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What Needs to be Said about Iran

In the arcane world of diplomacy, the most vital and obvious statements are often left unsaid. All too frequently, the media reflects, without careful analysis, that same opaque semantic habit.

This has been particularly true in the ongoing nuclear weapons discussions with Iran.  What needs to be said, understood, and acted upon is this: Iran is a nation ruled by fanatical men who do evil things to their own population, especially females, and seek the ability to do equally evil acts upon the rest of the world. The route they have chosen to accomplish this goal is through the acquisition of nuclear weapons, which they can mount on their already potent rockets.

Tehran has not negotiated in good faith.  Therefore, the softening of sanctions and the extending of deadlines only serves to assist that nation in the pursuit of its unacceptable objectives.

As noted by Haleh Esfandiari and Robert S. Litwak, writing for the Wilson Center,

“Already, the extension of nuclear talks announced Monday is being portrayed in Iran as a victory for its negotiating team. In a televised interview Monday night, President Hasan Rouhani made clear that Iran would not stop its centrifuges or give up its technology. What’s been agreed to is, indeed, a bonus for Tehran as its government continues to access about $700 million a month from its frozen assets.”

Testifying before the Senate foreign Relations Committee on December 3, David Albright, President of the Institute for Science and International Security  stated that  “Iran is more likely today to choose a safe route [rather than a purely clandestine one] to preserving and further developing a capability to produce fissile material for a nuclear weapon. In the case of gas centrifuges, it is likely to seek to maintain and increase its capabilities at declared centrifuge sites, the associated centrifuge manufacturing complex, and centrifuge R&D facilities. It would view this path as the preferred one, because it can simply and legitimately claim that all its activities are civil in nature, even if it is actually hiding the goal of eventually seeking nuclear weapons.”

The Obama Administration had knowledge of the fact that Russia was aiding Iran’s nuclear aims, yet neither disclosed that fact to Congress nor responded to it by amending its discredited “reset” policy with Russia. Bret Stephens recently wrote in the Wall Street Journal that “Because the Administration lacks the political courage of its real convictions or the martial courage of its ones—we are wedded to this sham process of negotiation.”

In its quixotic (or worse) attempt to appease Iran, the White House has also not been honest with the American public about Tehran’s growing military/terrorist presence in Latin America, particularly in Venezuela and Bolivia.

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“Iran has actively been developing Latin America as a base from which to launch military and terrorist assaults on the United States. There is bipartisan concern in Congress that the White House has not responded to the threat, although the problem is recognized. Before departing to a visit to Columbia, Defense Secretary Panetta noted that “We always have a concern about, in particular, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps and [their] efforts to expand their influence not only throughout the Middle East but also into this region…that relates to expanding terrorism.”

Reports from around the world have noted Tehran’s growing military presence in the Western Hemisphere. Germany’s Die Welt newspaper described the Islamic Republic’s construction of intermediate range missile launch pads on Venezuela’s Paraguana Peninsula.

The threat is not confined to low-level tactics. There is mounting concern that both nuclear and ballistic missile threats are emerging from Venezuelan-Iranian cooperation. The Tehran/Caracas axis, encouraged by Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, is particularly troubling. According to The Heritage Foundation’s Peter Brooks, the two nations have a Memorandum of Understanding “pledging full military support and cooperation…”

Robert F. Noriega, the former ambassador to the Organization of American States and former Assistant secretary of State, notes that “Iranian officials have made no secret of the regime’s intention to carry its asymmetrical struggle to the streets of the United States and Europe.” Noriega is concerned that the White House is not adequately concerned about these developments, and in fact has “misinformed” Congress as to their seriousness.

Congress has been attempting to get the White House to focus on the problem for some time. Many members, both democrat and Republican, were distressed by the Administration’s cutting $13 million annually from its Southern Command military budget (which has responsibility for the region) and its refusal to beef up intelligence assets in the vicinity. Last July, Rep. Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) along with several colleagues submitted a letter to the State Department expressing concern on Iran’s hostile acts in South America.

According to Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) Iran has used its terrorist Hezbollah proxy force in the tri-border area of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, to gain influence and power; built numerous “cultural centers” and overstaffed embassies to assist its covert goals; and supported the activities of the terrorist group Hamas in South America.”

