Mar 10, 2009 4:44pm
Chas Freeman Pulls Out
EmailA statement from Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair:
"Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair announced today that Ambassador Charles W. Freeman Jr. has requested that his selection to be Chairman of the National Intelligence Council not proceed. Director Blair accepted Ambassador Freeman’s decision with regret."
Freeman has been under fire for quite some time, though the White House has had little to say on the matter.
Today at a Senate hearing, Blair faced questions about the perception that Freeman is anti-Israel and pro-Saudi Arabia and pro-China, as critics have alleged. Blair said Freeman was being taken out of context.
– jpt
Rick Santorum Sweeps 3 States 
Pentagon to Open Additional Jobs to Women
50 Days That Changed the World
…It’s hard to imagine we’re only 50 days into the Barack Obama Presidency.
** Obama is on track to spend more money than any person in the history of the planet.
** Obama and Pelosi’s stimulus bill was the largest spending bill in the history of the planet.
** Obama and democrats have already saddled America’s children and grand children with massive debt. Not that this bothers them.
** He’s lost at least 3 administration nominees due to tax fraud.
** He’s promoted a tax cheat to run the IRS and Treasury.
** He’s insulted America’s greatest ally, Great Britain.
** He’s reneged on missile agreements with allies Poland and the Czech Republic.
** His administration has already met with the murderous Assad Regime from Syria.
Rescue workers and soldiers stand around a huge crater after a bomb attack that tore through the motorcade of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut, Lebanon. Investigators have linked the Assad regime to the attack. (SMH)
** Obama signed legislation to close Gitmo.
** Obama freed a dirty bomber from Gitmo to Great Britain.
** Obama told US soldiers and marines in Afghanistan, “We’re losing.”
It’s a safe to say that Barack Obama could never have led America during WW II without surrendering. (Numbers from Iraq Casualties and GP)
** Obama’s VP told US soldiers and marines that US deaths will rise in Afghanistan.
** Obama has already discussed holding peace talks with the Taliban.
** The Obama stock market had its worst January in 113 years.
** The stock market had its worst February since 1933.
** The Dow has dropped faster under Obama than any other new president in 90 years.
** Obama’s budget more than doubles the national debt held by the public, and adds more to the debt than all previous presidents — from George Washington to George W. Bush — combined.
** Obama managed to spend more than the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.
** Obama will quadruple the deficit this year.
** Cap & trade was introduced that will cost America 4 million jobs and cost Americans at least $700 per family per year.
** Team Obama announced easing restrictions with communist Cuba.
** Meanwhile, democrats further restricted free trade with ally Colombia.
** Obama signed legislation to fund foreign abortions.
** Obama signed legislation to fund embryonic stem cell research.
** Democrats already banned offshore drilling.
** Democrats scrapped oil and gas leases in Utah for energy development.
** Obama’s party permanently banned drilling in ANWR.
Posted by: poster | March 10, 2009, 5:00 pm 5:00 pm
I’m sure the President has candidates far better suited for this post than Freeman. I look forward to the announcement.
Posted by: mad | March 10, 2009, 5:06 pm 5:06 pm
Good post, poster! Could not have said it better myself. Most pathetic 50 days of a new presidency that I can think of. God help us all.
Posted by: TnMomof3 | March 10, 2009, 5:09 pm 5:09 pm
Poster, I appreciate your research. Unfortunately, most Americans are so stupid they couldn’t name their state representative if you held a gun to their heads. Obama will have to run the country into the ground before the public finally catches on.
Posted by: Janet | March 10, 2009, 5:12 pm 5:12 pm
Duh, Duh, Duh… Another one bites the dust! So says Freddie Mercury…
Posted by: merle | March 10, 2009, 5:14 pm 5:14 pm
So what did they dig up in the vetting process? Owed back taxes? Bribes? To cosy with the chi-coms or saudi’s?
Smoothest transition evar!
Posted by: Bosk | March 10, 2009, 5:20 pm 5:20 pm
Don’t worry guys, I’m sure I’ll find someone who shares Ambassador Freeman’s views but won’t attract as much attention.
Are you going to eat that waffle?
Posted by: Barry O. | March 10, 2009, 5:24 pm 5:24 pm
jpt – did not report this guy just defended him this morning?
Another typical boneheaded PB0 move.
Posted by: two cats | March 10, 2009, 5:25 pm 5:25 pm
It seems our foreign policy is in the hands of a foreign government.
Posted by: Thinking | March 10, 2009, 5:28 pm 5:28 pm
Change
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has repeatedly requested military aircraft to shuttle her and her colleagues and family around the country
Posted by: doofy | March 10, 2009, 5:29 pm 5:29 pm
“There was a time in America when people wanted to serve their country
Obama answered the call.”
