Israel's U.S. Lobby Exerting Undue Influence? Yes or No?

[reality check]

Obama pick quits over Israel lobby




Freeman said the Israeli lobby blocks "serious public discussion" on Middle East policy

The candidate for a leading US intelligence post has withdrawn his nomination after accusing the country's Israel lobby of plumbing "the depths of dishonour and indecency" to assassinate his character.

Charles "Chas" Freeman, a former US ambassador who is now president of the Middle East Policy Council think-tank, had initially agreed to chair the US National Intelligence Council that produces assessments of security issues.

But on Tuesday he withdrew his nomination following what he called a "barrage of libellous distortions" of his record by the Israel lobby in the US.

"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," he said.

"The tactics of the Israel lobby plumb the depths of dishonour and indecency and include character assassination, selective misquotation, the wilful 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 favours."

Setback for Obama

"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"

Pete Hoekstra, the leading Republican on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, said this was "yet another breakdown in the Obama administration vetting process - one more in a long series of missteps".

Freeman, who in 2007 said "the brutal oppression of the Palestinians by Israeli occupation shows no sign of ending", was criticised by some in the US congress for remarks seen as critical of Israel.

But he countered in an email to supporters on Tuesday: "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."

'Israel lobby won'

Max Blumenthal, a blogger and journalist for the Daily Beast website who has been following Freeman's nomination process, told Al Jazeera that Freeman's withdrawal was "a catastrophic defeat for the Obama administration".

"What happened is the Israel lobby won," he said.

"What [Freeman] said that I think is most remarkable in his statement is that apparently the Obama administration will not be able to dictate its own Mid East policy and he places the blame for this squarely on the Israel lobby.

Blumenthal explained that the Israel lobby had "been furiously emailing sympathetic reporters, smearing him in public" and that "political decisions came into play with respect to [Freeman's] views on Israel and essentially his appointment was torpedoed".

This was the Israel lobby's "first all out fusillade and they succeeded because they knew that freeman would be dispensable to political elements in the White House that needed to court the Israel lobby, needed their money for senate races", he told Al Jazeera.

China-Saudi links

Freeman is a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, who has also served as an assistant secretary of defence and a senior US diplomat in China.

Admiral Dennis Blair, the national intelligence director who chose Freeman for the council position, had defended him in congress on Tuesday as a man of "strong views, of an inventive mind and the analytical point of view".

Blair said he preferred that to "precooked, pabulum judgments".

But Freeman's perceived criticisms of Israel along with his ties with China and Saudi Arabia, stirred controversy.

Freeman served on the international advisory board of the state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation when it made its 2005 bid for US oil firm Unocal that was thwarted by US congressional protest, and his Washington-based Middle East Policy Council think-tank received funding from Saudi Arabia.

Freeman said he had resigned from all his private positions when he decided to accept the intelligence council post.

After Freeman's withdrawal, Blair's office said he accepted his decision "with regret".

[bob sacamano]

In a fall 2007 speech to the Pacific Council on International Policy Freeman said:

“In retrospect, Al Qaeda has played us with the finesse of a matador exhausting a great bull by guiding it into unproductive lunges at the void behind his cape. By invading Iraq, we transformed an intervention in Afghanistan most Muslims had supported into what looks to them like a wider war against Islam. We destroyed the Iraqi state and catalyzed anarchy, sectarian violence, terrorism, and civil war in that country. Meanwhile, we embraced Israel’s enemies as our own; they responded by equating Americans with Israelis as their enemies. We abandoned the role of Middle East peacemaker to back Israel’s efforts to pacify its captive and increasingly ghettoized Arab populations. We wring our hands while sitting on them as the Jewish state continues to seize ever more Arab land for its colonists.[8]

8-^ Quoted from October 2007 speech to the Pacific Council on International Policy by Jim Lobe in Amazing Appointment — Chas Freeman as NIC Chairman, Antiwar.com, February 20, 2009.

[Inverted2]

Wow, not often you see someone speak up against the ZOG like that. They will make sure his political career is finished.

[trey kule]

Canada, being right next to the USA, we are seeing one of the most dangerous things to be happening...subversion of the US administration and the whole democratic process.

