[IMRA: Distributed with permission from ZOA National President Morton A.
Klein]

MEMORANDUM

TO: Members of ZOA National Board & Selected
Friends of ZOA

FROM: Morton A. Klein
National President

RE: ZOA'S Role In The Withdrawal Of The
Anti-Israel, Pro-Arab, Pro-China Chas W. Freeman's Appointment As Chairman,
National Intelligence Council

DATE: March 11, 2008

Yesterday, President Barack Obama's nominee for the post of Chairman of the
National Intelligence Council (NIC), Chas W. Freeman, withdrew his
nomination. Freeman has been a most virulent critic of Israel, blaming it
for 9/11 and anti-American terrorism, a fierce opponent of U.S. support for
Israel and an apologist for the regimes of Saudi Arabia and China. The
chairmanship of NIC is a major government posting that does not require
Senate confirmation. The Council has a strong influence on the content of
intelligence briefings presented to the President and the Council Chairman
is often called to brief the President directly.

On February 25, the ZOA issued a widely-distributed press release which
detailed at length Freeman's strong associations with Saudi Arabia and China
and virulently anti-Israel words and deeds, including his claim that Jewish
communities in Judea and Samaria rationalize Palestinian terrorism. The
Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) reported on our call for rescinding the
Freeman appointment that day. We also issued an Action Alert, advising our
members to contact their Members of Congress to urge them to sign on to the
Congressional letter co-signed by ZOA Honoree Cong. Shelley Berkeley (D-NV)
and Cong. Mark Kirk (R-IL) asking for an investigation of Freeman's past and
current activities on behalf of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Rep. Steve
Israel (D-NY) also wrote to Edward Maguire, Inspector General of the Office
of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), asking the
Inspector-General to broaden the scope of the investigation into Freeman's
background to include his activities with the Chinese National Offshore Oil
Company, on whose advisory board Freeman sits.

The ZOA's role in calling for the rescission of Freeman's appointment was
noted in the March 10 report in JTA by Eric Fingerhut, who observed that,
"The Zionist Organization of America and the Jewish Institute for National
Security Affairs were the only Jewish organizations to come out publicly
against the pick." (But of course ZOA did much more than send out a press
release). ZOA's role was also noted in the Jewish Week's (New York) March 4
Washington blog, and in several other political blogs as well.

The co-directors of the ZOA's Government Relations office in Washington,
Josh London and Dan Pollak, lobbied hard every day, educating Members of
Congress about Freeman's anti-Israel, anti-American record, urging them to
take up the issue with the Obama Administration and to sign on to the
Berkeley-Kirk letter. I personally phoned numerous Jewish communal and
Congressional leaders repeatedly in recent days on the subject and was
successful in getting Congressmen to add their name to the letter as well
pledge to make calls to the White House.

The ZOA leaders and members can therefore derive special satisfaction on a
positive outcome on an important matter affecting Israel and the
American-Israeli relationship.

Chas W. Freeman has served, among other positions, as U.S. Ambassador to
Saudi Arabia (1989-92) and, since 1997, as President of the Middle East
Policy Council (MEPC) (formerly known as the American Arab Affairs Council),
a lobbying group for the Arab world. MEPC owes its endowment to the
"generosity" of the Saudi monarch. In 1994, Saudi Arabia awarded Freeman the
Order of 'King Abd Al-Aziz' 1st Class (Diplomatic Service).

Freeman also has a strong partiality for tyrannical regimes that extends
beyond the Middle East. Until recently, he sat on the board of the People's
Republic of China-owned National Offshore Oil Corporation's international
advisory board. The Corporation is known for its connections to several
undemocratic regimes. Freeman also criticized the Chinese dictatorship for
appeasing and acting too slowly to prevent the 1989 Tiananmen Square
pro-democracy demonstrations, which Beijing subsequently put down with
murderous force.

Freeman has a long record of being been viciously anti-Israel, indulging in
the anti-Semitic tactic of accusing pro-Israel lobbyists as manipulating and
distorting American foreign policy in the service of Israel and contrary to
American interests. He has also boasted of the MEPC, unlike other
organizations, having republished the Mearsheimer-Walt anti-Semitic -Jewish
lobby tract which ZOA critiqued in detail at the time. Freeman has blamed
anti-American terrorism, including 9/11, on American support for Israel,
saying, for example, "We have paid heavily and often in treasure in the past
for our unflinching support and unstinting subsidies of Israel's approach to
managing its relations with the Arabs. Five years ago we began to pay with
the blood of our citizens here at home. We are now paying with the lives of
our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines on battlefields in several
regions of the realm of Islam."

Freeman has also blamed Israel for anti-Americanism in these terms: "To end
[Middle Eastern] terrorism we must address the issues in the region that
give rise to it. Principal among these is the brutal oppression of the
Palestinians by an Israeli occupation ... American identification with
Israeli policy has also become total. Those in the region and beyond it who
detest Israeli behavior, which is to say almost everyone, now naturally
extend their loathing to Americans."

Upon withdrawing his nomination, Freeman offered a barely veiled
anti-Semitic swipe in a published message to his supporters: "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." He was
also quoted in today's New York Times as saying that the "tactics of the
Israel Lobby plumb the depths of dishonor and indecency and include
character assassination, selective misquotation, the willful distortion of
the record, the fabrication of falsehoods, and an utter disregard for the
truth."