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RedditA thunderous, coordinated assault against one of President Obama's intelligence picks is now underway. It started in a few right-wing blogs, migrated to semi-official mouthpieces like the Jewish Telegraph Agency, and today it reached the op-ed pages of the Wall Street Journal, in the form of the scurrilous piece by Gabriel Schoenfeld, a resident scholar at some outfit called "the Witherspoon Institute."
The target is Charles ("Chas") Freeman, the former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, former top Defense Department official during the Reagan administration, and president of the Middle East Policy Council, whose wide-ranging experience stretches from the Middle East to China. Freeman is slated to become chairman of the National Intelligence Council (NIC), the arm of Admiral Dennis Blair's Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The NIC is the body that includes a host of analysts called national intelligence officers who are responsible for culling intel from sixteen US agencies and compiling them into so-called National Intelligence Estimates. It's a critical job, since NIE's -- often released in public versions -- can have enormous political and policy impact. Cases in point: the infamous 2002 Iraq NIE on weapons of mass destruction and the 2007 NIE on Iran that revealed that Tehran had halted its work on nuclear weapons.
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.
Just last December, in a Nation cover story, "Obama's Afghan Dilemma," I quoted Freeman's incisive analysis on Afghanistan, and it's worth citing here again at length:
"What we conveniently have been labeling 'the Taliban' is a phenomenon that includes a lot of people simply on the Islamic right," says Freeman."What began as a punitive raid aimed at beheading Al Qaeda and chastising its Afghan household staff has somehow morphed--with no real discussion or debate--into a prolonged effort to pacify Afghanistan and transform its society," says Freeman. "This moving of the goal posts gratified neoconservatives and liberal interventionists alike. Our new purpose became giving Afghanistan a centrally directed state--something it had never had. We now fight to exclude reactionary Muslims from a role in governing the new Afghanistan." Freeman suggests that this is an untenable goal, and that it is time to co-opt local authorities and enlist regional allies in search of a settlement.
"What the insurgents do seem to agree about is that foreigners shouldn't run their country, and that the country should be run according to the principles of Islam," says Chas Freeman. "We need to recall the reason we went to Afghanistan in the first place," he says. "Our purpose was...to deny the use of Afghan territory to terrorists with global reach. That was and is an attainable objective. It is a limited objective that can be achieved at reasonable cost. We must return to a ruthless focus on this objective. We cannot afford to pursue goals, however worthy, that contradict or undermine it. The reform of Afghan politics, society and mores must wait."
Schoenfeld, in the Wall Street Journal piece, says that Obama is placing a "China-coddling Israel-basher" in charge of writing intelligence estimates that, he says -- with no evidence whatsoever -- will reflect Freeman's own "outlandish" ideas.
But the firestorm directed at Freeman didn't start with Schoenfeld. It began with alarmist postings on a blog by Steve Rosen, the former official of the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee who's been indicted for pro-Israeli espionage in a long-running AIPAC scandal. Rosen, whose blog is entitled "Obama Mideast Monitor," is published by the Middle East Forum, a rabid, right-wing Zionist outlet led by Daniel Pipes, whose Middle East Quarterly is edited by Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute. Said Rosen, whose blog appears alongside the Pipes-Rubin axis:
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.
The Steve Rosen blast, which was followed up by Rosen here and here, richocheted around various AIPAC-linked blogs until it was picked up by (of course) Fox News on Monday. Fox settled on Frank Gaffney, an extremist, right-wing Zionist who leads the Center for Security Policy, to blast Freeman:
"This is a really serious error on the part of Dennis Blair and the Obama administration," said Frank Gaffney, founder and president of the think tank Center for Security Policy . "Both in government and certainly in the period since he left government, he has compromised the objectivity that one would want in the person whose job it is to oversee the production of National Intelligence Estimates."Gaffney called Freeman's perceived lack of concern for the Iranian threat to the U.S. and Israel "profoundly troubling," saying it would be "irresponsible in the extreme in the person who runs the National Intelligence Council."
"Whether it's his association with organizations with close ties to Iranians or close ties to the Chinese, these are disqualifiers for the job," Gaffney said.
Marty Peretz, the arch defender of Israeli depradations, weighs in too at The New Republic:
Freeman's real offense (and the president's if he were to appoint him) is that he has questioned the loyalty and patriotism of not only Zionists and other friends of Israel, the great swath of American Jews and their Christian countrymen, who believed that the protection of Zion is at the core of our religious and secular history.
And today, the smearing of Freeman landed on page 15 of the Wall Street Journal.
Some defenders of Freeman have begun speaking up. Jim Lobe, at Antiwar.com, calls it "amazing" and "stunning" that Freeman was selected for the NIC chairmanship, and praised Freeman, writing: "He doesn't pull punches." Dan Froomkin, at Nieman Watchdog, called Freeman "a one-man destroyer of groupthink," and added:
The man is one of a rare breed: He is a Washington insider, and yet he is also a ferociously independent thinker, a super-realist, an iconoclast, a provocateur and a gadfly. He has, as I wrote in a Niemanwatchdog.org article about him in 2006, spent a goodly part of the last 10 years raising questions that otherwise might never get answered -- or even asked -- because they're too embarrassing, awkward, or difficult.
