Tag Archive for: nuke deal

Iran’s Khamenei Changes the Terms of the Nuclear Deal

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The only ones who may be surprised are Obama, Secretary Kerry, Secretary Hillary Clinton and the Democrat senators who filibustered a Senate bill to prevent Obama from entering into this farcical dangerous agreement.

Iran’s Khamenei Changes the Terms of the Nuclear Deal – Bret Stephens (Wall Street Journal)

  • The Iran nuclear deal, officially adopted on Oct. 18, is already a dead letter. Earlier this month Iran test-fired a new-generation ballistic missile, called Emad, whose only practical military use is to deliver a nuclear warhead. The test was a bald violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2231, adopted unanimously in July, in which “Iran is called upon not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons” for at least eight years.
  • Then Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei weighed in on the nuclear deal by way of a public letter to President Hassan Rouhani. In it Khamenei demands that the U.S. and Europe completely lift, rather than temporarily suspend, their economic sanctions, putting an end to any possibility that penalties could “snap back” in the event of Iran’s noncompliance.
  • Khamenei also demands that sanctions against Iran for its support of terrorism and its human-rights abuses must also go.

Khamenei changes the timetable for Iran to ship out its enriched uranium and modify its plutonium reactor in Arak until the International Atomic Energy Agency gives Iran a pass on all “past and future issues (including the possible military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear program).” So much for the UN nuclear watchdog even pretending to monitor Iran’s compliance with the deal.

RELATED ARTICLE: Khamenei’s Letter Of Guidelines To President Rohani On JCPOA Sets Nine Conditions Nullifying Original Agreement Announced July 14, 2015

Analysis: Iranian human rights situation following Iran deal by Rachel Avraham

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A recent report by the Boroujerdi Civil Rights Group has documented that in spite of Iranian promises in the wake of the Iran deal, the rate of executions remains high, the jailing of journalists and human rights activists continues unabated, and the lack of freedom of expression and discrimination against women continues to be widespread: “The five main reasons for death penalties in Iran are heresy, rape, murder, drug smuggling and armed struggle.  Capital punishment has spiked under Rouhani.   More than 2000 executions were carried in Iran during President Rouhani’s period since October 3, 2013.   The human rights situation has not improved since Rouhani became President two years ago.”

iran men hanged

Public execution in Iran. Photo Credit: Channel 2.

The Boroujerdi Civil Rights Group noted that the rate of executions in Iran has risen by 16% since the last year of Ahmadinejad’s presidency, despite the perception in the West that Rouhani is a moderate and Ahmadinejad was a hard core extremist: “Furthermore, Iran has the horrible status of being the world’s last official executioner of child offenders, people convicted of crimes when they were under the age of 18.”

The report noted that the UN confirmed that the Bahais are still persecuted in Iran despite claims by the Iranian government to the contrary: “Bahai citizens continue to face discrimination, arrest and arbitrary detention in connection with their religion.  Bahais have been systematically persecuted since 1979; extremist Islamic groups close to the regime have confiscated their property and assets.”   The report also noted that Bahais are not given work permits, are deprived of the right to attend university, and don’t have any representative in parliament, a privilege that is given to other religious groups within the country.   They stressed that Bahais aren’t even permitted to bury their loved ones in public cemeteries: “Since 2005, more than 800 Bahais have been arrested.   Over the years, thousands of pieces of anti-Bahai propaganda have been disseminated in the Iranian media.”

According to the report, Iran treats the Baloch nation living with her borders like second class citizens: “Balochistan has the lowest economic participation in the country, the highest illiteracy rate, the highest unemployment rate, the highest percentage of poverty, the highest rate of executions, the highest mortality rates for mothers and children, and the highest percentage of malnutrition.   Living in the poor region of Balochistan is a torture in itself but the people of this region go through different types of tortures and persecutions. The medieval tortures are a bitter memorial of what Iran’s officials have been using against Baloch dissidents in the regimes detention centers.”   According to the report, the methods of torture employed against Baloch dissidents include waterboarding, pulling out fingernails, cutting off fingers, hanging the dissidents from the ceiling, lashings, high voltage shocks, shoving sharp objects into sensitive organs, burning sensitive organs, rape, roast chicken torture, mock executions, sexual harassment, hanging objects from the testicles, and lethal injection.

Read more.

