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From radical advisers in the Obama White House to hacked e-mails showing questionable work by climate scientists, 2009 has seen its share of scandals. But if you only followed the mainstream media, you might have missed some of the biggest stories of the year. Here's a list of the top nine stories the mainstream media ignored in the past year. (Slideshow at link)

The president picks a China apologist and Israel basher to write his intelligence summaries. During the presidential campaign, a constant refrain of Barack Obama and other Democratic candidates was that the Bush administration had severely politicized intelligence, resulting in such disasters as the war in Iraq. The irony of course is that, if anything, President Bush badly failed at depoliticizing a CIA that was often hostile to his agenda. Witness the repeated leaks of classified information that undercut his policies. It now appears Mr. Obama has appointed a highly controversial figure to head the National Intelligence Council, which is responsible...

The recent appointment and ultimate withdrawal of Chas Freeman to head the National Intelligence Council has exposed much that is wrong with President Barack Obama’s first months in office, both in terms of policy and vetting, as well as the media coverage surrounding both. Many of Obama’s supporters said it was unfair to criticize Obama’s associations with people like the unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers and the anti-Semitic preacher of hate, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and called it guilt by association. It is now becoming clearer why those sorts of associations matter.On February 26, Chas W. Freeman Jr. was named by...

Predictably, John Measheimer comes out in support of Chas Freeman in his article The Lobby Falters.. According to him "the Israel lobby launched a smear campaign against Freeman" and he suggested the attack was unfounded. He faults Obama with these words "But Barack Obama’s pandering to the Israel lobby during the campaign and his silence during the Gaza War show that this is one opponent he is not willing to challenge." The object of his anger once again is the Israel Lobby (AIPAC) which he charges, has "since gone to great lengths to deny its role in Freeman’s resignation." That...

Although Charles Freeman is no longer to become chairman of the National Intelligence Council, disturbing questions raised by his aborted appointment remain. Freeman, a veteran Arabist who blamed 9/11 in part upon America's poliicy towards Israel was forced out over concerns about his financial links to the Chinese and Saudi regimes and his support for the Chinese crackdown at Tiananmen Square and his dismissal of Tibetan protests against Chinese oppression as a "race riot." And Freeman's ravings about a Zionist conspiracy were not the views of a solitary crackpot. The big question is how the Director of National Intelligence, Dennis...

Last week, after the Chas Freeman withdrew his name from consideration to be the next head of the National Intelligence Council, Mickey Kaus summarized the lack of newspaper coverage of the controversy, "You Know This Guy We Haven't Told You About? Well, He's Not Going to Be Important!" From the time that Freeman was appointed until he withdrew backed out there was precious little coverage of his nomination. Doug Jehl, an editor of the New York Times explained that he considered only the campaign against Freeman to be newsworthy, and so his publication only covered the nomination once the campaign...

Among those with useful insights on the New York Times’s refusal to cover the Chas Freeman controversy, Don Feder was blistering: “In a sane world,” he wrote, “Freeman wouldn’t even be allowed to read National Intelligence Estimates, let alone be responsible for generating them. The Times’s efforts to low-key this disastrous appointment is typical of its attempts to run interference for the administration.” The Grey Lady is a specialty for Feder, a longtime syndicated columnist and commentator. He edits a website called Boycott the New York Times, a project of Accuracy in Media. In the wake of the Freeman controversy,...

Those who successfully challenged the nomination of Charles W. Freeman, Jr. to become chairman of the National Intelligence Council should be praised for an act of high patriotism. It would have been disastrous for the United States to have, as the person responsible for overseeing “policy-neutral intelligence assessments” for the President, a zealot who is anything but policy-neutral when it comes to two of the most important areas of international conflict. Freeman not only has extremist views regarding the Middle East and China, but he has been beholden to lobby groups that are anxious to influence intelligent assessments regarding Saudi...

I’ve been traveling and am just getting caught up on the latest developments in the flame-out of Chas Freeman, and am particularly enjoying Walter Pincus’s latest piece. Someone nominate this guy for coming up with the biggest dog-bites-man story of the year. Here’s the thing about stories on Arab reactions to Israel-related American political stories: there is almost never any doubt about what those Arab reactions are going to be. There are no “trends” here — there is utterly predictable, hackneyed conspiracy-theorizing about Jewish power and Israeli puppeteering.

