Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan famously told the Washington Post that “If the reputation then builds that the Saudis take care of friends when they leave office, you’d be surprised how much better friends you have who are just coming into office.” The Saudis have few better friends than Chas Freeman, who has been unofficially appointed to head Obama’s National Intelligence Council after serving as Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and later as the president of the Saudi-backed Middle East Policy Council. From Freeman’s perch there, he’s had nothing but praise for the Saudi regime. In 2002, Freeman explained that “in the case of Saudi Arabia, reform has always come from the top down. It has been the ruling family that has sought to liberalize society and to open it up.” Freeman goes much further in an interview with the Saudi-US Relations Information Service (wonder who funds that):
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