Jennifer Rubin of Commentary picks up the media blackout on the otherwise-controversial Chas Freeman appointment as head of the National Intelligence Council. Ms. Rubin notes that Freeman is taking incoming fire from the left flank, as Ashley Rindsberg of the Huffington Post flags his support of a national identity system.
Ms. Rindsberg's source seems to be the second point of this summary of Mr. Freeman's interview with two members of the 9/11 Commission on Dec 3, 2003. Let me extract a bit more - I daresay critics from the right will be taken by point three:
First, the U.S. government should improve the visa system. More names to the forms should be added in order to distinguish among the many "Abdullah bin Mohammads."
Technical means should also be used to cut the wait.
Second, the United States should implement a national identity system, so we better know who is who .
Third, the war on terrorism should be seen primarily as a law enforcement and intelligence war, not as a military one. (U)
Point three - the war on terror is primarily a law enforcement and intelligence effort, not a military one - was also made by Mr. Freeman in this 2006 address to incoming members of Congress. This snippet has not stood up well:
I am not sure how Mr. Freeman could have proposed either in late 2003 or in late 2006 that the US proceed in Iraq and Afghanistan with a focus on law enforcement and intel rather than as a military effort. Obama identifies Afghanistan as part of the central front in the war on terror and wants more troops there - how would Mr. Freeman explain that to our NATO allies?
It's all there in the backstory of a political cartoon USMediaAndIsrael.com
Posted by: jack | March 14, 2009 at 06:42 AM