[Washington Post] Editorial - Former ambassador Charles W. Freeman Jr. looked like a poor choice to chair the National Intelligence Council. A former envoy to Saudi Arabia and China, he suffered from an extreme case of clientitis on both accounts. In addition to chiding Beijing for not crushing the Tiananmen Square democracy protests sooner and offering sycophantic paeans to Saudi King "Abdullah the Great," Mr. Freeman headed a Saudi-funded Middle East advocacy group in Washington and served on the advisory board of a state-owned Chinese oil company. It wasn't until Mr. Freeman withdrew from consideration for the job, however, that it became clear just how bad a selection he was. Mr. Freeman issued a two-page screed on Tuesday in which he described himself as the victim of a shadowy and sinister "Lobby" which is "intent on enforcing adherence to the policies of a foreign government." Yes, Mr. Freeman was referring to Americans who support Israel - and his statement was a grotesque libel. For the record, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee took no formal position on Mr. Freeman's appointment and undertook no lobbying against him. According to Newsweek, Mr. Freeman's most formidable critic - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi - was incensed by his position on dissent in China. Freeman describes "an inability of the American public to discuss, or the government to consider, any option for U.S. policies in the Middle East opposed by the ruling faction in Israeli politics." That will certainly be news to Israel's "ruling faction," which in the past few years has seen the U.S. government promote a Palestinian election that it opposed; refuse it weapons it might have used for an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities; and adopt a policy of direct negotiations with a regime that denies the Holocaust and that promises to wipe Israel off the map.
2009-03-12 06:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive