Former US Envoy to Kingdom Named to Top Intelligence Post

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Ambassador Chas W. Freeman, Jr. ITEM OF INTEREST
February 28, 2009

Amb Chas Freeman Named to Top Intelligence Post

Editor's Note:

The Obama Administration has appointed Ambassador Chas Freeman as chairman of the National Intelligence Council this week. Freeman, who has been President of the Middle East Policy Council, has had a distinguished career including service as United States Ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the period that included Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

Today we are pleased to present for your consideration an article by Arab News Washington correspondent Barbara Ferguson on the "brouhaha" that attended Ambassador Freeman's latest appointment.

The readers of SUSRIS have been the beneficiaries of Ambassador Freeman's insights and perspectives through a collection of essays, speeches and interviews on US-Saudi relations and American foreign policy challenges in the Middle East. A number of those items are included among the links that follow.

Former US Envoy to Kingdom Named to Top Intelligence Post
Barbara Ferguson

WASHINGTON: The appointment by the Obama administration of Charles �Chas� Freeman as chairman of the National Intelligence Council on Thursday caused a real brouhaha in Washington.

Freeman served as US ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the 1991 Gulf War and has major expertise regarding China. His appointment brought praise from many but criticism from elements of the pro-Israeli community and pro-Israeli Congressmen.

Pro-Israeli publications are attacking his appointment as something close to betrayal � Why? He�s been called everything from �a Saudi puppet,� �Chas of Arabia� to being �linked to Saudi cash.�

The �link� goes back to 2007, when as president of the Washington-based Middle East Policy Council (MEPC) he accepted a $1 million donation from Prince Alwaleed bin Talal for the council.

Not only is he is being attacked for being pro-Saudi, but also for his calls for a more balanced US foreign policy between Israel and the Arab world.

Back in 2007, Freeman addressed the pro-Israeli Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs, and said: �Israel no longer even pretends to seek peace with the Palestinians; it strives instead to pacify them.�

The primary reason America confronts a terrorism problem today, he continued, is �the brutal oppression of the Palestinians by an Israeli occupation that is about to mark its fortieth anniversary and shows no sign of ending.�

Dennis Blair, the director of National Intelligence, named Freeman the chairman of the National Intelligence Council.

A letter issued from Blair�s office Thursday said Freeman, �will be responsible for overseeing the production of National Intelligence Estimates (NIE) and other Intelligence Community analytical products, providing substantive counsel to the DNI and senior policymakers on issues of top national security importance.�

More than any other document, national intelligence estimates help shape foreign policy, particularly in wartime.

Anne Joyce, MEPC vice president, said that despite the effort to scuttle his nomination, �he�s been offered the job and accepted it, and it is not a nomination to a post that requires confirmation.�

Joyce said Freeman�s appointment is but a series of indications of Middle East policy change by the Obama administration.

�First there was the appointment of Middle East envoy George Mitchell, the downgrading of Dennis Ross�s appointment at State Department, and now the appointment of Chas Freeman.

�He is a perfect choice for this job. No one has the breath of experience that Freeman has,� said Joyce, �from India to China to the Middle East to Africa where he negotiated during the 1970s regarding southern Africa, his knowledge covers the world, and his intellect is unsurpassed when it comes to world affairs.�

As for being linked to Saudi cash, Joyce scoffed.

�The idea that we are bought and paid for is laughable. We have done the same work for 27 years, and we have always been raising money hand-to-mouth, nobody owns us, we�re an American organization that tries to best serve the United States.�

Joyce said the Alwaleed donation was intended to fund an endowment for the council, which she said was aimed at furthering US-Arab relations and widen the range of debate in Washington from what MEPC sees as an excessively pro-Israel focus.

Despite this, the Jewish Telegraph Agency called Freeman �a controversial former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia.�

The Weekly Standard called Freeman �a shill for the Saudis ever since leaving government.�

But, in an article entitled: �Obama Rebuffs Neocons, Appoints Freeman,� M.J. Rosenberg wrote: �It�s a new day. For the first time in years, a President has rebuffed the neocon/rightwing lobby on an issue dear to their hearts. He informed the Senate that he would make Charles Freeman head of the National Intelligence Council despite the full-court press led by the neocons and the rightwing of the pro-Israel lobby against him.

Columnist Ben Smith wrote: �Freeman, who drew fire for defending the Chinese and Saudi governments, doesn�t represent the mainstream of the administration. He�s also a broadly knowledgeable, polyglot, experienced diplomat with many friends in foreign policy and intelligence circles, including Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair.

�But his inclusion in an important, low-profile job represents, among other things, the vastly diminished sway of the neocons � long at odds with the professional intelligence community � who launched a concerted, public effort to torpedo the move,� said Blair.

Foreign Policy�s David Rothkopf wrote: �Few people would be better for these tasks than Chas Freeman. Part of the reason he is so controversial is that he has zero fear of speaking what he perceives to be truth to power.

�You can�t cow him and you can�t find someone with a more relentlessly questioning worldview. His job will be to help present the president and top policymakers with informed analysis by which they can make their choices. His intellectual honesty and his appreciation for what is necessary in a functioning policy process is such that he will not stack the deck for any one position. He wouldn�t last five minutes in the job if he did. (And Denny Blair, the wise and canny Director of National Intelligence, wouldn�t tolerate it.) Further, the chairman of the NIC does not directly whisper into the president�s ear in a void. He helps prepare materials that will become the fodder for active debate among a national security team that is devoid of shrinking violets.�

Source: Arab News

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