But Freeman needs more defenders. The campaign by AIPAC, AEI, Pipes, the Wall Street Journal and their ilk can only be expected to intensify, using lots of muscle behind the scenes to pressure the White House, and Admiral Blair, to capitulate.
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Robert Dreyfuss
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I wouldn't panic yet, Mr Dreyfuss....
they threw everything they had at Hilda Solis, didn't they?
Posted by Mask at 02/25/2009 @ 08:46am
I have read everything Dreyfus has written so far except this one article yet and based on the past....
I will be against whatever he is for..,
Posted by YourJomamma at 02/25/2009 @ 08:51am
I will be against whatever he is for..,-----Posted by YourJomamma at 02/25/2009 @ 08:51am
Really? I'd watch the "blanket statements" of opposition, John-
Verdict on Obama: Mealymouthed, Pathetic posted by Robert Dreyfuss on 09/27/2008 @ 09:53am
Posted by Mask at 02/25/2009 @ 09:02am
I think that the Isreal lobby is much too strong and not allowing us to make our own decisions in policy making for the Mid East..we need a neutral buffer
Posted by owlwomanxxxx at 02/25/2009 @ 09:06am
I dont think Obama is mealy mouthed at all.
Posted by YourJomamma at 02/25/2009 @ 09:21am
Posted by owlwomanxxxx at 02/25/2009 @ 09:06am | ignore this person | warn this person
whattacrock. big bad Israel won't let itty bitty US make policy.
it's just another version of "it's all the fault of the jews."
Posted by emile duBois at 02/25/2009 @ 09:59am
I dont think Obama is mealy mouthed at all.----Posted by YourJomamma at 02/25/2009 @ 09:21am
Ooooh, there's a saver.....heheh
Posted by Mask at 02/25/2009 @ 10:00am
If the far right fringe attack the choice he must be excellent.
Posted by julien38 at 02/25/2009 @ 10:06am
-- "We need to recall the reason we went to Afghanistan in the first place," he says. "Our purpose was...to deny the use of Afghan territory to terrorists with global reach. That was and is an attainable objective. It is a limited objective that can be achieved at reasonable cost. We must return to a ruthless focus on this objective. We cannot afford to pursue goals, however worthy, that contradict or undermine it. The reform of Afghan politics, society and mores must wait."--
This clarity of statement in purpose and mission is excellent. Its like someone opened up the windows in a stuffy room... and can help us promote an American moral vision that humanity can get behind once again.
Its 'interesting' to watch the neos deal with this sort of clear sighted policy proposal with tongs and protective gloves...;^)
Posted by ttr at 02/25/2009 @ 10:48am
I have to thank Dreyfuss for making this terrible choice of Obama's known to a greater number of people.
I intend to begin my email campaign immediately against the choice of Freeman who should not be in any position of authority in govt.
Not only are his positions wrong, his facts are just as bad.
The Taliban as I've posted have precisely become globally oriented.
"Under the tutelage of his guest, Mullah Omar began to see his goal as more than the liberation of Afghanistan and he progressively signed on to the idea of a worldwide jihad against the United States."
http://tinyurl.com/c8oqqc
KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar vowed that the killing in Iraq of al Qaeda militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi would not weaken Muslim efforts against "crusader forces," a Pakistan-based news agency said on Friday.
"I give good news to Muslims around the world, the resistance against the crusader forces in Afghanistan and other parts of the Islamic world will not be weakened," the Afghan Islamic Press cited Omar as saying in a statement.
http://tinyurl.com/csp8bo
Now, however, there were signs that Omar's association with bin Laden was driving him toward a greater goal -- pan-Islamism, the unification of all Muslims under a single Islamic state.
"The potential ramifications of a Mullah Omar who is drifting toward pan-Islamism are grim. First and foremost, it could mean that the Taliban would under no condition expel bin Laden because they see his cause as theirs."
http://tinyurl.com/c8bp4g
Posted by antisocialist at 02/25/2009 @ 10:56am
This opposition from "neocons" - read as: "far-right American Jewish Zionists and Israeli dual-citizens in and around the DC security establishment" - was completely anticipated. Israel has long owned our intelligence, security, and foreign policy apparatus in the "Middle East" context. This ownership of American security policy in the region is central to the Israeli agenda of maintaining Gaza as an open-air prison, the slow annexation of the West Bank with the ultimate "transfer" of Palestinians out of that land, and the US of American money, war materials, and even troops in fighting Israeli wars while maintaining the blockade for Israel at the UNSC.
It may not be politically possible for the Obama administration to take on entrenched Israeli power in the American political establishment. Between the American parties supporting this power (wealthy American Jews and corporate military-industrial interests, for example) there probably is no hope for improvement in the Middle East situations. Our political power has succumbed to a foreign interest.
