Note:  You might want to start at the Barack Obama Index Page, especially if you arrived here by using a search engine.

President Obama certainly shows a lot of favor toward Islam.  Even the most casual observer must realize by now that every time the United States has any interaction with Muslims or Islamic countries, the Muslims always seem to come out ahead.  Every coin toss somehow favors the Muslims.  After looking at empirical and anecdotal evidence — Barack Obama's actions and words, and the claims of his siblings — I am convinced that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.  Most of the articles I've seen that would support such a conclusion are posted here.  If he is a Muslim he is also a liar, but that should come as no surprise after reading the material on this page.

Certainly President Obama is no friend of Israel and he is systematically weakening America's defenses — exactly what a Muslim would do.

The underlying theme on this page is Barack H. Obama's interaction with (i.e., his actions on behalf of) Iran.  I suspect the affinity for Iran has a lot to do with Mr. Obama's immediate supervisor, the Iranian-born Valerie Jarrett.

Related topic:  The Bergdahl prisoner exchange — exactly what a Muslim would do.

Related topic:  Obama and the Muslims — items like the ones on this page that show favoritism toward Islam but without an emphasis on Iran.

Overview and recap articles:

Barack Obama's 5 Biggest Mistakes As President.  [#2] If the passage of the ACA in Obama's first term was his to be the forty-fourth president's greatest domestic policy achievement (it wasn't), then the Iran nuclear agreement in President Obama's second term was to be his foreign policy masterstroke (like the ACA, it wasn't).  Obama was operating on the naïve assumption that the Iranian regime, despite its public appearance of being led by millenarian religious zealots, was a rational actor seeking normalization in a world that had isolated them.  Part of Obama's goal was to distance the United States from the Middle East after more than a decade of being bogged down there.  Unfortunately for Obama, carefully laid plans, or perfect academic theories on how humans should act rarely translate well in the real world.  The Iranian regime could not be trusted.  What's more, entrusting Iran with nuclear weapons was the work of a madman.  After all, Iran was one of the world's leading state sponsors of global terrorism.  Obama believed that if he allowed for the Shiite Muslim-dominated Iran to acquire nukes, with the predominantly Jewish democracy of Israel long having possessed nuclear weapons, and a Sunni Islamic world nominally led by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that was opposed to Iran, a balance of power that would lead to long-term peace would be at hand.  That is not how things would go, though.

So-Called "Moderate" Democrat Slotkin — Who Pushed for Sham Impeachment — Suddenly Undecided.  As explained in Obamabomb:  A Dangerous and Growing National Security Fraud, the nuclear deal with Iran and the Obama administration's defense of it are rife with deceptions and outright lies.  False narratives were provided by the Obama administration (which included individuals like Slotkin) that praised the terrible deal that involved the Obama administration providing $150 billion in sanctions relief to Iran after Iran complied with certain requirements.  Verification of Iran complying with the deal and not working on gaining nuclear bomb capabilities were not in place in the deal and Obama may have broken the law in ensuring the deal's execution.  Months after it occurred, news broke that the Obama administration secretly sent $400 million in cash equivalents on an unmarked cargo plane to Iran on January 17, 2016, to facilitate a swap that day of four innocent Americans held by Iran.  Seven Iranian criminals held by the US were also released.  Obama said that it was not a ransom for the release of the prisoners but later the State Department admitted it was.

Lyin' Biden:  Not a 'hint of a scandal' during Obama administration?  Please!  In 2016, Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch refused to answer questions from Congress about the Obama administration paying $1.6 billion to Iran.  The whole operation was shady — and secret — and just happened to coincide with the release of four hostages.  No members of Congress knew about the deal.

The Short And Ugly History Of The Disastrous Iran Deal.  On Monday [4/30/2018], Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented documents to the world that prove Iran lied for years about its peaceful intentions.  Netanyahu claims that in 2017 the Iranians moved "a comprehensive program to design, build and test nuclear weapons" to a secret location, and that a few weeks ago Mossad agents procured a half ton of that material and smuggled it out of the country.  The United States has reportedly confirmed the authenticity of the documents.  The Iran deal, it's worth remembering, is likely the only international accord the United States has entered into where it offered extensive concessions to a nation that continued to destabilize its interests, kill its soldiers, and threaten its allies.  In return, we asked for nothing other than a promise that Iran uphold its preexisting obligations.  The Islamic state, we shouldn't forget, was already a signee to the non-proliferation agreements when the Obama administration saved its economy and reinvigorated its military.

The Top 5 Investigations Obstructed by the Obama Administration.  [#2] The investigation of the Iran ransom payments:  A few short months after Obama had completed negotiations for the Iran Nuclear Deal, resulting in the lifting of sanctions and the unfreezing of billions in Iranian assets, the Obama administration made a shady payment to Iran in the amount of $400 million.  The payment was made with foreign currency and done under the cover of night, and done in coordination with the release of four hostages, and completely in secret.  Not even Congress knew about the payments or the hostage exchange.  When the story broke, Obama repeatedly denied the payment was a ransom.  An investigation began, and, of course, it was met with obstruction by the Obama administration.  Attorney General Loretta Lynch refused to answer questions from Congress about the payments.  Details of the deal weren't classified, but the Obama administration hid key documents at a secure site to make access difficult.  If the payments were on the level, there would be no reason to obstruct an investigation.

6 times Obama committed "treason" against the U.S..  [#2] Obama said he ended Iran's nuclear program:  In his farewell speech, Obama claimed he "shut down Iran's nuclear weapons program without firing a shot."  Obama gave Iran $1.7 billion in cash in exchange for a worthless promise.  Israeli intelligence found Iranian documents proving that "even after the deal, Iran continued to preserve and expand its nuclear weapons program for future use," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed.  German intelligence agreed.  "The documents obtained by Israel from inside of Iran show beyond any doubt that the Iranian regime was not telling the truth," said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.  Not only did Iran outfox Obama on its nuclear program, but it sent large chunks of that money to terrorist groups like Hezbollah and the al-Quds Force.

Timely news and commentary:

Beating the 'Committee'.  It's been an article of faith in many circles of populist conservatism that events of the past few years have been orchestrated by a secret cabal generally referred to as "they" or "the committee" or simply "the elites."  (This is not quite the same as the "Deep State," though the Deep State would certainly be involved.) [...] All this pales when we come to Iran.  If a "plan" actually exists there, its details beggar the imagination.  Fund the most virulent, America-hating terrorist state in the world to the tune of hundreds of billions?  Assure that it develops nuclear weapons?  The only way this makes sense is if the committee is chaired by somebody named "Jarrett" who is acting for the home team.

CIA official with top security clearance charged for leaking highly classified docs about Israel's plans to strike Iran.  A CIA official has been charged with leaking highly classified US intelligence about Israel's potential plan to retaliate against Iran for a missile strike earlier this year.  Asif W. Rahman, who worked overseas for the agency and held a top-secret security clearance, was arrested by the FBI in Cambodia on Tuesday and indicted under the Espionage Act, the New York Times reported.  His arrest comes after the top secret materials started circulating online last month detailing Israel's apparent intention to hit back at Iran after the country launched a barrage of missiles back on Oct. 1.

Iran 'terrified' of Trump presidency as Iranian currency falls to an all-time low.  After President-elect Trump's victory, Iran must now prepare to contend with the man it's been trying to assassinate for years.  Tehran had reportedly been interfering in the U.S. election on behalf of Vice President Kamala Harris.  But with former Trump's win, the regime will have to prepare for a U.S. leader who is, at the very least, a wild card.  On Wednesday, the Telegram channel of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IGRC), its military force, posted a video threatening to kill Trump.  It ended with footage of a bloodied Trump and the words "We will finish the job."

U.N.: Iran Gave Houthis 'Unprecedented' Support After Biden's $6 Billion Giveaway.  United Nations experts warned the Security Council that the Shiite Houthi terrorists of Yemen have received "unprecedented" international support — much of it from Iran — since the war between Israel and its allies Hamas erupted, the Associated Press (AP) reported on Sunday.  The news outlet described the report in question as a comprehensive look at the dramatic improvement in the Houthis' technical capabilities, its dramatic recruitment surge, and its ability to disrupt global shipping through attacks on ships in the greater Red Sea area, penned by a variety of experts.  The Security Council received the over 500-page report this weekend.

The Iran Deal the Democrats Killed.  President Trump has said many times on the campaign trail that he was close to getting a deal with Iran during his first term.  And then, something happened.  That something was the killing of three U.S. contractors in Iraq by Iranian proxies and the assault on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad in late December 2019.  I was working undercover at the time for the U.S. intelligence community running a network of Iranian sub-agents.  Some of them had demonstrated access to the Supreme Leader's Intelligence Office in Tehran.  That's about as good as it gets, and no one else had it.  My Iranian sub-agents were warning that the assault on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad was far more serious than it appeared.  That led President Trump to airlift 100 U.S. Marines from Kuwait to protect the Baghdad Embassy, and days later, on January 2, 2020, to order the killing of Quds Force commander Qassem Suleimani.  Only later did I learn from a different Iranian sub-source that the Baghdad embassy attack was not just an Iranian operation.  It had been motivated — indeed, solicited — in large part by a senior advisor to former vice-president Joe Biden, who was seeking ways of destroying Trump's chances of re-election in 2020.

Speaker Johnson Exposes International Scandal:  Iran Might Be Funneling Cash to Democrats.  For the past few years, our enemies have grown bolder.  China and Iran, in particular, have seized on what they see as weaknesses in the Biden administration.  Both nations have expanded their reach and influence in ways that directly threaten American interests and our allies' safety.  Iran is attacking Israel, our most loyal Middle Eastern ally, in a clear attempt to destabilize the region and undermine U.S. influence.  Meanwhile, China has grown more aggressive, working closely with Russia and even forming alliances with other rogue nations to harass peaceful neighbors.  Under Joe Biden, these two adversaries have found their moment to strike, emboldened by what they perceive as a lack of leadership.  Unfortunately, this crisis is a direct result of Biden and Harris's foreign policy failures.  Their reluctance to stand up to these nations has only emboldened them.  Biden's attempts at diplomacy have been toothless, his sanctions ineffective, and his rhetoric empty.  China and Iran see no reason to hold back when America's leaders refuse to respond.

The Biden Iran Scandal Gets Worse.  The source of last week's leak of U.S. intelligence about Israel's plans to strike Iran, which has occasioned an investigation, isn't yet known.  What should be obvious, though, is that no individual who has had extensive contact with Iranian intelligence and diplomatic officials, and who has deferred to the direction of those officials before, should have ever been put in a sensitive position in the first place.  The Biden administration has ignored this rather simple rule.  The most glaring example of its questionable handling of the Iran portfolio is Biden Iran envoy Robert Malley's continued employment by the State Department amid a probe into his handling of classified materials and the possibility that he shared information with the regime.  Though Malley has since been suspended, it's noteworthy that the administration has opted to technically keep him in the role, no doubt wishing to avoid the political fallout that would come with terminating him.  Possibly worse than Malley's appointment is that of Ariane Tabatabai, an academic turned State Department and Pentagon official.

Senior Pentagon Employee Suspected as Leaker of Israeli Retaliatory Strike Plans to Iran.  House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) confirmed on Sunday that the U.S. government is now investigating the unauthorized release of these documents, which are believed to have originated from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency.  Now, a senior Pentagon official has been identified as the primary suspect in a classified leak involving the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) plan to strike Iran.  The American official under suspicion has been named as Ariane Tabatabai, an Iranian-American scholar of political science who currently serves as a senior policy advisor at the Pentagon.

How Were Crucial Intelligence Documents Leaked to Iran?  The documents, which bore Top Secret/NOFORN and compartmented intelligence headers, described U.S. satellite spying on Israeli airfields as the IDF conducted exercises believed to foreshadow a massive airstrike on Iran.  The NOFORN designation means that the document cannot be shared with foreign nationals other than members of the "Five Eyes" intelligence-sharing arrangement the United States has crafted with the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.  While the possibility exists that the materials were hacked from the highly-protected SIPRNET, the government's internal data base of highly-classified materials, there have been no public reports of any hacks of the SIPRNET by external actors.  Insiders, including former Army Private Bradley Manning and NSA contractor Edgar Snowden, have divulged reams of material from U.S. government classified holdings, but the government accused both of them of espionage, not hacking.

Biden-Harris Gave Over $1B to 'Palestinians' Since Oct 7.  Oct 7 marked the grim anniversary of the worst massacre of Jews since Holocaust.  The terrorist perpetrators of it however could celebrate the over $1 billion in foreign aid from the U.S.  46 Americans had been murdered on Oct 7 and another 12 taken hostage, but ahead of the Oct 7 anniversary, USAID announced that it was sending another $336 million in taxpayer-funded 'aid' to the terrorist occupied territories in Israel behind the killings of Americans.  USAID boasted that this "brings the total U.S. humanitarian assistance announced for the Palestinian people to more than $1 billion since October 2023."  The terrorists had murdered over 1,000 people and gotten over $1 billion.  In 2023, ahead of the Oct 7 attacks, a Freedom Center Investigates expose revealed that Israeli deaths shot up by 900% after Biden dispensed $1 billion in aid to the terrorist areas.  Oct 7 would likely never have happened without that blood money.

The US is investigating an unauthorized release of classified documents on Israel's attack plans.  The United States is investigating an unauthorized release of classified documents that assess Israel's plans to attack Iran, three U.S. officials told The Associated Press.  A fourth U.S. official said the documents appear to be legitimate.  The documents are attributed to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency, and note that Israel was still moving military assets in place to conduct a military strike in response to Iran's blistering ballistic missile attack on Oct. 1.

The Editor says...
Yes, the government is also investigating a Supreme Court leak from years ago, a packet of cocaine at the White House, and the mass shooting in Las Vegas in October 2017, and two recent assassination attempts.  None of which will ever be fully explained to the general public.  Perpetual investigations relieve the government from having to answer questions.

Obama Owns Nuclear Iran.  From the overthrow of the Shah in 1979 onward, it was grasped by all, Democrats and Republicans, that the Iranian mantra of Death to America meant exactly that:  a clear and present threat to our country.  Sanctions were biting and deep, and the Iranian people were eager to rise against tyrannical, fundamentalist leadership.  But then enters the One, the thrill-up-the-leg light-emitter, who negotiates the misnamed Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which is not joint, comprehensive, or a plan of action.  With the passage of time, the purpose of the JCPOA is clear.  In exchange for nothing, Obama prospectively freed Iran from sanctions, committed to fund the terrorist regime with billions, and green-lighted their development of nuclear weapons.  The geopolitical goal was to realign U.S. policy to an ascendant Iran, sacrificing Israel in the process.  One moment captures it all.  Early in his administration, Obama is deliberately photographed sitting in the Oval Office, speaking with Netanyahu, feet up on the Resolute Desk, soles out for the camera.

The Iranian Mullah's Mysterious Longevity May Reflect Secret US Support.  One of the things that our intel agencies do to push lies into the public is to use the magic word "earmarks."  For example, the infamous 51 spies who lied about Hunter's laptop — even though the FBI and the CIA knew it was real — used the weasel phrase that the laptop had "the classic earmarks" of a Russian operation.  That was a lie.  But here's an "earmark" sentence that may be true:  Iran has all the earmarks of a USA-intel client state.  Much like Ukraine.  Or, more accurately, like North Korea vis-à-vis China.

How the Biden/Harris Admin Helped Iran Get to the Brink of a Nuclear Bomb.  Iran has made enormous progress in its nuclear weapons program during the Biden/Harris administration and reportedly can now enrich enough weapons-grade uranium to fuel nine nuclear bombs in one month. [...] The huge advances in Iran's nuclear weapons program are the result of major flaws in the JCPOA and a series of terrible national security policy decisions, including repeated attempts to appease Iran, by the Obama and Biden administrations.  The first of these bad policy decisions was when the Obama administration conceded to Iran the "right" to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes, such as nuclear medicine and nuclear reactor fuel.  [Advertisement]  This decision reversed the positions of prior Republican and Democratic administrations who believed Iran could not be trusted to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes because of covert Iranian efforts to establish a nuclear weapons program and because it is easy to reconfigure uranium centrifuges supposedly constructed for peaceful purposes to produce weapons-grade nuclear fuel.

Disproportionately stupid.  The Iran regime struck Israel with some 180 ballistic missiles fired from Iran.  The Iranian regime meant to inflict death and destruction on Israel.  As it is, Israel's most sophisticated missile defense system approached perfection under an assault that was intended to overwhelm it.  In the event, the strike did damage but killed only one Gazan Arab who had relocated to the West Bank.  Watching the strike in real time on X, I thought it would be a miracle if it failed to the extent it did.  Israel has to retaliate in some significant fashion.  I hope it damages the regime in every conceivable way.  However, that isn't how our mentally impaired president sees it.  He means to vindicate the 10-year old judgment of his former Obama administration colleague Robert Gates that Biden is a moron.  Speaking to reporters in Washington, Biden advised Israel to respond "proportionally" to the attack.  Asked whether he backs a strike on Iranian nuclear sites, Biden responded: "The answer is no."  Israel is to wait for the day when the Iranian regime can place nuclear explosives on those ballistic missiles.

Israel Must Destroy Iran's Nuclear Program with or without US.  A couple of days ago, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu told the world at the UN regarding the malign actions of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its bloodthirsty minions "enough is enough".  Today (Oct 1) we have heard quite a bit "more than enough" from Iran that just rained the greatest number of missiles from one country on another in history, surpassing, among other events, the Battle of Britain.  Fortunately, the Israelis with American help were largely able to fend off this onslaught.  But will they be able to do it again, especially when the mullahs fire supersonic nuclear-armed missiles, something that could happen any day?  Only one getting through would be necessary to annihilate Israel, their former president Akbar Rafsanjani insisted years ago, bragging Iran, a larger country, could handle several in return.  National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan called Tuesday's barrage a "significant escalation" but that "diplospeak" doesn't offer much reassurance the current U.S. administration will do what's necessary, or anything really.

From Iran To Illegal Immigration, Here Are Tim Walz's Biggest Lies From The Debate.  [#1] Harris Stands Strong Against Iran:  Iran launched a barrage of missile attacks against Israel Oct. 1, the same day as the debate.  Walz blamed Trump for emboldening Iran, ignoring the steps during Vice President Kamala Harris' tenure to enable the radical Islamic nation.  "Iran is closer to a nuclear weapon than they were before because of Donald Trump's fickle leadership," Walz claimed.  But the Biden-Harris administration enacted a sanctions waiver in March, giving Iran access to $10 billion.  During Harris' tenure, Iran-sponsored actors have killed American soldiers and attacked Navy ships.  The day of the debate, Iran directly attacked Israel.  Iran is also getting dangerously close to obtaining nuclear weapons.

Iran's Missile Attack on Israel Funded by Obama-Biden Sanctions Relief.  In April 2024, Iran launched a missile attack on Israel.  And the Biden-Harris administration offered Iran sanctions relief.  ["]Is U.S. foreign policy on autopilot?  On Wednesday we learned the Biden Administration is imposing sanctions on another Israeli while reissuing a sanctions waiver that lets Iran access more than $10 billion in frozen funds.  Its priorities reflect a policy that long ago was overtaken by events.["]  The billions in sanctions relief provided by the Obama-Biden and Biden-Harris administrations allowed Iran to build up Islamic terrorist networks around the region, including Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthis in Yemen (which we've been battling for nine months) along with its ballistic missile program (and the rockets of its allied terror groups), and begin the wars we've been seeing over the last year.

Iran's Newest Proxy: Sudan.  Iran, having just had two of its major proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah, seriously degraded, is setting its sights on a new, "consolation prize" proxy to use as an additional base of operations:  Sudan.  Iran has, for a while, been trying to establish a port in Sudan's major coastal city, Port Sudan.  Iran's strategy of supporting and infiltrating other countries and terrorist groups — as it has done in Iraq, Syria, Gaza, Lebanon, Venezuela and Yemen — appears as yet another extension of its strategy of moving into territories with weak or unstable governments to expand its influence throughout the Middle East, to create new fronts for its campaign to destroy Israel and bring down the world order led by the West.  A major port and foothold in Sudan will enable Iran to accomplish two of its goals: to continue encircling Israel in a "ring of fire" by opening yet another front from which to attack the small Jewish nation from the southwest, and to further control all international shipping in the Red Sea.

Here's How Far Down the Road to WW III Biden-Harris Has Taken Us.  Almost as soon as Presidentish Joe Biden assumed office, he began making sure that bad actors around the world would have all the money they might need for acting badly.  Less than one month into his solitary, sad little term, Biden lifted former president Donald Trump's restoration of U.N. sanctions on Iran.  The White House and the State Steno Pool sold the move as something that "could help Washington move toward rejoining the 2015 nuclear agreement aimed at reining in the Islamic Republic's nuclear program."  Trump had withdrawn from Barack Obama's "Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, in 2018, accusing Iran of serious violations." [...] But Biden wasn't done there.  At seemingly every opportunity, he freed up more funds for Tehran.  To give just one specific example, last year Biden-Harris unfroze $6 billion-with-a-b in Iranian funds to secure the release of five (!!!) Americans who were effectively held hostage by Iran's "justice" system.

To The EU: Time To Stand Against Iran's Regime, Terror Groups, Nukes.  It is hardly a secret that without the Iranian regime's financial, military, and operational backing, its affiliated terror groups — such as Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Houthis as well as its own militias, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) — would not have been able to launch the kind of large-scale attacks against Israel that have upended the broader region.  Iran's support not only provides these groups with financial resources but also with crucial intelligence and military training.  Without this support, the military capacity of these groups would be significantly diminished, and the extent of the chaos in the region far less severe.  Iran's reach extends, of course, far beyond its proxies and militias.  Some national governments, notably Russia, have relied on Iran's support to sustain their military campaigns.  Iran's backing of Russia's war against Ukraine, for example, only prolonged and intensified it.

Is Obama cash underwriting Iran's election interference?  Obama's administration was an open cash spigot for Iran's unsupervised and undocumented use, to the tune of $1.7 billion (that we know of, from that one period), in cash.  They have undoubtedly used this cash in many ways to strength their militant intelligence.  How may U.S. elections since Obama's first grab have they tinkered with?  Not to be undone by his old boss, Biden has continued, in March of this year, the 'aid to Iran, regardless' tradition:  "Just six weeks after an Iran-backed drone strike killed three American soldiers in Jordan, President Biden has approved a sanctions waiver giving Tehran continued access to more than $10 billion — money it can use to import goods and repay debts, freeing up $10 billion elsewhere to spend on terrorism, missiles, nuclear weapons and the repression of Iranian women."  We can reasonably add election interference to Iran's current shopping list, paid for by the United States.

Iran Hacked Trump Data, Sent It to Biden Campaign.  Iranian hackers in late June and early July sent what the agencies described as "unsolicited emails" to people associated with the Biden campaign.  This came weeks before Biden announced in a statement that he was suspending his reelection bid before backing Vice President Kamala Harris, his then-running mate.  The emails contained non-public information that was stolen from the Trump campaign.  The FBI and the other agencies said that Iran has tried to send the stolen Trump data since June to media organizations.  In August, the agencies said that Iran had launched a multifaceted approach to influence the U.S. election and sow discord among the American electorate.

Did the Biden-Harris Campaign Collude With Iran?  In a joint statement issued on September 18, 2024, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) revealed that Iranian hackers had stolen materials from the Trump campaign and passed some of them on to the Biden-Harris campaign:  "Iranian malicious cyber actors in late June and early July sent unsolicited emails to individuals then associated with President Biden's campaign that contained an excerpt taken from stolen, non-public material from former President Trump's campaign as text in the emails."  This, of course, sounds eerily similar to the story we heard eight years ago, [...]

FBI Says Iran Hacked Trump Campaign, Then Sent Information to Biden and Harris.  The FBI and ODNI (Office of the Director of National Intelligence) are reporting how Iran hacked information from within the Trump campaign and then sent that information to the United States government, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris' campaigns. [...] However, it does not go unnoticed how the general direction of this FBI report about Iran, tends to parallel the 2016/2017 FBI report about Russia.  [Tweet]

Who's Ready for World War Three?  Americans broadly remain blissfully oblivious regarding how close to World War Three we are and have been since early 2022.  Repeated warnings from U.S. military and intelligence leaders about this dire state of affairs, which this newsletter reported in detail, with looming war against Russia, or China, or Iran — or worst of all, Russia, China and Iran — have fallen on deaf ears.  Not to mention that, given the parlous state of America's military, amid recruiting and retention problems, shortages of weapons and munitions, plus the anemic condition of our defense industrial base, the Pentagon would be hard-pressed to prevail in even one major theater war, while it would almost certainly lose, probably fast, when confronted by three of them at once.  This alarming strategic situation keeps failing to register with the public, even in an election year.  Americans seem not to care that World War Three looms, while the Biden-Harris administration, whoever is actually running it, is eager to distract the public from the geopolitical catastrophe they've sleepwalked America into, while allowing our military to further degrade.

Iran is Moving In for the Kill.  Like all wars, this one will end, too.  It will be then time for Act II as Iran extends an olive branch to the new U.S. president, whoever that is.  Iran has been playing for time for over 30 years.  It's another truism that if you must have a deal, you'll get the worst end of any agreement.  That's been what happened to Obama and Biden with the horribly deficient JCPOA.  Iran was on the ropes when we led the world to apply sanctions that dried up their oil revenues.  Biden and Obama opened the spigots and sent tens of billions of dollars to the Iranians.  How did that work out for us?  All the Iranian proxies were bestowed billions of dollars in support and today possess tens of thousands of rockets and other weapons that threaten the region and have killed and maimed American and Israeli citizens.  Iran even manufactures weapons for Russia to kill Ukrainians.  And, still, we don't seriously threaten the inevitable fight that must come to stop Iran's march to a nuclear weapon.

New Walls to Tear Down.  [Scroll down]  Trump's tariffs and economic sanctions crushed Iran's financing of its terrorist proxy's ability to wage war and shut down the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism.  But Biden and Harris lifted Trump's sanctions and flooded Iran with petro-dollars that then funded its proxy's October 7 attack on Israel.  October 7-type attacks don't just include the collateral civilian deaths of conventional war.  They specifically ignore military targets and instead wage war against civilian populations with the murder of children and the aged, the rape of women and girls.  Terrorism is an iteration of the hell of war that scars the human spirit.  Weakness invites aggression.  New Yorkers know that.  Trump bolted shut the door against such attacks with his peace-winning weapons of economic sanctions.  The Biden/Harris administration's policy of appeasement blew that door right off its hinges.  How do American feminists vote for the ticket that enabled that attack?

Iran: 'Most Aggressive Foreign Election Threat to U.S.'  The Biden-Harris administration has not lifted a finger against Iran for a reported 200 attacks on US troops in the Middle East, which include firing on US Navy ships, closing the Suez Canal, launching a Hamas-Hezbollah-Houthi War against Israel, not to mention the atrocities Iran's regime commits every day against its own people.  By ignoring sanctions against Iran and presenting no deterrence, the administration has, in fact, set up Iran to do all of that.  The US could probably close down Iran's election-interference activities, but [m]ore to the point, the administration has the same goal as the Iranian regime: it does not want Trump elected, either.

Did Biden Send Officials to Tehran and Reveal Mossad Agents Who Killed Hamas Leader?  According to Iranian sources — and hence we should be skeptical — a United States security delegation traveled to Tehran to assure the Iranian government that the US had no prior knowledge of the planned Israeli assassinations of Hamas's Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah's Fuad Shukr.  [Tweet]  A secret visit by a delegation to negotiate in person would by itself be surprising but not inherently traitorous to our relationship with one of our closest allies.  The US has interests in preventing a general war in the Middle East, after all, and our interests may not always coincide perfectly with those of Israel.

DOJ Charges Pakistani Man With Ties to Iran in Foiled Plot to Assassinate Trump, Govt. Officials.  The Department of Justice announced charges against Asif Merchant, 46, a Pakistani man with ties to Iran, for trying to assassinate former President Donald Trump and other government officials.  Officials said the investigation took place before Thomas Matthews Crooks shot Trump at a Pennsylvania rally.  FBI Special Agent Anthony Cipriano and other assets tracked Merchant and others undercover, finding him working with national and international sources to assassinate Trump in retaliation for the killing of IRGC Officer Qasem Soleimani in 2022.

The Etch A Sketch Nominee and the Mullahs' Nightmare.  This week, Senator Tom Cotton and Congresswoman Elise Stefanik asked Harris about her adviser Phil Gordon's connections to Ariane Tabatabai, "a senior Department of Defense official, reportedly involved in an operation to expand Tehran's soft power in the United States."  Gordon and Tabatabai jointly authored articles promoting Iranian policies and interests, arguing for the cessation of sanctions on Iran, and Gordon is associated with the NIAC (National Iranian American Council), an Iranian influence operation.  Biden complained that he was not given advance warnings of Israel's trash-removal efforts, but why would Israel give advance notice to an ally so riddled with Iranian agents and sympathizers?

Intel Director:  Iran Attempting to Undercut Trump Campaign.  As Kamala Harris launches her presidential campaign with overt assistance from fawning media, another entity continues more covert efforts to undermine her opponent Donald Trump, just as it did when Joe Biden was Trump's 2020 opponent:  Iran.  That's according to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, who acknowledged that, "As I noted in testimony to the Congress in May, Iran is becoming increasingly aggressive in their foreign influence efforts."  She added that Iran was adapting and improving upon its 2020 campaign that "intended to undercut the reelection prospects of former President Trump": [...]

The Conflict in the Middle East Is About One Thing:  Iran.  On Saturday afternoon, a Hezbollah rocket fired from southern Lebanon struck a soccer field in the village of Majdal Shams in Israel's north, killing 12 children.  For the last 10 months, many have warned that Israel is on the brink of a major war with Hezbollah, the Iranian proxy terror group that controls southern Lebanon.  But the truth is that Hezbollah has been fighting — and winning — in Israel's north since October 8. Since that time, Hezbollah has essentially redrawn the northern border of Israel by pummeling the border towns daily with rockets, leaving 225 square miles unlivable for Israelis and displacing around 80,000 Israeli citizens.  Israel — pounded by Iranian proxies from all directions — now faces one of the most perilous moments in recent history.  The prospect of an all-out war with Hezbollah, which could very well spread to a larger, more dangerous regional war — perhaps directly with Iran — seems closer than ever.  What will Israel do?  Will Israel choose to confront Hezbollah, or will it respond in a more limited way to avoid the regional escalation that the Americans so fear?

How Can Election Results Really Fight Bigotry?  [Scroll down]  In most cases, the federal government doesn't need to put a thumb on the scale to specifically help Israel; all we need to do is take off the thumb that's currently on the scale to help the Jihadists.  The Biden-Harris regime has given countless billions to Israel's enemies.  The Biden-Harris crowd has allowed the Iran's puppets in Yemen, the Houthi pirates, to hold global shipping hostage by terrorizing the Red Sea.  And the Biden-Harris bunch's anti-petroleum, anti-natural gas policies have enriched the oil-producers of the Middle East, funding their poisonous global messaging, while impoverishing our own American energy producers.  Just reversing these bad policies will go a long way toward removing many of the threats against both American Jews and America's allies in Israel — some slowly, others immediately.

Iran provided financial support to the pro-Hamas demonstrators.  According to a statement issued yesteday [sic] [7/9/2024] by Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence in the Biden administration, Iran provided financial as well as material support to the pro-Hamas mobs that took over American campuses in the spring. [...] While these pro-Hamas rioters surely have their right to express their vile opinions that they support the rape, torture, and murder of women, children, and babies — which they did so loudly — I strongly believe that many of them were were quite aware they were getting aid from foreign sources.  How else did so many of them suddenly show up with exactly the same pup tents and other equipment when they were establishing their illegal occupations of campus properties?

Iran Mullahs Drastically Speed Up Their Nuclear Program, US Administration Sits Idly By.  The United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) recently issued an unusually jarring warning, highlighting a development in Iran's nuclear program.  IAEA inspectors confirmed that, for the first time, Iran has commenced the process of feeding uranium gas into three cascades of advanced IR-4 and IR-6 centrifuges at its Natanz enrichment facility.  These cascades, which consist of multiple centrifuges working in unison, increase the efficiency of uranium enrichment by spinning the uranium gas at extremely high speeds, allowing Iran to enrich it at a much faster rate and significantly reducing the time required to produce nuclear weapons.  Iran is already enriching uranium to 84%, alarmingly close to the 90% enrichment level of weapons-grade uranium.  Iran therefore may well be on the brink of acquiring the necessary material for nuclear bombs.

At the Same Time Biden Lost US Airbases in Niger the former US Ally was Negotiating Sale of 300 Tons of Yellowcake Uranium with Iran.  At the same time the Biden Administration managed to lose important US airbases paid for by US taxpayers in Niger, the former US ally was negotiating refined uranium deal with the Iranian regime.  Niger cemented an alliance with Iran with a secret yellowcake uranium deal in April.  This was around the same time Niger authorities decided to force US military personnel from the country.  The US invested over $100 million in just one airbase in the country!  It is impossible to adequately explain how dangerous Joe Biden's anti-American regime has been to global stability.

Iranian Incompetence [is] a Source of Hope.  Last month, Iran launched more than 300 drones and missiles towards Israel.  The attack included 170 drones and 30 cruise missiles, none of which entered Israeli territory.  Of the 120 ballistic missiles fired by Iran, about half of them failed on launch or crashed mid-flight.  This attack reveals the extent of Iran's hatred of Israel.  Going back to the original maniac ayatollahs who are still in charge of Iran, Israel was publicly vilified as the "Little Satan," and the USA was depicted as the "Great Satan."  Barack Obama during his term as president wanted to negotiate a deal with these madmen in spite of the fact that negotiation assumes rationality of the parties negotiating, whereas those in charge of Iran are irrational — i.e., fanatics.  Moreover, besides their religious fanaticism, there is endemic backwardness and incompetence at every level.  The inherent disorganization of the Iranian mentality continues to be a source of hope that the leaders' aggressions will not succeed.

Top Republican Senators Reveal John Kerry Blocked FBI Arrests Of Iranian Terrorists.  A pair of top Republican senators revealed the Obama-Biden State Department intervened to prevent the prosecution of Iranian operatives involved in adversarial nuclear programs nearly a decade ago.  According to lawmakers, former Secretary of State John Kerry blocked several FBI arrests of individuals responsible for proliferating Iran's military capabilities between 2015 and 2016.  On Wednesday, Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., sent letters demanding documents related to the interference from the FBI, the Department of State, and the Department of Justice (DOJ).  [Advertisement]  "The records provided to our offices show that the Obama/Biden administration's State Department, under the leadership of John Kerry, actively and persistently interfered with FBI operations pertaining to lawful arrests of known terrorists, members of Iranian proliferation networks, and other criminals providing material support for Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs," lawmakers wrote to all three agencies.  "The records also show that DOJ and FBI leadership apparently allowed it to happen until the Trump administration altered course."  Iranian appeasement has remained at the heart of the Biden administration's foreign policy following eight years of a similar strategy embraced by former President Barack Obama.

The Editor says...
With regard to that last sentence, Biden's appeasement of Iran is easily explained:  Barack H. Obama is still in charge.

Iran emerges as a hub for international organ-trafficking.  The life-saving promise of organ transplants is marred by a disturbing reality: international organ trafficking rings.  This lucrative criminal enterprise preys on the desperate and fuels a black market catering to wealthy recipients, often oligarchs, seeking a quick fix.  Iran, under a criminal regime, has emerged as a suspected hub in this illicit trade.  Accusations point to a system where Iranian citizens, burdened by economic hardship, are coerced into selling their organs to foreign recipients.  While the extent of the practice remains unclear, reports suggest a disturbing trend.

Why the Biden Admin decided to honor the legacy of a man nicknamed 'The Butcher of Tehran'.  In 2024, Americans live under a government committed to a combination of progressivism and nihilistic nothingness, under a series of bureaucratic agencies that don't stand for anything other than leftism and the capture and retention of power.  Our Founders would almost certainly observe the mess in D.C. as something completely detached to their Declaration and vision for America. [...] The galaxy brained idea of Iran as a potential ally goes back to the Obama days, when the extreme partisans at 1600 Penn (who remain in the White House today) decided to attempt to realign American interests in the Middle East to favor Tehran over our established allies.  A very, very generous steel man interpretation of this policy is that it came with the hopes of changing the behavior of the donkey riding mullahs.  Yet today, the people in charge still chant "death to America" every Friday during prayers.

Iran's nuclear program comes out of the closet.  For the past twenty years, the Iranian regime has played a nuclear cat and mouse game with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, the UN's so-called nuclear "watchdog."  But all that changed recently.  In February, the former head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, told a domestic television interviewer that the regime has now "crossed all the scientific and technological thresholds necessary" for producing nuclear weapons.  So do we have the bomb or not? the interviewer asked.  Salehi's response was unambiguous.  "Let me give you an example.  What does it take to make a car?  You need a chassis, an engine, a wheel, a gearbox... If you are asking me if we built the gearbox and the engine, my answer is, yes.  Each part has its own role."  Salehi's revelations were not an accident or a mistake.  They were just the first course.

Iran Mullahs Speeding Up Nuclear Weapons Program:  Anyone Interested?  In the midst of the Hamas-Israel conflict — while the world's attention is fixed on the war Iran and Hamas began — Iran's ruling mullahs have seized the opportunity to advance their nuclear program.  By backing, arming, and training Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, Iran launched a proxy war against Israel, leveraging the conflict in part to divert attention from its nuclear ambitions.  The calculated move not only serves Iran's immediate interests in destabilizing its adversaries — the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain and most of all the United States, which it would like to see out of the region, so Iran could presumably have the Middle East all to itself.  The diversion of the Gaza war also aligns with its goal of eradicating Israel.

Barack Obama, 21st-Century Schizoid Man.  [Scroll down]  No, poor old Joe isn't running things now, nor was he back when he was "elected" and still had two neurons to rub together.  It's always been Barack Obama.  Barry O's the puppet master who's been running the show for fifteen years now, eight overtly and seven covertly, leading the Deep State efforts against sitting President Trump and later telling senile Joe exactly what to say on notecards and teleprompters. [...] And imagine pretending to the American public that you're a devout Christian, and then saying that the adhan, the Islamic call to prayer, is "one of the prettiest sounds on Earth."  It's certainly all right to love Islam and feel that way about the adhan, but why pretend you follow Christ?  And what is it with Obama sending pallets of hard currency under cover of darkness to Iran, the leading sponsor of terror in the world and the people ultimately responsible for October 7?  Christians certainly don't hate Jews, with whom they share beliefs written down in the Old Testament.  Why does Obama?  The schism between what Barack Obama says he is and what he really is is enormous.  He must be miserable.

Both Joe Biden and Barack Obama prefer Iran to Israel — why?  Consider July 14, 2015, when Obama announced a nuclear deal with Iran.  That "deal" consisted of a short-term freeze of portions of Iran's nuclear program in exchange for a lifting of economic sanctions on the regime.  The objective was, supposedly, to work towards a long-term agreement.  Admirable?  In theory, maybe, but in practice, a small child could easily identify the danger this "deal" posed to the United States.  To wit:  since 1979, Iran has been at war with America.  It kidnapped the entire Carter American embassy in Tehran, where hostages were kept for 444 days (November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981).  Yet under Obama's nuclear "deal", Iran was given over $150 billion in cash.  What do you suppose happened?  Obviously, Iran got busy, using the money to unleash hell in Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Iraq.  To this day, it supports proxy terrorists and Shia militia groups, posing a direct threat to the homeland and U.S. interests abroad.  It supports Hezbollah, which is active in the Middle East, Latin America, and America, where Hezbollah operatives have been arrested for terroristic activities perpetrated within our borders.  Most notably, Iran finances Hamas, and everything that comes with them:  terror tunnels, hostages, murder, and torture, included.  And they have no plans to stop.

UN nuclear chief:  Iran [is] 'weeks, not months' from enough uranium to make a bomb.  The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog has said that it would take Iran just weeks to have enough enriched uranium to make a nuclear bomb, and that Tehran's activity, alongside the limited access it grants to its facilities, "raises eyebrows."  But International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Mariano Grossi told Deutsche Welle in a report published Monday that attacking Iran's nuclear facilities should be a "no-go."  Grossi said that Iran is "weeks rather than months" away from having enough enriched uranium to make a nuclear weapon.

Iran Triumphant?  Hamas appears to have gotten away with the horrors of October 7 and lived to fight another day, under the sponsorship of Iran.  Israel needs regime change in Iran to stop the endless warfare with Hamas and Hezbollah.  But its first real opportunity to try to seriously undermine the mullahs has passed without significant result.  Is there any reason why the Ayatollah should doubt that he has the upper hand?

Another useless Biden action.  Joe Biden has finally issued sanctions against Iran.  That's the good news. [...] The bad news is that his action is completely inconsequential.  Why did Biden impose sanctions on Iran's exporting of drones and steel?  Did he do this so he and the Democrats could have a talking point?  The result is more a laughingstock point because Americans are not stupid.  They see his true intent and laugh at him.  Drones and steel exports indeed.  Biden couldn't have picked two more insignificant items to sanction.  But sanction oil exports?  Both Republicans and Democrats have asked him to consider sanctioning Iran's oil exports in response to Tehran's support of Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip.  Do that?  Noooo.  Sanctions on oil exports could mean higher U.S. gasoline prices caused by reduced global supply.  That could hurt his chances of being reelected in November.

Biden admin funded study involving researcher from Iranian university linked to nuclear program.  The Department of Energy (DOE) funded energy-related research involving a scientist from an Iranian university linked to the country's nuclear program.  The DOE's Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) is listed as the funding agency for a study on advanced technology that could help power grids go green.  One of the seven researchers credited as an author of the study, Mohammad Hasan Ravanji, is a professor of electrical engineering at Iran's Sharif University of Technology (SUT), a university that has been sanctioned by several Western countries for its advancement of Iran's nuclear program and connections to the country's military.

Iran Insanity.  Two friends of mine comment on the Obama/Biden administration's bizarre partiality toward Iran. [...] I would like to see Biden endorse massive retaliation by Israel with a view toward trying to bring about regime change in Iran.  But, as I wrote here, I will be satisfied if Biden stays out of Israel's way.  And I assume Israel's leaders will ignore pro forma calls for "restraint."  I hope so, anyway. [...] Israel is in an existential fight for its survival.  It cannot go on, year after year, subject to terrorist attacks by Hezbollah and Hamas, financed and supported by Iran.  Its position will, I assume, be even more untenable once Iran obtains nuclear weapons, which will be soon.

Biden Admin Grants Iranian Foreign Minister Visa To Enter US Days After Israel Strike.  The Biden administration has granted Iran's foreign minister a U.S. visa so that he can attend upcoming United Nations proceedings in New York City, generating outrage in the wake of Tehran's weekend strike on Israel.  Lawmakers are already calling on the Biden administration to revoke Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian's entry visa into America, which will enable him to attend U.N. meetings later this week, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.  While the State Department would not confirm whether it had granted the Iranian diplomat an entry visa, regional outlets are reporting that a U.S. entry visa has already been issued.  Sen. James Lankford (R., Okla.), in a letter sent Monday to the State Department and obtained by the Free Beacon, demanded "immediate action to revoke the visa of Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian," appearing to confirm the regional reports.

Iranian influence network members scored 10 Biden White House visits.  At least three reported members of a covert Iranian government-controlled influence network visited the Biden White House on numerous occasions for meetings with senior U.S. officials, records show.  The trio, Dina Esfandiary and Ali Vaez of the global International Crisis Group think tank, plus now-Pentagon official Ariane Tabatabai, was outed through the release of leaked Iranian government emails last year as being linked to a network called the Iran Experts Initiative, a project of Iran's foreign ministry that helped push Tehran talking points in the United States and Europe.  According to a Washington Examiner review of White House visitor logs, Esfandiary, Vaez, and Tabatabai headed to the White House a combined 10 times between April 2022 and December 2023 — a fact that foreign policy experts, watchdog groups, and congressional sources say shows the Biden administration has granted those with concerning Iran ties apparent access to the halls of power.

Remember When Biden Said Trump Brought Us 'Dangerously Close' to a War With Iran?  As President Joe Biden's foreign policy continues to be disastrous for America's allies and he thinks saying "Don't" is a coherent and effective strategy — spoiler alert, it's never worked — the world watched over the weekend as Iran launched a direct assault on Israel.  Several hundred drones and missiles were launched toward innocent Israelis, but the IDF's operation "Iron Shield" proved 99 percent effective at neutralizing the airborne weapons before they reached their targets.  Despite Israel's success, Iran intended to murder thousands of innocent Israelis, and destroy buildings in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and elsewhere.  Tehran's decision to — along with its terror proxies in the region — attack Israel with what was supposed to be an overwhelming barrage was a significant escalation that repudiated Biden's unserious warnings that brought the U.S. closer to a broader regional war.

Biden unlikely to cut Iran's oil lifeline after Israel attack.  Iran's unprecedented missile and drone strike on Israel is unlikely to prompt dramatic sanctions action on Iran's oil exports from the Biden administration due to worries about boosting oil prices and angering top buyer China, said analysts.  Shortly after Tehran launched its weekend attack - retaliation for Israel's suspected April 1 strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus - House Republican leaders accused President Joe Biden of failing to enforce existing measures and said they would take up this week a series of bills to sharpen sanctions on Iran.

Yes, Biden Did Approve Iran's Attack.  Joe Biden's administration gave Iran the go-ahead to strike at Israel.  Here's the $64,000 question: was it wise for Biden to do so, or was it a betrayal of Israel?  By Saturday evening, I had begun to suspect that the Iranian attack on Israel wasn't just coordinated with Hezbollah, which launched its rocket attacks on the Jewish state, but also with Iraq, Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, and...the United States.  Probably, the other Gulf states were also given a heads-up before Iran officially announced their retaliatory strike against Israel.  Now, I am not the sharpest tool in the shed, but there were lots of indications that this was not an Iranian attack designed to blindside Israel and start a full-scale conflict, but rather a face-saving move to demonstrate that Iran will not sit idly by as Israel kills off its senior military officials on what amounts to Iranian territory.

Joe Biden Is a Sniveling, Unabashed Coward.  [Scroll down]  To recap, Iran fired roughly three hundred weapons at Israel, the first time that Iran has attacked Israel directly rather than through its regional proxies.  At this, I must make two observations before moving on.  First, the "drone" attack on Israel included 100 ballistic missiles.  Second, the Iranian strikes against Israel weren't "retaliatory."  They were part of a half-century Iranian policy of exterminating the Jewish nation of Israel.  The Hamas attack of October 7 was this policy in action.  By definition, any strike by Israel against Iran is retaliatory, not vice versa.

Iran humiliates itself.  After months of saber-rattling, the "death-to-Israel" crowd in Tehran (an affiliate of the "death-to-America" crowd in Dearborn) finally made good on their threat to attack Israel.  The Mullah Maniacs launched something over 300 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles toward Tel Avi.  (Notably, none of these aircraft were piloted — even the Iranians are not that stupid.)  The Israelis along with Americans, Brits and other allies shot down 99% of them.  The other 1% caused hardly any damage.  No deaths or even injuries were reported.  It turns out the Iranian war machine is at about the level of ... those sabers they were rattling.  Which are notoriously ineffective from a thousand miles away.

White House ripped over sanctions waiver that critics say put billions of dollars in Iran's hands.  The Biden administration is being blasted for allowing billions of dollars to allegedly flow into Iran under a controversial sanctions waiver — even after Iranian-backed rebels launched deadly air strikes against American forces and the Muslim country just directly attacked staunch US ally Israel.  Last month, the White House extended the waiver, a move that unlocked up to $10 billion more in frozen funds by enabling Iraq to pay the Iranian government for electricity services, according to critics and the Washington Free Beacon.  The Biden administration had already renewed the waiver program, which was established in 2018, in November.

A Turkish source says Biden green-lit Iran's attack on Israel.  Yesterday, Iran launched a ferocious onslaught against Israel.  It was only because Israel has spent decades investing in infrastructure and training to defend herself that she didn't suffer mass casualties and major damage to Jerusalem and her military installations.  Biden immediately announced that Israel's defense constituted a victory and told her he wouldn't support a counterattack.  Now, in a bizarre twist, the Jerusalem Post reports that, according to a Turkish report, Biden actually gave Iran the green light to attack Israel!  Iran started huffing and puffing about attacking Israel because Israel killed an Iranian general who was in Damascus.  A common media report is that Israel attacked the Iranian embassy, which would have constituted an attack against Iran itself.  In fact, the general, along with six other Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ("IRGC") members, was killed at an embassy annex that the IRGC used.  In other words, it was an Iranian military installation in Syria.

Joe Biden Approved Iran's Assault on Israel 'Within Certain Limits'.  On Saturday, Iran initiated a barrage of drones and ballistic missiles at Israel.  Thankfully, most of them were successfully intercepted and caused minimal damage.  Of course, in a stunning move, President Biden is pushing Israel not to retaliate.  It's hard to imagine why Biden would do that, except when you consider that Joe Biden has been appeasing Iran since his days as Barack Obama's vice president.  With that in mind, it's also not surprising — though it's still shocking — that Joe Biden not only had prior knowledge of Iran's assault on Israel but also technically gave it the green light under certain conditions, according to a report from the Jerusalem Post.

Reminder: The Biden Administration Granted Iran Billions in New Sanctions Relief Just One Month Ago.  Tonight, as Iran launches attacks on Israel, it is important to remember that exactly one month ago the Biden administration granted new sanctions relief to Iran that gave the country access to billions.  The move was criticized by Republicans and downplayed by Democrats and the liberal media.  It's just another reminder that Biden has a habit of making the exact wrong decision on foreign policy every single time.

After Iran Killed 3 U.S. Soldiers, Biden Gives It $10B Sanctions Waiver.  This story is worse than it sounds.  And while that's true of nearly everything this administration does, it's truly true here. [...] Now remember, Iran has effectively taken over Iraq.  [Three] American soldiers were killed because Iran has developed major Shiite militia forces across Iraq.  The transfer payments prop up Iraq's dependency on Iran which leads to further attacks on Americans.  This is not some sort of indirect issue, it's the core problem.  Not only is Iran profiting, but Iraq continues to be wired into Iran which makes a mockery of the entire war.

Biden Rewards Iran's Murder of 3 U.S. Troops With a Cool $10 Billion.  The Biden administration on Wednesday quietly issued yet another sanctions waiver to Iran, giving the terrorist regime access to as much as $10 billion in frozen assets.  When Presidentish Joe Biden showed similar largess in September of last year, he promised that the money — "merely" $6 billion that time — could "only be spent on humanitarian purposes." Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said his government would spend the money however they [...] pleased, and then did.

President Biden Is Set to Give a $10 Billion Gift to Iran.  President Joe Biden is teetering on the precipice of doing another lucrative favor for the authoritarian terrorist supporting the government of Iran.  The White House is reportedly set to renew a sanctions waiver, a decision that would unlock up to $10 billion in frozen assets for the regime.  This financial boon is supposedly earmarked for humanitarian purposes.  However, given Iran's history, the money is more likely to go towards funding endeavors that are far from humanitarian. [...] The waiver would allow Iraq to transfer electricity payments to the Iranian regime.  It would be a great benefit for Tehran, granting it substantial resources.  House Republicans wrote a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in which they argued against the move, arguing that "By waiving the application of sanctions, the Administration is maintaining a financial lifeline for the Iranian regime, even as it continues to support terrorist organizations around the world."

State Dept Investigation of Biden's Iran Envoy Broadens Into Probe of His Suspension.  The curious suspension of Robert Malley grows even more curious — and perhaps just as curious as how he got hired at all, if not more.  Joe Biden's special envoy to Iran got mysteriously suspended last spring by the State Department, but the White House never informed Congress of it.  The Tehran Times somehow acquired and published the State Department's suspension memo last September, much to the chagrin of Congress, which demanded some answers toute suite on Malley's status.  Now Semafor reports that the State Department's IG wants some answers, too.

Joe Biden Keeps Rewarding the Terrorists.  Even as Israelis were rooting out the barbaric child murderers and rapists of Hamas, President Joe Biden was trying to bully the Jewish state into repaying the Palestinians with a new state.  Now, the State Department is reportedly fast-tracking recognition of an "independent" Arab state, which not only promises to envelop Israel in a three-front terror fight but also pull the United States into a needless quagmire.  Then again, for Biden, rewarding terrorists is a matter of policy.  If this administration, for instance, had explicitly promised to help Iran enhance its position in the Middle East, what would it have done differently?  Only a few days after the inauguration, Biden brought back special envoy Rob Malley to spearhead negotiations with the Islamic state.  Now, there are many problems with Malley, but the biggest one is that he negotiates for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rather than the U.S.  Iran has spent decades kidnapping and murdering Americans.  So, a month after Malley's hiring, the Biden administration took Iranian proxies, the Houthis, off the State Department foreign terror designation list.  Then, as Barack Obama did, Biden released billions to strengthen the deteriorating terror regime and its Revolutionary Guard.

The real reason Joe Biden won't punish Iran.  The pusillanimous response of Biden to attacks on U.S. troops has enraged critics.  Many want the president, who pledged to hold accountable "all those responsible" for the deaths of three U.S. soldiers, to strike Iran.  To go after the head of the snake and squash Tehran's ability to fund and train the terrorists who continue to attack U. S. personnel.  He won't do it.  Why?  Because he's scared to death that hitting Iran's oil fields or export facilities would drive global oil prices higher, and boost the cost of gasoline in the U.S. Gas at the pump might go back to $5 per gallon, a record reached in 2022; Biden, already a massively unpopular president, cannot tolerate that.  Nothing drags down his approval ratings faster than skyrocketing prices at the pump; in an election year, he will do everything possible to make sure that doesn't happen.

How to Ensure a Big, Ugly War With Iran.  Iranian-backed militias have attacked American installations and forces in Syria, Iraq, and Jordan some 170 times. [...] These Iranian appendages have made a number of unfortunately correct assumptions about America in general and the Biden administration in particular.  One, after the recent serial humiliations of the flight from Afghanistan, the passivity of watching a Chinese spy balloon traverse with impunity the continental United States, the mixed American signals on the eve of the Ukraine war, the troubled Pentagon's recruitment and leadership lapses, and the destruction of the U.S. southern border, both Iran and its surrogates feel that the United States either cannot or will do much of anything in response to their aggression. [...] Two, they view Joe Biden's serial appeasement as a force multiplier of these perceptions of American weakness. [...]Three, after hitting American stations and bases 170 times and seeing little sustained, much less disproportionate, responses, Iran and its satellites now feel they are winning proxy wars with the U.S.  They have all but shut down the Red Sea as an international shipping route — damaging Europe, Egypt and Israel, which all depend on Red Sea commerce for vital imports and exports.

The Biden Administration is Now Playing Defense Lawyer for Iran in Incredible Show of Cowardice.  If anyone thought the Biden administration would swiftly and effectively respond to the recent killing of three U.S. soldiers by Iran-controlled militias, think again.  It's now been five days since the attack happened, and no retaliatory strikes have occurred.  Further, in an astounding show of cowardice, Biden and his cohorts in the "intelligence community" are now playing defense lawyer for Iran.  [Tweet]

U.S. Intel Officials Proclaim Iran Didn't Have Control Over Terror Group that Killed U.S. Military with Drone.  Obama and Biden like Iran.  Obama and Biden are facilitating a pro-Iran policy.  Obama and Biden don't want to do anything against the interests of their pro-Iran position.  That's the simple baseline.  As a direct consequence, the same U.S. intelligence community that proclaimed the Hunter Biden laptop was disinformation, now modify their prior intelligence to proclaim that Iran likely doesn't have any control over the various terrorist networks they support.  As a result, Biden cannot conduct a retaliatory strike against Iran because Biden cannot prove a direct link to Iran.  Our intel agencies are essentially falling on the sword of 'some people did something, but we can't be sure.'  See how this works?

Netanyahu: Iran is targeting the US.  Benjamin Netanyahu's warning to America could not have been more timely.  Over the weekend, I sat down with the Israeli prime minister at the country's security HQ in Tel Aviv for an exclusive interview.  During it, he issued an urgent warning to the US.  "I've told President Biden, I've told all the leaders who came here, this is your war as well because this is not merely a minor skirmish.  This is part of a major confrontation between the moderate axis of Israel and the moderate Arab states against Iran.  Its proxies are killing Americans as we speak."

Our Weird Passivity Toward Iran's Aggression.  This week, Iran attacked without provocation Pakistan, later claiming preposterously that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched the attack without the knowledge of Iran's foreign minister.  It's a pattern — after attacks by the IRGC in Iraq, and from Lebanon, Gaza, and Yemen, the regime claims these were done without its knowledge.  No one there, it seems, contrary to evidence, is accountable for the damage.  "If their people are happy living with these 'resistance' garbage models, then they should not complain of the misery and wars they are living in."  The Administration has backed off its historic mission of protecting freedom of navigation.  Instead, it keeps choosing appeasement.  Direct aggression against the U.S. and its allies by the Houthis in Yemen are clearly backed by Iran, causing substantial disruption of sea passage in the Red Sea, and yet the allied response has been too weak to eliminate the Houthi aggression.

Trump designated Yemen's Houthis as terrorists — one day after taking office, Biden reversed it.  Shortly after taking office in 2021, President Joe Biden reversed President Donald Trump's designation of the Iran-backed Yemeni Houthis as a terror group.  In so doing, Biden spoke about the need to deal with the humanitarian disaster in Yemen at the time.  The Trump administration believed that the Houthis had used violent campaigns to destabilize the region.  The Houthis took over the Yemeni capital Sana'a in 2014 along with much of the northwestern region of the country.  The US and UK conducted joint operations to bomb Houthi infrastructure in Sana'a on Thursday.

IDF finds evidence of Iranian effort to help Hamas build precision missiles.  Israel Defense Forces troops operating in Gaza City's Daraj and Tuffah districts discovered components used by Hamas to produce precision-guided missiles and other strategic weapons with direct assistance from the Islamic Republic of Iran, the military announced on Sunday [1/7/2024].  Nahal Brigade troops found "components proving terrorists of the Hamas terror organization learned under Iranian guidance how to operate and build precision components and strategic weapons," the IDF said on X, sharing photos showing a rocket engine and warhead.  The Iran-backed weapons manufacturing plant was discovered as part of an operation to expose a 330-foot terror tunnel, added the army.

Iran Ramps Up Uranium Enrichment Following $6 Billion Payment Greenlit By Biden Admin.  Iran is ramping up the rate at which it enriches uranium several months after receiving a $6 billion transfer from the Biden administration, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IEAE).  Iran had slowed down its uranium enrichment program in June, a move that diplomats believe was related to negotiations with the Biden administration that ultimately led to the unfreezing of $6 billion in oil assets to Tehran, Reuters reported.  Iran is now reversing the slowdown and has begun ramping up its uranium enrichment process once again, the IEAE said in a new confidential report this week, according to Reuters.  Since June, Iran had been enriching uranium at a rate of roughly 3 kg a month, but as of November that number had tripled, according to the IEAE's report viewed by Reuters.  [Tweet]

Biden Administration Empowered Iran's Terror Group, the Houthis.  Thanks to the Biden administration's alarmingly misguided officials and their counterproductive policies of appeasement towards Iran and its proxies, the Iranian regime's militia and terrorist group in Yemen, the Houthis, has ratcheted up attacks on ships in the Red Sea, and escalated the launching of missiles and attack drones at Israel.  Now, the Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah ("Partisans of Allah"), are threatening to attack any ship headed to Israel, regardless of its nationality or ownership.  Why not just replace their flags with American ones?  The current problem with the Houthis began almost three years ago, when the Biden administration, after less than a month in office, reversed yet another policy of the Trump administration.  On February 12, 2021, Secretary of State Antony Blinken officially revoked the designation of the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.  In doing so, the Biden administration airily delisted a group, which, according to a Yemeni government intelligence report, "works closely" with Al Qaeda and ISIS, and in addition, regularly commits crimes against humanity.

Iran's Implausible Deniability.  The Biden administration came into office with the pledge to take the U.S. off a "war footing" with Iran, which the incoming team said had characterized the term of its predecessor.  "De-escalation," as the administration called it, is the way we would achieve peace in the region.  Tehran would not be held to account for its malign activities, whether they were conducted directly or through its extensive regional network of proxies.  If anything, the Biden team telegraphed, Iran would be rewarded.  As recently as September, the administration was congratulating itself on its approach: "the Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades," National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan famously declared.  The slaughter of at least 1,200 Israelis, and more than 30 Americans, at the hands of Iranian proxies has not made a dent in the administration's worldview.  On the contrary, the White House's overriding concern over the last month has been to artificially distance Iran from the Oct. 7 massacre and the subsequent attacks on U.S. bases and personnel in the region.  The separation is absurd on its face.

The Curious Case of Rob Malley.  Anti-Israel sentiment has been oozing through those cracks on the Left for years, but the presidency of Barack Obama certainly primed the pump.  Obama's choice of advisors reflected his deep distrust of Israel and penchant for supporting Palestinians and appeasing Iran.  One of those advisor choices, the now-disgraced Robert Malley, is a case-in-point.  This summer, Malley was placed on unpaid leave from the State Department and had his security clearance revoked after an internal investigation found he had "mishandled classified information."  Malley's case is evidently serious enough that he is also now under investigation by the FBI, which would appear to suggest potential criminal charges of bribery or possibly even espionage.  Republicans on the House Oversight Committee are now preparing to subpoena Malley and the State Department for documents pertaining to his suspension, a situation that some observers say is among the worst scandals in department history.  Due to Iran's involvement in the Hamas invasion of Israel, they are scrutinizing Malley's role in negotiating the Biden administration's September agreement that released $6 billion of frozen Iranian oil revenues to Tehran as part of a broader prisoner-swap agreement.  Under political pressure after Hamas's jihadist pogrom in southern Israel, the Biden administration reluctantly agreed to refreeze those funds.

Expert: Obama Deal That Helped Put Hamas Office in Qatar [is] Coming Back to Bite Us.  You might wonder why the Hamas leadership seems to have been given a safe haven in Qatar.  Why is that country which we call an ally hosting these characters?  Blame Barack Obama and Joe Biden, who asked them to do so. [...] Richard Goldberg, the coordinator for the Trump administration's maximum pressure campaign on Iran, ripped that Obama administration decision, saying it's come back to bite us now, "For many years now, both the United States and Israel have been living in a policy fantasy world where we have tolerated Hamas' existence in Doha and believed that Doha would be a moderating influence." He said the Oct. 7 attack disproved that.

The Iranian Regime's Must be Held Accountable.  The appeals trial of a former Iranian regime prison official implicated in the 1988 massacre of political prisoners recently unfolded in Sweden as a consequential chapter in the ongoing struggle for accountability.  The proceedings not only laid bare the gruesome events of that dark period but also underscored the protracted conflict between the main Iranian opposition and the Iranian regime.  Kenneth Lewis, serving as the attorney for multiple plaintiffs in the trial, argued that the clash between the opposition and the Iranian regime should not be classified as an international armed conflict as claimed by the Iranian regime and its proponents.  Instead, he described it as a non-international armed conflict dating back to June 20, 1981.  This date marked the beginning of the Iranian regime's brutal suppression of peaceful protests, leading to widespread detentions and executions.

The Biden Administration Finances Iran's Terrorism.  Last week, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller announced that the Biden Administration will waive Iranian sanctions to permit the release of $10 billion to Iran from Iraqi electricity sales.  This was in addition to the $6 billion released this past September as a ransom for American hostages held by Iran.  Mr. Miller assured us the money would be restricted so that Iran would only be able to buy food and humanitarian aid for its people.  However, an astute reporter asked whether the $10 billion was fungible, meaning that Iran could shift money away from the designated services to fund terrorism.  Miller denied it and said, "They [Iran] choose to fund destabilizing activities first.  They always have; as far as we can tell, they always will... looking at this money, we see the benefit to allowing these funds to move again to restricted accounts where they can only benefit the Iranian people."  This argument is delusional.  He may as well have told us that giving Hamas water pipes was a peaceful way to support the Palestinian people, when in fact Hamas turns water pipes into missiles.

Biden Govt [Gives] Another $10 billion to Iran.  The Biden government will allow the terrorist-supporting Iranian government to access at least $10 billion more from hitherto frozen funds held in Iraq.  A new sanctions waiver would extend billions in relief to Iran, despite President Biden only having criticized the Iranian regime's funding of terrorist groups in the wake of Hamas' violent incursion into Israel last month.  The waiver would also allow Iraq to transfer frozen electricity payments to Iranian-owned bank accounts in Oman and Europe.  The Biden government will insist the money can only be used for non-sanctioned activities.  Yet, Republican congressmen pointed out the folly in this approach as, even if the money is used in accordance with the US' wishes, it will free up money elsewhere to continue funding groups like Hamas.  "The world is living in a post-October 7th world, but the White House is still running an Oct. 6 policy toward Iran," said Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Obama-Biden Admin Extends Sanctions Waiver Freeing Up $10 Billion For Iran.  The Biden administration is extending a sanctions waiver that will allow Iran continued access to $10 billion in previously frozen assets, The Associated Press reported Tuesday.  The four-month extension will allow Iran continued access to previously frozen $10 billion in electricity revenues for humanitarian aid, according to the AP.  Critics of the Biden administration have said that giving Iran to access frozen funds will free up money in Tehran's money reserves and allow them to carry on sponsoring terrorism.  The sanctions waiver will authorize Iraq to continue purchasing electricity services from Iran and give Tehran access to the billions in payments currently stored in the Iraqi banks, according to the AP.  The Biden administration made assurances that Iran has only spent a small amount of the existing $10 billion and can only be used for humanitarian relief.  [Tweet]

No Serious Country Would Allow Terrorist Sympathizers To Run Its Government.  There used to be a time when taking directions from America's adversaries would be considered treasonous.  But in today's world, doing so can gain you access to the highest levels of the U.S. government.  On Monday, the New York Post reported a high-ranking Pentagon official with ties to the Iranian government has "sought to undermine the leading group resisting" the Middle Eastern nation's dictator, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.  According to the Post, Ariane Tabatabai, the chief of staff for the assistant secretary of defense for special operations at the Defense Department, was among several individuals to partake in a "covert campaign" to delegitimize Iran's "leading opposition group, known as the Mojahedin-e Khalq."  The revelation was contained in a report written by Ivan Sascha Sheehan, a dean at the University of Baltimore, and presented to President Biden on Monday.

We Still Have an Iranian Mole Inside the Pentagon.  You may recall a stunning report from September that looked into an infrequently discussed Pentagon group known as the Iran Experts Initiative.  In it, we learned about one of Joe Biden's Iranian "experts" who was probably far too much of an expert in this field.  Ariane Tabatabai is an Iranian-born aide and chief of staff to a Pentagon Assistant Secretary of Defense.  She initially worked alongside the now-suspended Robert Malley on Biden's efforts to restart Obama's Iran nuclear deal.  But the September report suggests she was working far more on behalf of the Iranian regime than our government.  Still, she managed to keep both her new job at the Pentagon and her security clearance.  Today, a new report was delivered to Biden revealing that Tabatabai was up to other activities.  She worked on a covert campaign to smear the leading opposition group in Iran in support of the Iranian regime.  And yet she is somehow still embedded inside of the Pentagon.

Pentagon aide part of 'covert campaign' to undermine Iran opposition: report.  An Iranian-born Pentagon aide, who was revealed earlier this year to be part of a years-long, Tehran-backed influence operation, also sought to undermine the leading group resisting the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to a new report delivered to President Biden.  Ariane Tabatabai has retained her security clearance and position as chief of staff to the Pentagon's assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict — despite a bombshell Semafor report in September detailing her ties to senior Iranian Foreign Ministry officials.  But Tabatabai and founding members of the influence operation, known as the Iran Experts Initiative, were also engaged in a "covert campaign" to smear the nation's leading opposition group, known as the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), according to a recent report endorsed by former vice presidential national security adviser Lincoln Bloomfield and written by a University of Baltimore professor.

Biden Might Release Another $10B to Iran Tomorrrow.  Iran is behind the Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria, and Yemeni attacks, and they are behind the attacks on US military bases, injuring our soldiers.  Despite that, the Biden regime is allegedly considering releasing another $10 billion to Iran.  They use the funds for terror.  This is madness.  Richard Goldberg is a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.  He said the decision is imminent.  Goldberg wrote: "Why should Iran have any access to more than $10 billion after sponsoring one of the worst terrorist attacks against American citizens and the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust?"

The Editor says...
The simplest explanation is that Barack H. Obama hates America, Barack H. Obama is a Muslim, and Barack H. Obama is the de facto president who tells Joe Biden what to do.

Biden is 'Fighting' Hamas for Biden's Interests.  The history of radical Muslim envy and hatred towards the Jews and the Christians is too lengthy to recount here.  However, we can start with Obama and his enduring predilections for the terrorist radical Muslim regimes in the Middle East and Africa.  Biden worked for Obama.  Remember all the fawning photos of Biden grinning at the Boss?  Not many American presidents would have picked a vice president with such a long history of venality and stupidity in D.C., but Obama picked Biden.  It probably was a marriage made in Hell:  Biden would do as he was told, and Obama would keep the intelligence receipts on Biden's family enterprises and international pay-to-play treachery locked safely away.  Obama armed Iran.  Obama released known terrorists from Gitmo.  Obama is now very rich.  Biden smiled through it all. [...] Biden's nod and wink towards the recent violent demonstrations in D.C. and elsewhere, notably in areas of larger Muslim populations, in support of the "Palestinians," is what we should have expected; we can expect a good deal more.

Tehran's Reign of Terror Requires a Rapid Response.  In the aftermath of Tehran's recent warmongering in the Middle East last month, the ominous specter of the Iranian regime's designs materialized once more in a chilling act of terrorism on the streets of Madrid on Thursday.  Prominent Spanish politician, Dr. Alejo Vidal-Quadras, President of the International Committee in Search of Justice and former Vice President of the European Parliament, was shot in the face in broad daylight.  The audacious act of terror serves as a stark wake-up call to the escalating audacity of Tehran's mullahs.  This heinous assassination attempt demands a resolute response.  It lays bare the unsettling reality that the Iranian regime, renowned as the world's premier state sponsor of terrorism, has not only persisted but dangerously grown emboldened.

Iran's Genocidal War Against the Jews.  The Biden administration has apparently decided to totally ignore the involvement of Iran in Hamas's October 7 invasion of Israel.  The Iranian regime, meanwhile, has been assisting Russia militarily in its war against Ukraine and is reportedly behind the latest Hamas terrorist massacre in Israel.  The Biden administration, by ignoring sanctions against Iran's oil and gas exports, thereby enabling Iran to accumulate close to $60 billion with which to fund the Hamas war, as well as to advance its own nuclear weapons program.  Iran has not only been threatening the US with attacks, it has attacked US assets in Syria and Iraq 83 times since Biden became president, and at least 24 times in the past two weeks.  Iran also recently threatened again to annihilate Israel, and has reportedly begun ordering its elite militias based in Syria into southern Lebanon "to participate in attacks on Israel."

From Hamas to Iran to China:  Follow the Money.  Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif and Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi signed a 25-year strategic cooperation agreement in 2021.  China now has its strongest ever economic foothold in Iran.  Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said the agreement provides a "deep, multilayered and fully fledged" pact to enhance trade, economic and transport cooperation that will be "very effective in deepening" relations with China.  University of Tehran professor Mohammad Marandi, who is close to the Iranian regime, said, "This strategic partnership is important because it allows Iran and China to build a roadmap for long-term relations that will be much more fruitful.  It's also a signal being sent to the United States.  The more the U.S. tries to isolate Iran and China, the more it causes countries like Iran and China to move more closely to each other."  China views Iran's economic situation as an opportunity to capitalize on Iran's limited bargaining power with the West.

How Blinken and Company Laid the Groundwork for the Hamas Attack.  The interventions flowed from one motivation:  the State Department's determination to achieve a "reset" with Iran, restoring the consensus reached at the end of the Obama Administration through its 2015 nuclear deal.  This was the main priority of high-level department staff, including Robert Malley, whose family history as well as his work at the International Crisis Group align him with pro-Iranian movers, and the recently-retired Wendy R. Sherman, whose legacy is the 2015 deal.  These players, along with National Security staffer Brett McGurk, had been crucial in pushing the Obama-backed alignment with Iran.  In the Biden Administration, working under Secretary of State Antony Blinken, they have had a supportive superior:  a low-key gladhander who has made his career supporting whatever establishment foreign agenda is teed up for action.

Democrats Send A Corrupt, Inexperienced Hyperpartisan Iran-Booster To 'Help' Israel.  Architects of Barack Obama's 2015 Iran giveaway deserve plenty of blame for empowering terrorist proxies throughout the Middle East, including the one that murdered 1,400 Jews — over 30 Americans.  At this point in history, they should have nothing to do with our Israel policy.  And yet, welcome our new ambassador to the Jewish State, Jack Lew.  Sen. Ben Cardin, the Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations, ludicrously claimed during Lew's confirmation hearing that the former Treasury Secretary was "eminently qualified to serve in this post.  He has extensive experience."  Lew's only experience in foreign policy is championing pro-Iran policies.  During the Iran deal debate, Lew predicted the giveaway "will make our country safer, it will make our allies safer, and it will make the world safer."  Not once, in his Washington Institute speech praising Obama's foreign policy, incidentally, did Lew mention the word "Israel."  What the deal — and subsequent support for Iran — did was reward the Revolutionary Guard for murdering around 600 Americans in Iraq and incentivize that regime to take more American hostages.

For more than a decade, Barack Obama has financially supported Islamic terrorism.  Since the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, American policy against Iran was to treat it as an enemy.  Its incessant support of terror attacks around the world, many targeting civilian Jews, resulted in its exclusion from normal diplomatic relations.  It was — and remains to this day — the foremost state sponsor of terror.  A pariah among nations.  All of that changed with Barack Obama's inauguration in 2009.  His first major diplomatic act touched off the "Arab Spring", a set of hardline revolts in many countries including Egypt, which had been the site of his first speech.  Breaking with all American traditions, Obama slammed America's foreign policies and sided with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood political element, which had once aligned with Hitler's Third Reich. [...] Iran's nuclear ambitions were only possible thanks to Barack Obama.  He drove Congress relentlessly to approve steps that would allow Iran to both build nuclear weapons and develop intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Ted Cruz Exposes Three "Spies" Hiding in D.C. — Claims New Evidence Proves Stunning Dem Scandal.  Both the Obama and Biden administrations have made heavily criticized decisions regarding Iran.  The Middle Eastern country is a known U.S. enemy.  It regularly threatens the United States and our allies overseas.  Evidence suggests Iran helped fund Hamas's attack in Israel.  Yet President Biden claimed otherwise.  Both Obama and Biden seemed to help Iran.  Even just last month, the Biden administration worked to unfreeze $6 billion in assets for the rogue nation.  Biden has tried to resurrect the Iran Nuclear deal.  The White House has failed to restrict Iran, softening Trump-era sanctions.  But why?  Sen. Ted Cruz seems to know why — and he's blowing the whistle on what he's calling a massive scandal.

It's time for Joe Biden to stand up to Iran — the root of Mideast evil.  President Joe Biden is headed to the Middle East to show solidarity with Israel, but he should use the occasion to do something even more vital: prove that he understands the region's woes now stem largely from the regime in Iran — and announce major plans to hold it accountable.  What kind of plans?  For starters, Biden should immediately end all further nuclear talks and reimpose the toughest possible sanctions on Tehran.  As it stands, his sanctions relief has allowed Tehran to move from just $4 billion in available global reserves when Biden took office to over $40 billion today.

