A Washington Post editorial on Charles Freeman’s paranoid “Israel lobby” rant.

What’s striking about the charges by Mr. Freeman and like-minded conspiracy theorists is their blatant disregard for such established facts. Mr. Freeman darkly claims that “it is not permitted for anyone in the United States” to describe Israel’s nefarious influence. But several of his allies have made themselves famous (and advanced their careers) by making such charges — and no doubt Mr. Freeman himself will now win plenty of admiring attention. Crackpot tirades such as his have always had an eager audience here and around the world. The real question is why an administration that says it aims to depoliticize U.S. intelligence estimates would have chosen such a man to oversee them.

UPDATE at 3/12/09 8:19:38 am:

The New York Times, on the other hand, is defending Freeman and lending credence to his antisemitic lunacy: Israel Stance Was Undoing of Nominee for Intelligence Post.