Posted by syfriendly at 02/25/2009 @ 11:28am
Now, however, there were signs that Omar's association with bin Laden was driving him toward a greater goal -- pan-Islamism, the unification of all Muslims under a single Islamic state.
Posted by antisocialist at 02/25/2009 @ 10:56am
Kabul held Makkah talks with Taliban: Saudi paper
7. October 2008, 13:26 AFP -
'The Afghan government held talks with the Taliban in Saudi Arabia last month, a leading Saudi paper reported, despite denials from both Kabul and the Taliban that such talks had taken place.
The Saudi-owned pan-Arab daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, quoting informed Afghan sources, said on Tuesday the three-day talks were held under Saudi auspices in the Muslim holy city of Mecca.
It said the talks, aimed at "stopping the violence" in Afghanistan, were held during the final days of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which ended on September 29.
The negotiators moved on to Islamabad on Sunday, the paper said.
They included Mullah Mohammad Tayeb Agha, who was the chief in Kandahar of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and his spokesman before the Taliban's ouster from power by the US-led invasion of 2001, and Omar's "foreign minister", Wakil Ahmad Mutawakkel.
It transpired during the talks that the Taliban leader is "no longer an ally of Al-Qaeda," Asharq Al-Awsat quoted a source close to the talks as saying.'
Maybe Mullah Omar would differ with your assessment.
Posted by OneVote at 02/25/2009 @ 12:29pm
'Thank Your Members of Congress for Supporting Israel's Right to Self-Defense Thank your House member and your senators for voting in favor of resolutions that that back Israel's continuing search for peace and right to self-defense.
The resolutions, introduced by the bipartisan leadership of both houses, call for a durable and sustainable diplomatic outcome to the current crisis that will ensure an end to the smuggling of arms into Gaza and an end to Hamas terror attacks on Israel. The resolutions also support U.S. efforts to create an environment conducive to sustainable and lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinian people'
Source: AIPAC
Translated - give thanks and generous donations to "our" politicians and your favor will be repayed manyfold.
Posted by OneVote at 02/25/2009 @ 12:35pm
'The Obama administration intends to provide some $900 million to help rebuild the Gaza Strip, The New York Times reported. The funds, which must first be approved by Congress, would be disbursed to nongovernmental agencies and the United Nations in order to bypass Hamas. "Should they accept the existence of the state of Israel, should they stop trying to violently overthrow the state of Israel, should they wish to reengage in the peace process and stop trying to rearm by smuggling rockets and other arms into Gaza, then there could be a place for them in future discussions," State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid said last week. "But until that happens, I don't see our position changing." Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to formally announce the aid package at a donors' conference in Egypt next week.'
Source: AIPAC
One billion to clean up Israel's mess...for starters.
Posted by OneVote at 02/25/2009 @ 12:41pm
Well, keep in mind OneVote, anti-socks/lvlib's in-depth knowledge of the Middle East....like Iraq-
"While those statements are true of Islam, I have no idea how many Iraqis are devotees of the the religion."----Posted by lvliberty1 at 01/29/2009 @ 5:26pm
Iraq's Elections: ISCI's View posted by Robert Dreyfuss on 01/29/2009 @ 09:59am
Posted by Mask at 02/25/2009 @ 12:42pm
Well, keep in mind OneVote, anti-socks/lvlib's in-depth knowledge of the Middle East....like Iraq-
"While those statements are true of Islam, I have no idea how many Iraqis are devotees of the the religion."----Posted by lvliberty1 at 01/29/2009 @ 5:26pm
Iraq's Elections: ISCI's View posted by Robert Dreyfuss on 01/29/2009 @ 09:59am
Posted by Mask at 02/25/2009 @ 12:42pm
That has to rank as one of truly the most idiotic posts you've ever made.
No one knows how many Iraqis are truly devotees of Islam.
Posted by antisocialist at 02/25/2009 @ 1:01pm
That has to rank as one of truly the most idiotic posts you've ever made.
No one knows how many Iraqis are truly devotees of Islam.---Posted by antisocialist at 02/25/2009 @ 1:01pm
No...I think you won.
Do YOU know how many Americans are truly devotees of Christianity?
Posted by Mask at 02/25/2009 @ 1:09pm
Posted by Mask at 02/25/2009 @ 12:42pm | ignore this person | warn this person
For Liburty, the world is so much easier to comprehend in black and white. At rare moments, even he, likely unknowingly, will confess the fragility of his conviction and belief.
'This is after all a blog and I agree that basic debate can get lost in the minutiae of meaningless back and forth (I am equally guilty at times).
Posted by antisocialist at 02/23/2009 @ 3:42pm | ignore this person | warn this person'
'No Delta teams will ever go into Waziristan. Even the Pakistani Army won't go into most of that area.
