror.”

America’s response? Let’s sneak in Super Gabby!

She’ll meet with Assad and win over his heart, with, as she described it to CNN’s Jake Tapper, “love and aloha.” Assad will realize what a terrible person he has been. He will say he is sorry. He will put down his weapons, welcome back his countrymen, atone for his behavior, and, as Gabbard envisioned, “the Syrian people will determine his outcome.”

Maybe she can book a flight to Moscow next and transform Vladimir Putin?

Those expressing civil unrest today in the United States, including at the Women’s March last month, should reflect carefully on the crackdown by Assad’s regime in response to a peaceful protest that started the country’s odious civil war. In turn, Gabbard’s perspective on this Assad situation seems so gullible that I’m skeptical anyone but an anonymous shill would back her on this one.

With anonymous comments allowed on Civil Beat, though, we see such esteemed sources as “Dog” writing: “This is the neocons and neoliberals (basically the warmongers) joining up to oppose a true hero. Gabbard is one of the most courageous members of congress this country has seen in many years.” Or, “R808″’s characterization: “Tulsi is the only sane person trying to stop this insanity.” Or, a commenter labeled “Winner” claiming: “Tulsi Gabbard is heroic.”

While I appreciate Gabbard’s general philosophies of rejecting counter-productive regime-change wars and the ridiculous idea that we can support enemies of enemies, who actually are our enemies, too (without them eventually turning the guns back on us), readers please help me in identifying any specific acts of heroism and courage here. And why, again, did she appoint herself to this diplomatic mission? Who gave her this responsibility and put her on this job?

As part of the perks, she was given an all-expenses paid trip to a propaganda-filled movie set, like getting a guided tour of North Korea.

Gabbard, the first active U.S. lawmaker to meet with Assad since the war atrocities began about five years ago, only started having second thoughts about this trip when she began attracting negative publicity around the globe. Before that, though, she seemed really eager to spin her involvement as a selfless act of seeking peace. When journalists started asking tough questions, though, Gabbard clammed up and began issuing press releases, including this defensive line: “Contrary to baseless claims in the media, (Gabbard) is beholden to no one in the (Syrian) region.”

Why would anyone think such a thing? Maybe because Gabbard has been evasive about who sponsored and controlled her agenda on the trip.

Gabbard can appease such concerns by just being completely open about what happened on it. What does she have to hide? Reader “Ted Baker” raised some of the basic questions that Gabbard should answer with complete transparency: “What facts did she find? Who paid for her trip? Who decided her itinerary?”

If this was a fact-finding mission, then Gabbard should share those facts with us. She represents us and represented the U.S. on this trip (even if it was not a part of her official business duties).

Picking through her comments on her blog, her op-ed in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and comment to other journalists, though, the “facts” – or maybe these should be called “alternative facts” – seemed limited to unverifiable or questionable claims about an unnamed boy who was tortured because he refused to help “the rebels,” an unnamed girl who was raped by “rebel groups” and assertions that all of the American-backed rebels actually are terrorists (part of al-Qaida/al-Nusra or the Islamic State group). Oh, and everywhere she went, the people were just gaga over Assad. (They love him, deeply, which must be why he was reelected by such a high margin, with nearly 90 percent voter approval).

I have been unable to find documentation of any interviews or fact-finding missions by Gabbard with the “rebels” and any equivalent tours of Assad’s opposition.

Who paid for her trip? People posing as “peace advocates” for a shady Ohio-based organization that by all appearances is defunct, except for funding this. Did she really not look into who was hosting her (and her husband, Abraham Williams)?

Under public pressure, Gabbard since has decided to pay back “all” of the costs of the trip with her own money. But she also will not disclose those costs.

Is she going to cover just airfare, meals and lodging? What about her “tour guides,” the interpreters, the security detail needed to keep her safe, etc.? This might get pretty costly.

Gabbard should provide a full accounting of what she received during the trip, including any “gifts,” and then explain exactly what she is paying/giving back (and what she is not) and why.

Gabbard, who serves on the U.S. House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs and Armed Services committees, said she would meet with anyone “if there is a possibility we can achieve peace.” But meeting with a wacko war criminal doesn’t influence them, it legitimizes and normalizes them. Does Assad really seem like a person who holds any desire whatsoever for peace, other than when his subservients grovel and kneel before him?

Gabbard’s characterization about the “chance” meeting with Assad seems highly improbable, too. Does she really believe it was happenstance? That’s a mind-boggling proposition, that this congresswoman might just happen to run across Assad, like crossing paths in the fruit section of the local grocery store.

If that vision seems fishy to you, what’s really going on here? No matter how Gabbard tries to frame it, she certainly looks like a Syrian “stooge,” mouthing Assad’s rhetoric to the American public. Another Hanoi Jane or Dennis Rodman in Pyongyang.

The only way to salvage this trip now is to become a model of full transparency and openness to her constituents.

Tell us how Kucinich connected with you and talked you into going; did he not mention Assad might be available?

Address the full costs. Address the lack of balance to your “fact finding.”

In other words, acknowledge this trip for what it appears to be: an illusory junket financed by a despot eager to influence Americans and finish off his enemies.