Biden's Nominee For Israel Ambassador Oversaw Infamous 'Pallets Of Cash' Payment To Iran.  President Joe Biden's nominee to be Ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew, oversaw the infamous "pallets of cash" transfer of funds to Iran while serving as former President Barack Obama's Treasury Secretary in 2016.  The Obama administration paid Iran nearly $2 billion in January of 2016 to resolve a dispute dating back to the 1970's, in which the U.S.-backed Shah government in Iran purchased $400 million of military equipment from Washington.  The equipment was never delivered due to the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and Obama paid back the $400 million to Tehran plus $1.3 billion in interest.  As Treasury Secretary, Lew oversaw the transfer of the initial $400 million payment on Jan. 17, 2016, which was delivered in the now-infamous form of foreign cash carried on a number of pallets by aircraft.  The "pallets of cash" incident became a frequent line of critique for those who opposed Obama's policy toward Iran, which involved lifting sanctions and negotiating a diplomatic agreement aimed at curbing the development of Tehran's nuclear program.

"Barry's Fingerprints Are All Over This".  Obama didn't travel to Cairo, Egypt for his first foreign policy trip accidentally; he did it with great intent and purpose.  The layers and layers of ideologues he and Hillary embedded in the institutions of the State Dept are as deep as the layers of ideologues Obama embedded in Main Justice and the intelligence community.  The time when Barry needed to give directions is long past.  The embeds are self-aware, acting on purpose, and the outcomes we see today are simply manifestations of that activity.  It is also worth remembering there's an entire new generation of people, who were in their 20's and 30's comfortably oblivious to what was taking place between 2009 and 2017, when the embeds were installed.  That era of the American people is only now starting to have their own slow awakening to the damage as it surfaces.  When Obama aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood, only a small percentage of the American people actually saw the big picture and realized the potential for long term issues.

How Iran, the 'Head of the Snake,' Directly Helped Hamas's Assault on Israel.  The Biden administration insists that it does not have any evidence of Iran's "direct" involvement in the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.  The Biden administration has apparently totally dismissed the Wall Street Journal report on October 9, "Iran Helped Plot Attack on Israel Over Several Weeks," as well as the Washington Post's "Hamas received weapons and training from Iran, officials say."  Hamas leaders have indeed long been boasting of the financial and military aid they receive from Iran to enable them to pursue the Jihad (holy war) to slaughter Jews and extinguish Israel.  Based on the statements of these leaders, it is massively clear that without Iran's support, and reported planning, Hamas could not have carried out the massacre of Israelis near the border with the Gaza Strip.  Unlike the US administration, a growing number of Arabs are convinced that Iran is the "head of the snake" and that it was involved, deeply, in the Hamas massacre.  These Arabs have taken to social media platforms to voice their outrage over the Iranian regime's responsibility for the assault.

The real problem is Iran.  [Scroll down]  Thus, the Gaza attack can be traced to Tehran's panic over progress made between Israel and Saudi Arabia on a "normalization" agreement.  For sure, the conditions in Gaza Strip are bad, and the horror that has unfolded was a predictable result, someone could argue.  Hamas and other factors have made Gaza a kind of prison, but again, being in a prison does not mean that Hamas, or anyone, has the right to slaughter kids and women, to kidnap, rape and take hostages.  The only thing visible from this is that Hamas has a genocidal ideology and its ultimate goal is to commit genocide against the Jewish people.  And, sadly they do have it.  Iran's president has said before that, it wants Israel to be wiped off map.

The U.S. Money Trail With Iran Is Worse Than You Think.  Many of the articles surrounding the atrocities of the Hamas attacks this past weekend have referenced the recent $6 billion "deal," in which the U.S. gave this money to Iran in exchange for five Americans.  It already seemed like the worst trade in history. [...] In a recent article, senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and former National Security Council official Richard Goldberg traces the money trail.  He confirms:  It is so much worse than we think.  Goldberg lays out the numbers.  The $6 billion you've seen in every (other) headline is only the money being transferred from our friends in Qatar.  But this is separate from the $10 billion of assets being transferred from Iraq, which Goldberg says will continue on "a rolling basis."  Then there are the reports that Iran will be allowed to access $7 billion in fiat currency by trading drawing rights with the International Monetary Fund.  He also says Japan is scheduled to transfer $3 billion to Iran. [...] The revelations do not end there.  U.S. officials have also quietly acknowledged that they've uncapped Iranian oil exports to China.  These export levels, previously held around 775,000 barrels per day under Trump's sanctions, are now estimated to be between 1.4 and 2.2 million barrels per day.  Modest estimates value this relief at $25 billion annually.

Biden Admin Struggles to Not Let Barbaric Hamas Attack Stop Them From Appeasing Iran.  President Biden was justifiably praised for his remarks on October 7 and 10 pledging "rock solid" American support for Israel and strongly condemning the barbaric terrorist attack against Israel by Hamas, an Iranian terrorist proxy.  Biden spoke passionately, calling the Hamas violence "pure unadulterated evil" and a "violation of every code of human morality."  Axios called Biden's October 10 speech "perhaps the most powerful statement of support for Israel by a sitting U.S. president since Harry Truman recognized the Jewish state in 1948."  But a crucial omission undermined the moral clarity of Biden's speeches:  there was no mention of Iran which funds and arms Hamas and reportedly was deeply involved in the planning and execution of the October 7 terrorist attack.

Finally, Congress Is Investigating Iran Envoy Rob Malley, Whose Closest Advisors Are Linked to Tehran.  After Hamas' surprise attack on Israel that has led to a formal declaration of war in the Middle East, a lot of attention has justifiably been given to the most recent deal the Democrats made with Iran — giving the mullahs access to $6 billion that had been frozen and sending some of their militants we'd apprehended back to Iran.  But much more attention needs to be focused on Rob Malley, who was Biden's Iran Envoy until his security clearance was suspended in April amid allegations of mishandling classified information that are under investigation by the FBI.  That attention is now coming, with the House Oversight & Accountability Committee launching an investigation into the administration's concessions to the Iranian regime and Malley's actions specifically.

Iran's Role in Hamas' Attack on Israel.  On Saturday, Israel suffered the worst attack on its civilian population in 50 years.  Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists in Gaza launched thousands of rockets at Israeli population centers and stormed through the security barrier into Israel where they massacred hundreds of Jewish men, women, and children.  An untold number were also taken captive and thousands are seriously injured.  Fifty years ago, Israel was also caught by surprise when Arab armies invaded on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year.  This time, the Palestinian terrorists chose to attack on Simchat Torah, the most joyous holy day in the Jewish calendar, when Jews celebrate the completion of the annual cycle of studying the Torah and then immediately begin it again.  Their choice of this date is no coincidence.  It is a sign that Hamas, like their predecessors, sees itself at war not only with the government of Israel, but also with the Children of Israel and the God of Israel — the Jewish people and Judaism itself.

Biden Administration Accused of Illegally Funding Hamas.  A new interesting bit of information has surfaced in Israel's war against Hamas, which began when it launched a surprise attack on Saturday, killing more than a thousand people and taking hostages.  The Biden administration has faced scrutiny over its release of $6 billion in frozen funds to Iran, which has been found to have helped Hamas plan and execute the assault.  It appears the White House also helped to fund Hamas directly, despite being warned about the consequences of doing so.  America First Legal published a post on social media in which it announced that it was filing a lawsuit against the Biden administration and was initiating the discovery process to find out what the White House knew about their plan to send aid to Palestinians.

Ted Cruz Speaks Hard Truths on Hamas' Attack on Israel: 'Paid for By Joe Biden and the Democrats'.  On Saturday, Hamas attacked Israel, making it the bloodiest day in the country's history and resulting in more Jews dead since the end of the Holocaust.  Meanwhile, the Biden administration's response was less than ideal in many ways.  This is especially with regards to the $6 billion that the United States released to Iran as part of a prisoner exchange, a move that was announced on the anniversary of September 11, no less.  Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in his Monday edition of "The Verdict," was among those calling out the administration for this, but also other, moves.  Early on in the podcast, Cruz emphasized how "infuriating" the brutal attack on Israel was.  And, it has to do with the role Democrats played.  "I'll tell you what is infuriating about this.  This was paid for by Joe Biden and the Democrats," Cruz pointed out, mentioning "this is something that the corporate media desperately wants to avoid," though he nevertheless wished to "be clear."

$6 Billion in Iranian Assets Buys What, Exactly?  In mid-September, the United States authorized the release of $6 billion to Iran in the form of unfrozen Iranian assets to help secure the return of five U.S. citizens.  Seeing as how we provided a metric crap-ton of money to a country that literally funds Hamas and Hamas executed hundreds of innocent Israelis, we should probably know a little bit about these people.

President Pallets-of-Cash Pretends to Care About Dead Israelis.  If your goal is a pile of dead Israelis, send money to Iran.  The more money you give to Iran, the more dead Israelis.  Former President Barack Obama knows this, and still he sent the terrorist state of Iran pallets of cash.  "On Tuesday, the Obama administration finally admitted something its critics had long suspected," my colleague John Hayward reported in late 2016.  "The entire $1.7 billion tribute paid to Iran was tendered in cash — not just the initial $400 million infamously shipped to the Iranians in a cargo plane[.]"  "[A]t the same moment," Hayward adds, "four American hostages were released."

Iran sends deadly message to Biden with Hamas attack on Israel.  The U.S. has yet to confirm a direct involvement from Tehran in the operation, but officials acknowledge Iranians are indirectly complicit in training, funding and supporting Hamas.  The Hamas invasion, the worst attack on Israel in 50 years, shows Tehran is increasingly willing to damage U.S. allies and, in effect, try to weaken American influence through proxy groups.  It comes as Iran's influence as a regional power appears on the rise.

Biden Admin's Lies About Aid to Gaza.  White House aides spent the weekend crying about "misinformation" from those critical of the Biden administration's decision to unfreeze $6 billion for Iran — the financial and often strategic backer of Hamas and other anti-Israel terrorist organizations — as well as seeking to dispel talk that "aid" money Biden sent to Gaza boosted Hamas terrorists. [...] The Biden administration did know that such aid — as they admitted in internal documents — came with a "high risk" that Hamas would benefit as a result.  According to reporting from The Washington Free Beacon's Adam Kredo in August, the outlet obtained internal documents that showed the Biden administration "pushed through plans to distributed hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer aid" to areas controlled by Hamas "despite internal assessments that those plans could boost the Iran-backed terrorist group."

Biden, resign now!  On October 7, when Jews celebrated the giving of the Torah by God to the Jewish people, Hamas massacred more than 1,000 Jewish civilians in Israel, shouting "Allah Akbar" (Our God is greater) over their desecrated bodies.  Children, women, and the elderly were raped, mutilated, and tortured in the name of Allah by a terrorist organization created with a sole mission to eradicate the Jewish state.  Hamas Charter, Article 28 states "Israel, by virtue of it being Jewish and of having a Jewish population, defies Islam and the Muslims."  It was less than one month earlier that Joe Biden released $6 billion to Iran, a state sponsor of terrorism throughout the world whose stated mission is to eliminate the Jewish state of Israel.  Hamas has admitted that the $6 billion freed up Iran's money supply.  It enabled Hamas to receive the needed weapons to carry out their massacre upon innocent civilians.  Since Iran is a well-known sponsor of worldwide terrorism with a parliament which regularly engages in shouts of "Death to America," it begs the question:  Why would the Biden administration hand over $6 billion to a sworn enemy?  Giving aid to our enemy is clearly an act of treason; yet there have been no significant calls for his removal.  Perhaps the answer lies with Biden, a man who has never met a kickback he didn't accept.

Marsha Blackburn Is Actually Looking to Do Something About That $6B Biden Released to Iran.  Over the weekend, Hamas attacked Israel, making October 7 the bloodiest day in the country's history and one that killed the most Jews since the end of the Holocaust.  Given the support that Hamas had from Iran, many have called out the Biden administration for its move to provide the country with $6 billion -- a decision that was announced on September 11 -- as part of a prisoner swap.  As the money has reportedly not actually gone to Iran yet, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) has called on President Joe Biden to void the agreement and freeze the payments.  The senator posted about the crisis in the Middle East several times over her X account over the weekend, with multiple posts addressing the funds.  That wasn't all she did, though.  On Monday, Blackburn circulated a letter to her fellow senators asking that they be co-signers to calling on the president to freeze the payments.  Secretary of State Antony Blinken is CC'ed on the letter.  [Tweet]

Is Hamas Using Weapons the US Left Behind in Afghanistan in its War Against Israel?  The current conflict between Israel and Hamas has brought to the forefront a myriad of issues and even more questions.  The unsettling images on the ground reveal that these hostilities could easily become more bloody.  As more information emerges, this situation could also highlight the implications of military decisions made by the U.S. government, namely the withdrawal from Afghanistan.  When President Joe Biden decided to remove U.S. troops from Afghanistan in 2021, it was hailed as being the right decision.  However, the execution of the withdrawal left much to be desired, to say the least.  Indeed, the disaster resulted in even more carnage and the death of American troops.  But the fact that the government left behind caches of weapons and other equipment could possibly have even more far-reaching consequences — especially in the clash between Israel and the Palestinians.  A Newsweek report from June details a conversation with a commander in the Israeli military who worried that the weapons left in Afghanistan could have wound up in the hands of Israel's enemies.

The Editor says...
I doubt if Joe Biden made the decision to cut and run from Afghanistan as quickly as possible.  Joe Biden is senile.  He only does what he's told.  To unceremoniously decamp from Afghanistan, leaving all the military hardware behind, sounds very much like something Barack H. Obama would do, simply because Obama is a Muslim, and Obama has repeatedly demonstrated that he hates America.  The Afghanistan fiasco has Obama's fingerprints all over it.

Republicans blast Biden for releasing $6 billion in frozen Iran funds ahead of Hamas attack on Israel.  Republicans in the House and Senate are tearing into the Biden administration for unfreezing $6 billion in Iranian assets months before Hamas terrorists launched a deadly and massive attack on Israel early Saturday — criticism that the Biden administration called "false and misleading."  "Just weeks ago, the Biden administration handed over $6 billion to Iran, and today, innocent Israelis were murdered by Iran-backed terrorists," Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said in a statement.  "We must continue to support our strongest ally in the Middle East and their right to defend themselves against these unprovoked, horrific attacks."  Blackburn spoke after Hamas terrorists invaded areas of southern Israel.  Thousands of rockets were fired into Israel and dozens of fighters infiltrated through the border.  Local Israeli media reported that at least 100 people have been killed in the assault.

Biden NSC Spox Claims $6 Billion in Funds Joe Biden Sent to Iran Have "Absolutely Nothing to do With" Hamas Attacks Against Israel.  Joe Biden's NSC spox on Saturday went into damage control after Hamas surprise ambushed Israel in a horrific terror attack.  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared war against Hamas after the militant group fired over 5,000 rockets at Israel on Saturday.  [Tweet with video clip]  Hamas militants launched a surprise attack on Israel, catching the country off-guard during a major Jewish holiday.  The attack involved thousands of rockets and dozens of fighters infiltrating Israeli towns near the Gaza Strip.  Horrifying footage has emerged showing women being marched into vehicles, bloodied and bruised.  Earlier reports showed Israeli civilians including children, being captured and taken into the Gaza Strip, Daily Mail reported.

Joe Biden's $6-billion war on Israel.  In 2015, under then-Democrat president Obama, the United States danced around Iran's overt hostility toward Israel and the United States and encouraged Iran to temper its work toward creating a nuclear bomb.  As a result, two months later, Iran entered into a soft agreement with the five members on the U.N. Security Council plus Germany.  This agreement was called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA.  In return, against Republican opposition and even some Democrat misgivings, Obama dropped U.S. sanctions on Iran in return for Iran's purported slow-walking its quest for a nuclear bomb.  Wink, wink.  Additionally, Obama displayed overt antagonism toward Israel.  He refused to acknowledge an American Embassy in Jerusalem and declared, obnoxiously and illegally, that Jewish children born in Jerusalem were not considered Israeli and could not be issued Israeli passports, as they had not been born on Israeli ground.

Iran Expresses Support For Palestinian Terrorists Murdering Israeli Citizens After Biden Gave Iran $6 Billion.  An adviser to the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran expressed support for the Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israel that have left dozens dead and hundreds more injured.  "We congratulate the Palestinian fighters," said the adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, as quoted by the semi-official ISNA news agency.  "We will stand by the Palestinian fighters until the liberation of Palestine and Jerusalem."  The news comes after President Joe Biden unfroze $6 billion in Iranian oil revenues in exchange for the release of five U.S. citizens who were being held in false imprisonment in Tehran.  Iran is the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism as they are the major funder of Hamas, Hezbollah, and other Islamic terror groups.

Biden's Chamberlain Moment.  Biden's recent prisoner swap with Iran suggests we haven't learned a thing from the lessons of Munich, and the dangers of appeasing evil.  While everyone is glad to see families reunited with their loved ones, there was an enormous cost to this deal that will leave Americans less safe.  Let's just call it what it is:  the Biden administration paid a ransom to the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world.

Member of Iranian Influence Network Visited Biden White House Five Times.  An alleged member of a secret Iranian government influence network visited the Biden White House at least five times for high-level meetings with senior U.S. officials, according to visitor logs.  Ali Vaez, an Iran analyst with the International Crisis Group, was outed last week as an alleged member of a vast Iranian-government-controlled propaganda network that helped push Tehran's talking points in Washington, D.C., and influence policy, according to Semafor.  Vaez reportedly communicated with senior Iranian government associates as part of the Iran Experts Initiative, an influence operation run by Iran's foreign ministry.  The meetings are raising questions about whether the Biden administration was aware of Vaez's alleged participation in the Iranian influence operation and may have given him insider information about the administration's diplomacy with Tehran.  Another alleged member of the Iran Experts Initiative, Ariane Tabatabai, serves as a senior Pentagon official and holds a security clearance, prompting Republican lawmakers to demand her top secret access be revoked.

High-Level Iranian Spy Ring Busted in Washington.  The Biden administration's now-suspended Iran envoy Robert Malley helped to fund, support, and direct an Iranian intelligence operation designed to influence the United States and allied governments, according to a trove of purloined Iranian government emails.  The emails, which were reported on by veteran Wall Street Journal correspondent Jay Solomon, writing in Semafor, and by Iran International, the London-based émigré opposition outlet which is the most widely read independent news source inside Iran, were published last week after being extensively verified over a period of several months by the two outlets.  They showed that Malley had helped to infiltrate an Iranian agent of influence named Ariane Tabatabai into some of the most sensitive positions in the U.S. government — first at the State Department and now the Pentagon, where she has been serving as chief of staff for the assistant secretary of defense for special operations, Christopher Maier.

Paying Iranian Terrorists Billions in Ransom Is Nothing to Brag About, Mr. President.  The going rate for an American hostage these days is around $1.3 billion.  That's what the Biden administration paid out this week for five Americans in a prisoner swap with the Islamic Republic of Iran.  And with little overhead, it's mostly profit for the mullahs.  But don't let the term "prisoner swap" insinuate that there is any moral equivalence.  These are not two normal countries trading spies or combatants.  No, this is just old-fashioned extortion.  The Iranians released political hostages, snatched off the streets of Tehran after unwisely returning to visit family or attending funerals or protests.  Many of them were reportedly thrown into the notorious Evin Prison for the crime of having dual citizenship.  Some, like Siamak Namazi, were put in solitary confinement for over two years.  Conversely, the United States released a bunch of spies, most of them caught trying to send military and nuclear equipment back to Iran — all of them given the benefit of due process.

Bowe Bergdahl 2.0, Brought to You by the Obamunists, Yet Again.  With the recent prisoner exchange between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran, Americans better be on notice that Iran is once again in the business of taking hostages for ransom.  Any U.S. citizen traveling to the Islamic Republic might want to rethink their travel plans.  Truthfully, the Iranian regime has been taking Americans hostage and holding them for ransom since the overthrow of the Shah of Iran back in 1979.  Unfortunately, contrary to America's long claimed official policy of not paying ransom for hostages, with regards to Iran, every single time the United States has acquiesced to Iranian demands in order to get our people back.  I've always had a bone up pick with Americans who continue to ignore State Department warnings not to travel to certain countries because they are unstable, or that they are a terrorist regime like Iran that poses a threat to American citizens.  Yet for some reason Americans continue to ignore these warnings and travel to dangerous parts of the world only to find themselves in a jam, and then they expect the U.S. government to spring them out.

Biden Administration's Dangerous, Failed, Disastrous Iran Policy.  There seems to be nothing that the Biden administration will not do to appease the ruling mullahs of Iran and their regime, called only a few years ago by the US Department of State the "top state sponsor of terrorism."  Since the Biden administration assumed office, the more it has been appeasing the Iranian regime financially and politically, the more the mullahs, instead of taking reciprocal steps, have become empowered and emboldened.  Iran is now holding uranium enrichment at 60% purity, around 10 days away from raising it to the nuclear threshold level of 90%.  In short, the US, instead of stopping Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, is bribing the mullahs not to go to 90% enrichment, at least on the Biden administration's watch, especially ahead of the November 2024 US presidential election.  Meanwhile, Iran laughably keeps claiming that it is not even seeking a nuclear bomb.

Republicans Move to Ban Iranian President from Entering US.  Republican lawmakers are spearheading an effort to ban Iran's president from entering the United States to attend the United Nations annual gathering next week.  Rep. Claudia Tenney (R., N.Y.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) introduced legislation on Tuesday that will make it illegal for Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi and his delegation to attend the U.N. General Assembly in New York City, according to a copy of the legislation obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.  The U.N.'s annual conference brings leaders from across the globe together for a week of meetings, and is often used by dictators and anti-U.S. figures as a platform to disseminate propaganda.  Last year, Raisi delivered a speech that assailed the United States for withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear accord and claimed his country is a beacon of justice, comments that came as Tehran's hardline police forces murdered pro-democracy protesters in the streets.

Iranian President Claims He Will Use $6 Billion Exchanged for American Hostages However He Wants.  Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi contradicted Biden administration promises about how money unfrozen by the American government will be spent during a clip from a forthcoming interview with NBC's Lester Holt released on Tuesday.  Raisi's comments came one day after the administration announced that Secretary of State Antony Blinken had signed a waiver last week so $6 billion could be released back to the Iranian government as part of a deal under which five American hostages are to be exchanged for five Iranian nationals presently being held in the U.S.  In a statement, National Security Council Spokeswoman Adrienne Watson explained that "On September 8, Secretary Blinken undertook a procedural step in an ongoing process to ensure Iranian funds can move from one restricted account to another and remain restricted to humanitarian trade."

Council on Foreign Relations Under Fire for Decision To Host Closed-Door Confab With Iranian President.  A prominent Washington, D.C., think tank is under fire for its decision to host Iran's president while he is in New York City for the United Nations' annual gathering.  The Council on Foreign Relations, one of Washington's most influential foreign policy hubs, is scheduled to host an invitation-only event with Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi next Tuesday, a source confirmed to the Washington Free Beacon, when the Iranian leader is in New York City to attend the U.N.'s General Assembly, the annual week-long gathering of world leaders.

Biden picks 9-11 to announce Iran cash for hostages deal.  On the day that Americans were remembering the 22nd anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks by Islamic fundamentalists, it was revealed that Team Biden had gone against the long-standing U.S. policy of not incentivizing the behavior of terrorists by freeing up billions in assets for Iran in exchange for the release of five detained American citizens.  The deal, according to The Associated Press, entailed the Biden administration issuing a blanket waiver for international banks to transfer $6 billion in frozen Iranian money from South Korea to Qatar without U.S. sanctions.  The money would then be held in Qatar's central bank for Iran, the world's top state sponsor of terrorism, to use, reportedly for the purchase of humanitarian goods.

Biden Administration Bypassing Americans, Violating US Law, to Appease Regime of Iran.  The Biden administration has been accused of secretly bypassing US laws to reach a deal with Iran's Islamist regime.  On August 10, the Biden administration apparently cut a "deal" excluding Congress and keeping the American people and U.S. regional allies in the dark — even though they are the ones who would be the most directly affected by a "deal."  The Biden administration, determined, it seems, to continue appeasing the Iranian regime — called by the US State Department the leading state sponsor of terrorism — keeps indefatigably trying to revive then President Barack Obama's 2015 "nuclear deal," enabling Iran's mullahs legitimately to have as many nuclear weapons as they like.

Iran Can Produce 10 Nuclear Bombs in 4 Months, Watchdog Says.  Iran now has the capacity to fuel 6 nuclear warheads in 1 month's time, and 10 within 4 months, according to an analysis of the latest data released by a nuclear watchdog.  Iran has the resources and technical know-how to "produce enough [weapons-grade uranium] for six nuclear weapons in one month, eight in two months, nine in three months, and ten in four months," according to the Institute for Science and International Security, a think tank that reviewed the latest disclosures about Tehran's atomic stockpile from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Iran, US on Verge of Prisoner Swap Under Qatar-Mediated Deal.  When $6 billion of unfrozen Iranian funds are wired to banks in Qatar as early as next week, it will trigger a carefully choreographed sequence that will see as many as five detained U.S. dual nationals leave Iran and a similar number of Iranian prisoners held in the U.S. fly home, according to eight Iranian and other sources familiar with the negotiations who spoke to Reuters.  As a first step, Iran on Aug. 10 released four U.S. citizens from Tehran's Evin prison into house arrest, where they joined a fifth, who was already under house arrest.  Later that day U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the move the first step of a process that would lead to their return home.

US makes deal with Iran to swap five American prisoners for $6 billion in frozen funds.  Five American citizens being held hostage by Iran will be released in return for the unfreezing of $6 billion held in South Korean banks, the U.S. government announced on Monday - enraging Biden administration critics, particular as the timing coincided with the anniversary of 9/11.  The five U.S. hostages - businessmen Siamak Namazi, 51, and Emad Shargi, 58; environmentalist Morad Tahbaz, 67; and two anonymous individuals — will be freed once the money has been transferred from South Korea to an intermediary, Qatar, and then on to Iran.  Five Iranian citizens held in the U.S. will also be released.

Biden Admin Green Lights $6 Billion 'Ransom' Payment To Iran In Exchange For American Prisoners.  The Biden administration signed off on the transfer of $6 billion in seized assets to Iran in exchange for five American prisoners, The Associated Press reported Monday.  Congress was notified Monday that Secretary of State Antony Blinken signed a blanket waiver last week for banks to transfer $6 billion in seized Iranian assets from South Korea to Qutar, the country that will dole out the funds back to Iran, according to the AP.  In addition to the $6 billion, the Biden administration will release five Iranian prisoners in exchange for five American prisoners currently held in Iran, in a deal that has been derided as a "ransom" payment by critics.

If we can't drill our own oil, we can seize Iran's.  A first-of-its-kind operation by the Department of Justice kicked off in April but was only officially documented recently.  An international shipping company, Empire Navigation, along with a Greek maritime corporation allegedly conspired with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and the IRGC-Qods Force to ship nearly one million barrels of Iranian crude oil to China in violation of international sanctions.  But the plot was thwarted when American naval units seized the tanker and arranged to have it shipped back to the United States.  The scheme reportedly involved falsifying documents to disguise the origin of the oil so that it could be exported to China.  Profits from the illicit sale were slated to go to fund the IRGC's terror operations.  So this was a fairly bold move, though it likely won't do much to warm up relations between Iran and the United States.

New Biden Nuke Deal is a Farce and Emboldens Iran.  As I discussed in an August 3, 2023 American Greatness article, the Biden administration negotiated a secret, unwritten nuclear deal with Iran last spring that reportedly will provide Tehran with $20 billion in sanctions relief and keep its nuclear program at a level capable of quickly producing weapons-grade nuclear fuel.  A new report by the International Atomic Energy Agency disproves the Biden Administration's attempts to dismiss the danger of the secret agreement and to falsely portray it as a deal that halted Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons.  Iran also reportedly agreed under this deal to cooperate with IAEA investigations of its nuclear program.  Iran is allowed to keep its nuclear infrastructure under the agreement, including advanced uranium centrifuges, and is permitted to continue to develop this technology.

Iranian Regime's Mullahs Pocketing Billions Thanks to the Biden Administration.  The Biden administration continues to ratchet up its appeasement policies with the ruling mullahs probably to revive the disastrous nuclear deal which would pave the way for the Islamist regime of Iran legally to have as many nuclear weapons as it likes; lift sanctions against the theocratic regime; strengthen the ruling mullahs with additional billions of dollars — for terrorism, nuclear weapons, the missiles to deliver them, "exporting the Revolution, and suppressing their own people — and allow them to rejoin the global financial system and enhance their legitimacy on the global stage.  US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced last month that America "will continue to enforce all of our sanctions" and "will continue to push back on Iran's destabilizing activities in the region and beyond."  That just is not accurate.  Sanctions are not being enforced:  Iran's oil export is booming and has surged above two million barrels a day.  The ruling mullahs are now producing ever more oil and selling it at levels close to the pre-sanctions era to countries such as China, which desperately needs it, while the Biden administration has effectively cut off US oil exploration.  Iran has also been shipping vast amounts of oil to Venezuela without either country fearing repercussions from the Biden administration.

Other than Barack H. Obama...
Does Iran have a mole in the Biden administration?  And does the Biden administration realize it?  Congress increasingly suspects that Iran has more information about US policy than they do — and proof just dropped into their laps.  Or, rather, on the doorsteps of Iranian newspaper subscribers.  For weeks, the House Foreign Affairs Committee has demanded to see why Biden's special envoy to Iran, Rob Malley, suddenly got suspended from that position.  They didn't even know about it for two months, and spent the next two months trying to find out what happened.  They don't have to subpoena the State Department, however, as the Tehran Times published the "sensitive but unclassified" memo on Sunday.

Dubowitz: $6 billion ransom to Iran will lead to more terrorism, hostages.  Washington reached a deal with Tehran on Thursday to release five Iranian Americans, whom the Islamic Republic detained evidently on trumped-up charges.  In exchange for the five being released to house arrest, the United States freed up $6 billion worth of Iranian oil and released Iranian prisoners.  Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, applauded the release of the unjustly detained prisoners, though said it comes at a very high cost, which could be counterproductive.  "Paying $6 billion in ransom payments means the regime will only take more hostages.  This has become a lucrative means of international extortion for Iran's supreme leader," Dubowitz wrote in an FDD analysis.  The Islamic Republic won't use that $6 billion for humanitarian work, he predicted.

GOP Slams Biden for 'Bowing' to Ayatollah, 'Endangering' Americans with 'Reckless' $6 Billion Iran Deal.  Republican officials blasted the Biden administration for "bowing to the Ayatollah" and "endangering" Americans, after it struck a deal with the Iranian regime to transfer five Iranian-Americans from prison to house arrest in exchange for billions in unfrozen assets.  On Thursday, the Biden administration's deal with Tehran to unfreeze $6 billion in Iranian financial assets and release a "handful" of Iranian nationals jailed for violating U.S. sanctions in exchange for five Americans taken prisoner by Iran on highly dubious charges of espionage, came to light.

This is exactly what Barack H. Obama would have done:
The $6 Billion Misunderstanding.  Robert Gover wrote the cult classic One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding.  It might have been cutting-edge in 1962, when it was published, but not for long.  Insofar as my subject here is related to President Biden, I can note that Hunter Biden's misadventures have taken reality far beyond Gover's satire.  However, I have found Gover's title an irresistible source of headlines for comments on the news.  Today comes word via the New York Times that the Biden administration has entered into a $6 billion arrangement with Iran for the return of five imprisoned Americans.  Fox News has posted an accessible story on the arrangement [elsew]here.  That's quite an increase over the $400 million non-signing bonus and future considerations (more money) that the Obama administration paid the Iranian regime for the return of four American prisoners and entry into the JCPOA.  The astronomical increase might be a case of Bidenomics in action or just a deeper descent into national abasement.

White House:  We're Not Paying Ransom to Iran, We're Just Making Assets They Couldn't Access 'More Accessible'.  On Thursday's broadcast of CNN's "The Lead," White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby claimed that the reported unfreezing of $6 billion in assets with some limits in exchange for Iran releasing five detained Americans "is not a ransom."  Instead, we're talking about taking an account "that has not been made accessible" to Iran, and "making that one account that has been in existence for several years more accessible to the Iranians."

Biden's Iranian Hostage Deal.  The only way to deal with this thug is by force.  Paying up is a sign of weakness.  It only emboldens the thug to demand more and with increased frequency.  Hence the first move is the issuance of a stern and strong warning.  If the tyrant doesn't learn his lesson, the strong words are converted into action.  The consequence of this payment of $6 billion and the open declaration of it will doubtlessly embolden every enemy of America.  They will begin to view every American citizen as an 800-million-dollar cheque that is waiting to be cashed.  The fact that Iran added a fifth hostage while negotiations were in progress is proof of that.  The Biden administration has hence endangered the lives of every American citizen, especially those working abroad in close proximity to hostile forces.  The other obvious problem is that the $6 billion could be used by Iran to fund its terror operations.

The Biden Administration's Legacy: Iranian Regime Armed with Unlimited Nuclear Bombs.  The Biden Administration has been the biggest gift to the ruling mullahs of Iran as their Islamist regime has been freely and rapidly advancing its nuclear program to unprecedented levels during President Joe Biden's term.  In March 2023, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl told the House Armed Services Committee that Iran's nuclear program had made "remarkable" progress and that it would take Iran 12 days to build a nuclear bomb.  Ever since the Biden Administration assumed office, the Iranian regime has been accelerating its enrichment of uranium to "near weapons grade" and declining to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

U.S. Weapons Sent To Ukraine Are Now Being Found in Iran.  Military aid provided by the United States and its NATO allies to Ukraine is being found in the hands of Iranians, according to a new CNN report.  "Russia has been capturing some of the US and NATO-provided weapons and equipment left on the battlefield in Ukraine and sending them to Iran, where the US believes Tehran will try to reverse-engineer the systems," four sources familiar with the matter told CNN.  "Over the last year, US, NATO and other Western officials have seen several instances of Russian forces seizing smaller, shoulder-fired weapons equipment including Javelin anti-tank and Stinger anti-aircraft systems that Ukrainian forces have at times been forced to leave behind on the battlefield," CNN added.

More evidence that Barack H. Obama is (again) running the White House:
Israel Under Attack: Biden's Coup to Get Iran the Bomb.  The Palestinian Authority's "pay-for-slay" jobs-program, paid for by "over $200 million" fungible U.S. taxpayer dollars in funding reinstated by President Joe Biden, incentivizes and rewards the murder of Jews.  "[I]f we had one single penny left, we would spend it on the families of martyrs and prisoners," Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said.  Abbas' Fatah faction boasted of carrying out 7,200 terror attacks in 2022 against Israel, while criticizing Hamas for not attacking Israel.  Many Israelis have no illusions anymore.  They see that the Palestinian Authority incites Jew-hate, whips up terrorism and tells Arab children and adults that to be a martyr for Islam allows them direct access not only to paradise, but also to generous funds for the terrorists and their families.

What is treason?  [Scroll down]  For a real case of treason, one must only go back to President Obama funding Iran.  Even the Los Angeles Times reported the amount:  ["]The Obama administration is acknowledging its transfer of $1.7 billion to Iran earlier this year was made entirely in cash, using non-U.S. currency, as Republican critics of the transaction continued to denounce the payments.["]  Some 1.7 billion dollars was sent by Obama and Kerry to Tehran, in cash.  There was no consent by Congress.  That cash was the giving of aid and comfort to funders of international terrorism while America remains at war.  That is the very definition of treason.

Biden's Iran Deal: It's All About the Oil.  On Monday, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken called Iran's latest demands in the on-again, off-again nuclear negotiation, "a step backward," making a deal "unlikely."  The Iranians want the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to shelve its investigation into Iran's undeclared uranium enrichment activities and figured they could get the U.S. to cave, as it did when John Kerry was leading the U.S. negotiating team in 2015.  Team Biden desperately wants the deal to go through, despite all the insistence from Tony Blinken that the U.S. will only agree to a deal that benefits U.S. national security.  House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy thinks he knows why.

Seven Myths about the Iran Nuclear Deal.  In 2015, President Barack Obama worked with three European powers, the European Union, Iran, China, and Russia to conclude the Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).  In 2018, President Donald Trump formally withdrew the United States from the deal.  Instituting his policy of "maximum pressure," Trump imposed crippling economic sanctions that punished Iran not just for its ongoing nuclear weapons program but also for, among other things, its regional aggression and support for terrorism worldwide.  Earlier in 2018, Israeli agents conducted a dramatic operation in Tehran, breaking into a secret warehouse and capturing a trove of Iranian nuclear files.  These documents revealed a more advanced and comprehensive nuclear weapons program than had been previously known.  The nuclear archive also showed Iranian officials' plan for concealing nuclear weapons efforts under the guise of civilian research and development, and how Iranian officials systematically deceived the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).  As a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran is required to cooperate with IAEA inspectors to verify the peaceful nature of its program.

The new Iran nuclear deal ensures a nuclear Iran — and soon.  Tensions are high in Israel, as it is felt that once again the most disastrous of deals, the Iran nuclear deal, is being rushed to conclusion, its timing coinciding with the uncertain political situation in Israel.  Despite persistent warnings from Israel and the region's moderate Arab countries, the deal's signatories, the P5+1 — namely Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany — are insisting on hurtling into an agreement that in just a few years will legitimize the very nuclear activity that the deal is meant to be preventing.  Moreover, with Iran all but having achieved nuclear capabilities, the Iran nuclear deal which was supposed to grant Iran sanctions relief in return for a tight rein on its nuclear program is now futile.  What makes it even more disastrous in 2022 is that not only is it a shorter and weaker deal than ever before, all known violations by the Iranian regime are being brushed aside.

Iran Prepares to Take Out Israel — Right after Iran Deal Is Signed.  As the Biden administration seems to be moving closer to reaching a new nuclear deal with Iran, the mullahs in Tehran are encouraging their Lebanese and Palestinian terrorist proxies to prepare for waging war on Israel.  The mullahs appear convinced that once the Biden administration capitulates completely to their demands for reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, they will be able to step up their already significant efforts to eliminate Israel and export their Islamic Revolution to Arab and Islamic countries.  Iran already occupies four Arab countries: Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq.  The mullahs are not oblivious to the growing voices in the Arab world that complain about the weakness of the US and how the Biden administration's policy of appeasement towards Iran is undermining the Americans' credibility and jeopardizing the security and stability of Arab and Islamic countries.  Iran's mullahs appear to be so confident that the Biden administration has turned its back on its Arab allies in the Middle East that they are issuing direct threats not only against Israel, but also against any Arab country that dares to cooperate with the Israelis.

Cash Bonanza:  Iran Has Made $44.7 Billion in Illegal Oil Sales Since Biden Took Office.  Iran's illegal oil trade has boomed under the Biden administration, with the hardline regime selling more than $44 billion worth of its heavily sanctioned oil to malign regimes like China, Syria, and Venezuela, according to figures published by a watchdog group.  From January 2021, when President Joe Biden took office, to June 2022, Iran sold around $44.7 billion in oil primarily to China.  The regime's export revenues between March 2021 and March 2022 from oil, gas, and related products "totaled $39 billion, compared [with] $22 billion for the previous year — a rise of 77 percent and an extra $17 billion," according to United Against a Nuclear Iran (UANI), a watchdog group that tracks Iran's network of illegal oil tankers.

14 years after Obama won, Iran gets a nuke.  To understand Democrats, one must look at the results of their policies.  There are no coincidences or unexpected consequences.  What you see at the end is what Democrats sought.  They always claim some higher purpose for their actions.  They said we must save Earth from climate change.  But the result is the tell.  Thus far, Democrats have used climate change to destroy the coal, oil and natural gas industries while promoting the solar and wind chime (excuse me windmill) industries which Red China dominates.  Which brings me to Biden's trip to the Middle East. [...] By the way, the Saudis have not run out of oil.  They have the world's second-largest oil reserve.  What they have run out of is a will to bail out the West.  Biden went to the Middle East to show that his government does not support Israel and Saudi Arabia in their joint effort to stop Iran.  How do we know this?  When Biden returned, Iran shed its façade of a peaceful pursuit of nuclear power.

"This is absolutely treason and impeachable": Biden poised to send over $1 trillion to Iran in next six years.  In the same week when we learned the terrorist country of Iran is allegedly planning assassination plots against former President Trump and other officials, we now learn that the Brandon... er Biden administration is proposing a deal which would net that country over $1 trillion dollars over the next half-dozen years, according to Gateway Pundit.  According to Richard Goldberg, senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a proposal would give Iran $1.075 trillion.  It looks like being one of the chief state sponsors of terrorism has its perks.  "Under the deal, Iran gets a financial package worth up to $275 billion in the first year and as much as $800 billion over the next five," Goldberg writes.

Energy trader:  US may let sanctioned Iranian oil onto market without nuclear deal.  The US may allow more sanctioned Iranian oil onto global markets even without a revival of the 2015 nuclear accord, according to a Sunday report that quoted a major independent crude trader.  "Uncle Sam might just allow a little bit more of that oil to flow," Mike Muller, head of Asia at Vitol Group, said Sunday on a podcast produced by Dubai-based Gulf Intelligence, according to Bloomberg.  "If the midterms are dominated by the need to get gas prices lower in America, turning a somewhat greater blind eye to the sanctioned barrels flowing out is probably something you might expect to see," he added.  "US intervention in these flows has always been pretty sparse."

The Real Purpose of the Iran Nuclear Deal.  [Scroll down]  Like the original, the revised deal is weak on verification, does not require Iran to dismantle its nuclear infrastructure, and fails to address Iran's ballistic missile program.  It also turns a blind eye to the Islamic Republic's human rights abuses and its destabilizing activities in the Middle East and elsewhere.  Why would the Biden administration agree to a revised deal that does not prevent or contain Iran's nuclear program, and actually reduces the so-called breakout time required for Iran to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon?  Why would the Biden administration, or the Obama administration before it, agree to a deal that provides Iran with a clear pathway to nuclear weapons as restrictions on uranium enrichment and plutonium processing end between 2026 and 2031?  Many analysts argue that the nuclear deal — original and revised — is primarily about legitimizing Iran's nuclear program.  The deal, they say, is designed to strengthen, not weaken, the Islamic Republic.

Biden Admin Pulls a Fast One, Swiftly Changed Status of Five Foreign Terror Groups Friday.  In a time-honored move known as the Friday news dump, with our federal government discarding any news or documents it would prefer to be buried and see little to no serious examination or media coverage, the Biden Administration informed Congress on Friday [5/13/2022] that it is about to move five foreign terror groups off the so-called blacklist. [...] The reporting by Fox News on this story brings up something RedState has kept an eye on for a while:  the concept that the Biden Administration, which has shown it is too lax for comfort about the safety and security of the American people, might be making this move as a test-run of sorts for removing another group from the list:  the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

Bipartisan Majority in Congress Slaps Down Biden on Iran Deal.  A bipartisan supermajority in Congress voted on Thursday night [5/5/2022] to require that any nuclear agreement with Iran must also address Iran's support for terrorism in the region, and that the U.S. should not lift sanctions on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.  The non-binding resolution also stated that the administration should address Iran's illegal ballistic missile program and China's continuing purchases of Iranian oil that evade U.S. sanctions.  It's unclear whether the Senate would have the opportunity to advise and consent on any deal that is struck as it would a treaty.  The original 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPA) was not presented to the Senate as a treaty and Congress was unable to give a meaningful vote on the agreement.

Iranian Politician Spills the Beans on Nuclear Bomb.  In an astonishing interview last week on the Iran Students Correspondents Association (ISCA) news channel, an Iranian state television outlet, the former deputy speaker of the Iranian parliament, Ali Motahari, spilled the beans on the theocratic regime's nuclear ambitions.  "There is no need to beat around the bush," he said.  "When we began our nuclear activity, our goal was indeed to build a bomb."  The politician and son of an Ayatollah admitted that the goal of constructing a nuclear bomb was to use it as a "means of intimidation and to strike fear in the hearts of the enemies of Allah."  Motahari continued by stating that the plan by the regime had been to keep the nuclear program secret until such time as they were ready to perform a nuclear test.  "It would then have been a done deal, like in Pakistan," he said, arguing that the world tends to take seriously countries that have nuclear bombs like Pakistan and North Korea.  They are "taken into consideration on the global stage," he said.

Former Iranian official:  Iran's nuclear program was military from start.  Ali Motahhari is the son of Ayatollah Morteza Motahhari, one of the founders of the Islamic Republic of Iran and an ideologist who was close to Ali Khomeini and headed the Revolutionary Council during the inception of the Islamic Revolution.  He is also the brother-in-law of Ali Larijani, who was chairman of the Iranian parliament for 12 years and a strong critic of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  Motahhari was considered a senior conservative politician and was the second deputy of the Majlis (parliament) chairman from 2016 to 2019.  In 2020, however, he was disqualified from running in the 2020 Majlis elections by the Guardian Council and urged Ali Khamenei to launch an investigation into the mass disqualification of Majlis candidates.  Motahhari had begun to voice more pragmatic positions and affiliate with Iran's conservative-pragmatic camp.  In February 2021, he submitted his candidacy for the elections for the Iranian presidency.

Iran's Desperate Quest for A-Bombs.  The behavior of Iran's religious government is incomprehensible to many.  For example, why isn't the Iranian regime trying to reach a nuclear deal?  And why doesn't it seize the moment and step up sales of Iranian oil and gas when energy-hungry Europe is seeking to replace Russian oil and gas due to the latter's invasion of Ukraine?  In the background, the nation is in upheaval as its population explodes with extreme poverty and unemployment, and its loss of capital and the "brain drain" of educated Iranians continues unabated.  The mullahs' regime has allocated billions of dollars to fund its war agenda in the Middle East while the majority of Iranians live in poverty.  As regime officials have admitted, if the regime fails to wage wars outside Iran, it will have to fight for its survival inside the country.

Yes, Iran's IRGC is a Terrorist Organization.  President Joe Biden would be making a grave mistake by delisting Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) from the State Department's Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) blacklist.  Iran's regime is currently hindering nuclear talks that have continued in Vienna among world powers by raising this latest demand, claiming the IRGC is a "national army" and its terror designation as an FTO is a "red line."  There is good reason why former president Donald Trump designated the IRGC as an FTO back in 2019 as part of his administration's maximum pressure campaign that deprived Iran's regime, the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, of tens of billions of dollars.  Reports indicate Tehran had only $4 billion in foreign currency reserves as a result of Trump's sanctions.

Why does Biden keep giving Iran a free pass?  The United States is rightly pressuring allies, partners, and adversaries alike to take robust action in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.  Many are listening.  Even China has at least qualified its public support for Russia, fearing the loss of valued trade and political relationships in Europe.  Yet the Biden administration doesn't seem to care that certain nations, friend and foe, keep happily snuggling up to Moscow.  In the case of India, which has refused to join international sanctions imposed on Russia, there is at least an understandable reluctance to retaliate. [...] However, no such rationale exists concerning Iran.  And this makes all the more pathetic Biden's desperate attempts to restore the Iran nuclear deal at any cost.

This story has connections to Iran:
Secret Services agents assigned to Biden and Kamala's residence are 'under investigation'.  A motion for detention of the two men who were arrested Wednesday for impersonating federal agents includes a slew of damning evidence, including images showing several different passports, visas and IDs.  The prosecutors are requesting Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Sher-Ali, 35, be detained due to a slew of evidence found in a raid of their units in a luxury apartment building in southeast Washington, D.C.  'They are not law enforcement agents, and they are not involved in sanctioned covert activities,' the motion for detention filed Friday claims.  'Neither Defendant is even employed by the United States government.'  'But their impersonation scheme was sufficiently realistic to convince other government employees, including law enforcement agents, of their false identities,' the memorandum added.

Robert Malley:  Appeaser Extraordinaire.  During his first few days as President, Joe Biden named Robert Malley as his U.S. Special Envoy for Iran.  Malley has a long history of antipathy toward Israel, as well as a profoundly deep reserve of patience with Iran and other enemies of the Jewish state.  Most notably, he helped negotiate the Iran nuclear deal of 2015 — known officially as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — and he subsequently opposed the Trump Administration's "maximum pressure" sanctions against Tehran.  From the start of his tenure with the Biden Administration, Malley called for the U.S. to return to the JCPOA as swiftly as possible, and to fully dismantle the sanctions that Trump had reimposed on Iran.

Joe Biden's Lust.  Let's dispense with the Mt.  Everest of words that have been written to rationalize Joe Biden & Company's passion — indeed, lust — to put nuclear weapons in the hands of the fanatical mullahs in the terrorist-run state of Iran.  To be sure, the powers-in-power — more accurately those who are pulling their strings — have been busy creating distractions like Covid-19, the corrupt investigation into the January 6th so-called insurrection, and the strange "war" between Russia and Ukraine.  But while Biden & Co. rally against Vladimir Putin, the U.S. continues to buy millions of dollars a day of Russian oil, in essence helping to finance the war against Ukraine, and Biden continues to count on ole Vlad to broker the new Iran deal with U.S. negotiators in Vienna.

The Editor says...
I suspect this issue has nothing to do with Joe Biden's desires.  Joe Biden is not running the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government.  Somebody else is, and judging by the amount of effort put into appeasing Iran, it appears that the acting U.S. President at this moment is either Barack Obama or Valerie Jarrett.

Richard Goldberg on the New Worst Deal in History.  Richard Goldberg, a senior advisor for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, spoke to a February 21 Middle East Forum Webinar about President Biden's appeasement of the Islamic Republic of Iran as part of his administration's desperate attempt to finalize a nuclear deal with Tehran.  According to Goldberg, the Biden administration hopes for an agreement with the mullahs in Tehran in which Washington would lift sanctions and give the regime "the potential to retain much of the nuclear gains that they have ... advanced over the last year since Biden took office."  He anticipates three key messages the administration will tout to justify its deal to the American public — all of which are "misleading."  First, it will insist that the defunct nuclear deal with Iran, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), "was working" before President Trump left it in 2018.  Goldberg exposed this as a "false statement": the "JCPOA [that] was not working."  Nevertheless, the administration will argue that returning to the deal is the "only way to avoid either a war in the Middle East or a nuclear armed Iran."

Joe Biden's Iran plan is a total disaster.  Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, it does.  The Biden administration is working on a plan that would make the world a far more dangerous place.  It's a plot with three steps, all terrible and each arguably worse than the previous one.  Step One is the determination to make a new sweetheart nuclear deal with Iran.  There is no good reason, only the fetish to undo everything Donald Trump did.  He wisely scuttled the first bad deal, so President Biden is hellbent on making a new one, and is close to the finish line, meaning Iran could escape sanctions and its oil could hit the world market.  Step Two in the budding disaster is that the White House is letting the butcher of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, broker the talks between America and Iran.  As I noted last week, on one hand, Putin is a war criminal raining death and destruction on millions of civilians, and on the other hand, we trust him to make an ironclad deal that blocks the mad mullahs from getting the ultimate weapons of mass destruction.

Senate Republicans Threaten To Block New Iran Nuclear Deal.  Forty-nine Senate Republicans are threatening to derail the Biden administration's efforts to secure a new Iran nuclear agreement within the coming days.  Any new agreement that "does not have strong bipartisan support in Congress will not survive," the senators said in a statement issued Monday and provided to the White House.  The lawmakers warned the administration that if it bypasses Congress and agrees to a deal without first allowing a vote in the Senate — as is required under a 2015 law — they will do "everything in our power to reverse it."

Iran Claims Responsibility for Missile Strike on US Consulate.  Iran's Revolutionary Guards claimed responsibility for a dozen ballistic missiles that struck Iraq's northern Kurdish regional capital of Erbil in the early hours of Sunday, Iran's state media reported, adding that the attack was against Israeli "strategic centres" in Erbil.  The missiles targeted the U.S. consulate among other sites, according to the Kurdish regional government.

Maria Bartiromo's Sources Are Right:  The Biden Administration Is Actively Partnering With Putin On Climate And Iran.  Judging by the reaction from peers in media, you might think Maria Bartiromo said something incorrect on Sunday when she noted, "Some people have told me over the weekend that they feel that at the end of the day this administration does not see Putin as the enemy, they see him as a partner on many issues."  It's hardly a stretch to imagine someone mentioning that to Bartiromo because it's true.  Viewers who watched the full clip would have heard Bartiromo specifically cite climate change and the Iran nuclear deal as the issues in question when she made the statement on Fox News's "Sunday Morning Futures."

Benghazi II? Biden White House oddly silent about Iran's missile attack in Irbil.  [Scroll down]  Joe Biden is poised to give the mullahs the deal of a lifetime with his determination to revive the Obama-era Iran deal, known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), even if he's got Vladimir Putin brokering it.  President Trump scrapped it and took out Iran's terrorist leadership instead.  It's not know why Biden is still sticking to this bad idea, especially with Putin involved.  Perhaps the mullahs think Biden will give them their pallets of cash without the deal.  But most likely, they smell weakness from the White House and are comfortable giving handsy Joe a beating.  One is certain, though:  The attack shows that they have absolutely no fear of Biden or losing the deal he wants to hand them.  But Biden is indeed planning to get that deal through, attack or no attack, and despite his current disputes with Putin, who wants sanctions exemptions for Iran trade that Biden doesn't want to give.

Biden is letting Putin run the Iran nuclear talks.  Some stories make so little sense that all you can do is scratch your head.  Others are so infuriating that you want to pull your hair out.  Then there are those that are so outrageous your head feels as if it will explode.  This story provokes all three reactions.  It starts with a strange, little-known fact:  Russia is acting as a go-between for the United States in nuclear talks with Iran.  When I first read that, I thought it couldn't possibly be true.  With Russia then massing troops on the Ukraine border, I assumed that even the Biden White House couldn't be foolish enough to trust Vladimir Putin to do anything in good faith or certainly anything in America's interest.  Unfortunately, the story was true, and even more alarming, Russia continues to direct the nuclear talks with America's approval while its army simultaneously turns Ukraine's cities into rubble, mercilessly killing civilians and creating the largest refugee crisis since World War II.  In response, the US and Europe have sanctioned Russia's economy and Putin's cronies.

White House says it's 'close' to a deal on rejoining Iran nuclear deal.  White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday [3/10/2022] U.S. negotiators are nearing a deal to revive the 2015 nuclear pact between Iran and world powers that was repudiated by President Trump in 2018.  Diplomats from Iran, the U.S. and five other countries have been negotiating for months in Vienna over a deal to re-establish curbs on Tehran's nuclear programs in exchange for lifting punishing economic sanctions re-imposed by Mr. Trump after Washington left the agreement.  Citing the U.S. withdrawal, Iran has been aggressively violating limits on uranium enrichment and other programs set in the 2015 agreement.  "Our view is that we are close," Ms. Psaki said.  "We have been close for some time now.  We also know from having been through these negotiations before that the end of the negotiations is always when the difficult and challenging parts of the conversation typically take place."

Joe Biden's Failure Tour Continues After Iran Deal Falls Apart — and Leaves Americans Holding the Bag.  For the last several weeks, reports of a new JCPOA "nuclear" deal with Iran being imminent have surfaced.  Even as Russia invaded Ukraine, the United States was said to be forging ahead, with an announcement to be made any day.  That despite the fact that Russia itself was the chief mediator.  But this is Joe Biden we are talking about, so he even managed to find a way to fail at an objectively bad thing, and not for lack of trying.  Iran deal negotiations have been suspended after Russia demanded sanctions relief in return for an agreement.

Psaki: Our partners on Biden's Iran deal sure are untrustworthy liars, huh?  Just as a refresher, let's recall the words of Mikhail Ulyanov, Vladimir Putin's mediator in the talks for Joe Biden's efforts to re-enter the Iran deal.  Speaking in English to reporters last week, Ulyanov bragged how he and his Chinese partners got Iran a much better deal out of the US than Tehran would otherwise have gotten:  [Tweet]  "Iran got much more than it could expect.  Much more ... Our Chinese friends were also very efficient and useful as co-negotiators."  This raised all sorts of questions about why we allowed the Russians and China to be involved in these negotiations at all.  That would have been a good question even before the invasion of Ukraine, but Putin's maniacal war should have ended any assumptions that Russia or China would negotiate as good-faith partners on security.  Russia's demands that our sanctions not impede oil transactions through Iran would have been another big red flag, but thus far the White House has ignored all of these signals to plunge ahead on a deal that was bad the first time around and looks worse as a rerun.

U.S. intelligence shows Iran threats on U.S. soil, but Blinken and Schiff say this shouldn't derail new nuclear deal.  The U.S. intelligence community has assessed that Iran will threaten Americans — both directly and via proxy attacks — and that Tehran remains committed to developing networks inside the U.S., according to the intelligence community's 2022 Annual Threat Assessment, published Tuesday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).  Now, with the U.S. on the cusp of a diplomatic accord with Iran over its nuclear program, as well as a potential deal regarding the release of four American prisoners, it is not clear whether the Biden administration can extract any further concessions or convince Tehran to cease its other malign activities, including any on U.S. soil.

Report: Biden's Iran Deal Gives Regime Access to $90 Billion, $7 Billion for Ransom, Sanctions Relief to Terrorists.  President Joe Biden's impending agreement to restore the Iran nuclear deal offers the regime access to $90 billion in foreign currency reserves and sanctions relief to some of the world's worst terrorists, according to a former State Department official.  Gabriel Noronha, writing in Tablet magazine, says the deal does not restore President Barack Obama's old Iran deal, a weak agreement from which President Donald Trump withdrew, but goes much further in giving Iran money and sanctions relief.  "Multiple career officials view these capitulations as so detrimental to U.S. national security that they contacted me requesting that I rapidly share details of these concessions with Congress and the public in an effort to stop them," Noronha writes.

This Isn't Obama's Iran Deal.  It's Much, Much Worse.  Anyone seeking to gauge the imminent outcome of the international talks over Iran's nuclear program being held in Vienna should take a look at reports from late January that three top U.S. diplomats had quit — largely in protest over the direction set by U.S. Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley, who serves as the U.S. government's chief negotiator.  Having served for two years in former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's Iran Action Group, I knew that this development was tantamount to a public cry for an intervention.  Such resignations — not of conservative dissenters, but of career staff and President Joe Biden's own political appointees — should have been cause for Biden or Secretary Antony Blinken to recall Malley and investigate.  Their failure to do so is a sign either of a troubling lack of attention to the talks, or else the possibility that Malley — who served in the same capacity under President Barack Obama when the first Iran deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was originally negotiated and signed — has been given a free hand to negotiate whatever he wants, as long as he gets Iran to sign.

While America watches the war in Ukraine, Biden finalizes a dangerous Iran deal.  While the world's attention is fixated on Russia's war in Ukraine, President Biden's Iran envoy in Vienna, Robert Malley, reportedly is readying to finalize a deal that makes a number of worrying concessions to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his regime.  Gabriel Noronha, a former Senate Armed Services Committee aide to the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and former State Department official, has tweeted specifics of some American concessions to Iran.  Noronha says his former State Department, National Security Council, and European Union colleagues were so alarmed about compromises the Biden administration appears to be making with Iran that they allowed him to publish details to alert Congress to how the pending agreement could undermine America's national security interests.  The agreement details are known to the governments of Russia, China and Iran, but evidently not to Congress, and certainly not to the American people.  It's possible that an agreement could be signed by early next week.

Here's Your Russian Collusion:  Biden [is] Working with Russia on [a] New Iran Nuke Deal.  Just when you think the Biden administration couldn't possibly get worse, it finds a way.  Gabriel Noronha, a former State Department official, tweeted Wednesday [3/2/2022] that State, NSC, and European Union officials are warning that "what's happening in Vienna," where Biden's handlers are negotiating a new nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran, "is a total disaster," and that they're hoping that "Congress will act to stop the capitulation."  It's about as likely that Congress will stop this, of course, as it is that Biden's handlers will send Donald J. Trump himself to Vienna to handle the negotiations, but there are abundant signs that the new agreement will be far worse than the old one, and directly endanger America and its allies.  For one thing, even amidst ever-rising tensions with Russia and punitive sanctions, the administration has turned over leadership of the negotiations to a Russian diplomat, Mikhail Ulyanov.

Biden Makes Huge Concession In Attempt To Get Iran Back Into Nuke Deal.  Well, it's time for weak-kneed Joe to make the United States look weak again.  This time he's capitulated to Iran.  In a bid to get Iran to move forward on talks, Biden restored the sanctions waiver for their nuclear program that allowed Russian, Chinese, and European companies to do "non-proliferation" work at Iranian sites.  According to Foreign Affairs, here's the problem:  Russia and China have already been helping Iran.  And the work may not necessarily be related to "non-proliferation."  In fact, if one believes that Iran will accept anything to do with "non-proliferation," I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.  Even the unexpected happens, and Iran agrees they won't follow what they agreed upon, just as they did with the Obama version[.]

Biden administration waives sanctions on Iranian civilian nuclear activities as deal talks hang in balance.  The Biden administration has waived sanctions related to Iran's civilian nuclear activities as part of its efforts to bring the regime back into compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal — while stressing that the waivers did not equal sanctions relief for Tehran.  Secretary of State Antony Blinken signed a waiver that restored the ability of foreign companies and other countries to participate in civilian nuclear and safety projects in Iran without facing U.S. sanction.  The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the development on Friday, reported that the waivers are aimed at turning Iran's heavy-water Arak reactor into a less-dangerous light-water reactor, and also applies to the export of enriched uranium and heavy water outside of Iran.  The waivers would also allow fuel to be sent to two reactors used for civilian purposes.

Biden removes some Iran sanctions imposed by Trump, including unfreezing $29 Billion in bank accounts overseas.  The US State Department is waiving sanctions on Iran's civilian nuclear program in the hope that Tehran will return to the 2015 nuclear agreement, a senior official said Friday [2/4/2022].  As U.S. negotiators head back to Vienna for what could be a make-or-break session, Secretary of State Antony Blinken signed several sanctions waivers related to Iran's civilian nuclear activities.  The move reverses the Trump administration's decision to rescind them.  The resumption of the waiver, ended by Trump in 2020, 'would be essential to ensuring Iran's swift compliance' if a new deal on controlling Tehran's nuclear program can be reached in talks in Vienna, the State Department official said.

As Iran was about lose its UN General Assembly vote for nonpayment of dues, the US arranged funds to cover the debt and keep Iran voting.  The Trump administration's sanctions on Iran were working so well that the mullahs were unable to put together the money to pay up on its United Nations dues.  Not after paying much higher priority bills, such as supplying weapons to the Houthis fighting our allies in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and supporting Hezb'allah's attacks in Israel.  Or engaging in joint naval maneuvers with Russia and China. [...] Imagine if President Trump had bailed out the UN arrears of a US foe.  The articles of impeachment would have been drafted within hours.

Is the US Holding Israel's Iron Dome Hostage to an Iran Nuke Deal?  Administration and Capitol political horse-traders and ideologues are holding hostage the lives of some two million Israelis — specifically the Gaza Envelope and northern border areas.  Their domestic foot-dragging endangers Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druze, and Bedouin citizens, alike.  This, while P5+1 group (US, UK, China, France, Germany, Russia, and the EU) reps wrangle with Iran in Vienna through — so far — no less than eight contentious sessions over terms of restarting the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).  But Jerusalem doesn't trust the Viennese diplomatic waltz nor Iranian double-crossing promises; they're preoccupied with Tehran's ruling and military leaders' incessant, bellicose threats to "turn Tel Aviv and Haifa into dust," "wipe Israel off the map," and taking note of videos of simulated strikes against Israel's cities, military targets, and reputed nuclear facilities.

Why won't Joe Biden stand up to Iran?  This week marks two years since Iranian terror mastermind Major General Qasem Soleimani was torn apart by a Reaper drone missile in Baghdad, on the orders of Donald Trump.  The Iranian regime has marked the anniversary with a flurry of antagonism throughout the region.  On Monday, a coalition base outside Iraq's main airport was attacked by two drones armed with missiles with the words "Soleimani's revenge" on them.  Both were safely shot down.

While Biden Negotiates, Iran Keeps Trying to Kill Americans.  Six years after Obama signed off on the nuclear sellout deal with Iran, diplomats are once again meeting with representatives of the Islamic terror in Vienna's lavish Palais Saxe-Coburg.  1,500 miles away from the white columns of the former palace turned five-star hotel, American forces are under fire once again.  On January 3rd, two suicide drones were aimed at the State Department's Baghdad Diplomatic Support Center near the Baghdad International Airport.  Two more terror drones targeted American forces deployed to fight ISIS at the Al Asad air base.  The base has been repeatedly hammered by Iran-backed rocket attacks over the past year, most notably when 14 rockets struck the base over the summer causing several injuries.

As foretold, Biden waives sanctions on Iran.  Earlier this week, we looked at the negotiations with Iran that were set to restart in Vienna.  None of the parties involved seemed terribly optimistic that any progress would be forthcoming, particularly since Iran was still insisting that they wouldn't even begin to talk about their nuclear program unless sanctions against them were dropped.  The American envoy said at the time that Iran would not be allowed to use further delays as a way of "generating leverage" against the United States.  Well, it appears that they had already generated all of the leverage they needed.  We've now learned that the Biden administration waived multiple sanctions against Iran just as the talks were about to get underway.  But the White House didn't notify Congress of the change for a full ten days and the public is only just now learning about it.

Also posted under This is Obama's third term.

'US won't launch a single military operation against Iran,' former official says.  As world powers prepare to reconvene in Vienna for renewed nuclear talks with Iran, former National Security Advisor Yaakov Amidror said that "without a military threat and pressure on Iran, nothing will result from a deal."  Amidror made the comment while taking part in a panel at Reichman University in Herzliya during the Institute for Policy and Strategy's "Security and Policy" conference Tuesday.  He fiercely defended an approach that would see Israel develop its military capability to strike Iran on its own.  "The world won't lift a finger," Amidror said.  "The Americans won't carry out a single mission."

Iran's Cash Reserves Soar Under Biden.  Iran's stockpile of hard currency has skyrocketed during the Biden administration, rising from just $4 billion at the end of 2020 when sanctions were at their height, to more than $31 billion by the end of 2021, according to projections by the International Monetary Fund.  The Biden administration's decision to pursue diplomacy with Iran and unwind the Trump administration's sanctions has helped the country recover from its cash shortage, according to the IMF's projections.  The group says Iran's cash reserves will top $31 billion by the end of the year and increase up to $42.9 billion by the end of 2022.  This number could be even higher if the United States reenters the 2015 nuclear deal and removes all sanctions imposed by the Trump administration.  Iran had $122 billion in cash reserves in 2018, when the Trump administration began to tighten the economic noose on Iran.  That number dropped to $4 billion by the end of 2020, during the height of the former administration's "maximum pressure" campaign.

Iranians To Get Uranium For Their Nuclear Weapons Courtesy Of Biden Administration.  In Washington Joe Biden and company want you to move on from the Afghan debacle. 'Nothing but a bump in the road.  The endless wars are behind us.  Smooth sailing ahead.'  Nothing, of course, could be further from the truth.  Ending our obsession with ruinous nation-building is a positive thing.  Surrendering a strategic area to our greatest enemies and allowing ourselves to be humiliated before the world is something else again.  We have not ended anything.  We have guaranteed much greater problems in our future.  AND Magazine has learned from its sources in Afghanistan that only days ago an Iranian delegation arrived at Kabul airport.  It was composed of Iranian geology and mining experts.  These individuals along, with similar experts from Pakistan and China, then left Kabul to inspect uranium mines in Afghanistan.

US pulls missile defenses in Saudi Arabia amid Yemen attacks.  The U.S. has removed its most advanced missile defense system and Patriot batteries from Saudi Arabia in recent weeks, even as the kingdom faced continued air attacks from Yemen's Houthi rebels, satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press show.  The redeployment of the defenses from Prince Sultan Air Base outside of Riyadh came as America's Gulf Arab allies nervously watched the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, including their last-minute evacuations from Kabul's besieged international airport.

Biden Removes US Missiles from Saudi Arabia, In an Obama-Like Move to Appease Iran.  The wheels of insanity in the OBiden Administration are about to fall off again.  Rather than solidifying President Trump's policy of peace in the Middle East, OBiden's actions are likely to blow the entire region up into another OBiden mess.  President Trump went to the Middle East and visited world religious leaders on his first overseas visit in an effort to bring peace to the Middle East.  President Trump inherited ISIS terrorizing the Middle East as well as Iran and both these terrorist entities were backed by the OBiden gang.

Biden shares Obama's motive for failing to punish terrorists.  When it comes to Biden, there have indeed been times when he was dead against making terrorists pay — when they were Iranian.  Take the bombing of the AMIA building in Buenos Aires.  As Vice President, Biden stood by when Barak Obama made sure that the perpetrators, though identified, got off scot-free.  How and why could he do such a thing?  Well, as Tom Friedman summed up after talking to Obama, the president felt that the Iran deal was "a better outcome for America, Israel and our Arab allies than any alternative on the table."  What a table that had to be, with no side issues that would offend the Mullahs.  Eventually, everything was taken off the table — everything except the bribes.  For caliphate fanatics, the prickly issues were (1) holocaust threats they routinely make against Israel, and (2) their worldwide network of terror.

Lara Logan Carries a Big Trumpet About Afghanistan — If The U.S. Government Wanted it to be Different, It Would Be.  [Scroll down]  We have seen this play out before where a crisis is created because the crisis has a purpose.  In Libya rather than Hillary Clinton and CIA Director Leon Panetta getting busted for selling surface-to-air missiles (SAMS) to al-Qaeda (Operation Zero Footprint), the State Department and CIA — essentially brother and sister agencies — helped "the Benghazi rebels" take over the Kadaffi weapons caches.  If SAMS were then used elsewhere (Syria), well, they came from Kadaffi's stores.  See how that works?  Based on current political alignment, alliances, and the ideology behind who is in charge of specific U.S. government agencies, it can reasonably be assumed someone (insert Obama here) wants Pakistan and Iran to have advanced military technology via the stolen weapons we leave behind in Afghanistan.  Why?  Because those same people already made money selling advanced military tech to Iran, and this 'crisis' provides cover when it shows up later in their arsenal.

Iran's new president hosts terror leaders as he comes into office.  Iran's new president Ebrahim Raisi hosted a series of prominent terror leaders and pro-Iran proxy group leaders during his inauguration, showcasing how he will want to leverage Iran's proxies in Iranian foreign policy.  The previous Iranian presidents have given him a formidable framework to work with across the region, and it looks like Raisi will want to increase the power of these groups.  This comes as Iran's media is boasting about new warming ties with Iran and also thinks it can get around US sanctions.  Iran brazenly attacked a ship off Oman on July 30 and Iranian-backed Hezbollah has fired rockets at Israel on August 6.  The meeting between key Iranian figures and Iran's network of terror and proxy groups looks like a kind of meeting of the "five families" in the Godfather, as key figures came together.  It's not the first time this has happened, Iran in the past has hosted Palestinian factions, members of the Hashd al-Shaabi from Iraq, Hezbollah, Houthis and others.

Biden is trying to restore the Iran Deal but it may be too late.  President Trump quit the Iran Nuclear Deal back in 2018 but President Biden promised he would try to negotiate a US re-entry to the deal.  But today the NY Times reports the Biden administration has gone from hopeful to pessimistic amid signs it may be too late to restore the deal. [...] President Ebrahim Raisi is a former judge who had a notable role in the execution of thousands of the regime's prisoners back in the 1980s.  The Times reported yesterday that there's a murder trial starting next month in Sweden which involves one of the regime's many victims: [...] All that to say, Raisi has sent a lot of Iran's own people to the gallows so expecting him to play a diplomatic game with "the Great Satan" is probably going to lead to disappointment.  Already, the regime is demanding at least one thing that the US can't offer.

The Biden Administration's Iran Policy:  All Carrots, No Stick.  Since the Biden administration assumed office, it has been increasingly appeasing the Iranian regime, which in return, is further emboldening and empowering the mullahs.  The first appeasement came when the administration changed the previous administration's policy of maximum pressure to a policy of appeasement toward the Iran's proxy militia group, the Houthis.  Even as evidence — including a report by the United Nations — showed that the Iranian regime is delivering sophisticated weapons to the Houthi militia group in Yemen, the Biden administration suspended some of the sanctions against terrorism that the previous administration imposed on the Houthis.  The previous US administration had designated Iran's proxies, the Houthis, a terrorist group.

Exactly what Barack H. Obama would have done:
As Iran Escalates Missile Attacks, Biden Pulls Anti-Missile Batteries.  Iran and its proxies have targeted the US with missile strikes in Iraq.  Its Houthi proxies have struck at Saudi Arabia from Yemen.  So even as Biden is helping lubricate the flow of money to Iran's terror machine, is pulling anti-missile batteries out of Iran's way. [...] Why are they being pulled?  The official spin is that Biden is preparing to take on Russia and China.  That's implausible.  Biden is not about to engage in missile exchanges with Russia.  And an actual land war with China is nearly as improbable.  This is a thin excuse for giving Iran a clear field.

Rudy Giuliani blasts Biden for 'caving into Iran' over nuclear deal.  Rudy Giuliani slammed President Biden for wanting to rejoin the Iranian nuclear accord.  "He's caving into Iran before Iran even wants to make a deal," the former mayor told John Catsimatidis on his WABC 770 AM radio show in an interview that aired Sunday [6/13/2021].  "He's already let a couple of very big Iranian terrorist businesspeople off the hook.  He's already taken sanctions away from Iranian companies that have been dealing in oil," said Giuliani, who is the one-time personal lawyer for former President Donald Trump.  "So, already Iran has gotten [concessions], without giving up anything that they want to get from us.  It's the worst way to negotiate a deal, particularly with a regime of terror," he said.

Exactly what Barack H. Obama would do:
Who need the pipeline and jobs in America?  Biden reportedly allowed U.S. import of Iranian oil despite sanctions.  The Biden administration imported a rare cargo of 1.033 million barrels of Iranian crude in March despite sanctions on Iran's energy sector, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed.  The cargo is only the second oil import by the United States from Iran since late 1991.  [Tweet]  In 2020, the Trump administration imposed sweeping economic sanctions against Iran's oil sector as tensions between Washington and Tehran continued to escalate in the days leading up to the American presidential election.

Steve Scalise:  Biden Spends More Time Helping Iran than Stopping Hamas Rockets.  "Israel's under attack," Scalise said, noting this week's war.  "Where's President Biden's leadership?  He's more time negotiating to help Iran get towards a nuclear weapon, than to confront the problems of Hamas and Palestinians attacking Israel."  Scalise was speaking after the House Republican caucus had elected Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) to the position of Conference Chair, replacing Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) as the number three ranking member in the caucus after she was ousted this week.  On the Senate side, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and almost all of his Republican colleagues sent a letter to President Biden this week, urging him not to continue negotiating with Iran toward a resumption of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, noting that any sanctions relief would allow Iran to gain access to funds that it could use to arm Hamas terrorists again to attack Israel.

The Fourteen Most Troubling Obama And Kerry Lies About The JCPOA Iran Nuke Deal.  Joe Biden and his foreign policy team are negotiating with Iran, trying to get the U.S. back into the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action ("JCPOA") Iran nuclear deal.  Many on the liberal side of the aisle support this objective, not realizing that the JCPOA allows Iran to build nuclear weapons in the near future and place the United States, the Sunni Gulf States, and Israel in grave danger.  The support for returning to the JCPOA stems from naivete.  Much of the naivete stems from the fact that a considerable amount of what Obama and Kerry told America about the JCPOA was not true.  Because of their reverence toward Obama, the MSM covered up the lies back then.  Because of their Trump derangement syndrome and the happiness that Biden is POTUS, the media still not reporting the truth about the deal.

The Fourteen Most Troubling Obama And Kerry Lies About The JCPOA Iran Nuke Deal.  Joe Biden and his foreign policy team are negotiating with Iran, trying to get the U.S. back into the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action ("JCPOA") Iran nuclear deal.  Many support this objective, not realizing that the JCPOA allows Iran to build nuclear weapons in the near future, and place the United States, the Sunni Gulf States, and Israel in grave danger.  The support for returning to the JCPOA stems from naïvité.  Much of Obama and Kerry told America about the JCPOA was not true.  Most of the MSM covered up the lies back then and are still not reporting the truth about the deal.