Posted by antisocialist at 02/23/2009 @ 4:21pm | ignore this person | warn this person'
by STEPHEN LYNCH The hills of Tora Bora Last updated: 3:50 pm October 4, 2008 Posted: 3:14 pm October 4, 2008
'Taking cover behind a small earthen schoolhouse in Tora Bora, Afghanistan, a message crackles over a Delta Force unit radio: "Father is trying to break through the siege line." Adrenaline surges through the American special forces.' Excerpt: How Osama bin Laden got away.
Mind you Nangarhar Province (Afghanistan) is pretty close to Waziristan....lol............
Posted by OneVote at 02/25/2009 @ 1:11pm
No one knows how many Iraqis are truly devotees of Islam.
Posted by antisocialist at 02/25/2009 @ 1:01pm | ignore this person | warn this person
But your dire warnings of the Pan-Islamic threat??????????????????
You admit then that your opinion is fear based suspicion without factual basis?
Posted by OneVote at 02/25/2009 @ 1:21pm
Dreyfuss and others can sugarcoat all they want about Freeman's Character by calling him a "gadfly, Provacateur, Independent thinker, iconoclast, a one-man destroyer of groupthink. But in the end, he took $1,000,000.00 in monies for the Middle East Policy council from Saudi Arabia. Do you call that a fair and honest broker? That is the same as Bush having people in the far right make decisions for his Pro-Israel Policies. No Balance here, just a pendulum swing to the misguided far-left for Saudi Interests and continued dependence on their oil and continued debt to China to purchase it.
If we stopped lying to ourselves and did not give ANY aid to Israel and the other Middle Eastern Countries that are really enemies of Israel, the problem would solve itself quickly. Saudi Arabia only has oil, but Israel has the largest brain trust in the world and will have more confidence by not being dependent on our loans. That self -confidence would make it's neighbors who would no longer get money from the US have to come to natural terms with Israel's existence and make peace with them.
Posted by DisgruntledTeacher at 02/25/2009 @ 1:34pm
The Taleban are the Islamic Right?!? This is laughable. Doesn't anyone remember them executing people in the soccer stadium? Stoning women to death for being raped. Giving sanctuary to Al Qaeda. Anyone?
Posted by abell12ct at 02/25/2009 @ 2:05pm
Posted by abell12ct at 02/25/2009 @ 2:05pm
The Taliban were socialists?
"In 1997, the Taliban and Unocal had meetings in Texas to negotiate arrangements for CentGas to build a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan.[ Reportedly, a deal was struck but later failed. The cause of the failure was rumored to be competing negotiations with Bridas, an Argentinian company."---wikipedia
Posted by Mask at 02/25/2009 @ 2:15pm
Do YOU know how many Americans are truly devotees of Christianity?
Posted by Mask at 02/25/2009 @ 1:09pm
No I don't and neither does anyone else.
Posted by antisocialist at 02/25/2009 @ 2:34pm
No I don't and neither does anyone else.----Posted by antisocialist at 02/25/2009 @ 2:34pm
So, you'd have no problem with somebody saying "America is predominantly a non-religious country"?
Posted by Mask at 02/25/2009 @ 3:42pm
Posted by DisgruntledTeacher at 02/25/2009 @ 1:34pm | ignore this person | warn this person
Certainly I agree that we should not sell or provide or provide funding for any military activity whatsoever to any entity in the Middle East.
Posted by syfriendly at 02/25/2009 @ 3:47pm
So, you'd have no problem with somebody saying "America is predominantly a non-religious country"?
Posted by Mask at 02/25/2009 @ 3:42pm
Yes I would. It is a fairly religious country compared to Europe. But that doesn't mean I'm saying it's a Christian country.
I've repeatedly said that this is not a Christian nation. It never has been and probably never will be.
Posted by antisocialist at 02/25/2009 @ 4:02pm
Yes I would. It is a fairly religious country compared to Europe. But that doesn't mean I'm saying it's a Christian country.---Posted by antisocialist at 02/25/2009 @ 4:02pm
And HOW do you know it's a "fairly religious country"?
Posted by Mask at 02/25/2009 @ 4:31pm
Lots of tangents here! The point is, Chas Freeman is a highly professional diplomat and former Defense official who is being attacked by supporters not of Israel, but of the Israeli far-right, simply because he believes that the United States ought be even-handed in dealing with Palestine. They're counting on Obama to cave in under pressure and to rescind his appointment (which, by the way, does not require Senate confirmation). It's fair game for supporters and opponents of Freeman to weigh in. But if opponents are allowed to claim that someone who refuses to pay homage to the standard pro-Israeli shibboleths that usually guide US policy shouldn't be allowed to get a government job, then we're in trouble.
Posted by dreyfuss at 02/25/2009 @ 4:46pm
And HOW do you know it's a "fairly religious country"?
Posted by Mask at 02/25/2009 @ 4:31pm
Because every survey by Gallup and others show that.