Uh…the only thing Chairman Obama is serving is his own interests and those of the FAR left. IMO.
Posted by: blueknight99 | March 10, 2009, 5:30 pm 5:30 pm
We do not need controversial candidates leading our national intelligence services. Candidates should have strong bi-partisan support.
Posted by: Sigmonde | March 10, 2009, 5:31 pm 5:31 pm
It seems our foreign policy is in the hands of a foreign government.
Posted by: Thinking | Mar 10, 2009 5:28:53 PM
——
Yeah. Pull out of Chinese waters. You don’t want PB0 being tested on this one.
Posted by: kat | March 10, 2009, 5:35 pm 5:35 pm
Obama is a monster and needs to be impeached
Posted by: jane pee | March 10, 2009, 5:36 pm 5:36 pm
Yeah. Pull out of Chinese waters. You don’t want PB0 being tested on this one.
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I hope yopu know what you are talking about, I sure don’t. Must be some new secret GOP mantra
Posted by: Thinking | March 10, 2009, 5:46 pm 5:46 pm
I miss W.
Posted by: Uh, Clem | March 10, 2009, 5:51 pm 5:51 pm
the GOP needs to stop this bickering and climb on board the Obama’s winning team
Posted by: hawk boy | March 10, 2009, 5:51 pm 5:51 pm
Liberals are in for such a wakeup call. A revolt is building against the Socialist Obama. It won’t require guns, this revolt will be fought in a non-violent manner. You cannot enslave a population without massive force, and the military will not go along with Obama in enslaving Americans. There will be a lot of economic pain to come, but Obama and his grand utopia is already dead. We will not be enslaved, we will simply refuse to cooperate. I am taking early retirement and moving to a small town. I know others who have similar plans. Millions of boomer-aged top producers will do the same, all over the country. We will leave the big cities to deteriorate and collapse. Obama doesn’t udnerstand how few people actually carry this country on their shoulders. Obama’s utopia will be a nightmare in 4 years. We will consider coming back and rebuilding once he is gone. Good luck to all, America will rise again, as a free country.
Posted by: Meremortal | March 10, 2009, 5:52 pm 5:52 pm
Obama is such a disaster!
Posted by: Dave | March 10, 2009, 6:00 pm 6:00 pm
Concerned:
No. I was trying to explain to you, how it is that Congress should check up on it self. While the GOP wags its tongue and blames Obama for the Omnibus and all the pork they have put in 677 million of their own. I have mearly pointed out that it Congresses responsibility to rid it, they put it in.
OH, I know, the President made be do it.
You should move on.
Posted by: Thinking | March 10, 2009, 6:02 pm 6:02 pm
Mr. Tapper,
Thank you for your continued reporting on Freeman. You are one of the few in the mainstream media that I respect these days. I read many political blogs and whenever I see a reference to your reporting I click the link and enjoy your posts. Your blog has made my favorites list, thanks again for your balance and general objectivity.
Posted by: margaret | March 10, 2009, 6:04 pm 6:04 pm
The question yet to be answered by anyone in the WH is why the Rookie wanted a guy like this as his Director of National Intel??
Posted by: mike d | March 10, 2009, 6:07 pm 6:07 pm
“…why the Rookie wanted a guy like this as his Director of National Intel?? ”
This is just another example of there being a dearth of qualified talent in the Democrat Party. It’s a shame, really.
Posted by: Sigmonde | March 10, 2009, 6:14 pm 6:14 pm
Those bad Congresscritters. 0bama is powerless to stop them! Absolutely powerless! They’re a different branch! Poor 0bama, being asked to multitask! He’s such the victim in this mess, being asked to make decisions and all. How dare us ask 0bama to live up to his word. How racist of us to ask 0bama to match his rhetoric to his actions! HOW DARE US! Rush Limbaugh Bad! Lt. Worf’s arms Good!
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What is wrong with you?
Posted by: Thinking | March 10, 2009, 6:19 pm 6:19 pm
Heck, when Mitch McConnell and the Human Rights Campaign agree the guy is a loser, it should even be up for discussion. The guy is a paid for creep. How could Blair or Obama ever let him get near any elected official?
Posted by: Karen | March 10, 2009, 6:23 pm 6:23 pm
Another looser Obama pick. This is becoming quite routine. Maybe the saying “the fish rots from the head down” should be heard more often when it comes to this president.