Media cheers a return to the failed Iran deal.  A Monday New York Times front page headline on the explosion at a key Iranian nuclear facility claimed the "Attack May Hurt Efforts to Reboot 2015 Deal."  On Tuesday, also on the front page, the paper declared that "Israel's Role in Iran Blast Casts A Shadow on U.S. Nuclear Talks"  Get it?  Making a new deal with Iran is a very good thing, anything that hurts the chance is a very bad thing, including Israel.  Here's an alternative view: the Times is still drinking the Kool-Aid that the original Iranian nuclear pact was a success and is worth saving.  To committed dead enders, Iran's violations of the terms and spread of regional terrorism are irrelevant.  The cult surrounding the deal at the Gray Lady includes the paper's editorial board.  Its Saturday screed, written before the weekend attack, began by saying "There exists now a brief window of time" for President Biden to reach a new accord.  The reason:  Iranian moderates could be gone by summer.  Ah, yes, Iranian moderates, the unicorns that only blinkered leftists can see.  So let's hurry and make a deal, any deal.

Team Biden caves on Iran — and gets nothing in return.  Even before the "indirect" US-Iran talks in Vienna had finished up, Team Biden caved, with the State Department saying it's ready to lift sanctions on the rogue regime to rejoin the nuclear deal — giving away all leverage without getting a thing in return.  Spokesman Ned Price said Washington is "prepared" to lift all sanctions "that are inconsistent with" the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.  He wouldn't offer details:  "I am not in a position here to give you chapter and verse on what those might be."  And Price refused in repeated questioning to rule out even dropping separate sanctions put on Tehran for its terrorism, human-rights violations and ballistic-missile program.

If, Indeed, It Was Biden's Decision, He's Back to Appeasing Iran.  Democrats have a long record of appeasing bad guys in hopes, they say, of making things better.  That rarely works anywhere.  But no one ever accused America's Democrats of giving up a bad idea because it failed.  Do it some more and maybe things will improve.  That's how we got those long decades of well-intentioned welfare that trained folks to rely on the federal government, not themselves.  Now, we have yet another example of this cockamamie thinking from the Obama 3.0 administration of Joe Biden.  He's decided — or at least the real decisionmakers pulling his strings want us to think it was Joe himself who decided — that the miscreant mullahs of Iran will return to the nuclear negotiating table and cooperate if only we reward them with more stuff even BEFORE they agree to talk.  Like, oh, say, maybe live up to some of the previous things they agreed to when Ketchup King Kerry was in charge of the talks.  They got $400 million delivered on pallets in advance of signing the pact to slow development of their nuclear weapons.  For nothing in return.

Barack Obama And John Kerry's Fifteen Biggest LIES About Iran And The JCPOA.  Joe Biden and his foreign policy team are looking to push the U.S. back into the JCPOA Iran nuclear deal.  Many, especially on the left, support their objective, not realizing that the JCPOA allows Iran to build nuclear weapons in the near future, which will place the United States, the Sunni Gulf States, and Israel in grave danger.  I do not believe that most supporters of the Biden Iran policies are doing so out of a hatred of Israel, the US, or the Sunni states.  IMHO, their support stems from naivete.  Much of what America was told about the JCPOA by Obama and Kerry were not true.  Most of the MSM covered up the lies back then and are still not reporting the truth about the deal.  The below are what I believe are the fifteen most troubling examples of the lies we were told about the JCPOA by former President Obama and former Secretary of State John Kerry: [...]

Proof that Obama is in charge of the Biden White House:
Are we back to sending pallets of cash to Iran?  Earlier this month we learned that some of President Joe Biden's attempts at backroom diplomacy with Iran were rebuffed, with the Iranians essentially telling the White House that we would need to "go first."  What they wanted was the lifting of at least some of the sanctions on them before they would consider any direct negotiations with the United States over their nuclear program.  This weekend saw some news bubbling up in Arabic outlets suggesting that the Biden administration may have taken that request to heart.  Our colleague Nick Arama at RedState dug up some chatter from Iranian sources suggesting that Biden had unfrozen some of the billions of dollars of Iranian assets currently locked up in the Trade Bank of Iraq and that some "transactions" had already taken place.  If so, this would be a major shift in policy without any notification to the public.

Iran's Economy:  The Rule Of Plunder And Corruption.  Even if all international sanctions and any other economic barriers are lifted and Iran can export the 2.3 million barrels per day outlined in its 2021 budget, it will still have economic challenges.  That's because the mullahs have let all production other than oil waste away.  Iran's economic problems are internal and structural, resulting from institutionalized corruption and bribery that have destroyed the country from within.  Iranian officials blame international sanctions for Iran's economic problems and the collapse of its medical infrastructure in these difficult COVID-19 times.  The regime wants to make people believe that overcoming the problems will be easier if the sanctions are lifted.  This won't happen because Iran has no industries.  If it's not oil, the mullahs aren't interested.

Biden Admin Consulting South Korea on Releasing Frozen Iranian Funds.  The Biden administration is working to free billions of dollars in Iranian assets currently frozen in South Korea, the country's Yonhap news agency reported on Tuesday.  There is currently about $7 billion in Iranian assets frozen in two banks based in Seoul, blocked by U.S. economic sanctions.  Korea's foreign ministry confirmed on Tuesday that a deal had been reached to free those assets.  "Our government has been in talks with Iran about ways to use the frozen assets, and the Iran side has expressed its consent to the proposals we have made," the ministry said in a statement.  "The actual unfreezing of the assets will be carried out through consultations with related countries, including the United States."

Biden team colluded with Iran to foil Trump diplomacy.  President Trump in 2019 sought to open a back channel of communication with top Iranian officials and saw the U.N. General Assembly meeting in September as a potential opportunity to defuse escalating tension with Tehran, but the effort failed.  Two months earlier, however, a different back channel was thriving in New York.  Iran's smooth, English-speaking foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, met with Robert Malley, who was President Obama's Middle East adviser, in an apparent bid to undermine the Trump team and lay the groundwork for post-Trump relations.  The attempt at counterdiplomacy offers a window into the deep relationships Mr. Zarif forged with influential U.S. liberals over the past decade. [...] Mr. Trump and top deputies such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were outraged by Mr. Kerry's back-channel diplomacy.  Mr. Trump even said it was illegal under the 1799 Logan Act, which restricts private American citizens from negotiating with hostile powers.

Exclusive: Biden team colluded with Iran to foil Trump diplomacy.  President Trump in 2019 sought to open a back channel of communication with top Iranian officials and saw the U.N. General Assembly meeting in September as a potential opportunity to defuse escalating tension with Tehran, but the effort failed.  Two months earlier, however, a different back channel was thriving in New York.  Iran's smooth, English-speaking foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, met with Robert Malley, who was President Obama's Middle East adviser, in an apparent bid to undermine the Trump team and lay the groundwork for post-Trump relations.  The attempt at counterdiplomacy offers a window into the deep relationships Mr. Zarif forged with influential U.S. liberals over the past decade.

Biden Grovels to Iran's Terrorists.  Just days after Iranian-backed terrorists launched an attack on Americans in Northern Iraq, killing a civilian contractor and wounding a U.S. soldier, the Biden administration has issued no punishment.  In fact, President Biden is rewarding the behavior by initiating talks with the regime, pulling off sanctions and green lighting new cash flows bound to fuel terrorism.  "The Biden administration said Thursday evening that it is ready to begin conducting diplomacy with Iran, an announcement that has rankled Iran hawks in and out of Congress who see the new White House as rushing into talks with a regime that continues to sponsor terror attacks against U.S. forces and build its nuclear weapons program," the Washington Free Beacon reports.  For the past four years, Iran has been isolated thanks to the Trump administration's maximum pressure campaign.

Critics Slam Biden Over Move To Pursue Iran On Nuclear Deal: 'Absolutely Chokes'.  Top former U.S. officials and national security experts slammed Democrat President Joe Biden late on Thursday [2/18/2021] following his administration signaling that it was willing to re-enter talks with the Islamic Republic of Iran, the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, to pursue a nuclear deal.  State Department spokesman Ned Price said that Biden administration would "accept an invitation from the European Union High Representative to attend a meeting of the P5+1 and Iran to discuss a diplomatic way forward on Iran's nuclear program."

Iran:  The Mullah's Pursuit of Obtaining Nuclear Weapons.  In spite of the Iranian leaders' claim that their nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, evidence reveals that the Iranian regime has long sought to acquire nuclear weapons.  A recent report by the International Atomic Energy Agency pointed out that "Samples taken from two sites during inspections in the fall by the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) contained traces of radioactive material".  This case was first brought to the world's attention in 2018 when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Yukiya Amano to inspect an "atomic warehouse" in Iran.  Netanyahu pointed out in his speech to the UN General Assembly that the Iranian government had a "secret atomic warehouse for storing massive amounts of equipment and material from Iran's secret nuclear weapons program."  In addition, in 2018, two non-partisan organizations based in Washington, DC — the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) and the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) — released detailed reports about Iran's undeclared clandestine nuclear facilities, as well.  Iran's leaders claimed that the warehouse, in a village, Turquz Abad, in the suburbs of Tehran, was simply a place where carpets were cleaned.  The IAEA at first did not take these reports of a secret Iranian atomic warehouse seriously.  This should not be surprising: the IAEA has a long history of misreporting the Iranian regime's compliance with the deal and declining to follow up on credible reports about Iran's illicit nuclear activities.

Biden's Nuclear Foolishness:  Following in Obama's Footsteps.  It's been 75 years since our use of the A-Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  The U.S. was already stretched to the limits by four years of all-out war with Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, and Truman's advisors had estimated 400,000 to 800,000 American deaths in a ground invasion of Japan.  For the last four years, the Trump Administration wisely stalled Iran's nuclear capability, versus the complete imprudence of the Obama Administration enabling them to develop a nuclear facility.  The confused and uninformed say that Iran would develop one anyway.  Now, Joe Biden is headed down the same foolish path as Obama. [...] Only one country in the history of the world has ever produced an atomic bomb from scratch — the United States.  It happened in 1945, in New Mexico.  Every other country that possesses the atomic bomb stole, copied, or was given the U.S. formula.

Iranian Foreign Agent Arrested, Lobbied "Congressman-1" Over Iran.  Kaveh Afrasiabi was on the advisory board of the Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran (CASMII) where he was responsible for despicable pieces such as, "Neda's death: 80 percent propaganda-sold-as-investigative reporting".  He was a consultant to the UN Program on Dialogue Among Civilizations, a contributor to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and the author of multple books, including his latest one, Trump and Iran:  From Containment to Confrontation which was published by Lexington Books.  Also he's being charged with being an unregistered foreign agent.  You can guess the government in question.

Biden Is Already Rewarding Failure.  When Sundown Joe takes office on Wednesday, the old gang will be back in the saddle again: the foreign policy establishment hacks who have done nothing but fail, fail, and fail again, and in response keep getting rewarded not with dismissal and a forced return to private life, but with honors, awards, and promotions.  AFP reported Saturday that Biden has appointed Wendy Sherman, whose chief claim to fame is negotiating the notorious Iran nuclear deal, to be deputy secretary of state.  It's a classic example of failing up.

Report: Biden Team Already in Talks with Iran over Return to Nuclear Deal.  The Biden administration has already unrolled its plan to return to the 2015 nuclear deal and has begun holding quiet talks with Iran, an Israeli TV station reported Saturday [1/16/2021].  Officials for the incoming administration have also updated Israel about the conversations, Channel 12 News said.  A separate report by the Israel Hayom daily said Israel, wary of Biden's promise to return to the deal, is crafting military options to "undermine Iran's nuclear efforts or, if need be, counter Iranian aggression, which will soon be presented to the government."

Iran Deal Did Not Prevent Iran Bomb.  When it comes to America's policy on the Iranian nuclear issue, it is not the intentions that matter; it is the factual results that should motivate sober judgment.  Recently, it was revealed yet again that the Iran deal did not prevent the mullahs' from actively pursuing nuclear weapons.  In fact, the regime has reneged on its commitments in the 2015 deal and is expanding clandestine enterprises.  On October 16, 2020, the main opposition coalition, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), which was the first party to expose the regime's clandestine program back in 2002, held its latest press conference about the dossier.  It revealed hitherto undetected nuclear activity by the regime, making it palpably clear that Tehran's quest for the bomb has not stalled.  The top-secret intelligence was obtained from inside the Iranian regime.  It indicated the existence of one new site, and the role of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in another, which was dismantled to avoid having inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from finding nuclear material traces there.

CIA Whistleblower Says He Has Documents Proving Obama/Biden Paid Off Iran To Cover Up The Killing Of Seal Team 6.  Full interview of a CIA Whistleblower, Allan Harrow Parrot interviewed by Charles Woods and Nicholas Noe, surfaced Sunday, where the three talk about the blackmail /extortion of 152 Billion US dollars sent to Iran to cover up the deaths of seal team 6 by the Obama/Biden administration.  Parrot has extensive experience with the intelligence community, and he is planning on releasing documents this week on what he said are going to uncover "numerous crimes sprees".  "A heavy price has been paid for what we are uncovering, and millions of people want to see," Parrot said.  [Video clip]

Trump Admin Hits 18 Iranian Banks With Sanctions.  The Trump administration on Thursday slapped sanctions on 18 Iranian banks, further crippling the Iranian economy and stripping its access to the global financial system.  Iran's entire financial sector is now subject to U.S. sanctions, according to the Treasury Department.  The new sanctions will stop Iran from accessing U.S. dollars, the primary global currency used by most financial institutions.  All of the banks were identified as supporting Iran's nuclear program, missile development, global terrorism enterprise, and its network of terror proxy groups, according to the Treasury Department.  "Our sanctions programs will continue until Iran stops its support of terrorist activities and ends its nuclear programs," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.  "Today's actions will continue to allow for humanitarian transactions to support the Iranian people."

Iran Owes $1.45 Billion for Kidnapping Ex-FBI Agent Robert Levinson, U.S. Court Says.  A U.S. judge has ordered Iran to pay $1.45 billion to the family of a former FBI agent believed to have been kidnapped by the Islamic Republic while on an unauthorized CIA mission to an Iranian island in 2007.  The judgment this month comes after Robert Levinson's family and the U.S. government now believe he died in the Iranian government's custody, something long denied by Tehran, though officials over time have offered contradictory accounts about what happened to him on Kish Island.

Four-Star General:  Trump Ending Iran Appeasement Could End Regime.  Jack Keane, a retired four-star general and former vice chief of the U.S. Army, told Breitbart News in an interview this weekend that President Donald Trump ending 40 years of U.S. appeasement toward the Iranian dictatorship moved the world a step closer to the demise of the regime.  Keane said that, in addition to enforcing sanctions and ending the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, Trump's brokering the restoration of diplomatic ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates is a game changer.

All International Sanctions on Iran Reimplemented, Killing Nuclear Deal.  All international sanctions on Iran that were lifted as part of the Obama administration's landmark nuclear deal with the country have come back into effect as of Saturday evening, removing the last remaining vestiges of the agreement that were still in place.  The renewal of these sanctions comes after months of last-ditch diplomatic efforts by the Trump administration to ensure a United Nations ban on Iran's purchase of advanced weapons was not lifted.  This effort was unsuccessful after it failed to garner backing from traditional European allies on the U.N.'s Security Council.  Following that bid, the United States exercised its right under the original 2015 accord to reimpose a litany of sanctions on Tehran that have been waived since the accord was signed and endorsed by the U.N. With the reimposition of these sanctions, the nuclear deal that President Donald Trump abandoned in 2018 is effectively voided.

Iran Caught Stockpiling Enriched Uranium Needed for Bomb.  The United States has evidence that Iran is stockpiling enriched uranium, the key component in a nuclear weapon, in direct violation of international restrictions on Tehran's use of the fissile material.  Nuclear experts predict that Iran is now just 3.5 months away from the "breakout time," a measurement of how close the country is to having the technology and materials to construct a nuclear weapon.  It also now has the fuel to potentially construct two separate bombs.

It couldn't happen to more deserving people.
Iran's nuclear facilities are mysteriously under attack.  Black smoke rose as flames engulfed the Shahid Tondgooyan petrochemical plant in the Khuzestan province of Iran late Sunday afternoon.  Hours earlier, more than 500 miles away, detonations rocked the basement of an old, nondescript home in a northern pocket of Tehran.  The two-story dwelling was said to have housed at least 30 gas cylinders that were used for unclear purposes.  Both incidents came fewer than two days after a string of explosions — and power outages — were reported west of Tehran in the early hours of Friday.  Local reports indicated that multiple "mortar-like sounds similar to anti-aircraft missiles" were heard.  The blasts reportedly took place at an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) missile depot.

J'Accuse Barack Obama!  When President Obama was in his 75-day transition to the Presidency, he initiated correspondence with Supreme Leader Khamenei of Iran to explore, at the least, some form of what French diplomats call détente, or even entente. But Iran remained an adversary to the United States.  Instead of rapprochement, the Shia theocracy was sanctioned by UN Security Council resolution 1803 on March 3, 2008.  As it happens, this was prologue to l'affaire Flynn, a scandal whose events resemble those of that affaire to remember, the notorious Affaire Dreyfus.  That's Alfred Dreyfus the army officer, not Richard Dreyfuss the actor.  The first Obama term was devoured by its socialist pursuit of the Holy Grail, nationalizing the healthcare industry.  The second Obama term pivoted to a no-holds-barred rush to allying with Iran.  In July 2012, Obama hired Gen. Michael Flynn, a 33-year veteran and hero, to serve as the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.  In August 2014, Obama fired Flynn over, it is widely agreed, Flynn's opposition to Obama's policy of an 'Iran deal' at any cost.

Ex-Trump adviser breaks silence on Russia probe, says Iran deal played role in false allegations.  For more than two years now, Walid Phares has kept a secret.  The national security expert favored by many conservatives was interviewed and investigated in the Russia collusion probe, mostly for an issue unrelated to Moscow.  It was Egypt, actually.  The allegation — like many in the Russia case — turned out to be spurious, and Phares was never charged with wrongdoing by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team.  Now, Phares is speaking out for the first time, suggesting that one of the motives of those who made the allegations and sustained the investigation was to hamper the early Trump presidency's foreign policy goals, including the 45th president's long-promised plan to cancel the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal.

Obama Used National Security to Spy on Americans Opposed to Islamic Terrorists.  We know when Obamagate ended, but we don't know when the policy of spying on Americans began.  The tangled roots of the domestic surveillance of political opponents by the NSA predate the alarmism about Russia.  Tracing them back into the fetid swamp takes us not toward Moscow, but to Tehran.  The first public revelation that the White House was spying on high level members of the political opposition came in 2015.  Members of Congress had been eavesdropped on as part of an operation to sabotage Prime Minister Netanyahu's campaign against the Iran Deal.  The Israeli leader and his entire country had earlier been targeted by a massive spy campaign to stop Israel from taking out Iran's nukes.  But the new wave of surveillance was no longer just against a potential Israeli attack on Iran, but was part of a political campaign to win the domestic argument to aid Iran and legalize its nuclear program.

Was Russiagate Really About Iran?  [Scroll down]  Columnist Lee Smith at Tablet Magazine wrote a thought-provoking article that lays out a convincing case that the real reason the Obama partisans inside the federal agencies were so determined to go after Trump's incoming national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was never about supposed ties to Russia.  What they were really seeking to do was to protect the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).  That's the official name for what has come to be commonly referred to as "the Iran deal."  It's no secret that both Trump and Flynn had very vocally promised to scrap the Iran deal if the Washington outsider won the election.  And it's also no secret that Barack Obama and his administration considered the Iran deal the signature foreign policy achievement of his entire presidency.  What if the Russian collusion narrative was always just a fake pretext these politically partisan government officials were using to mask their real goal:  spying on the Trump presidency to try to sabotage it while also protecting Obama's precious Iran deal?

Obamagate: Of Course It Comes Back to Obama's Narcissism.  At the bottom of the Russian hoax story is a tale of narcissism:  Hillary Clinton's shock at losing the election, the media's shock at being wrong and less capable of manipulation that they thought, and, importantly, Barack Obama's shock that his priorities — all of them, but most of all the Iran Deal — would be swept away as so much ideological detritus. [...] Not only did the Obama administration use every tool in their arsenal, most of them illegal at worst and [very] shady at best, but they also had the media on their side.  The media's reputation was tied to Obama's.  Their cheerleading proved their own value.  He was, after all, a media creation.  He had to succeed or they would be revealed as fools and neophyte-enabling stooges.

The Hoaxes Cry Out for Punishment.  If we are able to get all the facts about what actually happened in 2016 and 2017, this could very well be the biggest political scandal in American history.  What if the previous president and senior officials in his administration decided to use the power of the state to spy on and "take out" the incoming president and his administration?  And they did this on the basis of what?  Policy differences?  There was no Russia collusion or any collusion of any type.  Smart people knew that years ago.  This likely comes down to Obama and his administration trying to preserve their policy agenda, very specifically their terrible Iran nuclear deal; don't forget Obama fired General Flynn over Flynn's strong disagreement regarding the Iran deal and, of course, Trump's campaign promise to undo that deal.  It means, simply put, that the outgoing administration, unhappy with the election results, was trying to undo them.

Newly released material in the Flynn case implicates Obama.  A newly released document indicates that Obama pushed the FBI to go after Michael Flynn.  It's not yet clear, though, if this was part of a larger plot on Obama's part to destroy Trump's presidency or was merely part of Obama's vendetta against Flynn himself.  It appears, too, that while Biden probably wasn't part of masterminding the plot, he was in on it from the beginning.  Obama and Flynn had a history, for the latter had once served as Obama's director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.  In April 2014, the Obama administration forced Flynn to retire.  By February 2017, Adam Kredo reported that the break had come about because Flynn opposed Obama's disastrous Iran deal.

Trump says Iran planning 'sneak attack' on US troops, assets in Iraq.  President Trump said Wednesday that Iran is planning a "sneak attack" on U.S. troops or "assets" in Iraq, warning the country will pay a "heavy price" if this happens.  The president made the abrupt announcement in a tweet Wednesday afternoon, coming amid lingering tensions between the two countries over past confrontations as well as the coronavirus pandemic.

Iranians Die By The Thousands Of COVID-19 Amidst Ayatollah's Greed.  Within days of requesting $5 billion from the Washington-based International Monetary Fund (IMF), Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei turned down and mocked America's offer to send medical assistance to fight the spiraling coronavirus crisis.  At present, restricted information coming from the Iranian government places the coronavirus death toll at 2,234.  Meanwhile, the government's primary political opposition organization, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MeK), is reporting the number of deaths in Iran as having passed 11,500.  It was the MeK which exposed the Iranian government's covert nuclear weapons program.  This organization's ability to extract accurate intelligence out of Iran is always impressive.  Furthermore, the 11,500 number is supported by satellite images which reveal extensive expansions of multiple cemeteries throughout Iran.

Coronavirus Spread Echoes Iran's Destructive Influence.  According to the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) — a coalition leading the push for a democratic alternative to the clerical regime — more than 3,000 deaths can already be attributed to an outbreak that has encompassed 139 cities across every Iranian province. [...] The NCRI issued a full report on the scale of Iran's COVID-19 outbreak on March 10.  As well as contradicting Tehran's lowball estimates for the numbers of infections and deaths, the report details the ways in which authorities bungled their response to early reports of the illness spreading from China to Iran.  It also notes that the epidemic is rapidly spreading within a number of Iranian prisons, facilitated in large part by the regime's chronic disregard for the well-being of prisoners, especially political prisoners.

Iran hit hardest as oil price war, cornavirus cripples nation.  The one-two punch of coronavirus and an escalating oil price war that is roiling world markets is hurting one country more than any other:  Iran.  Already dealing with a deadly outbreak, the Islamic Republic, heavily dependent on oil revenues, is in no position to deal with the lowest per-barrel prices seen in decades.

Iranian official who took part in 1979 Iran hostage crisis dies of coronavirus.  Another high-ranking official in Iran has died from the coronavirus, according to state media.  Hossein Sheikholeslam, 68, the former Iranian ambassador to Syria, studied at the University of California at Berkeley before becoming a leader of the radical Iranian students who stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took 52 American diplomats captive during the 444-day Iran hostage crisis.

Iran:  The Train Hits Something Hard.  For the first time in decades, Tehran has downgraded annual "End of America" and "End of Israel" international conferences that attracted professional anti-Americans and Holocaust- deniers from all over the world.  The usual Hate-America crowd, from Louis Farrakhan to "Che" Guevara's daughter and son-in-law and passing by British Corbynites waited in vain for invitations to travel to the Islamic Republic for a rite of verbal abuse against the "Great Satan".

Congress: Attorney General Lynch 'Pleads Fifth' on Secret Iran 'Ransom' Payments.  Attorney General Loretta Lynch is declining to comply with an investigation by leading members of Congress about the Obama administration's secret efforts to send Iran $1.7 billion in cash earlier this year, prompting accusations that Lynch has "pleaded the Fifth" Amendment to avoid incriminating herself over these payments, according to lawmakers and communications exclusively obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.  Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) and Rep. Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.) initially presented Lynch in October with a series of questions about how the cash payment to Iran was approved and delivered.  In an Oct. 24 response, Assistant Attorney General Peter Kadzik responded on Lynch's behalf, refusing to answer the questions and informing the lawmakers that they are barred from publicly disclosing any details about the cash payment, which was bound up in a ransom deal aimed at freeing several American hostages from Iran.

Wayback Machine:  Remember Obama's Iran Deal Pardons?  It wasn't too long ago, one year before he left office, that Barack Obama gave full pardons to men in prison at the behest — not of Alice Johnson or Alveda King — of the Iranian government as part of the Iran nuclear deal.  On January 16, in his last year of office, President Obama put the finishing touches on his dreadful Iran deal by giving full pardons to people with ties to the number one state sponsor of terrorism.

Dem Sen under fire for 'secret meeting' with Iran officials, digs deeper when he tries to explain.  Sen. Chris Murphy admitted he and other Democrats held a secret meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif last week.  The Connecticut Democrat who voted to impeach President Donald Trump apparently sees nothing wrong with meeting with "adversaries" as long as the meetings are conducted by Democrats.  Trump seemed to be taken by surprise and told reporters Tuesday [2/18/2020] it "sounds like to me a violation of the Logan Act."

Sen. Murphy on Meeting With Zarif: 'If Trump Isn't Going to Talk to Iran, Then Someone Should'.  Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) confirmed Tuesday that he met with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on the sidelines of a security conference in Germany at the weekend, justifying his decision to do so by saying that "if [President] Trump isn't going to talk to Iran, then someone should."

Sen. Murphy:  I Secretly Met With Zarif in His Hotel Suite Because its Dangerous Not to Meet With Adversaries.  Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) admitted Tuesday morning that he and several other Democrats did indeed hold a secret meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif during the Munich Security Conference last week, arguing that it would be dangerous NOT to meet clandestinely with Iranian officials.  The Federalist's Mollie Hemingway broke the story about the Dems' rogue meeting with foreign adversaries in an exclusive on Monday [2/17/2020].  When asked to respond to the report during a press conference in Ethiopia on Tuesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressed hope that the Democrats were supporting "America's foreign policy and not their own."

Pompeo: I Hope Secret Democrat Meeting With Iran Wasn't Meant To Undermine U.S. Foreign Policy.  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo responded to Federalist reporting Tuesday of Democratic senators privately meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif without State Department knowledge or approval.  Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut and other Democrat senators met with Zarif last week on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, an annual forum convening hundreds of world leaders each February to discuss international threats.  "I have seen that piece about some senators meeting with Foreign Minister Zarif," Pompeo said during a press conference with Ethiopian Minister Gedu Andargachew in the east African nation Tuesday, according to Townhall.

Interesting things are happening in Iran following Soleimani's death.  When President Trump ordered the military to strike Qassem Soleimani, a legitimate military target responsible for the deaths of hundreds of troops, Democrats were up in arms.  How dare Trump bait the Iranians by striking someone so close to Ayatollah Khamenei?  They were certain that Trump had just ignited World War III.  Republicans were more confident that the strike would, at the very least, remove a dangerous character from the Iranians' forty-year-long war against America and, at the best, topple the regime.  This last belief was based upon the fact that the Iranian regime is fragile now that Trump walked away from Obama's terrible Iran Plan and reinstated sanctions.  The economy is collapsing and people all over Iran are coming out in protest.  After forty years of a repressive theocracy, the Persian people, a people accustomed to beauty and life, have had their fill of Islam's cruel puritanism.

Iranian lawmaker announces a $3 million cash reward for 'whoever kills Trump'.  An Iranian lawmaker apparently has placed a $3 million bounty on President Trump's head.  Ahmad Hamzeh made the declaration Tuesday during a speech to parliament in Tehran, although it's unclear whether it has any backing from Iran's top leaders, Reuters reported, citing the ISNA news agency.  "On behalf of the people of Kerman province, we will pay a $3 million reward in cash to whoever kills Trump," Hamzeh was quoted as saying.

Hey Trump, Declassify The Secret Letters Obama Sent To Iran.  Now is the time Mr. President to blow the system, deep state right out of the water... in fact, time it with the post impeachment operation.  Remember ladies and gentlemen there were these side deals that Barack Obama and John Kerry negotiated with Iran which are hardly fully known today.  How about the side deal that Obama gave terror amnesty to Qassim Soleimani and in fact to all terror operations in Iran?  Imagine the articles of impeachment on Obama had we known... well, it is time to know it now.

Kerry Loses It When CBS Busts Him With What He Said About Iran Deal Funding Terrorists in 2016.  John Kerry really isn't the person who has any standing to talk about what should be done in regards to Iran.  But that hasn't stopped him from getting out in media and trying to spin the colossal failure of their dealings with Iran.  We've reported here and here on how they sent "pallets of cash" to Iran plus lifted sanctions, releasing $150 billion some of which Kerry acknowledged would go to terrorists.

How fragile is Iran's theocracy?  Iran's people barely can scrape together enough calories to keep body and soul together in the big cities, while entire parts of rural Iran are emptying out as rivers and wells go dry.  Things are so bad that the number of babies born in Iran has fallen by nearly 25% in the past five years.  Only Venezuela is worse off — but the wicked Maduro government remains in power.  Regimes that are willing to shoot their people dead in the streets (as Iran shot 1,500 protesters last November) can cling to power even under desperate material circumstances.

Dems go dead silent on protests after Iranians blame regime, praise Trump.  Democrats are being called out for their hypocritical silence in the wake of protests in Iran expressing anger at the regime.  Democratic presidential candidates and lawmakers who had been openly condemning President Donald Trump's handling of rising tensions with Iran in the last days suddenly seemed to go into hiding as the Middle East country's citizens poured out in the streets to condemn their government leaders.

Obama should apologize for shameful cash payment to Iran.  Iran is indeed a dangerous terrorist state that not only has a powerful standing army, air force, navy and advanced weapons systems — including ballistic missiles and a growing space program — but also controls multiple proxy terrorist organizations responsible for killing and injuring hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children.  Included on that list of victims are thousands of American military personnel and contractors.  These were facts that former President Obama knew when he deliberately chose a policy of appeasement and cash payoffs instead of strength and accountability as the way to deal with Iran.

Obama Should Never Have Appeased Iran.  [Scroll down]  A few years in, the Obama administration took a major gamble.  Seeing promise in less hostile relations with Iran, Obama decided to cut a deal with the mullahs.  The nuclear deal of 2015 dismantled the regime of U.N. sanctions that had all but ruined the Iranian economy, in exchange for temporary limits on the key facilities of Iran's nuclear weapons program and vague commitments never to develop nuclear weapons.  At the White House press conference where he unveiled the deal, Obama was asked whether it would allow the U.S. "to more forcefully counter Iran's destabilizing actions in the region, quite aside from the nuclear question."  In other words, would the deal buttress or undermine the containment of Iran?  Among the points Obama made in response was this:  "It'll be a lot easier for us to check Iran's nefarious activities, to push back against the other areas where they operate contrary to our interests or our allies' interests if they don't have the bomb."  There were some problems with this answer.

'Whistleblower' calls out John Kerry, says he 'knows for fact' Obama admin sent multiple letters directly to Soleimani.  Middle East expert Michael Doran slammed former Secretary of State John Kerry in a series of tweets exposing the Obama administration's dealings with Iran.  "I must become a whistleblower," Doran, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute specializing in Middle East security issues, tweeted Friday in response to a self-serving opinion piece by Kerry published by The New York Times.

With Iranians facing down the mullahs, Trump gives the gift of truth.  Even as Progressives double down on their claim that Trump was somehow responsible for the Iranians shooting down a passenger plane, Iranian protesters are rising up against their government because Trump has told the truth and is actively supporting them.  In mid-2009, shortly after President Obama took office, Iran had its own presidential election.  Voters believed (reasonably) that the election was rigged and started protesting.  For months, hundreds of thousands of people were on the streets in protest.  Over nine months, the government arrested at least 10,000 people and killed over 100.  Never once did Obama give the protesters a single word of support.  Obama's silence was deadly.

The Obama Administration's Guerrilla War.  In the modern era, it is difficult to come up with an administration that has spent as much energy trying to sabotage its successor in office.  Obama administration officials have worked tirelessly to embed themselves into media outlets as supposedly objective voices.  After President Donald Trump oversaw the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani and as missiles fell from the night sky into Iraq from Iran, those voices took to the airwaves to push the Obama line against Trump.  In the American media, with help from former Obama staffers, Trump was the bad guy and Iran was the good guy.  Iran deescalated tensions.  Trump made things worse.  On CNN, Jim Sciutto of the Obama administration sat as an objective news anchor.  CNN also now has Valerie Jarrett's daughter, Laura, in an anchor chair, too.  They tossed a co-anchor for their early morning news show to make room for the daughter of one of Barack Obama's most ardent defenders.  But we are supposed to pretend there is no bias.

Iran's Options in Showdown with America Are All Bad.  After losing its top strategist, military commander and arch-terrorist, Qassem Suleimani, the Iranian theocracy is weighing responses.  One, Iran can quiet down and cease military provocations.  After attacking tankers off its coast, destroying an oil refinery in Saudi Arabia, shooting down a U.S. drone and being responsible for the killing and wounding of Americans in Iraq, Iran could now keep quiet.  It might accept that its strategy of escalation has failed to lead to any quantifiable advantage.  Trump did not prove a passive "Twitter tiger," as his critics mocked.  Instead, he upped the stakes to Iran's disadvantage and existential danger.  The chances, however, for such a logical and passive readjustment by Iran are nil.

Pompeo responds to John Kerry on Iran: 'It's a fantasy to think that the nuclear deal was good for the United States'.  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo fired back at one of his predecessors in an exclusive interview with Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle" Thursday, saying that John Kerry was indulging in a "fantasy" by claiming that Iran had reined in its destabilizing behavior after signing the 2015 nuclear deal.  "It's a fantasy to think that the nuclear deal was good for the United States of America, protecting the American people," Pompeo told Laura Ingraham.  "There were terror campaigns, there were missile systems that were enhanced, improved during the [period of the] JCPOA [nuclear deal] — the money that the Iranian regime was permitted to have underwrote the very Shia militias that were the ones that took on and ultimately killed an American."

The Editor says...
The Iran deal was never intended to be good for the United States.  It was intended to benefit Iran.  Partly because Obama is a Muslim, and partly because Valerie Jarrett is from Iran.

Killing terrorists is how you kill off terrorism.  The world is clearly safer if known terrorist leaders are killed and funds are cut off.  It is never safer to leave terrorists, killers, gang members, cartels and rapists roaming the streets over removing them from society.  What makes the world much more dangerous is when leaders in America and Europe shower the most dangerous terrorism-sponsoring country, Iran, which continues to pledge death to America and death to Israel, with huge amounts of money and then pretends that that will be good.  Most journalists cheered this pure ignorance.  It is also extremely dangerous when leaders in America have been so stupid they sold uranium assets in the U.S to Russia which, of course, the Russians will use themselves and maybe sell to dangerous countries like North Korea and Iran.  It sure helps Russia when Iran has more money to purchase their weapons and uranium.  But Democrats will act surprised that these dangerous countries are working on nuclear weapons.

Investigate Obama stopping Project Cassandra.  Ben Rhodes ran the PR for Obama giving Iran $150 billion.  Rhodes's brother runs the news at CBS.  That network argued that [...] Obama did not give the money to Iran because it was theirs all along as frozen assets — plus interest.  Nobody is talking about Obama's bigger gift to Iran:  dropping the investigation of its drugs and for terrorism program.  President Donald John Trump said on Wednesday, "Iran's hostilities substantially increased after the foolish Iran nuclear deal was signed in 2013 and they were given $150 billion, not to mention $1.8 billion in cash.  Instead of saying, 'Thank you,' to the United States, they chanted, 'Death to America.'  In fact, they chanted 'Death to America' the day the agreement was signed.  Then Iran went on a terror spree funded by the money from the deal and created hell in Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Iraq."  News Busters reported, "Well, that triggered the liberal media who sprinted to the former President's defense.  CBS White House correspondent Weijia Jiang actually suggested it was unfounded for Trump to make the connection.  And NBC ran to Obama-era liar Susan Rice for backup.

Trump didn't make Iran's rulers killers, but Obama did enable them.  As tensions with Iran escalate, former Obama administration officials and their media allies have been working overtime to push the narrative that the leading state sponsor of terrorism was somehow under control as a result of the Iran nuclear deal. [...] This self-serving and distorted account of history not only ignores decades of hostile behavior by one of the world's leading rogue regimes but also years of aggressive and destabilizing actions by Iran over the course of the Obama presidency — before the nuclear deal was signed, during negotiations, and after it was implemented.  Far from keeping Iran under control, Barack Obama's deal further enabled Iran's malicious behavior and made the entire Democratic Party and the news media complicit in downplaying its bad actions.  A more appropriate Iranian timeline begins with the 1979 seizure of our embassy in Tehran and the detention of dozens of U.S. diplomats for more than a year.

Obama gave US Citizenship to 2500 Iranian Elite.  In July of 2018, a top Iranian official announced that Obama gave 2500 Iranians U.S. citizenship.  Cleric and Parliament member, Hojjat al-Islam Mojtaba Zolnour claimed that during the negotiations for the Iran deal, President Obama gave citizenship to 2500 Iranians, many of whom are government officials and their family and friends.  These people were allegedly granted U.S. citizenship as a favor to the [radical] President Hassan Rouhani, Fox News reported.  He might have meant a green card, The Daily Mail reported.  Zolnour, who is close to Khamenei, reported this information to Iran's Etenad newspaper which was cited by Fars News agency.  Etenad is a propaganda network.

Did You Know That "Obama's Iran Deal Granted an Amnesty to the World's Leading Terrorist Mastermind" — Qassem Suleimani.  Every day comes with new revelations making it impossible to continue justifying the defense of former President Obama's blatant giveaway of the JCPOA and his defense of terrorists.  Yet, our media continues trying.  This article from July 15, 2016 laid it all out so clearly, including the reaction if a future president were to take corrective measures to protect American interests.

Exclusive: U.N. investigators find Yemen's Houthis did not carry out Saudi oil attack.  Yemen's Houthi group did not launch an attack on Saudi Arabia's oil facilities in September, according to a confidential report by U.N. sanctions monitors seen by Reuters on Wednesday [1/8/2020], bolstering a U.S. accusation that Iran was responsible.

Ted Cruz: Media and Dems have 'lost their minds,' act as apologists for Iran.  Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, ripped a fact check by The Associated Press that claimed President Trump spread a "false tale" about the Obama administration paying out billions of dollars to Iran as part of the Iran Nuclear Deal.  Appearing on "Fox News @ Night" Wednesday with host Shannon Bream, Cruz said that the AP and mainstream media have acted as apologists for Iran by "defending" their Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.  "To serve as essentially apologists for the enemy of America, it's really sad," Cruz said.  "I get that they don't like Donald Trump.  That is not lost on anybody.  The media has lost their minds, many congressional Democrats have lost their minds."

After 9/11, Biden Wanted to Send $200 Million Check to Iran.  What's Biden's credibility on fighting terrorism?  As he criticizes President Trump, here's a flashback from a classic Joe moment.

Trump's Iran Policy Isn't the Problem; Barack Obama's Was.  All of this smacks less of legitimate concern about what comes next than it does of sheer panic that Trump has overturned a decade of American and European appeasement of the Iranian regime.  Ben Rhodes, former President Obama's deputy national security adviser, architect of the Iran deal and an overt liar who told the American public that Iran was on its way to moderation if only the United States would loosen economic restrictions on the terror state, has placed blame for volatility squarely before Trump.  Susan Rice, Obama's national security adviser during the Iran deal and another overt liar who told the American public that Islamic terror against our Benghazi embassy was rooted in anger over a YouTube video, soberly informed Americans that "Americans would be wise to brace for war."  Biden suggested that in throwing out the Iran deal, Trump had paved the way for war — and, oh, by the way, the Iran deal was "airtight."

Donald Trump Blames Barack Obama for Helping Fund Iran Missile Attacks.  President Donald Trump blamed his predecessor, former President Barack Obama, on Wednesday for funding the missiles Iran launched against the United States.  "The missiles fired last night at us and our allies were paid for with the funds made available by the last administration," Trump said, referring to the $150 billion returned to the Tehran regime under Obama as part of the Iran nuclear deal.

What did Iran do with your $450?  There has been much ink spilled and hot air vented recently about the introduction of a certain Iranian general to the business end of a precision-guided munition.  This was not the first special delivery the general received from America.  As part of the Iran nuclear deal, the U.S .government flew pallets of cash to the Tehran airport.  This load of... bills was supposed to be a down payment on peace.  Didn't work out.  Shocker.  Those pallets groaned under the weight of $150 billion, likely unloaded from the plane by straining fork trucks.  How best to make that figure more concrete?  If you divide $150 billion by 330 million Americans, that works out to about $450.  Four hundred fifty dollars is my share of the payola.  Barack Obama shoved his sticky fingers into my pocket and dragged out $450. He then stacked it in bundles with $450 from each and every other citizen, shrink-wrapped them all on pallets, and sent them off like an Amazon package.  What did Iran do with my $450?  I don't have a good idea of how much in explosives $450 will buy, but it's probably enough to make a reasonably big boom.  Iran must get a bulk discount after all.  How many IEDs did my $450 pay for?

Yes, Obama Helped Fund the Iranian Regime.  [Scroll down]  Now, we don't really know that Obama's ransom payments to Iran in 2016 subsidized those specific ballistic missiles, but we do know that money is fungible — especially when you have access to small denominations of European cash — and that the military, IRGC, and Hezbollah were the major beneficiaries of the replenished coffers of the Iranian state.  Distinctions over the details of the exact allocation of funds would be completely irrelevant in any conversation not involving Donald Trump.  Yet Andrea Mitchell and CNN, and all the usual suspects, immediately rallied to Obama's defense to also explain that actually Trump is talking about money we owed Iran.  We never "owed" the Islamic Republic any money. This is a myth.

Ted Cruz:  Iran missiles fired at Iraqi airbases were 'in a very real sense' paid for by billions that Obama sent Tehran.  Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Tuesday [1/7/2020] he believed the missiles Iran launched at Iraqi airbases where American soldiers are stationed were "in a very real sense" paid for by the billions of dollars the Obama administration sent to Tehran in 2016.  Cruz told "Hannity" that Trump's predecessor wrongfully "appeased" Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in hopes of reaching detente, which only served to further empower the regime.  "If you look at Iran policy, I think you've seen a dramatic shift [under President Trump]," he said.  "Under Barack Obama, as you noted, the policy was appeasement.  The policy under the disastrous Iran nuclear deal under Obama was to give over $100 billion to Iran."

Pentagon Confirms Iran Launching Dozens of Missiles at U.S. Targets in Iraq.  Iran began to launch over a dozen ballistic missiles targeting U.S. airbases in Iraq on Tuesday [1/7/2020], U.S. officials confirmed.  Iran is taking credit for a rocket attack targeting the al-Assad airbase in Iraq, which houses U.S. troops.  They announced that the missiles were part of "Shahid [martyr] Soleimani Operation," hinting at an extended military operation against the United States.  The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) — not Hezbollah or one of many Iranian proxies in Iraq — took credit for the bombs.

Missiles launched from inside Iran against US military facilities in Iraq.  Iran struck back at the United States for the killing of a top Iranian general early Wednesday, firing a series of surface-to-surface missiles at an Iraqi air base housing U.S. troops and warning the United States and its allies in the region not to retaliate.  A defense official told ABC News that Iran fired 15 total ballistic missiles and that 10 hit the Ain Al-Asad Airbase in western Iraq and one hit Erbil in northern Iraq.  Four missiles "failed in flight."  A U.S. official says there were very few, if any, casualties in the attacks.  The bases are still being searched for casualties.

Missiles Fired At U.S. Troops By Iran 'Paid For By The Billions Obama' Gave Them.  Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) unloaded on the Obama administration tonight during an interview on Fox News, saying that the $150 billion that the Obama administration gave Iran paid for the missiles that Iran fired at U.S. forces in Iraq on Tuesday night [1/7/2020].  "If you look at Iran policy I think you've seen a dramatic shift.  Under Barack Obama, the policy was appeasement," Cruz said.  "The policy under the disastrous Iranian nuclear deal under Obama was to give over $100 billion to Iran.  They literally flew $1.7 billion in cash in unmarked bills on pallets in the dead of night into Iran."  Cruz continued, "In a very real sense, the missiles that we saw fired on U.S. service men and women tonight were paid for by the billions the Obama administration flooded the ayatollah with and if history teaches anything its don't give billions of dollars who hate you and want to kill you."

Didn't Obama's 'Amazing' Shrink-Wrapped 'Iran Deal' Outlaw the Missiles the Ayatollah Used?  That's an excellent question, one that many people may be asking right about now.  Word on the tweet is that the Ayatollah Khameini is going all LBJ and picking targets at U.S. positions in Iraq in 2020 with his missiles.  We're told the Supreme Leader is commanding the targeting of the missiles. [...] But it turns out that photo is from 2014.

Biden falsely claims he and Obama 'solved' Iran.  At an event in Iowa on Friday [1/3/2020], [Joe] Biden claimed that the Trump administration had, regarding Iran, sparked an "extremely dangerous problem that our administration had solved and put on the back burner back on the table."  The claim that Biden and Obama "solved" the Iran issue just is not true.  "He claims that with the Iran nuclear issue, he claims that he and President Obama solved the Iran issue and put it on the back burner," Wolking said on Breitbart News Sunday.  "But that's ridiculous.  President Obama himself admitted that down the road his nuclear deal would have allowed Iran to build the bomb almost instantly, moving the breakout time to near-zero."  Obama did in an interview NPR in 2015 admit that his deal would not stop Iran from building a nuclear bomb, and that after the thirteenth year of that framework, Iran would be able to build one almost instantly.

Kellyanne Conway Blasts Democrats:  "I'm Not Going to be Lectured by People Who Voted Affirmatively to Fork Over $130 Billion in Cash to Iran".  On January 17, 2016, a cargo plane with $400 million in foreign currencies was secretly sent to Iran in the dead of night.  US officials held the ransom cash until US hostages were released on the tarmac.  It was a ransom payment.  Two days after Obama sent Iran the ransom cash the US government wired 13 individual payments for $99,999,999.99, each with an independent MICR, totaling $1,299,999,999.87.  Already the cash from Obama's ransom payment to Iran has been traced to terrorist groups in the region.  This past weekend Democrats attacked President Trump after the president called a strike on Iran's number one terrorist Qassim Soleimani.

Contrary To Iran Deal Talking Points, There's Something Between Appeasement and War.  The Obama administration frequently parroted this false binary, purporting that appeasement and war were the only two options for dealing with the hegemonic aims of the Iranian regime.  The talking point was repeated with stunning frequency until it became the unimpeachable consensus of the national security talking heads and Democratic politicians alike.  Those who suggested otherwise — like Sen. Tom Cotton, in a particularly hysterical and ugly episode — were routinely mocked or belittled by those within the Iran Deal's heavily propagandized echo chamber.  This consensus also helped shield the administration from criticism, even as $150 billion in Iranian assets were unfrozen and nearly $1.4 billion in U.S. dollars were sent to the regime.  After years of peddling this binary, our media shows scant interest in the massive area that lies between all-out-war and appeasement and surrender.

Flashback: Democrat Senators Took Money from Iran Lobby Before Vote on Obama's Nuke Deal — Iran Threatened to Out Bribed Officials.  In May 2018 President Trump withdrew from the sham Iranian nuclear deal.  President Trump knew the deal with the Iranian mullahs was not working and not worth the paper it was written on.  This was despite former Secretary of State John Kerry working against the Trump administration to salvage the weak deal with the Iranian regime.

The Obama Administration's $1.7 Billion Iranian Deception.  Prior to the 1979 Islamic revolution, the government of Iran, then under Shah Mohamed Reza Pahlavi, had put $400 million for military equipment into the Pentagon's Foreign Military Sales (FMS) account.  In 1981, the clerical regime filed a claim at The Hague to have that money returned.  The Obama administration contended that the $1.7 billion represented the $400 million plus $1.3 billion in interest.  The White House boasted that it had negotiated the sum down from $6 or $7 billion thereby winning the U.S. taxpayer a sweet deal.  The Obama White House omitted several key facts.  First, when Iran submitted its claim in 1981, the US filed an $817 million counterclaim for Iran's violations of its obligations under the FMS program.

Some of the $1.5 billion cash that Obama gave to Iran traced to Iran-backed terror groups.  When President Barack Obama shipped $1.7 billion in cash to Iran as part of his nuclear deal, he was funding terrorists.  It was entirely predictable, for his partners in the deal are committed to the destruction of Israel first, and then of the United States, once they have the nuclear means to do so.  The Armageddon that would break out after the US defends itself is a feature, not a bug in this plan, for the return of the Twelfth Mahdi will accompany the climactic global conflagration, and bring about the end of history, with Islam triumphant.  So, expecting the Mullahs to cozy up to the US in return for a vast amount of cash is foolish at best.  That money was just a means to an end that includes killing infidels, with priority given to Jews in Israel.

Iran 'murdered' as many as 1,000 protesters, State Department says.  Iranian internal security forces have engaged in mass killings of demonstrators protesting the theocratic government in Tehran, according to the Trump administration's top Iran envoy, who says authorities there "could have murdered over 1,000 Iranian citizens."  State Department Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook made the assertion at a press briefing Wednesday, echoing claims that an exiled Iranian dissident group calling for regime change in Tehran had circulated a day earlier in Washington.

Iran on the Brink.  Uprisings in Iran have become routine occurrences, albeit without much success.  Why?  Because Iran is ruled by a totalitarian Islamic ideology like Nazism and communism.  In Iran, there is no sovereignty of the people.  Instead, there is a perception of the Ummah in Shia theology "rule of Mahdi", guardianship over the people. [...] Since the Islamic invasion of 1979, the Mullahs have ruled over the unarmed Iranian people with an iron fist and absolute power while draining the nation's treasury.  As a result, millions of Iranians had no choice but to flee their homes to the four corners of the globe.  In these recent protests, Iran's rulers once again revealed their real identity to the world that they don't value human life.  They are simply vicious killers.

U.S. Navy Suckers Iran into Shooting Down Surplus Drone:  Scores Big Intelligence Coup.  Intentionally or not, in the current contest of wills with Iran, the United States is now in a dominant geo-political and military position.  Intentionally or not, the United States now has the most accurate, comprehensive, intelligence on Iran's order of battle that any adversary has ever harvested from its opponent in history.

Did Obama have a Quid Pro Quo with Iran?  Here's a question Iran critics such as U.S. Senators Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) may want to ask:  Did Barack Obama have a secret quid pro quo with Iran in 2008 or 2012?  The question has new resonance, not just because of trumped-up charges that the Trump administration had a quid pro quo with Ukraine, but because of emerging reports Iran did indeed have uranium at a site the country had called a carpet cleaning factory.  Specifically, on Nov. 11, the BBC reported the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed its inspectors "detected natural uranium particles of anthropogenic origin at a location in Iran not declared to the agency."

Since 2016, all that has mattered to most journalists, bureaucrats and other Democrats is getting their power back.  Did it enhance World or U.S security to do the deal with Iran?  Was it bribery to pay the tyrants $1.7 Billion in cash?  Was it additional bribery and abuse of power when Obama dictatorially stopped an investigation by the supposedly independent Justice Department into drug running by Hezb'allah?  Is it a shock that terrorism deaths went up substantially during Obama's eight years when he was allowing ISIS to build up and funding Iran?  Isn't it great that terrorism deaths have fallen substantially under Trump as he defeats ISIS and defunds Iran?  Why is Trump said to be weak on national security when terrorism has dropped substantially under Trump?  Why is there so little reporting on this great improvement?

Iran finally admits they have missing FBI agent Robert Levinson.  Iran is acknowledging for the first time it has an open case before its Revolutionary Court over the 2007 disappearance of a former FBI agent on an unauthorized CIA mission to the country.  In a filing to the United Nations, Iran said the case over Robert Levinson was 'on going,' without elaborating, but the development has renewed questions over what happened to him.

US warns Iran could be positioning for 'rapid nuclear breakout'.  The United States on Thursday [11/7/2019] called for "serious steps" to be taken after Iran resumed uranium enrichment at its underground Fordo plant in a new step back from its commitments under a 2015 nuclear deal.  "Iran's expansion of proliferation-sensitive activities raises concerns that Iran is positioning itself to have the option of a rapid nuclear breakout," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.

Iran starts injecting uranium gas into Fordo centrifuges, breaking nuke deal.  Iran began inserting uranium gas into centrifuges at the Fordo nuclear facility, state television announced Wednesday, marking its latest step away from the nuclear deal.  Iranian state media said uranium hexafluoride gas was injected into advanced centrifuges at the Fordo nuclear facility Wednesday [11/6/2019], a day after Iran announced the move.  It said inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency were on hand.

Iran Regime Supports Terrorist Groups Around the World - U.S. State Dept.  The latest annual Country Reports on Terrorism, released by the United States Department of State on Friday, November 1, 2019, has highlighted the Iranian regime's support for terrorist groups around the world.  The report states unequivocally that "Iran remains the world's worst state sponsor of terrorism," and that the "regime has spent nearly one billion dollars per year to support terrorist groups that serve as its proxies and expand its malign influence across the globe."

The Case for Impeaching Barack Obama.  [Scroll down]  Iran is the number one state sponsor of Islamic terrorism.  Why then did Barack Obama sent pallets of laundered cash in a blacked out unmarked plane to Iran?  And no, it had nothing to do with past weapons deals, those deals, agreements, had been made with the Iranian Republic when the Shah of Iran was the leader.  When the Shah was deposed by the Ayatollah Khomeini, that agreement was null and void.  Several US Presidents, Republican and Democrat, had not sent cash to Iran, until Obama.  That was, and is, a violation of US Code, Statute, in aiding and abetting the enemy, which Iran used the funds to advance its terrorist support, especially to its proxy army, Hezbollah.  As well, why was it that Obama did not bring the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the Iranian nuclear agreement, before the US Senate as a treaty for ratification?  Instead he made it a unilateral executive decision, which is in violation of our US Constitution.  There was nothing said about impeaching Obama, but I am saying it now.

The Iran Threat Is Still on the Rise.  Nearly five years after the Iran Nuclear Deal, which was meant to contain the Iranian nuclear threat as well as taming its regional rogue behavior, the Iranian regime remains the biggest threat to the United States and its allies in the region.  Intelligence from the main Iranian Resistance coalition, the National Council of Resistance of Iran Office in Washington (NCRI-US), shows that Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani approved the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) attack on Saudi oil installations from Iranian territory, according to a press conference and report by the group.

Iran asks West to leave Persian Gulf.  Iran's president called Sunday on Western powers to leave the security of the Persian Gulf to regional nations led by Tehran, criticizing a new U.S.-led coalition patrolling the region's waterways as nationwide parades showcased the Islamic Republic's military arsenal.

Trump meltdowns hide Obama's poisoned chalice.  In the middle east, as in Europe, the Obama administration disregarded the entreaties of American allies in sidling up to the region's primary troublemaker, in this case the revolutionary Iranian regime.  Inculcated in an antiquated Arabist interpretation of the Middle East, Obama saw the Israeli-Palestinian dispute as the crux of not just regional but global conflict, the key through which America could set its troubled relationship with the Muslim ummah aright.  And so his administration prioritised an elusive peace agreement between the two sides, while simultaneously striving for a grand bargain with Tehran.  In exchange for just a temporary suspension of its nuclear weapons development, the Iranians were offered a path toward the diplomatic normalisation after which they had long lusted, the lifting of sanctions, and tens of billions of dollars.

Iran's president warns America to 'stay away' as it unveils long range missiles that could strike US bases.  Iran's president has warned American and other foreign forces to "stay away" from the region, as Tehran paraded long-range missile capable of reaching American bases.  Hassan Rouhani said the presence of such troops in the Gulf has always brought "pain and misery", in a speech made at an annual military parade to commemorate the war with Iraq.

Trump Plans To 'Substantially Increase' Iran Sanctions.  President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he told Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to "substantially increase" sanctions on Iran.  The president's announcement to increase sanctions on Iran follows a Saturday attack on Saudi Arabian oil facilities.  Trump suggested Monday [9/16/2019] that Iran was likely to blame for the attack, but also said he'd like to avoid war with the country, The New York Times reported.

Iran's foreign minister Javad Zarif threatens 'all-out war'.  Iran's foreign minister warned Thursday [9/19/2019] of an "all-out war" if the US or Saudi Arabia launches military strikes in retaliation for the drone and missile attacks on Saudi oil sites.  Mohammad Javad Zarif told CNN that Tehran hoped to avoid conflict, adding that the country was willing to hold discussions with its regional rivals Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.  But the top Iranian diplomat rejected negotiations with Washington unless the US provided full sanctions relief as promised under the 2015 nuclear deal, which President Trump pulled the US out of last year.

The Goal of the Saudi Attack was to Bring Down Donald Trump's 2020 Presidency.  An editorial in the official Iranian Fars News today tacitly admits the goal of the Saudi attack this past weekend was to bring down Donald Trump's 2020 Presidency.

Attack on Saudi Arabia came from Iran:  US official.  The United States has concluded the weekend attack on Saudi oil facilities was launched from Iranian soil and cruise missiles were involved, a US official told AFP on Tuesday [9/17/2019].  The official, who declined to be identified, said the United States was gathering evidence about the attack to present to the international community, notably European allies, at the UN General Assembly next week.

Bombing attacks on major Saudi oil facilities disrupt world oil supply.  Pessimistic analysts keep looking for a "black swan" event to clobber September's ongoing but furtive stock market rally.  But the naysayers may have gotten their wish Saturday.  That's when reports hit news wires that major Saudi oil facilities were attacked either by missiles or bomb-carrying drones.  (One estimate claims that 10 drones were involved.)  Yemen's Houthi rebels, funded for years by Iran, claimed credit for the bombing attacks.  Yet another report claims the missiles or drones were launched from Iraq.

Iran will keep escalating until Trump hits back — or folds.  Saturday's attacks on two key Saudi oil installations were plainly beyond the capabilities of the Yemen-based Houthis who took credit:  The real villain, without question, is Iran.  Which means that Team Trump needs to find a response that will teach Tehran the right lessons.  Iran is clearly testing President Trump, to see if he can be bullied into unilaterally easing US sanctions.

Obama Bro Ben Rhodes Bursts In To Shill For Iran After Deadly Attacks.  Yesterday [9/13/2019], massive explosions rocked a Saudi Arabian oil field, shutting down 5% of the world's production.  As my colleague streiff shared earlier today, we didn't have to wait long to find out who did it.  If you had Iran as the aggressor, congrats, although that's not a difficult guess these days.  It appears cruise missiles, possibly fired by Iranian backed militias in Iraq, were used in the attack.  [Tweet]  Mike Pompeo confirmed that Iran was the backing for the operation, as the cruise missiles are theirs and only their proxies use them.  [More tweets]  Never fear though.  Obama bro Ben Rhodes is on the case and he's here to let us know that Iran wasn't actually responsible.

Iran Keeps Asking for It.  This weekend, the Houthi rebels in Yemen engaged in their favorite pastime of attacking Saudi Arabian oil and natural gas infrastructure.  For the record, the Houthis are stooges of the Iranian regime and, like the Iranians, hate their Sunni Arab neighbors in Saudi Arabia (meanwhile, Saudi Arabia uses its immense arsenal of American weapons to slaughter the Yemenis with impunity in the ongoing civil war raging in that country).  This time, according to a Houthi spokesman, the attack "involved 10 drones" and was directed against sensitive targets in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province.  This attack indicates not only a continuing escalation in Iranian-backed Houthi attacks against sensitive Saudi oil infrastructure but also a growing complexity in the Houthis' potent drone-strike capabilities.

How Obama's Iran Deal Funded Terrorism.  In 2015, the Iranian Khomeinist regime received up to $150 billion into its bank accounts from the Obama administration.  That windfall of cash was provided through terms of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the Iran Nuclear Deal.  That gusher of western cash then flowed directly into terror funding, even though Iranian experts and dissidents had warned over and over again that the money would not be spent on the Iranian people, but rather would go to enrich the repressive regime, and to fund its warring proxies in the region.  The Obama administration clumsily acceded to the most dangerous terms of any deal ever enacted by the Free World against its own best interests.  The JCPOA gave essential money to prop up the regime and its criminality.  Since that flood of cash was released, millions of dollars have been smuggled by Iran every day.  Most of the money is spent on Iran's wars in Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and other countries in the Middle East.

Obama's Treason:  Even Worse Than We Thought.  The Washington Free Beacon reported Wednesday that "the Obama administration skirted key U.S. sanctions to grant Iran access to billions in hard currency despite public assurances the administration was engaged in no such action, according to a new congressional investigation."  And it gets even worse:  "The investigation, published Wednesday [9/4/2019] by the House Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, further discloses secret efforts by top Obama administration officials to assure European countries they would receive a pass from U.S. sanctions if they engaged in business with Iran."  This revelation comes after the news that came to light in February, that, according to Bill Gertz in the Washington Times, "the U.S. government has traced some of the $1.7 billion released to Iran by the Obama administration to Iranian-backed terrorists in the two years since the cash was transferred."

Netanyahu Exposes Iran's Secret Nuclear Weapons Facility.  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday unveiled what he claims was a previously undisclosed Iranian nuclear weapons facility and accused Tehran of destroying the site in an effort to deny its existence.  "This is what I have to say to the tyrants of Tehran," Netanyahu said.  "Israel knows what you're doing, Israel knows when you're doing it, and Israel knows where you're doing it."

Mattis Claims Iran's 'Act Of War' Got A "Tepid Response" from Obama Because Of The Nuclear Deal.  President Trump's former Defense Secretary James Mattis drops a huge bombshell in his new book by calling out the Obama administration on their lame response to what Mattis considered Iran's "act of war"[.]  The "act of war" that Mattis mentions is the planned bombing of Cafe Milano in Washington, D.C.

Iran now using advanced centrifuges, violating nuclear deal.  Iran has begun using arrays of advanced centrifuges to enrich uranium in violation of its 2015 nuclear deal, a spokesman said Saturday [9/7/2019], warning that Europe has little time left to offer new terms to save the accord.

Iran now using advanced centrifuges, violating nuclear deal.  Iran has begun using arrays of advanced centrifuges to enrich uranium in violation of its 2015 nuclear deal, a spokesman said Saturday, warning that Europe has little time left to offer new terms to save the accord.  The comments by Behrouz Kamalvandi of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran signal a further cut into the one year experts estimate Tehran would need to have a enough material for building a nuclear weapon if it chose to pursue one.  Iran maintains its program is peaceful.

Mattis: Obama Failed to Respond to Iran Bomb Plot on U.S. Soil Because of Nuclear Deal.  After the surprise resignation of Secretary of Defense James Mattis last December, Democrats were quick to politicize the news, and have certainly been hoping ever since that Mattis would provide them with new information they could use to attack Donald Trump.  He does have a memoir coming out, Call Sign Chaos:  Learning to Lead, but it looks like it's Barack Obama and Joe Biden who get the bulk of the criticism.  Prior be being Secretary of Defense under Trump, Mattis served as commander of U.S. Central Command under Obama and Biden.  Mattis had predicted that Iran would continue to provoke the United States.  Mattis's warning went ignored, and when Iran committed an act of war on American soil, he was not told about it, and the United States never responded to it.

Mattis: You won't believe how Obama and Biden bungled Iraq and allowed the rise of ISIS.  Democrats looking for ways to attack Donald Trump have been licking their chops at the prospect of a James Mattis tell-all memoir.  Unfortunately for them, Mattis has indeed written such a book, but it tells all about Mattis' observations of their front runner, Joe Biden, and his former boss Barack Obama.  The Washington Examiner got a sneak peek of Mattis' new memoir Call Sign Chaos, and it's not pretty.

Iran seizes another oil tanker, third as feud with US continues.  Iran seized a vessel it accused of smuggling fuel in the Persian Gulf, the third time the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps detained a ship in the waterway in recent weeks as the stalemate between the Islamic Republic and the US continues.  The Iranian forces intercepted the ship Wednesday near Farsi Island, which is used by the Revolutionary Guard as a naval base, state media reported Sunday [8/4/2019].

Defying U.S. Sanctions, Countries Have Taken Oil From 12 Iranian Tankers.  China and other countries are receiving oil shipments from a larger number of Iranian tankers than had been previously known, defying sanctions imposed by the United States to choke off Tehran's main source of income, an investigation by The New York Times has found.

Lawmakers Demand Trump Admin Nix Loopholes Permitting Iranian Nuke Work.  A delegation of 50 members of Congress petitioned the Trump administration on Wednesday to cancel a series of sanctions waivers that have permitted Iran to continue its most contested nuclear research, including at a military site known to have housed the Islamic Republic's bomb program, according to a copy of the letter exclusively obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.  The letter, spearheaded by Rep. Liz Cheney (R., Wyo.), represents the strongest protest to date by lawmakers who view the waivers as an attempt by some deeply entrenched U.S. officials to keep the landmark nuclear deal on life support against the White House's wishes.

Unremitting Iranian Hostility Means It's Time to Reconsider Regime Change.  The Iranians have been acting out quite a bit lately, testing the limits of our tolerance for violence and breaking the nuclear strictures (assuming there really were any) of the JCPOA, aka the Iran Deal.  That deal was always an extreme head-scratcher, that the agreement prevents entry to Iranian military installations by nuclear inspectors was only the tip of an absurd iceberg.  And when the Mossad lifted a ton (!) of nuclear documents from a Tehran warehouse showing that Iran had lied about practically everything, the whole thing seemed ridiculous, even though that should have been obvious from the outset.

Rouhani:  Iran will enrich uranium to 'any amount we want'.  Iran's president warned that Tehran will increase its enrichment of uranium to "any amount that we want" beginning on Sunday, putting further pressure on European nations to save its faltering nuclear deal and offer a way around intense U.S. sanctions.

Iran just exceeded its uranium stockpile limit — and plans to keep breaking nuke deal terms.  Iran has exceeded the limits imposed on its uranium stockpile set by the 2015 nuclear deal.  Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Monday that Iran has surpassed the 300-kilogram limit established by the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and will continue development that exceeds other limits mandated by the deal, according to Iran's Fars News Agency.

Former Obama Officials Caught Working With Iran To Defeat U.S. Foreign Policy.  Yet another HUGE story that has been largely ignored by the mainstream media.  Thankfully, OAN has been following the ongoing developments that outline how former Obama officials in conjunction with multiple contacts in Congress, have recently been caught working with Iranian officials to defeat the remarkably successful Trump administration's actions in isolating and possibly hastening the collapse of the #1 sponsor of state terrorism that is the Iranian regime.  Let that sink in.  Former Obama officials and current members of Congress are working to support and maintain one of the worst human rights violators in the entire world.

Trump Dodged An Ambush By Avoiding War With Iran.  Let's clarify some things.  Iran is our enemy — the notion that we might wish to avoid being drawn into open conflict today does not mean these mullah bastards don't deserve to be hanged from the very cranes they use to murder gays, women who refuse hijab oppression and people who like freedom.  We have been at covert war with them for four decades, and they've murdered our people from Lebanon to Iraq and elsewhere.  We are morally justified in wiping out Iran's scummy leadership and using as much force as we choose to prevent their obtaining the bomb that Obama and his coterie of collaborators tried to hand it.  Don't confuse the fact that it is not to our advantage to openly attack Iran (or at least its rulers) right this minute with the mistaken idea that Iran is not our enemy.  We have every moral right to inflict ruthless payback.  Let's clarify another thing.  Iran and our liberal elite both seemed eager for open war.

Congress Seeks to Make Iran Pay For Downed American Drone.  Congress is considering a new measure that would extract millions from frozen Iranian bank accounts in order to subsidize the cost of its recent downing of an American drone in the region, according to congressional sources and a copy of draft legislation viewed by the [Washington] Free Beacon.  The measure, filed by Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) late Monday [6/24/2019], would require the Trump administration to assess the exact cost of the drone, which could be anywhere from $120 million to $220 million, according to sources familiar with the matter.

A Jihad Basis for the Coup.  What were the top professionals in intelligence and Hillary's State Dept so afraid of — so mortally afraid that they gambled their careers to block Donald J. Trump?  How did a dozen top FBI and intelligence officials blunder into virtual treason in a time of war?  That is the biggest question today, and we still don't know the whole answer.  But here is a reasonable guess:  Obama executed a huge flip-flop in U.S. policy, one that continued to cover up the 9/11/01 Saudi attack on the U.S., and which also flipped U.S. policy to favor the poisonous mullahs in Iran.  We know two high-level channels for that big flip:  Valerie Jarrett (born in Shiraz, Iran) and Huma Abedin (from a Muslim Brotherhood front in the U.K.).

Trump Is Winning the Little Cold War With Iran.  Since the rise of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979, Iran has been in a state of ideological, religious cold war against the United States and its allies.  Desiring to become the dominant force in the Mideast, Iran has worked to export its particular brand of Islamist revolution beyond its present borders.  At the same time, like the Soviet Union with its specific version of Marxist-Leninism, Iran's leaders have sought to expand their country's zone of influence and control beyond its current national boundaries, to encompass the entire region — looking at the outside world in Manichean terms: divided between Iran's Twelver Shiite brand of political Islam and the unbelieving world waiting to be liberated by their green revolution.

We Hold All the Cards in the Showdown with Iran.  In May 2018, the Donald Trump Administration withdrew the United States from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran, popularly known as the Iran nuclear deal.  The United States then ramped up sanctions on the Iranian theocracy to try to ensure that it stopped nuclear enrichment.  The Trump administration also hoped a strapped Iran would become less capable of funding terrorist operations in the Middle East and beyond, proxy wars in the Persian Gulf, and the opportune harassment of ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz.  The sanctions are clearly destroying an already weak Iranian economy.  Iran is now suffering from negative economic growth, massive unemployment and record inflation.

Iranian-Americans March in D.C., Call for Regime Change in Iran: 'Down with Terrorist Regime in Iran'.  Thousands of Iranian-Americans took to the streets of Washington, DC, on Friday to march and voice their support for those seeking regime change in Iran, an issue that past presidential administrations have seemed to avoid.  The bi-partisan Free Iran Rally, which began at the U.S. State Department and concluded outside of the White House, was run by the Organization of Iranian American Communities-USA and featured many prominent political voices.

Ben Rhodes struggles to get his narratives straight as idiocy of Iran deal gets obvious.  After handing Iran's mullahs a billion dollars in cash to buy torpedoes and drone-killers, President Obama's former deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes is in a quandary.  As a result, he's tweeting up a storm, pushing three different and quite contradictory "narratives" in a bid to blame Trump for Iran's aggression.

President Trump was right on Iran.  With the latest news that Iran shot down a United States Navy drone, it shows that President Trump was right all along.  The Iranian regime cannot be trusted, and appeasement was never a practical or realistic solution.  When President Trump announced the American withdrawal from the nuclear deal last year, his political opponents loudly criticized his strategy, arguing that the agreement signed under President Obama was the only way to contain Iranian nuclear ambitions.  Since then, however, Iran has demonstrated that the skepticism that President Trump has held of the appeasement policy of his predecessor was in fact entirely justified.

When Normality Became Abnormal.  Everyone knew the Iran deal was a way for the mullahs to buy time and hoard their oil profits, to purchase or steal nuclear technology, to feign moderation, and to trade some hostages for millions in terrorist-seeding cash, and then in a few years spring an announcement that it had the bomb.  No one wished to say that.  Trump did.  He canceled the flawed deal without a second thought.  Iran is furious, but in a far weaker — and eroding — strategic position with no serious means of escaping devastating sanctions, general impoverishment, and social unrest.  So a desperate Tehran knows that it must make some show of defiance.

Homophobia Unbound.  As you know, former Obama administration officials are telling Iran to hang in there.  They are telling Iran not to cooperate with the Trump administration because soon the Trump administration will be history.  Once that happens the Iran nuclear deal will return and the mullahs will have an open path to developing nuclear weapons, something that they never really stopped anyway.  American citizens undermining American foreign policy by giving sustenance to a terrorist regime, an anti-Semitic and homophobic regime to boot.

Trump has already proved Team Obama was completely wrong about Iran.  For years, the liberal foreign policy establishment presented Americans with a false choice on Iran: surrender or war.  President Trump has proved that binary to be a fantasy, squeezing and deterring the Iranians without full-on confrontation.  "When I became president, Iran was a true state of terror," Trump said in France this week.  Now, "they are failing as a nation."  Not that his critics give him credit — or room to maneuver.  As The Daily Beast reported last week, alumni of the Obama administration have been secretly in touch with the Iranians — no doubt to reassure the mullahs that if they wait out Trump, their fortunes will turn.

Democrats' sneaky-pete with Iran is getting out of control.  Are Iran's mullahs the guys you go to when the U.S. voters don't give you the election result you want?  For Democrats, yes, what with so many of them now openly counselling Iran's Islamist rulers about 'staying the course' as the U.S. dispatches military forces to the region. [...] We all know what this is: a leftist bid to help the mullahs counter President Trump.  If the U.S. loses a war or something over it, well, that's collateral damage.  What's collateral damage compared to regaining power?

Report: Obama Administration Alumni Advising Iranian Regime on Dealing with Trump.  The Daily Beast reported Friday that former members of President Barack Obama's administration are advising the Iranian regime. [...] Th [sic] Obama alumni are also reportedly passing messages from the Iranian regime to congressional Democrats.

House Democrats Seek Brennan's Malignant Advice on Iran.  Disgraced former CIA director John Brennan will be briefing House Democrats early this week on his perspective regarding the current situation in Iran.  No doubt, he will use the opportunity to once again take a shot at President Trump's decision to pull the United States out of the Obama administration's disastrous nuclear deal with Iran and to blame the president for escalating tensions with the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism.

Marco Rubio calls on Barr to investigate John Kerry.  Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., sent a letter to Attorney General William Barr Monday calling for him to investigate former Secretary of State John Kerry for potential violations of the Logan Act or the Foreign Agents Registration Act.  President Trump had previously called on Kerry to be investigated after it was revealed that Kerry had been in secret talks with the Iranian government in a bid to salvage the Iran nuclear deal after Trump backed out of it.

Trump says John Kerry should be prosecuted for talking to Iran amid rising tensions.  As tensions with Iran escalate, President Trump accused a top Obama-era official, former Secretary of State John Kerry, of violating the law by talking with the Iranian government and said he should be prosecuted for allegedly advising the government in Tehran not to negotiate with the Trump administration.  "John Kerry speaks to them a lot," Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House Thursday, referring to the Iranian government.  "John Kerry tells them not to call.  That's a violation of the Logan Act.  And frankly he should be prosecuted on that, but my people don't want to do anything."

Iran To Keep Enriching Uranium Despite U.S. Move: Parliament Speaker.  Iran will continue with low-level uranium enrichment in line with its nuclear deal with world powers, Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani was quoted as saying on Saturday, despite a U.S. move to stop it.