It is to bad the media is controlled to the extent the US public will never understand the danger until its to late....

[Inverted2]

Hey, I thought it was all about "Change"

[sky's the limit]

Mmm, not so much....

[trey kule]

It is about "change"...turning the US dollar bills into "change"....and while the american taxpayer has overextended themselves, borrowing more than they can afford to repay, the US government will now take over borrowing on their behalf..They will call it a deficit and the repayment taxes...slavery by taxation.

And the money will still flow to Israel.

Look for huge inflation in the US soon. It is the only way they can possibly borrow their way out of debt.

Now back to the topic at hand...

[Vickers vanguard]

Wow, not often you see someone speak up against the ZOG like that. They will make sure his political career is finished.

How did we get to that point???
How many people have been sidelined and had their career destroyed because of their objectiveness??
Are people blind or what?

[morrow]

Why admit failure when you can blame those dirty so and sos?

It had nothing to do with a career full of spectacular misjudgements such as criticizing Beijing for not crushing the Tiananmen Square democracy protests sooner

It was the dark shadowy forces who brought him down. ooooooooooo.

Washington Post
Blame the 'Lobby'
The Obama administration's latest failed nominee peddles a conspiracy theory.Thursday, March 12, 2009; Page A18

FORMER ambassador Charles W. Freeman Jr. looked like a poor choice to chair the Obama administration's National Intelligence Council. A former envoy to Saudi Arabia and China, he suffered from an extreme case of clientitis on both accounts. In addition to chiding Beijing for not crushing the Tiananmen Square democracy protests sooner and offering sycophantic paeans to Saudi King "Abdullah the Great," Mr. Freeman headed a Saudi-funded Middle East advocacy group in Washington and served on the advisory board of a state-owned Chinese oil company. It was only reasonable to ask -- as numerous members of Congress had begun to do -- whether such an actor was the right person to oversee the preparation of National Intelligence Estimates.

It wasn't until Mr. Freeman withdrew from consideration for the job, however, that it became clear just how bad a selection Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair had made. Mr. Freeman issued a two-page screed on Tuesday in which he described himself as the victim of a shadowy and sinister "Lobby" whose "tactics plumb the depths of dishonor and indecency" and which is "intent on enforcing adherence to the policies of a foreign government." Yes, Mr. Freeman was referring to Americans who support Israel -- and his statement was a grotesque libel.

For the record, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee says that it took no formal position on Mr. Freeman's appointment and undertook no lobbying against him. If there was a campaign, its leaders didn't bother to contact the Post editorial board. According to a report by Newsweek, Mr. Freeman's most formidable critic -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- was incensed by his position on dissent in China.

But let's consider the ambassador's broader charge: He describes "an inability of the American public to discuss, or the government to consider, any option for U.S. policies in the Middle East opposed by the ruling faction in Israeli politics." That will certainly be news to Israel's "ruling faction," which in the past few years alone has seen the U.S. government promote a Palestinian election that it opposed; refuse it weapons it might have used for an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities; and adopt a policy of direct negotiations with a regime that denies the Holocaust and that promises to wipe Israel off the map. Two Israeli governments have been forced from office since the early 1990s after open clashes with Washington over matters such as settlement construction in the occupied territories.

What's striking about the charges by Mr. Freeman and like-minded conspiracy theorists is their blatant disregard for such established facts. Mr. Freeman darkly claims that "it is not permitted for anyone in the United States" to describe Israel's nefarious influence. But several of his allies have made themselves famous (and advanced their careers) by making such charges -- and no doubt Mr. Freeman himself will now win plenty of admiring attention. Crackpot tirades such as his have always had an eager audience here and around the world. The real question is why an administration that says it aims to depoliticize U.S. intelligence estimates would have chosen such a man to oversee them.

[bob sacamano]

The Israel Lobby And Iran
Thursday, March 12, 2009

I mentioned the Swift Boating of Chas Freeman and its implications on US/Israel policy. Andrew Sullivan thinks he's found a nut and has divined the real reason there was such vicious pushback on Freeman, who was clearly qualified for the job. There is a pretty big under-the-radar battle right now between Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, who recommended Freeman for the job of National Intelligence Council head, and the hard right in Israel, and this mainly concerns intelligence on Iran. Blair testified in an open session on Tuesday that Iran has not weaponized uranium or restarted its nuclear capacity. And frankly, the Israelis don't like what they hear.