Posted by: James | March 10, 2009, 6:37 pm 6:37 pm
Not a good day for the Saudis or other Muslims…
Posted by: Will Stanton | March 10, 2009, 6:44 pm 6:44 pm
1/20/2013..end of an error
Posted by: ugly kid joe | March 10, 2009, 6:49 pm 6:49 pm
Maybe he can find Osama bin Laden for the job. Freeman was an awful pick and kudos to Tapper for diligently pointing that out instead of genuflecting and issing the ring.
Posted by: Joanne600 | March 10, 2009, 6:50 pm 6:50 pm
Mr President
All things happen for a reason. You went throug a heck of a lot of opposition to get where you are today. Keep that same drive. You have the majority of America’s support.
Yes we know. There was a time in America when people were not so scared and not so polarizing and not so easily swayed by public opinion.
YES WE CAN!!!
Posted by: Omentum | March 10, 2009, 7:02 pm 7:02 pm
1/20/2013..end of an error
Posted by: ugly kid joe | Mar 10, 2009 6:49:02 PM
=======================
ugly
I like 1/20/2017 better…. But he will not be an error. He has already proven that. Pepto Bismol can help that bellyache.
Posted by: Ex-Conservative | March 10, 2009, 7:10 pm 7:10 pm
Obama & Co. want to destroy America.
I hope he fails.
Posted by: HelpUs | March 10, 2009, 7:44 pm 7:44 pm
Heck, when Mitch McConnell and the Human Rights Campaign agree the guy is a loser, it should even be up for discussion.
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Chuck Schumer makes a trio.
Posted by: mad | March 10, 2009, 7:52 pm 7:52 pm
The FUNNY thing is that it’s BLAIR, rather than Freeman, Who’s the really DANGEROUS one, kind of the Tim Geithner of intelligence. When he “served” under Clinton, Blair pretty much er MUTINIED against “civilian” direction, in order to continue his support of the Indonesian military. As sixth-generation military, Blair apparently mutinies when he wants to. He also tried water-skiing behind his destroyer.
Chris Hedges on Admiral Blair:
“When those growth rates go down, my gut tells me that there are going to be problems coming out of that, and we’re looking for that,” he said. He referred to “statistical modeling” showing that “economic crises increase the risk of regime-threatening instability if they persist over a one to two year period.”
Blair articulated the newest narrative of fear. As the economic unraveling accelerates we will be told it is not the bearded Islamic extremists, although those in power will drag them out of the Halloween closet when they need to give us an exotic shock, but instead the domestic riffraff, environmentalists, anarchists, unions and enraged members of our dispossessed working class who threaten us. Crime, as it always does in times of turmoil, will grow. Those who oppose the iron fist of the state security apparatus will be lumped together in slick, corporate news reports with the growing criminal underclass.
The committee’s Republican vice chairman, Sen. Christopher Bond of Missouri, not quite knowing what to make of Blair’s testimony, said he was concerned that Blair was making the “conditions in the country” and the global economic crisis “the primary focus of the intelligence community.”
Posted by: Human Intelligence | March 10, 2009, 7:57 pm 7:57 pm
Obama is an ideologue on a mission! He reads very well but he does not actively listen. So he is a very poor communicator! :(
He is hung-up on appearances and inept at authenticity. He is politically savvy but lacks wisdom.
Beware America! :(
Posted by: aware2u | March 10, 2009, 8:14 pm 8:14 pm
Ok, let me get this straight. Two countries want to annilate each other, and instead of taking sides, we try for a more peaceful approach. Yet republicans would rather take a side so they can watch a war continue in the middle east? Are they so hung up on Capitolism that they want to continue selling our Cold war weapons to Israel? Is this a real Republican extremist conspiricy to let the middle eastern religions wipe each other out? Why are Republicans so against Peace? We heard McCain sing Bomb Iran. Now the Republicans want to roadblock peace in foreign countries. Is this a Roman Empire thing?
Posted by: traveler | March 11, 2009, 2:15 am 2:15 am
Republicans want the End of Days to become a reality SO BAD, that they will stand in the way of Peacemakers. Sounds like the Devil is at play here.
Posted by: traveler | March 11, 2009, 2:17 am 2:17 am
Wow, that dude looks about as corrupt as the day is long!
RT
http://www.privacy.at.tc
Posted by: John Davis | March 11, 2009, 7:54 am 7:54 am
Ok traveler, let me get this straight:
There’s a whole contingent of Islamofascist states who want to transform the world into a Caliphate, and yet instead of fighting for the preservation of Western civilization, (America included)Obama and the Democrats want to “reach out” and “negotiate without preconditions”.
Is this just a ploy to trick the Middle Eastern extremists that we’re ready to become a Dhimmi satellite?
Don’t expect the rest of us to follow suit.
Posted by: SFC MAC | March 12, 2009, 9:57 am 9:57 am