RELATED ARTICLE: German Intel: Muslim migrants will bring anti-Semitism

Democrats now own the Iran Nuke Deal like the Republicans owned Iraq

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This writer argues that the Democrats  now own the Iran issue like the Republicans owned Iraq.  They are at the mercy of the Ayatollah and if things go south, the Congressional Democrats will bear the consequences since Obama will be long gone. People remember who causes harm and sometimes actions and votes have consequences.

The security of the U.S., Israel, allies and indeed the whole world is at stake.  Senators who promised Obama their vote still have time to reconsider the consequences of their vote and avoid the trap Iran has laid for them.

The Democrats Now Own Iran. They’ll Soon Wish They Didn’t

By Jonathan S Tobin

This morning, President Obama got what he’s been working toward all year. With Senator Barbara Mikulski’s announcement that she will vote to support the Iran nuclear deal, the administration got its 34th vote in the Senate, thus assuring that the president will have enough support to sustain a veto of a resolution of disapproval of the pact. Mikulski was just the latest of a number of Senate Democrats to throw in with the president on Iran. The only suspense now is whether Obama will get to 41 and thus have enough for a filibuster and prevent a vote on the deal from even taking place.

Leaving aside the terrible damage the deal does to U.S. security and the stability of the Middle East, the most far-reaching effect of the deal is that from now on Democrats own Iran. From this moment forward, every act of Iranian-sponsored terrorism, every instance of Iranian aggression and adventurism as well as the Islamist regime’s inevitable march to a nuclear weapon can be laid at the feet of a Democratic Party. With a few exceptions, the Democrats fell meekly behind a president determined to prioritize détente with Iran over the alliance with Israel and the need to defend U.S. interests. By smashing the bipartisan consensus that had existed on Iran up until this year, the Democrats have, in effect, become the hostages of the ayatollahs. This is a decision that will haunt them in the years to come.In analyzing the struggle that was ultimately won by Obama, it must first be acknowledged that the outcome was determined primarily by a mismatch in terms of the relative power of the two sides.

Though the Iran deal is a threat to U.S. security as well as to the interests of moderate Arab regimes who are as afraid of Tehran as Israel, the pro-Israel community, and AIPAC led the fight against the agreement. Though AIPAC can generally count on bipartisan support on any issue it cares about, it never had a prayer of beating an administration that was prepared to do and say anything to get its way. Once the president made clear that he considered the nuclear deal to be the centerpiece of his foreign policy legacy, the chances that even the pull of the pro-Israel community could persuade enough Democrats to sustain a veto override were slim and none. In order to achieve that victory, Obama had to sink to the level of gutter politics by smearing his critics as warmongers and slam AIPAC with the same sort of language that earned President George H.W. Bush opprobrium. But the president’s ability to twist the arms of most of the members of his own party to back him was never really in doubt. It was a defeat for AIPAC but not one that should impact its ability to continue to be effective on Capitol Hill.

It must also be noted that this outcome was only made possible by the utter stupidity and cowardice of key Republican leaders — especially Senator Bob Corker — that led to their agreement to a bill that reversed the treaty ratification process. The Corker-Cardin bill that gave Congress the right to vote on the deal was represented at the time as a bipartisan triumph but the Democrats were laughing up their sleeves the whole time. Instead of demanding that the president present the deal to Congress as a treaty, which would have required a two-thirds vote of approval, Obama was able to ram this awful deal down the throats of a reluctant country and Congress by only being able to have enough votes to sustain a veto. It would have been better for the country had the GOP stood on its ground on the treaty issue since that would have left Obama to pursue his original plan, which was to treat the deal as a simple agreement that required no Congressional action at all. At least then the deal would have been seen as another end run around the Constitution by a lawless president. Instead, he gets to pretend that Congress has ratified the deal when, in fact, large majorities oppose it in both the House and the Senate.

But the most important point to be gleaned from Obama’s seeming triumph is that he and his party now bear complete responsibility for Iran’s good conduct as well as its nuclear program.

Read more.

RELATED ARTICLE: The Curse of the Obama Doctrine

Iran ‘not satisfied’ with nuke deal, wants more concessions

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Obama and Kerry will no doubt jump to give him what he wants, but if they do, the opposition to the deal will grow even stronger than it already is.

“Iranian hardliner: The supreme leader opposes the nuclear deal,” by Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press, August 15, 2015:

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is opposed to a landmark nuclear deal reached with world powers, a prominent hard-liner claimed Saturday.

Hossein Shariatmadari, editor of the daily newspaper Kayhan and a representative of Khamenei, made the comments in an editorial Saturday.

