A day after Purim miracle

We're free of Freeman

A few weeks ago I blasted the president’s pick for Chairman of the National Intelligence Council, Chas Freeman Jr. (as did many others). Yesterday, he withdrew his name from consideration. Bipartisan Congressional opposition, and strong private efforts, were no doubt influential in the administration’s decision to remove Freeman.

On his way, he blasted those who opposed him, saying “The libels on me and their easily traceable email trails show conclusively that there is a powerful lobby [he means Israel here] determined to prevent any view other than its own from being aired, still less to factor in American understanding of trends and events in the Middle East.” But his stance on Israel was not the main reason he was investigated (FYI, he was investigated). It was his financial ties to Saudi Arabia and China that provided the main impetus for concern.

My question is, where were his supporters? Other than Dennis Blair, the Director of the National Intelligence Council who recommended Freeman, who expressed regret at Freeman’s withdrawal (that Blair has regret about this scares me too), the only real losers are the Saudi and Chinese regimes (he has been subsidized by the Saudi royal family, and referring to recent violence in Tibet, he called it a “race riot” which couldn’t be further from reality, for example). For man who should never have entered the mainstream conscious, I’ll keep this short and say we should forget him just as inconsequentially.