Israel Lobby Defeats Freeman Appointment

The withdrawal of Chas Freeman as chairman of the National Intelligence
Council, following two weeks of vituperative attacks on him by the amen
chorus of the U.S. Zionist lobby is a black mark on the Obama
administration.

As I wrote two weeks ago, when the campaign against Freeman began,
if Barack Obama can't stand up to the likes of Marty Peretz, Jonathan
Chait, Steve Rosen, and other snarky critics, and if the White House
can't defend a critical intelligence pick when that person is savaged
by Republican sharks smelling blood in the water, then how can we
expect Obama to stand up to Bibi Netanyahu and his even more radical
ally, Avigdor Lieberman, when they confront Obama over Middle East
policy?

It's sad, and worrying.

Expect gloating in the pages of The New Republic, National Review, The Weekly Standard, at Fox News, in the corridors at the American Enterprise Institute and AIPAC, and in the right-wing and neocon blogs.

Joining in on the trashing of Freeman were the (let's face it)
hard-line Jews of the Democratic Congress, including Senator Charles
Schumer of New York, Rep. Steve Israel (yes, he is actually named
"Israel") of New York, and of course, that former Democrat, Joe
Lieberman -- all of whom crowded into the amen corner with AIPAC.

The Post, writing this morning about opposition to Freeman
by seven Republican members of the Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence, quoted Freeman from 2007: "The brutal oppression of the
Palestinians by the Israeli occupation shows no sign of ending. ...
American identification with Israel has become total."

You can, apparently, believe anything but that.

Nearly four years ago, I interviewed Freeman about the disastrous
appointment of Porter Goss as CIA director, who was installed by
then-President Bush as a political watchdog over an agency that is
supposed to speak truth to power. Goss, Freeman told me then, was sent
to Langley to "impose a vision on [the CIA] that its analysts and
operatives reject as simply not based on reality," he told me. "It's
totalitarian. We are going to end up with an agency that is more
right-wing, more conformist, and less prone to produce people with
original views and dissenters."

I guess we know, now, that there's no room for dissenters in the intelligence community, now, either.

Late on Tuesday, Freeman issued the following statement:

To all who supported me or gave me words of
encouragement during the controversy of the past two weeks, you have my
gratitude and respect.

You will by now have seen the statement by Director of National
Intelligence Dennis Blair reporting that I have withdrawn my previous
acceptance of his invitation to chair the National Intelligence
Council.

I have concluded that the barrage of libelous distortions of my record
would not cease upon my entry into office. The effort to smear me and
to destroy my credibility would instead continue. 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. I agreed to chair the NIC to strengthen it and protect it
against politicization, not to introduce it to efforts by a special
interest group to assert control over it through a protracted political
campaign.

As those who know me are well aware, I have greatly enjoyed life
since retiring from government. Nothing was further from my mind than a
return to public service. When Admiral Blair asked me to chair the NIC
I responded that I understood he was "asking me to give my freedom of
speech, my leisure, the greater part of my income, subject myself to
the mental colonoscopy of a polygraph, and resume a daily commute to a
job with long working hours and a daily ration of political abuse." I
added that I wondered "whether there wasn't some sort of downside to
this offer." I was mindful that no one is indispensable; I am not an
exception. It took weeks of reflection for me to conclude that, given
the unprecedentedly challenging circumstances in which our country now
finds itself abroad and at home, I had no choice but accept the call to
return to public service. I thereupon resigned from all positions that
I had held and all activities in which I was engaged. I now look
forward to returning to private life, freed of all previous
obligations.

I am not so immodest as to believe that this controversy was about
me rather than issues of public policy. These issues had little to do
with the NIC and were not at the heart of what I hoped to contribute to
the quality of analysis available to President Obama and his
administration. Still, I am saddened by what the controversy and the
manner in which the public vitriol of those who devoted themselves to
sustaining it have revealed about the state of our civil society. It is
apparent that we Americans cannot any longer conduct a serious public
discussion or exercise independent judgment about matters of great
importance to our country as well as to our allies and friends.

The libels on me and their easily traceable email trails show
conclusively that there is a powerful lobby 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. 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. The aim of this Lobby is control of the
policy process through the exercise of a veto over the appointment of
people who dispute the wisdom of its views, the substitution of
political correctness for analysis, and the exclusion of any and all
options for decision by Americans and our government other than those
that it favors.

There is a special irony in having been accused of improper regard for
the opinions of foreign governments and societies by a group so clearly
intent on enforcing adherence to the policies of a foreign government -
in this case, the government of Israel. I believe that the inability of
the American public to discuss, or the government to consider, any
option for US policies in the Middle East opposed by the ruling faction
in Israeli politics has allowed that faction to adopt and sustain
policies that ultimately threaten the existence of the state of Israel.
It is not permitted for anyone in the United States to say so. This is
not just a tragedy for Israelis and their neighbors in the Middle East;
it is doing widening damage to the national security of the United
States.

The outrageous agitation that followed the leak of my pending
appointment will be seen by many to raise serious questions about
whether the Obama administration will be able to make its own decisions
about the Middle East and related issues. I regret that my willingness
to serve the new administration has ended by casting doubt on its
ability to consider, let alone decide what policies might best serve
the interests of the United States rather than those of a Lobby intent
on enforcing the will and interests of a foreign government.

In the court of public opinion, unlike a court of law, one is guilty
until proven innocent. The speeches from which quotations have been
lifted from their context are available for anyone interested in the
truth to read. The injustice of the accusations made against me has
been obvious to those with open minds. Those who have sought to impugn
my character are uninterested in any rebuttal that I or anyone else
might make.

Still, for the record: I have never sought to be paid or accepted
payment from any foreign government, including Saudi Arabia or China,
for any service, nor have I ever spoken on behalf of a foreign
government, its interests, or its policies. I have never lobbied any
branch of our government for any cause, foreign or domestic. I am my
own man, no one else's, and with my return to private life, I will once
again - to my pleasure - serve no master other than myself. I will
continue to speak out as I choose on issues of concern to me and other
Americans.

I retain my respect and confidence in President Obama and DNI Blair.
Our country now faces terrible challenges abroad as well as at home.
Like all patriotic Americans, I continue to pray that our president can
successfully lead us in surmounting them.

I'll be updating this post during the week, so stay tuned.