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The recent appointment and ultimate withdrawal of Chas Freeman to head the National Intelligence Council has exposed much that is wrong with President Barack Obama’s first months in office, both in terms of policy and vetting, as well as the media coverage surrounding both. Many of Obama’s supporters said it was unfair to criticize Obama’s associations with people like the unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers and the anti-Semitic preacher of hate, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and called it guilt by association. It is now becoming clearer why those sorts of associations matter.On February 26, Chas W. Freeman Jr. was named by...

Although Charles Freeman is no longer to become chairman of the National Intelligence Council, disturbing questions raised by his aborted appointment remain. Freeman, a veteran Arabist who blamed 9/11 in part upon America's poliicy towards Israel was forced out over concerns about his financial links to the Chinese and Saudi regimes and his support for the Chinese crackdown at Tiananmen Square and his dismissal of Tibetan protests against Chinese oppression as a "race riot." And Freeman's ravings about a Zionist conspiracy were not the views of a solitary crackpot. The big question is how the Director of National Intelligence, Dennis...

Among those with useful insights on the New York Times’s refusal to cover the Chas Freeman controversy, Don Feder was blistering: “In a sane world,” he wrote, “Freeman wouldn’t even be allowed to read National Intelligence Estimates, let alone be responsible for generating them. The Times’s efforts to low-key this disastrous appointment is typical of its attempts to run interference for the administration.” The Grey Lady is a specialty for Feder, a longtime syndicated columnist and commentator. He edits a website called Boycott the New York Times, a project of Accuracy in Media. In the wake of the Freeman controversy,...

Those who successfully challenged the nomination of Charles W. Freeman, Jr. to become chairman of the National Intelligence Council should be praised for an act of high patriotism. It would have been disastrous for the United States to have, as the person responsible for overseeing “policy-neutral intelligence assessments” for the President, a zealot who is anything but policy-neutral when it comes to two of the most important areas of international conflict. Freeman not only has extremist views regarding the Middle East and China, but he has been beholden to lobby groups that are anxious to influence intelligent assessments regarding Saudi...

WASHINGTON: Chas Freeman’s withdrawal was far more newsworthy than his initial appointment WHEN FORMER ambassador Chas Freeman was picked last month to chair the National Intelligence Council (NIC), which prepares intelligence evaluations for the White House, few US newspapers reported the appointment. Freeman’s withdrawal this week was front page news, however, not least because of his blistering parting volley at the “Israel Lobby” he claimed had brought him down.

Add president Obama's national intelligence czar, Dennis Blair, to the list of embattled top-level appointees. Blair, a retired four-star Navy admiral who attended Oxford with Bill Clinton, courted controversy among pro-Israel and anti-China activists this month when he named Charles (Chas) Freeman, an outspoken former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, to chair the National Intelligence Council, a committee of the government's top intel analysts. After House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other pols complained to the White House, Freeman abruptly withdrew. Now both Republican and Democratic intel experts are raising questions about another Blair pick: John Deutch, a former CIA director once...

Yesterday’s New York Times story on Charles W. Freeman’s decision to withdraw his name from consideration for a top intelligence post was yet another instance of the paper trying to distance Obama from what could have been a disastrous personnel decision. Freeman, who was tapped to head the National Intelligence Council (which produces the National Intelligence Estimates that are vital to policy making), is not only rabidly anti-Israel, but has ties to hostile foreign powers that go way beyond questionable. The Times claimed, “When Dennis C. Blair, the director of national intelligence, announced that he would install Charles W. Freeman,...

'Weak' Barack Obama loses another nomineeTom Baldwin in Washington March 13, 2009 President Obama is facing accusations that he failed his first test on the Middle East by allowing America's pro-Israel lobby to force out the nominee for a top intelligence post. Charles Freeman, picked to chair the National Intelligence Council (NIC), withdrew after an internet-led campaign branded him as harbouring Arabist sympathies or being influenced by foreign governments. In a furious message posted to friends and colleagues, Mr Freeman said that the “tactics of the Israel lobby plumb the depths of dishonour and indecency and include character assassination, selective...

It's getting crowded under that bus where President Obama throws the discards no longer useful to him. Fortunately, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright is there to offer the last rites, this time for Charles W. Freeman Jr., may peace be on him. Mr. Freeman is the well-paid shill for the Saudis and the Chinese who was stopped just before he was to assume the chairmanship of the National Intelligence Council, where he would have directed the preparation of intelligence briefings for the president and other high government officials - an official largely responsible for what the president should know and when...