Dershowitz on the Chas Freeman Resignation As someone who was deeply involved in the Chas Freeman episode, I can tell you that at times I was too busy "fighting" to get a clear view of what I was doing. I was always writing another post, op ed, sending more evidence to my Congressman Steve Israel. or appearing on another radio show, trying to get the word our. In my sleep I could tell you why Freeman was bad for the United States, and when I ran out of things to say, Aaron Klein, Steve Rosen, Eli Lake or some one...

WASHINGTON: Chas Freeman’s withdrawal was far more newsworthy than his initial appointment WHEN FORMER ambassador Chas Freeman was picked last month to chair the National Intelligence Council (NIC), which prepares intelligence evaluations for the White House, few US newspapers reported the appointment. Freeman’s withdrawal this week was front page news, however, not least because of his blistering parting volley at the “Israel Lobby” he claimed had brought him down.

A common trait among bullies is that they tend to be cowards. Many of Chas Freeman's supporters have proven themselves to be both bullies and cowards. Take MJ Rosenberg for example. Rosenberg attacked Steve Rosen because he knew that Rosen couldn't respond due to his pending legal proceeding. He called writers Chait, and Tobin names because he did not want to debate the facts with them and he twisted my words because I am easy pickings, just “little guy” with a blog. He never attacked any of the facts I discovered. Another Freeman Supporter that falls into the cowardly bully...

Yesterday’s New York Times story on Charles W. Freeman’s decision to withdraw his name from consideration for a top intelligence post was yet another instance of the paper trying to distance Obama from what could have been a disastrous personnel decision. Freeman, who was tapped to head the National Intelligence Council (which produces the National Intelligence Estimates that are vital to policy making), is not only rabidly anti-Israel, but has ties to hostile foreign powers that go way beyond questionable. The Times claimed, “When Dennis C. Blair, the director of national intelligence, announced that he would install Charles W. Freeman,...

'Weak' Barack Obama loses another nomineeTom Baldwin in Washington March 13, 2009 President Obama is facing accusations that he failed his first test on the Middle East by allowing America's pro-Israel lobby to force out the nominee for a top intelligence post. Charles Freeman, picked to chair the National Intelligence Council (NIC), withdrew after an internet-led campaign branded him as harbouring Arabist sympathies or being influenced by foreign governments. In a furious message posted to friends and colleagues, Mr Freeman said that the “tactics of the Israel lobby plumb the depths of dishonour and indecency and include character assassination, selective...

It's getting crowded under that bus where President Obama throws the discards no longer useful to him. Fortunately, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright is there to offer the last rites, this time for Charles W. Freeman Jr., may peace be on him. Mr. Freeman is the well-paid shill for the Saudis and the Chinese who was stopped just before he was to assume the chairmanship of the National Intelligence Council, where he would have directed the preparation of intelligence briefings for the president and other high government officials - an official largely responsible for what the president should know and when...

Joe Klein of Time is calling it an "assassination" led by a "mob" "composed primarily of Jewish neoconservatives." But then he goes on to quote Senator Schumer and his role in Freeman's departure: The mob was composed primarily of Jewish neoconservatives—abetted by less than courageous public servants like Senator Chuck Schumer, who has publicly taken credit for the hit. This was his statement: "Charles Freeman was the wrong guy for this position. His statements against Israel were way over the top and severely out of step with the administration. I repeatedly urged the White House to reject him, and I...

Of course, the true answer is that Freeman did himself in. But aside from that, it is NOT true that the "Israel lobby" forced Freeman to quit. There was a very small group of private individuals with no institutional base who actually did interviewing and research to bring the facts to light. To this day, the name Projects International, Freeman's own company that did questionable dealings with the Saudis, has not been mentioned in the mass media coverage. Yet I believe that his inability to survive an investigation of its doings was the key factor in his downfall. I repeat...

12, 2009; Page A18 FORMER ambassador Charles W. Freeman Jr. looked like a poor choice to chair the Obama administration's National Intelligence Council. A former envoy to Saudi Arabia and China, he suffered from an extreme case of clientitis on both accounts. In addition to chiding Beijing for not crushing the Tiananmen Square democracy protests sooner and offering sycophantic paeans to Saudi King "Abdullah the Great," Mr. Freeman headed a Saudi-funded Middle East advocacy group in Washington and served on the advisory board of a state-owned Chinese oil company. It was only reasonable to ask -- as numerous members of...

NEW YORK, March 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AJC rejected charges made by Ambassador Charles Freeman blaming the "Israel Lobby" for his decision to withdraw his acceptance of the position of chair of the National Intelligence Council. Freeman was formerly the U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and the chair of the Middle East Policy Council, funded in part by the Saudi government. His foreign policy views drew considerable scrutiny.