January 28, 2009
State of the States: Importance of ReligionOverall, 65% of Americans say religion is an important part of their daily lives
The United States is generally a religious nation, although the degree of this religiosity varies across states and regions of the country. A robust 65% of all Americans (across the entire U.S. population) reported in 2008 that religion was important in their daily lives.
http://tinyurl.com/cxk2q8
And from a Gallup poll released Feb 9, 2009
"Social scientists have noted that one thing that makes Americans distinctive is our high level of religiosity relative to other rich-world populations. Among 27 countries commonly seen as part of the developed world, the median proportion of those who say religion is important in their daily lives is just 38%. From this perspective, the fact that two-thirds of Americans respond this way makes us look extremely devout."
So, it's not conclusive, but as a generalization, I would say it backs up what I said.
Posted by antisocialist at 02/25/2009 @ 5:07pm
"Socialism" (top down and everywhere, misery's communion ... given to the ever faithful by Popes Hannity and Rush, somehow making me think of Babylon) ...
Anti FDR propaganda (on the verge of being everywhere, a few light weight throw-away pundits, there are books out, even) ...
And now this.
Obama is being defined whither or no some would like it so, or not.
And I'll only say this a few (more) times, (not) but it is as I have said, all along, to wit;
If Obama can nominate this man, surely, if the people so decide ... he can be persuaded to keep him, can he not? He (unlike his predecessor, the Imp, this man would have gotten nowhere near ... a nomination, we could not have melted him, and poured him on a nomination with the Imp) can be persuaded, perhaps pushed, not like an amoeba, but in a shared hand on the tiller context.
If not the only, word, surely the one we should really care about him keeping the most ... is that one.
Posted by V at 02/25/2009 @ 7:13pm
FROM PERETZ: "...the protection of Zion is at the core of our religious and secular history..."
ME: Mr. Peretz must have learned U.S. history from "Reverend" John Hagee!
Posted by DICKERSON3870 at 02/25/2009 @ 7:46pm
The Zionists, Israeli-Fiesters have had total monopoly on the America's Middle East Agenda for too long. Henry Kissinger used to tip the Israelis on the American top secret policy plans for the Middle East and advise the Israelis how to counter them. The Zionist Martin Indyk was promoted to the Clinton White House directly from the office of the Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and shortly after that Indyk became the US ambassador to Israel. Rahm Emanuel has never served in the US armed forces, but volunteered in the IDF and now he is the White House Chief of Staff. Joe Lieberman is the new Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee; yet he is more fitting to serve in the Israeli Knesset rather than the US Senate; His loyalty to the Zionist agenda is way ahead of his loyalty to America. Dianne Feinstein is our new Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman, yet she supported most of the Bush policies in Iraq against the wish of her democratic constituents. For Feinstein, what is good for Israel always trumps what is good for the Democratic Party or America. The list of the ardent Zionists and Israeli-Firsters in top sensitive positions on our government is very long indeed. The Israeli lobbyists are up in arm concerning the appointment of Chas Freeman to the NIC while ignoring the Zionist total control of our Middle East Agenda. The Israeli Mafia has to be purged from the decision-making process when it comes to the Middle East if America is to make any progress toward peace.
Posted by CripThink at 02/26/2009 @ 03:57am
How is it that the guys who are suppose to be left wing support a guy who support china with all its violations of human rights or say that the only reason to do something in afghanistan is protect americans and not care of a murderous,women-stoning rule? Critize israel as much as you want but why does that mean saudi arabia is better? where (maybe) now theyll allow people to go to cinemas but still cut people hands for stealing. does the left support the just-dont-attack-us-and-you-can-do-what-you-want policy?
Posted by amitzo at 02/26/2009 @ 04:19am
The Israeli Mafia has to be purged from the decision-making process when it comes to the Middle East if America is to make any progress toward peace. Posted by CripThink at 02/26/2009 @ 03:57am |
If correct, then We the People are damned.
Any US pol attempting to place US interests first, above Israeli rightwing demands, is destined either for fierce fights at the polls, thanks to massive support for primary challengers. Or if that can't be accomplished, an accidental death engineered by the Mossad. Tinkering with a few private planes has proved quite effective. Just often enough to have a satisfying chilling effect on US pols.
And the chilling effect is AIPAC's greatest strength. Hence, the Israeli & US rightwing's pleasure over any crediting of the Mossad & AIPAC with such effective power.
It feeds on itself, doesn't it.
Posted by sloper at 02/26/2009 @ 06:17am
The Taliban were socialists? "In 1997, the Taliban and Unocal had meetings in Texas to negotiate arrangements for CentGas to build a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan.[ Reportedly, a deal was struck but later failed. The cause of the failure was rumored to be competing negotiations with Bridas, an Argentinian company."---wikipedia Posted by Mask
I never mentioned anything about socialism but so as long as they are capitalists, they are ok in your book?
Posted by abell12ct at 02/26/2009 @ 07:57am
Chances are negligible for this great appointment to see the light of day. If TNR is lobbying against this I can't see how Obama can possibly make the appointment. Standing up to the right wing Israle lobby is kind of like David against Goliath. Let us know if there is anything we can do. Are there any prominent influential people backing this man? Seriously, if he was in Reagan's administration its not like he is a raving hippie or socialist.
