Who's next on Obama list for intel chairman?
Newsmax | Mar 11, 2009
By Frank Gaffney, Jr.
Yesterday’s news by Intelligence Director Dennis Blair that Obama’s choice for top intel analyst would not be Charles “Chas” Freeman allowed the nation a collective sigh of relief.
It spares the Obama administration continuing damage from the self-inflicted wound of yet another very bad personnel decision.
Far more importantly, the country may be spared the adverse security consequences of having its National Intelligence Estimates (NIEs) skewed to suit the boss. That of course, leaves the question, Who’s next? Who will be the next choice to fill the position vacated by Freeman for chairman of the National Intelligence Council (NIC)?
The danger of Obama’s choice was very real. In the years since Freeman retired from his career in the Foreign Service, he capitalized on relationships developed during previous official postings in Beijing and Riyadh. He actually worked in various capacities for the Chinese and Saudis, relentlessly promoting the party lines of those who paid his freight.
Along the trail, Freeman established a record of naked partisanship on behalf of actual or potential adversaries like the House of Saud, the Chinese Communists, the Iranian mullahs and even the terrorists of Hamas. He reliably attacked his friends’ enemies, including Israel and Taiwan, and disagreed with the liberation of Iraq and critics of Wahhabism.
In other words, Chas Freeman was a man who could no more be expected to render impartial and objective intelligence estimates than would any other agent of influence for hostile powers. The question is, Who on earth thought otherwise?