Trump labels Iran's Revolutionary Guard a terror group.  The Trump administration announced Monday that it is designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, the first time the U.S. has used the designation on part of another country's government.  "This unprecedented step, led by the Department of State, recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a State Sponsor of Terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft," President Donald Trump said in a statement.  "The IRGC is the Iranian government's primary means of directing and implementing its global terrorist campaign."

Where were the protests during Obama's years?  George Clooney is calling for a boycott of Brunei-owned luxury hotels because that nation has an anti-gay death penalty.  Did I miss all the protests against Iran for having similar laws?  Nope, Hollywood, almost all the media and other Democrats actively supported Barack Obama when he and his administration gave Iran hundreds of billions while they continually pledge death to America.  Why aren't Clooney and other Democrats supporting Trump for his boycotts and sanctions of Iran instead of condemning him for pulling out if they are so concerned about LBGT rights?

2020 Democrats want to Make the Iran Deal Great Again.  Several major 2020 Democratic presidential candidates want to resuscitate the Iran nuclear deal, the controversial Obama-era agreement that President Trump withdrew from in May 2018.  Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Kamala Harris, D-Calif., told the pro-Tehran Al Monitor that they would support re-entering the nuclear agreement with the Iranian regime.

Abortion and the Politics of Self-Destruction.  President Trump has been a strong friend of Israel and has moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem.  Republican presidents have traditionally been pro-Israel.  Barack Obama made a deal to create a nuclear Iran, a country that wants to exterminate the Jewish state.  Yet, "American Jews tend to favor Democrat candidates, with 71% of Jewish voters choosing Democrat candidates and only 25% choosing Republicans since 1968."  Voting against their interests

The Truth about Iran.  When it comes to Iran the rest of the Western media and the Western European foreign policy establishment hears no evil, sees no evil and speaks no evil.  After all, Iran is leading the march against Western civilization... with money provided by the Obama administration.

Mark Meadows:  If Obama could send money to Iran, Trump can find money to build the wall.  House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, R-N.C., said Saturday that if President Barack Obama could send money to Iran as part of the 2015 nuclear deal, President Trump should be able to find money to build the wall along the southern border without being blocked by the courts.  "Listen, if President Obama can send $1.8 billion to the Iranians — I can tell you I didn't appropriate that — certainly finding a few billion dollars for border security on our southern border is something that this president can do legally and without a challenge," Meadows told Fox News in an interview.

What if the FBI Had Probed Obama?  The Federal Bureau of Investigation reportedly opened a counterintelligence investigation in 2017 to find out if President Trump was a Russian agent.  What if the FBI had similarly looked into whether President Obama was an agent of Iran?  Counterintelligence agents would have examined the target's personal and professional networks. [...] The Obama administration had a few senior officials with personal ties to Iran.  Obama confidant Valerie Jarrett was born in the Iranian city of Shiraz and reportedly led back-channel talks with the Iranians in 2012.  Secretary of State John Kerry's daughter quashed right-wing rumors that her Iranian-American husband's best man was the son of Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif. [...] In 2009 the Obama White House conducted secret negotiations with Tehran.  Mr. Obama later sidelined Project Cassandra, an investigation of illicit trafficking networks employed by Hezbollah, Iran's Lebanese franchise.

Ten reasons to immigrate to Iran.  Here you have ten reasons to move to Iran under the Islamist rule:  [#1] If you are a child-molester and want to have four permanent nine- to fifteen-year-old wives and unlimited non-permanent wives (more than nine years old), you should immigrate to Iran.  All these relationships are legal and cheap in the country.  You can even informally purchase a girl for some thousand dollars in some deprived provinces.  Not even in Saudi Arabia can you do child marriage anymore, but it is free in Iran.  Lovers of child marriage have an oasis there. [...] [#4] If you are looking for a young and cheap prostitute, Iran is your destination.  The age of prostitution has decreased to 13 in recent years, and you can procure basic "services" for two dollars.  [#5] If you hate laws and regulations, Iran is your hometown.  Laws and regulations are passed to be violated by the powerful and well connected.  Although all the laws favor the Islamist strata, they are thrown in the garbage bin for the sake of Islamic expediency.

The Great Undoing Continues.  In his great undoing of the "accomplishments" of the Obama administration, President Trump has withdrawn the United States from the humiliating and destructive Iran nuclear deal.  The deal funded a terrorist regime that remains at war with the United States and that continues to avow its dedication to our destruction.  The Trump administration has also reimposed sanctions on the Iranian regime.  There was no bridge too far for Obama in seeking to align the United States with the mullahs of Iran.

Pelosi and Warren obviously need a history lesson.  The authoritarian Obama didn't go through Congress to get permission to pay Iran in unmarked bills.  The authoritarian, corrupt, immoral Obama even dictatorially stopped an investigation into drug running by a terrorist group to appease Iran and goose his legacy.  I didn't see Pelosi and other Democrats say a word about this despicable act by Obama.

Europeans [are now] Realizing Trump Was Right About Iran.  It must be murder for them to admit it, but suddenly Western European leaders are realizing President Trump was right about ditching the Iran nuclear treaty.  On Tuesday [12/4/2018], diplomats from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and France expressed their concern because of an Iranian medium-range ballistic missile test on Saturday.  The U.S. government stated that the missile Iran tested could reach Europe and the Middle East.  According to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the missile could carry multiple warheads and violated Security Council Resolution 2231, which instructed Iran to refrain from "any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology."

Iranian accused of procuring parts for IEDs used on US troops; $3M reward offered for capture.  U.S. authorities this week announced a $3 million reward for the capture of an Iranian man accused of procuring parts from a Minnesota company later used to make roadside bombs targeting U.S. military forces in Iraq.  Hossein Ahmad Larijani went on the run after a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., indicted him in 2010 on charges related to the shipment of 6,000 radio transceiver modules made in the state, an FBI news release states.

Iran's Rouhani calls for Muslims to unite against United States.  Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called on Muslims worldwide on Saturday to unite against the United States, instead of "rolling out red carpets for criminals".

"People are Going to Die" Because of Trump, Says the Guy Behind the Iran Deal.  The only people dying because of President Trump are Islamic terrorists.  But people are dying every day because of John Kerry.  They're dying in Iran.  They're dying in Israel.  They're dying in Asia and Latin America.  But here's John Kerry, trying to advance his hopeless prospect of windsurfing to the White House in 2020.

Under Obama, the CIA Suffered a 'Catastrophic' Disaster.  This story, which broke on Nov. 2, got mighty little attention from the national media. [...] This is simply stunning.  A rollup of networks across the world — an event that began in Iran, where the Obama administration would soon enough be negotiating its much sought-after "nuclear deal framework," and ended with numerous deaths is the kind of thing of which intelligence nightmares and national-security disasters are made.  One's first instinct is to look back and see who was CIA director during that period:  Leon Panetta (Feb. 2009-June 2011); Michael Morell (acting director, July-Sept. 2011); David Petraeus (Sept. 2011-Nov. 2012); Morell again (acting, Nov. 2012-March 2013); and finally John Brennan, who served out the remainder of the Obama administration.

The World Can Live Without Iranian Oil.  When President Trump ended U.S. participation in the Iran nuclear deal, he promised tough sanctions on the Iranian regime.  On Monday [11/5/2018] our administration will deliver exactly that, reimposing sanctions on more than 700 people and entities in Iran's energy, shipping and financial sectors. [...] The Obama administration's deal with Iran failed to curb Tehran's egregious misconduct and ensure the safety of the American people.  As the Trump administration exerts maximum pressure on the regime to reach a new deal, Iran's energy sector is a natural target for sanctions.  Iranian leaders use oil money to line their own pockets and fund destructive foreign adventurism rather than address their people's needs.

Iran's Plot to use Fraud to combat Donald Trump's latest sanctions.  Iran could use fraud in order to soften the impact of new US sanctions due to be imposed in the coming weeks, the Trump administration has warned various global banks.  According to the administration, Iranian bankers and officials have previously used methods such as front companies, fraudulent documents as well as other measures in order to make money for the country's terrorist activities.

Trump Admin Under Pressure to Save Iranian Financial Access.  An internal battle is being fought inside the Trump administration to save Iran's access to international financial markets, providing Tehran with a critical lifeline ahead of the implementation of harsh new economic sanctions, according to multiple U.S. officials who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon.  Top officials in the Trump administration's Treasury Department — including some who hope to save the landmark nuclear agreement — are said to be pushing for Iran to remain connected to the SWIFT banking system, an international system that facilitates cross-border transactions.

Iran's Economy Is on the Verge of Collapse.  Many economics experts believe that Iran is entrenched in a financial death spiral.  Officials within the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) claim that the gravity of economic crisis there is overstated.  Furthermore, Islamist regime-sponsored lobby factions in the United States, such as the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), argue that fiscal predicaments the country is facing are consequences of malign U.S. policies toward the Iranian regime, including the enforcement of crippling economic sanctions.  The truth is, precarious economic circumstances in Iran have been primarily — if not exclusively — triggered by a plethora of iniquitous economic policies adopted by the regime.  This is evident by various indicators.

5 Reasons Why Iran Is Way More Dangerous Than ISIS.  At first glance, it may not seem that Iran is way more dangerous than ISIS.  After all, ISIS — with its brutal enactment of sharia law and its reign of terror — seems like the epitome of danger.  However, for all the media attention ISIS gets, it pales in comparison to Iran, a state actor that many view as a legitimate world player.  Iran just fired six ballistic missiles into Syria, targeting an Islamic State (ISIS) base.  The Islamic Republic claimed the strike was retaliation for an attack on a parade of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corp in Ahvaz (a city in southwest Iran), which killed 25 people.  As the world watched the events unfold, Iran first blamed America, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for supporting Ahvazi Arab separatist groups.  Then, after ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, Iran retaliated against the terror group in Syria.

Bolton: World Court 'Allowed Iran to Use It as a Forum for Propaganda'.  National Security Adviser John Bolton on Wednesday strongly denounced the International Court for Justice (ICJ) ruling in favor of Iran against U.S. sanctions.  Speaking from the White House, Bolton said Iranian support for terrorism "made a mockery" of the 1955 treaty cited as the basis for the ruling and the U.S. is disappointed the court "allowed Iran to use it as a forum for propaganda."  Bolton is a longtime critic of international courts, having noted their propensity for rendering politicized judgments and allowing themselves to be abused by authoritarian regimes.  In September, he blasted the International Criminal Court for threatening to charge U.S. intelligence officers in Afghanistan with war crimes.

Rubio asks DOJ to determine if Kerry violated federal laws meeting with Iranian officials.  Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., requested that the Justice Department look into whether former Secretary of State John Kerry violated federal laws by meeting with the Iranian foreign minister, a move already blasted by top Trump administration officials.  In a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday obtained exclusively by Fox News, Rubio said that Americans "deserve to know that U.S. laws are enforced regardless of any individual's past position."  He encouraged the department to determine whether Kerry violated the Logan Act or the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

Sabotaging Trump on Iran's Behalf.  Just two weeks shy of 77 years after Neville Chamberlain returned from his Munich meeting with Adolf Hitler, waving an agreement he said guaranteed "peace for our time," then-president Barack Obama proclaimed that his new deal with Iran would block "every pathway" Iran had to obtain nuclear weapons.  Called the "Joint Cooperative Plan of Action" (JCPOA), more commonly known as Obama's nuclear weapons deal with Iran, it was Obama's greatest diplomatic triumph in which his secretary of state, John Kerry, shared Obama's glory.  Those of us who had even the slightest understanding of the agreement Obama had made — and with whom he had made it — instantly connected Munich and the JCPOA.  We knew that Iran would never permit international inspectors to see what they're doing in their military bases, so to say that his deal blocked Iran's pathways to nuclear weapons was a horribly dangerous lie.

Huckabee: Kerry Talking to Iranians 'Makes the Case' for First-Ever Logan Act Conviction.  [Mike] Huckabee said [John] Kerry could be suited for the first successful prosecution of the Logan Act of 1799, which prohibits conducting unauthorized diplomacy with governments in dispute with the United States.  The act's name refers to a 1798 incident in which Philadelphia farmer George Logan traveled to France, outside the purview of President John Adams, to try to avoid war during a time of tension over merchant shipping.

John Kerry:  A Traitor for the Ages.  We had news this past week that John Kerry is undermining the United States once again, working with her enemies, this time the Iranian mullahs trying to salvage his deeply flawed Iran nuclear deal.  Kerry's notorious 2015 nuclear deal featured the transfer of billions of dollars (1.7 billion of it on pallets stacked with cash) to the world's leading exporter of Islamic terrorism.  Iran's fanatical mullahs were essentially put on a pathway to acquire nuclear weapons at the end of 10 years.  What was even crazier about the deal is that compliance and inspections were to be handled by Iran itself.  As President Trump cancelled the deal and slammed Iran with further sanctions, Kerry has once again gone back to his arrogant old tricks — meeting with the enemy in direct opposition to official American policy.  He refuses to deny that told the Iranians to hang on until Trump leaves office, once again giving aid and comfort to a leading American enemy.

Claim: Former Obama Officials Advising Europe to Evade Iran Sanctions.  Richard Goldberg, the Republican political operative who helped coordinate opposition to the Iran deal on Capitol Hill, claimed Saturday evening that former Obama administration officials were trying to devise ways to help Europe evade sanctions on Iran.  Goldberg was reacting to former Secretary of State John Kerry's admission last week that he had been meeting with Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif in an effort to persuade Iran to stick with the now-defunct Iran nuclear deal, which President Donald Trump withdrew from in May.

Walter Mitty at the Negotiating Table.  Every administration seeks a legacy, and as Obama Administration legacy items go, it's doesn't get much more legacy than the Iran deal.  It was supposed to be the great realignment, the beginning of the transformation of Iran from implacable adversary to strategic partner.  In return for what amounted to paper promises, the murderous mullahs would be welcomed back into international polite society, free to travel and do business. [...] And then, after it was concluded, the deal was presented a fait accompli, to be stopped only by an unobtainable two-thirds congressional majority, turning the treaty ratification process upside-down.  So it must have been agonizing for former administration officials to stand by and watch the Trump Administration dismantle the thing piece by piece, finally pulling out altogether and re-imposing both nuclear and non-nuclear sanctions on the regime.

John Kerry deserves jail for secret Iran diplomacy.  In a radio interview with Hugh Hewitt, former Secretary of State John Kerry admitted that he's been working behind-the-scenes to salvage the Iran nuclear deal.  "What I have done is tried to elicit from him what Iran might be willing to do in order to change the dynamic in the Middle East for the better," he explained.  Kerry's backchannel with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif has not been a one-time deal.  "I think I've seen him three or four times," Kerry said, and acknowledged that his talks were occurring without the Trump administration's approval.

Trump Slams John Kerry For 'Illegal Meetings' With Iran: 'Was he registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act?'.  As we pointed out yesterday, it's now been confirmed that John Kerry had meetings with Iran where he was basically trying to undercut the Trump administration.  He had no business doing it and Trump has taken notice.

John Kerry slammed for 'shameful' shadow diplomacy after admitting to meetings with Iran.  Former Secretary of State John Kerry is being slammed for conducting shadow diplomacy with Iran after admitting to multiple meetings with Iranian officials behind the backs of Trump administration officials — including over the scrapped nuclear deal.  An administration official on Thursday told Fox News Kerry's meetings are "shameful," pointing out what Iranian-backed militias are doing to kill and injure people in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.  Other Republicans suggested it may not even be legal.

Kerry Meeting With Iran to Salvage Nuke Deal With Rogue Diplomacy.  Former Secretary of State John Kerry disclosed that he has been conducting rogue diplomacy with top Iranian officials to salvage the landmark nuclear deal and push the Islamic Republic to negotiate its contested missile program, according to recent remarks.  Kerry, in an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt to promote his new book, said that he has met with Iranian Former Minister Javad Zarif — the former secretary's onetime negotiating partner — three or four times in recent months behind the Trump administration's back.  "I think I've seen him three or four times," Kerry said, adding that he has been conducting sensitive diplomacy without the current administration's authorization.  Kerry said he has criticized the current administration in these discussions, chiding it for not pursuing negotiations from Iran, despite the country's fevered rhetoric about the U.S. president.

Arrest of Iranian Spies in U.S. Just 'Tip of the Iceberg,' Lawmaker Warns.  The recent arrest of two Iranian agents alleged to have been running spy operations on U.S. soil is just "the tip of the iceberg" in terms of the Islamic Republic's efforts to conduct intelligence operations in America that could result in a terrorist attack, according to a leading lawmaker and U.S. officials who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon about the matter.  Following the arrest of two Iranian individuals charged with spying on Jewish and Israeli facilities in the California area, Rep. Peter Roskam (R., Ill.) told the Free Beacon it is likely Iran has stationed multiple regime-tied agents in the United States to conduct intelligence operations.  While the arrest of the two Iranians was met with shock in the press, Roskam said he was not surprised by the arrests, which have unearthed concrete evidence of the Islamic Republic's efforts to foment discord across the globe, including on American soil.

Bolton's Zero Option.  When it came to Iran, Obama chose to get in bed with the mullahs.  Nothing was allowed to stand in the way of the consummation represented by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action to place Iran on the path to a nuclear weapon and fund its international wrongdoing.  In the annals of misguided international diplomacy, the JCPOA takes pride of place over the Munich Agreement.  Not even Neville Chamberlain thought to fund the realization of Hitler's dreams for Europe.  Following the adoption of the JCPOA, Secretary of State John Kerry hit the road to build up foreign investment in Iran.  He sought to reward the Iranian regime for its deigning to take the cash and do the deal.  No greater fool has ever served in that high office.

8 Reasons John Brennan Is a "Clear and Present Danger' to National Security.  [#1] Brennan oversaw the Iran deal.  It was a horrendous deal, so bad that Ben Rhodes had to lie to sell it which he admitted to.  He was right there for Obama all those 11 times he catered to the world's worst dictators, including the Ayatollah.  Brennan covered up the truth about Benghazi and Libya in general.  As Foreign Policy Magazine wrote, it was a big lie.

German central bank blocks $400 million cash delivery to Iran ahead of crippling US sanctions.  The U.S. campaign to rein in Iran has scored a victory in the German financial sector, after the Deutsche Bundesbank — the country's central bank — imposed a rule stopping a $400 million cash delivery to Tehran.  Iran's cash-starved economy desperately needs hard currency ahead of crippling U.S. bank sanctions that will be introduced in November.  Germany allows the Iranian-owned European-Iranian trade bank (EIH) to operate in Hamburg.  The EIH holds more than $400 million that Tehran wants to receive in cash ahead of a second wave of U.S. sanctions due in November that impact banks and Iran's energy sector.

'This is huge': US Ambassador Grenell quietly blocks $400 million transfer from Germany to Iran.  A transfer of nearly $400 million in cash to Iran has been blocked by Germany's central bank in what appears to be a response to efforts by the U.S. ambassador to Germany.  Last month, Ambassador Richard Grenell urged Berlin to prevent Iran's withdrawal of large sums of cash from German bank accounts in an effort to offset U.S. sanctions that took effect following Washington's withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Iran On the Ropes?  Barack Obama pursued a bizarre Iran policy, from the first days of his administration, when he went on Iranian television.  His view, apparently, was that strained relations between the U.S. and Iran were mostly our fault — never mind that incident at the embassy that stretched on for more than a year — and really, the U.S. and the mullahs' "Death to America" Iran are natural allies.  So he tried to build Iran up as a regional power, supplying pallets of cash and ultimately something like $100 billion in exchange for promises that can be revoked at will.  Donald Trump's policy is, thankfully, entirely different.

Pompeo Accuses Senior Iranians of Corruption.  Signaling a determination to spotlight corruption as well as ideology at the top levels of Iran's government, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday night listed by name several prominent officials and ayatollahs who, he said, were "more concerned with riches than religion."  Much of the coverage of the speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif. focused on Pompeo's remarks that the so-called "moderates" in the regime are anything but, describing them instead as "wolves in sheep's clothing."  He also spoke in detail about Iran's malign, ideologically-driven foreign policy.  But arguably the most significant portion of the speech, entitled "supporting Iranian voices," related to corruption and nepotism among the Islamic republic's elite, including those claiming a mantle of religious authority.

Anything for that Iran Deal:  How Obama threw national security (and troops' lives) out the window.  In a major story that came and went, President Obama shut down a major drug operation run by Hezb'allah because he didn't want to upset Iran's mullahs and endanger his Iran deal. [...] Turns out that wasn't the only drug operation Obama shut down.  Politico's investigative reporter, Josh Meyer, has uncovered another load of mischief around drugs and "legacy"-making from Team Obama.  Turns out the Obama administration shut down a similar operation targeted at the Taliban, not as directly as he did the Hezb'allah drug-dealing operation, but through failing to issue permissions and permits, effectively killing it off in the same passive-aggressive way Obama's IRS minions killed off the Tea Party.

Iran official:  Obama secretly granted U.S. citizenship to 2,500 in the Iran deal.  The president made shockwaves on social media Tuesday morning [7/3/2018] when he tweeted that the Obama administration secretly granted citizenship to 2,500 Iranians.  President Trump appears to be referring to a number claimed this week by Hojjat al-Islam Mojtaba Zolnour, a senior Iranian cleric and member of the Iranian Parliament.  In comments to an Iranian state news outlet, the cleric claimed that there was a secret side deal in place allowing Iranian officials and their relatives to come to the United States.

Did Obama Hand Out US Citizenship as Gifts to Iranian Officials?  We know already that Obama smuggled a fortune in foreign currency on unmarked planes to Iranian terrorists.  That part isn't even being denied anymore.  The Iran Deal was the subject of countless lies by administration officials, from Obama on down, and a fake media echo chamber.  But Obama's collusion with Iran's terrorist regimes truly is the crime that keeps on giving. [...] This allegation is another reminder that the Iranian scandal needs to be thoroughly investigated and all of the side deals and communications involving it must be declassified and released.

Obama administration granted citizenship to 2,500 Iranians during nuclear deal:  Iran official.  The Obama administration granted citizenship to 2,500 Iranians, including family members of government officials, while negotiating the Iran nuclear deal, a senior cleric and member of parliament has claimed.  Hojjat al-Islam Mojtaba Zolnour, who is chairman of Iran's parliamentary nuclear committee and a member of its national security and foreign affairs committee, made the allegations during an interview with the country's Etemad newspaper, cited by the country's Fars News agency.  He claimed it was done as a favor to senior Iranian officials linked to President Hassan Rouhani, and he alleged the move sparked a competition among Iranian officials over whose children would benefit from the scheme.

Netflix:  The Truth About the Cozy Deal with the Obamas.  Since Inauguration Day 2017, the Obama administration has absolutely refused to ride off into retirement, while not being able stop themselves from pontificating their menacing, hyper-extremist leftist ideology and philosophy.  In other words, Obama, Biden, Clapper, Brennan, Comey, Lynch, Holder, Yates and Rice still have not fully comprehended that they are no longer responsible for the governance of the country that they despise and want to continue to weaken with their socialist ideology.

The Bad Iranian Deal Was Always Going to Get Worse.  When Donald Trump withdrew from the so-called Iran deal in early May, almost all conventional wisdom in Washington was aghast.  The Left thought nullification would fast-track Iranian proliferation, incite more Iranian terrorism and adventurism, estrange our allies, and alienate a possible new friend. [...] Few of these critics ever quite understood that the deal was already a stinking corpse, long overdue for burial.

How to Read a Newspaper.  [Scroll down]  For example, Scott, following the Free Beacon, reported on how a senior Iranian official boasted on state-run media that Iran helped the 9/11 hijackers transit through Iran undetected.  Since this "news" came from state-run Iranian media, this story has to have been put out on purpose, with the blessing if not the initiative of the Iranian government.  That is the kind of fact that will not be mentioned in a typical news story.  What was the purpose of putting out this story?  This is the kind question that will not be asked in a typical news story.

Another Big Obama Lie.  In his 2008 campaign, Obama promised open-ended negotiations with Iran without preconditions.  The negotiations began a few months after he was inaugurated in 2009 and culminated in the signing of the nuclear weapons deal in 2015.  In July 2015, several top Obama administration officials, including then- treasury secretary Jack Lew, testified that Iran would continue to be denied access to the U.S. commercial banking system.  Later that same month Adam Szubin, acting Treasury undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence said, "Iranian banks will not be able to clear U.S. dollars through New York, hold correspondent account relationships with U.S. financial institutions, or enter into financing arrangements with U.S. banks."  And, of course, that was true despite the best efforts of the Obama team to enable Iran to do so.  Some $5.7 billion in Iranian rials was held in an Omani bank.  The money was worthless unless it could be converted into U.S. dollars for exchange purposes.  On February 16, 2016, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued a specific license to the Omani bank to convert the money it held into U.S. dollars through the U.S. commercial banking system.

Levin: Iran Deal Was 'So Corrupt' We're Still Learning About It.  The Iran Deal was "so corrupt" we're still learning about it, noted Mark Levin on his nationally syndicated radio program on Wednesday [6/6/2018].  "The deal itself was so corrupt, so corrupt, that were still learning about it," stated Mark Levin about the Iran Nuclear Deal made by the Obama administration.  "Members of congress don't know all the facts, and we the people don't know all the facts.  And that's one of the reasons you run this sort of thing through the treaty provision of the Constitution, so members of the Senate can get all the facts, so there aren't all these side deals and secret side deals, and illegalities."

Obama administration allegedly gave Iran access to US financial system.  The Obama administration granted a license letting Iran access the United States financial system despite officials' pledges that they would prohibit it, according to a draft report from the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.  "On Feb. 24, 2016, the Treasury Department issued a specific license to Bank Muscat to authorize the conversion of Iran's rials to euros through 'any United States depository institution ...,'" the draft report said.  "Even after the specific license was issued, U.S. government officials maintained in congressional testimony that Iran would not be granted access to the U.S. financial system."  "The Obama administration during the negotiation of the Iran deal misled the American people," said Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), subcommittee chairman.  "I think they did so because they were desperate to get a deal."

Iran says [it is going] to restart [its] nuclear program if deal fails.  Iran will relaunch its nuclear activities if the Iranian 2015 nuclear deal fails, Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Wednesday [6/6/2018].  Iran has sent a letter to the IAEA on the start of certain nuclear activities, said the Iranian envoy Reza Najafi, according to Press TV.  "These are the preparatory work for a possible scenario if in an unfortunate situation the JCPOA (nuclear deal) fails, then Iran can restart its activities without any limits that already (exist) under the JCPOA," he said in the Austrian capital Vienna.

The Obama Administration Lied To The American People.  Repeatedly.  Here's The Proof.  The Obama administration lied to the American people.  A lot.  The latest proof of their dishonesty: according to the Associated Press, the Obama administration attempted to end-around its own sanctions in order to give cash to the worst terror sponsor on the planet.

Barack Obama's Secret $5.7 Billion Deal With Iranian Terrorist Regime.  Why Barack Obama was so desperate to do Iran's bidding remains a mystery that has yet to be fully explained.  What is known this week is yet another layer has been exposed of that troubling relationship between a U.S. president and the #1 state sponsor of terrorism in the world — a fundamentalist Islamic regime that routinely murders women, homosexuals, and other minorities for nothing more than being different.  Supporters of Mr. Obama have long admired his words while detractors point to his actions — actions that so often show a man following a strange and conflicted ideology that always seems to view not only American interests but basic human rights interests, as secondary.

Inside Obama's secret plot to let Iran skirt sanctions.  The Obama administration secretly sought to give Iran access — albeit briefly — to the US financial system by sidestepping sanctions kept in place after the 2015 nuclear deal, despite repeatedly telling Congress and the public it had no plans to do so.

Trump blasts Obama administration for secretly trying to help Iran's mullahs get access to $5.7 billion.  Donald Trump blasted his predecessor on Thursday for sidestepping its own anti-Iran sanctions regime and helping the terror-sponsoring nation access international banking systems.  'The Obama Administration is now accused of trying to give Iran secret access to the financial system of the United States.  This is totally illegal,' the president tweeted.

Obama Admin Granted Iran Access to U.S. Financial System Despite Sanctions.  In selling the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran to Congress, the Obama administration assured lawmakers that Tehran would not have access to the U.S. financial system.  But in 2016, the administration secretly granted Iran a license to do just that, according to a Republican-led Senate report released Wednesday [6/6/2018].  The 53-page report by the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), chaired by Ohio senator Rob Portman, also reveals the extent of Obama administration efforts to encourage foreign countries to do business with Iran.  Its release comes after President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. would be withdrawing from the agreement and reimposing nuclear deal-related sanctions on Iran.

How Obama Secretly Gave Iran Access To Billions Of Dollars — And Enabled Terrorism.  One of the linchpins of former President Obama's nuclear deal with Iran was that it would be accompanied by a near-ban on Iran having any access to the U.S. banking system.  A new congressional report says that, too, was a lie.

Obama took lying to new heights with the Iran deal.  First, President Barack Obama failed to disclose to Congress the existence of secret side deals on inspections when he transmitted the nuclear accord to Capitol Hill.  (They were only uncovered by chance when then-Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., learned about them during a meeting with International Atomic Energy Agency officials in Vienna.)  Then, we learned that the Obama administration had secretly sent a plane to Tehran loaded with $400 million in Swiss francs, euros and other currencies on the same day Iran released four American hostages, which was followed by two more secret flights carrying another $1.3 billion in cash.  Now, in a bombshell revelation, Republicans on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, led by Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, have revealed in a new report that the Obama administration secretly tried to help Iran use U.S. banks to convert $5.7 billion in Iranian assets, after promising Congress that Iran would not get access to the U.S. financial system — and then lied to Congress about what it had done.

Boeing Will Not Deliver Planes to Iran, Ending Controversial Multi-Billion Dollar Sale.  Following the exit of the United States from the nuclear deal and reimposition of sanctions, airplane manufacturer Boeing announced that it would not deliver any planes to Iran, Agence France-Presse reported Wednesday [6/6/2018].  The announcement effectively ends the highly controversial multi-billion dollar deals Boeing made with Iran in the wake of the nuclear deal, which lifted sanctions on Iran's national carrier Iran Air.

Ben Rhodes can't answer questions about Obama secretly granting Iran access to US financial system.  Ben Rhodes, a former top aide to President Barack Obama, repeatedly dodged questions from CNN's Wolf Blitzer Friday about a new report claiming his administration misled Congress about granting Iran access to the U.S. financial system during the negotiation of the Iranian nuclear deal.  On Wednesday, Senate Republicans released a report claiming that the Obama administration secretly granted Iran a license "that authorized a conversion of Iranian assets worth billions of U.S. dollars using the U.S. financial system," despite administration officials testifying before Congress that granting Iran access to the U.S. financial system was never on the table as a negotiating tool.

Iran Admits To Facilitating 9/11 Terror Attacks.  Iranian officials, in a first, have admitted to facilitating the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. by secretly aiding the free travel of al Qaeda operatives who eventually went on to fly commercial airliners into the Twin Towers in New York City, according to new remarks from a senior Iranian official.  Mohammad-Javad Larijani, an international affairs assistant in the Iran's judiciary, disclosed in Farsi-language remarks broadcast on Iran's state-controlled television that Iranian intelligence officials secretly helped provide the al Qaeda attackers with passage and gave them refuge in the Islamic Republic, according to an English translation published by Al Arabiya.

Obama's Treason:  Worse Than We Thought.  The Washington Free Beacon reported Wednesday that "the Obama administration skirted key U.S. sanctions to grant Iran access to billions in hard currency despite public assurances the administration was engaged in no such action, according to a new congressional investigation."  And it gets even worse:  "The investigation, published Wednesday by the House Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, further discloses secret efforts by top Obama administration officials to assure European countries they would receive a pass from U.S. sanctions if they engaged in business with Iran."  This revelation comes after the news that came to light in February, that, according to Bill Gertz in the Washington Times, "the U.S. government has traced some of the $1.7 billion released to Iran by the Obama administration to Iranian-backed terrorists in the two years since the cash was transferred."

Obama Administration Skirted U.S. Sanctions to Grant Iran Billions in Cash.  The Obama administration skirted key U.S. sanctions to grant Iran access to billions in hard currency despite public assurances the administration was engaged in no such action, according to a new congressional investigation.  The investigation, published Wednesday [6/6/2018] by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, further discloses secret efforts by top Obama administration officials to assure European countries they would receive a pass from U.S. sanctions if they engaged in business with Iran.  The findings confirm earlier reports by the Washington Free Beacon surrounding efforts by the Obama administration to go above and beyond the terms of the landmark nuclear deal to appease Iran and grant it billions in hard currency, as well as access to the U.S financial system, despite multiple assurances to Congress this was not the case.

Watchdog Group Discovers Secret Iranian Missile Site Hidden in Remote Desert Location.  This story broke before the long weekend, but because the corresponding news cycle was fraught screaming about NFL anthem kneeling regulations, it largely got lost in the culture war cacophony.  One of the fundamental flaws of the Iran nuclear deal — from which President Trump has withdrawn the United States, correctly, in my view — is that the regime in Tehran simply is not a reliable partner.  Even if they were to technically abide by every one of the West's temporary restrictions (it must be noted that they have not done so scrupulously, and provably lied from the very beginning), the Iranians would emerge from their decade-plus stay in the global penalty box as a cash-flush threshold nuclear-armed power, thanks to the accord's extraordinary and lopsided concessions.

Here Are The 5 Worst Valerie Jarrett Scandals.  [#3] Secret nuclear talks with Iranian leaders:  In 2012, Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot reported that Jarrett had engaged in secret talks in Bahrain with representatives of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.  Then in 2013, the Times of Israel further reported that the Geneva talks were a mere "facade," as Jarrett had been conducting secret nuclear negotiations with Iranian leaders for "more than a year."  Jarrett was famously born in Iran, where her Communist father moved after being discharged from the Army Medical Corps in 1955.  It appears her loyalty lies with them rather than with America.

Obama's Guilty Contentment.  Before Obama signed the Iran nuclear weapons deal, he reportedly killed an FBI investigation into the drug trafficking and smuggling operations of Hizballah, the terrorist network and Iranian proxy operating from Lebanon.  The investigation, code-named "Operation Cassandra," sought information that could have led to the indictment of Hizballah leaders.  But because that might offend the Iranians, Obama ordered an end to the investigation and the FBI dutifully complied.

Schumer's Hypocrisy Soars to New Heights Over Gasoline Prices.  Displays of political hypocrisy just don't get any more brazen than the recent press conference by four Senate Democrats criticizing President Trump for soaring gasoline prices.  The Democratic Senate leader, Charles Schumer, claimed that the price increases were "directly" related to "President Trump's reckless decision to pull out of the Iran deal."  What Schumer didn't mention was that he had voted against the Iran deal.  Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, also voted against the Iran nuclear deal, and he, too, was at the Capitol Hill press conference denouncing the high gas prices.

Pompeo's Encouragingly Tough Words for Iran.  "We win and they lose" is how Ronald Reagan once summed up his policy toward the Soviet Union.  At the time, almost all serious foreign-policy experts considered any talk of winning the Cold War to be delusional and possibly dangerous, but in hindsight, Reagan's words come across as prophetic.  And in bold remarks Monday morning, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo brought a Reagan-esque flourish to the Trump administration's foreign policy, demanding nothing short of Iranian surrender.

The emerging strategy to undermine the Iranian regime.  Several sources report an Israeli attack on a military airport in central Syria, an area where Hezbollah militias are located.  There are conflicting reports about whether the attack was successful.  Syria claims that its air defense system thwarted the attack.  Syrian rebels say Israeli missiles destroyed that air defense system.  The Israeli government has yet to comment.

Trump Iran Policy Ends Disastrous Obama Era Of Nuclear Appeasement — Finally.  While all the hoopla over Deep-State spying on President Trump gets the media attention, something else important happened this week:  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, not even one month on the job, unveiled a new U.S. strategy to deal with Iran.

U.S. Moves to Shutter All Iranian Nuclear Enrichment Sites in Major Reversal of Obama Policy.  The Trump administration, in a major reversal of Obama administration policy, is seeking to shutter every Iranian nuclear enrichment site, including its heavy water reactors, which could provide Iran with a second, plutonium-based pathway to a nuclear weapon, according to U.S. officials and others familiar with the policy shift.  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in his first major policy address, called on Iran to shutdown its heavy water nuclear power plants, which were allowed by the Obama administration under the landmark nuclear agreement and laid the groundwork for Tehran and Russia to ink multi-billion dollar deals to build new nuclear reactors throughout the country, construction that is already underway.

Traitor Senators Took Money From Iran Lobby, Back Iran Nukes.  Senator Markey has announced his support for the Iran deal that will let the terrorist regime inspect its own Parchin nuclear weapons research site, conduct uranium enrichment, build advanced centrifuges, buy ballistic missiles, fund terrorism and have a near zero breakout time to a nuclear bomb.  There was no surprise there.  Markey had topped the list of candidates supported by the Iran Lobby.  And the Iranian American Political Action Committee (IAPAC) had maxed out its contributions to his campaign.  After more fake suspense, Al Franken, another IAPAC backed politician who also benefited from Iran Lobby money, came out for the nuke sellout.  Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the Iran Lobby's third Dem senator, didn't bother playing coy like her colleagues.  She came out for the deal a while back even though she only got half the IAPAC cash that Franken and Markey received.

These Senators Took Money from Iran Lobby Before Vote on Obama's Nuke Deal — Iran Threatens to Out Bribed Officials.  Last week President Trump withdrew from the sham Iranian nuclear deal.  President Trump knew the deal with the Iranian mullahs was not working.  This was despite former Secretary of State John Kerry working against the Trump administration to salvage the weak deal with the Iranian regime.

Deconstructing Iran.  It is one thing for legitimate differences to be voiced over the unilateral decision by President Donald Trump on May 8, 2018 to withdraw from the multilateral nuclear deal with Iran, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and what he called its "decaying and rotten structure," and to impose new sanctions.  It is quite another thing to argue, as did former President Barack Obama, that as a result the U.S., faces another war in the Middle East.

Iranian Regime Threatens to Release Names of Western Officials Who Took Bribes to Pass Nuke Deal.  Earlier this week President Trump withdrew from the sham Iranian nuclear deal.  President Trump knew the deal with the Iranian mullahs was not working.  This was despite former Secretary of State John Kerry working against the Trump administration to salvage the weak deal with the Iranian regime.

Nixing the Iran Deal:  Where was this concern when Obama abandoned agreements with Ukraine, Israel, Poland,etc.?  The hard left ideologues crowing that Trump has thrown the word of the United States into disrepute through his actions on the Iran deal are, simply, nuts.  Never mind that Iran continues to develop ballistic missiles, foment terror worldwide, and fund chemical attacks on civilians in Syria.  No, never mind that.  This deal was not America's because Obama refused to take the treaty deal through Congress.  He used a pen and a phone, just like Trump.

Trump's withdrawal from Iran deal [is] far more consequential than many realize.  If you've been following the reaction in the press to Donald Trump's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, you would think the most important issue is war or peace with the Iranians.  Scuttling the deal, many are saying, will force Iran to "restart" its nuclear enrichment program (that it only paused anyway), which will force the U.S. to engage Iran militarily to stop the Iranians.  Whether Iran goes back to open enrichment of uranium is not the primary question.  What matters is that exiting the deal leaves the U.S. perfectly free to ratchet up the pressure on an already feeble Iranian economy and openly assist elements in Iran who want regime change.

Big news that the MSM downplays and ignores.  According to the State Department, President Obama didn't require Iran to sign the Iran deal.  It is not a treaty or an executive agreement, so why are the media and others acting as though it had been a binding agreement that Trump was reneging on?  It appears to be some sort of worthless agreement that Obama did not present to Congress for ratification, either.  Chuck Schumer and other Democrats were against the deal at the time also. [...] As always, journalists are extremely worthless if their stories are based purely on an agenda and Democrat talking points aimed at destroying Trump.  That is what we get every day.

Top Four Obama Policies Trump Has Reversed.  Fulfilling a campaign promise, earlier this week Donald Trump officially withdrew the United States from the Obama-era nuclear deal with Iran, calling it "one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into."  For critics of the deal who recognized its flaws and did not turn a blind eye to evidence Iran was violating the terms of the agreement, this was welcome news a long time coming.

The Obama Legacy Deserves to Be Destroyed.  It's strange that a president who had such a transformative effect on our national discourse will leave such a negligible policy legacy.  But Barack Obama, whose imperial term changed the way Americans interact and in some ways paved the way for the Trump presidency, is now watching his much-celebrated and mythologized two-term legacy be systematically demolished.  This, in many ways, tells us that American governance still works.  When President Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, he was able to do so without much difficulty because the agreement hinged on presidential fiat rather than national consensus.  Obama's appeasement of Iran was only one in a string of unilateral norm-busting projects that deserve to be dismantled.

The Wipeout of Obama's Legacy.  President Obama's legacy is rapidly vanishing.  The decision by President Trump to withdraw from the nuclear deal with Iran is the biggest blow, but it's only the latest.  The elimination of the individual mandate and canceling the yearly bailout of insurance companies have left Obamacare in a precarious condition.  Young immigrants whose parents brought them to the United States unlawfully — so-called dreamers — are losing their legal status.  This is historic.  Presidents often vow to wipe out big chunks of their predecessor's legacies.  President Eisenhower was going to take on the New Deal.  Ronald Reagan targeted the Great Society.  Both backed down.  Trump, working with congressional Republicans, hasn't.  He's eager to deflate Obama's standing and inflate his own.

The Obama Legacy Deserves To Be Destroyed.  When Donald Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the Iran deal, he could do so without much difficulty because the agreement hinged on presidential fiat rather than national consensus.  But Obama's appeasement of Iran was only one in a string of unilateral norm-busting projects that deserve to be dismantled.

Obama the Buttress.  [Scroll down]  Naturally, one high-pitched girly-voiced reporter spoiled the moment by shrieking, "Mr. President, how will this make the US safer?" over and over again.  What she should have asked was how [...] did the Iran Deal make the US or anybody else safer.  Because the truth is, it didn't.  Let's be honest.  Iran will crumble from within.  In fact, I'd go so far as to say that Iran was crumbling from within before Obama took office. [...] The Iran Deal propped the Mullahs up.  And Obama was the buttress.

Obama Killed His Own Iran Deal.  President Trump announced America's withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal, triggering a paroxysm of fury among liberals, Never Trumpers, and the keepers of conventional foreign-policy wisdom.  Yet it wasn't the 45th president who set the stage for the deal's collapse.  Blame for that belongs to his predecessor.  Beginning in his first term, President Obama set his sights on a nuclear accord with the mullahs, one which he hoped would allow Washington to extricate itself from the Middle East.  It was an ill-conceived idea that failed to take sufficient account of the nature of the regime in Tehran, its long record of terror and nuclear deception, and the anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism that form its ideological DNA.  Set all that aside for now.  Even if such a deal were desirable, Obama went about pursuing it in the worst possible way.

Donald Trump Ends the Obama Mirage.  President Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), aka the Iran nuclear deal, on the afternoon of May 8.  The deal, announced to such fanfare in July 2015, did not live to see its third birthday.  And for that, I am grateful.  Why?  Because the president said not only that America will be leaving the accord.  He declared that the period of waxing Iranian influence in the Middle East is at an end.  The deal financed several years of Iranian expansion through Shiite proxies in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen.  By reimposing sanctions, President Trump will weaken an already ailing Iranian economy.  The Iranian currency, the rial, has plummeted in recent weeks.  Inflation is rampant.  The financial system is corrupted, dysfunctional.  Strikes are proliferating, and often turn into displays against the government.  This is a situation the United States should seek not to mitigate but to exacerbate.

This is how you know Trump is on the right track:
Obama: Withdrawal from Iran nuclear deal 'a serious mistake'.  Former President Obama on Tuesday called President Trump's decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear agreement "misguided" and a "serious mistake."  "Without the JCPOA, the United States could eventually be left with a losing choice between a nuclear-armed Iran or another war in the Middle East," Obama said in a statement, referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the deal's formal name.

Trump Dumps Iran Deal — Hallelujah!  President Trump's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal is the greatest boost for American and global security in decades.  If you think that is an exaggeration, then you evidently think the Obama administration's injection of well over a hundred billion dollars — some of it in the form of cash bribes — into the coffers of the world's leading state sponsor of anti-American terrorism was either trivial or, more delusionally, a master-stroke of statecraft.  Of course, there's a lot of delusion going around.  After repeatedly vowing to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons (with signature "If you like your health insurance, you can keep your health insurance" candor), President Obama, and his trusty factotum John Kerry, made an agreement that guaranteed Iran would obtain a nuclear weapon.

Trump Ends Obama's Iran Hostage Crisis.  Jimmy Carter began the first Iranian hostage crisis and Reagan ended it.  Obama began America's second Iranian hostage crisis.  President Trump just ended it.  On January 12, 2016, Iran's IRGC terror force seized 2 US Navy vessels, extracted classified information from their crews at gunpoint, broadcast images of American sailors on their knees and forced an officer to read an apology.  A day later, the Islamic terror state released its American hostages.  Three days later, Implementation Day lifted sanctions on Iran.  By next month, Iran was claiming that it had received over $100 billion in sanctions relief.  It was not the last ransom payment linked to the nuclear deal.  On January 17, Obama illegally airlifted $400 million in foreign currency on unmarked cargo planes to the IRGC as a down payment on a $1.7 billion ransom for four American hostages being held in Iran.  Since then, Iran has taken more American hostages.

A Courageous Trump Call on a Lousy Iran Deal.  Of all the arguments for the Trump administration to honor the nuclear deal with Iran, none was more risible than the claim that we gave our word as a country to keep it.  "Our"?  The Obama administration refused to submit the deal to Congress as a treaty, knowing it would never get two-thirds of the Senate to go along.  Just 21 percent of Americans approved of the deal at the time it went through, against 49 percent who did not, according to a Pew poll.  The agreement "passed" on the strength of a 42-vote Democratic filibuster, against bipartisan, majority opposition.  "The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (J.C.P.O.A.) is not a treaty or an executive agreement, and it is not a signed document," Julia Frifield, then the assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs, wrote then-Representative Mike Pompeo in November 2015, referring to the deal by its formal name.  It's questionable whether the deal has any legal force at all.

Trump was right to kill the disastrous Iran deal.  The existence of the nuclear deal has not moderated Iran, only made it a more aggressive destabilizing force in the Middle East.  Since the deal was struck, it has built up its military, imprisoned Americans, tested ballistic missiles, continued to finance terrorism, and increased its interference in Syria.  In Yemen, Iran violated an arms embargo and is believed to have allowed Houthi rebels to obtain missiles, one of which was fired into Saudi Arabia.  Ever since a desperate Obama started negotiating the deal, Washington has been held hostage by fear that Iran could withdraw, thus limiting the options of policymakers.  So a deal that was supposed to constrain Iran instead hobbled America.

Trump shredding Obama's failed deal is just the beginning of winning in Iran.  The fate of Obama's JCPOA Iran deal was clear when Donald J. Trump became America's 45th president.  The new commander-in-chief inherently knew that President Obama's so-called "legacy "deal actually facilitated our enemies in Tehran, as it released more than $140 billion to the mullahs, had no effect on Iranian ballistic missile capability, created a risible inspection regime, and included a sunset clause which meant that nuclear weapons acquisition by Iran was simply delayed, not in fact prevented.

Trump Withdraws U.S. From 'One-Sided' Iran Nuclear Deal.  President Trump declared on Tuesday that he was withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, unraveling the signature foreign policy achievement of his predecessor Barack Obama, isolating the United States from its Western allies and sowing uncertainty before a risky nuclear negotiation with North Korea.  The decision, while long anticipated and widely telegraphed, leaves the 2015 agreement reached by seven countries after more than two years of grueling negotiations in tatters.  The United States will now reimpose the stringent sanctions it imposed on Iran before the deal and is considering new penalties.

John Kerry under fire for reported 'shadow diplomacy' to save Iran deal.  Former Secretary of State John Kerry is under fire over a report claiming that he has been engaged in "shadow diplomacy" with officials from Iran and Europe as part of a final attempt to save the seemingly doomed 2015 Iran nuclear deal.  The Boston Globe reported Friday [5/4/2018] that Kerry sat down twice with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif in recent months to strategize in a bid to save the deal, as part of what the Globe described as "an aggressive yet stealthy" mission to put pressure on the Trump administration to keep the deal in some form.

John Kerry's arrogance — Negotiating with our enemies to undermine Trump and feed his own ego.  When does a gross indiscretion, aimed at undermining President Trump through private negotiations with a sworn enemy of America, become something bigger?  Former Secretary of State John Kerry, deep into his months-long "shadow diplomacy" with Iran, is testing the point.  Truth is, the antiquated Logan Act — which bars exactly that sort of extra-legal, unofficial and patently officious and offensive behavior — has never been enforced, although referenced as late as 1991 by the Supreme Court.

About that Logan Act....  John Kerry, the former secretary of state and former senator, holds no governmental office.  He is unauthorized to speak on behalf of the United States.  There is no question that he is trying to undermine current American foreign policy by trying to salvage the disgraceful nuclear deal with Iran that he in part negotiated.  But this is typical of the modern Democrat party, which views itself as the only rightful political party and always acts accordingly.

Restore the rule of law, treat Kerry like Manafort and Flynn.  The secret back-channel negotiator, Hussein Agha, was a close confidant of terrorist dictator Mahmoud Abbas, the racist PLO boss who around this same time had delivered a speech in which he cursed President Trump, shouting, "May your house be destroyed."  Agha was a frequent collaborator with Robert Malley, who allegedly ran Soros and Obama's back channel to Hamas.  Obama fired Malley during the campaign, but once in office brought him back in a variety of roles including as a lead negotiator on the Iran Deal scam and the National Security Council's point man for the Middle East.  Malley now heads Soros' International Crisis Group and continues undermining America and defending the Iran Deal.  Kerry urged Agha to tell the PLO boss to "be strong", "play for time" and "not yield to President Trump's demands."  The former Secretary of State suggested that the PLO present its own peace plan that he would push through his contacts in the European Union and Muslim countries.  Kerry also advised the Islamic terror boss to attack Trump personally, instead of the country or administration.  And Abbas appeared to have taken his advice.  He also assured the Islamic terrorist leader that President Trump wouldn't be in office a year from now.  And that Kerry might run for the job.

Resistance Journalism, Kerry The Shadow Secretary, And The Logan Act.  From the Boston Globe we learn that former Secretary of State John Kerry won't let go: [...] Kerry also met last month with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and he's been on the phone with top European Union official Federica Mogherini, according to the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal the private meetings.  Kerry has also met with French President Emmanuel Macron in both Paris and New York, conversing over the details of sanctions and regional nuclear threats in both French and English.  Now, wait — didn't we hear hyperventilating about the Logan Act during the Trump transition, when Michael Flynn spoke with the Russian Ambassador about sanctions?

John Kerry's Freelance Diplomacy Violates U.S. Law — So Why Isn't He Prosecuted?  The law in question is the 219-year-old Logan Act, which makes it a felony for Americans to negotiate with foreign powers in an effort to undermine the U.S. in a dispute.  The law is little-known for a reason:  Just two people have ever been tried under the Logan Act, and neither was convicted.  But that didn't stop Democrats and their Deep State allies when they wanted to use it to investigate Trump's former national security advisor, Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn, in 2016.

John Kerry's 57 varieties of mischief.  John Kerry has spent all his life getting things wrong.  He came home from the war in Vietnam to trash as war criminals the men with whom he wore the colors. [...] It was all a lie, and he knew it was a lie, dramatic, convenient and self-serving.  The Democrats forgave the lie, elected him to the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts, and finally nominated him to be the president of the United States, where his campaign providentially crashed and burned.  Barack Obama, eager for someone to assist in draping the United States in sackcloth and ashes in abject apology to the Islamic nations of the Middle East that had sent suicide squads to wound, maim and kill Americans on September 11, appointed him secretary of State to be the diplomatic face of America to the world.

Did John Kerry Help Iran Lie to the World?  John Kerry has been working behind the scenes to save the fraudulent Iran nuclear deal the Obama administration sold to the American people with lies and cover-ups.  According to the Boston Globe two Sundays ago he went to the UN for a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif to discuss ways to save the deal Iran had broken from the very first day.  "It was the second time in about two months that the two had met to strategize over salvaging a deal they spent years negotiating during the Obama administration, according to a person briefed on the meetings"

John Kerry, Busybody.  We'll leave legal scholars to debate whether Kerry's busybody diplomacy is "illegal," i.e. whether it violates the 1799 Logan Act barring unauthorized negotiations with foreign powers.  Otherwise it's hard to disagree with the president.  Kerry, together with Barack Obama, is chiefly responsible for what was in our view a grossly misguided agreement with one of the world's foremost sponsors of terrorism.  The 2015 agreement enriched the Iranian regime in exchange for vain promises not to pursue its nuclear weapons program, all while turning a blind eye to Iran's malevolent behavior throughout the Middle East and beyond.  But leave aside the merits or demerits of the Iran deal.  The point is:  John Kerry is no longer secretary of state.  The Constitution confers authority on the Trump administration to negotiate on behalf of the United States.  There's no role to play for Obama-era retirees vainly groping for media attention.

Where's the outrage over Kerry's secret meetings on the Iran deal?  Democrats routinely express outrage over claims of collusion with a foreign power to undermine our democracy.  So where is the outrage over revelations that former secretary of state John Kerry held not one but two secret meetings with Iran's foreign minister to strategize over how to undermine President Trump's plans to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal?  An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman confirmed the meetings after the Boston Globe broke the news, declaring, "We don't see the U.S. just as Mr. Trump; the United States is not just the current ruling administration."  Think about what this means.  Iran is a terrorist state responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans in Iraq, whose leaders hold rallies where thousands chant "Death to America!" Kerry was working with a sworn enemy of the United States to try to undermine the foreign policy of the elected president of the United States.  I thought we didn't like Americans who colluded with our enemies.

Best Man at Kerry's Daughter's Wedding:  Son of Kerry's Iranian Nuclear Deal Counterpart.  In 2009, Secretary of State John Kerry's daughter, Dr. Vanessa Bradford Kerry, married an Iranian-American physician named Dr. Brian (Behrooz) Vala Nahed.  The best man at that wedding?  The son of Mohammad Javad Zarif, the current Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Rouhani administration and Kerry's chief counterpart in the nuclear deal negotiations, as noted at AllenWest.com.

What to do the day after killing the Iran deal.  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's revelation of a secret trove of Iranian nuclear-weapons research has set off a debate among experts about whether Iran violated its obligations under the 2015 nuclear deal.  But these arguments miss the point.  It'll take months if not years of analysis for Western intelligence agencies to determine what new information is in the cache and how Iran's band of longtime nuclear researchers are currently spending their time.  The more immediate problem is that this is just the latest evidence that the narrative the deal was based upon was fundamentally flawed.

The Iran Deal Is a Lie.  Two lies, actually.  The first was Iran's declaration to the International Atomic Energy Agency, prior to the implementation of the deal, of the full extent of its past nuclear work.  This was essential, both as a test of Tehran's sincerity and as a benchmark for understanding just how close it was to being able to assemble and deliver a nuclear warhead.  The second lie was the Obama administration's promise that it was serious about getting answers from Tehran.  In a moment of candor, then-Secretary of State John Kerry admitted "we are not fixated on Iran specifically accounting for what they did at one point in time or another" — but then he promised Congress that Iran would provide the accounting.  That was when the White House still feared that Congress might block the deal.  When it failed to do so, thanks to a Democratic filibuster, the administration contented itself with a make-believe process in which Iran pretended to make a full declaration and the rest of the world pretended to believe it.

The Iran Deal Is Strategically and Morally Absurd.  It was surely Barack Obama's profound aversion to the use of American military power that so enfeebled his nuclear diplomacy and made his atomic accord with Iran the worst arms-control agreement since the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922.  I do not know whether a more forceful president and secretary of state — say a Democratic version of Ronald Reagan and George Schultz — could have gotten a "good deal" with Tehran; it just boggles the mind to believe that a better deal wasn't possible.  A stronger president and secretary of state certainly would have been willing to walk away.  Neither captured by Iranian demands nor the mirage of "moderate" mullahs and engagement, more astute, less fearful men would have been more patient, and more willing to let sanctions bite deeper into the economy and political culture of the Islamic Republic.

Killing the Worst Deal Ever.  This is the first in a series of quick hits prompted by Israel's breathtaking success in obtaining the archival cache of Iran's nuclear program.  Prime Minister Netanyahu's dramatic announcement of the intelligence feat yesterday must serve as the predicate to our withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), accurately characterized by President Trump as "the worst deal ever."  Not even Neville Chamberlain funded Hitler's aggression to secure his infamous agreement with the madman.  That innovation in treachery took one Barack Obama and his many enthusiastic servants such as John Kerry.

Iran lied. Obama's legacy is dust.  President Obama was a tool who gave Iran everything the mullahs wanted without gaining a thing in return. [...] Obama was worse than we thought.  Feckless and lazy, he was a figurehead for nefarious people.  He did not confront North Korea.  He gave Iran a greenlight to develop nukes.  He ended the embargo with Cuba without gaining a thing.  He tried to turn Egypt over to the Muslim Brotherhood, or T4M — Thugs for Mohamed.

Iran lied (still does), people died, Obama hides.  Speaking in English to reach the widest international audience possible, Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu presented Iran's own documents, videos, blueprints, and files, proving what opponents of the Iran agreement stated three years ago:  Iran lied about its nuclear weapons development.  Iran is developing nuclear weapons.  Iran continues to lie.

Tug of War Over the Iran Deal.  Netanyahu's critics did not challenge his contention that the details came from very recent acquisitions of Israeli intelligence.  There is no way of knowing the truth of that.  More important, they could not dispute the accuracy of those details.  The U.S. government confirmed that Iran's nuclear program continues.  Their main rejoinder is that Iran's nuclear weapons program — which contradicts official contentions that it does not exist — is an old story.  No less true for being old. [...] In short, Netanyahu's speech brought us back to square one.  What should have been done then?  What is to be done now?

The Obama Foreign Policy Record.  It's never a bad idea to look at the record.  It's certainly not a bad idea, at the current remove, to examine the Obama foreign policy record.  One reason the progressive left has its knickers in a twist over Donald Trump is that it must, no matter the price, defend the indefensible Obama record.  Where, pray tell, didn't Obama fail on foreign policy?

The Obama Disaster.  With today's bombshell about Iran's ongoing nuclear weapons program, the wreckage of Barack Obama's foreign policy is coming into focus.  Syria: the "red line" fiasco, with hundreds of thousands killed.  North Korea: a do-nothing policy that brought America's West Coast perilously close to coming under nuclear threat.  Iran: a deal that would have been foolish even if the mullahs hadn't cheated, $100 billion and sanctions relief now, in exchange for promises that Iran could walk away from at will.  We now know that the deal was even worse than that.

Obama Bros.  Speechless After Netanyahu Exposes Iran Deal Lies.  The vaunted "echo chamber" that President Barack Obama's aide Ben Rhodes created to sell the Iran deal was quiet on Monday [4/30/2018], in the aftermath of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's revelations of new intelligence proving that Iran had lied to the world about its nuclear weapons program.  Netanyahu presented a trove of over 100,000 files, both paper and electronic, that he said Israel had obtained from a "vault" where Iran had stored an archive of its nuclear research.  The files included diagrams of nuclear detonation devices, nuclear warhead designs, and plans for nuclear testing sites, among other incriminating information.  The intelligence haul, Netanyahu said, shows that Iran lied to the world when its leaders said it had never had a nuclear weapons program.

Deputy Foreign Minister Threatens Iran's Withdrawal From Nuclear Deal.  Iranian deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi appeared to signal Monday the country's imminent withdrawal from the nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration in 2015.  "The Iran nuclear deal is no longer sustainable for Iran in its present form, without regard to a US exit," Araghchi stated Monday [4/30/2018], according to the Iranian Students News Agency.

100,000 Secret Files Prove Iran Lied About Nuclear Weapons.  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced to the world that Iran and Iran's Mullahs and Presidents and spokesmen have all been lying about nuclear weapons, and their supposed rejection of any interest in nuclear weapons or a nuclear weapons program, lying through their teeth.  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled to the international community a cache of 100,000 secret files he said were obtained from inside a hidden Iranian site that clearly demonstrate that Tehran maintained a secret nuclear weapons program despite continuing declarations to the contrary.  Netanyahu explained that Iran was, from the beginning, deceptive in their descriptions of their previous nuclear work.  After signing the nuclear deal in 2015, Iran's leaders repeatedly denied ever pursuing nuclear weapons, Netanyahu said.  "Tonight I'm here to tell you one thing:  Iran lied."

Netanyahu — 100,000 Secret Files Prove Iran 'Lied Big Time' About Nukes.  In a dramatic press conference in Jerusalem aimed at the international community, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday [4/30/2018] unveiled a cache of secret files he says were obtained from inside a hidden Iranian site and clearly demonstrate that Tehran maintained a secret nuclear weapons program despite declarations to the contrary.  Netanyahu explained that the structure of the U.S.-led international nuclear agreement was in part based on deceptive Iranian descriptions of its previous nuclear work.  He said Iran's failure to disclose its secret program while misleading the world shows the nuclear deal is "based on lies based on Iranian deception."

What Israeli Spies Just Pulled Off on Iran is Absolutely Nuts.  Earlier today Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed the confiscation of 100,000 Iranian nuclear documents, which were taken out of Tehran by intelligence operatives.  The documents show Iran lied about having a secret nuclear program.  Netanyahu described the collection and extradition of the information as a "great intelligence achievement."  It was a major, seemingly impossible intelligence success.

Israel Exposes Iran's Nuclear Lies, and the Limits of U.S. Intelligence.  Since Iran and six world powers reached an agreement to pause Iran's enrichment of uranium and allow weapons inspectors into declared facilities, Israel's prime minister has argued the deal would give Iran a glide path to a nuclear weapon.  On Monday [4/30/2018] he announced that he had proof.  If the West can verify the new Israeli intelligence that Iran had preserved its design and research work into a nuclear weapon, that's a big deal — particularly now in light of the May 12 deadline that President Donald Trump has imposed on U.S. negotiations with Europe to come up with fixes to strengthen the nuclear bargain.

Will Netanyahu, Trump Slam Door On Obama's Bad Nuclear Deal?  As North Korea and South Korea unexpectedly talk nuclear peace, Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu has just released an equally unexpected intelligence trove revealing Iran to be a nuclear cheat.  Is President Obama's nuclear deal with Iran worth the paper it's written on?  It's certainly worth asking the question, after Netanyahu dropped an information bomb on the world's media in the form of voluminous evidence of Iran's repeated efforts to gain a workable nuclear weapon, despite its repeated claims to wanting nuclear technology only for "peaceful purposes."

Netanyahu's bombshell should finish off the Iran nuclear deal.  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just dropped his own bombshell on the Iran nuclear deal, citing a secret archive obtained by the Mossad that he says proves conclusively "Iran lied — big time."  In a dramatic English-language speech and PowerPoint presentation, Netanyahu on Monday [4/30/2018] reproduced documents, slides and animation from among 100,000 pages he said showed Iran secretly hid in a bunker.  The archive, he said, shows conclusively that Iran lied when it denied ever having a nuclear-weapons program.  More important, he cited documents suggesting that while Iran shut down that program, Operation Amad, in 2003, it actually continued the work covertly with the same personnel.  Moreover, Iran "is secretly storing Amad material to use at a time of its choice" — i.e., when the deal expires.

Israelis may have evidence Iran violated Obama's nuclear deal.  Just ahead of a major speech to be delivered by Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, Israeli news reporter Noga Tarnopolsky says a "huge cache of documents" has been obtained by Israel showing that Iran may be in violation of the nuclear deal orchestrated by the Obama administration.

Netanyahu says Iran 'brazenly lying' after signing nuclear deal, moved documents to a secret location.  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed new "dramatic" intelligence Monday which he claimed shows Iran is "brazenly lying" about its nuclear weapons program and shows the country is not complying with the vaunted nuclear deal it signed in 2015.  The information was obtained within the past 10 days, Israeli officials told Fox News.  Netanyahu said the "half a ton" of files were moved to a "highly secret" location in Tehran after the deal was signed, and contained materials spread over 55,000 pages and 55,000 files on 183 CD's.  "These files conclusively prove that Iran is brazenly lying when it says it never had a nuclear weapons program," he said.

Obama's Foreign Policy Legacy.  We have been told again and again that the crowning achievement of Obama's foreign policy was the Iran deal.  So let's begin by considering it.  The "deal" was an enormous gift to the mullahs who rule Iran.  It was a multi-billion-dollar reprieve in cash and sanctions relief, and it saved Iran from an accelerating economic collapse that imperiled the mullahs' grip on power.  The terrible condition of Iran's economy, ground down by the sanctions and the mullahs' costly efforts to become the regional hegemon, presented a tremendous opportunity to put an end to the mullahs' rule, much as Reagan had put an end to the Soviet Union.  Instead, the "Death to America" mullahs were granted a reprieve, and the opportunity to bring down an Islamist regime splattered with American blood was lost.

Informant provided FBI evidence Russia aided Iran nuclear program during Obama years.  A former undercover informant says he provided evidence to the FBI during President Obama's first term that Russia was assisting Iran's nuclear program even as billions in new U.S. business flowed to Moscow's uranium industry.  William Douglas Campbell told The Hill his evidence included that Russia was intercepting nonpublic copies of international inspection reports on Tehran's nuclear program and sending equipment, advice and materials to a nuclear facility inside Iran.  Campbell said Russian nuclear executives were extremely concerned that Moscow's ongoing assistance to Iran might boomerang on them just as they were winning billions of dollars in new nuclear fuel contracts inside the United States.

John Bolton's First Order Of Business:  Shred Disastrous Obama Iran Nuke Deal.  In the short term, newly-appointed Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton's most important job is to navigate the dismantling of the disastrous Obama-era Iran nuke deal that was so strongly supported by Russia.  (Isn't it interesting how Democrats claim to be anti-Russia but enacted policies time and time again that were favored Russia?)  Bolton appears to be both up to that task and quite willing to carry it out — much to the dismay of the Establishment Media who are increasingly desperate to protect the Obama legacy.

The Utter Shame of Obama's Iran Deal.  The pallets of banknotes materialized at Geneva airport on January 3 ($400 million in francs), and January 22 and February 5 ($1.3b in Euros — some accounts say that other hard-currency notes were included).  Each time, the treasure was ushered into a waiting, unmarked Iranian cargo plane.  The plane took the money to Tehran and only the Iranians know where it went thereafter.  Let us hope not on weapons and salaries for terrorists.  It's a racy story but what's it all about?  It's about a weekend's work by Obama on January 16-17, 2016, where he consummated the anti-nuclear pact with Iran, did a prisoner swap of four Americans in Iran for seven Iranian-American sanctions-violators in the US, and settled a debt to Iran dating back to 1979 when the populace overthrew Shah Pahlavi.  All three aspects involve murky stuff which has gradually trickled into the public domain, and which I'll try to explain.

Deadly Threat from Iran.  Maj. General Mohsen Rezai founded Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in the early days of the revolution, upon the personal orders of Ayatollah Khomeini.  While he relinquished control of the IRGC in 1997, he remains one of the regime's most influential leaders.  A "principalist," who is considered a revolutionary purist, Rezai has occasionally shown a more pragmatic bent.  He regularly boasts of the Iranian regime's military power, and issues threats to all who would challenge the regime that seem to get dismissed in the Western media.  Last week, when he vowed to "level Tel Aviv to the ground," was no exception.

CONFIRMED: Cash from Obama's $1.7 Billion Ransom Payment to Iran Traced to Terrorist Groups (VIDEO).  On January 17, 2016, a cargo plane with $400 million in foreign currencies was secretly sent to Iran in the dead of night.  This was the same day the Iranian regime released four American hostages held in Tehran.  Barack Obama later told reporters this was not a ransom payment.  Obama lied.

Just like the Fast & Furious scandal, with cash instead of guns, but just as stupid.
Obama-era cash traced to Iran-backed terrorists.  The U.S. government has traced some of the $1.7 billion released to Iran by the Obama administration to Iranian-backed terrorists in the two years since the cash was transferred.  According to knowledgeable sources, Iran has used the funds to pay its main proxy, the Lebanon-based terrorist group Hezbollah, along with the Quds Force, Iran's main foreign intelligence and covert action arm and element of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.  The U.S. money supplied to Iran as part of an arms settlement dating back to the 1970s also has been traced to Iran's backing of Houthi rebels seeking to take power in Yemen.  Iran has been supporting the Yemen rebels as part of a bid to encircle and eventually take control of Saudi Arabia.

Investigate Obama's and Kerry's Unlawful Deals with Iran.  Two years ago, as then-secretary of State John Kerry was boasting in Davos about Obama's deal with Iran, he acknowledged that some of the $150 billion given to the mullahs in Tehran "will end up in the hands of the IRGC or other entities, some of which are labeled terrorists.  I'm not going to sit here and tell you that every component of that can be prevented."  He was right.  We don't know how much money went to fund Iran's global terrorist activities.  And we know even less about the billions in untraceable cash that was supposedly delivered to the mullahs or the recipients of that cash.  How about investigating that?  There should be ample evidence to prove Kerry and his boss President Obama have willfully engaged in terrorist financing and money laundering.  That is unless the pertinent emails and documents related to the payments to Iran had been lost or destroyed.

Hezbollah & the Iran deal: is Trump lining Obama up for charges of treason?  The US has long regarded Iran as an enemy.  Iran has been on the State Department's list of state terror sponsors since Jan. 19, 1984.  In June 2016, Iran was designated by State as 'the top global state sponsor of terrorism'.  Their #1 target is Israel, #2 the USA. [...] Obama wanted to make an American enemy stronger. [...] As part of the deal, Obama freed known Iranian spies & terrorists that the US already has in custody.  It is thought as many as 35 Iranians were freed, or handed over to Iran.  The US got 4 citizens back.

For Real 'Collusion,' Look at Obama's Dirty Dealings with Iran.  Democrats and their allies in the establishment media have cleverly succeeded in temporarily deflecting America's attention away from the real collusion story, one with real substance and far greater ramifications.  A persuasive case can be made that former president Barack Obama colluded with a sworn enemy of the United States, the Islamic Republic of Iran.  With each passing day, another disquieting facet of the Obama administration's dealings with the Islamic Republic is revealed and when taken in totality, paints a disturbing picture of the administration's underhanded efforts to placate and appease the mullahs and their proxies, including Hezbollah.  The Obama administration's current dealings with Iran began with an outright fabrication to the American people.

Did DOJ's Fusion GPS Man Shut Down Hezbollah Drug Investigation?  This is a potential collision of two major recent scandals.  [#1] Bruce Ohr, a top DOJ official, met with Fusion GPS people.  And Fusion GPS hired his wife to go after Trump.  Fusion GPS is the smear firm which the Hillary campaign used to create the dossier accusing Trump of Russian collusion.  The dossier was then funneled into the DOJ and FBI.  And was potentially used to justify illegal eavesdropping on Trump officials by Obama officials.  Not to mention the current Mueller coup.  [#2] We recently learned that Obama Inc. had shut down investigations targeting Iranian terror, including an investigation that would have gone after Hezbollah and its drug smuggling schemes.

A Lot Of Blood On A Lot Of Hands Created The Iran Threat.  Yes, the Cold War and the need to respond to the 9/11 attacks dominated our attention.  But there were no such excuses for Barack Obama and his disastrous agreement that if not abandoned, will lead to a nuclear-armed Iran in less than a decade.  Despite Iran's long track record of double-dealing and "weaponizing" negotiations, as a Johnson advisor said of the North Vietnamese, Obama gave the world's foremost state sponsor of terror $1.5 billion and virtual carte blanche to develop nuclear-tipped missiles.  Obama's alleged reasons were to encourage Iran to join the family of nations, improve its economy, and normalize its aggressive foreign policy, preposterous goals for anyone aware of Iran's history as a jihadist state, or even cognizant of Islam's consistent 14 centuries of doctrine and aggression.

Did Obama Tip Off Iran To Israeli Plan To Take Out World's Premier Terrorist?  We thought the Obama administration could stoop no lower when it was revealed that the administration transferred $1.7 billion in untraceable cash to the Islamic Republic as ransom for the release of four Americans hostages they were holding.  We were wrong.  In its twilight weeks, the administration gave its consent to allow the Iranians to receive 116 metric tons of natural uranium from Russia as compensation for its export of tons of reactor coolant.  According to experts familiar with the transaction, the uranium could be enriched to weapons-grade sufficient for the production of at least 10 nuclear bombs.  If you thought that the administration's betrayal of America's security could go no further, you were wrong.  Last month Politico, not known as a bastion of conservatism, published a bombshell 50-page exposé detailing the Obama administration's efforts to delay, hinder and ultimately shut down a highly successful DEA operation — codenamed Project Cassandra — aimed at tracking and thwarting Hezbollah drug trafficking, arms trafficking and money laundering schemes.  As a result, Hezbollah continued to import drugs into the United States, continued to provide anti-U.S. insurgents with deadly EFPs and continued to launder drug money to the tune of billions.

The Iran that Obama helped keep in place.  Protests against Iran's theocratic regime enter their seventh day today.  The country's chief cleric, who dominates the violent and oppressive regime, has tried to blame foreign agents for the courageous public display of dissent.  But the truth, as the old tyrant well knows, is that the government that he and his fellow mullahs oversee has created woeful economic conditions, fostered corruption, and unintentionally nurtured a desire among young people (who account for the majority of the Iranian population) for freedom.  Iranians have seen more than enough of their nation's wealth poured into terrorism abroad while their own needs are neglected.  The incompetent, insecure, and malevolent government has, characteristically, resorted to shooting protesters.

Will the Persian Renaissance Return Now That Obama's Gone?  I still can't figure out why on earth President Obama bent over backwards to secure an Iranian deal that didn't benefit this country at all.  Nor have I ever understood why he felt the need to pay Iran 400 million in cash under a highly suspect transaction supposedly at the same time four Americans were released from Iranian custody.  I was under the impression that the United States didn't pay ransoms but add this to a number of other broken principles by the previous administration.  President Trump has indicated that he may withdraw from any deal his predecessor made with the mullahs and that is a clear sign to the beautiful Iranian people that hope is in the cards for them once again.

Michael Oren:  Obama Rejected Iran Green Revolution for Nuclear Deal.  Former US president Barack Obama chose not to support the 2009 Iranian Green Protest Movement because he hoped to reach a deal with Iran on its nuclear weapons that he signed six years later, Deputy Minister Michael Oren (Kulanu) said on Monday [1/1/2018].  Obama's failure to help Iranian protesters has been criticized since then by Israeli officials, led by Jewish Agency chairman and former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky, who has called it the biggest failure to help human rights in modern history.

Obama's Iran Deal in Perspective.  Not only has the Iranian regime been exporting terrorism by shipping weapons and manpower to various proxy wars around the region; it's also been funding and supporting itself through a very lucrative world wide trade in illegal narcotics such as cocaine.  He was so bent on securing a deal that he even left American hostages to rot in Iranian prisons.  Before Obama, this criminal regime was being held in check.  Obama spent eight years implementing a radical policy in which an Iranian backed nuclear hegemony over the Middle East was a foregone conclusion; it could only be 'managed' or delayed, not stopped.  Obama's curious 'management' of the 'Iran problem' involved lifting most sanctions on Iran that had been placed there due to it's terrorist activities and then handing over billions of dollars to these criminals despite knowing what they'd do with the money.  If you watched Obama's implementation of his foreign policy from the start of his 1st term in 2009, you immediately noticed all of it was predicated on a massive reduction of American influence/leadership around the world.

A Tally of Iran Sanctions Relief Includes More Than $10 Billion in Cash, Gold.  In the three years since a preliminary nuclear deal was struck with Iran, Tehran has received more than $10 billion in sanctions relief from around the world in the form of cash and gold, according to current and former U.S. officials.  The large shipments of gold and cash, from oil funds unfrozen in numerous countries, represent the kind of financial relief that made Iran's leaders eager to complete the international nuclear accord.

