Charles Freeman is Obama's pick to head the National Intelligence Council (NIC), a group which oversees the production of National Intelligence Estimates. He is currently on the board of the state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation, the same company which tried to buy outright American oil company Unocal in 2005, a move which was quickly blocked from Washington as a threat to national security. The company also has been accused of major human rights and environmental violations in Burma. Mr. Freeman has been on the board of CNOOC since 2004.

Does this seem like the right person to be a major player in our intelligence services? Especially considering he is an employee of the Chinese government? And would it surprise you to know he is good friends with many Saudis, including the bin Laden family (he was US Ambassador to S.A. under George H.W. Bush). He also heads the Middle East Policy Council, a heavily Saudi funded organization that published the now infamous paper "The Israeli Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy", a piece that purports to delineate the Jewish-American lobbying interests which direct American foreign policy to favor Israel and perpetuate hostility towards Iran and Syria.

The Wall Street Journal has more on this appointment here. From their piece we learn Mr. Freeman's views on the Tiananmen Square Massacre:

Mr. Freeman unabashedly sides with the Chinese government, a remarkable position for an appointee of an administration that has pledged to advance the cause of human rights. Mr. Freeman has been a participant in ChinaSec, a confidential Internet discussion group of China specialists. A copy of one of his postings was provided to me by a former member. "The truly unforgivable mistake of the Chinese authorities," he wrote there in 2006, "was the failure to intervene on a timely basis to nip the demonstrations in the bud." Moreover, "the Politburo's response to the mob scene at 'Tiananmen' stands as a monument to overly cautious behavior on the part of the leadership, not as an example of rash action." Indeed, continued Mr. Freeman, "I do not believe it is acceptable for any country to allow the heart of its national capital to be occupied by dissidents intent on disrupting the normal functions of government, however appealing to foreigners their propaganda may be."

Quite the man to be filtering the President's intelligence reports for him.