Battle Over Chas Freeman Heats Up
Okay, things are developing quickly in the battle over Chas Freeman — the Obama administration’s pick for the key post of National Intelligence Council chief — who is taking fire from the pro-Israel lobby and neocons over his foreign ties and criticism of Israel.
Two key new developments:
* I’ve just obtained a letter from two key members of the House — Dem Steve Israel and GOPer Mark Kirk — demanding that the Inspector General, who’s probing Freeman, deepen his investigation to look at Freeman’s work for a Chinese oil company that did business with countries that have at times been at odds with the U.S.
* Separately, I’m also told that Freeman is holding a meeting with a key GOP Senator tomorrow — Kit Bond, the ranking GOP member of the Intelligence Committee — that could help determine his fate.
The letter calling for a deepened probe centers on Eli Lake’s story today reporting that Freeman was on the international advisory board of the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, which is partly owned by the Chinese government and has invested in the Sudan and Iran.
“Ambassador Freeman’s service on the Board of Directors of a company owned by a foreign government seems to constitute an obvious conflict of interest — especially given his service to a company owned by the People’s Republic of China with significant investment in the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the letter from Reps Israel and Kirk says. They ask that the IG’s probe look at this question.
Meanwhile, Bond’s spokesperson, Shana Marchio, confirms to me that Freeman will meet with Bond tomorrow. A senior Republican aide says that the meeting signals that Bond is taking the criticism of Freeman seriously. If Bond comes out against Freeman that could take things to another level.
Meanwhile, Ben Smith reports that the IG’s probe has kicked into gear unusually fast. So this could get dicier and dicier.
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Update: It’s worth pointing out that we still haven’t heard much of a defense of Freeman from the White House yet, suggesting the possibility that they’re hanging Freeman out there. As noted below, the spokesperson for director of national intelligence Dennis Blair, who gave Freeman the post, says he did so without “White House approval.” Unclear where this is heading.
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We have a pick for NIC chief and now the storyline is that Obama really had nothing to do with the pick — just his administration?
Big stepdown from your previous position that Obama is to be highly praised for such a bold pick. Now it’s evidently a matter of damage control: the ‘administration’ is being blamed for the pick. Interesting. Typical.
I wondered how long it would it take before the “Israel first” supporters came out against Freeman. Heaven forbid if the U.S. actually acted as an honest broker on the Palestinian, Israel question. How would we feel if our homeland was being occupied by a foreign power and slowly and systematically settled by the foreign invaders? One person’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter. Bibi has no intention of allowing a 2-state solution unless America and our congress force him into it. Ron
Ron Shamion-Not that many would have a problem with Chas or the appointment, at least nothing that could derail it, if he had some beefs with Israeli policy.
The problem with Freeman is his truly epic work on behalf of the Wahhabist Saudi regime. It went way, way beyond some speeches skeptical of US policy into advocacy of a truly malevolent regime.
I have a problem with that. That you don’t, or apparently don’t care, is really unfortunate.
Mcgruder — that you could chastise Freeman for his truly “epic work on behalf of the Wahabist regime” while ignoring a) the invariable proximity Mr. Freeman’s ambassadorship with said regime necessitated and b) that nearly twenty years of American political royalty (namely Bush 41 and Bush 43) have literally been in bed with these same despots — see the Bush family’s nickname for “Prince Bandar Bush” displayed on his many personal visits to the Bush household — merely demonstrates your blind, zealous willingness to torpedo the State of Israel’s every critic. Shame on your hypocrisy: I notice you were totally silent re: Mr. Dennis Ross’ — i.e. soon to be special envoy to Iran — place on the formal payroll of numerous groups operating in America and FUNDED WHOLLY by Israel. Why am I not surprised about your oversight which, without a doubt, will result in far more damage to American credibility and national security that any of Mr. Freeman’s admittedly numerous tea-chats with the Sheikh??
DK, I’m not referencing his official body of work and the proximities that requires. Statecraft is an imperfect business and as a nation we need to have relations with some ugly sorts to make the world turn around.
Im talking about more than a decade of earnest flackery for the Saudi’s and their preposterous regime. The Bush family is assuredly too close to these bums, but there is a big, big difference. the Bush’s, especially 41, took advantage of Saudi credential guilding to make a few fast bucks as the head of some ill-considered private equity ventures.