Posted by gourok at 02/26/2009 @ 09:08am
What are the Zionists worried about? Do they believe that Chas Freeman's nomination to be NIC Chairman will somehow "tip the scales" of US foreign policy in favor of Hamas? Didn't Biden go to Gaza and declare that there would be no change in our support of Israel, which has the "right to defend itself" in response to attack by those deadly homemade rockets that the Palestinian fanatics have terrorized Israel with all these years? And the Israelis sure did teach the Palestinians a lesson! A 100 to 1 ratio of Biblical retribution! I expect that the Palestinians will soon see the light and cease their futile resistance to benevolent Israeli occupation. Chas Freeman's nomination is window-dressing, meant to appease the progressive rump of the dems who actually believed that Obama stood for change. If he dumps Freeman, all pretense will be abandoned. Meanwhile, Israel has once again made anti-semites of European youth.
Posted by agronomo at 02/26/2009 @ 09:19am
Because every survey by Gallup and others show that.----Posted by antisocialist at 02/25/2009 @ 5:07pm
And if similar polling shows that 97% of Iraqis are followers of the faith of Islam....you don't believe that????
Posted by Mask at 02/26/2009 @ 09:21am
I never mentioned anything about socialism but so as long as they are capitalists, they are ok in your book?----Posted by abell12ct at 02/26/2009 @ 07:57am
No...and you said
"The Taleban are the Islamic Right?!? This is laughable."----Posted by abell12ct at 02/25/2009 @ 2:05pm
So if they're not "Islamic LEFT"....what are they?
Posted by Mask at 02/26/2009 @ 09:22am
So if they're not "Islamic LEFT"....what are they? Posted by Mask
They are a bunch of rapists and murderers. Where have you been?
Posted by abell12ct at 02/26/2009 @ 09:53am
To talk about the political and religious leanings of rapists and murderers is laughable.
Posted by abell12ct at 02/26/2009 @ 10:01am
Posted by abell12ct at 02/26/2009 @ 10:01am
Why? I'm happy to discuss the fact that Stalin and Mao were Communists (as are your usual cohort of right-wing friends)....and happy to discuss how Hitler and Mussolini were fascist, as well as murderers.
Why NOT mention their political as well as religious leanings?
Posted by Mask at 02/26/2009 @ 10:07am
Meanwhile, Israel has once again made anti-semites of European youth. Posted by agronomo at 02/26/2009 @ 09:19am | ignore this person | warn this person
and you had a head start.
Posted by emile duBois at 02/26/2009 @ 11:31am
Or if that can't be accomplished, an accidental death engineered by the Mossad.
I did not realize you were a nut case Slope.
Posted by emile duBois at 02/26/2009 @ 11:32am
Israel has no more "right to exist" or "right to defend itself" than the Third Reich did. That both have existed only proves that racism and militarism sometimes win against morality and rule of law. If we're supposed to accept the morality of "the Chosen Ones", then everyone has a right to defend themselves for whatever reason using any and all means available, whether it's legal, moral, rational or insane. There's an established legal principle, the Latin for which I can't recall, that says that one sacrifices most or all of their legal rights when one is in the process of committing a crime. Thanks, Mr. Dreyfuss, for a heads-up on the zionists' latest power play. It's getting to be a very long list.
Posted by DejaVu at 02/26/2009 @ 12:39pm
Posted by DejaVu at 02/26/2009 @ 12:39pm
And the full degeneration of any thread relating to Israel occurs....
we've got the "Israel is Nazi Germany" crowd....so...
all we need is the LVLIB side with their "Re-take Gaza and the WB and send the Palestinians back to Jordan like the League of Nations said"...
and we're all set!
Posted by Mask at 02/26/2009 @ 12:43pm
If this isn't up for some kind of vote then Obama can simply say 'buzz off' to these groups. Obama is not hurting for support right now, why cave in to anybody?
Posted by SK9 at 02/26/2009 @ 12:48pm
We've been making neo-con-liths happy for years. Let them take their toy (tanks) and go home. Who needs 'em?
Posted by hivanh at 02/26/2009 @ 1:14pm
Frank Gaffney said, "he has compromised the objectivity". How delicious. A lying, stinking turd of a human being slandering someone else's objectivity.
Gaffney like Peretz should be shunned, isolated, or deported back to Israel. I trust they still have dual citizenship like the rest of their cronies in our government.
Posted by tomshef at 02/26/2009 @ 1:41pm
The neocons are most vigorously opposed to him? I can't think of a more ringing endorsement.
Posted by backer1 at 02/26/2009 @ 1:56pm
and you had a head start.
Posted by emile duBois at 02/26/2009 @ 11:31am | ignore this person | warn this person
Commenting on the Israeli slaughter of innocents doesn't make me an anti-semite, nor does the observation that synagogues are being stoned and desecrated in Europe. Subscribing to the theory of Israeli infallibility suggests that you have trouble seeing the forest for the trees.