Iran has not produced the highly enriched uranium necessary for a nuclear weapon and has not decided to do so, U.S. intelligence officials told Congress yesterday, an assessment that contrasts with a stark Israeli warning days earlier that Iran has crossed the "technological threshold" in its pursuit of the bomb.

Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair said that Iran has not decided to pursue the production of weapons-grade uranium and the parallel ability to load it onto a ballistic missile [...]

Israeli officials have a different view of Iran's goals.

"Reaching a military-grade nuclear capability is a question of synchronizing its strategy with the production of a nuclear bomb," Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, Israel's chief of military intelligence, told cabinet ministers, according to a senior Israeli official briefing reporters in Jerusalem. "Iran continues to stockpile hundreds of kilograms of low-level enriched uranium and hopes to use the dialogue with the West to buy the time it requires in order to move towards an ability to manufacture a nuclear bomb."

Blair said Israel was working from the same facts but had drawn a different interpretation of their meaning.

"The Israelis are far more concerned about it, and they take more of a worst-case approach to these things from their point of view," he said.

And so, extrapolating from that, Sullivan makes a succinct but compelling argument that the Israel lobby is trying to show their power to Blair, and by extension influence the internal debate on Iran.

The blackballing of Freeman is also about the intimidation of Blair. My concern remains that many of the same people that led us into the groupthink that gave us the worst intelligence blunder in American history are now dictating who gets to review intelligence for the next historic analysis: on Iran. I realized my mistake and have tried to adjust to allow for it. Others have dug in more deeply.

There's no question that the Israel lobby used the blackballing of Freeman to aggrandize their power in Washington and with the Obama Administration. In Walter Pincus' article, an AIPAC spokesman was outed as providing material about Freeman on background to reporters (good for Pincus). But character assassination is one thing. If there really is an attempt to hijack the interpretation of key data about the scope of the Iranian threat, it needs to be pummeled into sand.

The Administration's public statements on Iran have been a mix of carrots and sticks - and they've candidly spoken on both sides of the nuclear issue. Yet at the same time they may be seeking supply routes for Afghanistan through the country, inviting the country to international conferences, etc. It sounds to me like there's an internal struggle, and the Israel lobby is trying to gain a foothold. Needless to say, the result of either the US or Israel attempting to "take out" Iranian nuclear facilities would be catastrophic for the region and the world. It's simply incredible that we have to even fight this battle again, but Washington doesn't learn easily.

http://d-day.blogspot.com/2009/03/israe ... -iran.html

[bob sacamano]

I've posted this link to the video before. I urge those who care at all about this subject, check this out. 51 minute video about the jewish lobby in the u.s. and aipac in particular.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 0057137878

[trey kule]

I am surprised that our usual pro-Israel, AvCanada monitoring team have not posted a rebuttal with the usual references to published articles explaining how the previous posts were in error.

Perhaps they feel it is best to just let this one lie and it will go away.

Dont think so. To many people seeing the US administration for what it is..puppets.

[morrow]

For all the avcanadian supporters of Mr. Freeman:

The Washington Times
'Blaming the Jews' doesn't always work

It's getting crowded under that bus where President Obama throws the discards no longer useful to him. Fortunately, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright is there to offer the last rites, this time for Charles W. Freeman Jr., may peace be on him.

Mr. Freeman is the well-paid shill for the Saudis and the Chinese who was stopped just before he was to assume the chairmanship of the National Intelligence Council, where he would have directed the preparation of intelligence briefings for the president and other high government officials - an official largely responsible for what the president should know and when he should know it. The appointment does not require Senate endorsement and the White House apparently figured it could slip him past whoever was not looking.

