Freeman and the Lobby

Recently, the Director of National Intelligence, Admiral Dennis Blair, appointed former ambassador Charles Freeman to be Chairman of the National Intelligence Council, which oversees the writing of the National Intelligence Estimates, etc. The Israel Lobby then threw a hysterical fit because for a moment it looked as if these Israel-firsters would not be able to fix the intelligence around their war-mongering policies so as to drag us into war with Iran as they had so easily been able to do with regard to Iraq, based on their manipulated faulty intelligence.

You see, Charles Freeman is one of the few who sees the big picture. He has even bravely stated the big truth, namely that it is our unwavering support of Israel's occupation and brutal oppression of the Palestinians which is the primary reason for America's terrorism problem. Americans are not supposed to know this, of course.

On February 19, Steve Rosen, who is awaiting trial on charges of spying for Israel while working for AIPAC, began to campaign against Freeman. Then other Israel Lobby members jumped on his bandwagon: Senator Charles Schumer and Representative Steve Israel telephoned Rahm Emanuel at the White House, Senator Joe Lieberman, The Zionist Organization of America, The Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, etc., all joined in.

As pointed out by Walter Pincus in The Washington Post (3/12)/09), a lot of lobbying was done in the dark. As an example, he notes that although AIPAC officially claimed it was not involved, AIPAC's spokesman Josh Block had spoken to multiple journalists and "provided critical material about Freeman, albeit always on background, meaning his comments could not be attributed to him, according to three journalists who spoke to him."

Seventeen former ambassadors wrote of their support for Freeman in The Wall Street Journal on March 3, 2009. At a Senate hearing March 10, Admiral Blair strongly supported Freeman but subsequently, Freeman withdrew and posted an explanatory statement.

Freeman wrote 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." "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."