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Likely Obama Appointee Had Ties to Bin Laden Family
Kevin Dietsch, UPI Photo / Landov
Charles Freeman, Obama’s reported pick for chairman of the National Intelligence Council, talked business with the Bin Laden family even after September 11.
Amid the criticism that has already emerged about President Obama's reported pick for the powerful position of chairman of the National Intelligence Council, there is an as-yet unmentioned problem that is likely cause even bigger troubles: He had business ties to the bin Laden family after the 9/11 attacks.
Charles “Chas” Freeman, a former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, had business connections with the bin Laden family and their Saudi Binladen Group, a multibillion-dollar construction conglomerate founded by the father of Osama bin Laden. As chairman of Projects International Inc., a company that develops international business deals, Mr. Freeman asserted in an interview with the Associated Press less than a month after September 11 that he was still “discussing proposals with the Binladen Group—and that won't change.”
In an interview, Freeman contested the notion that international companies who had business with the bin Laden family should be “running for public-relations cover”, noting that bin Laden was still “a very honored name in the kingdom [of Saudi Arabia].”
In the same interview, Freeman also contested the notion that international companies who had business with the bin Laden family should be “running for public-relations cover,” noting that bin Laden was still “a very honored name in the kingdom [of Saudi Arabia]”, despite its family tie to the Al-Qaeda leader. (Freeman wasn’t immediately available for comment.)
Mr. Freeman frequently maintained that the larger bin Laden family was closely aligned with American interests. Contrary to the notion that the family was still supporting and even funding Osama bin Laden, the bin Laden family and its business conglomerate were part of the “establishment that Osama's trying to overthrow,” as Mr. Freeman told The Wall Street Journal in a separate interview less than two weeks after September 11.
However, the Journal also noted that Freeman's connections with the bin Laden family went beyond business: Freeman's Middle East Policy Council, a think tank dedicated to Mideast issues, was receiving “tens of thousands of dollars a year from the bin Laden family” at that time. Since the rumors of his appointment broke, Freeman has been criticized because the pro-Saudi MEPC also accepted donations in the millions of dollars from the Saudi royal family.
Subsequent investigation by US intelligence agencies and journalists of bin Laden family ties to Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden raised questions about the authenticity of the family's claim of financial and emotional distance from the world's most-wanted terror leader. A number of experts, including Vincent Cannistro, a former CIA counterterrorism specialist, assert that while some members of the bin Laden family have disowned Osama bin Laden in a complete sense, other factions have not. Carmen bin Laden, a sister-in-law of Osama, told Der Spiegel that "bin Ladens never disowned Osama; in this family, a brother remains a brother, no matter what he has done."
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LOL
this is better than a comedy show on TV...
Obamanation...
LOL
He is right, the bin Laden family is not representative of Osama bin Laden. They are horrified by him, and have said so publicly. I don't know about his sister-in-law, but I don't think her comment is relevant.
We were promised a government of change, truth and transparency. Instead much of it is business as usual. We still have a inordinately large number of lobbyists, privleged wealthy and Ivy Leaguers. Where's the change? Where's the government free of lobbyists?
Its the same thing in the absolute value sense. Instead of have right wing conservative zealots now we have left wing liberal social activists. Why can't anybody run the government from the middle?
As for this man's association with the bin Laden family, he should be ashamed of himself and remove his name from the nomination. Weren't nearly all the 9/11 terrorists Saudis. Maybe the government is our friend because of convenience, but the majority of its citizens despite America and identify with bin Laden. If Freeman doesn't know that then his head is in the sand. This is a case where guilt by association is absolutely correct. It looks like the vetting process failed once again.
This is bad and the guy should not be appointed. That said, Bush has ties to the Taliban, Bush Senior has ties to the cruel Saudi Arabian Royals, and of course Americans in general a friends with psychos up until we are not. For example: the Russians, Sadam Hussein, Afghanistan freedom (terrorist) fighters.
The Bin Laden Group air conditioned Mecca. So it's like if you hate Donald Trump but would still totally bang his daughter.
Either way this is not change I can believe in, much as it pains me to say it. But Obama picked him because he's against hooking dudes' nuts up to car batteries to find out if they are actually just some farmer you picked up after curfew.
So eh...50/50.
Shock, horror, we're learning that the world is complicated, guilt-by-association is a dangerous game, perceptions are manufactured, and ignorance runs us into a ditch.
Should we be surprised anymore that
money talks and human rights walk.
Is it true General Electric CEO Jeffery Immelt was doing
business with Iran, and if so would Mr. "Countdown" or
Mr. "Hardball" ever question such ethics?
