Spy's retreat a win for the Israel lobby

By Daniel Luban and Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON - Ambassador Chas Freeman withdrew from consideration for a top intelligence post in the Barack Obama administration on Tuesday, following a vitriolic battle that pitted Republican lawmakers and pro-Israel hardliners opposed to his appointment against liberals and members of the intelligence and diplomatic communities who had come to his defense.

Freeman's withdrawal came as a surprise to many in Washington, particularly since it came only hours after Dennis Blair, the administration's director of national intelligence (DNI) who made the appointment, issued a strong defense of Freeman during his testimony before the US Senate.

His withdrawal is likely to be viewed as a significant victory for hardliners within the so-called "Israel lobby”, who led the movement to scuttle his appointment, and a blow to hopes for a new approach to Israel-Palestine issues under the Obama administration.

A brief notice posted late on Tuesday on the DNI website stated that "Director of National Intelligence Dennis C Blair announced today that Ambassador Charles W Freeman Jr has requested that his selection to be chairman of the National Intelligence Council not proceed. Director Blair accepted Ambassador Freeman's decision with regret."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KC12Ak01.html

This is what it looks like from the outside.

Republicans, pro-Israel hardliners & might-as-well-be neocons like Schumer & Lieberman won a victory.

Another less-than stellar day for hope & change.

I was so little 'appointed' that it's taken awhile but I'm really starting to get disappointed now.

Under attack for his insufficient devotion to Israel, the long-time diplomat's appointment is withdrawn.

<snip>

"Obviously, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt are rabid, hateful paranoids -- total bigots and anti-Semites -- for having suggested that there are powerful domestic political forces in the U.S. which enforce Israel-centric orthodoxies and make it politically impossible to question America's blind loyalty to Israel. What irrational lunacy on their part:



In situations like this, it is often impossible to know whether the appointee really did voluntarily withdraw or whether he was forced out and is merely being allowed to say that he withdrew. To his credit, Adm. Blair was in the Senate this morning defending Freeman from the likes of Joe Lieberman, but everything that is publicly known about Freeman makes it seem unlikely that he would have voluntarily withdrawn due to the shrieking criticisms directed at him. If he were forced out -- and there's no basis for assuming he was until there's evidence for that -- then that reflects quite badly on the Obama administration's willingness to defy the Bill Kristols, Marty Peretzes, and National Reviews of the world when it comes to American policy towards the Middle East.

In the U.S., you can advocate torture, illegal spying, and completely optional though murderous wars and be appointed to the highest positions. But you can't, apparently, criticize Israeli actions too much or question whether America's blind support for Israel should be re-examined.

UPDATE: Prior to the announcement that the Freeman appointment was terminated,Max Blumenthal documented that the man leading the anti-Freeman assault was Steve Rosen, the long-time AIPAC official currently on trial for violations of the Espionage Act in connection with the transmission of classified U.S. information intended for Israel. Blumenthal also quotes foreign policy analyst Chris Nelson as follows:



Blumethal also suggested that right-wing Israel fanatics in the U.S. are particularly interested in controlling how intelligence is analyzed due to their anger over the NIE's 2007 conclusion that Iran had ceased its pursuit of nuclear weapons.



Blumenthal further noted that the leader of the anti-Freeman crusade in the House, Rep. Mark Kirk, is Congress' top recipient of AIPAC donations. Identically, Greg Sargent previously reported that, in the Senate, "concern" over Freeman was expressed by Sen. Chuck Schumer directly to Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel."

Does anyone doubt that it's far more permissible in American political culture to criticize actions of the American government than it is the actions of the Israeli Government? Isn't that rather odd, and quite self-evidently destructive?

more

is that in this "escapade" Schumer and Lieberman were quite comfortably "in bed" with Steve Rosen who has been accused of espionage again the US on Israels behalf.

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"Success is said to have a thousand fathers and Daniel Pipes is joining the crowd taking credit for the Freeman takedown. He sent out the following note to his email newsletter mailing list last night:



Beside getting Max Blumenthal's name totally wrong, this email is pretty spot on. Pipes would seem to have a better claim to success than Schumer or Kirk. They were merely the mob's hired guns, but it has been well established by this point that the campaign to smear Freeman was instigated by Rosen, an AIPAC cast off who has found a home in Pipes's Middle East Forum. As much as one would hope that being under indictment for espionage would ruin Rosen's "stature and credibility" in Washington, clearly it hasn't. Not yet."

http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2009/03/daniel-pipes-takes-credit-for-freeman-takedown-.html