When it came to a head, Bush 43 absolutely put the wood to Saudi interests, regardless of what dad, Uncle Jim Baker or even his buddy bandar wanted. He went to war against their client state Afghanistan and then fought to bring democracy to Iraq.
Im not arguing for Iraq mind you, not in the least. But if you think the Saudi’s A)wanted this war in the first palce, and B) are happy about a stable parliamentary system to their north, youre nuts.
Freeman, whether it was anti terror finance money movement laws, Afghanistan, Iran sanctions or Iraq, has taken a line that is wholly and utterly congruent with Riyadh.
As a veteran investigative reporter, I have no brief for the “box of frogs” mentality between Foggy Bottom and foreign funded businesses or think tanks, regardless of political affiliation.
I am baffled as to your Israeli hostility or your presumption of Israeli sympathies on my part. Your Jew fear is odd, frankly.
But here’s the thing: if you had to pick a nation to be utterly beholden to, Israel or Saudi Arabia, I’m not certain there is much of a choice there.
And that’s who Freeman has busted his *** flacking for: Saudi Arabia. A nation that has public beheading for religious crimes and lets girl’s schools burn to the ground.
The Choice between Israel and Saudi Arabia is a false choice. The US shouldn’t be taking sides at all. Saudi Arabia should be criticized for their record on Womens rights. But Americans lecturing another country on Capital Punishment is a joke. The US has capital punishment and has executed the mentally retarded and minors. And Israel should be criticized for their thievery of Palistinian lands from palistinian land owners in the west bank. Lastly, I don’t want my kids dying for Isreal. Anybody who does, should be able to get Israeli citiznship quite easily.
Well, we had a Vice President just a couple of months ago who headed a company doing business in with Iran.
lilybart-I was just thinking the same thing. Why in the hell was it OK for Dick Cheney’s company Halliburton to do business with Iran directly, but there is something wrong with this–not only that but Halliburton continued to get No bid contracts even after everyone knew. I think this is ridiculous.
My sense is that there is more skin in this game for those trying to tank this than for Freeman. I’m sure he very much wants to take up this post, knowing he has the confidence of the highest U.S. intelligence official, but he can quite plainly live without it. On the other hand, those who have previously displayed the power to tank these type of nomination have the perpetuation of that perception hanging in the balance. That’s what this is about. If it was not about that but really about the matters put forward in Freeman’s record, there would be just as much question being raised about Blair’s judgement as Freeman’s. But taking down the DNI would be a frontal assault on the Administration, and that would make an enemy of the Administration rather than simply demonstrating their clout, which is something they don’t want at this point.
I’m not American, so I’m not familiar with the role of the Inspector General. Would that be the same guy that checks on Israel supplying China with sensitive US military equipment?
I could be wrong, but I think the significance of the position is in making sure the president is fully and objectively informed rather than determining policy. This is a stark contrast with the previous administration where people were employed to make sure the president was fully misunderinformed. Freeman would be much more than a political loss for Obama, he has rare, relevant and valuable expertise on perhaps the most difficult areas for the US to navigate.
mcgruder | March 5th, 2009 at 07:46 pm
DK, I’m not referencing his official body of work and the proximities that requires. Statecraft is an imperfect business and as a nation we need to have relations with some ugly sorts to make the world turn around.
Im talking about more than a decade of earnest flackery for the Saudi’s and their preposterous regime. >>>>>
Is this a joke? What about the 65 year flackery of jews and jewish politicans and jewish Israeli lobbies for the whining midget nazis in Israel? How about Abrams,the convicted Iran Contra fop being in the WH? How about Ross and his Jewish Institute position? How about Hillary and Bill’s millions from Saudi for their library?
Give me the Saudis any day, they have oil and put money into the US. They haven’t sucked it out of America in aid to the tune of a trillion dollars over the past 60 years.
You aren’ fooling anyone bubba…Israel is a cancer and a parasite on the US, not a ally or an asset…and only someone with an agenda for Israel would be ignorant or pretend to be ignorant of that glaring fact.
When it comes to flacks and flacking the US for foreign interest,not our own…Israel and their US minons beat the Saudis 100 to one.
DK, Im going to let your post stand on its own, with no further comment, a museum piece of sorts.
Miles, I do not share your belief in his invaluable insights. I think he is a man who is quite comfortable with the saudi regime and their preposterous ways.
HJS, as an opponent of capital punishement, i stand baffled at your analogy. Look at the saudi system of beheadings for homosexuality and look at ours, where 90% of capital cases are pled out or have no death sentence assigned.