"I do not believe the National Intelligence Council could function effectively while its chair was under constant attack by unscrupulous people with a passionate attachment to the views of a political faction in a foreign country." Ambassador Chas Freeman Jr. -3/10/09 It was not unexpected, but the it still burns. The reaction by Chas Freeman, his son, and supporters, to the efforts to oust him was a horrible display of hate. What came out of the mouths of Chas Freeman and his supporters is nothing less than Anti-Semitism. Make no mistake about it, when they are saying that the Israel...

To all who supported me or gave me words of encouragement during the controversy of the past two weeks, you have my gratitude and respect. You will by now have seen the statement by Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair reporting that I have withdrawn my previous acceptance of his invitation to chair the National Intelligence Council. I have concluded that the barrage of libelous distortions of my record would not cease upon my entry into office. The effort to smear me and to destroy my credibility would instead continue. I do not believe the National Intelligence Council could function...

"They are low-lives," Charles Freeman writes of his dad's critics. "And if you're among them and by chance read this: I still want to punch you in the face. You'd deserve it, you schmucks."

If you need any more evidence why Chas Freeman was not fit to hold the office of Director of the National Intelligence Council, have a look at his paranoid, antisemitic statement about his withdrawal: Exiting, Chas Freeman Attacks ‘Israel Lobby’. "Freeman says, “The libels on me and their easily traceable email trails show conclusively that there is a powerful lobby determined to prevent any view other than its own from being aired, still less to factor in American understanding of trends and events in the Middle East. The tactics of the Israel Lobby plumb the depths of dishonor and indecency...

Alarming appointment at the CIA by Steve Rosen Thu, 19 Feb 2009 at 3:55 PM Readers of this blog know that I have been generally quite positive about the appointments the new Adminsitration is making for Middle East policy positions. Today's news is quite different. According to Laura Rozen at the Foreign Policy blog, Chas W. Freeman, Jr., the former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, will become chairman of the National Intelligence Council, and may at times participate in daily intelligence briefings to President Obama. This is a profoundly disturbing appointment, if the report is correct. Freeman is a strident...

Another Man Down By Kathy Shaidle FrontPageMagazine.com | Wednesday, March 11, 2009 On Monday, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair announced that Charles Freeman had withdrawn his name from consideration for the post of Chairman of the National Intelligence Council (NIC), ending weeks of acrimonious debate that had been triggered by Freeman’s nomination. But while Freeman has receded from the spotlight, his selection to a critical intelligence post – despite a deeply troubling political background – lingers as a dark cloud over the Obama administration. In the sensitive role of Chairman of the NIC, Freeman would have been privy to...

WASHINGTON, DC - Charles Freeman has withdrawn from consideration as National Intelligence Chair. Another appointee is claimed by the Obama Curse. Since December nearly a dozen major and minor Obama appointees have backed out from their assignments, believing their positions to have a curse on them. Poor luck and bad publicity have befallen many of those picked for appointment by President Obama.

On Monday, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair announced that Charles Freeman had withdrawn his name from consideration for the post of Chairman of the National Intelligence Council (NIC), ending weeks of acrimonious debate that had been triggered by Freeman’s nomination. But while Freeman has receded from the spotlight, his selection to a critical intelligence post – despite a deeply troubling political background – lingers as a dark cloud over the Obama administration. In the sensitive role of Chairman of the NIC, Freeman would have been privy to state secrets and would have advised President Obama on matters of national...

Two people have been killed in a shooting at a school in southwest Germany, local media reports say. A number of people are also thought to have been wounded in the incident in Winnenden, near Stuttgart. Reports say the gunman wore a black combat uniform and fled into the town. However, local police were not immediately available to comment.

President Barack Obama's controversial pick for a top intelligence post blasted the "Israel lobby" on his way out the door Tuesday, intensifying a debate on the role Israel's allies played in the latest failed Obama appointment. Charles W. Freeman Jr.'s abrupt withdrawal from his appointment as chairman of the National Intelligence Council came after he drew fire on a number of fronts - including questions about his financial ties to China and Saudi Arabia. But the most heated opposition came from supporters of Israel - and Freeman's departure shows Obama's reluctance to signal a change to a U.S. policy in...

