Chas Freeman Shows His Ugly Side
Obama's failed National Intelligence Council nominee imagines there's a Jew hiding under every bed.
I have read with patience and careful scrutiny commentary after commentary alerting the world to Freeman’s inclinations, including his belief that the Iraq intervention was instigated to make life better for Israel and that he had given an address in 2007 berating Israel for brutally occupying Arab lands.
When Yitzhak Rabin ordered the Israeli authorities to break the bones of the Palestinians during the First Intifada, many were repelled by what they saw as right-wing brutality. He then metamorphosed into accommodation with Arafat and won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize. It had occurred to me that Freeman, once in government, would moderate his stance and give Israel a fair chance.
He has done no such thing. By issuing his statement he confirms the suspicions of those who sought to block his appointment. Here is some of his passion:
The tactics of the Israel Lobby plumb the depths of dishonor and indecency and include character assassination, selective misquotation, the willful distortion of the record, the fabrication of falsehoods, and an utter disregard for the truth.
He continues:
I do not believe the National Intelligence Council could function effectively while its chair was under constant attack by unscrupulous people with a passionate attachment to the views of a political faction in a foreign country.
And:
The aim of this Lobby is control of the policy process.
More on the Jewish opponents of his appointment:
… a group so clearly intent on enforcing adherence to the policies of a foreign government — in this case, the government of Israel. … It is doing widening damage to the national security of the United States.
Freeman is confirming everyone’s worst fears: he feels supporters of Israel are a threat to American national security, that Jews cannot be trusted to be 100% loyal Americans, and Zionists are a veritable fifth column. I assume Freeman means the 70-million-strong Evangelicals in the United States are also unpatriotic, Likudnik fifth columnists.
What I find so frightening about Freeman’s postulations is that he is perpetuating the myth that Israel-supporting Jews and their friends are going to bring about Armageddon. Yes, there is no doubt that in recent years Israel has had to take ruthless action, with many unfortunate casualties, against Hezbollah in the north and Hamas in the south. Its security barrier, called an “apartheid wall” by people who have never lived in daily fear, protects against endless suicide bombings in Tel Aviv and other major cities, but is depicted in the world’s media as a further attempt at “Zionist expansionism” when olive groves are disputed.
Those who continue to support Israel see a tiny nation, born out of the ashes of Auschwitz, suffering a daily dose of terror from drive-by shootings, bombs, rockets, and kidnappings. Freeman’s shocking accusation that no U.S. government dares discuss Israel is a calumny. He claims:
… the inability of the American public to discuss, or the government to consider, any option for U.S. policies in the Middle East opposed by the ruling faction in Israeli politics.
Really? Bill Clinton and Warren Christopher tried for eight years, at great expense to the American taxpayer, to bring the Palestinians and Syrians to a peace agreement; did Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres win the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize because they were part of an obstructionist “ruling faction”?
It must also be said that the post-war generation feels Jews were threatened by a pesky little man called Eichmann who just happened to want to exterminate all 14 million of world Jewry in the “Final Solution.” The “never again” gene is embedded in my generation’s DNA. If we want Israel to be safe we have good reason to do so. Critics of the so-called Zionist Lobby should also recognize that the United States, and indeed many Western countries, shares common values with Israel, including artistic and cultural dynamism, sexual equality, and a dynamically free press and judiciary.
The Freeman world that sees Zionists and Jews as some sort of threat — whilst Saudis flog old ladies to death, Iran threatens genocide of its tiny near-neighbor, Islamic police patrol their cities, Muslim terrorists torture Jews in Mumbai and mutilate Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, and Islamic fundamentalists smash up stores and cafes in central London — needs to cure its schizophrenia.
Charles Freeman has proven he is as capable of calumnies as the Zionist lobbyists he says tormented him this year. He says he gave up everything to do the NSC work but is now jobless. My heart bleeds for him.
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Carol Gould is the Philadelphia-born author of Don’t Tread on Me: Anti-Americanism Abroad, Spitfire Girls, and A Room at Camp Pickett, a play about her mother’s experiences as a WAC in World War II; she has just completed films about black GIs and GI babies. Carol has been a panelist on BBC's Any Questions?, hosted by Jonathan Dimbleby, and is a commentator on Sky News, Press TV, the BBC World Service, and Five Live.
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32 Comments
1. Meryl:This kind of article is crazymaking.
After giving excerpt after excerpt (confirming what “scaremongering Newsmax” was presenting about Freeman), then the author says “It had occurred to me that Freeman, once in government, would moderate his stance,,,,,,.”
Please forgive my yelling, but I must ask, “BASED ON WHAT??????”
Mar 13, 2009 - 2:39 am 2. JD:Chas Freeman could have preserved a little dignity by accepting his fate and not ranting about the “Israel lobby.”