Mr. Freeman, to put a fine point on it, does not like the Israelis very much. He comes out of the State Department, where bagels and lox are not a big breakfast favorite in the cafeteria, and was once a medium-high official at Foggy Bottom, a "principal deputy assistant secretary" to somebody who rides to the office in one of the longer limousines. (The State Department is fond of titles too long to fit on a calling card.) Mr. Freeman doesn't like anybody who makes trouble for China very much, either, particularly if they're demonstrating for democracy at Tiananmen Square or Tibetans struggling to get their country back.

Fortunately, it occurred to a few key Republicans and several Democrats that he was a very odd choice for the job. The Republicans were mostly Christians, the Democrats were mostly Jewish, and it's a shame this is important but Mr. Freeman's friends on the left are trying to make this a religious issue. It's time to blame the Jews again, this time for ruining poor Mr. Freeman's new career as the chef in charge of cooking the intelligence served in the Oval Office.

Mr. Freeman has had a long if not distinguished career in berating the Israelis for struggling for survival and apologizing for Chinese repression of dissidents struggling only to breathe free. In a speech in 2005 he described Israel as the aggressor in the Middle East, and two years later accused the United States of "embracing Israel's enemies as our own." He apparently "forgot" that Israel's enemies had on terrible occasion made themselves enemies of the United States, with their suicide-bomber attacks on targets in the Middle East and finally on the Twin Towers on September 11. But blame the Jews, anyway.

When Mr. Freeman surrendered to the inevitable and withdrew his name from consideration he distributed a two-page rant casting himself as a martyr to Jewish perfidy and treachery, done in by a Jewish lobby whose "tactics plumb the depths of dishonor and decency." These Jews are "intent on enforcing adherence to the policies of a foreign government."

Blaming "lobbyists," whether Jewish, Catholic or Presbyterian, is an odd excuse for Mr. Freeman, who is himself a lobbyist. He runs a think tank, the Middle East Policy Council, with money supplied by Saudi Arabia, which he lovingly describes as a kingdom ruled by the beneficent "Abdullah the Great," and serves on the board of a Chinese government-owned oil company. He may regard his description of Chinese repression of Tibetan demonstrators as a "race riot" as noble advocacy, but anyone else can recognize it as lobbying. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

Mr. Freeman has his defenders. Nearly all on the left, naturally. The Nation magazine decries "a thunderous coordinated assault" on him; Professor Stephen Walt, author of an earlier screed against "the Israeli lobby," called the citations (all accurate) of Mr. Freeman's work "a despicable smear campaign" for "some rather mild public criticisms of Israeli policy." Mr. Freeman's critics, the professor says, intended to force him out of the job. Hmmmmm. Well, yes, that was the idea.

What really bugs Mr. Freeman and his friends is that he was recognized for who he is. "I think their goal is not to stop me but to keep others from speaking out," he said on the way out, just as the door was about to bang him on the butt. Nobody has tried to shut up Mr. Freeman, his defenders or his detractors; it's the public noise, the noise that the elites no longer control, that did him in.

The more disturbing question is why the White House agreed to this appointment in the first place. Not all of Israel's enemies live in the Middle East. Some of them live just down the street.

[trey kule]

And just so we understand the message, morrow, that of course, this whole Jewish lobby is a figment of some peoples' overactive imaginations, I was faxed a copy of a picture from the Calgary Herald today showing our Prime Minister surrounded by...well take a moment and check it out..the message is there.

About as blatent a piece of propoganda as you can get. Only one person actually looking at the PM..only the puppet strings are missing.

[bob sacamano]

[morrow]

And just so we understand the message, morrow, that of course, this whole Jewish lobby is a figment of some peoples' overactive imaginations,

Pretty much.

I was faxed a copy of a picture from the Calgary Herald today showing our Prime Minister surrounded by...well take a moment and check it out..the message is there.

Wow. Do you have a network of people faxing each you evidence of these string-pulling manipulators? That says it all. Keep up the good work.

To be serious for a minute, I'm sure there is a Jewish lobby. I'm equally sure there is an Arab lobby, a farmers' lobby, a real estate brokers' lobby, a Tibetan lobby and many others.

Oh, and I read the story about the event the Prime Minister attended yesterday. Seemed like a nice and appropriate gesture.

Of course, the chances that anyone can dissuade you of the existence of this conspiracy you believe in are about zero, so I won't even try.

