Chas Freeman to chair the National Intelligence Council

From Ben Smith's column on Politico. The Weekly Standard panned the appointment, and he apparently made some dubious comments regarding China and Saudi Arabia. TWS blog bemoans "that he actually defends the corrupt Arab states that foment and support terror while at the same time condemning a democratic ally of this country." Saudi Arabia has been an ally to this country longer than Israel, and, as a variety of scholars argue, Saudi sweet crude fueled American hegemony and its authority during the Cold War and even up to today. War in Context has several pieces by Freeman and generally offers positive appraisals.

Politico
The Weekly Standard

The Obama administration has notified Congress that Chas Freeman has been appointed chairman of the National Intelligence Council, demonstrating a willingness to rebuff pro-Israel activists and an embrace of a more realist foreign policy line.

Freeman, who drew fire for defending the Chinese and Saudi governments, doesn't represent the mainstream of the administration. He's also a broadly knowledgeable, polyglot, experienced diplomat with many friends in foreign policy and intelligence circles, including Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair.

But his inclusion in an important, low-profile job represents, among other things, the vastly diminished sway of the neocons — long at odds with the professional intelligence community — who launched a concerted, public effort to torpedo the move.

"Ambassador Freeman will be responsible for overseeing the production of National Intelligence Estimates (NIE) and other Intelligence Community analytical products, providing substantive counsel to the DNI and senior policymakers on issues of top national security importance, reaching out to nongovernmental experts in academia and the private sector to broaden the Intelligence Community's perspective, and articulating substantive intelligence priorities and procedures to guide intelligence collection and analysis," says the notification, which lists his qualifications: "Ambassador Freeman brings a diverse background in defense, diplomacy, and intelligence to this position having served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Deputy Chief of Mission and Charge d'Affaires in Bangkok and Beijing, Director of Chinese Affairs at U.S. State Department, and Distinguished Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace and the Institute for National Security Studies. He received his J.D. from the Harvard School of Law."