Half Dozen Republican Senators To Blast Obama Intel Pick Over Israel Views
Okay, Senate Republicans are officially ratcheting up their war against Chas Freeman, who is taking heavy fire from the pro-Israel lobby and the neocons as Obama’s pick to head the National Intelligence Council.
I’ve just obtained a letter that half dozen Republican Senators will fire off later today to Dennis Blair — the Director of National Intelligence and the person who appointed Freeman — protesting the choice of Freeman for the NIC post. The letter complains about Freeman’s relative lack of experience and views on China and Israel.
Freeman’s gig is key because he is responsible for preparing some of the intel community’s most sensitive assessments.
The letter — a draft of which was sent to me by a Republican aide — represents a significant escalation of the war on Freeman. A group of House Republicans, along with two Dems, has already called for a probe of Freeman, on the grounds that he’s allegedly anti-Israel and has questionable ties to Saudi Arabia and China.
In the letter, the Senators — Tom Coburn, Kit Bond, Saxby Chambliss, Richard Burr, Orrin Hatch and James Risch — profess themselves “surprised” by the Freeman pick, and complain that Freeman lacks the “years of intelligence analysis experience” that predecessors have brought to the post.
“Also concerning — in light of the need for any NIC Chairman to have unquestioned objectivity and an ability to convey the Intelligence Community’s judgments in a measured and non-provocative manner — are Mr. Freeman’s highly controversial statements about China and Israel,” the Senators continue.
The Senators add that Freeman’s views could cloud his ability to “clearly and accurately convey the views of the Intelligence Community” in the national intelligence estimates he prepares.
“At a time when the analytic community is continuing to struggle with reforming itself and when U.S. leaders, from the President to Members of Congress, have called for a depoliticization of intelligence, we believe this appointment sends the wrong message,” the Senators conclude in the draft, which could still change.
It’s significant that the Senators are singling out Freeman’s Israel views, in addition to his quotes about China, because it shows that Freeman’s positions on Israel are central to the campaign against him.
Though Freeman doesn’t need Senate confirmation, the opposition of a half-dozen GOP Senators really ups the pressure on the White House, which has not meaningfully offered any defense of Freeman. I’ll post the full letter when it’s finalized and sent later today.
Update: Michael Goldfarb reports that GOP Senator Olympia Snowe will be adding her name to the half dozen Republican Senators coming out against Chas Freeman.
And Ben Smith posts the full and final version of the letter the GOP Senators sent on Freeman.
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Hard to know what to say about this. On the one hand, I like the idea of having someone who isn’t coming in with an aggressive “Israel or nothing” attitude about the Middle East. And it helps rather than hurts, one would imagine, that he understands the Saudis. I guess basically I feel like those protesting Freeman’s appointment are just basing it all on who he has worked for. I don’t think he’s openly advocated getting rid of Israel or giving the Chinese our nuclear launch codes.
on this score, Josh Marshall’s post is very persuasive:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/03/chas_freeman.php
I find it interesting that the Republicans are so up in arms about his ties to the Saudis, when their last 2 presidents were bought and paid for by the same.
, when their last 2 presidents were bought and paid for by the same.
Word!
You might want to check out Glenn Greenwald’s post today on Chas Freeman and Roger Cohen also.
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http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/03/09/freeman/index.html
Josh had a posting on the Chas Freeman brouhaha yesterday on TPM’s front page:
Since his appointment does not require Senate confirmation, it’s hard to see what all this whining will accomplish. It’s reminiscent of ADL tool Abe Foxman’s complaint about George Mitchell being appointed special envoy to Israel and Palestine — that Mitchell is too fair and even-handed.
Changing our policy toward Israel and toward Iran and toward Cuba, etc, etc, etc, is going to get pushback – change doesn’t come easy. But I hope it comes – I hope the neo-cons don’t get their way here.
I read that jzap, and it’s flimsy stuff to base a protest on. That’s what I was trying to say above. And I agree that it’s hard to see what these people expect to accomplish. Obama isn’t all that likely to change his mind on it just cause they’re complaining, I don’t think. Based on what I have seen of Obama so far in the last 2 1/2 years -
Neocons have been thoroughly discredited, and already have passage booked on the Ash-Heap-of-History Express — at least those not first indicted for war crimes. So this transparent attempt to discredit Chas Freeman is simply more baseless braying form the same tired, old, washed-up neocon hacks (paging Bill Kristol!). Obama intends to ignore them. So do Chas Freeman and Dennis Blair. So do I. So should you.
I think it’s good that us neocons are on record if nothing else. Admiral Blair should also get a heads up that he is directly accountable for any nonsense emanating from Freeman. I would also be curious as to how the various players (Hillery, Biden and Gates) and the Iran and Mideast special envoys think of Freeman’s bias and the now overcrowded field of people in nonproductive crosstalk or powerplays.