As the Obama Administration grants yet another move softening its position on Iran’s growing nuclear capabilities, it considers initiating sanctions on Israel due to that nation’s construction of new housing in Jerusalem. The move highlights the White House’s bizarre foreign policy choices.

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Key Leaders Protest Defective Iran Nuclear Deal

The Center for Security Policy  has released a letter signed by key national security personnel denouncing the Obama administration’s conduct of nuclear talks with Iran and what they describe as “the seriously defective deal likely to emerge from them.”

 The signatories emphasize that the United States and its Western allies have already surrendered too much to Iran. They express concern that the White House will provide even more concessions.  All of these give-aways have not deterred Iran from reaching its goal of becoming a nuclear weapons state.

Iran’s advanced space and rocketry programs provide that nation with the means to soon be able to launch weapons of mass destruction at any target on Earth.

Key problems with the potential agreement identified in the open letter include:

  • The deal will effectively concede to Iran the “right” to enrich uranium and allow Iran to continue uranium enrichment.
  • It will permit Iran to install new, still more advanced centrifuges and to retain its large stockpile of low-enriched uranium.
  •  It will not require Iran to disassemble existing centrifuges, its underground Fordow enrichment facility or its plutonium-producing Arak heavy water reactor now under construction.
  • A key constitutional issue has also been raised. President Obama’s has no  intention of allowing  the U.S. Congress any say in the potential deal, or his plan to unilaterally suspend mandated U.S. sanctions against Iran once a final accord is reached.

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Iran is already defying a key premise of this year’s nuclear talks and prerequisite for any future deal – namely, that the regime in Tehran would cooperate fully with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The signatories note estimates by three leading Washington think tanks that Iran will retain its presently assessed capability of producing weapons-grade nuclear fuel in as little as four-to-six weeks from a decision to do so.

Iran has failed to live up to its commitments, and there is no evidence that it will abide by any future obligations in the comprehensive agreement that the Obama administration is trying to finalize by November 24.  There is no reason to expect that the Tehran regime will abide by the potential accord or cooperate with efforts to monitor future compliance.

–TEXT OF LETTER–

November 14, 2014

United States Capitol

East Capitol St. NE & First St. SE

Washington, DC 20004

Dear Speaker Boehner, Senator Reid, Senator McConnell, and Representative Pelosi:

We are writing to urge that the United States Congress take immediate action to repudiate the current nuclear talks with Iran and any agreement they may produce.  We urge Congress to pass legislation to this effect that also prevents the Administration from waiving sanctions or moving forward with any executive agreements to conclude a nuclear agreement with Iran without full Congressional review.  We are calling on Congress to take this action because we believe the United States and its Western allies have already given away too much to Iran in these negotiations and that any agreement that emerges as a result will be a threat to our interests, allies and security.

Examples of the problems with the emerging deal abound:  We have effectively conceded to Iran the “right” to enrich uranium.  The United States has offered one-sided concessions allowing Iran to continue uranium enrichment, install new, more advanced centrifuges, and retain its large stockpile of low-enriched uranium.  The United States is not requiring Iran to disassemble centrifuges, its underground Fordow enrichment facility or its plutonium-producing Arak heavy water reactor now under construction U.S. diplomats recently offered new concessions which will allow Iran to operate up to 6,000 uranium centrifuges.

We believe these concessions put American and international security at risk because they will do virtually nothing to stop, or even to substantially delay, Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.  Estimates by the American Enterprise Institute, the Institute for Science and International Security, and the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center on how fast Iran could make enough weapons-grade uranium for one nuclear bomb using reactor-grade uranium currently range from four to six weeks.  According to Harvard University’s Belfer Center, Iran could make up to seven nuclear bombs from its current stockpile of low-enriched uranium (after further, possibly undetectable enrichment).

In exchange for the above concessions, the Obama administration has asked for very minor accommodations by Tehran. The end result will not reduce the number of nuclear bombs it can currently construct.  In fact, it would only delay the time for Iran to produce enough weapons-grade fuel for its first bomb by as little as two weeks.

In addition to our grave concerns about U.S. concessions to Iran during this year’s nuclear talks, we also are alarmed that Tehran has defied a central premise of the negotiations: full cooperation with the IAEA and answering all outstanding questions about whether its nuclear program is truly peaceful.