Chas Freeman Made an angry vitriolic statement about his withdrawal, blaming that evil Israel lobby. Proving once again that he doesn't have the judgment to run the NIC. .....I have concluded that the barrage of libelous distortions of my record would not cease upon my entry into office. The effort to smear me and to destroy my credibility would instead continue. I do not believe the National Intelligence Council could function effectively while its chair was under constant attack by unscrupulous people with a passionate attachment to the views of a political faction in a foreign country. I agreed to...

Chas Freeman, the former ambassador appointed to be the military's top intelligence analyst, has withdrawn his name following complaints from Democratic and Republican lawmakers who said he was too entangled in foreign affairs to handle the job.

BREAKING NEWS: Just as I posted this–literally- the news has come through that Charles Freeman has asked not to be appointed to the post! In other words, our blogs, attacks and opposition has done its job! If not for people like the folks at The Weekly Standard, who uncovered Freeman’s e mail, and journalists like Eli Lake, Martin Peretz, James Kirchick, Reason magazine’s Michael Moynihan and others, this victory could not have taken place. Kudos to all of them, and let us rejoice! ...

Bias of any kind should be considered a disqualifier for the job of NIC chairman. Bias of the kind Chas Freeman has displayed for many years puts him absolutely beyond the pale. If the House Intelligence Committee does its job in a hastily arranged hearing with Ambassador Freeman this afternoon, it will be abundantly clear that he is unfit for this post and another serious blemish on the judgment of the president who would have him serve in it. Since Freeman left the Foreign Service after a multidecade career involving service in, among other places, Communist China where he was...

Statement by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence 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.

Today The head of Intelligence for United States, Dennis Blair, testified before the Senate today. Joe Lieberman asked about the Freeman appointment and Blair spewed some outright lies to the Connecticut Senator. When Freeman's statements are looked at in context we can be sure that either Mr. Blair is lying or he never read the Freeman's emails.

JERUSALEM – Following the 9/11 attacks, President Obama's nominee for a top intelligence post advocated that to effectively combat terrorism, the U.S. government should implement a national identity system, "so we better know who is who." In testimony before the 9/11 commission, Charles "Chas" Freeman, the U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War, also recommended conducting the war on terrorism primary as a law enforcement effort. Freeman is slated to head the U.S. National Intelligence Council, or NIC, a crucial component of the U.S. intelligence apparatus. The NIC serves as the center for midterm and long-term strategic...

Jake Tapper appears to be one of the few (only?) mainstream reporters keeping current on the Chas Freeman story. You would think it would be hard to ignore the growing tidal wave of protest and controversy. The latest is a letter signed by the Republican members of the Senate Intelligence Committee taking issue with the appointment. And one wonders how the civil libertarians on the left who are apologizing for Freeman and smearing his critics will respond to this from Huffington Post: One new development, revealed here for the first time, which is likely to further damage Freeman’s already battered...

National Security: It seems the foreign conflicts of interest to the man President Obama wants to oversee his eyes-only intelligence are worse than first reported. It's time for full disclosure.We recently argued ("The Wrong Man For The Job") that National Intelligence Council appointee Chas Freeman's cozy ties with China and Saudi Arabia should disqualify him from heading the group that prepares the U.S. intelligence community's most sensitive reports. Freeman will have access to America's closest guarded secrets and draft the consensus view of all 16 intelligence agencies regarding foreign threats to U.S. security. Now we learn that, in addition to...

UH-OH Based on what Chas Freeman's Son Said this weekend, there are members of the Senate who are cruising for a bruising. Seven US Senators sent a letter to Dennis Blair the Director of National Intelligence, objecting to his pick of former ambassador Chas Freeman as Chairman of the NIC. The letter focuses on Freeman's lack of experience as well as his controversial remarks regarding Chinese protesters and Israel to exclude him from the position:

I have one example of media bias, which will demonstrate that the biased, dishonest and fraudulent mainstream media has the potential to destroy America and is in the process of doing exactly that. That is so because it presents such a distorted picture of the world to most Americans who rely on it for news and information, that it will lead to policies and laws, which are likely to bring the country down. Put the case that a president of the United States appoints an official to a top intelligence and foreign policy post who has a long history of...

Mr Freeman's Son Charles Freeman posted a guest editorial on the Washington Note. Freeman is former Assistant US Trade Representative for China and now holds the Freeman Chair in China Studies with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). In his note. the younger Freeman makes a defense of his dad, talking about how they sometimes disagree with each other politically and that this opposition to his dad is to the mysterious pro-Israel Cabal that opposes anyone who has views that may be deemed anti-Israel.He finishes off his post with My Dad and I are going to continue to...

