Recently-announced Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s Middle East advisory group co-chair has raised concerns after details about his role in Lebanon’s brutal 15-year civil war have surfaced.

Walid Phares is a college professor, author, and prides himself as a counter-terrorism expert, but hidden beyond the pages of his resume are details about his role as a high-ranking political official in a sectarian religious militia that participated in massacres during the civil war, according to a recent report by Mother Jones. 

Phares, who is a Maronite Christian, reportedly trained Lebanese militants in separatist ideological beliefs in order to justify war against Muslim and Druze groups according to former colleagues. 

A photo collected by Mother Jones shows him at a press conference in 1986 for the Lebanese Forces, which served as a parent group for Christian militias accused of committing atrocities; the report also stated that he was a close adviser to Lebanese warlord Samir Geagea.  

He fled to the U.S. in 1990 and has reportedly been working with anti-Muslim conservative groups within the Republican Party. 

Paul Pillar, a 20-year CIA veteran, said he has never seen a possible presidential adviser from a comparable background.  

Phares has tried to downplay the involvement saying that he was only politically involved but was never a military official. But Mother Jones said he was a key player in the Lebanese Forces. According to military expert Andrew Exum, virtually all parties in the civil war were involved in some sort of massacre or atrocity, especially the Lebanese Forces, of which Phares was a key player. Israeli and Syrian powers intervened on behalf of their own factions, exacerbating the brutality of the war. 

He reportedly believed that Lebanese Christians were ethnically distinct from Arabs. (Which has since proven to be without scientific basis) and allegedly lectured militiamen, telling them they were part of a civilizational holy war. 

Phares at one point was appointed to the Forces’ executive committee. One U.S. former counter-terrorism official also told Mother Jones he’s part of the same anti-Islam movement as Pam Gellar. 

He also serves on the advisory board of the Clarion Fund, which has released a series of films stating that radical Islam is attempting to gain control of America. 

Phares was given an opportunity to respond to questions about his ties. A spokesman told them to submit written questions, which Mother Jones did, but responses or comments were not given.