Freeman speaks out on his exit
ForeignPolicy.com
12-Mar-2009 (2 comments)

"You will by now have seen the statement by Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair reporting that I have withdrawn my previous acceptance of his invitation to chair the National Intelligence Council. I have concluded that the barrage of libelous distortions of my record would not cease upon my entry into office.  The effort to smear me and to destroy my credibility would instead continue.  I do not believe the National Intelligence Council could function effectively while its chair was under constant attack by unscrupulous people with a passionate attachment to the views of a political faction in a foreign country.  I agreed to chair the NIC to strengthen it and protect it against politicization, not to introduce it to efforts by a special interest group to assert control over it through a protracted political campaign."

>>>
recommended by Suomynona

Balatarin
Share/Save/Bookmark

 
default

Israeli Lobby maybe the loser after all, why?

by concerned (not verified) on Fri Mar 13, 2009 02:15 PM PDT

1. Freeman is going to be talking to all kind of media and expose Israeli Lobby and ints destructive role in American Foregin Policy. He will be on CNN to be interviewed by Fareed Zakaria at 10:00 AM pacific time and 1:00 PM eastern time.

2. US intelligent people are very pissed off by Israeli Lobby and are talking openly about the Lobby's influence in Americans' politics.

3. Main stream media is talking about the Lobby and the Lobby is under bright lights by forcing Freeman to resign.

4. Rahm Emanual, the chief of staff in Obama's administration has been cooperating with the Lobby in this matter according to US intelligence staff.

So after all this have back fired big time in the face of Israeli Lobby and this is a good thing.


  •  
default

Netanyahu Aide Says Obama Agrees on Iran, At Least

by Reuters (not verified) on Fri Mar 13, 2009 05:27 AM PDT

Netanyahu Aide Says Obama Agrees on Iran, At Least
Reuters - World News
Mar 12, 2009

NEW YORK - Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama may differ on some issues, but they agree that stopping Iran getting a nuclear bomb is a top priority, a senior adviser to Israel's prime minister-designate said on Thursday.

Zalman Shoval, a former ambassador to Washington and foreign relations chief of Netanyahu's Likud party, told Reuters in New York that Obama and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had "started off on the right foot" in relations with the government taking shape in Israel.

He also played down concerns about the likely appointment as foreign minister of Avigdor Lieberman, the ultranationalist head of the far-right Yisrael Beiteinu party.

"He's a very intelligent person and not necessarily ... inflexible," Shoval said at a meeting of the Conference of Presidents of major American Jewish organizations.

The Moldovan-born Lieberman had said he would like to be defense minister -- a prospect that raised eyebrows in Israel and abroad given his hawkish talk on issues such as Iran's nuclear program and on Israel's Arab minority.

Shoval warned against preconceived ideas, recalling that Ariel Sharon was long regarded with similar concern, yet it was Sharon who pulled Israeli troops out of Gaza.

He added that the relationship with Israel's most important ally, the United States, was traditionally "mainly in the hands of the prime minister," and that as foreign minister, Lieberman would not determine policy toward Israel's Arab minority.

"The Arab states, or their officials, are realists and they also understand that the main worry for both Israel and themselves is the Iranian threat," he said. "(That) goes beyond the question of the nuclear bomb. It's the desire for Iranian hegemony in the whole area, which worries the Arabs."

"NO REASON FOR A SMASH UP"

Shoval said both Netanyahu and Obama were pragmatic leaders willing to work together. But he conceded there were likely to be differences, such as on Jerusalem, an Arab peace plan, relations with Syria, settlements and Gaza, where Israel launched an offensive in December to quell Hamas rocket fire.

Shoval said if Hamas continues to fire rockets at Israel, "there may perhaps, or may not be, chapter two" of the Gaza offensive.

Regarding the relationship with the United States, he said, "Our roads may not always run parallel, but there's certainly no reason for a smash up."

On her first visit to Jerusalem as U.S. secretary of state, Clinton said "a two-state solution is inescapable." Netanyahu has strenuously avoided committing to a Palestinian state, and Shoval said there should be no rush to a solution.

"It would be foolhardy to agree today to any sort of fixed or set formula which could create a situation where we would see, within months, Hamas on the walls of Jerusalem," he said.

But he said Clinton's visit was encouraging because both sides agreed that stopping Iran getting a nuclear bomb was an urgent priority.

"She agreed on the necessity for a timeline (on Iran)," he said. "She didn't actually say two or three months, but I think what was implied is it can not be open-ended, because if it is open-ended they will have the bomb and then we'll talk."

"I don't want to paint too rosy a picture (of the U.S. relationship)," he said. "Of course there will be disagreements, perhaps even confrontations."

But he said Obama's administration appeared to accept that Iran, as well as Pakistan and Afghanistan, "come before the Palestinian-Israeli problem, and rightly so."


  •