chas freeman

The Obama Justice Department has asked a judge to dismiss charges against two former American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobbyists accused of receiving classified information from the Bush Pentagon and passing it on to journalists and Israeli government officials. Good.
Put aside whatever you may feel about AIPAC. The case amounted to the criminalization of extremely [...]

I don’t agree with every word, but I think they get the broader themes right.

More from Laura Rozen. She talked to Chas Freeman and he says that Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) had nothing to do with his departure as National Intelligence Council chief:

Not so, said Freeman by e-mail: “Schumer deserves no credit. This was between me and [DNI Adm. Dennis] Blair and for the reasons stated.”

So it goes.

Laura Rozen publishes an email that National Intelligence Committee Non-Chairman Chas Freeman sent out in response to his resignation:
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 [...]

I just emailed Ronald Neumann, the former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan who was one of 17 retired diplomats writing to the Wall Street Journal in defense of Chas Freeman, for a reaction to Freeman’s withdrawal as chairman of the National Intelligence Council. Neumann responds:
A loss to the Nation of a highly gifted analyst who would [...]

Now that Chas Freeman is out of a job – and this is clearly a win for advocates of Chinese human rights and liberalism and empiricism, and not other issues; Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is obviously playing for votes in Chinatown — it’s worth considering something. The other day I wrote that Freeman’s critics win [...]

Just released from Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair’s office:
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.
Pound of flesh: extracted.

Tim Starks at Congressional Quarterly reports on a letter that Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair sent to Congress defending his National Intelligence Council director, Chas Freeman, against allegations of improper financial ties to foreign governments. That was the most serious charge against Freeman, and it doesn’t look like it’s held up:
In a copy of [...]

While you were rending your garment over Chas Freeman, this is happening, according to the Wall Street Journal’s Siobhan Gorman:
The U.S. government still can’t link critical pieces of information that could warn of an impending terrorist plot, despite more than seven years of effort since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a new report from [...]

At the end of a thoughtful post about National Intelligence Council Chairman Chas Freeman, Ezra Klein observes:
But for Freeman’s detractors, a loss might still be a win. As Sullivan and others have documented, the controversy over Freeman is fundamentally a question of his views on Israel. Barring a bad report from the inspector general, Chas [...]