Eli Lake reports on the letter from Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee promising increased scrutiny of the Obama administration’s intelligence analysis owing to their complete lack of confidence in the selection of Chas Freeman to head the NIC. Lake also reports that Rep. Wolf, a vocal critic of human rights abuses by the People’s Republic of China, spoke with Dennis Blair on Monday to make his concerns clear. Last week Wolf sent a letter to Obama asking him to reconsider the appointment, and today he announced he’d be sending something else to Blair:
It seems fair to ask how someone ends up on the wrong side of the whole Tienanmen Square thing. At what point exactly did Freeman think the protesters had gone too far? Was it the mini-Statue of Liberty that set off his realist alarm bells? Elsewhere, the Wall Street Journal posts a pretty stunning statement from the administration on the status of Freeman’s appointment:
What situation would that be? Presumably the situation where Congress has flooded Dennis Blair’s office with serious questions about Freeman’s history and allegiances. And how likely is it that Dennis Blair will be an effective spy chief if he so badly miscalculated the reaction Freeman’s appointment would provoke just down the street at the U.S. Capitol.