According to a September 5, 2014 IAEA report, Iran continues to refuse to resolve “outstanding issues over possible military dimensions of its nuclear program.”  We also note that an October 31, 2014 New York Times report which revealed that, “Iran had stopped answering the agency’s questions about suspected past efforts to design the components of a bomb.”

We believe that, since Iran has failed to cooperate fully with the IAEA either during the nuclear negotiations or, indeed, ever since its accession to the Nonproliferation Treaty there is negligible likelihood that its cooperation with the IAEA will improve after a final agreement is signed.

Iran’s strategy in the nuclear talks is crystal clear: offer minimal and inconsequential concessions and limited transparency on its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of Western sanctions.  Iran’s negotiating strategy has included a refusal to dismantle nuclear facilities and demands for an increased uranium enrichment capacity.  As long as this is Iran’s purpose, we believe an agreement that will result in the actual and permanent termination of the Iranian nuclear weapons program is impossible.

Given Iran’s long record of covert nuclear activities with weapons applications and its continuing refusal to cooperate with the IAEA and answer outstanding questions about its nuclear program, we believe the responsibility rests with Tehran to resolve all outstanding issues before any final agreement eviscerates the only remaining leverage we have: the still-extant U.S. and international sanctions.  Further, we believe that the United States must demonstrate resolve in demanding the Iranian regime verifiably dismantle any facilities that could permit progress towards a deliverable nuclear weapons capability.

To make matters worse, recent press reports indicate that President Obama plans to deny the U.S. Congress any say in the forthcoming nuclear agreement with Iran, and that he intends unilaterally to suspend U.S. sanctions against Iran once a final accord is reached.

Surely, there will be wide, bipartisan agreement on both sides of Capitol Hill that it would be a grave mistake to go forward with any nuclear deal with Iran without the express support of the U.S. Congress. The legislative branch knows that, once the current sanctions regime against Iran by the United States and counterpart sanctions imposed by the Europeans disappear, it will be difficult – if not as a practical matter, impossible – to reestablish them, even if Iran does not live up to its obligations.

It is, therefore, time for Congress to act.  By making clear that the legislative branch does not support the agreement now being finalized, there is a chance of preventing a bad deal from being concluded with far-reaching and negative consequences.  The talks with Iran have drifted so far from reality, and our minimum requirements, that they are certain to produce a bad deal that cannot be salvaged.

America’s allies in the region, especially Israel and Saudi Arabia, are rightly alarmed at the prospect that Iran is being enabled to go nuclear by the U.S. and the rest of the P-5 plus 1.  Among other possible responses could be a decision by the Saudis to develop their own nuclear weapons program, or simply buy one or more nuclear weapons from another state, setting off a spiral of further proliferation likely to make the region even more unstable and dangerous.

We therefore respectfully call on Congress to adopt legislation to repudiate the nuclear agreement now taking shape.  We urge you and your colleagues to insist that a coherent, realistic and firm U.S. policy be adopted instead, one aimed at actually preventing the Iranian regime from realizing its nuclear weapons ambitions.  This should require, at a minimum, that there be no further easing of sanctions or further talks with Iran until Tehran complies with all UN Security Council resolutions related to  its nuclear program, fully cooperates with the IAEA, and provides truthful answers to all outstanding questions about its nuclear program.

Sincerely,

Hon. Peter Hoekstra

Former Chairman, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

Lieutenant General William G. Boykin, U.S. Army (Ret.)

Former Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence

Admiral James A. Lyons, U.S. Navy (Ret.)

Former Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Fleet

Hon. Michelle Van Cleave

Former National Counterintelligence Executive

Hon. Paula DeSutter

Former Assistant Secretary of State for Verification and Compliance

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.

