A very important foreign policy battle is being waged right now over the appointment of Charles "Chaz" Freeman to head the National Intelligence Council, the body that publishes the infamous National Intelligence Estimates (NIE's) one of which laid the groundwork for the Iraq War debacle and another of which may have narrowly averted a final Bush II war with Iran in the last year of his Presidency. Freeman is a widely respected long-time diplomat and defense department official who many think would bring a measure of realism and objectivity to a position where too much the lack of such resulted in a disastrous war for America. His appointment is being challenged because of comments that he's made in the past that were critical of Israel, and because of his perceived ties to Saudi Arabia, where he once served as U.S. ambassador.
Robert Dreyfuss at the Nation argues that the battle over Freeman's appointment will be critical in determining the prospects of the Obama Administration in the Middle East:
If the campaign by the neocons, friends of the Israeli far right, and their allies against Freeman succeeds, it will have enormous repercussions. If the White House caves in to their pressure, it will signal that President Obama's even-handedness in the Arab-Israeli dispute can't be trusted. Because if Obama can't defend his own appointee against criticism from a discredited, fringe movement like the neoconservatives, how can the Arabs expect Obama to be able to stand up to Israel's next prime minister, Bibi Netanyahu?
Freeman is a one-of-a-kind choice: with an impeccably establishment pedigree, Freeman has developed over the years a startling propensity to speak truth to power, which is precisely what one would want in a NIC chairman. Over the last decade, he's excoriated Israel for its stubborn refusal to compromise with the Palestinians, he's accused George W, Bush and the "neocons" of having pushed America over a cliff in Iraq, and he's ridiculed the military-industrial complex for trying to tout China as a bugaboo because, Freeman once told me, the Pentagon has suffered from "enemy deprivation syndrome" since the end of the Cold War.
The campaign against Freeman began and has been led by Steve Rosen on his blog. Here he is on Feb. 19th:
This is a profoundly disturbing appointment, if the report is correct. Freeman is a strident critic of Israel, and a textbook case of the old-line Arabism that afflicted American diplomacy at the time the state of Israel was born. His views of the region are what you would expect in the Saudi foreign ministry, with which he maintains an extremely close relationship, not the top CIA position for analytic products going to the President of the United States.
Mr. Rosen would be a curious choice as gatekeeper from U.S. intelligence personnel, being that he is currently under indictment for espionage against the United States of America on behalf of Israel.
Within the next couple of weeks the attacks had trickled up through the various "usual suspect" neo-conservative blogs and newspaper columns, and now enjoys the increasingly vocal support of a bipartisan coalition of pro-Israel Congressmen and Senators began to pile on, calling for investigations, placing private phone calls to Rahm Emmanuel, and otherwise pulling out all the stops to torpedo Freeman's appointment. Opponents have cited the following excerpt from a speech by Freeman as evidence of his compromised viewpoint:
"For the past half decade Israel has enjoyed carte blanche from the United States to experiment with any policy it favored to stabilize its relations with the Palestinians and its other Arab neighbors, including most recently its efforts to bomb Lebanon into peaceful coexistence with it and to smother Palestinian democracy in its cradle. The suspension of the independent exercise of American judgment about what best serves our interests as well as those of Israelis and Arabs has caused the Arabs to lose confidence in the United States as a peace partner. To their credit, they have therefore stepped forward with their own plan for a comprehensive peace. By sad contrast, the American decision to let Israel call the shots in the Middle East has revealed how frightened Israelis now are of their Arab neighbors and how reluctant this fear has made them to risk respectful coexistence with the other peoples of their region. The results of the experiment are in: left to its own devices, the Israeli establishment will make decisions that harm Israelis, threaten all associated with them, and enrage those who are not... Tragically, despite all the advantages and opportunities Israel has had over the fifty-nine years of its existence, it has failed to achieve concord and reconciliation with anyone in its region, still less to gain their admiration or affection."
http://blogs.jta.org/...
The White House response thus far has been muted:
Asked today by ABC News if the Obama White House was aware of all the concerns about Freeman, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said, "I've not read those. I think anybody can look at what the president has said and what the president's views are, enumerating from the very beginning of this administration the desire to be engaged actively in the Middle East region to ensure a durable and lasting peace. It is something that he's said he would work on each and every day."
Gibbs said "I think people can be reasonably assured of where the president is on this and how he'll be actively engaged in seeking Middle East peace."
http://blogs.abcnews.com/...
This is a very important appointment because the NIC gets to determine to a large extent the nature of the intelligence summaries that the President reads, and that inform our foreign policy at all levels. We need someone in this position who is not afraid to tell uncomfortable truths, and can be trusted to provide an objective, impartial analysis. We've seen the damage that can be done to our nation's interests and reputation when we allowed dangerous, neo-conservative ideologues to lead us into an unnecessary war based on lies and deceit.
I can't be sure that Chaz Freeman is that person, but he seems to be a good start in that direction. Thoughts?