Posted by agronomo at 02/26/2009 @ 2:17pm
I think Freeman's position on Afghanistan is probably in line with the Pentagon, and we will see more of a bottom up approach there. He sounds like a good man! You can expect more Neocon propaganda, and more accusations of being Anti-Semitic or a self- hating Jew. These people are idiots, and their stupidity is the greatest threat to Israel. You need to verbally get in their face. The Wall Street Journal tries to be a respectable front for those people. Don't give these parasites an inch!
Posted by P. J. Casey at 02/26/2009 @ 2:20pm
Posted by agronomo at 02/26/2009 @ 2:17pm
What does subscribing to the theory of Israel as Nazi Germany indicate arborally?
Posted by Mask at 02/26/2009 @ 2:21pm
Israel has no more "right to exist" or "right to defend itself" than the Third Reich did.
another nutcase. this blog is doomed. doomed I tell ya.
Posted by emile duBois at 02/26/2009 @ 3:51pm
Go CHAS...If AIPAC is pi$$ed of BE IT...
Posted by freenation at 02/26/2009 @ 4:35pm
Freeman served as president of the Middle East Policy Council, a Washington-based Saudi backed nonprofit that received tens of thousands of dollars per year from the bin Laden family and other Saudi donors.
In 2003, Freeman's council joined with California-based Arab World and Islamic Resources in selling to U.S. schools the "Arab World Studies Notebook," set to be a textbook on Arab issues and history.
A report from that year by the Text Book League, an online resource on some 200 educational items for middle-school and high-school educators, highlighted major historical fabrications found in Freeman's schoolbook including the claim Muslims inhabited the New World in pre-Columbian times and also spread throughout the Caribbean, Central America, South America and even Canada.
Posted by axiomizer at 02/26/2009 @ 4:37pm
Freeman served as president of the Middle East Policy Council, a Washington-based Saudi backed nonprofit that received tens of thousands of dollars per year from the bin Laden family and other Saudi donors.
In 2003, Freeman's council joined with California-based Arab World and Islamic Resources in selling to U.S. schools the "Arab World Studies Notebook," set to be a textbook on Arab issues and history.
A report from that year by the Text Book League, an online resource on some 200 educational items for middle-school and high-school educators, highlighted major historical fabrications found in Freeman's schoolbook including the claim Muslims inhabited the New World in pre-Columbian times and also spread throughout the Caribbean, Central America, South America and even Canada.
Posted by axiomizer at 02/26/2009 @ 4:38pm
English explorers met "Iroquois and Algonquin (Native American) chiefs with names like Abdul-Rahim and Abdallah Ibn Malik," the schoolbook claimed, without providing any evidence.
In actuality, the first Muslim to enter the historical record in North America was Estevánico of Azamor, who came with the Spanish in 1539. Islam is not believed to have taken root in Canada until the mid-19th century.
The book goes on to present Jesus as an "important figure" in Islam and states as fact it is "well known, the Quran was revealed through the Prophet Muhammad."
The schoolbook "present(s) Muslim myths as 'history,' endorse(s) Muslim religious claims, and propagat(es) Islamic fundamentalism," stated the Text Book League report.
Posted by axiomizer at 02/26/2009 @ 4:39pm
If Neocons are opposing then Obama should not even wait a second in confirming the appointment...
Posted by freenation at 02/26/2009 @ 4:44pm
Much reference to neocons. So yesterday. Let it go - you all sound like Keith Oberman still blaming Bush for everything to avoid talking about BO's fiscal fantasies and abysmal vetting. Get with the new - neomarxism - and talk amongst yourselves. Back on point: the scurrilous piece by Gabriel Schoenfeld. Who is this guy?
Gabriel Schoenfeld writes widely on public affairs for a number of leading publications, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Weekly Standard, New Republic, Atlantic Monthly, National Interest, New Leader, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and Commentary, where from 1994 to mid-2008 he was a senior editor. His book, The Return of Anti-Semitism, was published by Encounter in 2003. Prior to joining Commentary, Schoenfeld was a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC where he founded the research bulletin Soviet Prospects. Schoenfeld served on the staff of Senator Moynihan during his first term, beginning in 1978. In 1986, he served as a temporary Foreign Service Officer in the USSR with the United States Information Agency. Schoenfeld earned a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and a Ph.D. from Harvard University's government department. He was an IREX Scholar at Moscow State University in 1985-86. He lives in New York City.
Not defending him, but sounds reputable with hints of middle road-ness (he's tread gound similar to Freeman), unless you want to hold his book on anti-semitism against him (there was no holocaust right?). The far-right in Israel and Jewish lobby in America controls American foreign policy? Please!! They're too busy controlling Hollywood, diamond trade, and encouraging Sean Penn's antics. How hypochondriacal can a person get?
Posted by corgi9825 at 02/26/2009 @ 4:49pm
I also wondered: who is Robert Dreyfuss?