Joe Klein of Time is calling it an "assassination" led by a "mob" "composed primarily of Jewish neoconservatives." But then he goes on to quote Senator Schumer and his role in Freeman's departure: The mob was composed primarily of Jewish neoconservatives—abetted by less than courageous public servants like Senator Chuck Schumer, who has publicly taken credit for the hit. This was his statement: "Charles Freeman was the wrong guy for this position. His statements against Israel were way over the top and severely out of step with the administration. I repeatedly urged the White House to reject him, and I...

12, 2009; Page A18 FORMER ambassador Charles W. Freeman Jr. looked like a poor choice to chair the Obama administration's 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 was only reasonable to ask -- as numerous members of...

NEW YORK, March 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AJC rejected charges made by Ambassador Charles Freeman blaming the "Israel Lobby" for his decision to withdraw his acceptance of the position of chair of the National Intelligence Council. Freeman was formerly the U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and the chair of the Middle East Policy Council, funded in part by the Saudi government. His foreign policy views drew considerable scrutiny.

To all who supported me or gave me words of encouragement during the controversy of the past two weeks, you have my gratitude and respect. You will by now have seen the statement by Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair reporting that I have withdrawn my previous acceptance of his invitation to chair the National Intelligence Council. I have concluded that the barrage of libelous distortions of my record would not cease upon my entry into office. The effort to smear me and to destroy my credibility would instead continue. I do not believe the National Intelligence Council could function...

Another Man Down By Kathy Shaidle FrontPageMagazine.com | Wednesday, March 11, 2009 On Monday, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair announced that Charles Freeman had withdrawn his name from consideration for the post of Chairman of the National Intelligence Council (NIC), ending weeks of acrimonious debate that had been triggered by Freeman’s nomination. But while Freeman has receded from the spotlight, his selection to a critical intelligence post – despite a deeply troubling political background – lingers as a dark cloud over the Obama administration. In the sensitive role of Chairman of the NIC, Freeman would have been privy to...

WASHINGTON, DC - Charles Freeman has withdrawn from consideration as National Intelligence Chair. Another appointee is claimed by the Obama Curse. Since December nearly a dozen major and minor Obama appointees have backed out from their assignments, believing their positions to have a curse on them. Poor luck and bad publicity have befallen many of those picked for appointment by President Obama.

On Monday, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair announced that Charles Freeman had withdrawn his name from consideration for the post of Chairman of the National Intelligence Council (NIC), ending weeks of acrimonious debate that had been triggered by Freeman’s nomination. But while Freeman has receded from the spotlight, his selection to a critical intelligence post – despite a deeply troubling political background – lingers as a dark cloud over the Obama administration. In the sensitive role of Chairman of the NIC, Freeman would have been privy to state secrets and would have advised President Obama on matters of national...

Two people have been killed in a shooting at a school in southwest Germany, local media reports say. A number of people are also thought to have been wounded in the incident in Winnenden, near Stuttgart. Reports say the gunman wore a black combat uniform and fled into the town. However, local police were not immediately available to comment.

President Barack Obama's controversial pick for a top intelligence post blasted the "Israel lobby" on his way out the door Tuesday, intensifying a debate on the role Israel's allies played in the latest failed Obama appointment. Charles W. Freeman Jr.'s abrupt withdrawal from his appointment as chairman of the National Intelligence Council came after he drew fire on a number of fronts - including questions about his financial ties to China and Saudi Arabia. But the most heated opposition came from supporters of Israel - and Freeman's departure shows Obama's reluctance to signal a change to a U.S. policy in...

Chas Freeman Made an angry vitriolic statement about his withdrawal, blaming that evil Israel lobby. Proving once again that he doesn't have the judgment to run the NIC. .....I have concluded that the barrage of libelous distortions of my record would not cease upon my entry into office. The effort to smear me and to destroy my credibility would instead continue. I do not believe the National Intelligence Council could function effectively while its chair was under constant attack by unscrupulous people with a passionate attachment to the views of a political faction in a foreign country. I agreed to...

Chas Freeman, the former ambassador appointed to be the military's top intelligence analyst, has withdrawn his name following complaints from Democratic and Republican lawmakers who said he was too entangled in foreign affairs to handle the job.