Obama to nominate Israeli-hater Scowcroft to replace Israeli-hater Freeman for NIC ?? Oy Vey

Brent Scowcroft, a Republican "realist" re-tread from the Bush I administration would be almost as bad as Chas Freeman when it comes to Israel. This would be a terrible pick overall. Obama would probably get hosannas for his "bipartisan" pick; but when it comes to defense issues, Scowcroft is more aligned with Obama than with George W. Bush.

Scowcroft = terrible, terrible choice for NIC, or anything else.



There's Realism For You [Andy McCarthy]


March 13, 2009 — Brent Scowcroft: "I see no reason not to talk to Hamas."

March 21, 2009 — Israeli police thwart a massive bombing attack by Hamas in Haifa. Some details, courtesy of the Jerusalem Post:

Had the terrorist plot gone according to plan, Saturday would have been a black day in the country's history. Hidden in the trunk of a stolen Subaru, parked near columns holding up part of Haifa's Lev Hamifratz mall, were 100 kg. of explosives. The explosives were packed into a number of bombs and mixed with ball bearings to make the blast even more deadly. The terrorists had hoped to detonate all 100 kg. simultaneously.

Nearby, blissfully unaware shoppers and moviegoers were exiting parked vehicles and entering the shopping center, located just north of the Checkpoint intersection.

A chilling scenario was sketched out by a police source on Sunday, who said the attackers could have been aiming to use their car bomb to set other parked vehicles on fire and trigger a chain reaction of exploding fuel tanks. "Had the car bomb exploded, the majority of the cars in the parking lot would have gone up in flames. The gasoline in them could have exploded. This would have been a major terrorist attack," the source said....

The recent spate of terrorist attacks, including Saturday night's averted attack in Haifa and last week's slaying of two traffic policemen in the Jordan Valley, seems an indication Hamas is concerned about paying too heavy a price for rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip, and is trying now to stage attacks from the West Bank instead, government sources said on Sunday. "If Hamas now believes that it is not convenient for them to shoot rockets from the Gaza Strip, they might activate cells in the West Bank," the source said.

The source's comments dovetailed with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's message to the cabinet on Sunday, that Hamas was trying to bolster its positions, infrastructure and ability to carry out attacks from the West Bank. "Initial findings indicate that we are talking about a very serious terrorist infrastructure, which operated with great sophistication to [try to] perpetrate a large-scale attack with multiple casualties," the prime minister said of Saturday night's incident in Haifa. "We should not delude ourselves. Terrorist organizations' attempts to perpetrate attacks within Israel's borders and in the heart of the country are an ongoing affair, in which one of the main jumping off points is in Judea and Samaria."

As Caroline Glick observes, "Congressional sources claim that Obama has selected Scowcroft to replace Chas Freeman as Chairman of the National Intelligence Council."