Obama lackeys' talking points side with Iran regime over protesters.  During the 2009 Green Movement uprising, when Iranians fought for their liberty against the despotic regime in Tehran, President Obama remained conspicuously silent for days.  By and large, he abandoned the Iranian people in their time of need.  We now know that while protests were ongoing, Obama officials were creating conditions that would result in an agreement that ensured Iran could develop a nuclear bomb within the next decade.  That agreement led to a cash-flush Iran that continues to pursue an expansionist foreign policy.  Thanks to the Iran deal, in addition to Obama's foreign policy promoting "daylight" with loyal allies, Iran now asserts control over much of the region, and dominates the internal affairs of Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen.

Iran Aspires to a Former Glory.  Since Cyrus the Great founded the Achaemenid Empire in 625 B.C., Iran has stayed true to its imperial identity.  Even the architects of the 1979 Iranian Revolution kept the country's ambitions to build a new empire alive, albeit with an Islamic political spin.  In a 2014 essay in Foreign Affairs, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif left no room for doubt about the Islamic republic's aspirations for "a prominent regional and global role."  And still today, the leaders of the country constantly remind foreign officials about its claim to cultural exceptionalism.  Iran's leaders genuinely believe their state has emerged as one of the world's most powerful countries thanks to its perseverance and steadfastness, an attitude that comes across unmistakably in Iranian foreign policy.

Obama Was Dealing Drugs With Terrorists And The Media Says NOTHING.  It's sickening beyond belief.  A sitting president purposely facilitates an international drug ring run by anti-American terrorists in order to help secure nuclear capabilities for the #1 state sponsor of anti-American terrorism on the planet — Iran.  In a more sane world, the story would be getting 24/7 wall-to-wall coverage.  Not here.  Not now.  Barack Obama was and remains the pet of the globalist corporatists and so they are working hard to protect him from the kind of blowback he most certainly deserves.  Some in the media are calling foul — but not nearly enough.

Liberal Humiliation: Trump vs.  Obama on Iran.  The students and others marching in the streets to overthrow these tyrants desperately wanted America's help, specifically the support of our "oh-so-liberal-progressive" president. they shouted, "Obama, Obama, are you with us or are you with them?"  Obama was silent.  I can't think of a moment I was more disgusted by the acts (inaction actually) of an American president.  What did he stand for?  What did we stand for?  Well, who knows?  What we do know is he wanted to deal with Iran his way — whether to get the glory for himself or for other even less attractive reasons we will never know.  He was secretly communicating with Ahmadinejad and Khamenei even before he took office, hinting at accommodation.

The First Anti-American President.  Barack Obama will no doubt be chronicled, among other things, as the first anti-American president.  No wonder; he's the product of an educational system that has become increasingly radical and anti-American with each passing decade, and his mother was a stereotypical leftist anthropologist with a passion for the Third World.  The pattern is unmistakable.  As Luis Fleischman notes, Obama wanted to make deals with our enemies, Iran being the most dramatic example.

How to tackle Obama's 'cover up' of the Hezbollah drug scandal.  Recently, major developments involving the United States, Iran and the entire Middle East have placed the powerful US legislative body before obligations in the face of arguably the world's most dangerous regime.  At a time when Iran's foreign meddling and ballistic missile drive continues to raise eyebrows out of deep concern, important spotlight is being focused on a shadowy aspect of Tehran's notorious schemes.  Politico released what has been described as a bombshell, exposing how Iran literally demanded the Obama administration facilitate a major drug trafficking/money-laundering campaign across four continents.  While senior Obama administration officials must be held accountable for their ties with the terrorist Lebanese Hezbollah, the main issue at hand is how to tackle the root:  Iran.

Is Media Response to Obama's "Operation Cassandra Scandal" a Precursor For Response to FBI/DOJ "Operation Trump"?  Last week Politico reported on an explosive in depth investigation surrounding how the former President Obama administration allowed the terrorist group Hezbollah to continue a multinational drug running and money-laundering operation to fund terrorism in order to negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran.  The DEA's "Operation Cassandra" was intentionally blocked; while the administration allowed drug-running into the U.S., weapons procurement to kill Americans and money laundering to facilitate all the terrorist activity.  Supporting Hezbollah was down-played and intentionally permitted by the Obama administration.  Under any normal circumstances, other than an Obama presidency, this entire scandal would have been explosive headlines.

The Iran Echo Chamber Smears Politico Magazine.  Earlier this week, for example, Politico Magazine published a story by Josh Meyer headlined "The secret backstory of how Obama let Hezbollah off the hook." This epic and copiously sourced piece relates how, "in its determination to secure a nuclear deal with Iran, the Obama administration derailed an ambitious law enforcement campaign targeting drug trafficking by the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah, even as it [Hezbollah, not the Obama administration] was funneling cocaine into the United States."  The law enforcement program in question is called Project Cassandra, which for eight years "used wiretaps, undercover operations, and informants to map Hezbollah's illicit networks, with the help of 30 U.S. and foreign security agencies." [...] President Obama, in other words, slow-walked counter-narcotics efforts for the inane "greater good" of paying Iran billions to pretend to shut down its nuclear program for ten years.

Obama's 'Echo Chamber' Strikes Back Over His Protected Drug Operation.  Politico's Josh Meyer wrote a bombshell investigative report this week alleging that Barack Obama ignored Hezbollah's criminal drug operations in the United States to secure the Iran deal.  [It is important to note that the U.S. is currently dealing with a severe drug crisis and in general, Obama released 95 cocaine dealers, not all Hezbollah of course.]

Obama's biggest EVER scandal uncovered (yup... drugs AND terrorism!)  An explosive new report alleges that former President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry betrayed America, sold out our allies, and helped enrich terrorists and drug dealers.  Even worse, the silence from the mainstream media on the biggest scandal to ever hit the Obama administration is deafening — and it has conservatives outraged.  Obama sold out America, and did it to get a toothless and ugly deal with Iran that experts believe hasn't stopped the Ayatollah from pursuing nuclear weapons.

Inquiry Launched: Did Obama Give Hezbollah a Pass?  U.S. Attorney-General Jeff Sessions ordered an investigation of law enforcement agencies after the release of a shocking report last week said the Obama administration squelched U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration investigations and arrests of Hezbollah agents to pave the way for his legacy nuclear deal with Iran.  The report, "The secret backstory of how Obama let Hezbollah off the hook" published in Politico, alleged:  "In its determination to secure a nuclear deal with Iran, the Obama administration derailed an ambitious law enforcement campaign targeting drug trafficking by the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah, even as it was funneling cocaine into the United States. [...]"

Trump's First Year vs.  Obama's Eight Years.  Here are President Obama's main accomplishments over eight years:  [#2] The Iran Deal:  This took the country which is a top sponsor of terrorism and lifted its regime up with more power and money.  It did not make the world or the U.S safer and stronger.

Obama Was a State Sponsor of Terror.  It should not surprise or shock anyone that President Barack Hussein Obama has been revealed to have derailed the investigation and prosecution of Iran's terrorist sock puppet, Hizb'allah, and its drug-running operation in order to complete the fatally flawed Iran nuclear deal.  Obama gave aid and comfort to terrorist groups and their state sponsors from the day he was sworn in, to the point of actual criminality.  Consider the case of Bowe Bergdahl, the deserter who left his post and his comrades in am Afghan combat zone to "find himself" and also to find the Taliban.  Former U.N. ambassador and National Security Adviser Susan Rice, propagator of the Benghazi video lie, laughably said on the same talk show circuit that Bowe Bergdahl had "served with distinction."  This was the administration view of the man for whom Obama would trade key Taliban leaders in our custody.

Did Obama Arm Islamic State Killers?  The question strikes many people as absurd, if not offensive.  How can anyone suggest something so awful about a nice guy like the former president?  But a stunning report by an investigative group known as Conflict Armament Research (CAR) leaves us little choice but to conclude that he did.

Media Blackout on Obama's Hezbollah Scandal Revives the Iran-Deal 'Echo Chamber'.  [Scroll down]  [T]he media echo chamber devoted to defending Obama's appeasement of Iran that he cultivated is still with us.  The evidence for that was on display this week in the aftermath of Politico's scoop about the way the Obama administration blocked federal investigations of Hezbollah's drug-running, money-laundering, and terror operations during the Iran-deal negotiations.  Josh Meyer's three-part series was based on interviews with Drug Enforcement Administration personnel and other well-placed sources within the federal government who worked on Project Cassandra.  Meyer built a strong case that showed that efforts to halt the regular traffic of cash, drugs, and terrorists between Beirut, Tehran, and Venezuela was quashed by orders from the top of the Obama administration.

A deafening media silence on the Obama-Hezbollah scandal.  Politico published a jaw-dropping, meticulously sourced investigative piece this week detailing how the Obama administration had secretly undermined US law enforcement agency efforts to shut down an international drug-trafficking ring run by the terror group Hezbollah.  The effort was part of a wider push by the administration to placate Iran and ensure the signing of the nuclear deal.  Now swap out "Trump" for "Obama" and "Russia" for "Iran" and imagine the eruption these revelations would generate.  Because, by any conceivable journalistic standard, this scandal should've triggered widespread coverage and been plastered on front pages across the country.  By any historic standard, the scandal should elicit outrage regarding the corrosion of governing norms from pundits and editorial boards.  Yet, as it turns out, there's an exceptionally good chance most of your neighbors and colleagues haven't heard anything about it.

DOJ to review whether Obama admin allowed Hezbollah drug running to facilitate Iran nuclear deal.  Fox News reports that Attorney General Jeff Sessions has decide to open a formal investigation into whether the Obama administration interference in law enforcement attempts to shut down a Hezbollah international criminal ring running drugs into the U.S. This arises out of Politico investigation into Project Cassandra, which we covered in our post, Obama allowed Hezbollah cocaine running into U.S. in quest for Iran nuke deal.

Former Gov't Officials Warned About Hezbollah Story Months Ago.  Former U.S. government officials gave details to the House Foreign Affairs Committee in June about how the previous White House derailed American efforts to counter Hezbollah, which supports recent revelations from a report by Politico.  Dr. David Asher, a veteran U.S. illicit finance expert sent by the Pentagon to help establish a team to go after Hezbollah's alleged criminal activities, testified before Congress in June.  Asher told committee members about the collaborative effort was known as "Project Cassandra."

Sessions orders DOJ review after report Obama administration gave Hezbollah a pass.  Attorney General Jeff Sessions is launching a review of a law enforcement initiative called Project Cassandra after an investigative report was published this week claiming the Obama administration gave a free pass to Hezbollah's drug-trafficking and money-laundering operations to help ensure the Iran nuclear deal would stay on track.  The Justice Department said in a statement to Fox News that Sessions on Friday directed a review of prior Drug Enforcement Administration investigations "to evaluate allegations that certain matters were not properly prosecuted and to ensure all matters are appropriately handled."

Congress to Investigate Obama Scheme to Nix Investigation into Hezbollah Terrorists.  Lawmakers are launching an investigation into Obama-era efforts to thwart a longstanding U.S. investigation into the Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah, according to multiple congressional officials and insiders who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon.  The Obama administration worked behind the scenes to thwart a decade-long Drug Enforcement Agency investigation into Hezbollah and its highly lucrative drug trade in Latin America, according to a report in Politico.  These officials are believed to have run interference on the investigation in order to avoid upsetting Iran and jeopardizing the landmark nuclear accord.  Senior Obama officials in the Treasury and Justice Departments are said to have undermined the DEA's investigation at multiple junctures in order to avoid angering Hezbollah's patron Iran, which could have jeopardized the landmark nuclear agreement.

Republicans demand answers over claims Obama gave Hezbollah a pass.  A growing number of Republicans on Capitol Hill are demanding answers after an investigative report this week claimed the Obama administration gave a free pass to Hezbollah's drug-trafficking and money-laundering operations to help ensure the Iran nuclear deal would stay on track.  "If the Obama administration failed to use the authorities that Congress has authorized to stop Hezbollah terrorists and their associates from pouring cocaine onto our streets to fund terrorism and acquire weapons of mass destruction, it was a colossal mistake," Nebraska Republican Sen. Ben Sasse wrote in a Thursday letter to the Justice, Treasury and State Departments, requesting "answers to these disturbing allegations."

Obama:  Worse Than Chamberlain?  For although numerous media channels did swoop down on the report that, in order to secure some agreement with Tehran over its nuclear program, the Obama White House deliberately strove to obstruct an extensive Drug Enforcement Administration operation, codenamed "Project Cassandra," targeting the Iran-backed terror group, Hezbollah — it appears to have been studiously ignored by several major Obamaphilic outlets.  Indeed, Google as I might, I could find nary a reference — even the most oblique or remote — in The New York Times to the almost 15,000-word investigation.  Or in the Los Angeles Times.  Or The Washington Post.  Or on CNN.  Or MSNBC.  The Wall Street Journal, on the other hand, did address the matter.

Politico: In its Fervor to Secure Iran Deal, Obama Let Hezbollah Smuggle Cocaine Into the U.S..  The headline from Politico:  "Obama Let Hezbollah Run Cocaine into the U.S. in Order to Facilitate the Iran Deal Getting Done."  I'm gonna tell you, the damage this man and his administration have done to this country is still largely unknown, and it will continue to dribble out, and we will have more revelations of it.  "In 2008, the DEA launched 'Project Cassandra' to track Hezbollah's trafficking of drug and weapons, money laundering and other criminal activities, some of which were happening in the U.S. As Project Cassandra carried on, the Obama administration threw a series of roadblocks in its way, Politico reported Sunday.  When investigators sought approval for prosecutions, arrests, and financial sanctions, the Justice Department and Treasury Department officials delayed, hindered, or denied their requests, the report said.  "'This was a policy decision, it was a systematic decision,' Defense Department illicit finance analyst David Asher said.  'They serially ripped apart this entire effort that was very well supported and resourced, and it was done from the top down,'" and it was all to make sure the Iran deal didn't get "derailed."

Obama's Alternative Facts on the Iran Nuclear Deal.  When the Obama administration sold its Iran nuclear deal to Congress in 2015, one of its primary arguments was that the agreement was narrow.  It lifted only nuclear sanctions.  America, President Barack Obama told us, would remain a vigilant foe of Iran's regional predations through sanctions and other means.  Thanks to stunning new reporting from Politico's Josh Meyer, we can now assess these assertions and conclude that they are ... well, "alternative facts."  Meyer reports that while the U.S. and other great powers were negotiating a deal to bring transparency to Iran's nuclear program, top officials in Obama's government dismantled a campaign, known as Operation Cassandra, intended to undermine Hezbollah's global drug trafficking and money laundering network.

Obama administration undermined anti-Hezbollah task force to help secure Iran nuke deal, report says.  The Obama administration gave a free pass to Hezbollah's drug-trafficking and money-laundering operations — some of which were unfolding inside the U.S. — to help ensure the Iran nuclear deal would stay on track, according to a bombshell exposé in Politico Sunday.  An elaborate campaign led by the Drug Enforcement Administration, known as Project Cassandra, reportedly targeted the Lebanese militant group's criminal activities.  But by tossing a string of roadblocks holding back the project, Obama administration officials helped allow the 35-year-old anti-Israel criminal enterprise to evolve into a major global security threat bankrolling terrorist and military operations, the report added.

Now, this is presidential obstruction.  While proof that the Trump campaign actually plotted with Russia still has yet to be presented, evidence of another scandal involving President Barack Obama and Hezbollah, Iran and the Russians has just been uncovered in an investigative story by Politico.  The tale involves an administration decision to spike Project Cassandra, a federal probe into international drug smuggling, money laundering and terrorism by Hezbollah.  The motive for interference with the justice system was to appease both Moscow and Tehran during Obama's quest for a nuclear deal with Iran.  It happened because, as Politico's sources made clear, a decision was made at the highest levels of the Obama administration to prioritize making nice with Iran and Russia over the federal government's obligation to protect US citizens.  It's the sort of thing that ought to rock Washington.  An actual plot that placed the interests of foreign powers over those of the US by Obama.

Obama Let Hezbollah Sell Cocaine in U.S..  Remember the fantasy floated by liberals in the 1980s that the CIA was secretly behind the Central American cocaine trade?  Obama actually did that, letting Hezbollah off the hook despite an iron-clad case of narcoterrorism, in order to do the Iran deal.

Obama protected Hezbollah drug ring to avoid 'rocking the boat' on Iran deal: report.  A Drug Enforcement Administration team says they were tracking a $1 billion per yer drug-and-weapons ring run by Islamist terrorists, only to have the Obama administration kneecap them to avoid "rocking the boat" with Iran.  U.S. officials told Politico for a report Monday that a 2008 task force called "Project Cassandra" was undermined by the former president as he tried to seal a nuclear deal with Iran.  David Asher, one of the group's co-founders, said a "policy decision" was made to prevent the prosecution of Abdallah Safieddine, a Hezbollah envoy to Tehran.  "Hezbollah operates like the Gambino crime family on steroids, and [Safieddine] is its John Gotti," ex-DEA agent Jack Kelly, who created the taskforce, told the website.  "Whatever Iran needs, Safieddine is in charge of getting it for them."

Obama administration undermined anti-Hezbollah task force to help secure Iran nuke deal, report says.  The Obama administration gave a free pass to Hezbollah's drug-trafficking and money-laundering operations — some of which were unfolding inside the U.S. — to help ensure the Iran nuclear deal would stay on track, according to a bombshell exposé in Politico Sunday [12/17/2017].  An elaborate campaign led by the Drug Enforcement Administration, known as Project Cassandra, reportedly targeted the Lebanese militant group's criminal activities.  But by tossing a string of roadblocks holding back the project, Obama administration officials helped allow the 35-year-old anti-Israel criminal enterprise to evolve into a major global security threat bankrolling terrorist and military operations, the report added.  "This was a policy decision, it was a systematic decision," David Asher, who helped establish Project Cassandra as a Defense Department illicit finance analyst in 2008, told Politico.  "They serially ripped apart this entire effort that was very well supported and resourced, and it was done from the top down."

The secret backstory of how Obama let Hezbollah off the hook.  In its determination to secure a nuclear deal with Iran, the Obama administration derailed an ambitious law enforcement campaign targeting drug trafficking by the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah, even as it was funneling cocaine into the United States, according to a POLITICO investigation.  The campaign, dubbed Project Cassandra, was launched in 2008 after the Drug Enforcement Administration amassed evidence that Hezbollah had transformed itself from a Middle East-focused military and political organization into an international crime syndicate that some investigators believed was collecting $1 billion a year from drug and weapons trafficking, money laundering and other criminal activities.  Over the next eight years, agents working out of a top-secret DEA facility in Chantilly, Virginia, used wiretaps, undercover operations and informants to map Hezbollah's illicit networks, with the help of 30 U.S. and foreign security agencies.

Remember when candidate Obama secretly communicated with Iran?  With all the garment rending and pearl-clutching going on in the Enslaved Press over Mike Flynn, I thought it might be a good idea to hop in the Way-Back Machine.  Let's travel back to 2008 when then candidate Obama was sending secret emissaries to Tehran.  Remember hearing about that?

Mueller Investigation:  Politics, Not Law Enforcement or Counterintelligence.  Here's what I'd be tempted to do if I were President Trump:  I'd direct the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel to investigate Iran's efforts to acquire nuclear weapons, including any Obama-administration collusion in that enterprise.  I would make sure to call it a "counterintelligence investigation," putting no limitations on the special counsel — just as with the investigation that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has been unleashed to conduct into Trump "collusion" with Russia.  That is, I would not restrict the prosecutor and investigators to digging for specified criminal violations.  Or, indeed, any criminal violations.  I'd just tell the special counsel, "Have at it" — with unbound authority to scrutinize the negotiations surrounding the eventual Iran nuclear deal (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).

Menendez trial:  An Obama failure to punish an enemy.  Bad as the 18 corruption charges against New Jersey's Sen. Bob Menendez were, the original motive behind the Justice Department's prosecution against him was worse. [...] But as Andrew McCarthy, in an exceptionally astute analysis, points out, the telling point here is in the original reason for the charges at all:  Menendez angered President Obama, and Obama, banana-republic style, went after him through the Justice Department as payback.  Policy-wise, Menendez wasn't that bad as Democrats go.  He was against Obama's Iran deal, something cooked up by Ben Rhodes and shoved down our throats with admitted lies to ensure that Obama left with some sort of legacy, even as the whole thing meant selling America down the river.

A Hidden Scandal Worse Than Uranium One.  What could be worse than giving 20 percent of our uranium to Russia one might ask?  How about giving a 35-year lease to one of America's largest container ports, located just minutes from the Kennedy Space Center, to a Middle Eastern company with ties to Iran, North Korea, Russia and the evil genius behind Saddam Hussein's nuclear weapons program?  But that's exactly what the same players involved in the Uranium One deal did when they leased the cargo container operations at Port Canaveral, Florida after two years of secret talks with the Obama administration.  Now the Center for Security Policy's dogged and fearless team of Alan Jones and Mary Fanning have revealed exactly what could go wrong, with potentially catastrophic consequences for U.S. national security.

Transparent Lies.  [Scroll down]  Out of the hundreds of thousands captured in the Abbottabad raid, the Obama White House released only a few hundred and falsely characterized these as the entire trove.  An outrageous lie.  Why such secrecy?  There were no national security concerns for the vast bulk of the collection.  The raid wasn't secret — al Qaeda knew we had whatever documents had been held in bin Laden's lair and would adjust accordingly.  Why keep them locked up?  The answer is now clear.  First, bin Laden's terrorist network wasn't the beaten and fugitive force Obama — then seeking reelection — claimed.  Second, the documents proved beyond any reasonable doubt that al Qaeda had an uneasy but mutually beneficial relationship with Iran, and Obama spent much of his second term laboring to convince Americans that the Iranian regime could be trusted.

What Team Obama didn't want you to know about the al Qaeda-Iran alliance.  CIA Director Mike Pompeo has just released hundreds of thousands of documents, long withheld by the Obama administration, that were seized in the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden.  There are no surprise revelations — but they more fully document the years-long extensive cooperation between al Qaeda and Iran that was still ongoing when bin Laden met his end.  And that raises even more disturbing questions about the nuclear deal Team Obama cut — and the real reason these documents weren't disclosed until now.

To Fix Everything Wrong With Obama's Failed Iran Nuke Deal, Trump Had To Decertify It.  In decertifying the Iran nuclear deal, which Obama concluded in 2015 without Congress, Trump now puts the ball in Congress' court.  Under legislation passed by Congress in response to Obama's deeply flawed Iran treaty — a deal so bad he didn't even dare submit it to Congress for approval — Congress now has 60 days to determine whether to reimpose sanctions on Iran, to withdraw from what most unbiased observers would agree is a very bad deal, or to come up with a plan that will actually work to keep Iran from getting nuclear weapons.

Senator Tom Cotton Talks About Potential for De-Certifying Iran Deal.  There is a myriad of complexity within the Iran issue that extends beyond the substantive issue of whether or not President Trump should again certify compliance with the Iran Nuclear Deal.  For clarity, President Trump would not be ending the deal or ending the agreement.  The President is required (every 90 days) to certify if Iran is upholding the terms of the nuclear agreement.  The next certification is due on October 15th.  If President Trump does not, because he cannot, certify compliance — he notifies congress.  It's up to congress to decide what to do from there.  Therefore President Trump would not be "tearing up" the agreement, nor would he be "ending the agreement", he would simply be notifying congress of the compliance of Iran, or lack thereof, according to the monitoring agencies that report to the President.  That's it.

White House:  Bob Corker 'Rolled Out The Red Carpet for the Iran Deal'.  White House press secretary Sarah Sanders criticized Sen. Bob Corker during the White House press briefing on Tuesday, accusing him of helping the Obama administration pass the Iran deal.  "Senator Corker worked with Nancy Pelosi and the Obama administration to pave the way for that legislation and basically rolled out the red carpet for the Iran deal," Sanders said in response to questions about Corker.  "Those are pretty factual."  When asked by a reporter later if she stood by that statement she replied, "I do, I just made it about ten minutes ago."

Peace parody:  Will Nobel Prize honor demented diplomacy?  What a coincidence.  Just as President Trump gets ready to disclose his decision on the Iran nuclear deal, speculation is rife that the Nobel Peace Prize will go to the pact's architects, including Iran's foreign minister and his pal John Kerry.  The prize, to be announced Friday [10/6/2017], is given by a committee picked by Norway's parliament.  Bloomberg News reports that the handicappers at the Peace Research Institute Oslo put the Iranian plenipotentiary, Mohammad Javad Zarif, at the top of the list.  It's a long list, to be sure, with 318 candidates from all over the globe.  Speculation, though, centers on Zarif and Kerry, as well as Federica Mogherini, who is Europe's foreign affairs chief and was up to her eyeballs in the Iran deal.

Time for Trump to Decertify the Iran Deal.  In normal times, devoid of mass murderers and endless natural disasters, the looming October 15 certification decision on this deal would be front and center in the national consciousness.  It still should be because, ultimately, it is even more important than hurricanes and psychopathic killers.  It's about nuclear war.  The biggest mistake of the Obama years was not the Affordable Care Act — that can be fixed eventually — but the Iran deal, which has already resulted in massive catastrophe, causing irreparable damage.  Iran, financially enriched by the agreement, has been able to play a growing and truly evil role throughout the Middle East (and even South America), but especially in the unending Syrian civil war through its brutal own Revolutionary Guard and its bloodthirsty Hezbollah cutouts.  This war has undoubtedly changed the character of Europe forever by creating millions of refugees.  Every one of our lives has been or will be affected by it, directly or indirectly.

Obama's Iran Deal bears Fruit -- For Hezbollah -- What Could Possibly Go Wrong?  It was absolute insanity to release funding to Iran, who has been supporting terrorism around the world, specifically targeted against America and Israel.  Obama and his handlers were either profoundly ignorant of the reality of Iran's support for terror, or were well aware and simply chose to ignore it in some vanity-driven desire to be seen by the international peace community as important players in World Peace™.  There is a third possibility, that they knew quite well that Hezbollah would be energized and funded, and that was part of the plan.

Iran Pays $830 Million to Hezbollah.  Two years after the nuclear deal was signed by Iran and world powers, the Islamic Republic is reported to have boosted its financial support to Hezbollah to $800 million a year, a dramatic increase from the $200m.  it was said to be giving its proxy when sanctions were in place.  Hezbollah, one of the most prominent terrorist organizations in the world, has become bogged down fighting in Syria for Bashar Assad.  Of its approximately 22,000 fighters, about 7,000 are fighting for the Assad regime, and some 2,000 have been killed in the four years the group has spent in Syria.

China provides $10 billion credit line to Iran.  A Chinese state-owned investment firm has provided a $10 billion credit line for Iranian banks, Iran's central bank president said Saturday.  The contract was signed in Beijing between China's CITIC investment group and a delegation of Iranian banks led by central bank president Valiollah Seif.

Did Susan Rice Spy on Trump Officials for Muslim Brotherhood?  After months of denials, the pretext for Susan Rice's eavesdropping on Trump officials has finally been made public.  It had been widely known that Obama's former National Security Adviser had contrived to unmask the names of top Trump officials who had been spied on by the administration.  And the same media that still treats Watergate as the Great American Scandal had claimed that there was nothing "improper" in an Obama loyalist eavesdropping on members of the opposition party. [...] Obama and his minions had used the NSA to spy on Americans opposed to its policies.  Including members of Congress.  They did this by conflating their own political agenda with national security.  Since Obama's spin was that the Iran Deal was good for national security, opponents of it were a "national security" threat.  And its fig leaf for domestic surveillance was that a "foreign leader" was involved.

Iranian Spy Service Threatening, Blackmailing Global Media Outlets.  Iran's clandestine spy network has been threatening and blackmailing scores of journalists, even going so far as to detain and threaten the family members of these reporters, in order to ensure positive coverage in global media outlets, according to a new report that estimates at least 50 international journalists have been threatened in just the past year.

Nikki Haley:  Trump Has Grounds to Declare Iran in Violation of Nuclear Deal.  U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Tuesday said President Donald Trump would be justified if he denied Iranian compliance to the nuclear accord when it comes up for a quarterly review next month, though she said she does not know what Trump will decide.  In a speech at the American Enterprise Institute think tank in Washington, D.C., Haley detailed a strong case for Trump to declare Iran in violation of the agreement, warning the United States will be "dealing with the next North Korea" if the regime is left unchecked.

Iran [is] a Far Greater Threat Than North Korea, Warns Scholar.  If the U.S. stays on its present path, Iran will emerge in the coming years as a far more ominous nuclear threat than North Korea, a Heritage Foundation scholar said Wednesday [8/30/2017].  "If you like what North Korea is doing today, you're going to love what Iran is going to be doing a few years down the road," said James Phillips, a senior research fellow.  The Obama administration, a handful of international partners, Russia and Iran agreed to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2015, which dictated that Iran significantly curb nuclear operations in return for the lifting of international economic sanctions.  The agreement dealt an estimated $100 billion in sanctions relief and unfrozen assets to Iran.

Iran to increase missile power, threaten neighbors, the world.  After signing a nuclear "deal" with world powers which allows the Islamic Republic of Iran to eventually get nuclear weapons in a period of years, today [9/2/2017] Iran said its priority is to increase its missile power, and export these weapons to clients in the Middle East, to further threaten Israel and American allies in the region.  Iran's new defense minister, General Amir Hatami, was quoted by the ISNO news agency in a speech and said, "In combat fields, especially in missiles, we have a specific plan to boost Iran's missile power," reported AFP.

How to Get Out of the Iran Nuclear Deal.  Although candidate Donald Trump repeatedly criticized Barack Obama's Iran nuclear agreement, his administration has twice decided to remain in the deal.  It so certified to Congress, most recently in July, as required by law.  Before the second certification, Trump asked repeatedly for alternatives to acquiescing yet again in a policy he clearly abhorred.  But no such options were forthcoming, despite "a sharp series of exchanges" between the president and his advisers, as the New York Times and similar press reports characterized it.  Many outside the administration wondered how this was possible:  Was Trump in control, or were his advisers?

Obama's Iran Nuclear Deal Threatens The U.S. — Trump Should Pull Out.  Barring a dramatic change in Iran's behavior, Trump should pull out of the six-powers nuclear agreement with Iran, a bad deal that will soon result in a workable nuclear weapon in the hands of Iran's murderous mullahs.  Iran is already testing launched-delivery missiles for a nuclear weapon, contrary to the 2015 agreement, in part financing it with money freed up by President Obama's removal of financial sanctions.

The New Meaning of Treason.  The Iranian regime is of course an avowed enemy of the United States.  It seeks death to America.  Yet no one in the world did more to preserve it and prop it up than Obama.  We will be trying to live with the consequences of Obama's assistance to Iran for a long time to come.

Obama's gone, so it's time to deal with Iran.  Every 90 days, the State Department must certify whether Iran is complying with the nuclear deal that former President Barack Obama struck with the Tehran tyranny in 2015.  Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is approaching one of these 90-day deadlines.  Instead of rubber-stamping re-certification, as his predecessor John Kerry did regardless of Iran's behavior, Tillerson should finally do something the U.S. government hasn't been doing for years.  He should tell the truth about Iran's flagrant noncompliance with the deal, thus opening the way for Congress to impose sanctions against the rogue regime.

How Obama Dismantled U.S. Intel Capabilities To Appease Iran.  Now that President Barack Hussein Obama is out of office, a number of disturbing things have surfaced about Obama's signature foreign policy achievement, known as the Iran Deal.  Among other things, in his lust for the Iran deal at any cost, President Obama dismantled U.S. intel capabilities being used against Iran and its terrorist satellites and proxies.

Another Iran deal low for the Obama administration.  Just a week after the US Senate failed to stop the Iran nuclear deal, Tehran launched a major cyberattack on the State Department — and the Obama administration kept it secret.  The Washington Free Beacon broke the story last week, revealing that Team Obama was even more craven than we'd thought.  The two sides were then still negotiating the "side deals" to finalize the accord; it wasn't too late to stop it.  And the attack showed that Iran wouldn't remotely begin to moderate its ways, as the Obamaites had hoped.

Former Official:  Obama Admin 'Systematically Disbanded' Units Investigating Iran's Terrorism Financing Networks.  The Obama administration "systematically disbanded" law enforcement investigative units across the federal government focused on disrupting Iranian, Syrian, and Venezuelan terrorism financing networks out of concern the work could cause friction with Iranian officials and scuttle the nuclear deal with Iran, according to a former U.S. official who spent decades dismantling terrorist financial networks.  David Asher, who previously served as an adviser to Gen. John Allen at the Defense and State Departments, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee Thursday [6/8/2017] that top officials across several key law enforcement and intelligence agencies in the Obama administration "systematically disbanded" law enforcement activities targeting the terrorism financing operations of Iran, Hezbollah, and Venezuela in the lead-up to and during the nuclear negotiations with Tehran.

Former Official:  Obama Admin 'Systematically Disbanded' Units Investigating Iran's Terrorism Financing Networks.  The Obama administration "systematically disbanded" law enforcement investigative units across the federal government focused on disrupting Iranian, Syrian, and Venezuelan terrorism financing networks out of concern the work could cause friction with Iranian officials and scuttle the nuclear deal with Iran, according to a former U.S. official who spent decades dismantling terrorist financial networks.

Obama Admin Did Not Publicly Disclose Iran Cyber-Attack During 'Side-Deal' Nuclear Negotiations.  State Department officials determined that Iran hacked their emails and social media accounts during a particularly sensitive week for the nuclear deal in the fall of 2015, according to multiple sources familiar with the details of the cyber attack.  The attack took place within days of the deal overcoming opposition in Congress in late September that year.  That same week, Iranian officials and negotiators for the United States and other world powers were beginning the process of hashing out a series of agreements allowing Tehran to meet previously determined implementation deadlines.  Critics regard these agreements as "secret side deals" and "loopholes" initially disclosed only to Congress.

Obama submarined Bush with a back channel to Iran — but the new 'Kushner' theme isn't even that.  The only real purpose of recalling this Obama gambit from 2008 is to highlight the hypocrisy of Democrats in 2017, bewailing the suggestion that Jared Kushner, a member of Trump's transition team, wanted to open a back channel to Russian contacts in December 2016.  Why is that the only real purpose?  Largely because the two cases are different in important ways.  Partly because in neither case is there evidence of a prosecutable offense.  But if you want to argue for these back-channel-opening capers as prosecutable offenses, Obama's was worse.  And that's partly because there is credible evidence that it actually happened.

How Barack Obama Conspired With an Enemy to Undermine US Foreign Policy.  [Scroll down]  So Obama secretly told the mullahs not to make a deal until he assumed the presidency, when they would be able to make a better agreement.  Which is exactly what happened:  Obama abandoned the requirement that Iran stop enriching uranium, so that Iran's nuclear program has sped ahead over the months and years that negotiations have dragged on.

Team Obama's Most Humiliating Display.  [Scroll down]  These sacrifices were made in observance of Barack Obama's foremost foreign policy objective:  bringing the Islamic Republic of Iran in from the cold.  Toward that end, Obama was silent when the Basij militia crushed Iran's "green revolutionaries" in 2009.  Toward that end, Obama released Iranian prisoners classified as threats to American national security.  Toward that end, Obama unfroze $100 billion in Iranian assets and lifted sanctions on the regime.  In response, Iran has cracked down on expressions of youthful rebellion, increased the tempo of executions, and stifled dissent among Iranian intellectuals with a campaign of arrests.

Iran Using U.S. Cash to Fund Unprecedented, Massive Military Buildup.  Iran is using the billions in cash resources provided under the landmark nuclear deal to engage in an unprecedented military buildup meant to transform the Islamic Republic's fighting force into an "offensive" juggernaut, according to a largely unreported announcement by Iranian military leaders that has sparked concern among U.S. national security insiders and sources on Capitol Hill.  Iranian officials announced late last month that Iran's defense budget had increased by 145 percent under President Hassan Rouhani and that the military is moving forward with a massive restructuring effort aimed at making it "a forward moving force," according to regional reports.  Iranian leaders have stated since the Iran deal was enacted that they are using the massive amounts of cash released under the agreement to fund the purchase of new military equipment and other armaments.

You Gotta Lie.  We keep learning about all sorts of disturbing and leaked secret side agreements to the Iran Deal.  Without them, the progressive agenda underlying the concessions was bound to be unpalatable to the American people:  secret nocturnal cash ransoms to obtain American hostages (hostage-taking is an Iranian theocratic specialty), secret side deals with international agencies to define down on-site inspections, and secret "flexibility" on Iran ballistic-missile development.  But on a deeper level, the Obama administration apparently either did not believe that Iran was a truly belligerent, anti-American theocracy bent on a baleful Middle East hegemony through acquiring nuclear weapons, or else assumed that Iran's regional ambitions were understandable and morally equivalent to any large nation's desire for such strategic influence.  Either way, the results were deception and lies rather than honesty about these assumptions.

News on Iranian prisoners released by Obama.  President Obama released several prisoners as part of an exchange with Iran, as part of the Iran nuclear agreement.  The prisoners being released "were not charged with terrorism or any violent offenses," according to the administration.  But a recent report by Politico shows that the release of some Iranian-born prisoners as part of the deal was broadly misrepresented by the Obama administration.

Obama lied — and now the truth.  So how much of our money did Obama ship to the terrorist regime in Iran?  We hear $150 billion.  We are not sure.  Could be a dollar less, a dollar more.  We'll never know for sure.  That's because his entire administration operated in the dark.  That's how he governed and that's how he got himself elected, in lies and in stealth, and the news media did the rest.  They covered for him.  They let him get away with murder — and in this case, that is not a cliché, it's fact.

Benedict Arnold Obama.  Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson certified that Iran was compliant with its commitments under the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known more formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). However, this is only because of all the concessions that the Obama administration had made, which lowered the bar for Iran's technical compliance to an absurdly low level.  Indeed, Barack Obama's concessions to the Iran regime, which he offered in order to secure Iran's agreement on the terms of the disastrous JCPOA, seem to have no bounds.  The result is that Iran is marching ahead with perfecting key elements of a full nuclear weapons program, while already receiving many of the benefits of sanctions relief afforded by the JCPOA.

Nets Censor Blockbuster Expose on Obama's Hidden Iran Deal Secrets.  While ABC, CBS and NBC on Monday [4/24/2017] and Tuesday found time to celebrate the return of "easy-going," rested Barack Obama to the public scene, none of them covered the release of a blockbuster expose that reveals the buried secrets of the ex-President's Iran deal giveaway.  Politico senior investigative reporter Josh Meyer authored a more than 7300-word bombshell showing that Obama secretly released 21 Iranian prisoners (not the seven originally claimed), men who were deeply involved in Iran's missile and nuclear program.  On Tuesday morning, despite a combined eight hours of air time, ABC's Good Morning America, CBS This Morning and NBC's Today avoided the topic.

Addicted to uranium.  Iran is said to be about to renew a petition to import 950 tons of yellowcake, the raw material from which uranium is extracted.  The U.S. State Department has issued a perfunctory statement verifying conformity, but Secretary of State Rex Tillerson put his own, hard-boiled mark on the process:  "The [nuclear deal] fails to achieve the objective of a non-nuclear Iran; it only delays their goal of becoming a nuclear state.  The Trump administration has no intention of passing the buck to a future administration on Iran."  Given the mullahs' history of deception, if President Trump intends to retrieve the buck that Barack Obama passed on as his legacy achievement, he is entitled to assume Iran is guilty until the mullahs can prove otherwise.

Obama's hidden Iran deal giveaway.  When President Barack Obama announced the "one-time gesture" of releasing Iranian-born prisoners who "were not charged with terrorism or any violent offenses" last year, his administration presented the move as a modest trade-off for the greater good of the Iran nuclear agreement and Tehran's pledge to free five Americans.  "Iran had a significantly higher number of individuals, of course, at the beginning of this negotiation that they would have liked to have seen released," one senior Obama administration official told reporters in a background briefing arranged by the White House, adding that "we were able to winnow that down to these seven individuals, six of whom are Iranian-Americans."  But Obama, the senior official and other administration representatives weren't telling the whole story on Jan. 17, 2016, in their highly choreographed rollout of the prisoner swap and simultaneous implementation of the six-party nuclear deal, according to a Politico investigation.

Time for a Congressional Investigation of the Iran Deal.  The Iranians, both through their ideology and evident actions in progress across the globe, are truly imperialistic in their intentions.  They seek to rule the Middle East, if not the world, in the name of their millenialist brand of Shia Islam.  That is why Josh Meyer's lengthy article — "Barack Obama's hidden Iran deal giveaway" — is of tremendous importance.  Meyer — using named sources — discovered that Obama essentially lied to us about the nature of the seven men (Iranian and Iranian-American) that were released by our government through the agreement, saying they were insignificant "civilians."

Obama Lied, Americans Died:  Released Iranians Tied to Terror, Nuclear Proliferation.  Former President Barack Obama lied to the American people about the infamous prisoner swap that was part of the Iran deal in 2016, and released fugitives who were considered major national security threats, according to an investigative report by Politico.  "Obama, the senior official and other administration representatives weren't telling the whole story on Jan. 17, 2016, in their highly choreographed rollout of the prisoner swap and simultaneous implementation of the six-party nuclear deal," Politico's Josh Meyer reports.  The seven men released on that day as a "humanitarian" gesture were deeply tied to Iran's nuclear arms efforts, and one was connected with procurement for improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that killed American soldiers in Iraq.

More Obama Lies About The Iran Nuclear Deal Exposed.  Not only did the Obama administration negotiate the agreement without a guarantee Iran wouldn't eventually build a nuclear bomb, President Obama and his State Department approved a number of secret side deals that have been exposed in the aftermath of negotiations.  One of those secret deals included $400 billion in cash sent to Tehran in the middle of the night on an airplane.  When caught, the administration initially denied the transaction and then later admitted much of the untraceable cash would likely to go to terrorism.  After all, Iran is the world's most prolific state-sponsor of terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah.  But now, we're learning more about the details of the Iran nuclear agreement and the threats it poses to the future of U.S. and global security.

Mark Levin:  New Info Shows Obama Lied About Iran Deal.  "Barack Obama has done more damage to America that Putin could do on his best day," he continued.  "Barack Obama did more damage to our national security, the military, border security, police, than any foreign enemy or opponent could possibly achieve.  This is a stunning story.  It gags me to say to Politico:  I tip my hat, for once."

The Obama Administration's Iran-Deal Duplicity.  In January 2016, the Obama administration released seven Iranian-born prisoners in what President Barack Obama called a "one-time" "humanitarian gesture" intended to sweeten the nuclear deal hammered out between Washington, D.C., and Tehran.  The prisoners — who Josh Earnest insisted were guilty only of "sanctions violations or violations of the trade embargo" — were exchanged for five Americans, unjustly held by Iran since as early as 2011.  In fact, some of the Iranian prisoners were national-security threats, and it wasn't a straight prisoner swap:  The Wall Street Journal revealed that on the day of the exchange the U.S. flew $400 million in cash on an unmarked cargo plane to Iran.

Obama's Iran Deal Was Much Worse Than We Suspected.  What if Donald Trump had unilaterally shut down every investigation into Russian espionage, released over 20 suspected Russian spies, struck a deal to get rid of sanctions against Russia — in return for honoring deals that had been signed years before — and then lied to the American people about the entire episode?  That's the Obama Administration's Iran deal.  It might have been the first time the United States has offered extensive concessions to a nation that has continued to destabilize its interests, for nothing in return.  But Barack Obama didn't just support Iran's position over our allies like Israel (no surprise there, considering his antagonism) or Sunni nations — he supported it ahead of his own Justice Department's 30-year counterproliferation efforts.

The Iran Nuclear Deal:  Worse Than We Imagined.  Regardless of how the Obama administration described their nuclear deal with Iran, it increasingly looks like history will judge the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) as being as bad as or worse than the 1994 Agreed Framework with North Korea. [...] Two new revelations highlight just how dishonest senior Obama administration officials — especially Secretary of State John Kerry and his immediate staff — were in their handling of Iran.

Obama's hidden Iran deal giveaway.  When President Barack Obama announced the "one-time gesture" of releasing Iranian-born prisoners who "were not charged with terrorism or any violent offenses" last year, his administration presented the move as a modest trade-off for the greater good of the Iran nuclear agreement and Tehran's pledge to free five Americans.  "Iran had a significantly higher number of individuals, of course, at the beginning of this negotiation that they would have liked to have seen released," one senior Obama administration official told reporters in a background briefing arranged by the White House, adding that "we were able to winnow that down to these seven individuals, six of whom are Iranian-Americans."

Time To Reveal Obama's Secret Side Deals With Iran.  Yesterday [4/19/2017], President Trump's Administration gave its first assessment of Iran's compliance with Obama's Iran Nuclear Weapons deal.  It was a sober, honest assessment — as far as it went — and no doubt pleased the CFR crowd immensely.  You can see Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's remarks on Iran through this link and they are worth watching Obama Pentagon for both what is said and what is left unsaid.  Tillerson said at a brief press conference that the Iran deal "fails to achieve the objective of a non-nuclear Iran," and only delays it becoming a nuclear state.  As Fox News noted, he faulted the agreement for "buying off" a foreign power with nuclear ambitions, saying:  "We just don't see that that's a prudent way to be dealing with Iran."

After Syrian Gassing, Trump Must Expose the Iran Deal.  Among the more disturbing questions emerging from the renewed use of gas by Bashar Assad is whether Barack Obama and his loyal minions (Kerry, Rhodes, Rice, etc.) actually knew the Syrian leader still had chemical weapons, even though they trumpeted the opposite to the American public on numerous occasions.  Either they lied or were so extraordinarily credulous they believed — apparently without verification — the Syrians had truly rid themselves of those WMDs, in which case Obama — not Trump — was Vladimir Putin's personal "useful idiot."

State Dept.: Sanctions Alone Not Enough to Stop Iran's Missile Program.  Sanctions on Iran are not enough to stop the country's illicit ballistic missile program, according to senior State Department officials, who said on Thursday that a new package of sanctions targeting the Islamic Republic would not halt the country's missile development.  The Trump administration announced earlier this month a large package of sanctions targeting Iran, Syria, and North Korea for their efforts to transfer illicit materials and technology.

Iran Installs Advanced Anti-Aircraft Missiles... Around "Iran Deal" Site.  Right after the Iran Deal was signed by President Obama — who is the only person to have signed it, as the Iranian parliament passed an alternative version that calls for the end of Israel's nuclear program rather than their own — Russia announced the sale of advanced S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Iran.  These missiles are not Russia's state of the art missiles, but they are good enough to be thought capable of taking down everything in Israel's air force.  In the United States, only three aircraft are thought good enough to evade them:  the F-22, the F-35, and the B-2 bomber.  Deploying these missiles, in other words, is a major hedge against airstrikes by either Israel or the United States on an Iranian facility.  So where are they being deployed?  Right around the Fordow nuclear site.

New Report Shows Iran's Revolutionary Guards Profiting from Iran Deal.  A new report from the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies showcases the ways in which Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has benefited from the so-called nuclear deal.  This deal, which Congress never voted to approve nor reject, and which the Iranian government fundamentally altered rather than accepting, has nevertheless led to a vast transfer of wealth to Iran.  Much of that wealth has fallen right in the hands of the IRGC, which oversees Iran's terrorist and military nuclear programs.

Was Obama simply a hoax?  The revelation making the rounds again about Obama, how he sneaked through $221 million to his terrorist friends the Palestinian Authority during the last hours of his presidency, makes it elaborately clear that he was always in it for himself and for his pals.  For eight years Israel was betrayed and America was duped by a charmer. [...] He armed Iran to the teeth.  The mullahs grow bolder and now Obama's generosity is President Trump's problem.  Where did Obama get the money to enrich all those terrorists?  Came from our pockets — the Constitution [notwithstanding], according to Obama and the news media that babied him every single day for eight years.  All by himself Obama proclaimed that he did not even need Congress.  He said, "I've got a pen and I've got a phone" — so forget the rules.

Obama's Legacy, a Nuclear Iran?  There is little doubt that Barak Obama deems the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) of July 2015 to be his crowning foreign policy achievement and an important pillar of his presidential legacy.  To his mind, the deal is a shining nonproliferation success story achieved via peaceful diplomacy and an important catalyst to improving decades-long, moribund U.S.-Iranian relations.  But, Obama's assessment is wrong.  The JCPOA has many flaws and weaknesses, and it is important to assess the president's role in the process that produced this dubious deal:  What happened on the ground; how Obama's perceptions of nuclear disarmament colored his attitudes toward Iran, and the tactics he used to marginalize criticism and mobilize support for a flawed deal at the domestic level.  It is equally important to examine to what lengths the president went in order to protect his problematic deal after it was presented, and at what cost.  What legacy on Iran has Obama left for the next administration?

The Pawns of Iran's Security Apparatus.  Iran's high-profile release of five imprisoned U.S. citizens in January 2016 marked a moment of detente between the United States and Iran, timed to coincide with Washington's suspension of wide-ranging economic sanctions.  Over the past year, however, Iran has continued to arrest people with Western citizenship or residence, more than making up for those it released in January.  Whereas Tehran ended 2015 with 11 acknowledged Western prisoners, that number was up to 16 by the end of 2016 — and that's only the prisoners whom the public knows about.

We Apparently Paid A Really Big Ransom To Iran For Our Hostages.  Back in September, AEI's Michael Rubin "testified before the House Financial Services Committee on the allegation that the Obama administration had paid Iran a ransom — at the time it was believed to be $400 million but it was later revealed that the figure was more than three times that amount — in cash for the release of American hostages held by Iran."

Obama's Iranian Partners in Peace:  Now Is the Time for a Holy War to Eradicate the Israeli "Cancer".  Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday [2/21/2017] described Israel as a "cancerous tumor" and called for a "holy intifada" to destroy the Jewish state.  Khamenei's latest threat came in a speech introducing the regime's sixth conference in support of a Palestinian intifada, or violent uprising against Israel.  The conference was held in Tehran and had seats reserved for the heads of the terrorist groups Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas, and Hezbollah, according to The New York Times.  All three groups have received funds, intelligence, and weapons from Iran.

Remember when candidate Obama secretly communicated with Iran?  Let's travel back to 2008 when then candidate Obama was sending secret emissaries to Tehran.  Remember hearing about that? [...] At the time, Democrats were howling over Senator Tom Cotton and 46 other Republicans signing on to a letter to the Ayatollah regarding the Iran Deal.  And once again, it becomes necessary to put a little perspective on current events.

How Deep Was the Obama-Iran Relationship?  The Obama administration's effort to engage Iran remained a matter of suspicion until the 44th American president left the White House.  Concerns began mounting especially after Obama turned his back on the 2009 uprising in parallel to the revelation of secret correspondence with Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.  As more light is shed, the more we realize how far this relationship expanded.  Known members of Iran's lobbies and others enjoyed unprecedented access to the White House.  This new knowledge calls for a complete overhaul of the corrupt U.S. foreign policy establishment.

Company Doing Business With Iran Set to Get Billions in Tax Breaks.  A major airline company currently engaged in business with Iran, the leading state sponsor of terrorism, stands to receive billions in tax breaks under a new plan being floated by a large coalition of Republican lawmakers.  A new tax plan spearheaded by House Republicans includes a provision that would remove government fees on exports, meaning that Boeing — which is locked in a multi-billion dollar deal to sell the Islamic Republic planes — could receive $56.7 billion in tax breaks from the U.S. taxpayer.  Boeing is currently lobbying in favor of the revamped tax plan, along with other multinational corporations.

Time for Trump to Release Full Details of the Iran Nuclear Deal.  Does anyone know what's really in the Iran nuclear deal with all its unpublished side agreements and secret verbal pledges?  Certainly not the American public, on whose behalf it was putatively negotiated.  And probably not most, if not all, members of Congress who were bypassed in its negotiation and "signing" in a manner that doesn't seem remotely constitutional.

Thank Obama for Iranian Missile Tests.  There is great shrieking from the "international community" over Iran's ballistic missile test over the weekend, the latest of what the Wall Street Journal reports is nearly a dozen such tests since President Obama's Iran nuclear deal — the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — went into effect last year. [...] The provocative missile tests further elucidate the obvious:  Iran's nuclear program is about developing nuclear weapons — which Iran will be able to do consistent with the terms of the JCPOA. But regardless of the crying and gnashing of teeth at the emergency meeting, the tests do not violate the JCPOA.  For that, we can thank Barack Obama.

Obama hosted former Iranian official, pro-Tehran lobbyist at White House numerous times.  A lethargy has set in among Western leftists:  anything is tolerated in the pursuit of "peace" and "global harmony," with few, if any, questions asked.  Iran also reportedly received as much as $33.6 BILLION dollars in backroom deal payments facilitated by the Obama administration.

Report: U.S. and Other Countries Agree to Give Iran 116 Tons of Uranium.  According to a report from the Associated Press, six world nations recently agreed to send over a hundred tons of natural uranium to Iran.  The still-secret arrangement was made by the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany to compensate Iran for 70 tons of heavy water exported to the U.S. shortly after the Iran deal was finalized.  There was also a small amount of uranium gifted [sic] to Iran then.  Natural uranium can be enriched for use in power production, but also for the use of nuclear weapons.

The Editor says...
Gift is not a verb.

Mattis Wanted To Strike Iran In Retaliation For Killing US Troops, Obama Denied Him.  Iranian-supplied rockets killed as many as 15 U.S. troops per month in Iraq in the summer of 2011, and Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis had a plan to retaliate.  The Obama administration denied his request.  Six U.S. soldiers were killed in a single such attack in early June of 2011, with another three killed just weeks later.  Mattis, then the commander of U.S. Central Command, had had enough and decided the U.S. must strike back before the Iranian rockets caused further bloodshed.

A Corrupt President Under Foreign Influence.  So, President Obama gave the anti-American, terror-sponsoring Government of Iran over $10 Billion in the last four years and I'm supposed to be bothered because Donald Trump wants peaceful relations with Russia?

U.S. Surrendered More Than $10 Billion in Gold, Cash, Assets to Iran.  Barack Obama kept the Iranian terrorist regime on financial life support long enough to get his reckless nuclear deal — and the sanctions lifted.

Iran: U.S. Surrendered More Than $10 Billion in Gold, Cash, Assets.  The Obama administration has paid Iran more than $10 billion in gold, cash, and other assets since 2013, according to Iranian officials, who disclosed that the White House has been intentionally deflating the total amount paid to the Islamic Republic.  Senior Iranian officials late last week confirmed reports that the total amount of money paid to Iran over the past four years is in excess of $10 billion, a figure that runs counter to official estimates provided by the White House.

The indefensible Cork-screwing of America's Iran policy.  Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn did far more than any of his Republican colleagues in the Senate to fight for a deal that vastly enriched the Islamic supremacist nation of Iran.  In his dealings with President Obama, Corker authored the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015, which undermined the Senate's treaty power in the Constitution.  He provided a path for President Obama to hand over an estimated $150 billion to the mullahs in Tehran, and now Corker wants to make sure his legacy legislation stands.  Sen. Corker wants President-elect Donald Trump to stick with his nuclear deal, which puts Iran on the path to a nuclear bomb in the next decade, according to estimates.

Thanks to our mistakes with Iran, the North Korean threat to the US is at record levels.  For years, right after Iran made news, we could always count on the North Korean dictator's late father, Kim Jong-il, to try and grab headlines with the latest test of the Taepodong Missile, which usually failed on the launch pad or broke apart in pieces over the Pacific Ocean.  The Taepodong Missile is North Korea's version of Iran's Shahab Missile.  In recent years, new ballistic missile tests, additional nuclear tests, and the successful launch of the Unha-3 rocket, tell us a great deal about the current leadership situation in North Korea and the maturity and capability of their technology.

A Disaster He's Proud Of.  The Obama chapter in American foreign policy ends like the climax of an action movie — with a fireball growing in the distance and filling the screen as a man in silhouette approaches in slow motion and then veers off camera.  Barack Obama has set the Middle East on fire, and now it's spreading.  The Obama administration's nuclear agreement with Iran has emboldened the world's leading state sponsor of terror, which now makes war openly in four Arab states (Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen) and is a growing threat to Israel and Saudi Arabia.  The deal with Tehran that Obama boasts of as his signature foreign policy initiative guarantees, as the president himself acknowledged, that Iran will have an industrial-scale nuclear weapons program within 15 years.

Congress Probes FBI Over Top Obama National Security Advisor's Security Clearance.  A top White House national security adviser and key proponent of the Obama administration's diplomacy with Iran is the focus of a congressional inquiry following disclosures the FBI may have denied him top-level security clearances, according to communications exclusively obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.  Ben Rhodes, a White House deputy national security adviser who led the administration's efforts to mislead Congress about the terms of the Iran nuclear agreement, is under scrutiny in the wake of disclosures he was declined interim clearance status by the FBI in 2008, when the administration was moving into the White House.  Since that time, Rhodes has emerged as a key adviser to President Obama and a major player in the administration's efforts to create a self-described pro-Iran deal "echo chamber" to mislead Congress and Americans about the terms of the Iranian nuclear agreement.

Scrap the Iran Nuclear Deal.  As the Obama presidency fades from the scene, its most consequential and catastrophic legacy in foreign affairs is its Iran policy.  Iran's clerical leaders today possess a nuclear infrastructure that is gradually expanding and is blessed by the international community.  For the first time in its modern history, Tehran is in a commanding position from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean.  Iran's leaders continue to castigate the United States from their platforms while their Revolutionary Guards taunt the American armada patrolling international waters.  The incoming Trump administration should not just tinker with this legacy but cast it aside altogether.

'Legacy': 10 Ways Barack Obama Broke the American System.  [#9] Iran deal.  After resisting sanctions on Iran, and holding off on any real action against the Iranian regime when it faced mass protests in 2009, Obama made a deal with Iran in 2015 that removed most sanctions in exchange for a mere temporary slowdown in the Iranian nuclear program.  Worse, he refused to submit it to the Senate for ratification in accordance with the Constitution's Treaty Clause, and Democrats blocked a weaker effort to submit the deal to an overall congressional vote.

Obama Admin Staking Iran Deal Legacy on Doomed Bid to Sell Tehran Aircraft.  The Obama administration is locked in a last minute bid to save last year's nuclear deal with Iran by promoting the delivery of airliners to the Islamic Republic, despite mass opposition in Congress that has moved the administration to engage in a series of public relations maneuvers and backroom deals meant to secure the multi-billion dollar sale, according to multiple sources familiar with the administration's thinking who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon.  The Obama administration has been scrambling for weeks to provide Iran with assurances the United States will continue to grant Iran vast relief from economic sanctions and help push through deals with Boeing and AirBus, American and French airplane manufacturers, respectively.

Iranian government opens theme park where children learn to shoot U.S., Israel flags:  Report.  The Iranian government has reportedly opened a new theme park where, rather than riding roller coasters or Ferris wheels, children dress up as soldiers and pretend to defend the Islamic republic against its enemies, including Israel and the United States.  The City of Games for Revolutionary Children, located in the city of Mashad, splits children aged 8 to 13 into "squads" of up to 10, The Sun reported.  The platoons complete various themed challenges pertaining to the Iran-Iraq war, the defense of holy shrines and making it through minefields safely.

Flashback: When The Media Swooned Over Obama's Phone Call With Terror Sponsoring Iranian President.  Over the weekend President-elect Donald Trump took a phone call from the President of Taiwan.  The move set off a mainstream media firestorm of criticism, with many news anchors and pundits warning the acceptance of the call could damage U.S. relations with China. [...] Back in 2013 President Obama made direct contact with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani with, you guessed it, a phone call.  The call was initiated by President Obama, not Rouhani.  Iran is listed as the world's largest state sponsor of terror by the State Department and before 9/11, its terrorism offshoot Hezbollah was responsible for more American deaths than any other terrorist organization in the world.

Zumwalt: Obama Used 'Fake News' to Sell the Iran Nuclear Deal.  [Scroll down]  Ben Rhodes, who serves in Obama's inner circle, is described by other White House staffers as "the single most influential voice shaping American foreign policy aside from POTUS himself."  The under forty "Boy Wonder" apparently had the ability to "mind-meld" with Obama.  For this reason, as Obama sought to negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran, Rhodes became the tip of the spear in seeking to influence the media to support the effort.  He apparently cared little about how this was done.

Netanyahu Plans to Team Up with Trump to Rip Up Iran Deal.  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans on speaking with President-elect Donald Trump about the Iran deal after the inauguration, he told a conference audience Sunday [12/4/2016].  Netanyahu publicly clashed with President Barack Obama over the Iranian nuclear deal, traveling to the U.S. to protest the deal before Congress in 2015.  Trump called the deal a "disaster" on numerous occasions throughout the campaign, terming it "the worst deal ever negotiated."

US general sees 'uptick' in bad behavior by Iran since nuke deal.  The top U.S. military commander in the Middle East said Wednesday he has seen a "bit of an uptick" in bad behavior by Iran since the nation's nuclear deal was signed in January.  Army Gen. Joseph Votel said the agreement, which lifted sanctions on Iran in exchange for limits to its nuclear program, was being "implemented appropriately," but that it has not changed Iranian behavior.

Intel: Iran Using Commercial Planes to Smuggle Weapons to Terrorists.  The Obama administration has given clearance to Western airline manufacturers to sell planes to Iran at the same time the Islamic Republic is using commercial airliners to smuggle weapons and other illicit arms to Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon, according to new intelligence and congressional communications obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.  The disclosure of this new intelligence, which shows that Iran has been using its commercial airline company to smuggle advanced weaponry to Hezbollah and terrorists operating in Syria, has placed renewed focus on a congressional inquiry that has been stymied by Obama administration officials since early October.

Obama Says He's Had A Scandal-Free Administration.  Here Are 11 of His Scandals.  [#6] The Obama administration paid ransom to Iran for hostages, and lied to the American people about it.  As the Daily Wire has explained, the Obama administration claimed that they were giving a total of $1.7 billion to Iran to settle a failed arms deal with the previous Iranian regime, and it just happened to coincide with the release of four American hostages.  The Obama administration also didn't reveal the details of the agreement to Congress.  It was obvious though that it was a ransom deal and the Obama administration lied about it.

Obama Admin Covering Up Key Iran Deal Details in Final Days.  Senior Obama administration officials in their final days in office are seeking to cover up key details of the Iran nuclear deal from Congress, according to documents and sources who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon about continued efforts by the White House to block formal investigations into secret diplomacy with Tehran that resulted in a $1.7 billion cash payment by the United States.  As leading members of Congress petition the Obama administration for answers about what many describe as a $1.7 billion "ransom" payment to Iran, Obama administration officials are doubling down on their refusal to answer questions about the secret negotiations with Iran that led to this payment.

Obama's Partners In Peace Smuggling Missile Technology to Hezbollah Using Commercial Airliners.  Iran is smuggling weapons to the terrorist group Hezbollah inside commercial flights to Lebanon, the Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations has charged in a letter to the UN Security Council.  Such actions would violate several Security Council resolutions.  Citing reports from Israel's intelligence agencies, Ambassador Danny Danon wrote that "the Iranian Al-Quds Force packs weapons, ammunition and missile technology to Hezbollah in suitcases and puts them on Mahan Air flights."  The transfer of arms to Hezbollah violates Security Council resolutions 1701, which ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, and 2231, which implemented last year's nuclear deal with Iran.  The arms were either shipped directly to Hezbollah on commercial flights to Lebanon, or flown to Damascus, Syria, and then shipped to the terror group over land, Danon wrote.

Obama Admin Covering Up Key Iran Deal Details in Final Days.  Senior Obama administration officials in their final days in office are seeking to cover up key details of the Iran nuclear deal from Congress, according to documents and sources who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon about continued efforts by the White House to block formal investigations into secret diplomacy with Tehran that resulted in a $1.7 billion cash payment by the United States.  As leading members of Congress petition the Obama administration for answers about what many describe as a $1.7 billion "ransom" payment to Iran, Obama administration officials are doubling down on their refusal to answer questions about the secret negotiations with Iran that led to this payment.

Trump's National Security Picks Want to Air Obama's Iran Secrets.  For years, many Republicans and conservatives have charged that President Barack Obama was shielding embarrassing intelligence and policy details about Iran in order to support the nuclear deal reached last year.  With Donald Trump's upset victory, the party of Lincoln will have an opportunity to declassify and disclose this information.  While no decisions have been made, two early picks to Trump's cabinet suggest this is going to happen.

U.S. Officials 'Concerned' as Iran, Russia Plan $10 Billion Arms Deal.  U.S. officials are expressing concern about a budding arms pact between Iran and Russia estimated to be worth more than $10 billion, according to State Department officials who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon and expressed alarm over the "increased Iranian military capability."  Iran's negotiations with Russia for new weapons and military hardware come after senior officials in Tehran dismissed the recent election of Donald Trump and warned his incoming administration against taking a firmer stance against the Islamic Republic's continued military buildup.

House Lawmakers to Nix Obama Admin-Backed Sale of U.S. Planes to Iran.  Lawmakers in the House are expected to overwhelmingly pass new legislation on Wednesday [11/16/2016] that would prohibit the Obama administration from facilitating the sale of U.S. aircraft to Iran, according to senior congressional sources who told the Washington Free Beacon that Iran is likely to use American-made planes to rebuild its aging air force.  The legislation is viewed as an early test for the incoming Trump administration, which has broadly opposed last year's comprehensive nuclear agreement with Iran and intimated that it would be more confrontational with the Islamic Republic.  Senior congressional sources told the Free Beacon that House leaders scheduled the vote on this bill immediately following the election to signal that lawmakers are frustrated with the Obama administration's ongoing diplomacy with Tehran.

Barack Obama Should be the One Investigated for all His Shady Dealings.  The jury is in:  the Obama administration will go down as the biggest criminal presidential administration in U.S. history.  Laundering $400 million cash into Swiss francs and Euros, palletizing, and shipping off to Iran.  Illegally wiring billions to Iran — and these two incidents are just in the last three weeks or so.

An Arrogant and Lazy Presidency.  The champion of all non-legislative "executive actions" was the controversial Iran nuclear agreement.  As was the case with almost all of his unconventional actions, President Obama tried hard to give this one the appearance of legitimacy.  He "authorized" Secretary of State John Kerry to meet with Iran on multiple occasions, to "hammer out" the fine details of a sensitive agreement to effectively end Iran's nuclear development and prevent the Iranians from acquiring a nuclear weapon.  The deal's actual particulars are not the topic of discussion here.  This is the point, and it's fascinating: the entire Iran nuclear agreement is a private agreement between President Obama and Iran.  It carries no legal weight or significance.  It is not a "treaty," which would have needed to be ratified by two thirds of the Senate.  It never went through the Senate.  It's a nod-nod, wink-wink of zero legal legitimacy.

When the Trump Team Comes Looking for the Secrets of Obama's Iran File.  Thursday's cordial meeting between President-elect Donald Trump and President Barack Obama was a reassuring ritual of democracy.  But Obama was far from convincing when he told Trump "we are now going to do everything we can to help you succeed." There are some highly disparate ideas here about what constitutes success, both foreign and domestic.  There are also big areas in which one might reasonably wonder if Obama and his team are in a quandary over the prospect of a Trump administration inheriting the internal records of the most transparent administration ever.

Iran Once Again Violates Nuclear Deal's Limit on Heavy Water.  Iran has once again violated the cap on the amount of heavy water, nuclear runoff that can be used to produce weaponizable material, it may possess under the terms of the nuclear deal, Reuters reported on Wednesday [11/9/2016].  This is the second time since the implementation of the nuclear deal in January that Iran exceeded the 130 ton threshold on heavy water.  The United States already agreed to purchase 32 tons of heavy water from Iran in April in an effort to allow the Tehran to come back into compliance with the agreement.

A Disruptive yet Ruinous Triumph for the GOP.  Obama's foreign-policy legacy, aside from mounting chaos worldwide, was the Iran nuclear agreement.  By precedent and constitutional norms, this should have been a treaty submitted to the Senate.  Instead, disdainfully and characteristically, he produced it as an executive agreement.  Because the agreement lacks legitimizing ratification by senators, the president-elect will feel uninhibited concerning his promise to repudiate it.

Iran Is Wrong:  Trump Can Absolutely Overturn the Nuclear Deal.  Iranian President Hassan Rouhani claimed Wednesday that there is "no possibility" for the Obama administration's nuclear deal with Iran to be overturned by Trump, despite Trump's threat to do so.  This is an outright lie.  President Barack Obama purposely structured the deal as an executive agreement to make an end-run around Congress, which he knew would oppose the flawed and risky deal.  After his inauguration, Trump would have the authority to revoke the executive agreement.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch Pleads the 5th When Asked Questions About Obama's Iran Ransom Payment.  Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) and Rep. Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.) initially presented Lynch in October with a series of questions about how the cash payment to Iran was approved and delivered.  In an Oct. 24 response, Assistant Attorney General Peter Kadzik responded on Lynch's behalf, refusing to answer the questions and informing the lawmakers that they are barred from publicly disclosing any details about the cash payment, which was bound up in a ransom deal aimed at freeing several American hostages from Iran.

Congress: Attorney General Lynch 'Pleads Fifth' on Secret Iran 'Ransom' Payments.  Attorney General Loretta Lynch is declining to comply with an investigation by leading members of Congress about the Obama administration's secret efforts to send Iran $1.7 billion in cash earlier this year, prompting accusations that Lynch has "pleaded the Fifth" Amendment to avoid incriminating herself over these payments, according to lawmakers and communications exclusively obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.  Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) and Rep. Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.) initially presented Lynch in October with a series of questions about how the cash payment to Iran was approved and delivered.  In an Oct. 24 response, Assistant Attorney General Peter Kadzik responded on Lynch's behalf, refusing to answer the questions and informing the lawmakers that they are barred from publicly disclosing any details about the cash payment, which was bound up in a ransom deal aimed at freeing several American hostages from Iran.

The Clinton/Vatican/Tehran Axis.  Breitbart reported Saturday [10/22/2016] that among the many revealing and damning emails that WikiLeaks has revealed from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, one has "White House chief of staff Denis McDonough responding favorably to an email forwarded to him by Podesta from a leftwing 'Catholic' organization that said it was arranging meetings with Catholic prelates to urge them to press U.S. senators to vote for the Iran Treaty."  This plan was apparently hatched by Fred Rotondaro, chairman of the far-Left and Catholic-in-name-only Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good (CACG), as well as a senior fellow with Podesta's Soros-funded "Islamophobia" propaganda organ, the Center for American Progress.

State Dept Can't Conceive of Iran Using American Prisoners as 'Cash Cows'.  The State Department cannot conceive of Iran using American hostages as "cash cows" in the wake of the January 2016 deal in which American prisoners in Iran were released on the day the United States paid the Islamic Republic $400 million in cash.  State Department spokesman John Kirby was asked about Robin Shahini, an Iranian-American student who has been detained in Iran since July and was sentenced Monday [10/24/2016] to 18 years in prison.

State Dept Defends Kerry Receiving Prize for Iran Nuke Deal.  State Department spokesman John Kirby defended his boss, Secretary of State John Kerry, on Monday for accepting an award for his role in negotiating the Iran nuclear deal along with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.  Kirby and Zarif were given the annual Chatham House Prize for finalizing the agreement in July 2015 and working to implement it in January 2016.  Critics of the deal in the United States say that it does not do enough to curb Iran's nuclear capabilities and gives the Islamic Republic too much sanctions relief without addressing the country's malign activities in the Middle East.

Iran to Add U.S.-Made Aircraft to Its War Fleet.  The Obama administration is forging a pathway for Iran to purchase American-made airliners that are likely to be converted for use in the Islamic Republic's military, drawing concerns on Capitol Hill amid a flurry of recent attacks by Iranian-backed forces on U.S. military assets in the Middle East, according to conversations with lawmakers and fleet information obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.  Iran recently announced that it had struck deals with the U.S. Boeing airline manufacturer and France's AirBus that would permit the companies to transfer technology and provide training to help the Islamic Republic produce equipment that would strengthen its aging fleet of American-made planes.  Iran currently uses at least six Boeing aircraft as part of its air force fleet.

Iran Seeking 'Many Billions of Dollars' in Ransom to Free U.S. Hostages.  Iran is seeking "many billions of dollars" in payments from the United States in exchange for the release of several U.S. hostages still being detained in Iran, according to reports by Iran's state-controlled press that are reigniting debate over the Obama administration's decision earlier this year to pay Iran $1.7 billion in cash.  Senior Iranian officials, including the country's president, have been floating the possibility of further payments from the United States for months.  Since the White House agreed to pay Tehran $1.7 billion in cash earlier this year as part of a deal bound up in the release of American hostages, Iran has captured several more U.S. citizens.  Future payments to Iran could reach as much as $2 billion, according to sources familiar with the matter, who said that Iran is detaining U.S. citizens in Iran's notorious Evin prison where inmates are routinely tortured and abused.

The Most Explosive WikiLeaks Clinton Revelations (So Far).  [#14] Iran nuclear deal was "greatest appeasement since Chamberlain gave Czechoslovakia to Hitler":  [...] Obama and his weird little gang of young advisers thought it would be a great idea to do the opposite of everything his predecessors did, Republican and Democrat alike.  The Clinton group worked in one of those preceding Administrations.  However, Mrs. Clinton and all of her loyal retainers were willing to stifle their objections to Obama's foreign policy in the name of party loyalty[,] even when those objections hinted at a future nuclear war.

The Clinton Record.  Vowing that Mrs. Clinton will "preven[t] Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon," the Clinton presidential campaign website assures Americans that "Hillary will vigorously enforce the nuclear agreement with Iran."  Is this a good thing?  Consider that the agreement's key provisions were as follows:
  •   Iran was permitted to keep more than 5,000 centrifuges.
  •   Iran received $150 billion in sanctions relief.
  •   Russia and China were permitted to supply Iran with weapons.
  •   Iran was given the discretion to block international inspectors from its military installations, and was promised that it would receive 14 days' notice for any request to visit a given site.
  •   Only inspectors from countries that had diplomatic relations with Iran would be given access to Iranian nuclear sites; thus there would be no American inspectors.
  •   An embargo on the sale of weapons to Iran would be officially lifted in 5 years. Iran's intercontinental ballistic missile program would remain intact.
  •   The U.S. pledged that it would provide technical assistance to help Iran develop its nuclear program and protect its nuclear facilities, supposedly for peaceful domestic purposes.
  •   Sanctions would be lifted on critical parts of Iran's military.
  •   Iran was not required to release American prisoners whom it was holding on trumped-up charges.

A Lawless President Made More Secret Deals.  During the so-called "Iran Deal" negotiations, it became known that the State Department had agreed to allow Iran to make a "secret side deal" with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to which the United States would not be a party.  The intent was to dodge a provision of the law governing the "Iran Deal"'s negotiation, a law that President Barack Obama had himself signed into law.  He signed this into law in the hope of avoiding the Constitutional requirement that the Senate should advise and assent to treaties by a two-thirds majority.  The law he negotiated as an alternative to obeying the Constitution required that the entire deal, including any side arrangements, be made available to Congress for consideration before approval.

Obama Aids Iranian Nuclear Terror.  Senator Obama opposed naming Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps a terror group even while it was closely involved in organizing attacks against American soldiers in Iraq.  Then, as part of his dirty deal with Iran, he secretly sent a fortune in foreign cash on airplanes linked to the IRGC.  And, as another part of the secret ransom deal with Iran, he lifted UN sanctions on Bank Sepah.  The United States has gone after plenty of banks for aiding terror finance, but Bank Sepah is somewhat unique in that it is a financial institution actually owned and operated by Islamic terrorists.  Bank Sepah is an IRGC bank.  The IRGC, despite Obama's denials, is an Islamic terror group with American blood on its hands.  It is to Shiite Islam what ISIS is to Sunni Islam.  And even the Democrats know it.

