Appointee to National Intelligence Council Has Ties to Saudi Arabia, China

Obama’s administration is pushing to appoint Chas Freeman as the chairman of the National Intelligence Council, despite the fact that he previously effectively worked for the Saudis and Chinese. Freeman, a former diplomat, was ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 1989 to 1992 and is now the president of the Middle East Policy Council, a non-profit anti-Israel group funded by the Saudi government.

A growing number of critics say that Freeman is too entangled with foreign interests to maintain an impartial stance in his new position. Freeman was appointed by Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, not Obama, and his job does not require Senate confirmation. However, he is drawing some of the toughest criticisms directed at an appointee yet, on issues far deeper than failure to pay one’s taxes.

Freeman has a record of supporting Saudi Arabia and has made statements perceived as favoring Hamas while claiming that the U.S. relationship with Israel has hurt peace in the region, stating that the U.S. “abandoned the role of Middle East peacemaker to back Israel's efforts to pacify its captive and increasingly ghettoized Arab populations.”

In 2006, Freeman told the Saudi-U.S. Relations Information Service that the Middle East Policy Council could not exist without “the generosity of [Saudi] King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz.” In 2007, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz al-Saud donated another $1 million to Freeman’s organization (but was rejected by Mayor Rudi Giuliani after Sept. 11).

Before becoming ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Freeman served in China where he was a member of the international advisory board of the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), a major oil company owned by the Chinese government which makes business deals designed to expand China’s worldwide influence and has also been accused of multiple human rights violations.

Freeman—nominated for America’s top intelligence analysis job—sits on the board of CNOOC, which in 2005 tried to purchase the ninth largest oil firm in the U.S. while he was a member. The merger was stopped by bipartisan congressional opposition due to concern that it would be a threat to America’s national security. Freeman has been quoted in the media supporting Chinese policies and once wrote an article praising communist Chinese leader Mao Zedong.

A ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, Michigan Rep. Pete Hoekstra, has stated that he wants Freeman to withdraw his name from the nomination. On Thursday, the inspector general for the director of national intelligence agreed to requests from lawmakers to examine Freeman’s controversial foreign ties concerning Israel, Saudi Arabia, China, and U.S. foreign policy.