Saudi shill appointed to National Intelligence Council.

Saudis are known to co-opt U.S. diplomats during their careers by hiring former diplomats to work for various pro-Saudi study groups, think tanks, and advisory groups after they retire. If the diplomats don't rock the boat before their retirement they get a lucrative job post-retirement and everyone's happy except the people of the U.S. who kinda sorta hope that their diplomats will represent U.S. interests forcefully not subordinate them to the interests of hostile foreigners.

Not that Saudi financial support for wahhabi terrorist pricks around the world is anything to get all worked up about. No. I'm not saying that.

Now note this fact about some outfit known as the Middle East Policy Council (MEPC):

The MEPC purports to be a nonpartisan, public-affairs group that "strives to ensure that a full range of U.S. interests and views are considered by policy makers" dealing with the Middle East. In fact, its original name until 1991 was the American-Arab Affairs Council, and it is an influential Washington mouthpiece for Saudi Arabia.

Put that fact together with the fact that a former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Charles "Chas" Freeman Jr., was formerly president of MEPC and then factor in that he now appears to have been appointed chairman of Obama's National Intelligence Council, which is responsible for producing National Intelligence Estimates. These intel estimates are what are produced for the president's consumption to aid him in the performance of his duties.

Will President Obama be getting his intel with a pro-Saudi gloss from now on?

Also, Mr. Freeman has views about the Chinese that are, to say the least, odd, such as his view that the Chinese government was overly cautious, I kid you not, in its response to the student occupation of Tian An Men square.

I'd hate to think how it might have reacted if it had not been so cautious.

Mr. Freeman is someone we can do without as one with any influence over what information makes it to the president's desk. I can only hope that Mr. Obama isn't aware of this man's background and views, but it's unlikely, worst luck, given his affinity for any and all manner of malcontents and America haters in his various earlier periods of being mentored by someone.

"Obama's Intelligence Choice. The president picks a China apologist and Israel basher to write his intelligence summaries." By Gabriel Schoenfeld, Wall Street Journal (subscription), 2/25/09.