It marked the first time someone publicly has claimed where Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, stands on the deal.

Khamenei has not publicly approved or disapproved the deal. However, he repeatedly has offered words of support for his country’s nuclear negotiators. Moderates also believe the deal would have never been reached without Khamenei’s private approval.

Iran’s parliament and the Supreme National Security Council will consider the agreement in the coming days. The deal calls for limiting Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting economic sanctions.

Shariatmadari said in the editorial that many parts of the deal threaten Iran’s independence, security and “the sacred system of the Islamic republic of Iran” and that it would be “disastrous” if Tehran implements the accord. He did not specify which parts of the deal he thought were problematic.

He also referred to a speech by Khamenei last month during which the ayatollah said, “Whether this text is approved or disapproved, no one will be allowed to harm the main principles of the (ruling) Islamic system.”

The editorial noted: “Using the phrase ‘whether this text is approved or disapproved’ shows his lack of trust in the text of the deal. If His Excellency had a positive view, he would have not insisted on the need for the text to be scrutinized through legal channels … It leaves no doubt that His Excellency is not satisfied with the text.”…

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Stop Iran Now Rally: Santa Barbara, CA Courthouse

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A Stop Iran Now rally is being held at the Santa Barbara, California Courthouse on Sunday, August 30th, 2015 from 5:30 to 7:30 PST.

PODCAST: Iran Nuclear Deal ‘worthless’ with ‘theocratic, totalitarian, genocidal imperialists’

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It was a fast paced discussion on the August 2, 2015 Lisa Benson Show on National Security with guest, former CIA director, Ambassador R. James Woolsey. Ambassador Woolsey is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Washington, D.C.-based Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. See his full bio, here. Host Lisa Benson was joined by Michael Weiser, foreign policy analyst and this writer.

The  discussion addressed  threats  not currently  covered by the media arising from the Iran nuclear pact  announced on July 14th and unanimously endorsed on the University Security Council on July 22nd. Ambassador Woolsey  called pending  Iran pact “ a worse than useless agreement “ and deemed the Iranian Islamic regime, “theocratic, totalitarian, genocidal , imperialists”. He contends that Iran may be less than a few months away from developing a nuclear weapons but less than the year the Administration believes would be delayed by a decade. When asked about what options Congress to prevent implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), he suggested that an informed public has to get behind an effective campaign to get the message across to Congress to  overwhelmingly reject it

Among the important issues discussed in the Lisa Benson Show with Ambassador Woolsey were:

  • The Electronic Magnetic Pulse threat posed by Iran with a nuclear equipment missile to the US;
  • What  is required to protect the country’s vital electrical grid under the provisions of the  Critical Infrastructure Protection Act of 2015 (CIPA);
  • The Administration gutting  Ballistic Missile Defense against an Iranian Missile Attack;
  • What constitutes a better deal, without a military option; and,
  • How a Flexible Fuel strategy could upend  the OPEC Cartel, especially Russia, Venezuela and Iran.

The controversial Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)  has been the subject of Hearing with Administration witnesses before both Senate and House  Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees before last Thursday summer recess. Disquieting information was revealed in those  regarding secret side deals between the UN Watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and  Iran, lifting of $150 billion in sanctioned funds $150 billion in sanctions relief ,retention of key parts of the nuclear infrastructure, 24 day prior notice inspections of known facilities, obligations to protect Iranian nuclear facilities against sabotage, and  lifting of conventional arms and ballistic missile sanctions. One of the disturbing revelations in Congressional  hearings on the Iran nuclear pact was the lifting of sanctions on 800 persons and institutions in Iran that included Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani  who  is responsible for  more than 500 deaths and hundreds casualties of American Service personnel in the Iraq War from Iranian developed IEDs .

These and hints of other undisclosed information by the Administration in those Congressional hearings have caused an estimated majority of Americans in recent polls to urge Senators and Representatives to reject the Iran nuclear deal. Congress will make a decision on whether to accept or reject the pact by mid-September vote under the threat of a possible veto by President Obama if rejected. 13 undecided Democrat Senators and 30+ Democrat members of the House hold the key to the outcome.

Here were some of the points raised by Ambassador Woolsey.

