Netanyahu NSC Adviser Denied Visa While White House Rebuffs Israeli Hawk on Iran
This is interesting. Uzi Arad, Netanyahu's choice for national security adviser and one of Israel's smartest foreign policy types, cannot get a visa to visit Washington because of the Rosen case. Or so says a top reporter.
The Washington Time's Eli Lake, who has some of the best connections in Washington on all matters Middle Eastern, tends to know what he's talking about. If he says that Netanyahu's top foreign policy adviser cannot get a visa to come to Washington, it's surely true.
So what will the administration do? I expect they will give Arad the visa. Why not? He's not applying to work at the CIA? He's representing a foreign government. I doubt he'll be consulting Steve Rosen in the future.
It just goes to show that the Rosen/Franklin case keeps reverberating, and not in a good way.
Meanwhile, check this out for more evidence that the Freeman stand down does not mean that Obama is going all Likud on us. Not by a long shot.
It's interesting that Arad's name is mentioned in the indictment of Larry Franklin, the only figure yet sentenced (12 years) in the AIPAC spy scandal. According to the Times article cited in your post:
Jeff Stein's SpyTalk has Arad in the room when Hillary Clinton met with the new Israeli leadership team, including Benjamin Netanyahu, earlier this month.
At the time of his arrest, Franklin was working for Douglas Feith's Office of Special Plans in the Pentagon, the "auxiliary" intelligence-gathering unit that cooked up much of the phony evidence that underwrote the Iraq War. He is also listed, along with Feith, Brent Scowcroft, Richard Perle, Dennis Hastert and Marc Grossman, and Douglas Feith in connection with former FBI translator and whistleblower Sibel Edmonds' suppressed file detailing crimes by leading US officials, involving the nuclear black market, narcotics trafficking, terrorism and money laundering.
March 17, 2009 10:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
Here's a documentary about Sibel Edmonds. If there was any justice in this country she would be a national hero by now, and Grossman, Feith, Perle, etc would probably be in jail, or Gitmo.
Nice find Curt.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6063340745569143497&ei=Dci_ScPUDoqsrALo3onoCw&q=Sibel+Edmonds&hl=en
March 17, 2009 12:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
for me the freeman"stand down" is all about obama not defending him.
i expect the heat from any source depending on the person being appointed, but not to defend your choice and then backing down is NOT what the president of the united states does.
nothing will change the perception that obama caved in and is weak.
March 17, 2009 4:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is positive news in the Alterman article. The question is where does Emmanuel come down on this change of emphasis (i.e. Palestine has higher priority that Iran)? Did he lose the argument or does he really support it?
March 17, 2009 4:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ignoring or rebuffing the Israeli saber rattling towards Iran is actually protecting the Palestinians. They will be caught in the crossfire should Israel engage Iran. May it never happen.
March 17, 2009 6:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Time to play Two Degrees of Bernie Madoff:
Uzi Arad is married to Dr. Ruth Arad, Vice President and Chief Risk Officer of Bank Leumi
Bernard Madoff's partner in crime Jacob Ezra Merkin bought Israel's Bank Leumi from the Israeli government headed by Ariel Sharon and then finance minister Ehud Olmert.
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-180879
March 17, 2009 7:12 PM | Reply | Permalink