Hey wait a minute...the Bushies are really good buddies with these guys. Helped them leave the country after 9-11. That did not seem to be cause for any alarm over the past 8 years. And when Herr Bush had the opportunity to capture Bin Laden he failed...with purpose. Why was this not a problem throughout the Bush regime?
The bush family also had ties to the bin laden family ,Whats the big deal nobody cared then why should we care now?
Your second paragraph was so poorly written I could not go on.
Don't you have any pride in your work?
Well America, maybe now you will wake up, truly begin to look into the past of all politicians, their voting records, their personal lives, anything you can find, long before you cast your next vote!
Everyone wants to blame someone else, when in fact it's the voting public who is truly responsible!
YOU VOTED THEM INTO OFFICE, isn't it about time you VOTED THEM OUT OF OFFICE?
Since I was born and raised in the MAFIA STRONGHOLD of Pelham Manor, NY ... let me tell you how WE would handle this. "Go get your brother, we need to talk to him." If he doesn't show, Auntie loses a foot. Uncle Pete's Business fails. His daughter gets raped. Maybe ... eventually, the Criminal is flushed out. But hey, this is just how things are done. And our own Government seems unable to do the same when the lives and property of it's own Citizens are destroyed by these people? We need a NEW GOVERNMENT. Socialism just isn't carrying the day.
If this is the best Republicans can do...
Look. Devote article after article on why the country no longer trusts Republicans. Do it till it hurts.
The Republican party, the country and ultimately the world will be much better off.
What if Freeman were buddies with the family of Sirhan Sirhan, or Charles Manson, or James Earl Ray, or Harvey Oswald, or Ted Bundy. People would be repulsed by the association with families of historically evil people.
If he's stupid enough to believe that the greater bin Laden family has completely disassociated themselves from Osama then he's a bigger fool than one can imagine. This gullible old goat shouldn't be given any position of responsibility in national security.
MTFinch,
You can't be that naive or stupid, can you? But then you have millions of friends who also voted for Hopey/Changey. There is only one thing worse than a slobbering liberal. . . that's another one . . .and then we have millions of them who ran not walked to the polls holding their glasses filled with kool-aid on the rocks. So please folks don't complain when all this information and more was available to you and you refused to listen, read or get the facts on your own.
A molehill in mountain's clothing.
If this is particularly important then there should be a followup piece discussing the similar yet more extensive connections between the Bush family and the bin Ladens.
http://www.inthesetimes.com/issue/25/25/feature3.shtml
"In 1979, Bush's first business, Arbusto Energy, obtained financing from James Bath, a Houstonian and close family friend. One of many investors, Bath gave Bush $50,000 for a 5 percent stake in Arbusto. At the time, Bath was the sole U.S. business representative for Salem bin Laden, head of the wealthy Saudi Arabian family and a brother (one of 17) to Osama bin Laden. [...] In conflicting statements, Bush at first denied ever knowing Bath, then acknowledged his stake in Arbusto and that he was aware Bath represented Saudi interests."
Yeah Bush Jr and Sr had dealings with Osama as well. If this guy was is in bed with him, the Bush's were his proctologists. Read up on Carlyle group (sp?).
I don't like to see the US so closely supporting another country militarily or financially, be it Japan, Tanzania, Mexico, Israel, whoever. I think our support of Israel (just or not) has been to the detrement of our image and safety. We're spending a lot of money and soldiers protecting our partnership with a country that has a huge base of financial support already. There aren't many countries in the world where a person in another country can send money directly to the government of another country (like you can to Israel). I would like to see the US protect it's image and safety a bit more and I think that support for Israel should decrease.
I like that Freeman openly said what many people aren't saying, namely, there isn't going to be a deal reached because no one really wants a deal. Israel says they want peace but have no partner (which is a better PR phrase than any Madison Avenue PR firm could have devised) and Palastine doesn't want to budge (indeed Hamas' appeal to many was the fact that they never backed down or compromised). Israel managed to build huge cities in the area surrounded by hostile countries, through donations and partnerships. Where is that for the Palastinians? Israel didn't close the Egyptian borders, the Egyptians did. Palastine needs it's "friends" and neighbors to help it if it will ever become anything other than muddy roads and barbed wire enclosures.
The Bin Laden family is like the Rockefellers, Carnegies, DuPonts... If the Carnegie family publically and repeatedly disowned on of their many children as being a nutcase, then would everyone stop doing business with the Carnegie family? Of course not. Neither will people stop doing business with the Bin Laden family. In many parts of the world, family holding companies are the biggest in the country.
Thank you.
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