On  the Electronic Magnetic Pulse Threat and Requirements for Protection of the National Grid

Ambassador Woolsey  warned that  Iran or North Korea needs only launch a missile with  a low yield nuclear weapon to generate  sufficient gamma radiation in a low altitude explosion to knock out the critical several hundred strategic transformers and data control network for the national grid. That would paralyze critical industrial, communications, financial and medical networks in this country producing significant  mass casualties. Given the recent House passage of CIPA he was asked for how much time might be entailed to harden those key elements, Ambassador Woolsey suggested several months to a year at most. Further he drew attention to  Russia, China, North Korea and Iran planning to harden their grids against a possible EMP threat, whether natural or man-made.

The Gutting of Ballistic Missile Defense

When asked about the absence of a Missile Defense shield on the vulnerable East and Gulf coast of the US  Ambassador Woolsey noted the Administration’s decision withdrawing over the horizon radars and interceptors from  allies in NATO, Poland and Czechoslovakia. He noted the possible capabilities of  North Korea and Iran to launch Fractional Orbital Bombardment Systems,, developed by Russia, in southerly polar directions that would make a surprise attack extremely difficult to detect.

The  lack of a military option to force a better deal

When asked about the Hobson’s choice of conventional versus other means for Israel or the US as an option, Ambassador Woolsey responded, “there are  other approaches, and that we  and the Israelis are not entirely without means”.  However he noted that “the Administration took the threat of possible violence off the table” and “our government willing to use such measures”. That he said has unfortunately “made the Mullahs very happy.”

The Strategic Flex Fuels Weapon the US could Use against the Oil Cartel

While citing Iranians involvement with the drug cartels threatening our borders, he also raised a means of  attacking Iran, Venezuela  and Russia and the rest of the OPEC Cartel.  It has to do with the US energy revolution in producing natural gas from fracking. Ambassador Woolsey suggested that the Administration might adopt Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency credits for vehicle producers for producing so-called flex fuel powered vehicles, Vehicles powered by Methane produced from the abundance of cheap supplies of natural gas produced by fracking. That might have the effect of driving the price of oil below $40 a barrel.

Listen to this Soundcloud  discussion with Ambassador R. James Woolsey from the August 2, 2015, Lisa Benson Radio Show on National Security:

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the New English Review.

Senator Marco Rubio: Joint Chiefs Chairman Undercuts Obama’s Main Argument for Iran Nuke Deal

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Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) issued the following statement regarding Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey’s comments today before the Senate Armed Services Committee that the American people do not face a choice between a flawed Iran deal and war with Iran, as President Obama and his administration have insisted:

“President Obama’s entire premise for his deeply flawed deal with Iran was destroyed today by a simple question and an honest response.

“President Obama has been trying to scare the American people into believing that we must accept his terribly negotiated deal with Iran, or resign ourselves to war with Iran. Under questioning by Senator Joni Ernst today, General Martin Dempsey unequivocally dismissed that argument, and with it President Obama’s entire justification for this terrible compromise of America’s national security.

“With each passing day, President Obama’s case for this agreement with Iran crumbles bit by bit. In just the past week alone, Secretary John Kerry has failed miserably in trying to defend this deal before members of Congress and the American people as each day brings new disturbing details about the scope and breadth of this administration’s concessions to the mullahs in Iran. We’ve learned about secret side deals the Iranians entered into with International Atomic Energy Agency. We’ve learned that Iran will be allowed to submit its own samples to prove it’s not cheating, which defies all common sense. We’ve learned that the president allowed Iran to continue developing ballistic missiles capable of reaching our shores, and administration officials have even indicated that they are not certain whether President Obama would abide by the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act and maintain sanctions on Iran if Congress rejects this deal.”

Earlier today, Rubio participated in a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing regarding the nuclear deal with Iran where he challenged the president’s proposition that the United States would be isolated if Congress rejects this flawed deal.

“Why I find this all absurd is this idea that somehow the U.S. must now do this, because the world would be really upset at us,” Rubio said during the hearing. “The last time I checked this country saved the rest of the world on at least two occasions in the last century. I don’t remember the last time the world saved America.”

A video of Rubio’s remarks and his exchanges with witnesses is available here:

30 Second Video: HAMAS Loves Iran Nuke Deal — Thanks Obama!

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In this 30 Second video we explain the upside-down foreign policy world of President Obama, and how he is now creating friends between those who have been vicious enemies.

Who could have imagined that one of the leaders of the Sunni HAMAS would ever say anything positive about Shi’a Iran?

Well, all you (Obama) have to do is give your enemy (Iran) nuclear weapons to kill their greatest enemy (Israel) and WA’LA, the “Hatfields & McCoys” now spend Thanksgiving together.