Talk about a failure in vetting! Dennis Blair’s choice to head the National Intelligence Council and to create the critical NIEs that guide our security policies looks worse by the day. Martin Kramer gives his analysis of Freeman and finds a Saudi apologist — and a card-carrying member of the Blame America crowd: How important has resentment of Israel been to Al Qaeda’s terrorism? Here is one side of the argument, by an American who knows Saudi Arabia well: The heart of the poison is the Israel-Palestinian conundrum. When I was in Saudi Arabia, I was told by Saudi friends...

Now "Israel-lobby" conspiracy theorists like MJ Rosenberg will claim that James "F**K the Jews" Baker was just a shill for the for the Israel lobby, but this find by Mark Hemmingway of NRO is priceless. He sorted through the former Secretary of State's Book, and only twice was Freeman's name mentioned, each time he felt that Chas Freeman was "in the pocket" of the Saudi Government....There is another development in "as the Freeman churns" a group of 87 Chinese dissidents sent a letter to President Obama requesting that he reconsider the appointment of Freeman....

The Obama administration's choice for the usually obscure, though important, post as chairman of the National Intelligence Board (NIC) has become their most controversial appointment to date. The reason is not what Charles Freeman Jr. did during his successful diplomatic career but his employment afterward. Freeman's two key post-government activities involved being, to a considerable degree, a de facto employee of Saudi Arabia and an apparent panderer to its demands. In exchange, he received lavish support for the research center he headed and lucrative contracts for the consulting firm that he founded to guide international companies into finding royal family-connected...

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's appointment as head of a U.S. intelligence council has been identified by the Center for Security Policy as a member of the 'Iran lobby'. Also, government sources said Charles Freeman, a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia and appointed to head the National Intelligence Council, has expressed anti-Semitic views in government meetings. At one meeting, the sources said, Freeman turned to Jewish staffers of Congress and questioned their loyalty to the United States. A report by the Center for Security Policy identified Freeman as a member of the so-called Iran lobby, which has been pressing...

Another Congressman Is urging President Obama to reconsider the appointment of Chas Freeman as Chairman of the National Intelligence Council. As first reported by the JTA Frank Wolf (R-Va.) has sent the President a letter objecting to the appointment (see text below). Wolf complains about Freeman's support of Chinese actions against Tibetan democracy protests (he describes them as a "race riot" his work for the Chinese state-owned oil company CNOOC which skirts the US Boycott of Iran and his close financial ties to the Saudi regime. As seen in the picture below, at the end of his letter he hand...

As a quintessential member of the Dem foreign-policy establishment, you might expect Madeleine Albright to endorse Pres. Obama’s pick of Chas Freeman as a matter of course. But appearing on Morning Joe today, the former Secretary of State twice pointedly declined to endorse the president’s choice to head the National Intelligence Council. Adding insult to injury, Albright downplayed the extent to which she had worked with Freeman, and offered a laughably lukewarm description of his skills . . . I’d encourage those seeking more background on Freeman, this Saudi lapdog and apologist for the Tiananmen Square massacre, to read Rich...

The appointment of Ambassador Charles Freeman as chairman of the National Intelligence Council has stirred another bipartisan controversy over President Barack Obama’s inner circle of advisers. Mr. Freeman, who was a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, headed the Saudi-funded Middle East Policy Council think tank as well as Projects International, a consulting firm that represents U.S. defense contractors doing business with the kingdom. In the past, he has made some controversial statements involving American foreign policy. He has accused Israel of being at fault for the failure of Middle East peace talks. He also said that China acted too...

The pressure keeps mounting on the President's new National Intelligence Council Chairman, Chas Freeman. Washington Times reporter Eli Lake got a copy of the letter from Edward Maguire, inspector general of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), to twelve congressman saying said he would look into Mr. Freeman's "past and current relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia" and "report back to Congress on any potential conflicts of interest." (see letter below)....Reps. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Steve Israel, teamed up for a letter Thursday asking the Inspector general to broaden the scope of the investigation to include...

An independent inspector general will look into the foreign financial ties of Chas W. Freeman Jr., the Obama administration's pick to serve as chairman of the group that prepares the U.S. intelligence community's most sensitive assessments, according to three congressional aides. The director of national intelligence, Dennis C. Blair, last Thursday named Mr. Freeman, a veteran former diplomat, to the chairmanship of the National Intelligence Council, known inside the government as the NIC. In that job, Mr. Freeman will have access to some of America's most closely guarded secrets and be charged with overseeing the drafting of the consensus view...