Obama Admin Hiding Secret Hostage Docs Signed With Iranian Intel Officials.  Key documents relating to the Obama administration's secret negotiations with Iran, including a $1.7 billion cash payment, are being stored at a highly secure site on Capitol Hill, preventing the public and many in Congress from accessing them, according to multiple sources who described the situation to the Washington Free Beacon.  The documents are not technically classified but are being kept in a "secure reading space" where the majority of congressional officials cannot access them.  Those cleared are forced to relinquish their cellular devices and are barred from taking notes, undermining the ability of staffers to brief their lawmakers on the contents, according to the sources.

Obama Admin Secretly Facilitated Iranian Ballistic Missile Program.  The Obama administration misled journalists and lawmakers for more than nine months about a secret agreement to lift international sanctions on a critical funding node of Iran's ballistic missile program, as part of a broader "ransom" package earlier this year that involved Iran freeing several U.S. hostages, according to U.S. officials and congressional sources apprised of the situation.  The administration agreed to immediately lift global restrictions on Iran's Bank Sepah — a bank the Treasury Department described in 2007 as the "linchpin of Iran's missile procurement" — eight years before they were to be lifted under last summer's comprehensive nuclear agreement.  U.S. officials initially described the move as a "goodwill gesture" to Iran.

My single biggest takeaway from last night's debate.  Tim Kaine has to be one of the most delusional people I've ever seen.  To say Hillary Clinton stopped or eliminated the Iranian nuclear program is nuts — there is no agreement with the Iranians.  They've violated every bit of that worthless piece of paper.  And Osama bin Laden's death has meant nothing as we've seen a proliferation of the global Islamic jihad.  For Kaine to say Hillary Clinton knows Vladimir Putin... then why did she give him a stupid yellow toy with a red button?  The reset has failed.  This was all about Kaine attempting to attack Pence for being Trump's running mate — he failed miserably.

Kaine and Pence's Rumble.  Most sentient citizens know that the Iran deal is a catastrophe, that it has not stopped that country's fast-track to being a nuclear power anymore than Bill Clinton's "outreach" stopped North Korea from becoming a nuclear power.  The mullahs brag about their victory on that score.  We got skunked by Obama.

The stunning tale of naive weakness that led to the Iran deal.  The full story of President Obama's 2015 Iran deal, which gave Iran more than it could have wished for in its wildest dreams just as its economy was on the verge of collapse, is a stunning tale of weakness, self-deception, wishful thinking and topsy-turvy priorities on the part of Team Obama.  Even the French Socialists called the agreement, which lifts sanctions against Iran in return for that country vowing to back off its nuclear weapons program for 10 years, "a sucker's deal" (before being browbeaten into approving it).  And a former International Atomic Energy Agency weapons inspector said Obama's pact "sets an incredibly bad precedent."

Ryan demands 'immediate explanation' from Obama on secret Iran sanctions deal.  House Speaker Paul Ryan said Friday [9/30/2016] that President Obama "owes the American people an immediate explanation" for its secret decision to lift ballistic missile-related sanctions against two Iranian banks on the same day four U.S. hostages were freed by the Iranian government.  In a statement issued Friday, Ryan accused Obama of violating "a key term of the nuclear deal," recently signed by Iran and the United States, which kept the sanctions in place.

Obama to Rabbis: 'Every Pathway Now Closed Off' to Iran Getting Nuke.  President Obama told rabbis on a conference call to mark Rosh Hashanah, which begins Sunday, that "every pathway to a nuclear weapon is now closed off" to Iran thanks to his administration's "principled diplomacy."  Obama told the rabbis on the call — which was organized by the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Rabbinical Assembly, the Rabbinical Council of America, and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Assembly — that "looking back on the last eight years, I'm both proud of what we've accomplished together, but also mindful of the work we have before us," according to a transcript released by the White House.

Also posted in the catalog of Obama's lies.

Obama Kept Military Out of the Loop on Cash Payments to Iran.  One might think President Barack Obama would have asked his top military officials to weigh in on his administration's decision in January to send $400 million in cash to Iran.  After all, Iran is the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, and terrorists prefer cash to wire payments because it's so difficult to track.  And its armed forces have both directly and indirectly threatened the U.S. military in the Middle East.  But Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry did not consult Secretary of Defense Ash Carter or the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford.  This news came out of a hearing Thursday before the Senate Armed Services Committee.  In response to a question from Republican Senator Ted Cruz about the cash payment to Iran, Carter made it clear that he had been out of the loop.

House approves bill banning cash payments to Iran.  The GOP-led House approved legislation late Thursday to prohibit the United States from making cash payments to Iran and require that Congress be notified before any future claims settlements with Tehran are conducted.  The bill passed by a wide margin, 254-163.

U.S. Begins Granting Licenses for Aircraft Sales to Iran.  The U.S. government began granting licenses to aircraft manufacturers Wednesday morning allowing the sale of passenger jets to Iran as part of last summer's landmark nuclear deal, according to aviation sources.  European company Airbus confirmed to Reuters it had received a U.S. license permitting the company to deliver its first 17 planes, A320 or A330 jets, to Iran.  The Treasury Department is also expected to begin approving sales of Boeing jets within the next few days.  "We understand that the U.S. government has issued Airbus a license to sell aircraft to Iran," Boeing said in a statement.

Obama pledges to veto bill forbidding ransom payments to Iran.  The White House threatened Wednesday [9/21/2016] that President Obama would veto two bills aimed at curbing the impact of his so-called "ransom" payment to Iran for the release of American hostages.  The administration issued the veto warnings against House bills, one that would forbid any future ransom payments to Iran and another that would require public disclosure of the assets of all top Iranian leaders, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.  The House passed the latter bill, the Iranian Leadership Asset Transparency Act, on Wednesday night by a vote of 282-143.  On the ransom measure, the White House said the legislation is trying to solve a problem "that does not exist."

Obama threatens veto of bill to disclose assets of Iranian leaders.  The White House issued a veto threat Wednesday [9/21/2016] against a House bill that would require the federal government to publicly report all assets held by Iran's top leaders, calling the measure "onerous."  The administration said the Iranian Leadership Asset Transparency Act wouldn't stop Tehran from financing terrorism or laundering money, and would spur Iranian officials even more to hide their assets.  Further, the White House said the measure could be "perceived by Iran" as an effort to undermine the administration's nuclear deal with Tehran.

So How Bad was the Iran Bad Deal?  This agreement is all bad, every bit of it, even to the punctuation marks and white space therein; it could have only been negotiated and approved by persons who loathe America and the West.  And it's one more data point on the 5,000 year pile of evidence that appeasement, acquiescence and self-abasement are no source of national success or even survival.

Obama's Three Worst Lies in His Last UN Address.  It was hard to pick only three of the worst lies from Barack Obama's speech today, but we did it.  [Lie #3]  Obama thinks he solved the Iranian nuclear crisis.  He's made it worse.  Look at how much the Iranians respect us now — constantly harassing our ships.  We sure taught them.  His opening paragraph was a massive lie but my favorite was him saying he solved the Iranian nuclear crisis with diplomacy.

Obama Admin 'Laundered' U.S. Cash to Iran Via N.Y. Fed, Euro Banks.  A member of the House Intelligence Committee is accusing the Obama administration of laundering some $1.7 billion in U.S. taxpayer dollars to Iran through a complicated network that included the New York Federal Reserve and several European banks, according to conversations with sources and new information obtained by the lawmaker and viewed by the Washington Free Beacon.  New disclosures made by the Treasury Department to Rep. Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.), a House Intelligence Committee member, show that an initial $400 million cash payment to Iran was wired to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY) and then converted from U.S. dollars into Swiss francs and moved to an account at the Swiss National Bank, according to a copy of communication obtained exclusively by the Free Beacon.

Obama is caught in another lie:
U.S. wire payments to Iran undercut Obama.  The United States made at least two separate payments to the Iranian government via wire transfer within the last 14 months, a Treasury Department spokesman confirmed Saturday [9/17/2016], contradicting explanations from President Barack Obama that such payments were impossible.  Responding to questions at an Aug. 4 press conference about a $400 million payment delivered in cash to the Iranian government, Obama said, "[T]he reason that we had to give them cash is precisely because we are so strict in maintaining sanctions and we do not have a banking relationship with Iran that we couldn't send them a check and we could not wire the money."

Has Nuke Deal Made Iran More Aggressive?  State Department 'Can't Rule That Out'.  A State Department spokesman told reporters on Tuesday [9/13/2016] that "disturbing" actions by Iran — including confrontations at sea and threats to shoot down U.S. planes — "needlessly escalate tensions."  Pressed by Fox News's James Rosen, spokesman Mark Toner also indicated it's possible that the U.S. nuclear deal with Iran has emboldened the Islamic regime:  "Well, again, I don't have all the facts and figures in front of me, but we have seen some disturbing, as you cited, trends," Toner told Rosen.

Report: Obama Admin Provided Iranian Terror Orgs With $37.4 Million in Cash.  Iran is estimated to have spent at least $37.4 million in recent U.S. cash payments to fund its global terrorism operation, including organizations responsible for the murder of U.S. citizens, according to new research provided to the Washington Free Beacon by analysts.  The recent $1.7 billion cash payment to Iran — which is being described by many in Congress as a ransom payment to the Islamic Republic — will be used in part to fund Iran's leading military organization, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which is responsible for orchestrating terror attacks that have killed Americans.  The new research comes amid a growing scandal over the Obama administration's decision to hand Iran billions in cash as part of an effort to secure the release of several U.S. hostages earlier this year.

President Obama's Plane Full of Cash to Iran Recklessly Endangers America.  As part of the disastrous Iran deal, President Obama surreptitiously sent a plane full of cash — $400 million — to the Islamic Republic of Iran.  The bombshell report, detailing how the Administration flew an unmarked cargo plane filled with wooden pallets of cash (stacks of Euros and Swiss Francs) to the leading state sponsor of terrorism, has sent shockwaves through Washington and the rest of America.  The ramifications of this mind-numbingly disastrous move are earth shattering.  More than $400 million was handed over to the Islamic Republic of Iran, the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism.  This cash could be distributed by Iran to Hezbollah or any other terrorist organizations funded by Iran around the world, without any tracking or tracing.

Nets Blackout State Department Admitting Ineffectiveness of Iran Deal.  When the Obama administration finished constructing the Iran nuclear agreement the public was told, and the liberal media supported, claims that the deal would lead to smoother negotiations and interactions with the country.  "Now, under questioning from Fox News, the Obama administration is allowing for the possibility that they were wrong," announced Special Report anchor Bret Baier Tuesday [9/13/2016], "And that the nuclear deal may be making the behavior of the Iranian regime worse."  Even with such a shocking change in position the "Big Three" networks failed to report it.

Congress Suspects Obama Admin Delivered Billions in Cash to Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.  New admissions by the Obama administration that American officials physically handed some $1.7 billion in cash to the Iranian government are fueling a congressional investigation into still-hidden details surrounding the deal, according to congressional sources and previously unreported-on letters seen by the Washington Free Beacon.  Lawmakers now suspect the Obama administration may have dealt with members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and officials from its intelligence ministry when carrying out the cash exchange, which coincided with the release by Iran of several U.S. hostages.

US military:  Iranian behavior getting worse in Persian Gulf.  Iran has stepped up its harassment of U.S. Navy ships in the Persian Gulf, angering the U.S. military and members of Congress.  Since the international nuclear deal with Iran was implemented in early January, the number of incidents involving U.S. and Iranian ships in the Gulf has approximately doubled.  The Navy has counted at least 31 interactions with Iranian naval forces deemed "unsafe," "unprofessional," or both, according to a defense official.  That's about as many such interactions that occurred all of last year, according to statistics provided to Fox News.

Testimony: Secret U.S. Cash Payments to Iran May Have Exceeded $33 Billion Since 2014.  The $1.7 billion cash payment that the White House recently sent to Iran suggests that Washington may have transferred Tehran more than $33 billion in untraceable cash and precious metals since 2014, giving the Islamic Republic greater flexibility to launder money and finance terrorism, a sanctions expert told Congress on Thursday [9/8/2016].  In his testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, Mark Dubowitz, the executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, challenged the White House's claim that it had to transport the money to Iran in a mixture of foreign currencies on plane instead of wiring it because, according to the administration, "we are so strict in maintaining sanctions and we do not have a banking relationship with Iran."  Dubowitz noted that the law governing sanctions against Iran authorizes American financial institutions to facilitate payments intended to settle claims between the U.S. and Iran, and that this exception was used in the past to pay damages incurred when the U.S. accidentally shot down an Iranian airliner in the 1980s.  "Since we know that the $1.7 billion was transferred in cash, it is logical to ask, what other settlements ... have been made in cash?" Dubowitz asked.

The House That Barack Built.  [Scroll down]  The tilt to Iran has not worked.  The U.S.-led coalition has legitimized Iran, treating it as a partner in a one-way deal.  The Iranian nuclear infrastructure still stands.  Presented speciously as take this deal or it is "some form of war," the true basis of comparison was a better deal for the West.  Iran has become more aggressive since signing the agreement, with recent harassments of a U.S. warships by Iranian patrol boats as just one example.  By unfreezing Iran's assets, the U.S. basically is giving the Iranian government an estimated $100-150 billion to be insulted.  The secret delivery of $400 million in cash coinciding with the release of American prisoners by Iran in January looked like ransom, and one can only wonder what other secret agreements there are with that regime.

No, we didn't 'owe' Iran that $1.7 billion ransom payment.  Amid all the fuss over President Obama's "ransom" payment to Iran to free US hostages, less scrutinized is the president's justification for airlifting cash to Tehran:  that we owed them the money.  It deserves more attention, because the administration has failed to make its case.  To review:  On Wednesday [9/7/2016], the Wall Street Journal reported that the Obama administration not only paid $400 million in cash to Iran on Jan. 17, but $1.3 billion more in cash in two subsequent shipments — all in Swiss francs, euros and other currencies.  The administration claims the payments were returning money Iran paid in 1979 under the Foreign Military Sales program for military equipment it ordered but did not receive, plus interest.  It's a misdirection.  And as Congress returns from its recess, it's time to focus on two key questions the administration has been refusing to answer ever since the beginning of the year:  How was the payment calculated, and was it really due?

Obama's Iranian Cash Laundromat.  The U.S. has strict federal Anti-Money Laundering laws, requiring "banks and certain other financial institutions, which tend to have extra-territorial effect, through requirements for US banks to control their relationships with correspondent and shell banks to prevent money laundering."  Nonetheless, the Administration publicly suggested allowing Iran "access to U.S. dollars through offshore clearinghouses."  Was this a new arrangement or the first the public heard about such an arrangement?  What we already know is enough to cause major concerns.  But will we ever find out how much money was Iran given?  Probably not.

Iran May Have Received as Much as $33.6 Billion in Cash, Gold Payments From U.S..  Iran may have received an additional $33.6 billion in secret cash and gold payments facilitated by the Obama administration between 2014 and 2016, according to testimony provided before Congress by an expert on last summer's nuclear agreement with Iran.  Between January 2014 and July 2015, when the Obama administration was hammering out the final details of the nuclear accord, Iran was paid $700 million every month from funds that had previously been frozen by U.S. sanctions.  A total of $11.9 billion was ultimately paid to Iran, but the details surrounding these payments remain shrouded in mystery, according to Mark Dubowitz, executive director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.  In total, "Iran may have received as much as $33.6 billion in cash or in gold and other precious metals," Dubowitz disclosed.

Questions for Loretta Lynch as Congress Starts Probe of Cash Transfers to Iran.  The next chapter in the Obama administration's cash for hostages scandal involves the disclosure that the $1.3 billion it says it sent to the ayatollahs for "interest" payments was flown to the terrorist capital in cash — drawn from a taxpayer funded account on the authorization of the attorney general of America, Loretta Lynch.  Ms. Lynch approved the $1.3 billion payout under a decades-old legal statute that apparently allows the Attorney General to authorize seemingly unlimited funds for the final settlement of claims against America in a foreign court or tribunal, provided she certifies "that it is in the interest of the United States."  Republican leaders in Congress have taken a different view of this deal, denouncing the administration's $1.7 billion settlement with Iran, of which the $1.3 billion is a part.

GOP bill blocks cash payments after $400 million Iran 'ransom'.  House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce introduced a bill Tuesday [9/6/2016] that "makes clear" President Obama violated U.S. policy by paying $400 million in cash in exchange for four U.S. citizens held in Iran.  The legislation would also "ban cash payments to Iran — period," and would require "transparency on future settlements" to ensure they are not used to pay ransom.  Royce has been one of the loudest critics of the payment, which was delivered in cash to Iran before the Americans were allowed to fly out of the country.

Wait — We Paid Iran $1.7 Billion To Release Four Detained Americans, Not $400 Million?  We all know that $400 million was given to the Iranians received only after our citizens were "wheels up" on their way out of the country.  Now, John Solomon at Circa News reported today [9/6/2016] that we forked over $1.7 billion, according to a congressional source who was present at a briefing on the payment today.  The $1.7 billion stems from a settlement concerning an old arms deal that was held in legal limbo after the Shah was overthrown in 1979.  The $400 million figure was originally reported as part of that settlement.  This source, like many at the briefing, was expecting to hear more details about our $400 million non-ransom, leverage payment to the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism.  They weren't expecting a disclosure that the figure was actually much higher.

Obama administration admits paying entire $1.7billion Iran bill in CASH from little-known fund of taxpayer money.  The Obama administration has admitted paying $1.7 billion to Iran entirely in cash to settle a decades-old aborted arms deal.  The payments were made on January 22 and February 5, officials said, weeks after the release of four American prisoners detained in Tehran.  Officials previously admitted flying $400 million in pallets of Euros, Swiss francs and other currency to Iran on January 17, the same day the prisoners were released.

Iran shutters 800 clothing stores over 'inappropriate' attire.  Iran's state TV says police have shut down more than 800 clothing stores across the country for selling "unconventional and inappropriate" attire — believed to mean Western-style outfits and women's clothing that doesn't meet strict Islamic requirements.

Official: 7 Iranian boats came after U.S. ship in the Persian Gulf.  A U.S. coastal patrol ship faced seven Iranian Republican Guard Corps Navy fast in-shore attack craft before swerving to avoid crashing into one on Sunday [9/4/2016], according to a 5th Fleet spokesman.  The incident is the latest in a series of interactions the Navy has called "dangerous and unprofessional" in a year that has seen more run-ins between U.S. and Iranian ships than in recent memory.  Iranian vessels harassed destroyers and PCs in four incidents in late August, resulting in warning shots in one case.

Iranian vessel 'harasses', sails close to U.S. Navy ship in Gulf:  U.S. officials.  A U.S. Navy coastal patrol ship changed course after a fast-attack craft from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps came within 100 yards of it in the central Gulf on Sunday [9/4/2016], U.S. Defense Department officials said on Tuesday [9/6/2016].  It was at least the fourth such incident in less than a month.

Remember the 3 Americans kidnapped in Iraq?  Here's the real story.  About half an hour into their visit, the commander of a Shiite Muslim militia showed up, demanding to know who the Americans were and ordering them to stay put.  At first, the contractors scoffed at the intrusion — they had pistols on their hips and Iraqi Special Forces authorization in their pockets.  "We walk outside and he was right — we can't leave.  There were 40 guys there with heavy weapons," El-Maadawy recalled.  "That's when everything went downhill.  We realized we were going to be taken."  That was the beginning of a 31-day ordeal the Obama administration has never explained, and which is described in detail here for the first time, [...]

Here's how the U.S. Navy will defeat Iran's speedboats.  Four times last week, speedboats belonging to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — a sort of government-sanctioned Islamic militia — harassed four American vessels patrolling the Persian Gulf.  The incidents, while tense, ended bloodlessly.  Still, they offered a glimpse into the kinds of methods Tehran could employ to potentially devastating effect during a shooting war.  Outgunned by the United States' much larger and more sophisticated weaponry, Iran's troops have, for decades, honed so-called "swarm tactics" that could reduce America's technological advantage.

Obama's Greatest Achievement.  [Scroll down] As it works out, everything that Obama said about the deal with Iran during his press conference was a lie.  Some of his lies became apparent within hours.  For instance, Obama falsely claimed that Israel now "acknowledges this has been a game changer and Iran has abided by the deal and they no longer have the sort of short-term breakout capacity that would allow them to develop nuclear weapons."  Hours later, the Defense Ministry issued a stinging rebuke of Obama's claim, parroted more diplomatically by the Prime Minister's Office.  Obama's press conference took place the day after The Wall Street Journal reported that in January 2016, the US sent an unmarked plane to the Tehran airport filled with $400 million in cash, on the same day Iran released four US hostages.

Mark Levin:  Obama Lied and Iran Is On Its Way to Nukes!  Thursday on the Mark Levin program, Conservative Review's Editor-in-Chief read a report indicating the Obama administration cut a secret deal with Iran to permit the terrorist-sponsoring regime to violate restrictions put in place by last year's nuclear deal.  "This is the biggest issue of the day, the biggest issue of the month, the biggest issue of the year!"

Obama buys Iran privacy at $99,999,999.99 a pop.  It was revealed last month that in January the Obama administration had paid $400 million to Iran to resolve a dispute over an arms deal that went bust in 1979.  A few days later the State Department shipped another $1.3 billion to the Islamic Republic for the interest on that amount.  Because the initial payment arrived on the same day that Tehran released four American hostages, it rsuggests that the payment was essentially a ransom.  Iran saw it as such, and Justice Department officials objected to the payments for that reason.

White House rejects claims that U.S. let Iran cheat on nuke deal.  President Barack Obama's administration on Thursday [9/1/2016] flatly rejected claims by a science and security watchdog that U.S. officials have let Iran slide on a few requirements listed in last year's landmark nuclear deal.  Earlier Thursday, the nonprofit Institute for Science and International Security published a report that accused a U.S. special supervisory commission of letting Tehran off the hook on a few mandates in order to get the agreement, called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, implemented this year.

We have a deal with Iran.  So why is it defending a nuclear site with anti-aircraft missiles?  Iran's state-controlled media announced on August 29 that Iran has deployed an advanced Russian surface-to-air missile defense system, the S-300, to protect its underground Fordow uranium enrichment facility from airstrikes.  The S-300 is the most advanced Russian anti-aircraft system that Moscow exports.  It has long been understood that Iran sought these missiles to protect its nuclear sites from airstrikes by the United States and Israel.  So, if the Obama administration's claims are true — that the July 2015 nuclear deal with Iran halted the threat from Iran's nuclear program — why is Iran increasing its defenses of this sensitive nuclear site?  There are two reasons.  First, the nuclear agreement is a fraud.  Second, Tehran is preparing to gut it.

Obama Submits to the Ayatollahs.  [Scroll down]  America gave away the store and told the Iranians that they could do as they pleased, as long as Obama's successors would have to deal with it.  The diplomacy gave us something like a deal.  The Iranians correctly concluded that Obama had granted them power, prestige and legitimacy, to say nothing of a free hand in promoting more terrorism and in developing more advanced weapons to use against the West and against Israel.  And of course, the deal has set in motion a process that will most likely lead to nuclear proliferation in the region.

Why Is Obama Stonewalling on Details of the $1.7 Billion in Iransom Payoffs?  "Confidentiality"?  Yes, that's the State Department's story on why the Obama administration is stonewalling the American people regarding the president's illegal and increasingly suspicious Iransom payoff.  The administration refuses to divulge any further information about the $1.7 billion the president acknowledges paying the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism.

President Obama Said Pallet of Cash to Iran Because "Wire Transfers Not Available" — Records Indicate Wire Transfers Two Days Later.  When the discussion of possible ransom payments to Iran surfaced, everyone was wondering why the U.S. State Department sent pallets of assorted cash currency, totaling $400 million to Iran on January 17th[,] 2016.  The same day the hostages were released.  On August 4th President Obama held a press conference to discuss the controversy and denied it was a "ransom payment".  [Video clip]

Call It Judgment Day:  Obama Faces a Reckoning Over Payments to Iran.  It looks like the Obama administration might yet face some kind of reckoning — in Congress, at least — over its payoff of a long-simmering claim to the Iranian regime.  That's because to do so, the administration tapped a little-known account at the Treasury Department called the Judgment Fund.  It is a special account used to pay out claims against the US government.  The details of how the administration did this, however, are being treated like a state secret. [...] We know, thanks to the Wall Street Journal, that $400 million of that was made in foreign currency, loaded on wooden pallets and delivered in a special cargo plane and functioned as a ransom payment to the mullahs, who had been holding a group of Americans hostage.  The remaining $1.3 billion only started to come into focus when Ms. Rosett discovered the 13 transfers totaling $1.3 billion on a Treasury Department Web site related to the judgment fund.

Also posted under Grounds for Obama's impeachment.

White House:  Iran's actions in the Gulf a cause for concern.  Actions by Iranian vessels in several encounters with U.S. warships in the Gulf this week are cause for concern and increase risks of miscalculation, the White House said on Friday, according to Reuters.  On Thursday, it was revealed that a U.S. Navy coastal patrol ship fired three warning shots at an Iranian ship that sailed within 200 yards in the Northern Persian Gulf.  That incident was one of four close calls this week involving U.S. and Iranian vessels.  The intentions of the Iranian vessels in the incidents is not clear, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in a news briefing, but the behavior is unacceptable and "in a compressed space like the Strait of Hormuz it increases the risk associated with possible miscalculations."  This week's incidents are not the first time that Americans and Iranians have clashed in the Persian Gulf.

State Dept. will 'respect the privacy' of foreign governments on Iran payment.  State Department officials can't release more information on payments made to Iran this year because they have to respect the privacy of foreign governments, a spokeswoman said Wednesday [8/24/2016].  "We do make a practice of not commenting publicly on transactions, including settlement payments, due to the confidential nature of those payments and to respect the privacy of our international partners," State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau told reporters.

Why Obama Let Iran's Green Revolution Fail.  One of the great hypotheticals of Barack Obama's presidency involves the Iranian uprising that began on June 12, 2009, after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was announced the winner of contested presidential elections.  What if the president had done more to help the protesters when the regime appeared to be teetering?  It's well known he was slow to react.  Obama publicly downplayed the prospect of real change at first, saying the candidates whom hundreds of thousands of Iranians were risking their lives to support did not represent fundamental change.  When he finally did speak out, he couldn't bring himself to say the election was stolen:  "The world is watching and inspired by their participation, regardless of what the ultimate outcome of the election was."

Obama White House:  We Don't Know Iran's Intentions For Harassing American Vessels.  As The Daily Wire's Ben Shapiro reported Thursday [8/25/2016], "it emerged that Iran has trailed American Navy vessels in the Persian Gulf.  The Iranian ship came within 200 yards of the American vessels, which fired a warning shot.  This is the second time this week that the Iranians have threatened American ships."  Hours after reports detailed the diplomatic disaster, the White House responded in what can only be described as a dance with delusion.

Confrontations reveal Obama's nuclear deal having little effect on Iran's behavior.  A pair of dangerously close encounters between the Iranian and U.S. navies in the Persian Gulf this week have raised fresh questions about Tehran's intentions, a year after Obama administration officials hoped the much-touted nuclear deal would moderate the behavior of the Islamic republic and its military.  Iran's military is going to "warn" and "confront" any foreign ships entering its territorial waters, the nation's top defense official said Thursday [8/25/2016], after four Iranian fast-attack craft buzzed the guided-missile destroyer USS Nitze in the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, and the USS Squall, a coastal patrol ship, fired three warning shots a day later to deter boats under the command of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard at the northern end of the heavily trafficked waterway.

U.S. Ship Fired Warning Shots at Iranian Vessel in Persian Gulf.  Fox News has confirmed that a U.S. Navy ship fired warning shots at an Iranian vessel that came within 200 yards in the northern Persian Gulf.  Pentagon producer Lucas Tomlinson reports that the incident Wednesday [8/24/2016] involved [the] USS Squall, which is a U.S. Navy coastal patrol ship.  This is the second confirmed incident in two days involving Iranian vessels and U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf.

Iran Says New Missiles Will Be Designed Specifically To Kill US Ships.  Iranian defense minister Brig.  Gen.  Hossein Dehqan announced Sunday [8/21/2016] that his country made significant advances in surface-to-surface missile technology, and is now close to creating its own supersonic cruise missiles.  His statements came during a ceremony unveiling Iran's first home-grown turbojet engine.

Obama Admin Won't Tell Congress How It Paid Iran $1.3 Billion in Taxpayer Funds.  The Obama administration is withholding from Congress details about how $1.3 billion in U.S. taxpayer funds was delivered to Iran, according to conversations with lawmakers, who told the Washington Free Beacon that the administration is now stonewalling an official inquiry into the matter.  The Departments of State, Treasury, and Justice have all rebuffed a congressional probe into the circumstances surrounding the $1.3 billion payment to Iran, which is part of an additional $400 million cash payout that occurred just prior to the release of several U.S. hostages and led to accusations that the administration had paid Iran a ransom.

NY Times:  Iran Ransom Story Is 'Fake,' Because Obama Says So.  The New York Times editorial board declared firmly Tuesday [8/23/2016] that the accusation that the Obama administration paid a ransom to ensure the release of American hostages was "fake," and the Obama administration's diplomatic actions deserve to be lavishly praised.  We know this, they argue, because the Obama administration says so.  That's only a barely an exaggeration.  The easiest way to describe the editorial, "The Fake $400 Million Iran 'Ransom' Story," is lazy; it literally just takes the administration's talking points and repeats them verbatim: [...]

The White House Is Hiding the Missing Link of the Iran Ransom Payment.  In an article Monday [8/22/2016] in the New York Sun, Claudia Rosett may have found one of the missing links in the Obama administration's Iran ransom story.  The White House says the $1.7 billion it agreed to give Iran in January wasn't in exchange for the release of American hostages but rather to settle a $400 million arms deal that fell apart after the shah was toppled in 1979.  The additional $1.3 billion, said the administration, was interest.  As the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month, the $400 million was paid in cash.  And that's because President Obama explained, "we couldn't send them a check and we couldn't wire the money."
[Emphasis added by The Editor.]

U.S. citizens warned not to travel to Iran over fears of being detained.  Following the detainment of several Westerns in Iran in the past few months, the U.S. government is telling its citizens not to travel to the Persian country.  On Monday [8/22/2016], the State Department issued a warning saying Americans — especially those who hold dual citizenship with Iran — should 'carefully weigh the risks' of traveling to Iran and consider cancelling or postponing any planned trips.

Report: Obama Bowed To Iranian Wishes And Let Syria Cross The Red Line.  Jay Solomon, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, said on Monday that Barack Obama let his "red line" in Syria be crossed because Iran told him that if Assad was bombed, they would back out of the nuclear negotiations.

State Dept Warns:  Iran Seeking to Capture U.S. Citizens.  The State Department issued a warning on Monday [8/22/2016] urging U.S. citizens to avoid traveling to Iran, which has made the detention of Americans a priority.  The latest travel advisory, which emphasizes Iran's desire to capture U.S. citizens, comes on the heels of a growing scandal over the Obama administration's decision to pay Iran $400 million in cash on the same day that it freed several U.S. hostages.

State Dept. sued over deleted Iran video.  The State Department is being sued for records related to the selective editing of video from a 2013 press briefing, in which a spokeswoman seemed to admitted at officials might not have always told the truth about negotiations with Iran over nuclear proliferation.  Judicial Watch sued the department Thursday [8/18/2016] in pursuit of its Freedom of Information Act request for documentation of the circumstances surrounding the manipulation of the video.  State Department officials initially blamed the missing footage on a "glitch" before acknowledging that someone within the agency had directed a technician to scrub the unflattering exchange from the press archives.  However, officials have said they can't yet determine who ordered the editing.

Riddle of $1.3 Billion for Iran Might Relate to 13 Outlays Of Exactly $99,999,999.99.  Congressional investigators trying to uncover the trail of $1.3 billion in payments to Iran might want to focus on 13 large, identical sums that Treasury paid to the State Department under the generic heading of settling "Foreign Claims."  The 13 payments when added to the $400 million that the administration now concedes it shipped to the Iranian regime in foreign cash would bring the payout to the $1.7 billion that President Obama and Secretary Kerry announced on January 17.  That total was to settle a dispute pending for decades before the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal in at The Hague.

Lie of the Decade.  We have become wearily accustomed to the constant flow of lies in the presidential campaign.  Some are important but most are not.  They have become a tiresome reminder of why so many people have decided to ignore the whole mess.  Lies in a political campaign should matter but those lies that are the basis for national security decisions — lies that are a matter of policy — can create existential dangers.  The lies that President Obama has been peddling surrounding his deal with Iran on nuclear weapons are just such a case.

The humiliation of a president.  "We do not pay ransom.  We didn't here, and we won't in the future."  Barack Obama might like to have that one back this morning, to stick a pin in the moving finger that writes.  But the finger done writ, and it won't come back to cancel a single line of the president's fatuous fib that the United States didn't pay $400 million to ransom four hostages taken by the president's friends in Tehran.  Perhaps the president can take some solace, thin as it is, in the fact that nobody believed him, anyway.  The lie fell apart Thursday [8/18/2016] when The Wall Street Journal reported that the money was withheld until the hostages were actually free, and provided details of how the swap took place.  Rarely has a president been caught in such a big and brazen lie.

Obama Inc:  Yes We Paid Iran when They Released the Hostages, but it Wasn't a Ransom.  Obama Inc. just swaps out one lie with another when the previous lie gets exposed.  There's always a technicality as a fallback position.  Sure, we used foreign money from foreign banks sent on an unmarked cargo plane to Iran, but it wasn't a secret.  Yes we delayed payment until the hostages were released, but it wasn't a ransom.

GOP lawmakers blast Obama over Iran ransom saga.  Republicans blasted the Obama administration on Friday [8/19/2016] after it acknowledged that a $400 million cash payment to Iran seven months ago was contingent on the release of a group of American prisoners, The Associated Press reports.  Thursday's explanation was the first time the U.S. had so clearly linked the two events, which critics have painted as a hostage-ransom arrangement.

State Dept.: 'No apologies' for using Iran payment as 'leverage'.  The top spokesman for the State Department offered no apologies Friday [8/19/2016] after it confirmed that the United States conditioned the release of $400 million cash to Iran on the departure of American prisoners held in Tehran, arguing that it would have been "foolish and imprudent" to pay the money without getting them out of the country.

Kirk likens Obama to 'drug dealer in chief' for $400 million Iran payment.  Republican U.S. Sen.  Mark Kirk, who has made opposition to a U.S.-led nuclear agreement with Iran a major theme of his re-election campaign, likened home-state President Barack Obama to "drug dealer in chief" over a $400 million payment linked to the release of American prisoners. [...] The latest eyebrow-raising comment came as he spoke last week to a Downstate newspaper.  Kirk echoed GOP criticism that the U.S. cash payment of $400 million to Iran was a ransom for the release of American prisoners held by the country.

Will Heads Roll Over White House Lies About Ransom Paid To Iran?  The White House was in full denial when it was revealed that $400 million in cash it handed over to Iran on Jan. 17 of this year had anything to do with the release of four American hostages that same day.  "Coincidence," the White House said.  Now, a new account of the handoff and fresh comments from the State Department make it clear:  This was ransom.

U.S.'s $400 million cash payment to Iran WAS contingent on release of American prisoners State Department admits.  It is the first time the U.S. has so clearly linked the two events, which critics have painted as a hostage-ransom arrangement.

State Department: $400M cash to Iran was contingent on US prisoners' release.  The State Department admitted Thursday [8/18/2016] that the United States handed over $400 million in cash to Iran only after Tehran released four American hostages — two weeks after President Obama insisted the payment was not a "ransom."  State Department spokesman John Kirby was asked at a press briefing:  "In basic English, you're saying you wouldn't give them $400 million in cash until the prisoners were released, correct?"  "That's correct," he replied.  In an Aug. 4 press conference, Obama said the opposite.

It may have been leverage — until Obama gave it away.
Money paid to Iran was 'leverage' not ransom, State Department says.  The State Department acknowledged Thursday [8/18/2016] that it delayed releasing a $400 million cash payment to Iran in January until it was assured that a plane carrying three released American prisoners had left Tehran.  State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters that negotiators had "deliberately leveraged" Iran's desire to get its money from a decades-old arms deal to make sure the authorities there would not renege on freeing three Americans.  They were flown out Jan. 16, the same day the nuclear agreement between Iran and six world powers was implemented.

Source:  The American College Dictionary, 1959 edition, page 1003.

US paid Iran $1.3 billion in cash to settle old dispute.  The Obama administration's $400 million payoff to Iran was followed by a second transfer of $1.3 billion, it was reported Tuesday [8/16/2016].  President Obama took considerable flak for the first payment, which coincided with the release in January of four Americans being held by Tehran.  Critics charged that the move smacked of ransom, which the US has pledged never to pay.  The $400 million was the first installment of a $1.7 billion settlement with Iran to resolve a dispute over a failed arms deal signed before the 1979 fall of the shah.

WaPo Writer Discovered on Payroll of Pro-Iran 'Echo Chamber' Architect.  A Washington Post writer who recently claimed that a $400 million cash payment to Iran was "American diplomacy at its finest" failed to disclose that he has been on the payroll of an organization that emerged as a chief architect of the White House's self-described campaign to build a pro-Iran "echo chamber," according to information obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.  Allen S. Weiner, a Stanford law professor and contributor to the Post's opinions section, co-authored a piece arguing in favor of the Obama administration's decision to pay Iran $400 million in hard currency in what many described as a "ransom payment" for the release of several U.S. hostages.  Weiner and the Post failed to disclose that the writer has long been on the payroll of the Ploughshares Fund, an organization recently exposed as a key cog in a White House-orchestrated campaign to build what it called a pro-Iran "echo chamber."

Impeach Obama For Smuggling Cash To Iran.  Democrats demanded Reagan's impeachment over Iran-Contra.  They are curiously uninterested in impeaching Obama for putting $400 million in foreign currency on pallets and flying it to Iran in an unmarked cargo plane.  Even though the case is clear and unambiguous.  Obama has clearly admitted that he knew about the planeload of cash.  He has lied about its legality and his motives, but he has made no secret of knowing about it.  He chose to use foreign currency from foreign banks in an attempt to knowingly evade restrictions on sending money to Iran.  As former prosecutor Andrew McCarthy however has pointed out, the law criminalizes efforts to evade sanctions, stating "any transaction ... that evades or avoids, has the purpose of evading or avoiding" is prohibited.  Furthermore "any conspiracy formed to violate any of the prohibitions set forth in this part is prohibited."  Obama and his administration represent a criminal conspiracy to violate the laws of this country.  Even if these regulations were not in place, funding Iran directly funds terrorism.  And that's a crime.

Top DOJ official raised objections to Iran cash payment.  The U.S. paid Iran $400 million in cash on Jan. 17 as part of a larger $1.7 billion settlement of a failed 1979 arms deal between the U.S. and Iran that was announced that day.  Also on that day, Iran released four detained Americans in exchange for the U.S.'s releasing from prison — or dropping charges against — Iranians charged with violating sanctions laws.  U.S. officials have said the swap was agreed upon in separate talks.  The objection of senior Justice Department officials was that Iranian officials were likely to view the $400 million payment as ransom, thereby undercutting a longstanding U.S. policy that the government doesn't pay ransom for American hostages, these people said.  The policy is based on a concern that paying ransom could encourage more Americans to become targets for hostage-takers.

Obama Admin Gives Green Light for Iran to Build Two New Nuclear Plants.  Iran is permitted to pursue the construction of two newly announced nuclear plants under the parameters of last summer's nuclear agreement, Obama administration officials informed the Washington Free Beacon, setting the stage for Tehran to move forward with construction following orders from President Hassan Rouhani.  Ali Salehi, Iran's top nuclear official, announced on Thursday that Iran has invested $10 billion into the construction of two new nuclear plants after receiving orders from Rouhani, according to reports in Iran's state-controlled media.  A State Department official said to the Free Beacon following the announcement that Iran is allowed to move forward with this venture under the nuclear agreement, which does not prohibit this type of nuclear construction.

Iran 'Ransom' Mystery Deepens — Feds Won't Divulge Timing of Critical $1.3 Billion Payment.  After refusing to divulge how the payment was transferred, the State Department has now refused to answer repeated requests about when it sent to Iran a sum of $1.3 billion, which was part of the same settlement for which the Obama administration delivered $400 million in pallets of foreign currency flown aboard an unmarked jetliner in January.  The cash was flown in the same day five American hostages were released from Iranian custody.  The details about how and when the additional funds were sent are relevant to determining whether President Obama needed to pay Iran on the same day the hostages were released and whether the payment needed to be made in cash because the two countries had no banking relationship, as the president has said.

A Theory:  Why Obama Gave Iran Cash.  Why did the Obama administration make its $400 million payment to Iran on January 17 in untraceable foreign currency and then not only fail to disclose that the payment had been made in cash but withhold that information from Senator Tom Cotton in response to his repeated inquiries about it?  According to both former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey and former Treasury terrorism finance analyst Jonathan Schanzer, President Obama could have paid Iran legally in a conventional banking transaction rather than cash.  The administration disclosed the amount of the payment in its January 17 announcement of the deal, but not that it had been made in cash.

Paying Ransom to Iran.  A day after the deal with Iran over its nuclear program was implemented in January, the Obama administration paid $1.7 billion to Iran to settle an old Iranian claim (unfinished business from the 1970s).  At the same time, the Islamic Republic released four Americans it held in prison.  The timing was striking:  It looked an awful lot like a ransom payment.  But the White House denied it.  Last week, the Wall Street Journal published further details, which make it all but impossible for any reasonable observer to deny that the White House paid off the regime in Tehran in exchange for the liberty of U.S. citizens:  The first installment of $400 million, we now learn, came in cash.

What does America owe Iran?  An unmarked cargo plane filled with $400 million in cash lands in Tehran.  Four American hostages held by Iran's rulers are set free.  These revelations have sparked two controversies.  First:  Did the Obama administration pay ransom to the Islamic Republic of Iran, the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism?  White House spokesmen insist that's not what happened, there was no quid-pro-quo; Iranian officials say that's precisely what went down.  Who is more credible?  More importantly, whom do you think prospective hostage-takers around the world believe?

What did former Iranian president Ahmadinejad write to Obama?  Earlier this year, around $2 billion of Iranian foreign currency was confiscated from New York bank accounts.  A US Supreme Court decision issued a historic $2 billion victory to the families of Americans killed in attacks blamed on Iran.  The money would go toward satisfying a $2.65 billion judgment against Iran that the families won in US federal court in 2007 in a case filed in 2001.  The money is held in New York in a trust account at Citibank, part of Citigroup Inc, but was not fully discovered until 2008-2010.

Ollie North nails Obama on Iran ransom deal, and he should know!  The Obama Administration spent most of Wednesday [8/3/2016] denying the obvious fact that they paid a $400 million ransom to the terrorist state of Iran in exchange for four American hostages.  Despite the fact that Obama's own Justice Department raised red flags over the obvious cash-for-hostages deal, the media pretty much gave the White House a pass and allowed them to continue their unbelievable denials.  Well, here's one guy who won't give them a pass.  Lt. Col. Oliver North.  [Video clip]

Fmr. CIA Agent:  Obama Displayed 'High Level' of Deception On $400 Million Iranian Payment.  The timing of the payment, President Obama insisted, was simply a consequence of having diplomatic negotiations with Iran for the first time in several decades.  "So the issue is not so much that it was a coincidence, as it is that we were able to have a direct discussion," the President said.  "John Kerry could meet with the Foreign Minister, which meant that our ability to clear accounts on a number of different issues at the same time, converged."  What was never directly addressed was the key question as to whether the $400 million payment was a precondition for the release of the Americans.  The high level of deceptive behaviors exhibited by President Obama during the press conference has left little doubt in our minds that it was.

5 Ways To Tell Obama's Lying About The Iranian Ransom Payment.  [#1] Despite what Obama and his media sycophants are claiming, the payment was conducted in secret. [...] "Nothing screams 'this is legitimate and required under international law' like flying an unmarked cargo plane packed with foreign currency into a rogue regime's capital — conduct that the US government typically forbids and punishes," writes Townhall's Guy Benson.  This naturally begs the question of why this was conducted in secret if it wasn't a ransom payment.

Obama's Cash Payment to Iran Was More Than a Ransom — It Broke Criminal Law.  Outrage broke out this week over the revelation that Obama arranged to ship the mullahs piles of cash, worth $400 million and converted into foreign denominations, reportedly in an unmarked cargo plane.  The hotly debated question was whether the payment, which the administration attributes to a 37-year-old arms deal, was actually a ransom paid for the release of American hostages Tehran had abducted.  It is a waste of time to debate that point further.  The Iranians have bragged that the astonishing cash payment was a ransom — and Obama has been telling us for months that we can trust the Iranians.  The hostages were released the same day the cash arrived.  One of the hostages has reported that the captives were detained an extra several hours at the airport and told they would not be allowed to leave until the arrival of another plane — inferentially, the unmarked cargo plane ferrying the cash.

Arnold Ahlert:  Ransom or Not, Obama Still Funds Iranian Terror.  The Obama administration is funding Iranian-fueled Islamic terrorism.  Forget all the double-talk and the dissembling by perhaps the most arrogant individual to ever occupy the Oval Office.  Despite Barack Obama's insistence that the latest revelations about the $1.7 billion accord reached with the world's foremost state sponsor of terrorism amount to the "manufacturing of outrage," the stench of a heinous quid pro quo, at best — and the outright payment of a ransom for hostages at worst — cannot be avoided.

Kaine Defends Iran Payment:  We 'Paid a Portion of the Claim and We Got Hostages Home'.  Sunday [8/7/2016] on on NBC's "Meet the Press," while commenting on the $400 million dollar payment to Iran by the White House at the same time American hostages were released, Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen.  Tim Kaine (D-VA) bragged the U.S. government had "bargained it down to a fraction and paid a portion of the claim" and added "we got hostages home."

Trump Has Turned America Into a One-Party State.  The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the Obama administration airlifted $400 million worth in cash to Iran, which coincided with the release of four American hostages in Tehran. [...] Considering what we already know about president's penchant for empowering the Iranians, it's not surprising.  The idea that the United States secretly paid off a state that sponsors terrorism and holds American servicemen hostage should be a huge story.

Mark Levin:  Anyone surprised that Obama paid $400 million in ransom to the head-cutters in Iran?  Friday night [8/5/2016] on the Mark Levin radio show, Conservative Review's Editor-in-Chief tore apart Secretary of State John F. Kerry's statement on the $400 million the Obama administration paid to Iran.  Kerry attempted to spin the Obama administration out of what should be a major scandal and the praetorian guard media was compliant.  Well, Levin wouldn't let him get away with it.

Russia to Build Eight (8) New Nuke Plants in Iran.  Because Mr. Obama's partners in peace deserve nuclear capabilities, what with their super-happy-fun humiliation of the U.S. Navy, their spread of terror throughout the world, plus collecting $400 million for American hostages.

Obama Lied About Israel Calling Iran Deal a 'Game Changer'.  What possessed President Obama to publicly state that Israel now "acknowledges" that the Iran nuclear deal has been a "game changer when nothing could be further from the truth?  He's delusional.  Needless to say, the Israeli government was not pleased.

The Mendacity Behind Obama's Mockery of the Cash-for-Iran Story.  By Obama's account, there's nothing to see here.  Not only did Obama deny, despite the striking coincidence of timing, that the payment was a ransom.  He also mocked anyone who might see the story of the cash itself as troubling news, or newsworthy at all.  Obama dismissed such reactions as "the manufacturing of outrage in a story that we disclosed in January."  Welcome, once again, to the vertigo of the Obama "narrative," in which the priority of his "most transparent" administration is not to deal honestly with the American public, but to spin a web of half truths, enmeshed in complexities, to cover up highly questionable uses of power — and then, if caught red-handed, use the bully pulpit to deride and dismiss the critics.

Congress was right:  The Iran deal is a travesty — and Obama is to blame.  Onlookers concerned about a nuclear Iran shouldn't be surprised by a report from The Wall Street Journal that the Obama administration secretly apparently airdropped $400 million in foreign currency in exchange for the release of four Americans, a move that breaches U.S. protocol and amounts to ransom.  Even more troubling, yet not surprising:  new reports that Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is publicly backpedalling from President Obama's prized nuclear deal.  On state-affiliated media, Khamenei reportedly blasted "the futility of negotiations with the Americans" and said the United States wasn't keeping its promises under the nuclear agreement.  The deal itself was signed under constitutionally questionable circumstances — it essentially amounted to a treaty, which would have required congressional approval — over the protests of Congress, including many Democrats like Sen.  Chuck Schumer.

Here's The Iranian Video Of "Hostages for Pallets of Money" CNN and Washington Post Claim Doesn't Exist.  This is a great example of the current state, and competence, of American Journalism.  Worse yet, this example shows the U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, didn't even know what's going on, and Vice-Presidential Candidate Tim Kaine also joins the crew of the clueless.  CNN and The Washington Post are both making an absurd attack Donald Trump story out of the most simple and easy to prove claim.

Here's The English Version of Controversial Iranian "Cash for Hostages" Video.  Late last night [8/4/2016] we posted the Iranian video the U.S. State Department, President Obama, CNN, and The Washington Post said "did not exist".  It is from an Iranian documentary video titled "Rules of the Game".  Since posting the video, which validated an assertion made by Presidential candidate Donald Trump, we have also discovered the english version of the same video, as produced by Basirat News:  [Video clip]

Did Obama pay a $400m ransom for American prisoners?  The US secretly shipped cash to Iran as Americans were released.  The US secretly flew $400 million stashed inside wooden pallets out to Iran as four Americans were released from Tehran — but the Obama administration insists it was not a ransom payment.  The pallets, which were stuffed with euros, Swiss francs and other foreign currencies, arrived in Tehran on January 17.  That same day, four US citizens were released in exchange for seven Iranians held in the United States.  Officials denied any link between the payment and the prisoner exchange, saying the deal was part of a $1.7 billion settlement to resolve a failed 1979 arms deal, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Taken — to the Cleaners.  Hostage situations are high drama and negotiating with the Iranians is a tricky proposition.  Unless care is taken, the wily Ayatollahs can get the better of one.  Thankfully the administration is headed by top men who are rarely if ever outwitted.  An American hostage told the media they were kept on ice at airport until the plane loaded with cash coincidentally touched down.  Then they could go.  Charles Krauthammer says that apart from the fact that sending pallet loads of money in the night might look like a ransom payment to Iran, transferring such large amounts of cash in such shady circumstances might cause legal complications.

Freed Iranian Hostage:  Iranians Told Me They Were Waiting For Another Plane To Arrive Before Letting Us Go.  On Thursday's [8/4/2016] broadcast of the Fox Business Network's "The Intelligence Report with Trish Regan," Saeed Abedini, one of the four hostages released from Iran back in January, stated that on the night he was freed, his captors told him they were waiting on another plane to arrive before letting him go.  Abedini said, "I just remember the night that we'd been in a[n] airport, just take hours and hours there.  And I asked one of the... police that was with us, that, why are you not letting us to go to the... plane?  And he told me we are waiting for another plane, and if that plane take off, then we're going to let you go."

Clueless MSNBC Host Baffled By 'Mystery' of 'Coincidental' Iran $400M Payment.  Here's something really baffling:  How did these dunces ever get on TV to spout such idiotic comments?

Obama denies $400 million to Iran was ransom; Hostage says they weren't released until another plane arrived.  First of all, if the "decades-old dispute" was an agreement made with Shah Pahlavi in the 1970s, why would the contract still be valid with the people who overthrew him?  That would be like paying the $40 plus $1,500 "interest" for an oil change to the guy who ran off your mechanic and hijacked his business mid-lube job.  Here's one of the people who was freed from Iran, Pastor Saeed Abedini, explaining that they were not let go "until another plane had landed":  [Video clip]  Are we gonna believe the pastor or the president who promised we could keep our plans if we like them?  The Obama admin will probably just claim the plane in question was only delivering an FTD "thanks for releasing our hostages, newest partners in peace" bouquet to the Ayatollah.

Sen. Tom Cotton:  Obama's $400m 'Ransom to the Ayatollahs'.  Sen.  Tom Cotton (R-AR) called the $400 million airlifted to the Iranian regime in hard foreign currency in January "ransom to the ayatollahs." [...] Cotton and other lawmakers, including Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, have long accused the administration of paying a "ransom" to the regime, contravening long-standing U.S. practice since the days of Thomas Jefferson and the Barbary Wars.  "This break with longstanding U.S. policy put a price on the head of Americans, and has led Iran to continue its illegal seizures," said Cotton, according to the [Wall Street] Journal.

State Department Spokesman Grilled Over Cash Payment to Iran.  State Department spokesman John Kirby was grilled Wednesday [8/3/2016] on Fox News over a new report that the Obama administration airlifted $400 million in cash to Iran in January as the Islamic Republic released four Americans it had detained.  The payment, reported by the Wall Street Journal, has drawn accusations that it was a ransom payment for the Americans held hostage by the Iranian government.  The Obama administration insists that it is a part of a resolution to a decades-old arms deal made with Tehran before the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

Obama's 'Strong Diplomacy' On Iran Was Just $400 Million Bribe.  President Barack Obama credited "strong American diplomacy" for Iran's release of five American hostages on January 17, but it turns out he just paid Iran $400 million dollars the same day they were released. [...] The $400 million was promised by the U.S. to Iran under a larger $1.7 billion settlement the Obama administration made with Iran.  The Shah of Iran reportedly paid billions of dollars for weapons that the U.S. never delivered after the Islamic revolution in 1979.

Trump on $400 million U.S. paid Iran: 'We have been humiliated'.  Donald Trump on Wednesday [8/3/2016] slammed President Obama and Hillary Clinton for the secret $400-million payment to Iran in January that coincided with the rogue nation's release of four jailed Americans, saying the United States has been "humiliated."  "We have been humiliated by Press Obama and his policies.  We have been humiliated by the Iran deal," the Republican presidential nominee said at a rally in Daytona Beach, Florida.  He was referring the the administration's nuclear deal with Iran, which included the $400 million as the first installment of a $1.7 billion settlement to resolve a failed arms deal signed before the 1979 Iranian revolution.

White House Acknowledges Iran Might Use $400 Million Payment To Sponsor Terrorism.  White House press secretary Josh Earnest acknowledged Wednesday [8/3/2016] that Iran might be using the secret $400 million payment it received from the United States — the same day the country released four American prisoners — to sponsor terrorist organizations.  The White House has denied that the payment was a ransom, instead stating it was the "first installment of the $1.7 billion in the United States seized in 1979 after an arms deal with the Shah of Iran was halted following the Islamic revolution."

Trump blasts $400 million Iran 'ransom' as he says America was 'humiliated' by 'incompetent' Obama.  Donald Trump lashed out at the White House during a campaign rally Wednesday [8/3/2016], saying news of a secret $400 million cash payment to Iran has 'humiliated' the United States. [...] The Republican presidential nominee told a bulging crowd inside the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, Florida that tough questions remain about the White House's decision to send the money to Tehran's mullahs at the same time they released four American captives.

Justice Department officials reportedly objected to timing of Iran cash payment.  Senior Justice Department officials raised objections to the U.S. flying the equivalent of $400 million in cash to Iran around the time four detained Americans were released this past January, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday [8/3/2016].  On Tuesday, the paper reported that the money was flown to Iran in an unmarked cargo plane as the first installment in a $1.7 billion settlement of a failed 1979 arms deal.  According to the Journal, Justice Department officials raised concerns that the timing of the transfer would make it appear to be a ransom payment for the detainees.  The officials did not object to the settlement itself.

Oversight Committee: $400 Million Iran Payment a Coincidence?  Prove It Under Oath, John Kerry.  The House Oversight Committee has taken note of the "coincidental" $400 million cash payment made to the Iranian regime on the same day as U.S. hostages were released in January.  It's members want to know more.  Secretary of State John Kerry has been asked to appear before the Committee to testify about the payment, hostage negotiation policy with the Iranians and to expand on details of other payments agreements buried in the Iran nuclear deal.  The White House and State Department vehemently deny the cash was a ransom payment, with spokesman from each repeatedly stating doing so would be against United States policy.

Obama Sends Pallets of Cash To Iran As 'Ransom'.  The Obama administration secretly airlifted wooden pallets stacked with $400 million in cash on the same January day Iran was releasing four Americans they'd been holding prisoner.

Obama Sent $400 Million In Ransom to Iran to Get Back Four Kidnapped Americans.  Of course.  Here's the thing:  When you've staked your political credibility on the massive lie that Iran Is A Partner For Peace, then you have to cover up all of their crimes.  Their crimes are now your crimes [...]

Obama secretly paid $400-mil "ransom" to Iran that Democrats called "a deal for taxpayers".  What is Barack Hussein Obama doing secretly airlifting 400 million dollars to Iran, which happened to coincide with the January release of four Americans detained in Tehran?  For starters, critics are calling it a ransom money payout.  Democratic officials meanwhile, obscenely called it "a deal for taxpayers".  Obama procured the money from the central banks of the Netherlands and Switzerland in what was said to be the first installment of the $1.7 billion dollar [atrocious] settlement the Obama administration reached with Iran — a country deemed one of the world's biggest funders of terrorism right next to Saudi Arabia.  In fact, the US State Department has classified Iran as "the most active state sponsor of terrorism".

Obama admin hid details of multi-million dollar cash payout to Iran from Congress.  The disclosure threatens to complicate efforts by the administration to downplay new reportsdetailing how U.S. officials used an unmarked aircraft to transfer $400 million in "pallets of cash" to Iran on the same day it freed several U.S. hostages.  Lawmakers and others have claimed for months that the payment was part of a "ransom" aimed at securing the release of the hostages.  The White House denies this claim and has said the payment was part of a settlement to resolve decades-old legal disputes with the Islamic Republic.

Top GOP lawmaker:  Cash payment to Iran enabled terror funding.  Republicans have a problem with more than just the timing of the Obama administration's controversial $400 million payment to Iran earlier this year — one top GOP lawmaker says the fact the payment was made in hard currency is another big red flag.  According to House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., this could enable Iran to more easily fund groups like Hezbollah since hard cash is the regime's preferred way of financing terrorism.  "If you're going to have a transaction, the last thing you want to do with Iran ... is to give that to them in unmarked bills, in hard currency, in Swiss francs," Royce told Fox News on Thursday [8/4/2016].

MSNBC Baffled by 'Mystery' of 'Coincidental' Iran Payoff.  On her MSNBC show on Thursday [8/4/2016], host Andrea Mitchell bemoaned the Obama administration's "unforced error" in sending Iran $400 million at the exact same time American hostages were released from Tehran in January.  She was puzzled by the decision:  "...they never explained that this other money was going — the $400 million.  It's unrelated to the nuclear deal.  Why do it on the same day?"  Washington Post political correspondent Anne Gearan was equally baffled:  "It's a mystery why, exactly.  They didn't need to do it that day, there was nothing in particular forcing their hand that we know of to do it that day."  She avoided the possibility of the White House paying the money as ransom for the hostages.

Analysis: The Obama Administration's Laughable Spin on $400 Million 'Non-Ransom' Payment to Iran.  The Wall Street Journal reports this week that the Obama administration flew a plane packed with $400 million in cash to the Iranian regime in January — just as Tehran finally released four American hostages who'd languished in Iranian prisons for years.  Fact A had absolutely nothing to do with Fact B, Team Smart Power insists.

Krauthammer: Iran Payment Wasn't Just Ransom, It Was Money Laundering.  Charles Krauthammer reacted to a new Wall Street Journal report that the Justice Department objected to the Obama Administration sending $400 million in non-U.S. currency just hours before Iran released four imprisoned Americans.  The DOJ was overruled by the State Department, according to the report.  Krauthammer said "of course the Justice Department objected; it was illegal."  He said that not only was the payment bad optics and a quid pro quo for the release of the Americans, but it skirted statute against dealing with Iran in U.S. dollars.

Report: DOJ Officials Warned Obama Admin that $400 Million Iran Transfer Looked Like 'Ransom'.  News that the United States sent $400 million dollars to Iran at the same time as the release of four American detainees has been widely criticized.  Now, we are learning that senior Justice Department officials even warned the Obama administration and the State Dept. that the money would look like a 'ransom payment.'  The Wall Street Journal, which first broke the story, says that they have talked to several senior DOJ officials who were worried that sending a plane full of cash to Tehran would create a bad impression.  The Americans were released in January as a result of a "prisoner swap."

Paying Ransom To Iran Endangers Americans Everywhere.  Virtually all experts on terrorism would agree that paying ransom to terrorists is a bad idea.  Once you pay for a group of people and show you're weak that way, you guarantee that there will be more innocent people snatched — an endless cycle of kidnappings and ransom demands.  It's a very bad idea, and contrary to long-standing U.S. policy.  Yet, that's exactly what the Obama administration did.  But once again, the White House was, at best, disingenuous about what it did.

Iran cash payment:  Did Tehran film transfer?  Why did the US government authorise the transfer of $400m (£305m) in cash to Iran at the same moment that four American captives were released by the Iranian government?  Even the US Justice Department objected to the timing of the payment, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.  "People knew what it was going to look like, and there was concern the Iranians probably did consider it a ransom payment," the Journal quoted a person "familiar with the discussions" as saying.

Obama's news conference:  Everything wrong with Democrats, encapsulated.  President Obama's Iran deal, which he lied to get done and which he calls a tremendous agreement, gives the biggest worldwide sponsor of terrorist groups access to hundreds of billions of dollars, of which a great deal will be used to spread terror.  That makes the world more dangerous, not safer.  Handing them $400 million in obvious ransom also made the world less safe for Americans.

Obama: WSJ "Manufacturing Outrage" About Iran.  President Obama responds to a story in this week's Wall Street Journal about a $400 million cash payment to Iran that was made at the same time that four hostages were freed, around the same time that the Iran Nuclear Deal was finalized last year.  State Dept. spokesperson Ret.  Rear Admiral John Kirby said yesterday [8/3/2016] that the timing of the release of hostages was "all coincidental."  "The team that was negotiating the release of our Americans, was a completely separate team than the one negotiating in The Hague; it was a completely separate process.  Though simultaneously done, the timing is all coincidental," he said.  Obama's spokesman Josh Earnest said in a press breifing yesterday that the fact that cash was used in the payment was not relevant, "particularly when we all know there is no banking relationship between the U.S. and Iran."

Obama: Iran Payment 'Wasn't Some Nefarious Deal'.  Thursday [8/4/2016] at the Pentagon after meeting with his National Security Council, when asked about the $400 million payment to Iran looking like a ransom for hostages, President Barack Obama made the case that it "wasn't some nefarious deal."

Two Priorities of the Government.  Priority 1: Supporting Jihadis.  Them, and terrorists, hostage takers and terror sponsors everywhere.  That's the economical explanation for the President and State Department's decision to ship $400 million in cash, in Euros and Swiss Francs, to Iran.  Officially, say the signed-up-to-lie-for-their-country weasels at State, there is "no linkage" between this ransom and the four Americans that Iran released with all due speed after unloading the pallets of cash, which are already being used to fund new global terror attacks.  It's just a matter of purest happenstance! [...] But who will call it a ransom?  Not the reporters who act as the typing pool for Ben Rhodes, van driver turned national security adviser.  In addition to the secret delivery of $400 million, the Iranians received seven Iranians, a mix of convicted criminals and convicted spies held in US prisons.

Propaganda film suggests Iran did videotape cash-drop plane and photograph shipment of cash during January prisoner swap.  Iranian state-run media in Tehran did indeed videotape the arrival of a January 17 flight carrying $400 million in cash from the United States — and the money itself — judging from a documentary that aired the following month in the Islamic republic.

Pastor Abedini:  Iran Held Prisoners at Airport Until Another Plane Landed.  One of the Americans released by Iran on the same day $400 million in cash was paid by the U.S. government to the Iranian government says the plane they flew out on was held up for several hours waiting for another plane to land first.  Christian Pastor Saeed Abedini told Fox Business Network's Trish Regan on Thursday [8/4/2016] that he was taken out of his prison cell and brought to the airport in Tehran, where a plane was waiting for him and other freed American prisoners.

When Is A Ransom Not A Ransom?  When It's Inconvenient To Call It That.  One of my all-time favorite lines is from Henry Thoreau:  "Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk."  It came to mind this week when the White House and State Department insisted that the charge the U.S. paid a ransom to get back American hostages was purely circumstantial.  Sometimes, a $400 million pay-off in laundered money, delivered in the dead of night in an unmarked cargo plane isn't what it looks like.

Once you prove that you're willing to pay for hostages, guess what happens.  Back when the Iran Deal was being negotiated, we learned that the State Department had authorized secret "side deals" to handle matters they didn't want to discuss in front of Congress.  We've just learned the answer to one of the important questions:  did the President know that secrets were being kept from Congress?  The answer is yes.

Here's The Iranian Video Of "Hostages for Pallets of Money" CNN and Washington Post Claim Doesn't Exist.  This is a great example of the current state, and competence, of American Journalism.  Worse yet, this example shows the U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, didn't even know what's going on, and Vice-Presidential Candidate Tim Kaine also joins the crew of the clueless.  CNN and The Washington Post are both making an absurd attack Donald Trump story out of the most simple and easy to prove claim.

Obama sent $400m to Iran as American prisoners freed... but administration denies it paid ransom.  The US secretly flew $400 million stashed inside wooden pallets out to Iran as four Americans were released from Tehran — but the Obama administration insists it was not a ransom payment.  The pallets, which were stuffed with euros, Swiss francs and other foreign currencies, arrived in Tehran on January 17.  That same day, four US citizens were released in exchange for seven Iranians held in the United States.  Officials denied any link between the payment and the prisoner exchange, saying the deal was part of a $1.7 billion settlement to resolve a failed 1979 arms deal, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Obama paid Iran $400 million ransom for American hostages: report.  The Obama administration secretly airlifted $400 million in cash to Iran in January at the same time Tehran was releasing four jailed Americans, payment that a top congressional Republican is calling "ransom."  The Wall Street Journal, citing U.S. and European officials and congressional sources, reported that the administration procured the money from central banks in Switzerland and the Netherlands.  The money was stacked on wooden pallets and flown to Tehran in an unmarked cargo plane.  The money represented the first installment of a $1.7 billion settlement that the administration reached with Iran to resolve a decades-old failed arms deal signed before the Iranian revolution in 1979, the Journal reported.

U.S. Sent Iran Cash As Americans Freed.  President Obama's administration secretly shipped $400 million in cash to Iran in January as four Americans were released from detainment.  According to a Wall Street Journal report, the money was meant to serve as a way to resolve a dispute over a failed 1970s arms deal that came just before the fall of Shah Rezi Mohammed Pahlavi and the rise of the Islamic Republic.  U.S. officials denied that the money was at all linked to the release of the prisoners, but Iranian negotiators also alleged that they wanted cash in order to show they had something tangible as the prisoners were released.

Congress Probes White House-Linked Campaign to Deceive Media on Iran Nuclear Deal.  A member of the House Intelligence Committee has launched a probe into whether a leading architect of the campaign to sell the Iran nuclear agreement last summer coordinated with the White House to mislead the media and the American public, according to documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.  The inquiry is part of a larger effort by lawmakers to discern the origins of a shadow campaign that top White House officials admitted to running in order to enlist journalists and experts to boost support for the agreement.  The latest probe, launched by Rep.  Mike Pompeo (R., Ill.), centers on Joe Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund, a left-leaning foundation that quietly bankrolled a core part of the White House's campaign to sell the nuclear agreement.

Treason! Obama Paid Iran $400 Million Ransom for Release of American Hostages.  Obama gave Iran an extra $400 million (on top of the money he gave them in the Iran nuke deal) to get the four American hostages freed.  Basically, Obama and the Democrats gave the top state sponsor of terrorism $400 million tax payer dollars.  Basically, what Obama did with the secret $400M payment to Iran constitutes treason.  But since Obama is loved so much by the corrupt Democrat media complex, it wouldn't even get a sniff.

Scandalous: Obama Secretly Pays Kings Ransom To Iran.  The Obama Administration did more than "TALK" to the Iranians.  It looks like they struck a payment deal.  The kind of deal where America loads $400 million in cash onto pallets and secretly flies it to Tehran.  The kind of deal where when all that cash lands in Iran, suddenly four American prisoners are released.  From there this scandal just gets worse for President Obama.

Also posted under Grounds for the impeachment of Barack H. Obama.

U.S. Sent Cash to Iran as Americans Were Freed.  "The U.S. secretly organized an airlift of $400 million worth of cash to Iran that coincided with the January release of four Americans detained in Tehran, according to U.S. and European officials and congressional staff briefed on the operation afterward."

If Mr. Obama secretly planned to give Iran nuclear weapons, exactly what would he be doing differently?  The Obama administration is encouraging companies to do business with Iran in order to make last year's nuclear deal irreversible, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday [6/23/2016].  Administration officials told the Journal that they were encouraging businesses to make agreements with Iran in order to make it harder for future administrations to unravel the deal, since that would then threaten American jobs.  The push for opening up Iran to American business has been led by Secretary of State John Kerry, which has put him at odds with the Treasury Department, which enforces sanctions on Iran.  "We're not going to stand in the way of permissible business activity with Iran," a senior administration official told the Journal.  "As long as Iran is meeting the terms of the deal, then we're going to uphold our end of the bargain, and that is going to result in some additional business activity with Iran."

Iran blasts US for 'violation' of nuclear deal.  Senior Iranian and Russian defense officials discussed improving defense ties in a meeting in Moscow on Sunday [7/31/2016].  "Iran and Russia have the needed capacities to broaden their mutual cooperation in the defense field," Brig.-Gen.  Vali Madani said during a meeting with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Iran's Fars News Agency reported.

Post-Convention News Dump:  Obama Lets Some US Planes Land in Iran.  The Obama administration has approved U.S. civilian jets owned by foreign carriers to travel to Iran for 72 hours, according to a notice issued by the U.S. Treasury late Friday afternoon [7/29/2016].  The announcement came less than 24 hours after the Democratic National Convention concluded in Philadelphia, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accepted her party's nomination for the presidency.  Clinton backed the Iran deal, and has taken credit for helping start the talks, with an adviser saying she was "centrally involved" at the time.

Valerie Jarrett:  How Much Control Does She Have Over Obama and Clinton?  [Scroll down]  Despite being an appointee who was never elected by the American people, Valerie Jarrett appears to have real influence in the White House.  An insider in the Obama administration has confirmed that Jarrett supported trading five detained terrorists in a prisoner swap for a single US Army Sergeant (Bowe Bergdahl) who had deserted his post.  She was against tough treatment of the Islamic regime of Iran, and she is personally offended by the term "Islamic Terrorism".  Sure enough, our President to this day has refused to even utter the words, committed America to a disastrous "deal" with Iran that gives the rogue nation almost everything it wants, and went ahead with the lopsided prisoner exchange.  Incidentally, the Obama administration swore that the terrorists released posed no threat — there is virtually no evidence that this is actually true.  These facts raise a number of disturbing questions concerning our present administration.  Much of Obama's policies have been disturbingly sympathetic toward Islamic extremism, even as the danger from that movement has only become increasingly stark and imposing.

Obama Admin Kept Lawmakers in Dark About Secret Iran Side Deals.  The Obama administration hid from Congress key information about a secret deal with Iran permitting it to maintain critical aspects of its nuclear program, according to a leading member of Congress, who exclusively told the Washington Free Beacon that these disclosures invalidate the entirety of last summer's nuclear agreement with Iran.  The revelation of the secret deal is being described by congressional insiders as further proof the Obama administration misled lawmakers and the American public about the terms of last summer's nuclear agreement, which was framed by top U.S. officials as the only way to stop Iran's march toward a nuclear weapon.  There "will be hell to pay" as a result of the disclosure, according to one senior congressional source apprised of the situation.

Obama's Iran Deal:  Blueprint for War.  To refer to the Iran Deal as deeply flawed is in fact, a gross understatement.  The JCPOA contained many disquieting clauses that many, including Obama's supporters, saw as gravely dangerous.  The deal made a mockery out of Obama's claims that Iran's nuclear facilities would be subjected to "anytime anywhere" inspections.  In fact, under the deal, Iran is permitted to delay inspections by up to twenty-four days.  Moreover, the opaque Parchin facility, where Iran has conducted its most secretive nuclear experiments, continues to remain largely off limits to international inspectors.

Impeach!  Obama hid side deal with Iran.  Recently uncovered documents seem to prove that President Barack Obama was involved in a deal that intentionally gave Iran an easy way to restart its nuclear weapons program.  The secret side deal was hidden from the American public for months.  And it could allow Iran to quickly develop a nuclear bomb after Obama has left office.  Restrictions on Iran's nuclear program will start to ease years before the 15-year accord expires, advancing Tehran's ability to build a bomb even before the end of the pact.  That's according to a leaked document that was revealed Monday [7/18/2016], first reported by The Associated Press.

Exclusive: Iran conducts 4th missile test since signing nuke deal.  Two days before the anniversary of the nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers, the Islamic Republic attempted to launch a new type of ballistic missile using North Korean technology, multiple intelligence officials tell Fox News.  The test, in violation of a UN resolution, failed shortly after liftoff when the missile exploded, sources said. [...] It would be at least the fourth time Iran has launched or attempted to launch a ballistic missile since the nuclear accord was signed on July 14, 2015.  Iran is barred from conducting ballistic missile tests for eight years under UN Resolution 2231, which went effect July 20, 2015, days after the nuclear accord was signed.

Iran Holds Ninth Ballistic Missile Test Since Signing Nuclear Deal.  Iran test-fired a new kind of ballistic missile using North Korean technology on the night of July 11-12, Fox News reported on Friday, citing multiple intelligence officials.  The latest test, the ninth Iran carried out since it signed a nuclear deal with global powers last year, was held two days before the one-year anniversary of the deal's announcement.  The missile was fired from the city of Saman in western Iran and was a modified version of North Korea's Musudan ballistic missile, which has a range of 2,500 miles — putting nearly all of the Middle East (including Israel) and much of mainland Europe.  Iran's previous launch, in May, featured a missile with an estimated range of around 1,250 miles.  Another launch, in March, included a missile with a range of around 870 miles that had the phrase "Israel must be wiped from the face of the earth" inscribed on it in Hebrew.

Yes, the world is safer — for Iran.
Iran Deal Made World 'Safer' One Year Later, Obama Declares.  President Obama hailed the Iran nuclear deal as "avoiding further conflict and making us safer" on the one-year anniversary of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.  Within that year, Iran has conducted ballistic missile tests in violation of a UN Security Council resolution that the administration says are outside the scope of the nuclear agreement but UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said are "not consistent with the constructive spirit" of the agreement in a confidential report cited by Bloomberg.  Iran has also captured U.S. sailors and humiliated them on-camera before releasing them, indicted an American businessman and a U.S. permanent resident who had done work for the U.S. government, and shipped arms to Yemen.  Iran has warned that if the U.S. gives them any grief about their activities, they'll consider the nuclear deal null and void.

Secret documents reveal Iran could make nukes sooner than thought.  A document obtained by The Associated Press shows that key restrictions on Iran's nuclear program will ease in slightly more than a decade, halving the time Tehran would need to build a bomb.

State Dept Caught off Guard by New Report on Iran Nuclear Restraints Being Lifted.  State Department spokesman Mark Toner appeared surprised Monday to learn of a new report that says key constraints on Iran's nuclear program will be eased in just over a decade, cutting in half the time Tehran would need to build a nuclear bomb.  The Associated Press reported on the secret document Monday afternoon [7/18/2016].

