Charles Freeman Appreciation Thread

[BuyingThyme]

I don't really know anything about the guy, but I appreciate the way he is bringing questions of national security and sovereignty to the public square. Finally.

Even Leslie Aipac just did a piece on it.

:woohoo:

[Elidor]

1. I hope I won't become known as "the guy who posts Greenwald's column every day"

But he's all over this topic today.

In the New York Times this morning, Mazzetti, writing with Helene Cooper, has a much better, more thorough article on the Freeman controversy, with this headline: "Israel Stance Was Undoing of Nominee for Intelligence Post." It quotes Chuck Schumer as accusing Freeman of "irrational hatred of Israel." The Freeman controversy, they write, raises the question of whether it is "possible to question American support for Israel without being either muzzled or marginalized," and quotes Robert Jordan, a former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, as saying (with great diplomatic understatement): "The reality of Washington is that our political landscape finds it difficult to assimilate any criticism of any segment of the Israeli leadership."

Just to underscore how respected of a diplomat and civil servant Freeman was in mainstream political circles in Washington, David Broder -- the ultimate face of the Washington establishment -- today lambasts Freeman critics and begins his column this way: "The Obama administration has just suffered an embarrassing defeat at the hands of the lobbyists the president vowed to keep in their place."

Is Fred Hiatt going to accuse Mazzetti, Cooper, Broder and Pincus of advancing "crackpot theories" and "grotesque libels" for pointing out the driving forces behind the attacks on Freeman? This may be a case where the Israel-devoted Right overplayed their hand to obtain a short-term victory at the expense of long-term damage to their cause. Freeman is widely admired in many influential intelligence and diplomatic circles in Washington, which are clearly angry about the ugly character smears directed at him. Has there ever been an occasion where the taboos suffocating our debates over Israel and the vast influence wielded by AIPAC and others over America's Middle East policies have been so openly discussed and widely debated in mainstream publications?

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/03/12/anonymity/index.html

In related news, Chuck Schumer is now solidly back in my "fuck you" column after getting rare kudos from me a couple of weeks ago. Not that he gives a shit either way.

If nothing else, Freeman has raised the debate. That's something, I guess, but it's a piss-poor reward for his troubles.

[burythehatchet]

2. Glenn Greenwald is a treasure.

Chuck Chuck The AIPAC SChmuck

[Elidor]

4. amg, that's precious! *right-click save*

Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair defended Freeman in the Senate shortly before Freeman withdrew. I know of no other administration official that spoke up in his favor, though to be fair I could easily have missed it if they had. Maybe someone else can fill me in on any I've missed.

[scarletwoman]

5. Chuck Schumer has been in *MY* "fuck you" column ever since he pushed Mukasey (sp?) for AG.

It's clear to me that Chuck is no friend to the rest of us.

sw

[Elidor]

6. He sent a letter to Obama a week or two ago

Stating that the stimulus bill was structured in such a way that governors could not reject just a portion of it; they must accept all or nothing. He asked Obama to be sure they were all made aware of that fact. I gave him kudos for some rare common sense.

Strangely, I haven't heard anything about it since. And Goodhair Perry, in Texas, is in the news today for rejecting part of the stimulus. I'd like to know what Obama's thoughts on all this are.

Otherwise, Chuck pretty much lives on my shit list. It wasn't just Mukasey:

* Michael Hayden as Bush's CIA Director: Hayden implemented, oversaw and was the chief defender of Bush's illegal NSA spying program. Weeks before the Senate vote, his nomination was supposedly "complicated by the disclosure that the spy agency under Hayden's control collected phone records on millions of Americans." The new revelations of massive, secret spying on Americans under Hayden's watch prompted Dianne Feinstein to predict that the new surveillance scandal "is going to present a growing impediment to the confirmation of General Hayden and I think that is very regretted."

Two weeks later, Schumer voted to confirm Hayden.

* Michael Mukasey as Attorney General: During his confirmation hearings, Mukasey refused to say that waterboarding was torture and refused to repudiate the most radical Bush theories of executive power, including the right to detain American citizens indefinitely without charges and to attack Iran without Congressional authorization.

Schumer not only voted to confirm Mukasey, but his early announced support for Mukasey (as 1 of only 6 Democrats to do so) was, along with Feinstein's support, the event that assured Mukasey's confirmation.

* John Bolton as Bush's U.N. Ambassador: Bolton is about as extremist an ideologue as it gets, so much so that Senate Democrats and even some Senate Republicans joined together to refuse to vote on his nomination. But not Schumer:

Dodd still lies in wait, hoping to filibuster Bolton again, but he does not appear to have the votes this time. AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby, now backs Bolton, and the usually partisan Democrat Sen. Charles Schumer has indicated he will change his vote from last year and vote for cloture to end debate.

New America Foundation's Steve Clemons, who led the effort to defeat Bolton's nomination, reported that Schumer was leading the way trying to pressure Democrats to support the nomination:

During the "third" major effort by the administration to get John Bolton confirmed as US Ambassador to the United Nations, one of the shocking parts of that battle was not only trying to get Republicans like former Senator Lincoln Chafee to stand strong against Bolton -- but to undo the damage that Schumer was doing inside the Democratic Caucus.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/03/11/schumer/index.html

[elleng]

8. Ditto

.

[burythehatchet]

3. I wish the President had uttered a word or two of public support.

[MasonJar]

7. Obama folded to the rightwing again; this time the Israeli rightwing of Rahm.

What is wrong with voices of dissension in an administration? Obama originally said he welcomed it; he also said he would not have lobbyists. So much for sticking to what one says. I am waiting for Obama to stand tall in support of what is right, when there is jeopardy in supporting the ideal that is right. I am pleased with many of Obama's decisions, but I am disappointed in an equal number.