domenica 8 marzo 2009

Le nomine di Obama


Obama mette a capo del National Intelligence Council, che fornisce al governo importanti rapporti di intelligence, un filo-saudita, partner in affari con la famiglia bin Laden e presidente di un ente, il Middle East Policy Council, che fra le altre cose ha pubblicato un libro che attribuisce la scoperta dell'America .... ai musulmani.


Obama Intel Appointment Angers Israel Supporters President Barack Obama's administration has sparked controversy with its choice for chairman of the National Intelligence Council — a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia who has staunchly supported anti-Israel views. In his new post, Charles W. Freeman — who was ambassador from 1989 to 1992 and served during Operation Desert Storm — will be responsible for overseeing the production of National Intelligence Estimates and other intelligence data. The Power Line blog observed that “Saudi shill” Freeman’s “loyalty to Saudi Arabia and his outside-the-mainstream views on the Middle East make him a strange choice for the post, to say the least.” For the past 12 years, Freeman has been president of the Middle East Policy Council (MEPC), which has received funding from Saudi Arabia and lobbies on behalf of the Arab world. Views expressed in the organization’s journal, "Middle East Policy," argue that the invasion of Iraq was launched to aid Israel, saying that “the war was an excuse to enlarge the U.S. strategic ‘footprint’ on top of the lakes of oil in the Gulf region and make life easier for Israel, starting with the easiest problem case, Iraq.” The MEPC published what it called an “unabridged” version of “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy” by professors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt. That controversial 2006 essay asserted that American Jews have a “stranglehold” on the U.S. Congress which they exploit to tilt America toward Israel at the expense of broader national interests. In a 2007 address, Freeman stated that “Israel no longer even pretends to seek peace with the Palestinians” and decried “the brutal oppression of the Palestinians by an Israeli occupation,” The Wall Street Journal reported. The MEPC’s political action group publishes a book that teaches children that Muslims discovered the New World. It cites two sources that claim Muslims reached the Western Hemisphere in pre-Columbian times and spread throughout the Americas. When explorers reached the New World, according to the sources, they met “Iroquois and Algonquin chiefs with names like Abdul-Rahim and Abdallah Ibn Malik.” Freeman maintained business ties to the bin Laden family and their Saudi Binladen Group construction conglomerate even after the 9/11 attacks. He said in an interview with The Associated Press less than a month after Sept. 11 that he was still “discussing proposals with the Binladen Group — and that won’t change.” Regarding the terrorist attacks, Freeman said at a 2002 conference that Osama bin Laden “almost certainly” perpetrated 9/11, the hijackers “probably” were recruited in Saudi Arabia, and Americans should ponder “what might have caused the attack.” Freeman has also created concern over his views on China, saying in 2006 that the specter of a Chinese threat to the U.S. is nothing more than “a great fundraiser for the hyper-expensive advanced weaponry our military-industrial complex prefers to make.” Freeman also opined that the Chinese government exercised “overly cautious behavior” regarding the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests that led to a massacre of demonstrators. Freeman was on the international advisory board of the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, which is owned by the Chinese government, while it was doing business with Iran, according to the Weekly Standard. In 2006, the Chinese firm reportedly agreed to a multibillion-dollar deal with the state-owned Iranian oil company that may violate U.S. sanctions against the Islamic Republic. Members of the pro-Israeli community have privately criticized Freeman’s appointment, according to The Washington Times. “Freeman is well-known for his hostility toward Israel, but what's more substantively troubling . . . is the obvious inappropriateness of hiring a well-known advocate for the interests of Middle Eastern autocracies to produce national intelligence estimates for the Obama Administration,” Jeffrey Goldberg wrote in The Atlantic. And House Republican Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia said: “Freeman’s past associations and positions on foreign policy are deeply alarming. His statements about the U.S.-Israel relationship raise serious questions about his ability to support the administration’s attempts to bring security, stability, and peace to the Middle East.” Fonte: Newsmax