Hezbollah: Our Weapons and Rockets All Come From Iran.  Hezbollah's leader said on Friday [6/24/2016] that the Lebanese terrorist organization will not be harmed by U.S. sanctions since it is funded and armed directly by Iran, Agence France-Presse reported.  "We are open about the fact that Hezbollah's budget, its income, its expenses, everything it eats and drinks, its weapons and rockets, are from the Islamic Republic of Iran," said Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, who insisted that the Lebanese terrorist organization "will not be affected" by the recently imposed sanctions.  "As long as Iran has money, we have money... Just as we receive the rockets that we use to threaten Israel, we are receiving our money.  No law will prevent us from receiving it," he added.

Obama's Iran experiment.  In exchange for Iran mothballing parts of its nuclear weapons program, many of the toughest American and international economic sanctions have been lifted.  Iran's rulers now have access to $100 billion in what had been blocked assets.  As expected, Iran's economy is recovering.  Nevertheless, Ayatollah Khamenei is dissatisfied.  He recently charged that Americans were creating "Iranophobia so no one does business with Iran."  In response, Secretary of State John Kerry has been telling Europeans and anyone else who would listen about all the marvelous investment opportunities available in Iran.  Soon after, Boeing announced a $25 billion deal to sell and lease aircraft to government-owned Iran Air.

Obama Admin Brushes Off Intel Iran Is Buying Nuke, Missile Materials.  The Obama administration is brushing aside new German intelligence reports indicating that Iran has accelerated its efforts to procure key nuclear materials, despite promises to end this behavior as part of last summer's nuclear accord, according to comments by a U.S. official provided to the [Washington] Free Beacon.  Germany's internal intelligence agency concluded in a recent report that sources have witnessed "extensive Iranian attempts" to procure illicit materials, "especially goods that can be used in the field of nuclear technology," according to the report.  The report appears to show that Iran is not upholding its most critical commitments under the nuclear deal.

House moves to block Boeing-Iran deal.  The House overwhelmingly approved a pair of measures Thursday [7/7/2016] aimed at blocking Boeing from selling aircraft to Iran, amid fears the deal could end up benefiting the country's military as well as terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah.  "To give these types of planes to the Iranian regime, which still is the world's largest state sponsor of terror, is to give them a product that can be used for a military purpose," said Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., who sponsored the measures.  The amendments to a separate spending bill are aimed at the agreement struck last month between the Chicago-based company and Iran Air.  The deal is estimated to involve roughly 100 aircraft, consisting of 777s and 737s, and be worth up to $25 billion.

Iran deal:  Why is Team Obama trying so hard to hide information from you?  The Obama administration continues to drag its feet by refusing to release important information about the deal with Iran — information the American public wants and deserves.  My organization, the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with the U.S. Department of State last month to get to the bottom of why the State Department deleted press briefing video footage that appeared to confirm that the Obama administration lied about its dealings with Iran.  You can imagine what happened.  Nothing.  Predictably, there's only been silence from the State Department — no response to our FOIA requests.

Obama Admin Hiding Info On $1.7B 'Ransom Payment' to Iran From Congress.  The Obama administration is withholding from congressional leaders documents and information related to a $1.7 billion U.S. taxpayer funded payout to Iran earlier this year, furthering accusations the cash was part of a "ransom payment" to free U.S. hostages from Iranian custody, according to communications obtained by the Washington Free Beacon and conversations with lawmakers.  The controversy over this payment — which arose from the settlement of a longstanding legal dispute with Iran — has deepened in recent weeks after Iranian officials disclosed that nearly all of the U.S. money had been spent to strengthen Iran's military.  Congressional efforts to compel the Obama administration to come clean about the payment have yet to yield results, prompting a separate effort to determine whether the White House overpaid Iran and is now withholding information that would prove this claim, according to documents obtained by the Free Beacon.

Navy commander surrendered to Iran to protect Obama's nuclear deal.  The Navy commander in charge of a pair of patrol boats captured by Iranian forces in January opted to surrender rather than fight back, citing later fears that a confrontation could endanger the Obama administration's efforts to lock in a deal with Tehran on its nuclear program.  In an interview with investigators looking into the January incident, the commander said he surrendered the vessels after calculating that his sailors would not be in danger because Iran "wants this nuke deal to go through."  The interview was one of several stunning revelations in the often scathing 170-page report compiled by Navy investigators, chronicling the chain of events that led to the apprehension and detention of the 10 American sailors by the Iranian military after a pair of U.S. patrol boats drifted into the country's sovereign waters in the Persian Gulf.

Navy investigation finds US sailors captured in Iran were unprepared, Iran broke the law.  The Navy's top officer said Thursday [6/30/2016] the performance of 10 of his sailors leading up to and following their capture by Iranian forces in January did not meet the high standards expected of them, as he announced the long-awaited findings of a Navy investigation.  "Those sailors clearly know our actions on that day in January, and this incident did not live up to our expectations of our Navy," Admiral John Richardson told reporters.  One of Richardson's top deputies said some of the sailors violated the longstanding "code of conduct" that requires all service members to "make no oral or written statements disloyal to my country," among its six articles.

Navy: Iran Violated International Law in Detention of U.S. Sailors.  Iranian forces infringed upon 10 U.S. sailors' right of innocent passage under international law by arresting them at gunpoint, a Navy investigation into the Jan. 12 incident found.  The investigation concluded that it was "reasonable" for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp Navy to investigate the appearance of the 10 American personnel and their two riverine command boats in their territorial waters but that Iran's obstruction of the vessels' transit "infringed upon their right of innocent passage under international law and was disproportionate under the circumstances," according to declassified documents released Thursday [6/30/2016].  "Iran's boarding and seizure of the [riverine command boats] followed by the interrogation and video recording of the crew clearly violated established norms of sovereign immunity.  The [riverine command boat] crews, although not operating in accordance with established U.S. Navy procedures, did act consistently with international law," the executive summary of the findings state.

Annals of mewling idiocy.  The Islamic Republic of Iran has taken its $100 billion non-signing bonus on the Iran deal.  With the cash in hand, it will ramp up its nuclear program and fund terrorism without financial constraints.  The murderous terorist group Hezbollah is a chief beneficiary of Iran's largesse.  As Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah explained late last week:  "We are open about the fact that Hezbollah's budget, its income, its expenses, everything it eats and drinks, its weapons and rockets, are from the Islamic Republic of Iran."

Kerry: US Is Letting Boeing Sell Planes to Terror-Sponsor Iran to Further 'Transformation'.  Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday [6/28/2016] that the Obama administration will hold Iran accountable for its sponsorship of terrorism, but at the same time he hopes to use the promotion of trade — like the Boeing deal — to advance "transformation" in the country.  "Doing business is one of the best ways to create interests and vested purpose, if you will, in furthering transformation," he said at the Aspen Institute's Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado, adding that the administration was trying to "thread a needle" in its dealings with Iran — "a very difficult needle to thread."

Iran Threatens to Restart Nuke Program.  Iran on Tuesday [6/28/2016] threatened to restart its contested nuclear program in violation of last summer's international agreement if the United States and other countries fail to move forward with a massive sanctions relief program aimed at bolstering the Iranian economy, according to comments by a top Iranian leader.  Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chair of the Iranian parliament's national security and foreign policy commission, warned that the Islamic Republic would "resume large-scale uranium enrichment" if leaders feel the international community is not doing enough for Iran under the nuclear deal.  "The Islamic Republic of Iran's response to the other side's non-compliance with the implementation of the nuclear deal will be uranium enrichment," Boroujerdi was quoted as saying in Iran's state-controlled press.

White House on Hezbollah Terror Funding Admission: 'We Call on Iran to Stop Doing This'.  The White House responded to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah scoffing at U.S. sanctions by stressing "we have called on all those that fund Hezbollah to stop doing so."

The Editor says...
Yeah, I'll bet the Iranians are stunned by such forceful action.

Saudi Journalist: 'Mullah Obama' Is Paving Way For Iran To Go Nuclear.  Saudi Arabia's official daily Okaz published an article titled "Ayatollah Obama — A Tehran Love Story," slamming President Barack Obama for going against traditional U.S. foreign policy by supporting Iran and abandoning the Middle East.  In the article, translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), columnist Muhammad Al-Sa'id argues that the Islamic Republic is exploiting "romantic" Obama's naïve affinity for revolutionary countries to realize its own nuclear aspirations.  Al-Sa'id writes, "The U.S. has always viewed Iran as a rogue country that violates international law and sponsors terrorism — [terrorism] that has targeted the U.S. in many places around the globe."

Ex-Clinton official got Boeing bucks while pushing Iran nuke pact — before $25B jet deal.  A former top Clinton administration diplomat who used his political sway to garner support for the Iran nuclear deal apparently was being bankrolled the entire time by Boeing — which is set to make billions off a jet deal with Tehran now that sanctions have been lifted.  Thomas Pickering, who also served as co-chairman of the board examining the Benghazi attack response, publicly pushed for the nuclear deal before its approval last year.  He did so by penning op-eds, writing to high-level officials and even testifying before Congress.  With the deal in place, Boeing has since moved forward on a $25 billion deal with Iran Air made possible by the nuclear agreement.

Regime of Lies.  When Obama pursued his nuclear deal with Iran, he assured us that all would be well.  The Iranian regime wanted only to be a fully accepted member of the international community.  Nuclear weapons were in truth the last thing on its mind, the administration told us.  Now, however, we know that was simply not the case — the Obama administration knew the Iranian regime was still dangerous and knew full well its desire for obtaining nuclear capabilities was not limited to the purpose of cheaper energy.  In a profile of Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, The New York Times inadvertently revealed that the passage of the Iran deal was the result of a well-planned strategy of misinformation.  They intentionally lied to the American people.

Navy commodore to be relieved of command over Iran's capture of his sailors.  The commodore in charge of the two U.S. Navy boats that strayed into Iranian waters leading to the capture of his 10 sailors for 16 hours in January will be relieved of command likely putting an end to his career, Fox News has learned.  Capt.  Kyle Moses, commodore of Commander Task Force (CTF) 56 was responsible for the two riverine boats and Kuwait-based crew.  The Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral John Richardson, is set to release a long-awaited report on June 30th about the events surrounding the January incident now that the investigation is complete.

Obama Admin Battling Internal War Over Giving Iran Access to U.S. Dollars.  The Obama administration is at odds over whether to give Iran access to the U.S. financial system, a move that is opposed by parts of the administration, according to communications exclusively obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.  Tensions have been brewing between the State and Treasury Departments over contradictory statements about U.S. efforts to boost Iran's economy and give it unprecedented access to U.S. dollars, according to conversations with sources who described a deepening internal divide over the issue.

The President's Confusion.  "The purpose of the agreement is not to bet on the notion that Iran will moderate," Obama said.  "The purpose of the agreement is to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon throughout the duration of the agreement."  Yes, that's right.  The president of the United States made a deal that recognized the right of radicals to enrich uranium, a deal that frees up billions of dollars for the murderers of Americans, a deal that, once expired, nearly guarantees a nuclear weapon for a regime staffed by thousands of Omar Mateens.

Here's what this page is all about:  Crony capitalism.
Iran says it has finalized the deal to buy 100 Boeing airliners.  Iran has reached a deal to buy 100 planes from US planemaker Boeing, and the two sides are awaiting approval by US Treasury authorities, the head of Iran's Civil Aviation Organization said in remarks published by state media on Sunday [6/19/2016].  So far, Boeing has only been granted permission to present its products to Iranair and a handful of other airlines as it tries to catch up with Europe's Airbus, which won a provisional deal earlier this year for 118 jets worth $27 billion.

Rhodes warns next president against pulling out of Iran deal.  Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser and key Iran deal proponent, advised President Obama's successor not to pull out of the nuclear agreement with Iran, saying it could trigger a war.

The Editor says...
Right.  As if Obama has ever prevented a war.

Obama Admin Under Scrutiny for Ignoring U.S. Law Banning Russian Arms Sale to Iran.  The Obama administration is stalling a congressional inquiry into its ongoing refusal to uphold a U.S. law that would sanction Russia for selling advanced missile systems to Iran, according to recent communications between the State Department and Congress exclusively obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.  President Obama has the authority under U.S. law to designate as illegal Russia's recent sale to Iran of the advanced S-300 missile system, a long-range weapon that would boost the Islamic Republic's military capabilities.  The administration has so far declined to exercise its sanction authority under law and has been stalling attempts by Congress to discern the rationale behind this decision, prompting accusations that the administration is ignoring U.S. law and "acquiescing" to the sale in order to preserve last summer's comprehensive nuclear deal.

Boeing-Iran deal in jeopardy as concerns persist about Tehran's terror links.  Two former U.S. Treasury officials cast doubt Wednesday on the prospects of a highly touted deal between Iran and the American aerospace giant Boeing, claiming concerns about Iranian money laundering and terrorism financing activities are likely to scuttle the agreement.  Boeing Co. officials remained mum Wednesday [6/15/2016] after Iranian officials said this week that a milestone deal was imminent, the biggest by far between a U.S. company and Tehran since the signing of the landmark nuclear deal last year that lifted many economic sanctions on Iran.  But critics say the deal, strongly backed by President Obama, has failed to reduce concerns that Iran remains a vital source of funds and banking services for the world's leading terrorist groups.

Obama fills the Mullahs' coffers as they promise "Death to America".  Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's latest insult directed at U.S. President Barack Hussein Obama, came on June 3, 2016.  The Associated Press reported that Khamenei ruled out "any official cooperation with the U.S. against the Islamic State, their common adversary in Iraq and Syria, insisting that Washington remains a prime enemy of Tehran, despite a landmark nuclear deal with the U.S. and five other world powers."  To further add insult to injury, the Iranian regime showed their contempt for Obama and his nuclear deal by conducting missile tests and airing footage of an underground missile base on Iranian state television.

The Obama Admin Blocked An Iranian-American Judge From Hearing Iranian Immigration Cases.  In 2015, immigration Judge A. Ashley Tabaddor sued the United States Department of Justice after it forced her to recuse herself from "all immigration cases involving Iranians."  According to reporting from NPR, Obama's DOJ first became "concerned with the appearance of impropriety" after Tabaddor — who is of Iranian descent — attended a 2012 White House meeting with other high-profile Iranian-Americans.

White House Can't Explain Omission of Damaging Line About Iran Deal Deceit From Transcript.  White House press secretary Josh Earnest could not explain Tuesday the omission of a potentially damaging line about the Iran nuclear deal from the official transcript of a White House press briefing last month, refusing to revisit the matter and rejecting the notion that there was any wrongdoing.  Fox News correspondent Kevin Corke asked Earnest on May 9 if he could "state categorically that no senior official in this administration has ever lied publicly about any aspect of the Iran nuclear deal."  Earnest responded, "No, Kevin," followed by a brief, awkward silence before discussing the merits of the nuclear agreement.  The words "No, Kevin" never made it into the official White House transcript, however.  The transcript immediately goes from Corke's question into Earnest's talking points about the Iran deal.  ABC News first reported this story and noted the White House's official response is that the line was omitted because it was inaudible.

U.S. Taxpayers Are Funding Iran's Military Expansion.  One of the unexpected results of President Barack Obama's new opening to Iran is that U.S. taxpayers are now funding both sides of the Middle East's arms race.  The U.S. is deliberately subsidizing defense spending for allies like Egypt and Israel.  Now the U.S. is inadvertently paying for some of Iran's military expenditures as well.  It all starts with $1.7 billion the U.S. Treasury transferred to Iran's Central Bank in January, during a delicate prisoner swap and the implementation of last summer's nuclear deal to resolve a long-standing dispute about Iran's arms purchases before the revolution of 1979.

The Mind of the President.  The "deal" with Iran that was concluded in June 2015 was not even exactly a deal. The document, called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, was never actually signed, even as the administration continued to insist that the deal was "not based on trust."  The version approved by the Iranian parliament, and the provisions described by Iran's leaders, were different from those submitted to Congress and the American people.  We were assured that Congress would be given a say, but the nature of the say included a truncated process, suppression of side deals, and a vote in which two-thirds of members were required to override a veto and stop the implementation, which is very different from the two-thirds of the Senate required to approve treaties.  To top it all off, in key parts of the document — where the administration's long-promised "snap-back sanctions" purportedly appeared — the text actually included the Iranians' express rejection of the concept, declaring that the entire deal would be off if sanctions were restored.  Meaning "snap-back sanctions" were never agreed to.  Meaning a central plank of the agreement wasn't really part of the deal at all.

Why not?  What's Obama going to do about it?
Iran Denies Entry to U.S. Congressmen Seeking to Inspect Nuke Sites.  The Iranian government has declined to permit a delegation of U.S. congressmen into the country to monitor the Islamic Republic's compliance with last summer's nuclear agreement, informing the lawmakers in a sharply worded letter that no U.S. persons are permitted under the agreement to monitor Iran's compliance, according to a copy of the communication obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.  Iran informed three leading members of Congress in a letter sent to the State Department last week that their request for travel visas into Iran will be denied on the grounds that no U.S. citizen or official has the right to inspect Iran's contested nuclear sites, according to a copy of Iran's response letter obtained by the Free Beacon.

Kerry may blow off House testimony on video edits.  The State Department hinted on Tuesday [6/7/2016] that Secretary of State John Kerry may skip an invitation to testify before Congress about how a 2013 press briefing video was edited to remove a key discussion about the Iran nuclear agreement.  On Monday [6/6/2016], House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, asked that Kerry testify about the incident, which the State Department called a "glitch" for three weeks before finally admitting it was an intentional edit.

Scandal #1.  Actually it goes beyond mere scandal.  A White House is 18 minutes of missing tape.  Or, an intern in the Oval Office.  It doesn't involve the selling of firearms to gangsters to stimulate the murder of American and foreign citizens.  Yet that was exactly what the Administration did.  The scandal is that nobody seems to care.

Outrage Rising Over State Department's Wiping of Official Video Showing Obama Administration Lie About Iran Deal.  The US State Department is facing a wave of angry criticism after a spokesman confirmed that someone inside the department made a "deliberate request" for the scrubbing of part of an official video showing the Obama administration misled journalists on the Iran deal.  State Department spokesman John Kirby admitted to reporters on Wednesday [6/1/2016] that the missing footage of a December 2013 press briefing "wasn't a technical glitch."  During the 2013 briefing, then-spokeswoman Jen Psaki confirmed to Fox News reporter James Rosen that earlier claims of direct, secret talks between the US and Iran — which were denied in February 2013 by then-spokesperson Victoria Nuland — were indeed true.  "There are times where diplomacy needs privacy in order to progress.  This is a good example of that," Psaki said regarding the discrepancy.  Fox News discovered earlier this month that the exchange had been edited out of official State Department archive footage — including eight minutes of comments and further questions on the Iran deal.  Officials suggested a "glitch" had occurred.

Putting the media 'under the gun'.  Just last week, [...] it was revealed that the U.S. State Department had intentionally edited out a question and answer from the online archive of a press conference from 2013.  Fox News reporter James Rosen had asked State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki whether her predecessor had lied when she told Rosen there had been no "direct secret bilateral talks" between the United States and Iran.  Psaki didn't confirm that anyone from the State Department had lied, but she noted in classic doublespeak that "there are times where diplomacy needs privacy in order to progress."  So what did the "most transparent administration in history" do about it when they realized the Q&A session was "politically inconvenient" if not incorrect?  Why, easy!  They sent it down George Orwell's "memory hole," the final resting place in "Nineteen Eighty Four" for all such "inconvenient" facts.  The video was edited, and the exchange magically disappeared due to what the State Department first called a "glitch" and last week confirmed was instead political manipulation by some unnamed bureaucrat who ordered another unnamed bureaucrat to "excise the video."

Spinning and Spinning:  The Ceiling Fan State Department.  The great Machiavelli observed that "occasionally, words must veil the facts.  But let this happen in a way that no one become aware of it."  This seems to have been the objective of Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser in the White House.  Finally, he revealed that in his role as spin doctor, he had deliberately misled the media, the Washington foreign policy establishment that he called "The Blob," and the country as a whole, over the nature of U.S. negotiations with Iran over the nuclear deal.  Rhodes co-opted part of the willing press corps and created what he called an "echo chamber" of journalists to convey a narrative that the U.S. had opened negotiations because a more moderate Iranian government had come into office after the seemingly moderate Hassan Rouhani was elected president of Iran in 2013.  But in fact, he lied.  Secret negotiations had started more than two years earlier in 2011 in Muscat, Oman, when the extreme anti-American Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was still president of Iran.

White House accused of selective editing on Iran.  A new report contradicts White House press secretary Josh Earnest's Thursday statement that officials in the Obama administration would not have altered video footage or transcripts of press briefings regarding the Iran nuclear deal without consulting him first.  ABC News discovered late Friday the White House omitted a line from a May 9 press briefing that had included a response from Earnest in which he admitted the administration might have misled the public on the controversial Iran nuclear deal.  Fox News reporter Kevin Corke has asked Earnest, "Can you state categorically that no senior official in this administration has ever lied publicly about any aspect of the Iran nuclear deal?"  "No, Kevin," Earnest responded.

Bill would force Obama to admit to $1.7 billion 'ransom payment' to Iran.  A bill aims to force the Obama administration to confirm within 60 days whether or not it gave a $1.7 billion "ransom payment" to Iran in January in exchange for 10 U.S. sailors captured in its waters.  The No Impunity for Iranian Aggression at Sea Act was filed jointly this week by two Republicans, Rep.  Mike Pompeo of Kansas and Sen.  John Cornyn of Texas, as a way of determining why $1.7 billion was released to Iran on Jan. 14.  The payment was made one day after members of two U.S. Navy patrol boats were freed from captivity.

House Speaker Demands Investigation Into Obama Admin's Iran Deception.  Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) is calling for an immediate investigation into recent disclosures that the Obama administration censored public video of a State Department briefing about secret discussions with Iran, according to comments provided to the Washington Free Beacon.  Ryan, a vocal critic of the administration's diplomacy with Iran, accused the White House of misleading Congress and the American people about the nature of last summer's comprehensive nuclear agreement.  The disclosure on Wednesday [6/1/2016] that an unnamed State Department official ordered portions of a December 2013 press briefing about secret negotiations with Iran to be cut reinforces the need for full investigation into the administration's deceptions surrounding the deal, Ryan said.

Years After Hiroshima Comes the Blah.  I was reading a brilliant biography of Lady Thatcher by Charles Moore [...] just about the time that our President was delivering his rhetorical serving of mush at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial.  There he was calling for a "moral revolution" worldwide, which would rid the world of nuclear arms.  He said:  "We may not eliminate mankind's capacity to do evil.  But among those nations like my own that hold nuclear stockpiles, we must have the courage to escape the logic of fear and pursue a world without them."  Incidentally, what will Mr. Obama or his successor do with a nuclear-armed Iran, a nuclear-armed Iran that Mr. Obama so recently enabled?

Is Obama's Iran Deal a 'Dhimmi' Contract?  IRGC Commander Ali Fadavi's recent threat to "drown American vessels" in the Persian Gulf is only the latest indication that America's relationship with Iran resembles a dhimma contract more than a traditional foreign policy. [...] President Obama's approach to the Muslim world in general has been replete with gratitude, flattery, and apologies — even, and especially, for violence perpetrated by Christians one thousand years ago.  Obama refuses to utter the words "Islamist terrorism."  He wildly exaggerates Islam's role in "saving" Western culture.  At the United Nations, Obama demanded that "the future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam."  He even put one filmmaker in jail for doing so.  Above all, throughout his presidency Obama has reached out to Iran both publicly and via private letters.  Obama's overtures may not be consciously designed to follow a dhimmi's accommodation of his master.  However, Ali Khamenei certainly treats Obama as if a dhimmi contract is in effect, offering only contempt in return for the president's obsequious deference.

The Obama Navy as Farce.  [Scroll down]  It's not clear how the Iranians treated the U.S. sailors, but we know a few key facts.  The Iranians seized Navy computers aboard the boats and copied their contents.  The sailors were interrogated individually — constantly — and paraded before Iranian television crews.  In footage broadcast internationally, they were apparently compelled to admit that they were in the wrong for entering Iranian waters — though the evidence showed they had not — and to apologize for doing so.  But every American soldier, sailor, airman and Marine is trained to refuse to aid the enemy in that manner.  It's a violation of their duty to do so.  So were they abused?  Tortured?  Threatened with immediate execution?  We don't know because the Obama administration has classified everything about how the sailors were treated.

Thanks, Obama!  Only Eight Iranian Missile Launches Since Nuke Deal Signed!  First, the Obama administration lied its collective asses off regarding every detail of the Iran nuclear deal, virtually guaranteeing a war or a major terror attack involving the West.  Next, they molded a Gumby-spined media into a propaganda arm of the administration, using payola and low-information journalists to spread their message of [lies].  As a result, in addition to kidnapping U.S. service personnel and humiliating them on global television, Iran has begun aggressively launching missiles in all directions, threatening its neighbors and embarrassing President Mom-pants.

Iran 'Blackmailing' U.S. for Greater Nuke Concessions.  The Obama administration is taking steps to aid and please Iran far beyond U.S. commitments under last summer's nuclear accord, according to experts, who warned Tuesday during testimony on Capitol Hill that the White House is becoming "dangerously close to becoming Iran's trade promotion and business development authority."  The Obama administration's efforts to boost Iran's economy and resurrect its financial sector are not required under the comprehensive nuclear agreement, yet the White House is undertaking this role to soothe relations with the Islamic Republic, nuclear experts told the Senate Banking Committee.

The Secret History of the Iran-Deal 'Echo Chamber'.  A network of advocates, experts and messaging specialists the White House says helped it sell the Iran nuclear deal in 2015 actually began to campaign for such an accord four years earlier, before the real negotiations started.  Last week I was leaked e-mails and documents from an internal listserv operated by the arms control nonprofit Ploughshares Fund.  That foundation has come under scrutiny after the New York Times Magazine quoted top White House foreign policy aide Ben Rhodes boasting how the foundation amplified the White House message in 2015 on the Iran deal.  Rhodes told the magazine that supporters of the deal comprised an "echo chamber," suggesting the independent experts were tools of a White House media campaign.

Supreme Leader:  America "Cannot Do a D*** Thing" About Iranian Missiles.  One of these days, a reporter might ask President Obama how his grand plan for an alliance with Iran is turning out.  Someone forgot to tell the mullahs, apparently. [...] Actually, the Ayatollah is giving the Obama administration too much credit.  While there has been a bipartisan hue and cry in Congress over Iran's ballistic missile tests, the Obama administration has maintained its usual posture of inept passivity.

Iran: 'Israel Should Be Wiped Off the Earth'.  The Iranian regime has been escalating the advancement of its ballistic missile program ever since the nuclear agreement went into effect in January 2016.  Some of Iran's dangerous ballistic missiles can carry multiple warheads.  In the last four months, Iran has launched ballistic missiles several times.  Some of these missiles had a phrase "Israel should be wiped off the Earth" written on them in Hebrew.  The Iranian regime is increasingly provoking other countries in the region and has made it clear that the ballistic missiles are aimed at targeting other nations.

The Iran Deal Wasn't About Nukes At All.  Remember the Iran deal?  Of course you do.  The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was one of the greatest diplomatic agreements of our time, a last-ditch effort to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear bomb and thus avert inevitable military action by the United States and its allies.  Hard negotiations provided a verifiable inspections plan that would keep Iran walking the straight and narrow for at least a decade, if not longer.  The media, of course, served only as the impartial platform for analysis and debate.

Obama discovers the separation of powers.  Barack Obama has never shown much of an appreciation for the separation of powers.  At an event in Argentina, in March, the president said he found it "very frustrating ... that power is distributed across a lot of different institutions."  But suddenly he's invoking the separation of powers to stop his national security aide from testifying to a congressional panel.

13 Incompetent Failures in the Obama Administration.  [#13] Ben Rhodes, a speechwriter without any foreign policy educational experience, military experience, or international experience, became Obama's deputy national security adviser for strategic communications and speechwriting.  The New York Times titled its profile "The Aspiring Novelist Who Became Obama's Foreign-Policy Guru."  As "master shaper and retailer of Obama's foreign policy narratives," Rhodes revealed his contempt for Congress, the press, and the public, along with his manipulation of the media on the Iran nuclear deal.

Obama Admin Will Not Commit to Barring Iranian Access to U.S. Dollar.  The Obama administration will not commit to halting its effort to help Iran access the U.S. dollar, despite past commitments to do so, according to a new congressional inquiry obtained by the Washington Free Beacon into the Treasury Department's refusal to uphold its promises.  Leading senators are threatening to block all consideration of Treasury Department nominees until the administration ends its bid "to enable Iranian access to U.S. dollars" throughout the international financial system, according to a letter sent Thursday [5/19/2016] to the Treasury Department by Sens.  Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) and Mark Kirk (R., Ill.).  Potential Iranian access to the U.S. dollar has caused friction between Congress and the Obama administration, which initially vowed during negotiations with Iran that such a move was out of the question.

Napolitano: Ben Rhodes, the Obama White House and the issue of lying.  Last year, the Obama administration negotiated an agreement with the government of Iran permitting Iran to obtain certain materials for the construction of nuclear facilities.  It also permitted the release of tens of billions of dollars in Iranian assets that had been held in U.S. banks and that the courts had frozen, and it lifted trade sanctions.  In exchange, certain inspections of Iranian nuclear facilities can occur under certain circumstances.  During the course of the negotiations, many critics made many allegations about whether the Obama administration was telling the truth to Congress and to the American people.  Was there a secret side deal?  The administration said no.  Were we really negotiating with moderates in the Iranian government, as opposed to the hard-liners depicted in the American media?  The administration said yes.  Can U.N. or U.S. inspectors examine Iranian nuclear facilities without notice and at any time?  The administration said yes.

The Fictional Iran Deal.  Many in the media went ballistic at Mr. Rhodes, and the author of the New York Times Magazine article that broke the news, for Rhodes' confessions about deceiving the public to sell the Iran deal.  I am not one of them.  If anything, I believe this is all very appropriate.  This whole Iran deal is, more than anything else, a totally fictional 'deal' that came out of a totally fictional process, and is being fictionally followed by Iran.  It is also a complete and utter fiction for anyone to believe that the 'deal' will stop Iran from producing a nuclear weapon.  So, doesn't it make sense for a fiction writer to insert some fictional material to propagandize for it?  There is no common 'deal' between the U.S. and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Where did the money come from?
J-Street was paid by Obama administration to promote Iran deal.  J-Street received more than half a million dollars to advocate for the Obama administration's controversial nuclear deal with Iran, it has been revealed.  The liberal Jewish group, which bills itself as "pro-Israel and pro-peace" but which critics say takes solely anti-Israel stances, was paid the money by the White House's main surrogate organization for selling the deal.  The Ploughshares Fund was named in an explosive New York Times profile of Obama aid Ben Rhodes, in which the President's chief spin doctor listed the central groups responsible for creating an "echo chamber" in order to promote the deal, even when the White House's official line didn't jibe with the facts.  According to Associated Press, the group's 2015 annual report details several organizations which received substantial funds to peddle the official White House line on the nuclear deal.  Among them was National Public Radio (NPR), which received a $100,000 grant to promote "national security reporting that emphasizes the themes of U.S. nuclear weapons policy and budgets, Iran's nuclear program, international nuclear security topics and U.S. policy toward nuclear security."

Boeing's Budding Business Ties to Iran Face Congressional Review.  Members of Congress have summoned the heads of airplane giant Boeing to a meeting to encourage the company to stop spearheading efforts to reenter the Iranian marketplace, a business pursuit that is jointly backed by the Obama administration, according to a letter sent Friday to Boeing leadership and obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.  Boeing, like its French rival AirBus, has been working to woo the Iranian government following last summer's comprehensive nuclear agreement.  Officials at Boeing — a top U.S. government contractor — opened discussions with Iran last month.  The company is hoping to sell its aircraft and other services to Iran's national airline.

Breaking: NPR Funded by White House Surrogate Pushing Iran Deal.  Bradley Klapper of Associated Press broke the story Friday that "A group the White House recently identified as a key surrogate in selling the Iran nuclear deal gave National Public Radio $100,000 last year to help it report on the pact and related issues, according to the group's annual report.  It also funded reporters and partnerships with other news outlets."  The group is the Ploughshares Fund, whose most notable pundit is former Joe Biden adviser Joseph Cirincione.  Klapper noted that when White House aide Ben Rhodes bragged in a New York Times Magazine profile about how "we created an echo chamber" to sell the Iran arms deal, he added that "outside groups like Ploughshares" helped carry out the administration's message.

Group That Helped Sell Iran Nuke Deal Also Funded Media.  A group the White House recently identified as a key surrogate in selling the Iran nuclear deal gave National Public Radio $100,000 last year to help it report on the pact and related issues, according to the group's annual report.

House Moves to Subject National Security Council to Public Records Law.  Congress unanimously advanced a measure on Wednesday [5/18/2016] to subject the White House's team of national security advisers to laws giving the public access to internal administration documents.  An amendment to a key Defense Department funding bill brought forward by Rep.  Jackie Walorski (R., Ind.) would require the White House National Security Council to produce internal records in response to requests under the Freedom of Information Act.  The amendment comes in the midst of controversy over admissions by Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes in a recent New York Times interview that he and media allies created an "echo chamber" to promote the administration's nuclear deal with Iran.

Why Hasn't Obama Fired Ben Rhodes?  [Scroll down]  Freighted with the far-reaching effects of a major treaty, the Iran deal was never submitted by Obama to the Senate for ratification as a treaty.  Framed as an agreement with Iran, it was never signed by Iran.  Sold by the administration as a transparent deal, it is turning out to be a slush heap of secrets.  The real blob in this drama is the rolling sludge of presidential over-reach, White House fictions and raw abuse of public trust that has brought us everything from the indigestible "Affordable Care Act" to the Benghazi "video" narrative, to the Iran deal.  As the Washington Free Beacon's Adam Kredo reports, leading members of Congress are calling on President Obama to fire Rhodes "over accusations the White House intentionally misled lawmakers and the American public about the contents of last summer's comprehensive nuclear agreement with Iran."

Sen. Tom Cotton:  Iran Deception Is What You Get With 'Van Drivers, Campaign Flaks, and Failed Novelists in Charge of Foreign Policy'.  Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) said Tuesday [5/17/2016] that the Iran deception scandal is what you get when van drivers, campaign flaks, and failed novelists are put in charge of foreign policy and national security.  Cotton has become the Obama White House's "public enemy number one" in recent months because of his strong, vocal opposition to the Iran nuclear deal.  The freshman senator blasted the Obama White House during an appearance on the Hugh Hewitt Show Tuesday morning after Hewitt played a clip of White House Press Sec.  Josh Earnest calling him a liar.  Cotton hit back hard, calling Earnest a "chump" who has nothing to laugh about.

Sen. Cotton:  White House Says One Thing In Classified Briefings, Another Thing To Public.  Sen.  Tom Cotton alleged Tuesday [5/17/2016] that President Barack Obama's administration officials say one thing in classified briefings with members of Congress and another thing in public to the American people.  "It's time that the administration came clean and told the American people exactly what they tell Congress in a classified setting," Cotton insisted.  Appearing on the Hugh Hewitt Show on Tuesday, Cotton said that he "became public enemy number one at the White House... because I'm telling the truth about the Iran deal."

GOP reps hammer WH aide Rhodes at hearing; senators seek firing.  Republican condemnation of a top White House aide who boasted about the administration's success selling the Iran deal to the public reached new levels on Tuesday [5/17/2016], as several senators urged President Obama to fire him and a House committee looking into his claims went forward with its hearing — even though he didn't show up to testify.

Congressman: Classified Details of Iran's Treatment of U.S. Sailors Will Shock Nation.  The classified details behind Iran's treatment of several U.S. sailors who were captured by the Islamic Republic during a tense standoff earlier this year are likely to shock the nation, according to one member of the House Armed Services Committee, who disclosed to the Washington Free Beacon that these details are currently being withheld by the Obama administration.  Rep.  Randy Forbes (R., Va.) told the Free Beacon in an interview that the Obama administration is still keeping details of the maritime incident under wraps.  It could be a year or longer before the American public receives a full accounting of the incident, in which several U.S. sailors were abducted at gunpoint by the Iranian military.  "I've had a full classified briefing" from military officials, Forbes told the Free Beacon.  "It could be as long as a year before we actually get that released."

Cash and Kerry: the secretary of state acts as treasury secretary for the Iranians.  It is simply delightful to hear Iran complain that business ain't been so good since the mullahs okayed a nuclear deal with President Obama.  In fact, Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif professes to be so disappointed that he has recruited Secretary of State John Kerry into trying to coax banks and others to start trading again with the radical Islamist regime.  Obama's pact delayed Iran's march toward the capacity to quickly assemble and — just as important — deliver by missile atomic weaponry.  In return for Iran's slowdown, the world lifted economic sanctions that had crippled the country's economy.  Iran seems to have expected hand-over-fist commerce.  Instead, more than a few banks and businesses see too many downsides to opening up shop in Tehran.  You don't say.

Imagine being called a liar by Barack H. Obama!
White House Angrily Calls Republicans Liars About Iran Deal.  White House press secretary Josh Earnest lashed out at Republican lawmakers Monday for inviting Obama aide Ben Rhodes to testify in a congressional hearing this week on the Iran nuclear deal, calling opponents of the nuclear accord in Congress liars who are deceiving the public about its content.  Fox News correspondent Kevin Corke asked Earnest at the White House daily press briefing if it would be "instructive if not enlightening" for Rhodes, the president's deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, to appear before Congress to discuss the Iran deal.  "Ben Rhodes is the person who told the truth about the Iran deal, and it's Republicans who are either badly misinformed or outright lying about the Iran deal," Earnest said in response.

The Pajama Boy White House.  [Scroll down]  Recently Ben Rhodes — "Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting," and author of the president's Cairo speech and the Benghazi talking points — confessed to the New York Times that he salted bogus talking points about the Iran deal among the field of novice wannabe Washington-New York foreign-policy "experts," on the expectation that Pajama Boy journalists on the make ("The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old, and their only reporting experience consists of being around political campaigns.  That's a sea change.  They literally know nothing") would lazily draw on these pseudo-experts to complete the circular con ("We created an echo chamber. ... They were saying things that validated what we had given them to say").  Because the postmodernist Rhodes (who says he drives a "Beamer") is cynical and contemptuous of the value of traditional first-hand experience and classical education, he feels he can construct almost any reality he wishes, such as a manufactured reformist Iranian wing reaching out to the U.S. to offer concessions on a nuclear deal:

Senators Demand Obama Fire Top Aide for Iran Deal Deception.  Leading members of Congress are calling on President Barack Obama to fire one of his top advisers amid a deepening scandal over accusations the White House intentionally misled lawmakers and the American public about the contents of last summer's comprehensive nuclear agreement with Iran, according to a letter sent Monday [5/16/2016] to Obama and obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.  The lawmakers are pressing Obama to fire deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes following revelations he and other officials "spearheaded the charge to mislead elected lawmakers and the American people about the Iran nuclear deal and the negotiations that led to this agreement," according to the letter.

Obama weekly report card:  F for Iran deal sales job.  This week's White House report card finds grader Jed Babbin coming down hard on the administration and Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes who bragged in the New York Times about spinning tales to sell the controversial Iran nuclear deal.

Obama sending mixed messages on Iran.  A banker who once enforced US sanctions on entities dealing with Iran said the Obama administration is sending mixed messages on whether it will penalize those who do business with the Islamic Republic.  "Washington is pushing non-US banks to do what it is still illegal for American banks to do," Stuart Levey, who was the undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the US Treasury from 2004-2011, wrote in Friday's Wall Street Journal.

White House Spokesman Melts Down Over Iran Lies.  How panicked is the White House over the Ben Rhodes revelations on Iran?  Josh Earnest, who is usually hard to ruffle, went off on an unhinged rant against Republicans after being asked whether Rhodes would testify.

Washington's Idiotic Echo Chamber.  David Samuels' long-form essay last weekend in the New York Times Magazine about President Barack Obama's deputy national security adviser and spokesmen Ben Rhodes has sent the media into a tizzy.  Rhodes had to sell the Iranian nuclear deal to a skeptical American public.  He freely admits that he did so by manipulating a select group of reporters that he and staff think are idiots and molded them into his own personal echo chamber.  It wasn't difficult.  "All these newspapers used to have foreign bureaus," he told Samuels.  "Now they don't.  They call us to explain to them what's happening in Moscow and Cairo.  Most of the outlets are reporting on world events from Washington.  The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old, and their only reporting experience consists of being around political campaigns.  That's a sea change.  They literally know nothing."

Former Obama Defense Sec:  Yeah, Barry was never serious about stopping Iran from getting nukes.  Former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta would "probably not" believe that President Barack Obama was serious about his promise to take action to stop Iran from building a nuclear bomb if Panetta could make his assessments over again, he conceded in a New York Times Magazine article published on Thursday [5/12/2016].  Panetta, who was the director of the CIA from 2009-2011 and then served as defense secretary until 2013, told reporter David Samuels that one of his most important jobs in the Pentagon was preventing Israel from launching a preemptive strike against Iran's nuclear infrastructure.

Kirk, on tape:  Menendez indicted for opposing Obama's Iran deal.  U.S. Sen.  Mark Kirk hasn't let up on his insistence that President Obama is using his power as president to lash out at a political enemy.  At a fundraising event last month in Chicago, the Illinois Republican can be heard on audio defending indicted New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez, a Democrat, while accusing Obama of targeting Menendez because of his stance on Iran.  "And let me say something about Bob Menendez.  I believe that Bob Menendez was indicted solely on the crime of opposing the President on Iran," Kirk is heard saying on a recording provided to POLITICO.

State Department: 'Glitch' Caused Key Video Segment on Iran Deception to Go Missing.  The State Department said Tuesday that a "glitch" caused eight minutes of video from a 2013 press briefing to be deleted on its website and YouTube channel.  In the missing segment, then State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki seemed to admit that the government lied about when the Iran nuclear talks began, in answer to a question from Fox News' James Rosen.  The original unedited video reappeared on the State Department website Tuesday morning after Rosen drew attention to its disappearance.  "There was a glitch in the State Department video," spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau told dubious reporters yesterday [5/11/2016] to explain the removal of Psaki's admission.

Why Is Ben Rhodes Apologizing For Insulting The Press?  It's not clear why Rhodes felt the need to apologize, since reporters weren't complaining all that much.  The story began with a massive 9,500-word puff piece in the New York Times magazine about Rhodes, who at 38 has become President Obama's foreign policy guru.  You don't have to read too far into it to get a sense of the gauzy portrayal to come:  "Ben Rhodes' life is still unique, and perhaps not strictly believable, even as fiction," author David Samuels writes in the second paragraph.  But as the Times story unfolds, so does a picture of the press as a willing accomplice in the administration's effort to sell a phony "narrative" about the Iran nuclear arms deal, which arguably provided the support the White House needed to get it accomplished.

Obama's 'boy wonder'.  [Scroll down]  In other words:  Mr. Obama did not cherry-pick intelligence — he disregarded it entirely.  He and his top foreign policy adviser, Ben Rhodes, made up a fictitious narrative that they thought would sell better than the truth.  They built on that falsehood, persuading journalists that Iran's "moderates," in particular Hassan Rouhani, elected Iranian president in 2013, were open to compromise and eager to improve relations — an opportunity too good to pass up.

Kerry only says what he's told to say, and ...
Kerry Says Iran Is 'Open for Business'.  Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday [5/10/2016] rejected the notion that it's America's job to promote business with Iran following the nuclear deal, but again underscored that the U.S. government is not standing in the way of European companies doing business with Tehran.  Except in the case of those companies and individuals that remain designated by the U.S. government for non nuclear-related sanctions, Iran is "open for business," he said in London.  "Banks in Europe are allowed to open accounts for Iran, banks in Europe are allowed to do business, banks in Europe can fund programs, lend money," Kerry told reporters ahead of a meeting with European bankers focused on Iran."

White House mocks House panel for seeking Iran testimony.  The White House dismissed, with deep sarcasm, Thursday [5/12/2016] a move by a House committee to force presidential adviser Ben Rhodes to testify about the Iran nuclear deal, saying Republican lawmakers should put themselves under oath instead to explain their lies about the pact with Tehran.  "It's not the administration, it's Republicans who are demonstrably wrong when it comes to the Iran deal," said White House press secretary Josh Earnest.  The White House said it will review the request by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Jason Chaffetz, Utah Republican, for Mr. Rhodes to testify on May 17.  But Mr. Earnest's testy response suggested that Mr. Rhodes' testimony was unlikely.

Former Defense Secretary:  Obama Was Never Serious About Acting to Stop Iranian Bomb.  Former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta would "probably not" believe that President Barack Obama was serious about his promise to take action to stop Iran from building a nuclear bomb if Panetta could make his assessments over again, he conceded in a New York Times Magazine article published on Thursday [5/5/2016].  Panetta, who was the director of the CIA from 2009-2011 and then served as defense secretary until 2013, told reporter David Samuels that one of his most important jobs in the Pentagon was preventing Israel from launching a preemptive strike against Iran's nuclear infrastructure.  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-Defense Minister Ehud Barak wanted to know if the president was serious about his commitment to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Meet the Democratic Liars Club.  [Scroll down]  The latest clincher is the admission of a top White House aide that much about the Iranian nuclear deal was a fabrication sold to a lazy, gullible press corps.  Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes boasts that most reporters were too dumb to know or care they were being misled.  "The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old, and their only reporting experience consists of being around political campaigns," Rhodes told The New York Times.  "They literally know nothing."

An Epiphany on the Road to Tehran.  The internet was abuzz following a story by David Samuels on the jerk who admitted he manipulated the truth to get the president's absurd deal with Iran accepted (accepted, that is, by the Democrats in Congress who blocked a Republican resolution to reject it).  In case you missed it I'll provide a quick summary of the salient parts, but that shouldn't be the end of the story:  the press having allowed itself to be flimflammed into being mere White House megaphones needs to redeem itself, should it care to win back even the tiniest shred of credibility.

The runt of Rhodes.  President Obama and his team hold a low opinion of the intelligence of the American people. [...] Now comes Obama deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes to reveal the lies on which Obama's alliance with the Islamic Republic of Iran was promoted. [...] Rhodes is not, as he should be, confined to fetching coffee and performing other menial tasks befitting his qualifications to formulate national security policy. [...] Rhodes himself, however, is an odious ignoramus who knows one thing:  Obama's servitors in the mainstream media are useful idiots.

White House BRAGS about how it tricked reporters into cheerleading for Obama's Iran nuclear deal by creating a media 'echo chamber'.  The Obama White House set up an 'echo chamber' of planted experts to control the public discussion about the president's slow-brewing nuclear deal with Iran last year, according to the puppetmaster behind the program.  Ben Rhodes, the administration's top foreign-policy messaging expert, deployed 'legions of arms-control experts' to propagandize about the virtues of the controversial agreement, The New York Times Magazine will report on Sunday [5/8/2016].

The President['s] hard sale of the nuclear deal with the mullahs was chock full of spin and half-truths.  Here, finally, were moderates with whom the U.S. could negotiate as President Obama sought to normalize relations with a sworn enemy.  So the Iranian propaganda went as the mullahs hoped for relief from economic sanctions via a nuclear deal with the U.S. and Western powers.  Why would anyone believe such obvious nonsense?  One reason — in fact the key reason — is that Obama joined Iran in knowingly peddling the same false propaganda to America, according to an extraordinarily revealing New York Times profile of the President's deputy national security adviser, Benjamin Rhodes.

Edited State Dept. video hides key admission on Iran nuke talks.  A State Department video has been altered in what could be an attempt to hide a 2013 discussion with reporters about whether the Obama administration lied about when it first began the Iran nuclear talks.  Fox News reporter James Rosen reported Monday night that a section of a Dec. 2, 2013 press briefing was somehow erased from the State Department's own video of the event.  In the section that was erased, Rosen was interviewing then-spokeswoman Jen Psaki about when the talks started.

How Obama plays his adoring fans in the press.  It turns out, for example, that the story carried by the press about the Iran deal being possible because of the election of a more moderate government in Tehran, was made up.  It was a fiction, as various actual experts on the subject warned at the time.  That is, in real terms, it was a lie.  The deal was in fact already in the works in 2012, a year earlier than anyone knew.  And the whole idea that Iran's government was split over this deal between moderates and hard-liners was a fiction spun in order to create excuses for Iran's persistence in belligerent behavior later on.  Rhodes and others worked to suppress inconvenient news at inopportune moments, such as when Iran captured ten U.S. servicemen on the day of the State of the Union address.

White House admits it played us for fools to sell Iran deal.  Congratulations, liberals of the Washington press corps and elite organizations:  You're a bunch of suckers.  We all know this because the Obama White House just told us so.  In an astounding New York Times piece by David Samuels, senior White House officials gleefully confess they use friendly reporters and nonprofits as public relations tools in the selling of President Obama's foreign policy — and can do it almost at will because these tools are ignorant, will believe what they're told, will essentially take dictation and are happy to be used just to get the information necessary for a tweet or two.  Their greatest triumph, according to Samuels, was selling a misleading narrative about the nuclear deal with Iran [...]

Obama's Foreign Policy Guru Boasts of How the Administration Lied to Sell the Iran Deal.  It's hardly any wonder that Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes has a "mind meld" with his boss, the president.  According to a David Samuels New York Times Magazine article to be published Sunday [5/8/2016] and already posted to the website, Rhodes, like Barack Obama, is contemptuous of "the American foreign-policy establishment."

'No Hormuz passage': Iran's navy highly dangerous to US, top general warns.  Iranian naval forces are strong and can counter any opponent, including the US, if a conflict arises over the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a senior general warned.  "We have developed a powerful Navy in the IRGC and the Armed Forces, capable of defending the country's interests and independence," said Brigadier General Hossein Salami, the Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), in a televised broadcast Tuesday [5/3/2016].  He said last year's incident in which 10 US sailors were arrested after straying into Iranian territorial waters and released through diplomatic channels proved that the Americans respected the strength of the Iranian forces.

Iranian commander threatens to close Strait of Hormuz to US.  The deputy commander of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard said Iranian forces will close the strategic Strait of Hormuz to the United States and its allies if they "threaten" the Islamic Republic, Iranian state media reported on Wednesday [5/4/2016].

Why Obama's Iraq Policy Is Collapsing.  Iraq faces two major crises: its continuing war with Daesh (also known as ISIS) and the political situation in Baghdad.  And while each poses serious challenges to U.S. national security, both are being neglected by President Obama.

Iran Threatens Lawsuit in Hague Court Over U.S. Ruling on $2 Billion.  Iran said on Monday that it would seek to sue the United States at the International Court of Justice at The Hague to prevent the distribution of nearly $2 billion in impounded assets from Iran's central bank to compensate American victims of overseas attacks.  Distribution of the impounded assets, which the United States Supreme Court validated in a decision last week, has enraged the Iranians and threatened to damage the improvement in relations created by the deal reached last July on Iran's nuclear activities.  The Supreme Court decision affected more than 1,000 Americans — survivors of, and relatives of people killed in, attacks that the American authorities have attributed to Iranian operatives.

In Riyadh, Obama Acknowledges 'Serious Concerns About Iranian Behavior'.  President Obama wrapped up meetings with the Gulf Cooperation Council in Riyadh today [4/21/2016] by acknowledging that "even with the nuclear deal, we recognized collectively that we continue to have serious concerns about Iranian behavior.  Obama said he "thanked our GCC partners for their support of the comprehensive deal that has now cut off every single one of Iran's pathways to a nuclear weapon.  "That makes the region safer," he added.  "We'll remain vigilant to ensure that Iran fulfills its commitments, just as we fulfill ours.  The president said the GCC nations and the U.S. "committed to continue to interdict illegal Iranian arms shipments and impose costs on Iran for its ballistic missile program, and oppose Iran's destabilizing activities in the region."

US to buy 32 tons of nuclear material from Iran, State Department announces.  The Obama administration will purchase 32 metric tons of nuclear material from Iran, U.S. officials confirmed, in a move likely to anger critics still reeling after Iran received billions in sanctions relief following the implementation of the nuclear deal in January.  The value of the deal:  $8.6 million, The Wall Street Journal reports.  State Dept. spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau would not rule out whether the U.S. would use taxpayer money for the transaction, saying it was possible Iran could use the cash to fund terrorism.  A State Dept. official later told Fox News the transaction could involve U.S. dollars.  Iran sent the heavy water to Oman en route to its final destination:  the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

United States to buy heavy water from Iran.  The United States is buying 32 metric tons of Iranian heavy water, a key component for one kind of nuclear reactor, The Associated Press reported on Friday [4/22/2016].  The purpose of the transaction is to help Iran meet the terms of last year's nuclear deal under which it agreed to curb its atomic program in exchange for billions of dollars in sanctions relief, according to the news agency.  The State and Energy departments said a sales agreement would be signed Friday in Vienna by officials from the six countries that negotiated the nuclear deal.

Obama in Riyadh:  Iran nuclear deal sign of 'strength, not weakness'.  President Obama vigorously defended his nuclear negotiations at the end of a summit of Persian Gulf state leaders and a rocky visit to Saudi Arabia aimed at reassuring the anxious ally and seeking more support for the fight against the Islamic State.  While the president acknowledged Saudi concern that the United States should not be "naïve" when dealing with Iran, he cited previous presidents' willingness to engage in talks with Russia during the height of the Cold War as models to follow.  "John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan still negotiated with the Soviet Union even when the Soviet Union was threatening the destruction of the U.S.," he said.

Iran Vows 'Serious Reaction' If U.S. Violates Nuke Deal.  Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned the United States on Wednesday [4/20/2016] that there would be a "serious reaction" from the Islamic Republic if the Obama administration does not make good on promises to grant the country expanded sanctions relief under the recently implemented nuclear agreement, according to regional reports.  Rouhani's warning comes as the Iranian military boosts its presence in the Persian Gulf, with senior leaders declaring that the United States is "terrified" of Iranian military prowess in the region.

Obama Admin Unsure If Iran Spent $3 Billion in New Cash on Terrorism.  In the four months since Iran and world powers began to implement the comprehensive nuclear agreement, Iran has been able to recover around $3 billion in funds that were unfrozen as part of the deal.  Iran is expected to be given access to another $50 billion to 55 billion in the coming months.  However, the Obama administration was not able to say if Iran has spent any of this money to fund terrorism campaigns.  "We don't know" if Iran has spent this money on terror activities, State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters.  "We don't know.  We don't have a way."

About Obama's Receding Tide of War....  Iran, having pocketed the Obama-legacy rotten nuclear deal, has continued testing ballistic missiles, with Iran's Fars News Agency advertising that two of the missiles launched just last month were emblazoned in Hebrew with the phrase "Israel must be wiped out.  Presumably these missiles are being developed just in case Iran feels a need to propel toward a target some highly unpeaceful products of its "exclusively peaceful" nuclear program?  Meantime, Iran is wielding the nuclear agreement itself as a threat.  Just this past week, we had the head of Iran's Central Bank in Washington threatening that Iran will walk away from Obama's cherished nuclear deal unless the Obama administration provides yet more concessions — in this instance, a U.S. welcome mat for Iran's banking transactions, so Iran, the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, can avail itself of easy access to dollars.

Obama Administration Urges States to Lift Sanctions on Iran.  After lifting international and federal sanctions related to Iran's nuclear program, the Barack Obama administration is turning its attention to state governments.  On April 8, the State Department's lead coordinator for Iran nuclear implementation, Stephen Mull, sent letters to the governors of all 50 states as well as some local officials.  He asked them to reconsider any laws on the books that called for divesting state funds, such as pensions, from businesses interacting with Iran's economy, or laws that would deny contracts to companies that do business with Iran.  The State Department has signaled this might be coming.

Iran vows to defend Muslim nations.  Iran's President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday vowed to defend Muslim countries against terrorism and Israel while insisting that its neighbors should not feel threatened. [...] "If tomorrow your capitals face danger from terrorism or Zionism, the power that will give you a positive answer is the Islamic Republic of Iran," he said.  But he added that Iran would only help if Muslim countries asked it to, and said its military power was purely for defensive and deterrent purposes.

Iran demands new bribes — and Obama rushes to deliver.  Just how far will President Obama go to protect the nuclear deal with Iran — which he sees as central to his legacy?  We'll be finding out soon.  Tehran is loudly threatening to pull out of the accord unless it gets access to the US financial system.  It would have to settle for the measly $150 billion in cash it's already pocketed, plus the end of global sanctions.  Valiollah Seif, head of Iran's central bank, charged last Friday [4/15/2016] that Washington isn't living up to its part of the deal because "we are not able to use our frozen funds abroad.  Unless that's resolved, he said, "the deal breaks up on its own accord.  Don't expect Team Obama to even think about calling Iran's bluff.

Tensions Rise Over Granting Iran Access to U.S. Dollar.  Treasury Department officials are moving to reassure Congress that Iran will not be granted access to U.S. financial markets following comments by top Obama administration officials suggesting such a plan was under consideration, according to correspondence obtained by the Washington Free Beacon and conversations with congressional sources.  The administration had promised Congress that Iran would not be granted access U.S. financial markets as a result of the recently implemented nuclear agreement.  However, top officials from the State Department had recently discussed the possibility of granting Iran unprecedented access to U.S. dollars when conducting foreign transactions.

Top 10 Misreported or Underreported Stories of 2015.  [#1] The Fake Iran Agreement:  In July the mainstream media celebrated a deal between Iran and the P5+1 that would provide Iran with sanctions relief along with virtually no accountability.  Today, the administration, along with their lapdogs in the press, continues to argue that this somehow adds up to a good deal for the world.  It doesn't.  In fact, there really is no deal at all.  The New York Times and other news organizations still call this a "signed" deal.  It isn't.

The Iran Scandal and Obama's Consiglieri.  This past week, to our astonishment, we learned that the Obama administration is seriously considering further concessions to Iran, and allowing U.S.  dollars to be used to facilitate trade with the terrorist-supporting regime.  Behind this latest concession — behind every action having to do with Iran, and for that matter most other actions of this so-called "Presidency" — we observe the power of a "consigliere," in name Valerie Jarrett.  Jarrett is the Iranian-born "Senior Advisor" to Barack Hussein Obama, but her true influence is akin to a "consigliere. [...] Indeed, Valerie Jarrett, who first introduced Barack to Michelle, and whom Obama considers "family" and "trust[s] completely," has historical parallels.

More about Iranian-born Valerie Jarrett.

Iran Says: Spirit?  What Spirit?  We're Preparing For War!.  President Obama complains that Iran has violated the "spirit" of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action by launching ballistic missiles and calling for the destruction of Israel. [...] Is it possible that Obama fails to understand the utter contempt in which he is held by Iran's leaders?

Obama legacy: 150% more missiles sites in Iran than five years ago.  There are 1.5 times more missile sites in Iran than five years ago, says Commander of the country's Khatam ul-Anbiya Air Defense Base Farzad Esmaili.  The commander added that in the meantime, the number of radar stations in the country has doubled, Tasnim news agency reported April 3.  "Highly advanced, domestically-made radars with ranges of over 1,000 kilometers have been added to the cross-country radar system and now we can inspect our enemies at their homes," the commander said.

Did they lie or did they just bow to Iran?  The Israel Project's Omri Ceren sent around an email this afternoon [4/4/2016] reporting that Congress is looking into whether Obama administration officials lied to Congress in their testimony about the Iran deal last summer, or whether they have just totally bowed to Iran.

Iran Caught Shipping Massive Weapons Cache to Yemeni Islamist Terrorists.  A U.S.  naval vessel intercepted a large Iranian weapons shipment, seizing massive quantities of arms and sophisticated weaponry destined for Yemen, the Pentagon announced Monday [4/4/2016].  The seizure occurred in the Arabian Sea on March 28, officials said, marking the third interception of an Iranian weapons shipment in recent weeks.  The ship was carrying 1,500 AK-47 rifles, 200 rocket-propelled grenade launchers, and 21 .50-caliber machine guns.  They were en route to Houthi insurgents battling in Yemen's civil war at Iran's behest.  The U.S.  Navy let the crew go after seizing the weapons, in line with current rules of engagement, according to a U.S.  official speaking with Fox News.

US seizes thousands of Iranian weapons, including grenade launchers, in Arabian Sea.  The crew of a U.S.  Navy ship stopped a massive Iranian arms shipment dead in its tracks, seizing thousands of weapons, AK-47 rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers that likely were headed to Yemen, the Pentagon announced Monday [4/4/2016].  The seizure, which unfolded in the Arabian Sea on March 28, was the third of its kind in recent weeks, military officials say.  Iran has been supporting Houthi rebels in Yemen in their proxy war against a Saudi-led coalition backed by the United States.  Like Iran, the Houthis are a Shia-led group.  The arms shipment appears to mark the latest provocative action from the defiant Islamic republic, which reported last month that it tested missiles marked with the phrase "Israel must be wiped out."

Obama's Bizarre Iranian Love Affair Continues.  It's a shame the Republican candidates continue to waste time hectoring each other over the most trivial matters when over the last few days it has become increasingly clear how completely the president of the United States sold out the interests of our country and the West to the Islamic Republic of Iran — by far (it isn't even close) the biggest state sponsor of terrorism. [...] Why does this peculiar man who somehow ended up president of the United States make the often inexplicable decisions he does?  Does he have real reasons (nefarious or otherwise) or is it, to be blunt, emotional disturbance?

Obama has to keep on giving to 'save' his Iran deal.  I was under the impression the nuclear negotiations with Iran ended in July.  There was the press conference in Vienna, the UN resolution that lifted the sanctions on Iran and the fight in Congress that followed.  That turns out to have been wrong.  According to an Associated Press report, the Obama administration is considering a rule change to allow some Iranian businesses to use offshore financial institutions to access US dollars in currency trades.  When the White House sold it to Congress, senior Treasury officials promised the agreement would not allow such transactions, since Iran's financial system has been repeatedly designated as a concern for money-laundering.

How Barack Obama Continues to Empower the World's Most Dangerous Terror State.  Skeptics of the president's diplomacy worried throughout the negotiations that any final deal would allow Tehran to indefinitely blackmail Washington into make more concessions:  Iranian leaders would make noises about how they were growing frustrated with the deal, then Iranian diplomats would go to their American counterparts and ask for more concessions to 'placate the hardliners' or 'bolster the moderates' or 'show the public the benefits of the deal', then the Obama administration would cave in order to preserve the deal.  Those scenarios were dismissed by the administration and its validators as fear mongering conspiracism.  Fast forward to a few weeks ago: [...]

Not fearing Obama's 'snap back', Iran openly develops Nuclear Missile Delivery Capability.  Remember the famous 'snapping back' of sanctions that President Obama promised last year if Iran were to violate the Nuclear Agreement?  The New York Times had hailed the 'snap back' as a diplomatic masterstroke, writing "snapback mechanism [to reimpose sanctions on Iran] is one of the most unusual parts of the deal.  In the event that Iran is perceived as violating it, the agreement allows the full raft of penalties to resume automatically."  Well guess what, Iran continues to violate the Nuclear Deal and President Obama's 'full raft' is nowhere to be seen.

The Ultimate Obama Secret: Iran's Role in 9/11.  Many scholars, politicians and policy analysts argue that the Shia and Sunni branches of the religion of Islam are in competition, politically.  As a result, they argue.  These two sects do not cooperate with each other.  In addition, they claim that the Islamic Republic of Iran, a Shiite religious-political establishment, would never coordinate with its rivals, the Sunni radical groups, due to their animosity towards each other.  This kind of binary analysis is simply naïve, unsophisticated, and fails to address the complexities and nuances of the socio-political and socio-religious landscapes of the Middle East and Islamic countries.  It is crucial to point out that although both Shiite militias and Sunni radical groups compete in the region, they do stand with each other when their interests converge.  One of their ideological and strategic convergences is attacking the "Great Satan," the US, or its ally Israel.

Obama's next gift to Iran means breaking another promise to America.  President Obama's Iran policy can be summed up in four words:  All carrots, no sticks.  Endless carrots, too — even ones his team told Congress the Iranians would never get.  In the drive for Senate approval of Obama's nuclear deal with Iran, the administration repeatedly said Tehran would be denied access to the US financial system.  Looks like it's about to get it after all.  The move would not only give Iran financial resources well beyond the $150 billion it's already pocketed under the nuke deal, it would also leave all the remaining economic sanctions in tatters.

If you thought Obama was done making concessions to Iran — think again.  One of the arguments critics of the Iran deal made during last year's debate was that beyond the staggering immediate concessions to Iran, the deal paves the way for ongoing and future concessions.  The reason is that the reality of the agreement leaves the U.S. hamstrung by fear that Iran can use anything as a pretext to pull out of the deal.  We're now starting to see this play out, as Obama administration officials are signaling that they may provide additional sanctions relief to address Iranian complaints, even though they promised Congress no such relief would ever be provided.

Obama's Ransom Diplomacy.  [Scroll down]  Incredibly, the real culprit in the case turns out to be not President Obama but Ronald Reagan, who in 1981 agreed to the creation of the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal in that Bermuda Triangle of worthless international organizations, The Hague.  Since then the Tribunal has been processing claims between Iranian and American nationals and their respective governments following the release of the original 52 Americans Iran seized during its illegal takeover of the U.S. embassy in 1979 — an action for which, Pompeo has pointed out, Tehran has never paid a dime in damages or compensation.

Obama administration transfers, $2 billion, artifacts back to Iran.  The Obama administration has been secretly returning artifacts in the possession of the U.S. back to Iran as part of a general "détente" with the terrorist regime.  They also transferred nearly $2 billion in taxpayer money to Tehran and are discussing more as part of a settlement dealing with Iran's claims.  The information is contained in a letter from a State Department official obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.  Absolutely no word on any U.S. claims regarding the appropriation of U.S. property, including our embassy, nor damages paid to American hostages for being held more than a year as prisoners.

Obama Admin Delivered Property to Iran As Part Of Secret Détente.  The Obama administration has been shipping historical artifacts to Iran since last year as part of a secret détente that also included a taxpayer-funded payment of nearly $2 billion, according to a letter written by the State Department and exclusively obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.  Obama administration officials engaged in secret talks with Iran between June 2014 through at least January 2015 over a series of legal claims leveled against the United States by the Islamic Republic, the State Department disclosed in its letter.

Pentagon chief: Iran went against law in sailors' detention.  Iran's detention and treatment of 10 U.S. sailors earlier this year was inconsistent with international law, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Thursday [3/17/2016].  "As I made clear then, Iran's actions were outrageous, unprofessional and inconsistent with international law, and nothing we've learned about the circumstances of this incident since then changes that fact," Carter told the Senate Armed Services Committee.  Thursday's remarks appear to be his strongest public statements against Iran's behavior in January.

Obama Admin Stalling Investigation Into U.S. 'Ransom Payment' to Iran.  The Obama administration is being accused of stalling a congressional investigation into a purported $1.7 billion taxpayer-funded "ransom payment" to Iran in exchange for the release of several U.S. prisoners, according to documents and information provided to the Washington Free Beacon by sources familiar with the matter.  The administration initially came under fire from congressional critics in January, when it was announced that the United States had settled a longstanding legal dispute with Iran over the breakdown in a decades-old arms sale.  Under the terms of the settlement, Iran was to be paid a $400 million balance and an additional $1.3 billion in interest from a taxpayer fund maintained by the Treasury Department, a State Department official confirmed to the Free Beacon in January.

The Editor says...
$1.3 billion is a lot of interest.  And who decided that Iran was entitled to any interest at all?

Iran to build a statue of captured US sailors.  Iran's Revolutionary Guard is planning to build a statue of the US sailors who were captured in Iranian waters earlier this year, a senior officer said.  The provocative proposal is likely to cause outrage in the US and be seized on by Republicans opposed to President Barack Obama's nuclear agreement with Iran.  Commander Ali Fadavi, the head of the Guard's naval forces, said the monument of the surrendering Americans would be a "tourist attraction".

Missiles from Iran-Allied Territory Intercepted On Way to US.  [Scroll down] The Lebanon origin is what makes this story somewhat different because the country is currently dominated by Iran and its Shiite terrorist allies.  So if this was a terrorist plot, which we don't know that it was, it appears likelier to have originated from Iran than from ISIS.  Portland however was the site of a more conventional Sunni Islamic terror plot.  But Shiites also have a presence there.

Obama praises [his] own policies on Iran and Cuba, angers traditional allies.  President Obama extolled the virtues of diplomacy Monday [3/14/2016] for his administration's "breakthroughs" with U.S. adversaries Iran and Cuba, while traditional allies Britain and Saudi Arabia seethed at the president for undercutting the British prime minister and calling the Saudis "free riders."  During a meeting with U.S. diplomats in Foggy Bottom, Mr. Obama praised Secretary of State John F. Kerry and his foreign service team for carrying out his administration's "strong, principled diplomacy" on issues such as the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate change agreement.

A tiger outside the cage; Iran's threat only grows.  In the days just before President Obama signed his dangerous nuclear deal with Iran, the mullahs test-fired ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear payloads — a clear statement of intent and a clear violation of United Nations resolutions.  Obama responded by seeing no evil.  Even after his own administration concluded that the tests were a blatant violation, he held off on pushing for sanctions he promised Congress would be coming until after the nuclear deal was signed, and the die cast.  Since signing the nuclear deal, the mullahs — having collected tens of billions from the end of the international sanctions regime that was dissolved in exchange for the stroke of a pen — have kept firing.  And Obama has continued to see no evil.

Fear of Undermining Iran Deal Complicates Obama Administration's Response to Missile Tests.  The Obama administration's careful reaction to Iran's latest round of ballistic missile tests showcases the difficult balance the United States and its allies face in deciding how forcefully to push back, without undermining last summer's nuclear deal.  Tuesday's and Wednesday's missile tests conducted by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of Iran did not violate the nuclear deal, the administration says, although the actions are likely inconsistent with a United Nations Security Council Resolution related to the issue.

U.S. Reverses Position, Demands Greater Oversight on Iran Nuke Program.  The Obama administration shifted its stance on Iran's contested nuclear program Wednesday [3/9/2016], writing in a letter to the United Nations that it is concerned the international community's nuclear watchdog organization is not fully reporting on potential Iranian violations of the nuclear deal.  The administration also renewed concerns about Iran having violated its international commitments by stockpiling too much nuclear-related material.  The renewed concerns come after Iran repeatedly test fired ballistic missiles in violation of current U.N. resolutions.

Iran fires 2 missiles marked with 'Israel must be wiped out'.  Iran reportedly test-fired two ballistic missiles Wednesday with the phrase "Israel must be wiped out" written in Hebrew on them, a show of force by the Islamic Republic as U.S. Vice President Joe Biden visited Israel.

IAEA: Iran Nuke Deal Limits Public Reporting on Possible Violations.  The head of the international community's nuclear watchdog organization disclosed Monday that certain agreements reached under the Iran nuclear deal limit inspectors from publicly reporting on potential violations by the Islamic Republic.  Yukiya Amano, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, which is responsible for ensuring Iran complies with the agreement, told reporters that his agency is no longer permitted to release details about Iran's nuclear program and compliance with the deal.  Amano's remarks come on the heels of a February IAEA oversight report that omitted many details and figures related to Iran's nuclear program.  The report sparked questions from outside nuclear experts and accusations from critics that the IAEA was not being transparent with its findings.

Initial Navy report finds sailors captured by Iran made several errors.  The 10 U.S. Navy sailors captured and briefly held by Iran in January made repeated mistakes that led them into Iranian territorial waters and being captured, according to an initial Navy investigation.  The investigation has not yet been released, but CNN spoke with a U.S. official directly familiar with the details.  Because the sailors and other naval personnel could be facing disciplinary action, the report may not be released until their fate is settled.  During the time they were held, they were blindfolded and repeatedly separated and interrogated, CNN has also learned.

The Mullahs Execute Every Man in an Entire Village.  Where is the professional journalism the mainstream media keeps talking about?  While they have been focusing on Iran's artificial democratic elections, the mainstream liberal outlets seem to have intentionally ignored one of the most heinous and egregious acts that the ruling mullahs of Iran committed during the elections.  The Islamist henchmen of the Islamic Republic executed every man in a village in the province Sistan-Baluchestan, according to the latest report coming from Iran.  Shahindokht Molaverdi, the vice president for women and family affairs, called for increased protection for the families of the executed as she claimed to a Persian news outlet that "We have a village in Sistan-Baluchestan (province) where every single man has been executed."

Flush with Obama cash, Iran awards financial grants to families of Palestinian terrorists.  Iran will pay $7,000 to the families of Palestinian terrorists who were killed while carrying out attacks, and $30,000 to families of terrorists whose houses were demolished by Israel, the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon announced on Wednesday [2/24/2016].  "The decision firstly includes giving an amount worth $7,000 to every family of a martyr of the intifada in Jerusalem," said ambassador Mohammad Fathali during a Beirut press conference.

Leahy Defends Iran Capturing U.S. Sailors.  Sen. Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.) laid out a defense for Iran capturing U.S. Navy sailors during a Senate hearing Wednesday [2/24/2016] with Secretary of State John Kerry.  During the hearing for the State Department's budget, Leahy asked Kerry what would have happened if the tables had been reversed in January.  "If we had an Iranian boat, warship, military, either boat or ship, armed Iranians on it, say it came, uh, along the coastal and pick a place within our waters, say South Carolina, and was well within the U.S. borders, perhaps had the engines stopped, but armed Iranians, would we not at least hold them until we found out what they were doing?" Leahy asked.

Boeing Says [it has] Received [a] License From Washington to Negotiate With Iran.  The Boeing aircraft manufacturer received a license from the US government to begin talks with Iranian airlines after the anti-Tehran sanctions were lifted, the company announced.

Iran Promotes the Terrorist Behind the Deaths of 241 Americans.  In 1983 a horrific act of terrorism killed 241 American servicemen (220 Marines, 18 sailors, and three soldiers) in Beirut, Lebanon.  The bombing marked the deadliest attack on Americans overseas since World War II.  All the evidence pointed the mastermind behind the crime as Brigadier General Hossein Dehghan, then commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, and thirty years later in 2013 — under "moderate" Iranian President Hassan Rouhani — Hossein Dehghan was appointed Minister of Defense.  In other words, Iran instigated one of the most horrendous terrorist acts against America and promoted the man who did it.

Iran Training Children for War With United States, Israel.  Iranian officials have organized the "Sixth National Children's Memorial," an event to train children for possible war against the United States and Israel.  Around 1,200 children, as young as six years old, in military apparel run around the fields with weapons.  They participate in obstacle courses and gather around bonfires.

Pending Iranian Space Launch Contrary to U.N. Nuclear Resolution.  Iran is expected to conduct a rocket test this month in violation of the recent UN resolution on the Iranian nuclear deal that bans long-range missile tests, according to U.S. intelligence officials.  Intelligence agencies are closely watching preparations in Iran to test a Simorgh space launch vehicle that U.S. officials say is the base for Tehran's covert program to develop long-range nuclear missiles.  The large liquid-fueled rocket was developed with North Korean technology and was observed on a launch pad at the Semnan satellite launch center, located about 125 miles east of Tehran.  UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which outlines implementation of the recent Iranian nuclear agreement, prohibits Iran from conducting nuclear ballistic missile tests for the next eight years.

Obama Admnistration [sic] Slow Walking Investigation Into Iran Holding U.S. Sailors Hostage.  Arizona Senator John McCain is threatening to subpoena ten U.S. sailors who were recently held captive by the Iranians.  The reason?  The Obama administration is reportedly slow walking the investigation into the incident and may not release an expected report by a Senate deadline of March 1.

John McCain threatens to subpoena U.S. sailors held by Iran if Obama administration doesn't hand over investigation findings by end of month.  US Republican Senator John McCain said on Sunday [2/14/2016] he would subpoena 10 US sailors to testify about their brief detention by Iran if the Obama administration does not provide the findings of an investigation into the incident by March 1.  'It's an option that I do not want to exercise,' McCain, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters as he was returning to the United States from an international security conference in Germany.