People like that should just be given all the press attention and rope needed to hang themselves.
http://trackacrat.com/category/charles-freeman/
Mar 13, 2009 - 3:54 am 3. Carol Gould:It’s because I live in Britain and after thirty-three years here have absorbed the ‘let’s give the chap some rope’ trait of the English, in the same way many of us gave Rabin the benefit of the doubt during Oslo.
Mar 13, 2009 - 4:04 am 4. Ken Besig:And yes, Neville Chamberlain was proven wrong in waving that piece of paper in 1938.
How funny — just yesterday an English lady was accusing me of being ‘worse than Melanie Phillips’ in my ‘Right wing Zionist zeal.’ Can’t win, but that is the joy of writing for PJM!
As a Jew I would like my People to take credit for torpedoing the Freeman appointment because that would mean that the Jews saved America from a very bad and possibly dangerous individual being appointed to a very influential and important post. Alas, I am unable to take credit for this, because Freeman did it all by himself with his bizarre support of China’s horrible human rights record, his money trail from and sycophantic support of the Saudi dictatorship, and finally his antagonism towards America’s only real and trusted ally in the world, Israel and by extension, the Jewish People.
Mar 13, 2009 - 5:26 am 5. jerryofva:But much more disturbing to me as an American and a Jew, is that Barack Obama and Rahm Emmanuel both supported Freeman’s candidacy and were supposedly fully informed as to Freeman’s positions regarding China, Saudi Arabia, and Israel, not to mention his overt anti Semitism and yet found nothing wrong or distasteful with any of it. Indeed,I am afraid that both Obama and Emmanuel could be said to have supported Freeman’s nomination because of his views on China, Saudi Arabia, and Israel, rather than in spite of them.
Thankfully, due to the efforts of the Jewish Community, supporters of Israel, and many non Jewish Americans, this time we have dodged a bullet fired by Obama, the next time we might not be so fortunate.
It would be nice if Freeman’s decision to withdraw was based on pressure from the Jewish community and its supporters but it isn’t so. His views on China did him in. Nancy Pelosi was instrumental in bringing him down but her opposition wasn’t to his anti-Semitic ravings. It was about his remarks about the suppression of Tibet. When blamed the Free Tibet Movement for causing the Chinese to crackdown in 2008 it touched the nerve of a key constituency in the Speaker’s district. That and his remarks on Tiananmen Square killed the nomination. Anti-Semitism alone is not an encumbrance to a nominee in the Obama Administration.
Mar 13, 2009 - 5:33 am 6. Blackwater:What a freaking disgrace. Thank God this moron didn’t get the job.
Mar 13, 2009 - 6:15 am 7. Rotwang:I’m no fan of Freeman. But Gould insults the reader (and History) by using the Holocaust as justification for the (if I understand correctly) regrettable but necessary extremes of brutality and collective punishment that Israel — with deep sadness and a laudable commitment to proper, businesslike assassination and only the most noble and humane application of American-built bulldozers — is forced to employ in its defense.
That one is such a tired, old groaner that it supplies its own rimshot. And if irony were a crime, this instance would be a capital offense.
This isn’t 1948, and Israel isn’t Anne Frank. Nor should we kid ourselves that America has any use for Israel beyond its utility as an alternating carrot/stick to be applied, as necessary, in the service of broader US policy goals in the Middle East.
Nothing will ever be resolved as long as we continue to frame Israel as a metaphor…or the booby-prize for World War II.
Mar 13, 2009 - 7:17 am 8. Bugs:Freeman’s withdrawal demonstrated that he was not the man for the job. An intelligence chief who caves under political pressure is useless. He’d be cooking the intel data to please his friends the Saudis or make his “enemies” in the “Israeli lobby” look bad. We need someone who will give the President the straight dope, not someone with a pro- or anti-Israel agenda. Freeman’s obviously not that person.
Mar 13, 2009 - 7:17 am 9. Paul from Hamburg:ROTWANG:
References to the Holocaust are understandable and entirely appropriate. The German people didn’t go along with the Holocaust because the Jews dressed funny and kept kosher. The Holocaust happened because the Nazis were able to portray the Jews as a group with a disproportionate and undeserving influence on German government and society while simultaneously being less loyal than other citizens.
Freeman’s words clearly echo this sentiment.
Mar 13, 2009 - 7:42 am 10. TalkinKamel:meanwhile, I find it interesting that groups like CAIR, and wealthy oil sheiks who buy up influence in shcools, the media, etc.—who realy do have a disproportionate influence on our society—never get any criticism at all. Or, if they do, it’s immediately shouted down as Islamophobic, not to mention racist.
Then, there’s the Palestinians. Talk about a group that has undue influence, and who’se certainly won first prize in the victimiology sweepstakes. Yeah, let’s send them some more aid, even though the American economy’s going broke at the moment.