Former Assistant Secretary of Defense (Acting)

Jack David

Hudson Institute Senior Fellow and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense

David Wurmser

Former Senior Adviser to Vice President Cheney and Founder, Delphi Global Analysis Group

Rich Lowry

Editor, National Review

Daniel Pipes

President, Middle East Forum

Lt. Col. Ralph Peters

U.S. Army (Ret)

Michael Rubin

Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute

Sarah Stern

Founder and President, Endowment for Middle East Truth

Daniel Pollak

Co-Director, Government Relations, Zionist Organization of America

Yleem Poblete

Former Staff Director, House Foreign Affairs Committee

Clare M. Lopez

Former CIA Officer

Frederick Fleitz

Former CIA Officer

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White House seen as tilting away from Israel

The announcement this month that Washington would work with and provide financial assistance for the new Palestinian government, comprised of Fatah and Hamas, a terrorist organization, has sparked extraordinary criticism both from the Israeli government as well as Americans concerned over a further incidence of the White House providing assistance to a terrorist organization.

As was seen in the release of the Taliban 5 and the purported gun running to Syrian rebel groups allied with Islamist organizations from the Benghazi facility in 2012, U.S. assistance will again be rendered to those associated with terrorism in violation of American law.

Along with establishing new relationships with Islamist organizations throughout the world, American relations with Israel continue to deteriorate, and many believe it has yet to reach its nadir. Israel national news  recently editorialized that “…eventually (probably after the 2014 congressional elections), you can expect the Obama administration’s rhetoric and actions against Israel to become increasingly hostile.”

The publication points to statements and positions taken by key White House appointees viewed as being significantly anti-Israel:

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was one of just four senators who refused to sign a Senate letter in support of the Jewish nation. He has steadfastly opposed unilateral sanctions against Iran to deter the progress of its nuclear weapons program, which most believe is aimed at Israel.

This most frightening motion pictures present sequences of the old as well as deserted huge structure without any 1, yet the spider and a people meet valsonindia.com viagra 100 mg him or her inside outrageous consequences. Maximum proportion of Zinc mineral is one special feature cialis side effects of this seafood. However, it proved more effective in boosting cheap cialis sexual abilities and the erection of male sexual part. Neat and tidy environment is observed strictly during the manufacturing of this medicine. get free viagra Intelligence chief John Brennan has raised eyebrows with several provocative statements, including referring to Jerusalem using the Islamic name “Al-Quds” and referring to Jihad as a “holy struggle.”

Obama’s representative to the United Nations, Samantha Powers, once called for an American intervention to halt what she referred to as Israeli “genocide.”

Secretary of State John Kerry has repeatedly blamed Israel for the lack of progress in the region.

While cutting aid to Israel by 5%, the President has increased aid to Syrian rebels and previously sent weapons to Egypt while it was controlled by Islamists.

Israel has legitimate cause for concern.

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White House Silence on National Security Issues Reaches Crisis Levels

The extraordinary incompetence of the Obama Administration continues to further jeopardize the safety of the nation and those that serve it.

The startling news that the White House itself released the name of the CIA station chief in Afghanistan was a blow to America’s intelligence gathering capabilities in that region, the homeland of al Qaeda that launched the 9/11 attacks that brought down the World Trade Center, damaged the Pentagon, and killed Americans in the air and on the ground.

There is a direct connection between the failure of the White House to adequately respond to the assault on the US facility in Benghazi and this latest example.  Both incidents demonstrate unprecedented levels of naiveté and disregard in global and national security matters, as well as an apparent lack of attention from the President himself.

The importance of the unanswered questions—the subject of forthcoming Congressional investigations—about Benghazi have been magnified by this latest security mistake.
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Did the President review the Afghanistan information before it was given to the public? If not, why not?  Has Mr. Obama begun attending national security briefings, and even if he has, why did he fail to do so for so long?

These questions are similar to those still extant concerning Benghazi.  Why was the President not in the situation room when that crisis was ongoing?  What role did he, as well as then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, play in the decision making?There are other existing national security issues that require answers, as well.  Why did the President agree to an arms treaty with Moscow that left Russia with a ten to one advantage in tactical nuclear weapons, and that completely ignored the growing nuclear arsenal of China? Why has the White House strenuously advocated the softening of sanctions with Iran despite Tehran’s blatant actions in furtherance of its nuclear goals? Why have all American tanks been withdrawn from Europe, at the same time that the White House is seeking to kill the Air Force’s tank killing planes? Why hasn’t the President allowed federal lands to be used for energy exploitation in order to soften Moscow’s iron grip on Europe’s energy supply?

The list of vitally important national security questions continues to grow, and the Obama Administration remains silent.