The Assault on ChasFreeman »
Posted By tehranchik 9 months, 1 week ago in Political NewsI've been loathe to join the argument about whether the veteran diplomat Chas Freeman should be hired to lead the National Intelligence Council. I don't know the man, am only vaguely aware of his reputation--very smart but unothodox, a bit too close to the Saudis, a root canal 'realist' whose cold analysis of the Tiananmen uprising suggested that the Chinese government would have been better served to nip the student uprising 'in the bud.' At the same time, there was the rabid opposition of the professional Jewish community--some of them moderates like Jeff Goldberg, others full-fledged members of the Israel lobby, like former AIPAC honcho Steven Cohen Rosen, others from the neo-hysterical Commentary crowd...perpetrators of the OMG nutsiness about Obama on a range of issues, in this case: OH MY GOD, he's selling out Israel!
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tehranchik
Well, I'm from and live in the Pacific Northwest. I did live in the middle east during the late 70's and early 80 ...
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nostalgia9 months, 1 week ago
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I see that Joe Klein left out something about Freeman which has come to light
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Washington Times reporter Eli Lake reports that an independent inspector general will now investigate Mr. Freeman's foreign financial ties, which include serving on the international advisory board of the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, which has invested in countries such as Sudan and Iran.
The negative comments about Freeman are coming from the right AND the left
Herb Meyer, the deputy chairman of the NIC under President Reagan, said, "Can you imagine if I had stood up and explained away Tiananmen Square? He does not have the intellectual firepower to sort through the intelligence and reach a plausible conclusion."
The Washington advocacy director of the left-wing group Human Rights had a similarly negative take, saying, "It would... be wise for President Obama to weigh the message sent by choosing someone who has so consistently defended and worked for the clenched fists the president so eloquently challenged in his inaugural address."
And what about Obama himself?
The Obama campaign criticized McCain adviser Charlie Black for lobbying for that very same Chinese oil company!
But then hypocrisy is becoming the norm for this administration
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