Mar 13, 2009 - 7:50 am 11. Craig:“Chas Freeman Shows His Ugly Side”
Aren’t you repeating yourself?
Mar 13, 2009 - 8:03 am 12. AlanABQ:“The tactics of the Israel Lobby plumb the depths of dishonor and indecency and include character assassination, selective misquotation, the willful distortion of the record, the fabrication of falsehoods, and an utter disregard for the truth.”
You know, it’s almost like he’s describing the mainstream media there. But that would be outrageous…besides, if he were describing the MSM like that, they’d never report it. Gotta keep up appearances!
Mar 13, 2009 - 8:46 am 13. Harry:Freeman was bread and buttered by the Saudis. The Saudi’s are still a mystery. They were a major force for twenty years aiding and abetting current Islamofundamentalist acts that poisons the world. They funded thousands of madrassas that preached Wahhabistic Islam basically teaching a generation of students to hate and to kill infidels and zionists. Where was this freeman buffoon when it was all happening? After all he was only the ambassador to Saudi Arabia shouldn’t he have been concerned with the anti-American sentiment running rampant in the 90’s? 15 of the 20 9/11 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia. And we want this shcmuck to be head of NIC? Get lost you bum.
Mar 13, 2009 - 9:01 am 14. Grover:By observation alone – if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck IT IS A DUCK! Freeman is obviously a convert to Islam, a hateful, evil and murderous religion. As such, his ideas and goals are anathema to freedom-loving Americans. He stepped down because of the heat he got from such as we.
Mar 13, 2009 - 9:25 am 15. Andrew Ian Dodge:Wonder if some of the Ronulan’s @ CPAC are upset this guy didn’t get the job. After all a few of them were spouting on about “Zionist control” after getting a drink or half in them.
Mar 13, 2009 - 9:49 am 16. Pee Wee Herman, Community Organizer:There’s a side that isn’t ugly?
Mar 13, 2009 - 10:12 am 17. Oscar the Grump:Rotwang
Mar 13, 2009 - 10:49 am 18. TalkinKamel:Maybe if you go to a good Jewish doctor, he might cure your condition.
Your mental condition, I think, is incurable.
Can we stop obsessing over the Jews for once, and maybe, just maybe, take a look at some of our dear “friends”, like the Saudis?
Mar 13, 2009 - 10:59 am 19. fred:I cannot prove this – it is just my suspicion based on the logic of circumstance and context. Samantha Power, who is now a foreign policy adviser for Obama, is an enthusiastic adherent of the Mearscheimer-Walt hypothesis. So is Chas Freeman. Power also would like to use American forces to protect Palestinians and compel more Israeli land concessions.
We may never know who exactly it was who threatened to drop the hammer on Freeman. It certainly was not our media, because his appointment and background were given scant coverage. I think it had to be someone either on the Hill or over in the Pentagon who strongly objected to his appointment. And in view of his effusive praise of Communist brutality in China and his cozy relationship with Middle East purveyors of jihad, we dodged a bullet with his removal from consideration.
But rest assured, Power and Obama will find another Muslim toady to take his place. Someone with less of a paper trail. Of that I am sure.
Mar 13, 2009 - 11:14 am 20. jerryofva:The respondents to this thread are reinforcing Freeman’s view of the “Jewish Conspiracy.” As I said above it was the China and Tibet human rights lobby that closed Freeman’s coffin. Anti-Semitism alone is not a disqualifyer for the Obama Administration.
Mar 13, 2009 - 12:04 pm 21. Self-hating Boomer:Among Americans, the majority of Jews aren’t Zionists, and the majority of Zionists aren’t Jews. Certainly Jews constitute a substantial minority of Zionists, but to make this a “Jewish lobby” thing flies in the face of the demographic data.
And Jerry makes a good point; This odious character has enemies in the Asian communities here. This should, by the logic of the conspiracy theorists, be just as much about the Taiwan lobby.
And therein lies the real reason why the Goyim should, and frequently do, support Israel’s right to exist and defend herself; for the exact same reason that we should all support Taiwan’s reason to do the same.
Mar 13, 2009 - 1:29 pm 22. James Just:Speaking of Taiwan, how come among all of these anti-Semites none of them ever mention the South Korean lobby’s historical influence in Washington that goes back over sixty years? I mean really now, America went to war for the Koreans didn’t we? Our country fought South Korea’s battles for them and in the process lost over 50,000 soldiers killed and wounded, after the war ended- because Eisenhower threatened to nuke North Korea with newly invented nuclear artillery shells (Ike exaggerated), we propped up their country with a mutual security treaty, and placed an entire division as a deterrent tripwire on the Korean DMZ too boot, just to keep the peace between the two warring sides. Not to mention that we also spend billions of dollars to maintain a naval fleet presence in the South China Sea.
