Obama's spy ruffles hawks' feathers

[bemildred]

WASHINGTON - The appointment of a top-ranking retired diplomat and vocal critic of Israel to a key intelligence post has triggered an intense backlash from hawkish Israel supporters in Congress and the media who are pressing the administration of President Barack Obama to reconsider.

Critics have seized on retired ambassador Charles "Chas" Freeman's ties to Saudi Arabia and views on human rights in China to argue against his appointment as chairman of the National Intelligence Council (NIC), but Freeman's defenders charge that their real aim is to impose an ideological litmus test on top government officials and ensure a continued policy of reflexive US support for Israel.

Observers are watching the campaign against Freeman, who enjoys strong support among intelligence professionals and realists in the national-security bureaucracy, as an early test of how much influence the so-called "Israel lobby" will be able to exert on the new administration.

Freeman was formally appointed NIC chairman last week by Obama's Director of National Intelligence (DNI), ambassador Dennis Blair. A polyglot with unusually wide-ranging foreign policy expertise - he has served as ambassador to Saudi Arabia, as assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, and has shaped US policy in areas ranging from Asia to the Middle East to Africa - Freeman is reported to have been Blair's hand-picked choice for the job.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KC06Ak01.html

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