THE WHITE House has defended its controversial choice of former ambassador Chas Freeman as chairman of the National Intelligence Council (NIC) following complaints about his criticism of Israel and business ties to China and Saudi Arabia.
All seven Republicans on the Senate intelligence committee have criticised the appointment, citing Mr Freeman’s criticism of Israel and his sympathetic remarks about China’s suppression of the 1989 Tiananmen Square student protests.
National intelligence director Dennis Blair said Mr Freeman was a person of “strong views” but claimed that controversial remarks had been quoted out of context.
“The job of chairman of the NIC is one of analysis, not policy,” Mr Blair wrote in a letter to some of Mr Freeman’s critics in Congress.
“The chairman and his colleagues on the NIC are charged with presenting the best possible intelligence assessments to our nation’s national security team, independent of any personal views or the wishes of the policymakers who receive them.”
A former ambassador to Saudi Arabia , Mr Freeman ran a Middle East policy think tank that was partly funded by the Saudis and served on the board of CNOOC, a Chinese government-owned oil company.
Conservative critics have focused on the former ambassador’s criticism of Israeli policy but liberals are unhappy with his statements about China and Saudi Arabia .
Three years ago, Mr Freeman wrote that the “mob scene” at Tiananmen Square in 1989 “stands as a monument to overly cautious behaviour” on the part of the Chinese leadership.
“I do not believe it is acceptable for any country to allow the heart of its national capital to be occupied by dissidents intent on disrupting the normal functions of government, however appealing to foreigners their propaganda may be,” he wrote.
“Such folk, whether they represent a veterans’ ‘Bonus Army’ or a ‘student uprising’ on behalf of ‘the goddess of democracy’ should expect to be displaced with despatch from the ground they occupy. I cannot conceive of any American government behaving with the ill-conceived restraint that the Zhao Ziyang administration did in China, allowing students to occupy zones that are the equivalent of the Washington National Mall and Times Square, combined.”
The row over Mr Freeman comes amid mounting concern among human rights activists over US president Barack Obama’s commitment to promoting human rights and democracy abroad as foreign policy realists supplant neoconservatives in positions of influence in the US government.
Last month, secretary of state Hillary Clinton played down the value of raising human rights concerns with China, saying “those issues can’t interfere” with economic, security or environmental matters.
In Egypt, Mrs Clinton brushed aside an interviewer’s question about an official state department report that noted “serious abuses” of human rights in the country.
“We issue these reports on every country,” she said. “We hope that it will be taken in the spirit in which it is offered, that we all have room for improvement.”
Mrs Clinton added that the report would not interfere with plans for Egypt’s authoritarian president, Hosni Mubarak, to visit Washington. “I really consider President and Mrs Mubarak to be friends of my family. So I hope to see him often here in Egypt and in the United States,” she said.
Mr Obama yesterday confronted teachers’ unions, a powerful lobby within the Democratic Party, criticising their opposition to performance-related pay.
“Too many supporters of my party have resisted the idea of rewarding excellence in teaching with extra pay, even though we know it can make a difference in the classroom,” he told the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
Warning students not to “even think about dropping out of school”, the president said inadequate teachers should be sacked.
“We need to make sure our students have the teacher they need to be successful. That means states and school districts taking steps to move bad teachers out of the classroom,” he said.
“Let me be clear: if a teacher is given a chance but still does not improve, there is no excuse for that person to continue teaching.”