[bob sacamano]

And just so we understand the message, morrow, that of course, this whole Jewish lobby is a figment of some peoples' overactive imaginations,

Pretty much.

I was faxed a copy of a picture from the Calgary Herald today showing our Prime Minister surrounded by...well take a moment and check it out..the message is there.

Wow. Do you have a network of people faxing each you evidence of these string-pulling manipulators? That says it all. Keep up the good work.

To be serious for a minute, I'm sure there is a Jewish lobby. I'm equally sure there is an Arab lobby, a farmers' lobby, a real estate brokers' lobby, a Tibetan lobby and many others.

Oh, and I read the story about the event the Prime Minister attended yesterday. Seemed like a nice and appropriate gesture.

Of course, the chances that anyone can dissuade you of the existence of this conspiracy you believe in are about zero, so I won't even try.

There are lobbies for just about anything as you said, no one says differently. The difference between them is how much control and influence each lobby can exercise. AIPAC and the jewish lobby control the united states foreign policy when it comes to the Middle East and anything that can effect isreal. This is not a conspiracy theory, this is a fact. American tax payer money could be spent on so many beneficial programs in their own country, such as health care, housing, schooling, etc, rather it goes to israel where each citizen of isreal enjoys it, and neighbouring civilians suffer from it.

[morrow]

This is not a conspiracy theory, this is a fact.

Suuuure it is. All conspiracy theories are facts to those who believe them.

Have a great weekend.

[trey kule]

Actually, morrow, the picture was faxed to me (and then sent digitally), to request me to see if it had been retouched..I am not going into details except to say yes it had...you can actually see it if you look closely.(hint the PM is not Jewish and was not wearing anything typically worn by Jewish people)

I see you have taken the position of attempting to marganilize those that disagree with you by making the whole thing out to be an extremist position. Perhaps...perhaps not.
But by trying to make this personal you do yourself a great disservice.

[morrow]

It's not personal at all.

[sky's the limit]

I am surprised that our usual pro-Israel, AvCanada monitoring team have not posted a rebuttal with the usual references to published articles explaining how the previous posts were in error.

Excuse me?

Do yourself a favour and search my posts on the subject, I think you'll find I take Israel and the US to task with regularity. There are some egregious wrongs being committed by both of these nations, usually sold with the fear pill that most are more than willing to swallow. Moderating topics on these subjects is tricky, as we're trying to preserve the debate/argument without allowing vitriol and hate. You're more than welcome to give it a go.

So, before you go and make comments like that, make sure you are on solid ground.

stl

[trey kule]

STL

My comment that you quote was done tongue in cheek . I was actually looking for a little balance for the no side because I felt like debating the issue...I really have no strong feelings about this, but as some others seem to do, it is fun to debate the issues.

I apologize if I offended you....and bite my tongue,figuratively speaking, I wont add a further comment..I am silenced.

[sky's the limit]

STL

My comment that you quote was done tongue in cheek . I was actually looking for a little balance for the no side because I felt like debating the issue...I really have no strong feelings about this, but as some others seem to do, it is fun to debate the issues.

I apologize if I offended you....and bite my tongue,figuratively speaking, I wont add a further comment..I am silenced.

Please, add as many comments as you like. If it was intended tongue in cheek, great. No worries.

stl

[trey kule]

Actually, STL, I was a little surprised that you felt this comment was in reference to you.
I was using the word "monitoring" , not in reference to moderators, but in reference to the "no" side posters of this question who I expected to jump in.

The entertainment value, and, lets be honest here, that is what this is all about, because nothing results from these debates, is not much fun unless we have disagreement. Otherwise it is just a group hug, so to speak.

There is no side to any political issue that is all right or all wrong. And as most political issues have an emotional side to them, these kind of threads make for interesting readings...I appreciate your challange in "moderating" them.

[sky's the limit]

"Monitoring," "moderating."

Never said I could read.... If you saw how much crap comes in on the "moderation" front, and the severe deficiencies in the spellings of those tirades, you'd see how your comment could very easily be taken that way. Doah!

Ok, enough of the hijack here...

stl