I've been wondering what the best use for General Rieekan is, given that he totals the same point cost as Mon Mothma. Many of the Rebel ships that you might want to keep alive with him have Evades that might be kept alive even better with her. Particularly the MC30 swarm that I could imagine wanting to close fast and unload their missiles, since Foresight is such a fun title with her.

However, I was just thinking about the fact that his ability extends to unique squadrons, and the way that screws up fighter combat. Running Rieekan with an aces list could lead to some real aerial dominance. If Wedge and Tycho were sent into a melee, fighters have to attack Wedge, and even after he is destroyed they can't attack anyone else. Next round, they have to attack Tycho, and are stuck in place even after they kill him.

A fighter group of Wedge, Luke, Keyan, and Jan Ors could be fun under Rieekan. The fighters without Escort are almost guaranteed not never die from enemy fighters, and with Jan can basically ignore them completely.

What are other people's thoughts on Rieekan?

I think he might only really be worth his sticker price in some pretty extreme lists (eg Suicide boats with Engine Techs for double rams), but your idea of pairing him with named 'Escorts' to keep the enemy firing at zombie squadrons is a very good one.

A couple of thoughts on this, that are pure theory crafting at this point:

1. The most apparent benefit for Rieeken, I think, is that it softens the potential sting of being second player rather than first player. Without Rieeken, going second could mean that your ship is destroyed instead of your opponent's ship. With Rieeken, your ship is still destroyed, but you have a chance to force a trade. I can see situations where this, plus the disadvantages that some objectives build-in to being first player, could result in a significant disadvantage to being the first player.
2. It has the potential to dramatically affect the single most devastating ship in the game in wave 1, Demolisher. That ship wants to close fast, vaporize a target (ideally with a move/shoot at the end of a round, then a double-arc shot at the beginning of the next round), then end in empty space. With Rieeken, sticking around for that double-arc shot on anything other than an extremely soft target (CR-90, VSD/Raider/AFIIB from the rear, etc.) becomes a much dicier proposition.
3. It gives staying power that Mon Mothma doesn't give to ships that do not have evade (only the MC-80 at this point, but that's the most expensive ship available to the Rebels), or ships where the evades aren't particularly useful when the ship is in danger (in the vast majority of cases, an evade isn't going to save Yavaris, Redemption, or Salvation from a Glad, even with Mon Mothma). Keeping those ships around could mean an additional 6-9 dice shot from an MC-80 (no Ackbar bonus, though ), a B-wing double-tap (or even worse, a Nym-Luke-Keyan double-tap) from Yavaris, another 3-5 red dice from Salvation, or 1-2 bonus engineering for all ships across your fleet with Redemption. Any of those outcomes--otherwise lost without Rieeken--could be significant enough to turn the game in your favor. Two or more of those outcomes in a single game is huge.
4. Even for evade-heavy ships, Wave II is introducing new ways to strip defense tokens (NK-7 ions, Nym in Rebel mirror matches), on top of existing upgrades like Overload Pulse and critical damage effects which prematurely exhaust/discard defense tokens. Mon Mothma is great for an AFII that has an evade token, but once that token is lost (or stripped), she offers no tangible benefit. In wave II, that stripping will occur far more frequently, and while one of your ships could take Welix to recover one of these tokens during a game, that's about all you can do.
5. Worst-case scenario, Rieeken reduces the odds that your fleet is tabled... or perhaps more properly, he gives you a chance to win the game even if you are tabled. In most cases (bomber clouds, and perhaps Ackbar extravaganzas excepted), your enemy usually has to be fairly close to your ships in order to table you. Even if all of your ships are destroyed during a round, you aren't tabled until the status phase, giving you one more chance (or two, three, etc., depending on how many ships you lost that round) to eliminate your opponent's ships before the status phase. I believe with the way tabling works now that you'd score 300 points if you table your opponent before your destroyed ships are removed in the status phase (the game ends immediately once all an opponent's ships are destroyed). Worst-case scenario, you force a draw (5-5) instead of taking an immediate loss (usually 10-0).

Don't know if these advantages ultimately make Rieeken better than Mon Mothma, but they at least make him a competitive choice, I think, depending on your list composition and combat strategy.