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Dreyfuss was the Middle East editor for the Executive Intelligence Review, the flagship journal of the Lyndon LaRouche movement.
This blog should be doomed.
Posted by corgi9825 at 02/26/2009 @ 5:00pm
What does subscribing to the theory of Israel as Nazi Germany indicate arborally?
Posted by Mask at 02/26/2009 @ 2:21pm
I couldn't resist. The guy's name is Du Bois. Just suggesting that he's missing something if he approves of Israel's latest aggression.
Posted by agronomo at 02/26/2009 @ 6:15pm
The far-right in Israel and Jewish lobby in America controls American foreign policy? Please!! They're too busy controlling Hollywood, diamond trade, and encouraging Sean Penn's antics. How hypochondriacal can a person get?
Posted by corgi9825 at 02/26/2009 @ 4:49pm | ignore this person | warn this person
Care to comment on Olmert, Bush, Rice & any UN resolutions lately? Jew lobby AIPAC ought to be registered as foreign agents - thats what they are.
'Smith traces the development of AIPAC from its early days under founder Si Kenen, who in 1947 registered with the US Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act as an employee of the American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs. He was representing himself then as an agent working for Israel. He continued to register as a foreign agent during the late forties and fifties, working for various organizations funded by the Israel government, but in 1959, the name of the American Zionist Committee was changed to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to better reflect, as Kenen said, that it "raised its funds from both Zionists and non-Zionists."
Its focus of work never changed, which was to promote the cause of Israel in both the executive and legislation branches of government, yet the organization no longer filed as a foreign agent. AIPAC eventually developed an extensive grassroots national network of organizations that engaged in all manner of illegal activities, from transgressing federal elections laws, to economic and industrial espionage, to flouting congressional laws regarding the use of arms exported to foreign countries, and passing classified and secret information to the Israeli government via the Israeli embassy in Washington.'
Grant Smith; Rense.com, 08/07
Posted by OneVote at 02/26/2009 @ 6:16pm
Posted by agronomo at 02/26/2009 @ 6:15pm
Not his real name anyway...before he was "JOHANNES ROLF".
Posted by Mask at 02/26/2009 @ 7:48pm
Those of us on the Jewish blogging left have been counter-attacking on this subject. The JTA story was a shande & I've rebutted it thoroughly.
I can't seem to include any URLs here but Tikun Olam has 2 posts on this subject.
Posted by richards1052 at 02/26/2009 @ 8:17pm
This blog should be doomed. Posted by corgi9825 at 02/26/2009 @ 5:00pm | ignore this person | warn this person
I wasn't just referring to this thread.
the loons are out in force.
Posted by emile duBois at 02/27/2009 @ 11:35am
The idea that the US President has to "Stand Up" to the Prime Minister of Israel is absurd. Netanyahu, in particular, signed on to the Wye Accords because President Clinton insisted, and Israel had no means to prevent it.
Are we to believe Netanyahu would have shaken the hand of Arafat if the US President had not forced him to? Did it do anybody any good?
In the current environment, the primary goal is to prevent nuclear war. The greatest nuclear danger is Iran. Freeman lacks the credibility to bring together the different threads of anti-proliferation policy in the US. Without that, any NIE is useless.
Posted by LocalMan at 03/01/2009 @ 3:31pm
Freeman's view that Israel has no intentions of making peace with the Palestinians but just wants to pacify them happens to be correct. Just read articles critical of Israeli policy in Haaretz, Netanyahu's public statements, and just listen to the CBS 60 minutes report: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4752349n
Gabriel Schoenfeld's affiliations, below, suggest a strong affiliation with neoconservatism which both explains and discredits his attack on Freeman.
"Gabriel Schoenfeld writes widely on public affairs for a number of leading publications, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Weekly Standard, New Republic, Atlantic Monthly, National Interest, New Leader, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and Commentary, where from 1994 to mid-2008 he was a senior editor. His book, The Return of Anti-Semitism, was published by Encounter in 2003. Prior to joining Commentary, Schoenfeld was a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC where he founded the research bulletin Soviet Prospects. Schoenfeld served on the staff of Senator Moynihan during his first term, beginning in 1978. In 1986, he served as a temporary Foreign Service Officer in the USSR with the United States Information Agency. Schoenfeld earned a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and a Ph.D. from Harvard University's government department. He was an IREX Scholar at Moscow State University in 1985-86. He lives in New York City."
Posted by princetonobserver at 03/02/2009 @ 12:04am
Freeman's views that Israel has never been interested in peace with Palestinians but just wants to pacify them is supported by Avi Shlaim's article in Guardian, link below.
*http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/07/gaza-israel-palestine <ttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/07/gaza-israel-palestine%22>*
How Israel brought Gaza to the brink of humanitarian catastrophe
*Oxford professor of international relations Avi Shlaim served in the Israeli army and has never questioned the state's legitimacy. But its merciless assault on Gaza has led him to devastating conclusions*
Posted by princetonobserver at 03/02/2009 @ 8:02pm