Id argue there is a difference.
mcgruder — The irony in your shameless casting of Israel’s critics as “jew fearers” — because lets face it, its either that or confronting your personal hypocrisy (and we both know you’re not man enough to do that) — is that I’m a proud American Jew, son of two Israelis who served their nation in three wars, and who nonetheless has enough humanity, decency, and, most importantly, sincere affection/concern for Israel and her future wellness to call a spade a spade. McCarthyites like you — who seek to silence and shame all those who challenge (what could once be merely labeled idiotic and now frankly appears to be) flatly kamikaze ideology you’re in the business of peddling — are precisely why the battle over Mr. Freeman’s appointment is so critical. Not because it signifies anything substantial in immediate national security terms. Surely, a fine, competent replacement can be found. But Freeman’s is the first of many tests that will reveal our young President’s willingness to speak truths painful and unpopular, heavily resisted by well-entrenched, suppressive interests such as you, in order to secure our Union and make this world a better place. Time will tell if Change has really come to America. What is presently beyond dispute, however, is that Mr. Freeman’s appointment *in and of itself* confirms that honesty and truth have managed to at least dent the edifice.
OH MY GOD!! you mean an individual that has failed the vetting process at AIPAC could actually lead an intelligence committee within “our” white house? GOD FORBID we should actually claim the legitimacy of the american people on behalf of those that we democratically elected to represent us without the prior approval of AIPAC and the rest of the “spies” who work on behalf of the zionists in israel. HOW ENTIRELY UNFAIR!
At least now we can confirm that mcgruder runs the show. Tragically, more of the same…and to think we allowed ourselves to believe otherwise…
I wonder how much air time this will get. Ofcourse it will be reported but the analysis will be entirely on whether Obama knew about this appointment and such. No real debate as to the motives of the fear and smear mongers.
HJS ;
“I don’t want my kids dying for Israel”
Did Israel asked the US to wage wars, or was it a US decision? Americans are being killed for Saudi, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon’ Somalia, Panama, Taiwan etc. No American had been killed because of Israel, nor Israel asked you for. Israel knows well how to fight hers wars. Keep Israel out of your inter-American problems!
Second’ Israel doesn’t thieving any other people’s land. The land of Israel is Israel’s land and not Arab’s land. The fact that sometime in history the Arabs occupied that land doesn’t mean that it is theirs land. Arabs have about one eights of the globe, so why they so enthusiastic to annihilate Israel from the map? The answer is “Islamo-fascism” that want the Islam to rule the world. So you can hide temporarily and blame Israel. But what comes afterwards?
The US interest is not laid on totalitarian entities !!!!
It is NOT Israel, it’s the future of America integrity and well function regime!
Sure the United States and Israel should have a normal relationship, one similar to US relations with other democracies, and lets not have the US pushing it’s nose into the Israeli – Palestinian problem as the US doesn’t push its nose into the Tibetaian crisis, for example.
Freeman not only has extremist views regarding the Middle East and China, but he has been beholden to lobby groups that are anxious to influence intelligent assessments regarding Saudi Arabia and China. Freeman bowed out when it became clear that his highly questionable financial ties to the Saudi and China lobby would be deeply probed by inspectors general, congressional staffers and the media. He couldn’t handle the truth about his financial ties to these lobbies which do not serve the interests of the United States. The heavy thumbs of the powerful Saudi and Chinese lobbies would have subtly, and perhaps invisibly, weighed on Freeman’s intelligence assessment.
The truth is that the Freeman appointment was bad for America, bad for peace in the Middle East, bad for human rights in China, bad for Tibet, bad for the environment, and bad for “policy-neutral intelligence.” Those who challenged it performed a patriotic duty. They should be praised for helping the Obama administration avoid a serious blunder that threatened to compromise the president’s ability to act in the interest of the United States on the basis of policy-neutral intelligence. All Americans owe them a debt of gratitude.
By strange coincidence, Freeman bowed out just as the Inspector General’s Office was about to probe his ties with the Saudis and Chinese. Nothing there? Yeah right!
The fact is Freeman was never vetted. The White House failed to vet him; and the mainstream media failed as well.
Instead, he was vetted for the American public by the blogosphere. They asked the hard questions; looked into his background; and created the debate where all viewpoints could be aired; and finally, at long last, our congress people took notice.
This may not be a victory for “Washington democracy” but its certainly a victory for grass roots democracy.
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