In contrast Israel fights their own wars, all they ever asked of the USA was too support them and just keep passing the ammunition because they can take care of themselves thank you very much.
Mar 13, 2009 - 8:04 pm 23. Joe:It was obvious during the campaign that Obama was sympathetic to Muslims so why is anyone surprised at the anti-semitics around him? Why is no one really talking about this? Wasn’t the Holocaust lesson enough? Tomorrow they could come for each of us. Look at what is happening in Europe? Americans had better wake up.
Mar 14, 2009 - 7:15 am 24. edouard:Freeman was telling the truth! AIPAC was the central power in both the Rpublican and Democratic runs for President and similar “high” government positions. Do not believe me. Check out the position it plays in electing government on both side. Still don’t believe me! Let any high government official ignore an appeal to appear or refuse to appear at an AIPAC event and see the repercussions.
Mar 14, 2009 - 10:23 am 25. Bernard Makizoi:I will take it one step further!
See who appears at AIPAC events over the decades and you will see the real truth!
Just remember this only works in metropolitan urban population centres so the rest of citizens are immune from this power play.
Arabs and muslims should be kicked out of America. Jews have brought more prosperity to America. We should open our doors to Jews based on their race alone.
As for the palestinians their whining will never stop so we have to silent them using whatever means we have at our disposal , without remorse.
Long live Israel.
Mar 15, 2009 - 2:57 am 26. Oscar the Grump:Long live USA.
edouard
First of all, politicians are whores. They won’t miss anybody’s event. You name a political action committee, and you will see the same faces there all the time.
As per the rest of your statement, you are either paranoid or harbor some real anti-Semitic feeling. In either case, you should get some professional help for it.
Mar 15, 2009 - 11:53 am 27. AlanABQ:Hey, Edouard’s not a bad guy; he just hates Jews.
Wait…that’s bad!
Mar 15, 2009 - 2:45 pm 28. Dave:What is the real reason behind the Freeman and Powers postions? Simple. It is cowardice.
People with generally prevailing standards of ethical conduct are condenmed because it is safe to do so.
People who will saw off your head and ejaculate over your expiring remains are praised because
it might be dangerous to oppose them.
Cowards ALWAYS cloak themselves in an aura of superior morality. And it is ALWAYS false.
Mar 15, 2009 - 9:32 pm 29. naftali:They are slimeballs.
I just watched Freeman being interviewed by Fareed Zakaria. A couple of three points.
1. The other day there was a brief discussion on whether or not Freeman is Jewish. He isn’t, by his own words.
2. He frequently cited the Zionist Organization of America as the main bogeyman here. Any Jew will tell you that they’ve barely heard of the organization and probably couldn’t tell you three positions they have on three issues they choose to deal with. I read a bit, and I couldn’t tell you the first thing about the organization. Of course, anyone heading a government intelligence organization should be familiar with that level of organizational ineffectuality. But he’s not. He’s claiming they are some kind of all powerful monolith.
3. He still asserts that US support of Israeli settlements, or as we call them in the US, neighborhoods built on their own land, was the cause of 9/11. Well, for the former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, he certainly has chosen to completely ignore the history of Wahabism and it’s relationship to the Saudi Royal Family. That is pretty poor analysis. He is completely unqualified for this job. This much is clear. It is unclear whether or not he is still on the Saudi payroll. And it is beyond me to understand how a man could assert that Israel is a greater threat to American than the Saudis.
Mar 16, 2009 - 2:59 am 30. Oscar the Grump:Naftai
Mar 16, 2009 - 7:53 pm 31. Kosher:It’s a known fact Israel has weaponized Matzo Balls. The whole world is in danger.
Jewish/Israeli lobbyists are very influential in the American government. Americans continue to spend money to support a foreign country when we can barely support ourselves.
Mar 17, 2009 - 12:46 pm 32. Blogs Ruin Great Americans:No-one on this blog knows Freeman apparently.
Mar 27, 2009 - 1:03 pmIt is absolute balderdash to say that he was unqualified, or that the Israel lobby was not involved. First, he is not “unaware of Wahhabism” — served as Ambassador in KSA. Not one-sided at all! Very well-rounded & great credentials re. NATO, Africa, Middle East, China etc. Further, he is not uncritical about the Saudis (or the Chinese) the point is he was considered very dangerous by AIPAC & the Lobby. As for steppping aside “gracefully” without saying anything, that’s not “graceful” it is submission, as he wrote to the interests of another state, Israel. Many of us do NOT want to equate Tel Aviv with Washington and the head of the NIC Council cannot do so! I feel very sorry for all you, repeating trash & slander about a great American who could have intelligently sifted through the conflicting aspects of the various agencies work.