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Obama's DNI Urged to Back Freema
By Robert Parry (about the author) Page 1 of 2 page(s)
For OpEdNews: Robert Parry - Writer
March 10, 2009
Editor's Note: Former U.S. Ambassador Chas Freeman has been tapped to head the National Intelligence Council, which oversees the production of National Intelligence Estimates on threats facing the United States.
But his reputation as a frank-speaking "realist"- has drawn fire from neoconservatives who have organized a powerful lobbying campaign to derail his selection. In the following letter to Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair "" dated March 8 "" the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity urge Blair to resist the pressure:
Admiral Dennis Blair
Director of National Intelligence
Washington, DC
Dear Director Blair:
We write to give strong endorsement to your choice of Chas Freeman for Chair of the National Intelligence Council.
We, the undersigned, worked at senior levels of key intelligence agencies. Our aggregate service represents 130 years and includes close familiarity with virtually all the key tasks over which Freeman is to have purview.
Your naming of Freeman reflects awareness that National Intelligence Estimates and the President's Daily Brief are of such critical importance that the NIC requires a leader of unquestioned integrity and competence. The experience of the several years before Tom Fingar took the reins at the NIC constitutes abundant proof of this.
Fingar's retirement led to concern that it would be difficult to find a person with Fingar's professionalism and experience. We were relieved to learn you had found such a person in Freeman.
In normal circumstances, Chas Freeman would need no endorsement from us. He is fearless in speaking truth without fear or favor, qualities that are sine qua non for the job.
His unusually balanced comments in past years on the Israel-Palestine issue, for example, are very much in keeping with decades of U.S. policy "" that is, until our honest broker role was jettisoned by the previous administration.
We are not surprised that many pundits and other public figures, aghast at the appointment of a senior intelligence official able to take a more balanced view of the Arab-Israel issue, have launched a strong campaign to derail the Freeman appointment.
We find the heated attacks on Freeman unprecedented in their vehemence, scope and target. Never before have we witnessed such a well-coordinated campaign against the appointment of a senior official to an intelligence job not requiring Senate confirmation.
It will surely come as no surprise to you that, as DNI, you can expect to be on the receiving end of relentless, agenda-laden lobbying. Reaction to the Freeman appointment seems a harbinger of things to come.
We strongly urge you to send a strong message to those creating pressure on you to back down. Please do our new President and the intelligence community the favor of finalizing your appointment of Chas Freeman as Director of the National Intelligence Council. 
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I vehemently disagree
Blech. Ordinarily, I am a fan of Robert Parry, and I have valued advocacy from Ray McGovern, Scott Ritter, and Coleen Rowley. But, I stand with the Chinese dissidents, having formed the China Support Network after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. I'm now calling for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to resign -- she has been globe trotting, to objectionable dictators or leaders in China, Turkey, and Egypt, at each stop apologizing for U.S. views on human rights, like the report released by her own State Department on Feb. 25. In the pro-freedom, pro-democracy, pro-human rights "free China" community (which no one should concede to the neocons), we value Ethan Gutmann (a businessman who lived in China but then had an epiphany and authored the book Losing the New China), who recently wrote in the Weekly Standard: Freeman clearly fits the Chinese Communist party's idea of a four-year plan for American intelligence oversight. Just note Freeman's curious 2006 statement about the Tiananmen massacre. It is unacceptable "for any country to allow the heart of its national capital to be occupied by dissidents intent on disrupting the normal functions of government, however appealing to foreigners their propaganda may be." That particular trope was originally laid down by Henry Kissinger, and it's considered safe for public use. Freeman, though, took the argument to its logical conclusion, condemning the "ill-conceived restraint" and "overly cautious behavior" of the party leadership. > > I thus share the hope of the majority in China that no Chinese government will repeat the mistakes of Zhao Ziyang's dilatory tactics of appeasement in dealing with domestic protesters in China. It's not hard to predict what line the intelligence community will take on China's military buildup (or another Tiananmen) under Freeman's leadership. (end quote from Ethan Gutmann) Bottom line: Freeman is a fan of the Tiananmen Square massacre. To his appointment, I say "Hell not," and a thousand times no! by John Kusumi (58 articles, 0 quicklinks, 41 diaries, 128 comments [12 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Wednesday, Mar 11, 2009 at 12:06:38 AM  (0+)
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He's out
The above discussion is mooted. Chas Freeman withdrew his name from consideration. Whew! by John Kusumi (58 articles, 0 quicklinks, 41 diaries, 128 comments [12 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Wednesday, Mar 11, 2009 at 1:01:26 AM (0+)
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