Curious that Gates and Blair represent a complete continuity on security and therefore a major factor in both foreign intelligence and diplomacy (Though quite assuredly they aren’t in the gift giving section of boxed DVDs and reset button that seem a great faux pas).
And those who are the real bray-ers of complete nonsense “(Neocons) … already have passage booked on the Ash-Heap-of-History Express — at least those not first indicted for war crimes” will be surprised that real life and politics on the world stage has everything to do with protecting interests and building hardwon alliances and is not just happy talk of “even handedness”. So lets stop the empty threat of “war crimes” which don’t even seem to scare REAL genocidal dictators like Omar Bashir.
Robert, as a self-identified neocon, your ideas and strategies have been exposed as failures. Your movement IS fully discredited after your colossal failures in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as in your total failure/inability to prevent both the rise of growing Iranian nuclear weapons capacities, and the Pakistanis’ acquisition of the bomb. Your policy failures have strengthened and given comfort to our worst Islamist enemies. No one listens to or buys your movement’s hogwash anymore. And a number of U.S. neocons do indeed face a real threat of criminal indictment; the congressional investigatory process is only now getting started.
“Protecting interests and building hardwon (sic) alliances” — is THAT what you think the previous, neocon-corrupted administration accomplished over the last eight years? If so, you sir are utterly divorced from reality. Precisely the *opposite* has occurred. And considering the viewpoints and wishes of others who are not Israelis amounts merely to “happy talk of even-handedness”? Israel is indeed our friend; our global interests, however, extend far more broader than merely the interests of Israel. Dick Cheney didn’t accept that. Barack Obama does.
In short, the neocon mantra of “Ready! Fire! Aim!” has failed this nation spectacularly. Thus, your ilk will not succeed in silencing or suppressing Chas Freeman, or any other individuals who fail to toe your rigid ideological line.
Obviously, that last post should have read “more broadly,” not “more broader.”
Senator Saxby Chambliss (R – GA) has been on the Board of Advisors at the far right-wing ‘Israel Project’ since shortly after first being elected to the Senate (defeating Max Cleland) in 2002. He had a TV ad early in the 2008 election that prominently touted his belief in a “benevolent” God.
$15 million a day for Israel. How is that in this American’s interests?
OBAMA HAS TURNED OUT TO BE THE COWARD I AND MANY THOUGHT HE WAS. WITH A CABINET FULL OF RACIST NEOCONS AND WAR MONGERS IT’S A SURE BET THAT THE RACIST, TERRORIST, APARHIED OCCUPYING FORCE THAT IS ISRAEL AND THEIR EVIL US LOBBIES WILL PUSH THE NAIVE (DUMB) OBAMA INTO AN ATTACK ON IRAN. THIS JEWISH INFLUENCE (1-2% OF POPULATION) AND CONTROL OF AMERICAN MID-EAST POLICY IS EVIL AND HAS BEEN A DISASTER FOR US AND WORLD COMMUNITY. PEOPLE SUCH AS RAHM EMANUEL, CLINTON, BIDEN AND OTHERS WITHIN THE OBAMA ADMINSTRATION ARE WAR CRIMINALS AND SHOULD BE ON TRAIL FOR WAR CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY. INSTEAD, THESE CRIMINALS ARE SHAPING POLICY. OBAMA IS A DUMB COWARD!
The fact that he chose the total lackey Leon Panetta to replace USAF General Michael Hayden at Central Intelligence says it all! Candidate Obama promised “change”, yet the ONLY change occuring is that more men and women wearing a US military uniform are going to end up as casualities, in an obscenely underfunded Veteran’s Administration, and his “solutions”, like his predecessor’s, is simply to THROW MONEY AWAY at problems, like AIG, and yet STILL the DJIA continues to tank; he’s got Hillary out panhandling to the Chinese begging THEM to buy MORE US dollar denominated DEBT: T-bills & T-bonds of DUBIOUS VALUE, and he COMPLAINS ABOUT A LACK OF INTEL ON AFGHANISTAN! Duh! Is it any surprise with the mental midgets he has chosen for his cabinet?! He does this to turn focus away from other embarassing (and revealling) items which he will not address: “Special Olympics” jokes on Letterman–well, if Obama got his arms blown off in 1968 five clicks outside of Hue, he’d change his tune, I really believe. But as long as it’s someone else’s son or daughter getting hurt, while his two little kiddies go to an elite school, he turns a blind eye away from the focus of the funding which should have gone to the VA, border security, and the prosecution of Wall Street criminals! We have plenty of intel on Afghanistan! Go to the University at Omaha! A complete all-you-can-find info on Afghanistan, next to a bunch of people sleeping!
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