Chas Freeman Pulls The Plug
Chas Freeman pulls out as head of the National Intelligence Council. Here’s the statement:
Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair announced today that Ambassador Charles W. Freeman Jr. has requested that his selection to be Chairman of the National Intelligence Council not proceed. Director Blair accepted Ambassador Freeman’s decision with regret.
As Spencer Ackerman, who flagged this for me, put it: “Pound of flesh: Extracted.”
More soon.
Update: As I reported below, it was obvious that things were coming to a head right about now. Senator Dianne Feinstein had summoned Freeman to a meeting of the Intelligence Committee, which she chairs, where he was set to try to assuage any concerns Dems and Republicans alike might have had. Freeman was also set to meet today with the House Intel Committee to do the same.
The scheduled meetings strongly suggested that Dems were preparing to break one way or the other on Freeman, and perhaps Freeman, or Blair, or the White House — or all of the above — wanted to end this, rather than risk it snowballing further.
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Thats a load of horsesh*t and I hope the liberal and progressive blogosphere speak out about it. I guess we can look forward to 4 more years of 5 Congress members out of over 500 being willing to speak out about Israel. Sad is what it is.
To the rhetorical question, ‘who runs gov?’, a helpful clue has been provided us.
Jesus, how depressingly frieghtening. I guess our foreign policy REALLY IS in the hands of the Israelis. I hadn’t wanted to believe it, but I guess I have no choice now. Score one for Joey Lieberman, Bill Kristol, Dick Cheney, and all the rest of the Likudnik Neocon Clusterf-ck Brothers….
What is most dissappointing is all of this happened mostly below the radar of mainstream media. Other than blogs and a few newspaper articles you didn’t see this story ANYWHERE. Most Americans don’t even realize what just happen and probably never will.
Well said, Bernie. Devastatingly succinct, and spot-on accurate. And Greg, you sure were right about the decisiveness of today’s scheduled meetings between Freeman and the various committees. A sad, sad day for democracy and freedom of expression.
Just like when there was massive opposition to Hans Von Sporovsky (sp?) at the FCC and crazy John Bolton as the UN delegate?
No wait, my bad, they got seated without much trouble. wtf is wrong with Dems? How many years will it take for them to shake off the Stockholm Syndrome (for that matter, how long will it take until the Publican party recognizes that it lost in landslides the last 2 election cycles)?
Not that it matters anymore
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http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/03/the-stakes-are.html#more
It’s a shame, but it’s not as if he’s the only person who has balanced views on Israel and it was his idea to withdraw.
Of course the public isn’t concerned with this – the public is concerned with not losing their homes, their jobs, their retirement…
…for heaven’s sake, little blogkins – the real world isn’t into the minutiae of cabinet appointments on this level at the moment.
Sadly, they can’t – they’re mostly treading water and praying the sharks don’t find them before the rescue boats do.
Maybe it had something to do with Freeman calling the Saudis a shining example of good governance, and lamenting that the PRC was too lenient in breaking up the Tienamen Square protests.
Benton – thanx for the compliment. But I don’t think it is accurate to use “Israelis” in your sentence. It isn’t just that the peace movement there is vital or that Ha’aretz coverage is far more critical of some Israeli government policies than is the press over here. It’s that the main elements of the lobby working here tend to be (as this appears to me) in support of the rightwing parties in Israel. One doesn’t see a lot of support for Labor candidates or policies coming out of AIPAC or National Review or JINSA or the Weekly Standard.
Bernie, you’re right, I should have been considerably more specific as to precisely *which* Israelis the entrenched-power elite in Washington is obviously beholden. And I agree that, for whatever reason, there never appears to be any sustained or meaningful lobbying effort in Washington in support of anything other than the most hard-right elements in Israel. I’m curious as to why that is (though I’ll take a wild guess and say it’s probably got something to do with $$$)….
Tena
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Do you seriously think that another person who is similarly qualified and who has also spoken out about Israel is going to offer themselves up to the same kind of bullsh*t? I don’t.
Benton – I’m no expert on this issue but I’d put the difference down to organization. One promising counter-point is http://www.jstreet.org/
This may fall into the category of pick your fights. There may be another candidate out there with similar views and qualifications who hasn’t said things in quite as inflammatory a way as Freeman has. In an ideal world, Freeman gets added to the mix but, so far, it’s not been ideal. I don’t think that changes.
AIPAC has synergy with the defense industry. They bribe our politicians to get money for Israel’s defense and the defense industry kicks in money as well to the politicians and then gets to sell their wares to Israel. Of course the Pentagon also has common interests with Israel and the defense industry.
Z
This speaks volumes about what Obama will really do in the Middle East – nothing. Viva AIPAC.
why is robust criticism of Israel “inflammatory” and to whom?
I follow your posts for a long time and must tell that your articles are always valuable to readers.