Iran, Hezbollah Return to 'Terrorism' Subsection of Intelligence Threat Report.  After a conspicuous absence last year, references to Iran and its terrorist proxy Hezbollah returned to the "Terrorism" subsection of the intelligence community's 2016 Worldwide Threat Assessment, presented to the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday [2/9/2016].  "Iran continues to be the foremost state sponsor of terrorism and exerts its influence in regional crises in the Mideast, through the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — Qods Force, its terrorist partner Lebanese Hezbollah, and proxy groups," Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the committee, reading from his submitted assessment.

Satellite Images Show Further Construction at Suspected Iranian Nuclear Weapons Site.  Satellite images show that Iran has continued construction on a possible underground military complex and has tried to hide evidence that it tested explosives that could be used in the detonation of a nuclear weapon, The Daily Beast reported on Monday [2/8/2016].  The satellite images of the Parchin military base, which were taken on January 19 and analyzed by the private intelligence firm Stratfor, showed that Iran had built a tunnel into an underground complex and had paved over the site of previous explosive testing.  Both activities suggest that Iran might be trying to hide certain activities from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Iran Publishes Pictures of Captured U.S. Sailors Crying.  Iran has released new photographs in which at least one of the recently captured U.S. sailors is crying, according to a series of the pictures posted on social media.  The pictures, as well as an accompanying video, were released by Iranian state-controlled news outlets and disseminated on Twitter by Iranian reporters early Wednesday [2/10/2016].

Satellites Show Mystery Construction at Iran's Top-Secret Military Site.  Newly released satellite images of Iran's top-secret Parchin military complex reveal that even as Iran was working to negotiate a nuclear deal, it was apparently working to hide its atomic work of the past and hedge its bets for the future.  Forecasting site Stratfor.com says the images published Monday show Iran building a tunnel into a heavily guarded mountain complex inside the Parchin facility, some 20 miles southeast of Tehran, while also working to erase signs of alleged high-explosive testing at another area on the site.

Iran-Backed Militias Seize Christian Homes, Churches, Businesses In Baghdad.  Iraqi militia groups supported by Iran have been seizing Christian property in Baghdad, including homes, businesses, and churches, in a process described as "ethnic cleansing" by Iraqi Christian community leaders.  The goal of this campaign is nothing less than the complete expulsion of Christians from Baghdad, according to leaders from the Assyrian, Chaldean, and Syriac communities, as reported by The Foreign Desk.

Calculation error: Iran's $50 billion signing bonus is suddenly $100 billion.  Since mid-2015, the Obama administration has been asserting that the amount Iran would gain access to, once sanctions were lifted, was about $50 billion.  Critics of the JCPOA — the Iran "deal" — have insisted the total is more like $150 billion.

U.N. to Obama BFF Iran: Hey, if you could stop raping and executing 9-year olds, that would be greaaaaaaaaat.  The U.N. body charged with protecting the rights of children has told the government of Iran that its laws allowing sex with girls as young as 9-years-old and capital punishment of minors must be changed.  The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child announced it's condemnation of Iran's practices Thursday [2/4/2016] after 18 experts completed a review of 14 countries, including Iran.  Iran's current law allows the state to execute minors for capital crimes, a violation of international agreements as well as the forced marriage of young girls.

Iran claims $100 billion windfall from sanctions relief — double what White House estimated.  The Obama administration is finding itself on the defensive amid rising charges that the U.S. and its allies lowballed the estimate of the billions of dollars Iran will reap from the deal that curbed Tehran's nuclear programs in exchange for the lifting of punishing economic sanctions.  Iranian President Hassan Rouhani just finished a shopping spree across Europe, and critics fear the nation's military and hard-line security forces now have the funds to do the same, as Tehran claims to have secured access to "more than $100 billion" from sanctions relief — roughly twice what the Obama administration has long claimed would be the case.  Analysts say the bulk of the cash now freed up for Iran is linked to bank accounts in countries that were Iran's top oil clients prior to the imposition of sanctions, including India, China, Japan, South Korea and Turkey.

US Republican questions timing of $1.7 billion Iran payment, hostage release.  A powerful U.S. lawmaker on Wednesday [2/3/2016] demanded Secretary of State John Kerry provide an explanation of a $1.7 billion claim settlement paid to Iran just as Tehran released American prisoners last month.  Republican Representative Ed Royce, chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote that the timing of the settlement and the administration's failure to brief Congress "has led some to express concern that the payment represents a de facto 'ransom' for the release of American hostages."

Top House Republican demands Kerry explain $1.7 billion Iran payment.  The chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee demanded Wednesday [2/3/2016] that Secretary of State John Kerry explain a $1.7 billion settlement paid to Iran that some Republicans have described as a "ransom" tied to last month's release of five American prisoners.  Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., complained in a letter to Kerry that his committee was not consulted about the payment.  The Obama administration claimed the agreement was made to settle a dispute with Iran over $400 million in frozen funds that dated back to 1979.  The remaining $1.3 billion was described by the Obama administration as "interest".

The Editor says...
That's a remarkably good interest rate.  Iranian-born President Valerie Jarrett must be very happy.

US House passes bill again to restrict Obama lifting Iran sanctions.  The US House of Representatives narrowly approved legislation on Tuesday [2/2/2016] that would restrict President Barack Obama's ability to lift sanctions under the international nuclear deal with Iran, nearly three weeks after a similar vote was cancelled.  House members voted 246-181 to pass the "Iran Terror Finance Transparency Act," almost entirely along party lines, with almost every "yes" vote coming from Republicans and Democrats overwhelmingly opposed to it.

Iran warns of more embarrassing photos of, info on captured U.S. sailors.  Barack Obama's new friend in the Middle East, Iran, to which he just released $150 billion and paved the way for an eventual nuclear weapons capability, warned the United States it has more embarrassing photos and information from captured U.S. sailors that were recently released from Iranian custody.  The head of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Navy said Monday [2/1/2016] that if the U.S. seeks to humiliate Iran, the IRGC would release footage of 10 U.S. sailors detained last month that is much more embarrassing than the images released earlier.

Iran's Naval Commander: We Took Extensive Info From American Sailors' Phones, Laptops.  Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) naval commander claimed Monday that his men harvested extensive information from cell phones and laptops confiscated from the 10 American sailors held in custody last month, according to Iranian media.  The Tasnim News Agency, which is affiliated with the IRGC, reported that Admiral Ali Fadavi made the admission during a session of Iranian parliament.  "We have extracted extensive information from their [American sailors'] laptops and cell phones," Fadavi reportedly said.  He added that the information could be made public if a decision were made to release it.

Iran wants to buy 500 planes and resume flights to U.S..  Iran will need hundreds of new aircraft as it rejoins global aviation networks, a move that could include direct flights to the U.S. for the first time in 36 years.  Years of sanctions have left Iran's airlines with outdated and unsafe aircraft.  With those restrictions now lifted, Iran is looking to spend heavily with Boeing and Airbus, Iranian transport minister Abbas Akhondi told CNN.

Iran gives medals for capture of U.S. sailors.  Iran's supreme leader has awarded medals to navy commanders for capturing U.S. sailors who entered Iranian territorial waters this month, Iran's state media said on Sunday [1/31/2016].

Iran 'flies surveillance drone over US warship'.  Iran flew an unarmed drone over a US aircraft carrier and took "precise" photographs during a naval drill in the Gulf, its state broadcaster said.  Images purporting to show an unnamed US warship were shown on television.  Iran's navy commander praised the operation for getting so close to a warship "to get such accurate footage of the combat units of foreign forces".

Iran flies unarmed military drone over US aircraft carrier.  Iran flew a surveillance drone over a U.S. aircraft carrier and published video of the encounter Friday, the latest in a series of edgy naval incidents between the two countries in the Persian Gulf after the recent nuclear deal.

Obama Admin Dropped $10M Claim in Iran Prisoner Deal.  The Obama administration dropped a $10 million claim against one of the Iranians granted clemency in a deal with Iran earlier this month. [...] In exchange for the commutations and pardons of the seven Iranians, Iran released five Americans it had imprisoned.  When announcing the previously secret prisoner swap this month, Obama emphasized that the Iranians had not been charged with terrorism or violent crimes.

Iran Poised to Become the Wal-Mart of Terror, Says Military Assessment.  Away from the vociferous disputes that continue to rage around the Iranian nuclear deal, the Israel's Military Intelligence Directorate and General Staff have been engaged in detached analysis of the short and long-term effects, and they have come away with three central conclusions.  Details of their assessments, though shared with defense reporters over recent months, were publicly presented for the first last week by IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot during a conference in Tel Aviv, organized by the Institute for National Security Studies.  The most immediate consequence of the nuclear deal will be felt in the realm of expanding Iranian regional influence, and the looming increase in the trafficking of weapons and funds to terror organizations, made possible by sanctions relief.

Concerns Mount Obama Paid $1.7 Billion in Ransom to Iran.  There are growing concerns that the $1.7 billion payment the United States released to Iran last week amounted to a ransom for the freedom of American hostages held by the Islamic Republic, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday [1/21/2016].  According to the Journal, the money was wired to Tehran at around the same time that the regime allowed thee American captives — Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, Marine veteran Amir Hekmati, and Cristian pastor Saeed Abedini — to depart the country on a Swiss air force jet.  Two other Americans were also freed, though one chose to stay in Iran.  In exchange, the U.S. released seven Iranians charged or convicted for smuggling prohibited items to Iran and other crimes.  Washington also agreed not to pursue 14 other Iranians, including two wanted for transporting troops and weapons to Syria in support of dictator Bashar al-Assad.

Obama's Lawlessness Fuels Civil Disobedience and Record Government Distrust.  [Scroll down]  Obama's behavior toward Iran provides a perfect and particularly dishonorable recent example, when he sculpted his capitulation in the form of an executive agreement because it became clear that he could not muster anything close to a two-thirds Senate majority to ratify a treaty as the Constitution requires.  In order to scrape together the bare minimum 40 Senators of his own party to avoid a filibuster, he pledged to reimpose sanctions should Iran violate the terms of the agreement he so desperately sought.  Then, just days ago, we learned that Iran had indeed violated the agreement by testing missiles capable of delivering nuclear payloads.  The Obama Administration promptly promised to bring sanctions.  But then literally minutes later, it cavalierly reversed course, saying that it preferred to address the situation in its own confidential, diplomatic manner.  With this week's detention of American sailors, we've witnessed another humiliating illustration of how badly Obama's lawless behavior has backfired to our peril.

Congress Moves to Block Payment to Iran of $1.7 Billion in Taxpayer Funds.  Congress is considering legislation that would bar the Obama administration from moving forward on a cash payment to Iran of $1.7 billion in taxpayer funds, according to a copy of the legislation provided to the Washington Free Beacon.  Obama administration officials confirmed to the Free Beacon earlier Thursday [1/21/2016] that it is using a taxpayer-funded account to pay Iran $1.7 billion as part of a settlement agreement reached with the Islamic Republic ahead of the release of five imprisoned Americans.  Critics of the agreement allege that the administration agreed to the payment to spur Iran to release the five Americans, who were freed over the weekend.

Obama's Normalization With Iran is Collaboration.  Obama and his political allies seek normalization with Iran.  They are unconcerned with Iran's nuclear weapons programs or its support for terrorism and they are willing to provide fig leaves for these and other threats by the Shiite terror state to the United States and to the rest of the free world.  Iran, however, is looking to escalate its conflict with the United States.  Perversely, normalization is the best strategy for escalating a conflict with the United States while extracting maximum benefit from it.  Without normalization, Iran has few options for escalating its conflict with America.  Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) generals are fanatics, but they know that they cannot win a major military conflict with the United States.  Instead, the IRGC terror hub seeks to carry out attacks that hurt the United States, but in ways that fall short of summoning up a full American military reprisal.  Under Obama, Iran has more options than ever because the United States is now willing to tolerate what it would not have tolerated in the past.

Freed Iranians Never Boarded Flight Out of US.  It turns out that so-called "prisoner swap" with Iran didn't involve much of a swap.  When given the chance, none of the Iranians freed from U.S. custody chose to return to Iran, according to U.S. officials familiar with the negotiations.

Former Naval Officer Just Revealed Massive Detail About What Iran Took From Captured U.S. Sailors.  When Iran freed 10 American sailors it had detained last week, it kept something — the SIM cards from two satellite phones that were in the Americans' possession.  The first report on the incident, released Monday [1/18/2016], noted the loss.  "A post-recovery inventory of the boats found that all weapons, ammunition, and communication gear are accounted for minus two SIM cards that appear to have been removed from two handheld satellite phones," said the report from the U.S. Central Command.  The importance of that loss could be substantial, according to a former naval intelligence officer who spoke to Independent Journal.  "Those SIM cards don't just contain the satellite links," he said.  "They also include encryption codes, and otherwise unpublished data relating to specific orders and personnel," he added.

Meet The Iranian Criminals The Obama Administration Agreed Not To Pursue.  In order to secure the release of five Americans from Iranian custody, President Obama not only released seven Iranians from U.S prison, but the State Department also removed international arrest notices — known as Interpol "Red Notices" — for 14 Iranian individuals.  Most of these men were located overseas with extradition sought by the United States now they live worry free.

Obama's Message to Iranians: 'Yours Is a Great Civilization'.  In a statement delivered from the White House on Sunday [1/17/2016], President Barack Obama hailed what he described as the success of the nuclear deal with Iran, while noting that Iran was still subject to sanctions "for its violations of human rights, for its support of terrorism, and for its ballistic missile program."  "But I do want to once again speak directly to the Iranian people," Obama said, according to the White House transcript.  "Yours is a great civilization, with a vibrant culture that has so much to contribute to the world — in commerce, and in science and the arts."

The Iran Nuclear Construction Deal.  Tehran may have poured concrete into one nuclear reactor, but under Obama's deal the terror state is building four others.  The president has advanced, not contained, Iran's atomic program.

Iran To See $100 Billion Immediately As Implementation Day Hits.  Just a few short days ago, Americans were treated to the view of American Navy members forced to kneel at gun point while their boats were boarded and seized by Iran, and the lone female member was forced to comply with Sharia and wear a hijab.  Today, the world's foremost state sponsor of terrorism is being rewarded[.]

Barry and the Pirates.  It is particularly telling that Barack Obama spent part of his State of the Union speech telling us that the state of our Union is strong while Iranian pirates seized two U.S. Navy vessels and then, as pointed out by Rick Moran, violated the Geneva Conventions by publishing a photo of the captured sailors on their knees with their hands on their heads.  The Iranian action was both piracy and an intentional act of war against the United States.  If the boats strayed into Iranian waters due to navigational or mechanical problems, Iran was obliged under international law to render them assistance.

The Story Behind the Official Stories is a Lot More Plausibile.  Everybody who saw this picture thought it was odd.  Something fishy here.  Clearly the official U.S. story did not make sense.

Obama Dealing Terror.  This episode shows the cynicism of the Obama administration believing that by orchestrating this exchange, Americans won't notice the $150 billion released that will help Iran rebuild its military, expand its regional hegemon and global terrorism, and wreak havoc far and wide.  Obama knew the media would cover the release rather than Iran's continued support of Assad and Hezb'allah, ballistic missile tests, firing rockets at a U.S. aircraft carrier, and kidnapping and humiliation of U.S. sailors.  Obama knowingly used American hostages as pawns in a dangerous game. [...] While we celebrate the return of American citizens, we cannot ignore the fact that seven dangerous Iranians were released and the arrest warrants of 14 others were rescinded.

What we know about the seven Iranians offered clemency.  President Obama offered clemency to seven Iranians charged with violating U.S. trade sanctions against Iran as part of a historic prisoner agreement with Iran that freed four Americans Saturday, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian.  The Iranians, six of whom are dual U.S.-Iranian citizens, were imprisoned or were pending trial in the United States.  The U.S. government dismissed charges against 14 other Iranians, all outside the United States, after assessing that extradition requests were unlikely to be successful, according to a U.S. official.

What Happened Off Farsi Island?  On the day of Obama's last State of the Union speech, two U.S. Navy boats carrying ten sailors were captured by Iranian Forces near Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf.  The next day they were released.  But there are a lot of important questions left unanswered about their capture and the sailors' behavior while in captivity.  These questions are important to the future of our navy because the answers to them may point to damage done by Obama and his team that urgently needs to be repaired.

Levinson Family: We Feel 'Betrayed' by White House.  The family of former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who disappeared while on assignment for the U.S. government in Iran in 2007, said they feel "devastated" and "betrayed" by the Obama White House — not just because Levinson was not included in the Iranian prisoner swap that freed several other Americans, but because no one from the White House called to warn them about the exchange.  They learned about it by watching television.  "I thought after nine years that they would have enough respect for our family to at least tell us in advance that this is happening," Levinson's wife, Christine, told ABC News.  "It could have been five minutes, but to find out on the TV for the whole family... was wrong.  It was absolutely devastating."

Obama grants clemency to seven in Iran deal.  On Saturday [1/16/2016], prosecutors moved to drop charges against Matin Sadeghi, a fugitive in the same case who was being sought in a wanted poster available on the FBI website.  A court filing said the move was undertaken "based on significant foreign policy interests of the United States."  Until Saturday, Obama had never granted a pre-trial pardon to anyone, nor had his predecessor, President George W. Bush. [...] One reason to grant a pardon, rather than simply dismiss charges, is that the pardon provides an assurance that the charges will never be refiled.  It's possible the Iranians insisted on such certainty.

Despite White House claims, prisoner deal looks linked to Iran nuclear deal after all.  Secret negotiations between that led to Saturday's prisoner swap that freed Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian and three other U.S.-Iranian citizens caused the Obama administration last month to back down at the last minute on slapping a set sanctions on Iran, according to a report Saturday [1/16/2016].  The news, along with the release Saturday of the prisoners hours before the U.N. officially certified Iran had carried out its agreement to dismantle nuclear infrastructure, indicated talks over detained Americans were closely linked to the nuclear accord.  That contradicts months of Obama administration claims that the issues were separate.

The most plausible explanation for the 10 riverine sailors captured by Iran.  [Scroll down]  Fifth Fleet knew exactly where they were at all times, just as it knows exactly where all the other NATO vessels, which practically pave the Persian Gulf these days are.  And they had the option to back them up with air and sea power if they were allowed to.  If the American people were not suffering from an incompetent and incurious press and media, some of these discrepancies would have come to light and been subject to public debate. One would think the questions remaining over what are now the clear lies about Benghazi would excite some editorial interest.  The explanations pouring out of Obama's lying Administration spokespersons from the Secretary of Defense to the Secretary of State simply do not stand the light of day.

Iran to Get $1.7 Billion Settlement from U.S. in Addition to Sanctions Relief.  President Obama today [1/17/2016] declared at the White House that "Iran will not get its hands on a nuclear bomb" and that their "tireless" negotiations paid off with several American hostages coming home.  Obama's Cabinet Room statement came a day after the administration announced the lifting of sanctions on Iran for Implementation Day of the nuclear deal as well as the prisoner swap:  seven to Iran, five to the U.S. The administration is claiming the fifth American, student Matthew Trevithick, was released not as part of the swap but as a goodwill gesture by Iran.

Obama's Iran Deal: The World's Most Dangerous Hoax.  The mainstream media blindly championed the Iranian deal at the expense of reason, celebrating its "signing" and every prospective step for implementation.  But the not-so-surprising revelation is that there is, in fact, no Iran deal.  There are just a number of political commitments made by each of the so-called P5+1 countries, in the hope that Iran will somehow reform itself.  Iran, on the other hand, seems barely, if at all, committed to the non-agreement.  Rather, it is poised to receive international sanctions relief while continuing on its belligerent course.

Barack Obama and the Hall of Fame of Straw Men.  Barack Obama is famous for the false choice:  time after time, he posits only two alternatives, one of which is his preferred course while the other option is an obvious straw man, sometimes a course that has never been advocated by anyone.  Today's statement on the release of four prisoners by Iran (in exchange for our release of captured Iranians) is a classic of the genre.

Treason: SECDEF Reveals Obama Regime LED Iran Straight to Our Sailors.  First came the fact that President Barack Obama refused to address the arrest of 10 of our sailors by the Iranian military after their boats had mechanical trouble at sea.  Then came news that the Obama administration had offered the Iranians an apology for the release of the sailors.  Now comes the disturbing revelation, apparently delivered by Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, that the Obama administration tipped off the Iranians that our soldiers were lost at sea and requested their aid.

Obama Is Manager of the GITMO Terrorist Farm Team.  The NY Times is lying for our government and our government is lying to the countries who are receiving these high risk GITMO terrorists.  The Prime Minister of Ghana came out and said his government never would have taken the two terrorists from GITMO if he had known they were high risk.  He was told by our government that they were low risk.  Wikileaks revealed that the two ex-Guantanamo Bay inmates in Ghana are of a "high security risk" contrary to information provided by the US government, [...]

[Substantial doubts about] the official story of the Iranian capture of two US riverine boats.  A fascinating comment on Rick Moran's blog about the Iranian capture of our sailors is making waves in the blogosphere and on Facebook.  It makes a lot more sense than any of the official explanations we have received for the capture and subsequent release of the sailors.

Remember the Pueblo.  Questions abound in the case of the two ships and ten sailors captured by the IRGC in the Persian Gulf earlier this week.  We can be grateful that the sailors have been released by Iran, but the groveling exhibited by the Obama administration is a matter of profound national embarrassment, which seems to be exactly what the Iranians intended.  The administration, of course, prefers to present the matter as a triumph of diplomacy.

Not So Swift Boats.  About this business of the navy patrol boats captured by Iran.  As Scott [Johnson] and Investors Business Daily point out, there's something off about the official story that a "navigation error" caused the boats to stray into Iranian waters.  I don't believe this story for a moment.

Did Obama Admin Speak To Sailors Before Video Apology?  Congress wants to know if the State Department held any influence on the U.S. Navy sailor who apologized to Iran after he and his nine other sailors were arrested and detained by the regime.  The video, which aired on Iranian television, showed all ten sailors kneeling on the decks of their ships with their hands behind their heads.  The U.S. sailors, who were detained by Iran Tuesday and later released Wednesday morning, spoke to the State Department before one of the naval officers was video taped making an apology to the Iranian regime, a Republican congressman says.

Iran close to collecting $100B in frozen assets after nuke deal compliance, country official says.  Iran's foreign minister suggested Saturday [1/16/2016] that the U.N. atomic agency is close to certifying that his country has met all commitments under its landmark nuclear deal with six world powers, as he began a series of meetings with his European Union and U.S. counterparts on implementing the accord.

White House not troubled by video of U.S. sailors blindfolded by Iranians.  The White House said Friday it was not troubled by Iran's exploitation of a video showing captured U.S. sailors blindfolded and kneeling at gunpoint by Iranian forces.  "I don't think there's any reason for anybody to be embarrassed," said White House press secretary Josh Earnest.  "We're pleased that our sailors were released promptly and unharmed."

Obama Admin Blocked Visa Waiver Reforms to Avoid Upsetting Iran.  Congress approved late last year a measure to tighten restrictions on those entering the United States via the visa waiver program, which facilitates travel between America and many European countries.  The law prohibits travel to the United States for any foreign individual who has since 2011 visited Iraq, Iran, or any other country designated as a state sponsor of terrorism.  The Obama administration threatened to waive the provision after Iran publicly opposed the measure and warned that it violates the nuclear agreement with Iran.  In a December letter to top Iranian leaders, Kerry promised the administration would veto the measure and work to uphold the nuclear agreement.

Humiliated By Iran: How Did The Navy Let It Happen?  How can an advanced, ultra-agile U.S. combat boat suffer a "navigation error" that leads to a terrorist state capturing its sailors?  Tehran just revealed military ineptitude warranting a congressional probe.

Defense secretary says a navigational error by captured American sailors caused the two Navy vessels to drift into Iranian waters.  A navigational blunder caused the crews of two Navy boats to stray into Iranian waters in the Persian Gulf, prompting a diplomatic standoff that led to the capture of 10 American sailors.  Defense Secretary Ash Carter told the Fusion Network in Miami they 'misnavigated' into the Islamic republic's territory and were trying to fix the problem when the revolutionary guard took them into custody.  There were suggestions the vessels drifted into Iranian water because of a mechanical issue, but now it seems it was a result of human error.

Pelosi unconcerned Iran will do bad things with the $150 billion.  There are so many members of the Loathsome Lunatic Leaders Club that it's hard to decide who is the worst.  But if I had to choose one, Nancy Pelosi would be right up there.  Here's a tidbit of insanity that fell from her lips on Wednesday [1/13/2016] when discussing the Iran deal with CNN's Chris Cuomo, her mouth and lips in constant motion even when she wasn't speaking, her thick mane of fake hair thicker than ever, and her attitude rich with her usual stupidity and smugness.

Navy Capt. Nash: Here's the Message Iran Was Sending in Detaining US Sailors.  The Obama administration has sought to downplay the seriousness of Iran detaining 10 U.S. Navy sailors earlier this week.  Iran detained the nine men and one woman for about 16 hours after they apparently drifted into Iranian waters.

Kerry Expresses 'Gratitude' to Iran.  Secretary of State John Kerry expressed his "gratitude" this morning to Iran.  Iran detained 10 U.S. sailors and released the Americans this morning [1/13/2016].  "I'm very pleased that our Sailors have been safely returned to U.S. hands," Kerry says in his statement.

America On Its Knees.  Ten U.S. sailors kneel at gunpoint before Iran's military, then actually apologize, and while held captive, merit no mention in the president's speech to Congress.  It's American weakness illustrated.

Video shows American sailor's apology to Iran, contradicts White House.  The Obama administration was blindsided Wednesday [1/13/2016] when Iran released a video showing a captured sailor apologizing to his captors for the two Navy vessels that strayed into Iranian waters — after Vice President Joe Biden insisted the United States had nothing to be sorry about.  "It was a mistake, that was our fault, and we apologize for our mistake," said the sailor, who was identified by the Iranian interviewer as "commander" of the crew detained Tuesday [1/12/2016].

Apology video counters Obama narrative on Iran's release of captured U.S. sailors.  The Obama administration rushed Wednesday [1/13/2016] to portray the swift return of 10 U.S. sailors taken captive a day earlier by Iran as a vindication of the president's diplomatic outreach to Tehran, but a video showing the disarmed, kneeling American sailors being watched by Iranian guards and one of the sailors apologizing to his captors quickly undercut the administration's self-congratulatory message.  The broadcast of the video on Iranian state TV showed how Tehran seized on the incident to score propaganda points at home before returning the sailors to the American Navy fleet in the Persian Gulf.

The Humiliation.  There's no point pretending the illegal seizure and release of America's sailors is anything other a huge propaganda victory for Iran — and a humiliation for the United States.

Iran will slap us again after Obama's pathetic response to sailor incident.  If parading American sailors with their hands in the air constitutes an "appropriate response" by Iran, as Secretary of State John Kerry says, what's unacceptable?  Nothing, apparently — given Team Obama's undeniable desperation to preserve and protect its nuclear deal.  Tehran, after all, had every incentive to resolve the situation — 10 sailors on two riverine vessels accidentally drifting into Iranian waters — quickly and quietly.  Iran is just days away from the formal lifting of economic sanctions, which will unfreeze $50 billion in long-locked-up Iranian assets by next Monday [1/18/2016].

Administration: Sailor's Apology to Iran Wasn't 'Official U.S. Government Apology'.  The Obama administration said today that no apology was made to Iran over the two U.S. boats that Tehran said drifted into territorial waters, insisting that video showing one of the captured sailors apologizing must have been made under duress.  Yet at the same time, the administration claimed that the encounter wasn't hostile and the sailors were treated well.  White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters aboard Air Force One today that he didn't know if President Obama had seen the video released by Iran of U.S. sailors kneeling with their hands behind their heads on a boat deck.

The Editor says...
He probably has not seen the video because that would require going to his national security briefings, which he is too lazy to attend.

Obama Apologizes to Iran After They Kidnapped 10 US Navy Sailors.  All ten sailors are safely aboard the USS Anzio after a broken navigation system caused them to drift into Itan's [sic] waters.  The US had to formally apologize after making apologetic comments and demonstrating unusual obsequiousness.  The ships have been returned and taken over by other sailors who will continue on with the original journey.  They haven't received their $100 to $150 billion yet.  What happens when we have nothing to hold over them?

Obama's Secret Iran Strategy.  President Barack Obama wishes the Islamic Republic of Iran every success.  Its leaders, he explained in a recent interview, stand at a crossroads.  They can choose to press ahead with their nuclear program, thereby continuing to flout the will of the international community and further isolate their country; or they can accept limitations on their nuclear ambitions and enter an era of harmonious relations with the rest of the world. [...] How eager is the president to see Iran break through its isolation and become a very successful regional power?  Very eager.

Iran calls Obama's bluff.  Since signing a nuclear deal with the Obama administration last summer, Iran's theocratic regime has twice been caught testing ballistic missiles, in one case firing them near a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf.  This is a black-and-white violation of the nuclear deal and it carries a prescribed consequence in the form of new punitive sanctions.  In fact, when Congress considered whether to block the deal or allow it to proceed, many nervous Democrats were persuaded by this provision and others like it.  Yet now that the Iranians have violated it, Obama prefers to throw away one of the few solid achievements that emerged from his negotiations with the mullahs.

Analysts Say White House Siding With Iran Against Saudi Arabia in Growing Conflict.  In the wake of this weekend's escalation between Saudi Arabia and Iran, Washington seems to be increasingly favoring Tehran over Riyadh, Josh Rogin and Eli Lake reported for Bloomberg View on Monday [1/4/2016].  After Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr was executed in Saudi Arabia on terrorism-related charges on Saturday, Rogin and Lake wrote that the State Department expressed concern that the Saudis were "exacerbating sectarian tensions." [...] While the State Department insisted that it was not taking a side in the feud, Rogin and Lake reported that diplomats from the United States and the Arab world say that America's Gulf allies see a decided tilt towards Iran.

Arab States' Move Against Iran Is Rebuke Of Obama.  After the mass executions in Saudi Arabia last week that included putting to death a prominent Shiite cleric advocating overthrowing the House of Saud, Shiite Iran allowed the Saudi embassy to be burned, and the Saudis responded by breaking off diplomatic relations with Tehran.  But the Saudis weren't alone.  Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates downgraded relations with the Ayatollah Khamenei's Islamofascist regime.  While triggered by those recent incidents, these moves by Arab states friendly to the U.S. have everything to do with Obama's nuclear pact with Iran and its unfreezing over $100 billion in Iranian assets.  With those assets, Iran's mullahs will not only finance more terrorism, but also seek military dominance in the entire region.

Kerry: Iran deal 'days away' from implementation.  The implementation of the Iranian nuclear deal may be only "days away", Secretary of State John Kerry declared Thursday [1/7/2016], according to the AFP news agency.  Kerry told reporters he had spoken to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who insisted Iran would live up to its promises, and added the United States would be ready to begin lifting its nuclear-related sanctions against Tehran.  "The foreign minister made it clear to me they intend to complete obligations with respect to implementation day as rapidly as possible," Kerry was quoted as having said.

White House Delays New Sanctions Against Iran.  President Obama pressured/threatened all Democrats and UniParty membership Republicans to support his Iranian Nuclear Deal, they did.  Now Iran violates the deal, sanctions should be applied, but the White House says — meh, violations... no biggie.

Iran crosses another line — and Obama blinks again.  First we had Obama's embarrassing walk-back of his threat to launch military strikes against Syria's Bashar al-Assad for using chemical weapons against civilians.  Now the White House has pulled the rug out from under its own plans for new sanctions on Iran over its ballistic-missile program.  Why?  Apparently because Tehran threatened to walk away from Obama's nuclear accord — demonstrating yet again which side was more eager to strike a deal. [...] Iran clearly thinks it now has license to do whatever it likes — which has the Democrats who succumbed to White House pressure to endorse the deal steaming.

Rush: If The Presence of Guns Are the Problem, Why Does Iran Get Nukes?  [Quoting Rush Limbaugh:] ["]A nuclear weapon is a gun extraordinaire, and Obama's going out of his way to make sure that the Iranians have a stockpile of them.  Now, if the existence of guns — in this case nuclear weapons — is what causes the problem, why in the world let a regime like that have them?  The answer is even Obama understands that what he's saying isn't true, that the existence of guns is why there is crime committed with them.  But the point is, it doesn't matter what you think anyway; Obama is going to do this.  Because the real objective here is the further erosion of liberty and freedom. [..."]

The Light at the End of the Tunnel.  An administration which based its foreign policy strategy on simultaneouly [sic] befriending rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran finds that instead of dampening the competition the effect has been to heighten their conflict to a critical point.

Trump: Iran deal was so bad it's suspicious.  Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump says the nuclear deal with Iran is so bad, he is close to wondering whether it was done poorly on purpose.  "It's almost like there has to be something else going on," he said Saturday night [1/2/2016] at a rally in Biloxi, Miss.  "I don't think there is, I just don't think they're competent."

US reportedly preparing fresh sanctions over Iran ballistic missile program.  The U.S. is preparing to impose financial sanctions on Iran for the first time since this past summer's agreement on Tehran's nuclear program, Fox News has learned.  U.S. Treasury officials notified Congress Wednesday of new sanctions against 11 individuals and entities who are accused of supporting Iran's ballistic missile program.  The sanctions are aimed in particular at companies and individuals in Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong for their alleged role in developing Iran's ballistic missile program.

The Year of the Leftist Liars.  This was the year when we essentially let the world know that we were giving up any effort to try to stop Iran — the world's leading sponsor of international terrorism — from getting a nuclear bomb.  Surely it does not take much imagination to foresee what lies at the end of that road.  It will not matter if we have more nuclear bombs than they have, if they are willing to die and we are not.  That can determine who surrenders.  And ISIS and other terrorists have given us grisly demonstrations of what surrender would mean.

Defiant Iran pledges to ramp up missile program, in challenge for Obama.  A series of Iranian officials vowed on Friday [1/1/2016] to expand Tehran's missile capabilities, a challenge to the United States which has threatened to impose new sanctions even as the vast bulk of its measures against Iran are due to be lifted under a nuclear deal.  "As long as the United States supports Israel we will expand our missile capabilities," the Revolutionary Guards' second-in-command, Brigadier General Hossein Salami, was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency.

Kerry Places Iran Interests Before Homeland Security.  When the choice is between honoring Congress' new homeland security requirements on visitors to the U.S. and appeasing Iran, Secretary of State Kerry doesn't hesitate.  Iran comes first.  The groveling Dec. 19 letter to "His Excellency Mohammad Javad Zarif" is exactly what you'd expect from a politician who, 40-some-odd years ago, dumped his U.S. military medals on the steps of the Capitol.

Obama's Iranian Partners in Peace Trying to Bring Down U.S. Electric Grid.  Iranian cyber-attackers have been targeting the U.S. electrical grid's networks and stealing highly sensitive data, an Associated Press investigation revealed on Monday [12/21/2015].  Brian Wallace, a researcher at the cyber-security firm Cylance, discovered that critical files from Calpine Corporation, which operates 82 power plants in 18 states and Canada, were stolen in a breach that began around August 2013 and may be ongoing.  The information in those files included passwords, diagrams, and sensitive engineering designs of power plants, at least one of which was marked "Mission Critical."  After analyzing circumstantial evidence, investigators concluded that the data was compromised by Iranian hackers.  Robert M. Lee, a former U.S. Air Force cyber-warfare operations officer, told AP that having this level of control could allow Iran to launch an attack on America's electrical infrastructure at any time.  "If the geopolitical situation changes and Iran wants to target these facilities, if they have this kind of information it will make it a lot easier," he warned.

Iran provokes the world as Obama does nothing.  Iran is following through on the nuclear deal it struck with a U.S.-led coalition in an utterly predictable way: It is racing to fulfill those parts of the accord that will allow it to collect $100 billion in frozen funds and end sanctions on its oil exports and banking system, while expanding its belligerent and illegal activities in other areas — and daring the West to respond.  Unfortunately, the Obama administration's response to these provocations has also been familiar.  It is doing its best to downplay them — and thereby encouraging Tehran to press for still-greater advantage.

Republicans blast Kerry for suggesting Iran could skirt new visa rules.  At issue are tightened security requirements for America's visa waiver program, which allows citizens of 38 countries to travel to the U.S. without visas.  Under changes in the newly signed spending bill, people from those countries who have traveled to Iran, Iraq, Syria and Sudan in the past five years must now obtain visas to enter the U.S.  Top Tehran officials, however, complained the changes violate the terms of the nuclear deal, which says the U.S. and other world powers will refrain from any policy intended to adversely affect normalization of trade and economic relations with Iran.

Obama Admin: Congressional Crackdown on Terror Will Violate Iran Deal.  Senior Obama administration officials are expressing concern that congressional attempts to tighten laws preventing terrorists from entering the United States could violate the Iran nuclear agreement and prompt Tehran to walk away from the agreement.  Congress is considering measures that would tighten the Visa Waiver Program to make it harder for potential terrorists to legally enter the United States by increasing restrictions on individuals who have travelled to countries with prominent terrorist organizations from bypassing security checks upon entering the United States.  Iranian officials have in recent days repeatedly issued threatening statements to the Obama administration, saying that such moves would violate the nuclear agreement, and the Obama administration last week conveyed the Iranian anger to American lawmakers.

When factoids rule.  The president continues to insist that he has an agreement with Iran to halt their development of weapons of mass destruction.  Various officials high in the Iranian regime have repeatedly said there is no agreement.  At the very moment he repeated his claim, the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission, which had tried unsuccessfully to pin down the mullahs in Tehran, conceded that it had failed to detect earlier movement toward building nuclear weapons.  The mullahs, as if mocking the president's happy talk, tested intercontinental ballistic missiles, which once perfected, will be capable of carrying a nuclear bomb to North America.  Such weapons are prohibited by the deal the president so proudly cut with Iran.

Obama and Friends' Incredible Malfeasance on Iran.  Iran is also known to have tested yet another nuclear-capable missile on November 21.  That's one development on the Iran front — continuing to develop potential nuke-carrying missiles in blatant breach of U.N. resolutions.  And the other development is that the board of directors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has voted to close the books on ten years of Iran's illegal nuclear-weapons work, thereby helping open the path — as the Obama administration and its allies devoutly hope — to the lifting of sanctions on Iran in January.  The IAEA's board of directors gave Iran a clean bill of health even though, earlier this month, the agency's own investigators released a report that in no way confirmed that Iran hadn't already been working on nuclear weapons or had stopped working on them.

Obama's Crazy Policies — It's All Heredity.  The Iranians, as already stated, are locked in battle with Sunnis for dominance in the region.  They too want a Caliphate — but a Shiite controlled empire.  So they can either defeat the Sunni in a straight up fight or get rid of most of the would-be Sunni fighters, which would make the fight easier.  What better way than through mass migration.  Interestingly, and I'm sure coincidentally, most of the Syrian "refugees" entering Europe are Sunni.  "Since the Paris terror attacks on November 13, the State Department has admitted 132 Syrian refugees into the United States, and all 132 are Sunni Muslims."  And, as has been well publicized, the majority have been men of fighting age.  In our president is a hereditary hatred of the colonial west, a seeming affinity for Shiite Muslims and an arrogance to think he can control this upheaval through the sheer force of his will.  It's a recipe for disaster — or Armageddon.

Tehran is busy undermining the United States on almost all fronts since signing of accord.  The deal, signed between Iran and six world powers, exists to prevent Iran from obtaining weapons-grade nuclear material at least for the next 15 years On the one hand, Iranian leaders are smiling on the America that facilitated the agreement, whereby the West has lifted crippling economic sanctions that paralyzed the economy of the Islamic Republic.  On the other hand, Iranian leaders are engaged in vituperative ad hominem attacks against the United Sates and have intensified their efforts at a cyber war against Washington institutions.

Iran Nuclear Deal Just Keeps Looking Worse In Every Way.  U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power on Tuesday [12/8/2015] promised that "the U.S. is conducting a serious review" to confirm Iran's Nov. 21 launch near its border with Pakistan of a liquid-fuel missile with a 1,180-mile range that can carry a nuclear warhead.  The launch violates a 2010 U.N. Security Council resolution.  Whatever the U.S. or the U.N. might do to punish post-nuclear-deal Iran would hurt about as much as a star major leaguer being fined a few thousand dollars out of his $30 million salary or a Lotto winner paying a parking ticket.  Because the deal's removal of sanctions rewards the world's foremost terror state with incomprehensible riches — $100 billion in unfrozen assets, plus the massive new business and sale of oil abroad that Tehran will enjoy.

ISIS: The road to defeating Islamic extremism runs through its epicenter in Tehran.  The heinous terrorist attacks in San Bernardino 12 days ago and in Paris last month were clear reminders of the growing threat of Islamic extremism.  This vicious ideology continues to take new physical forms — once Al Qaeda, now ISIS.  Their goal is to create an Islamic "state" capable of enforcing Sharia law by force and unwinding humanity's democratic achievements.  While the Sunni variant of fundamentalism desperately seeks to achieve this objective, the Shiite version in Tehran is well on its way.  It should be confronted, not engaged.

Former head of IDF intelligence: ISIS is much less dangerous than Iran.  Former head of IDF intelligence Maj. Gen. (res.) Amos Yadlin on Tuesday [12/2/2015] said, "Islamic State is much less dangerous than the Islamic Republican of Iran," in opening comments to his Institute of National Security Studies conference in Tel Aviv on the aftermath of the Iran nuclear deal.  Yadlin explained that he "still thinks this [an Iranian nuclear bomb] is the biggest potential threat to Israel" and expressed concern that now that the deal has moved forward it "is off the public agenda" and the "governments and the media are thinking more about Islamic State, Russia and Turkey."

The latest wart on the rancid Iran deal.  First we learned that President Obama's nuclear deal with Iran isn't a formal treaty — so he didn't need Congress to ratify it.  Now the State Department says the much-hyped deal isn't even legally binding.  National Review reports that Julia Frifield, the assistant secretary for legislative affairs, recently wrote just that to Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.).  It's merely a "political commitment," she says.  But a commitment that Iran refuses to sign.  President Hassan Rouhani last summer specifically ordered his parliament not to approve the agreement — er, commitment — because then he'd have to sign it.  And that, he said, would "create an obligation for the government."

Why The Iran Deal?  With even Obama supporters now questioning the deal with Iran, with the revelation Iranian leaders made a side deal with the IAEA, with recognition that al Qaeda has a sanctuary in Iran, with the U.S. excluded from the inspection team, with leaders in Iran shouting "death to America" and with the Supreme Leader indicating that Israel must be "annihilated," why does President Obama insist on this arrangement?

Iran Nuclear Deal Isn't A Bad Deal After All; It's No Deal.  The Obama administration admits to Congress that its nuclear pact with Iran has not been signed by the Iranian regime and has no legal force.  Obama's "tough diplomacy" is puff diplomacy.  The White House's latest updated "Strategy for American Innovation" left one innovation out:  diplomatic pacts with other countries that don't have to be signed.  Maybe President Obama will say that it saves the taxpayers money, since it eliminates signing ceremonies in lavish locales.

State Department: Iran Deal Is Not 'Legally Binding' and Iran Didn't Sign It.  President Obama didn't require Iranian leaders to sign the nuclear deal that his team negotiated with the regime, and the deal is not "legally binding," his administration acknowledged in a letter to Representative Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.) obtained by National Review.  "The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is not a treaty or an executive agreement, and is not a signed document," wrote Julia Frifield, the State Department assistant secretary for legislative affairs, in the November 19 letter.

Iran uranium stockpile grows after deal with Obama.  Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium has grown in the past three months, the United Nations nuclear watchdog reported on Wednesday [11/18/2015].  The stockpile is supposed to be slashed as a result of the agreement the regime reached this summer with the United States and other world powers.  According to the confidential report, recounted by Reuters, "Iran had also moved centrifuges, machines that enrich uranium, at its Natanz and Fordow sites, the report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said.  Under the deal with major powers reached in July, Iran is supposed to reduce the number of centrifuges it has in operation."

Iran Threatens to Walk Away from Nuke Deal.  Iran has threatened to walk away from the recently inked nuclear deal and stop rolling back its nuclear enrichment program, according to recent comments by Hassan Rouhani, the Islamic Republic's president.  Rouhani, in comments on Thursday [11/12/2015], threatened to break the deal if the United States imposes any new sanctions on Iran, even ones concerning the country's human rights abuses and its ballistic missile program.  The comments are a direct response to promises by the Obama administration to continue pursuing economic sanctions targeted at Iran's terrorist proxies and efforts to foment unrest across the globe.

Lifting the (Oil) Ban on Economic Prosperity.  Lifting the crude oil export ban would enable American producers to take advantage of huge opportunities for significant world-market share.  Domestic petroleum companies would prosper even at current oil prices.  In turn, this would power substantial economic growth — including a manufacturing renaissance — and help reestablish U.S. geopolitical influence.  Thousands and eventually millions of jobs would be created throughout the economy.  Oddly (or some would say, predictably) President Barack Obama opposes lifting the export ban for U.S. companies yet supports lifting the same ban on Iran, which is part of the nuclear deal.

Obama held hostage: How Iran's using the nuke deal as license to go wild.  President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry were convinced their one-sided nuclear deal would lead to better relations with Iran, but it's already doing the reverse.  Tehran has taken two more Americans hostage just this month — and followed up with a massive cyberattack on the US government, especially the State Department's Office of Iranian Affairs.  The kicker:  Iran is holding the nuke deal hostage — threatening to junk it if Obama tries to punish the country for its fresh outrages.

Appeasement Only Makes Iran Hate A Weakened America More.  A funny thing happened on the way to a friendlier Iran.  Obama effigies burn and "Death to America" is declared a permanent slogan, as our nuclear deal is rightly viewed as American weakness.

Iran Responsible for Killing 14 Percent of U.S. Troops in Iraq.  Nearly 200 U.S. troops have been killed and nearly 1,000 injured by Iranian-made explosives in Iraq, according to new disclosures from a partially declassified report conducted by U.S. Central Command and described by sources to the Washington Free Beacon.  The number of U.S. deaths resulting from Iranian terrorism were revealed for the first time on Wednesday by Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) during a hearing focusing on the Obama administration's failure to prosecute terrorists directly responsible for the deaths of Americans.  At least 196 U.S. service members fighting in Iraq were killed directly as a result of Iranian-made explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, according to Cruz and congressional sources familiar with Centcom's mostly classified report.

Iran anniversary: Thirty-six years since 'Death to America' and there's no end in sight.  Wednesday, November 4 marks the thirty-sixth anniversary of the 1979 Iran hostage crisis.  Fifty-two Americans were held captive by Iranian "students" at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, subjected to 444 days of living hell.  The milestone might get a brief mention in U.S. news reports, but most Americans won't reflect much on what happened that day.  Not so in Tehran, where the regime plans to commemorate the Embassy takeover and several other key events in its "revolutionary" history with chants of "Death to America" and "Death to Israel."

Iran's Parliament Says 'Death to America' Chant Is the 'Symbol of the Islamic Republic'.  As he was concluding the calamitous nuclear agreement with Iran last summer, John Kerry asked the Iranians to cut out the "Death to America" chants.  (This was not long before he told an astonished world that the chants did not really mean that the Iranian mullahs wanted to kill us.)  In yet another indication of just how disastrous the nuclear deal really is, the Iranians have not only rejected Kerry's request, but are ramping up the genocidal rhetoric.

Why Iran Took Another U.S. Hostage.  The news that another American has been arrested by Iran shouldn't have come as a great surprise to the White House.  The United States hasn't used its leverage to insist on Iran freeing the four Americans who were already being held by the Islamist regime.  Indeed, despite formal protests about the conviction of Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian on trumped up charges earlier this month, there was no indication that the U.S. would take any action actions about the plight of any of the Americans in Iranian hands other than to carrying on secret ransom negotiations.

Fifth American Arrested in Iran.  An Iranian-American businessman has been arrested in Iran, making him the fifth U.S. citizen currently imprisoned in the country as Washington prepares to loosen economic restrictions on Tehran under the nuclear deal.  Siamak Namazi, an executive at Crescent Petroleum Co. and a prominent supporter of the U.S. nuclear deal with Iran, was reportedly detained two weeks ago while visiting family in Tehran and is being held in Evin prison.

The Iran Nuclear Deal: Nonbinding from the Outset.  When two parties obligate themselves to the terms of a contract, it is fundamentally necessary that both parties commit to an identical deal.  This is not the case with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which makes it inherently nonbinding on all parties.  On October 13, Iran effectively decided to disapprove of the JCPOA.  Instead of approving the JCPOA, Iran's Parliament devised its own "amended version" that in parts dramatically alters the original and in parts directly contradicts it.

The Americans Obama Left Languishing in Iran's Jails.  President Obama had several key opportunities to put pressure on the ruling mullahs in the Islamic Republic to free the three American citizens (pastor Saeed Abedini, journalist Jason Rezaian and US Marine Amir Hekmati) who have been held for years in one of Iran's notorious jails on bogus and baseless charges.

Obama signs Iran nuclear deal, making pact official.  President Obama on Sunday [10/18/2015] signed the Iran nuclear deal, officially putting the international agreement into effect.  The president's signature opens the way for Iran to make major changes to an underground nuclear facility, a heavy water reactor and a site for enriching uranium.  However, the rogue nation will need months to meet those goals and get relief from the crippling economic sanction that will be lifted as part of deal, despite the pact going into effect Sunday [10/18/2015].

Obama's Partners in Peace Prepare for War: Iran Shows Off Secret Underground Missile Base.  This is something I predicted long ago and now, here we are.  Those tunnels are deep enough to be just about impenetrable by bombs.  West is right about voting on the JCPOA, at this point, what difference does it make?  The Iranians are working diligently with the Russians, Cubans and Chinese in Syria on the war front there.  When they are done in Syria, their attention will go towards the rest of the Middle East and Europe.  This is only the beginning.  Iran and Russia are feverishly buying up all the oil and gas reserves out there.

Iran Nuclear Deal Gives Free Rein On Missiles, Terrorism.  In announcing that Iran violated a United Nations Security Council resolution with its Oct. 10 launch of a ballistic missile that could carry a nuclear warhead, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power promised that the U.S. would prepare a report and swiftly raise the issue with the Security Council.  "The Security Council prohibition on Iran's ballistic missile activities, as well as the arms embargo, remain in place," Power said.  She sounds like President Carter telling the nation in January 1980 that the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan "is a callous violation of international law and the United Nations Charter."

US confirms Iran tested nuclear-capable ballistic missile.  The United States has confirmed that Iran tested a medium-range missile capable of delivering a nuclear weapon, in "clear violation" of a United Nations Security Council ban on ballistic missile tests, a senior US official said on Friday [10/16/2015].

State Dept.: Kerry 'Simply Misspeaking' by Calling Americans Detained by Iran 'Hostages'.  The State Department today [10/14/2015] said Secretary of State John Kerry was "misspeaking" when he referred to the four Americans held by Iran as "hostages" — multiple times.  Lawmakers opposed to the regime in Tehran and advocates for the release of the four Americans — Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, Marine vet Amir Hekmati, pastor Saeed Abedini and retired FBI agent Bob Levinson — often refer to the four as hostages.  All have been held longer than the 1979 U.S. hostages.

When Washington won't even call them 'hostages,' why expect to ever get them back?  For months and years, Tehran has held four US hostages: Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, Marine veteran Amir Hekmati, pastor Saeed Abedini and retired FBI agent Bob Levinson.  Iran pretends they're criminals.  An Iranian kangaroo court this week found Rezaian guilty of still-unspecified charges.  Kerry was explaining why he hadn't let this stop him from negotiating that nuclear deal with Tehran:  "The families themselves of these hostages knew exactly what our strategy was and why it was important not to hold a nuclear agreement hostage to hostages."

The Nuclear Deal's True Purpose.  It works out that US President Barack Obama's signature diplomatic achievement, his nuclear deal with Iran, has nothing to do with preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power or even with placing restrictions on Iran's nuclear activities.  Just weeks after Obama led the international community in concluding the nuclear pact with Iran, the Iranian regime filed a complaint with the UN Security Council accusing the US of committing a material breach of the agreement.  The US action that precipitated the complaint was a statement by White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest claiming that if Iran violates the deal, "the military option would remain on the table."

Iran Lawmakers Vote to Implement Nuclear Deal.  Iran's parliament voted Tuesday to support implementing a landmark nuclear deal struck with world powers despite hard-line attempts to derail the bill, suggesting the historic accord will be carried out.

Oops: Turns out the Iran deal breaks the law.  It's usually the first warning to someone who's about to enter into a complicated legal agreement:  Be sure to read the fine print.  Looks like President Obama and the team that negotiated the disastrous nuclear deal with Iran didn't do that.  Or, worse still, they did — but hoped no one else would.  Too late for that.  Fox News' James Rosen reports some senior US officials involved in the negotiations have concluded that a key element of the deal conflicts with federal law and can't be implemented.  Unless Congress changes the law, that is.

Obama Admin's Iran Point Man Promotes Anti-Israel Conspiracy Theories.  A State Department official closely involved in the Obama administration's Iran push has been promoting publications from anti-Semitic conspiracy sites and other radical websites that demonize American Jewish groups and Israel, according to sources and documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.  Alan Eyre, the State Department's Persian-language spokesman and a member of the negotiating delegation that struck a nuclear deal with Iran earlier this year, has in recent months disseminated articles that linked American-Jewish skeptics of the deal to shadowy financial networks, sought to soften the image of Iranian terrorists with American blood on their hands, and linked deal criticism to a vast "neoconservative worldview."

Obama got his Iran deal and the rest of us got a bloody mess in the Middle East.  Two reports on Syria, one on American efforts to bolster rebels and one on Russian efforts to protect Bashar al-Assad, combine to tell the whole story.  It's not a pretty picture.  President Obama's weak-tea plan is summarized in a Wall Street Journal article that says he authorized a covert CIA program in 2013.  The aim, the Journal reports, was to "gradually build a moderate force strong enough to put military pressure on Mr. Assad."  But instead of victory, Obama only wanted to "force the regime to accept a political solution."

Wanted: A President of Good Character.  The United States is getting slapped around by every thug and bully in the world, from Vladimir Putin, playing the Czar of All Russias, to the Chinese, the Stalinist North Koreans, the proto-Nazis of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Jihadi butchers of ISIS, and most of all, the Persian rug-sellers of Tehran.  What a crew.  Under Obama the nuclear horse has finally escaped from the barn, and will soon join the other four horsemen of the Apocalypse.  Obama hasn't even tried to stop it, after swearing to do so, in public, a couple of hundred times.  At the same time Valerie Jarrett was negotiating surrender behind the scenes.  All that, thanks to the Washington establishment — yes, even the GOP and the DC lifers — the permanent bureaucrats.

Why the Iran Deal Ensures War.  The U.S. has now established an official blueprint on how to get nuclear weapons without being relegated to pariah status.  Iran, unlike Pakistan and North Korea, is not renegading its way to nuclear weapons, but is negotiating its pathway with the approval of the West.  Yet Iran's government is just as unhinged as those of the last two nuclear newcomers, is more centrally positioned in the Middle East, and has far more financial resources, given its singular reserves of natural gas and oil.  Other would-be nuclear nations will make the necessary adjustments, asking for similar sorts of American-backed supposed non-proliferation protocols, as they shadow Iran step by step into nuclear readiness.

Netanyahu: Iran Nuclear Deal Risks Another Genocide Of Jews.  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shamed the United Nations for keeping mum amid Iranian calls for the Jewish state's destruction.  Obama's nuclear deal provides the means, he warned.

Syria is Obama's Watergate.  What did he know and when did he know it?  The immortal question about Richard Nixon and Watergate should be posed to Barack Obama about Syria.  What and when did he know about Vladimir Putin's axis-of-evil coalition?  The significance is not limited to Syria.  The question goes to the heart of the Iran nuclear deal, especially the timing of the congressional votes.

We get it, Obama.  [Scroll down]  We get that you don't like us for deep ideological reasons.  We got it last summer when you took the wrong side during our conflict with Hamas in Gaza, and on so many other occasions since you became president.  We get it that you want to see us with indefensible borders surrounded by enemies armed to the teeth by Iran with money that you provided as part of your nuclear deal.  We understand that your sympathies lie with the Muslim world, not with the 'colonialist' West, which you view as the root of evil in the world. [...] Actually, while this is a problem for us, it is a much bigger problem for the people of America, who are nervous about your apparent anti-Americanism and your uncomfortable closeness to Islam, who don't trust Iran and don't see how the deal you made is going to keep the terror-supporting regime from getting nuclear weapons.

'Obama handshake' triggers anger in Iran parliament.  The Iranian foreign minister's reported handshake with US President Barack Obama triggered chants of "Death to America" in Tehran's parliament Wednesday and a warning against "another kind of spying".  The foreign ministry has confirmed a "completely accidental" encounter between Obama and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Monday, without denying there was a handshake as reported by Iran's semi-official ISNA news agency.  But hardline lawmakers went on the offensive against Zarif.

House Republicans Consider Suing Obama.  for Withholding Side Deals on Iran's Nuclear Program

Iran Buys $21 Billion in Aircraft, Satellites from Russia.  Iran has purchased $21 billion worth of Russian satellite technology and aircraft, according to Iranian officials.  An Iranian delegation reportedly visited Russia's MAKS-2015 air show and signed an agreement to purchase the equipment, according to Sputnik, which quoted Iranian officials.  "There is a large share of contracts for the purchase of this type of aircraft," Manouchehr Mantegh, an Iranian technology and aviation official, reportedly disclosed, according to Sputnik.

Obama 'accidentally' shakes hands with Iran's foreign minister.  An Iranian news agency says President Barack Obama and Iran's foreign minister shook hands when they ran into one another on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Militia will arrest senators for treason, vows anti-Islam rally organizer.  The man who caused a stir by organizing an anti-Islam rally in Phoenix in May is taking aim at Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Michigan, saying she committed treason by voting for the Iran nuclear deal.  In a letter to Roll Call, Jon Ritzheimer outlined his plans to organize with the Oath Keepers militia and personally arrest his "first target."  "We are planning on arresting Senator Debbie Stabenow, who voted yes to the Iran Nuke Deal.  She will be arrested for treason under Article 3 Section 3 of the Constitution," he says in the letter.  "We have chosen her as our first target due to our strong ties with the Michigan State Militia and their lax gun laws that will allow us to operate in a manner necessary for an operation like this."

Top Iranian Cleric: US is the Enemy of Islam.  In yet another indication of the open hostility still felt in Iran despite the recent nuclear deal with world powers, a leading Muslim cleric in the Islamic regime came out on Thursday [9/24/2015] calling the US "the enemy of Islam."  Ayatollah Seyed Ahmad Khatami made the comments in a speech at Tehran University campus for Eid al-Adha prayers, as reported by the semi-official Fars News Agency.

Iran's involvement with 9/11.  The most remarkable aspect of this US surrender to Iran is that the Iranian regime is not some hypothetical threat.  It has been perpetrating acts of war against Western interests for more than three decades — including playing a key role in the 9/11 attacks on America.  That's not just my opinion.  It's the view of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.  In a judgment that has received virtually no attention, federal Judge George B. Daniels found in December 2011 that Iran, with the participation of its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was directly and heavily involved in the 9/11 atrocities.

Obama Admin Will Not Reveal to Congress Number of Americans Killed By Iran.  The Obama administration is declining to inform Congress about the number of American citizens and troops killed by Iran and its terror proxies, according to a document provided to Congress and obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.  The administration was repeatedly asked by Congress to release figures describing how many Americans and Israelis have been killed by Iran's military and terror activities since the country's 1979 revolution.  In a series of on-the-record responses obtained exclusively by the Free Beacon, and provided in written form to Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.), Kerry sidestepped the questions on all of the three separate occasions he was asked to provide the figures.

Obama Deal Allows Iran To Pay Others To Build Its Nuclear Program.  Obama administration negotiators forgot something when they gave away the store to Iran.  Tehran remains free to outsource its nuclear program to North Korea.

Obama's House of Cards.  Obama now has avoided the need to veto legislation blocking the release of funds to Iran, thanks to a Senate filibuster.  But it's not a done deal; Congress has not seen all of the secret side-agreements.  Congress is readying new legislation to re-impose sanctions — all in the hope of negotiating a better Deal, with more safeguards against Iranian cheating.  And don't forget Iran's pledge never to build or acquire nuclear weapons; we must hold them to that — even at the risk that Iran will call the Deal off, as reportedly threatened last week in true bazaar-merchant fashion by Ali Larijani, Iran's Parliament speaker.  Well, so be it.  Remember, it's not over "till the fat lady sings."

Obama has documents on Iran's support of Al Qaeda, but he won't release them.  You may not realize that, when U.S. Navy SEALs showed up at Osama bin Laden's hideout for the purpose of putting a bullet in his brain, they also carried off a sizeable number of documents pertaining to Al Qaeda's operations around the world, including information about which nations provide substantial support in the form of both financing and access to territory, training facilities and so on.  I'll give you one guess which country was a prominent supporter.

Liberal Dem: Iran Deal Poses Existential Threat to U.S..  Last week, in announcing his decision to vote against the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Democratic Representative Ted W. Lieu of California issued a 23-page, single-spaced statement, complete with 79 footnotes, which reached the conclusion set forth in the title of this post.  The statement is, in my view, the definitive analysis of the Iran deal — written in an extraordinarily thoughtful manner by a liberal first-term Member of Congress, who was elected president of the 20-member Democratic Freshman Class.  It is the document future historians will cite to show that the likely consequences of the deal were apparent to a bipartisan majority and ignored by a partisan minority:  in Representative Lieu's words, the deal gives Iran "a legal path to a vast nuclear infrastructure and lifts two crucial arms control provisions, the arms embargo and the ballistic missile ban," which "exposes America to a grave, potentially existential threat" because those missiles will be pointed at us.

Obama Admin: Iranian Ballistic Missile Tests Not a Nuke Deal Violation.  Iran is permitted to test-fire ballistic missiles under the parameters of the recently inked nuclear accord, according to private disclosures made by Secretary of State John Kerry to a leading U.S. senator, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.  Nothing in the nuclear deal prevents Iran from testing a "conventional ballistic missile," which could be used to carry a nuclear weapon, according to series of written answers provided by Kerry to Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.).  The Obama administration's failure to rein in Iran's ballistic missile program has emerged as a key criticism among critics of the deal.  They argue that during the 15-year duration of the agreement, Iran will be given the opportunity to perfect its ballistic missile program, which could put it much closer to an operable nuclear weapon.

The Iran deal is a bait and switch.  Barack Obama has never made a secret of his determination to reach a deal with Iran regarding its nuclear program. Very early in his run for the White House, he announced that he was prepared to meet, without preconditions, with the rulers of Iran and other hostile regimes.

How to Create a Banana Republic: Start with a dictator.  Obama's position has been straightforward, at least privately.  He will do whatever he wants and no one will stop him.  He has repeatedly defied Congress and the courts to do so.  While he plays the game of giving speech in which he demands that Congress do X or Y, it's in practice shut out of the process.  Here's how it worked on the Iran Deal.  Obama made it clear to Democrats in Congress that he would implement the deal no matter what.  The Republican leadership by now has gotten the message.  The message is that Congressional voters are irrelevant.  They don't affect policy unless the dictator-in-chief allows them to.

Three Pinocchios for Obama's claim of "strong support" for Iran deal.  When 42 Senate Democrats blocked debate on the Iran deal, they prevented a floor vote that would have resulted in a bill rejecting the pact negotiated by John Kerry and approved by Barack Obama.  Recent polling from Pew shows support for the deal at 21% — the kind of level that indicates the fringe of American politics.  The House passed a bill to reject the nuclear deal by a 269-162 margin.  Yet after the filibuster, Obama bragged about the "strong support" he received for the deal from "lawmakers and citizens alike."

The Real Purpose of the Nuclear Deal: Support Iran and Stick It to Israel.  The purpose of the Iran nuclear deal isn't to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons technology — it's to assist Iran and prevent an Israeli military attack.  The deal promises to help Iran modernize and protect its nuclear program while making it harder for Israel to disrupt the program through military means or sabotage.  This isn't a "bad deal," as many keep saying — it's a dramatic shift in U.S. policy in favor of totalitarian Iran at the expense of democratic Israel.  Leftists love authoritarian regimes that are virulently anti-American.  Far from restraining Iran, the deal cooked up by Barack Obama, John Kerry, and the U.S. negotiating team may be everything the ayatollah could have wished for.

Why Democrats didn't want to vote on the Iran deal.  To hear the Democrats in Congress who supported President Obama's Iran nuclear deal — and then successfully filibustered it in the Senate, refusing even to allow an actual vote — you'd think someone was literally holding a gun to their heads.  Because it's hard to find a single one who argues that Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry negotiated anything close to a good deal.

Maker of 'Airplane' Movie Destroys Obama's Iran Deal With Hilarious 'Iran Side Effects'.  David Zucker, the producer of the hilarious "Airplane" and "Naked Gun" series of movies has now spoken up against Obama's dangerous Iran nuke deal and he's done it the way he does best, with an hilarious video and this one skewers Obama's disastrous deal.  [Video clip]

America's descent into lawlessness.  Consider the proposed nuclear deal with Iran.  By past custom and practice, the nonproliferation agreement would be treated as what it is — a treaty.  But ratifying treaties constitutionally requires 67 yes votes from the Senate.  Obama could never obtain that margin.  So he managed to downgrade the treaty into a mere legal agreement.  Then he claimed that the Senate required 67 no votes to override his veto.

Report: Iran finds 'unexpectedly high' uranium reserve after Dems seal nuke deal for Obama.  Iran has reportedly found an unexpectedly high reserve of uranium, following assessment that the country is running low on the nuclear raw material and just days after President Obama essentially secured an international nuclear deal with the rouge nation.  The discovery was reported first by Reuters and based on comments made by Iranian nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi to the state news agency IRNA.

Iran Claims It Found 'Unexpectedly' Rich Uranium Mine.  The head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization claims that his country has discovered a surprisingly large amount of uranium in a new mine. [...] Western analysts are expressing concern over the new find.  During the negotiations that led to the recent nuclear deal, many argued that the Islamic Republic would not be able to develop weapons without importing radioactive material.  In particular, an influential paper put out by the Carnegie Endowment and the Federation of American Scientists claimed that domestic uranium is rare and of low quality, forcing Iran "to rely on external sources of natural and processed uranium."

Iran says finds unexpectedly high uranium reserve.  Iran has discovered an unexpectedly high reserve of uranium and will soon begin extracting the radioactive element at a new mine, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization said on Saturday [9/12/2015].

Democrats Cash GOP's Check, Ending Iran Sanctions.  Without congressional imprimatur — by either approval of a treaty or an authorizing statute — Obama's deal would be a mere executive agreement.  While harmful for the next 16 months, an executive agreement could be fully renounced when the next president takes office in 2017.  In the meantime, Congress could enact resolutions stressing that the sanctions remain on the books and should be enforced.  On notice that they could face crippling penalties once Obama is gone, individuals, corporations, and countries would be discouraged from commerce with Iran.  Iran might even reject the deal.  By contrast, formal law binds our country.  Laws must be faithfully executed by presidents — at least presidents not named Barack Obama.

Obama spins House vote as support for Iran deal.  President Obama took the position on Friday that the House vote against approving the Iran nuclear agreement is actually a good sign, and shows that people are more likely to support the deal if they take time to read and understand it. [...] Obama's statement was released shortly after the House voted 162-269 against a resolution approving the agreement.  The rejection of the deal was helped along by 25 Democrats who voted with Republicans.

How Obama Swindled Americans on Iran.  Congress is finally having its say on the Iran deal.  It will be an elaborate charade, however, because, having first gone to the U.N., President Obama has largely drained congressional action of relevance.  At the Security Council, he pushed through a resolution ratifying the deal, thus officially committing the United States as a nation to its implementation — in advance of any congressional action.  The resolution abolishes the entire legal framework, built over a decade, underlying the international sanctions against Iran.  A few months from now, they will be gone.

41 Traitors.  41 Democratic Senators chose to back an Iran deal that is a disaster for national security, a gift to terrorists and a path to war.  Here are the five worst things about the deal that the #41Traitors now own. [...] While the text of the treaty is online, the devil is in the details.  Those details are the agreements between Iran and the IAEA.  Iran has demanded that those agreements be kept secret.  The #41Traitors are backing a deal whose contents they don't even know.  We have to pass it to find out how many nuclear bombs Iran ends up with.  Obama and Biden have refused to answer questions about what's in those agreements, [...]

House rejects Obama's Iran deal.  The House on Friday rejected a resolution to approve the Iran nuclear deal, with the vote underscoring how controversial the accord has been with President Obama's own party.  While most Democrats voted to approve the nuclear bargain, 25 voted against it, creating a wedge that Republicans hope to use to their advantage in the 2016 elections.  Every Republican voted against the resolution, with the exception of libertarian Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who voted "present."  The tally was 162-269.

We Can Still Stop the Iran Deal — Here's How.  The specter of a nuclear-armed Islamic Republic of Iran is the single greatest threat facing our nation, and if President Barack Obama's catastrophic nuclear deal with the mullahs goes forward, there will be nothing to stop them from obtaining a nuclear bomb.  Astonishingly, we do not even know how bad the deal is because the Administration has not released all of the information relating to side deals with Iran as they are obligated to do under the terms of Corker-Cardin, the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act that Congress passed and the President signed into law.

The Real Purpose of the Nuclear Deal: Support Iran and Stick It to Israel.  The purpose of the Iran nuclear deal isn't to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons technology — it's to assist Iran and prevent an Israeli military attack.  The deal promises to help Iran modernize and protect its nuclear program while making it harder for Israel to disrupt the program through military means or sabotage.  This isn't a "bad deal," as many keep saying — it's a dramatic shift in U.S. policy in favor of totalitarian Iran at the expense of democratic Israel.  Leftists love authoritarian regimes that are virulently anti-American.

Pelosi Celebrates Iran Nuke Deal: 'This Is Historic. This Is Grand.'.  House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) expressed tremendous enthusiasm and optimism at her press briefing today about the nuclear deal that the Obama administration and five other governments has negotiated with the Iranian regime of Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei.  Pelosi called the deal "historic," "grand," and "visionary."  The Congress is currently considering the deal in an unusual procedure that does not handle the international agreement as a treaty but as an agreement between the president and a foreign government.

Khamenei: Iran will not hold more talks with 'Great Satan' United States.  Relations between the United States and Iran will seemingly not improve, as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said there will not be further discussions other than on the nuclear negotiation.

Iran Deal: Khamenei Says Israel Destroyed in 25 Years.  Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the theocratic dictator of Iran, tweeted Wednesday [9/9/2015] that Israel would not survive for 25 more years.  "Firstly, you will not see 25 years; God willing, there will be nothing as Zionist regime by next 25 years.  Secondly, until then, struggling, heroic and jihadi morale will leave no moment of serenity for Zionists," he tweeted.

Mark Levin: Obama "Funding The Enemy" In Iran, $150 Billion For Terrorism.  "A conga-line of Democrats, one after another, supports this surrender," roared Mark Levin.  "It is clear the Democrats no longer represent the party of Truman and Kennedy."  "It is now the Democrat party of Bill Ayers, Saul Alinsky, and Barack Obama.  The Democrat Party will have blood on its hands as a result of this deal for the rest of time.  This deal sows the seeds of war."

Conservatives Detail Pathway Forward to Kill Iran Deal — But John Boehner Stands in Way.  Members are furious that Boehner is considering desecrating the 14-year-anniversary of the Al Qaeda-led terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 11 as the day the House would vote to "play fight," as National Review's Andy McCarthy calls it, against the Iran deal rather than really trying to stop it.

What the sordid Iran deal reveals about today's politics.  Polls show a clear majority of adult Americans oppose President Obama's nuclear deal with Iran.  More than 200 former top military commanders warn the agreement with its secret side deals threatens Israel's security, a regional nuclear arms race and the United States, while awarding billions for Iran to continue as the world's foremost state sponsor of terrorism.  Former Vice President Cheney calls Obama's deal "an intricately-crafted capitulation" that is "madness."

Only 21 percent of Americans approve of Iran nuke deal.  Just 21 percent of Americans approve of the nuclear accord between the U.S. and Iran according to a new Pew Research Center poll; 6 percent of Republicans, 20 percent of independents and 42 percent of Democrats agree.  Overall, half — 49 percent — disapprove of the deal; that includes 78 percent of the GOPers, 47 percent of independents and 29 percent of the Dems.

Spitting on the Constitution to pass the Iran deal.  In the matter of his Iran deal, President Obama and his team have spent two months working relentlessly to secure 41 percent — and now they're claiming an enormous victory even though by any other standards what they've achieved is nothing but a feat of unconstitutional trickery.  They worked throughout the summer to browbeat Senate Democrats so they could get 41 of them to say they would support the Iran nuclear deal.  They're up to 42 now — that's a mere 42 percent of the Senate.  Why is the number 41 so magical?  Why is a failure of this magnitude being greeted as a triumph?

Obama Avoided Syria Action to Help Iran Negotiations.  The way Obama sees it, the United States causes more problems than it solves, and besides there wasn't much we could do anyway by backing a bunch of rag-tag rebels against Assad and his allies.

Cheney, Unlike GOP Leaders, Tells Ugly Truth On Iran.  Former Vice President Cheney earned a special social media onslaught from the White House as he spoke to the American Enterprise Institute blasting the Iran deal on Tuesday [9/8/2015].  Cheney suggested it might the first national suicide attempt in world history, but at least as compelling was his assertion that while the U.S. trusts terrorist Tehran, Americans cannot trust their current president.  "We are asked to rely on the word of a country that has cheated on every nuclear agreement to which they have been a party, that once they have the means in place to become a nuclear power, they won't do it," Cheney noted.

Strategic Lying and Obama.  [Scroll down]  According to Obama, either we sign this not-so-terrific Iranian deal or we go to war.  He has de facto eliminated other possibilities such as continuation of sanctions or making concrete non-negotiable demands.  The most egregious is his claim that American sanctions were some of the toughest and they really did have an impact on Iran, when, in fact, he had actually opposed those very sanctions.

Every time you see a Wounded Warrior commercial I want you to remember this.  [Scroll down]  Obama had no such reservations when it came to Libya.  He destroyed Libya and got Gaddafi killed without any effort at diplomacy.  I continue to note that Obama has a predilection for ousting leaders of the more secular nations in the Middle East (Libya, Egypt) while coddling the leaders of the stricter Islamic theocracy (Iran).  Obama had a chance to influence the leadership in Iran back in 2009 but was disinterested in disrupting the theocracy.  One wonders why.  Obama has given amnesty to the man directly responsible for the deaths of thousands of US troops and couldn't get freed a single one of the four Americans being held by Iran.

Obama's Legacy: Middle East in Chaos, a Nuclear Iran, and Europe Flooded With Muslims.  President Obama's legacy to America:  a Middle East in chaos, radical Islam ascendant, a nuclear Iran with a $150 billion dollar terror fund, Israel demonized as a warmonger, Europe flooded with Muslims.  This Iran Deal is so bad, so dangerous, so traitorous, it is hard to believe.  That is one reason the Democrats can get away with it.  Their loyal voters assume their party leaders and beloved first black President would not do something this traitorous.

Also posted under grounds for impeachment.

Colin Powell and top Jewish Democrat back Iran deal in triumph for Obama.  The Iran nuclear deal has gained the backing of both a top Democrat and George W Bush's secretary of state, in what is shaping up to be a major victory for Barack Obama.  Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the first Jewish woman elected to Congress, announced her support for the deal in what she said was her most difficult decision in more than two decades in public office.  Colin Powell, who served as secretary of state between 2001 and 2005, hailed "remarkable changes" agreed to by Iranian leaders while downplaying skepticism over whether the accord could be implemented.

Chuck Todd Admits Iran Deal Vote More 'About Avoiding Defeat' for Obama.  On Wednesday, September 2, all three network newscasts cheered Obama securing a 34th vote for the Iran deal which included Chuck Todd's colleague, NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt, who proclaimed the vote a "major win for the Obama administration" for a deal that "now appears unstoppable."  In addition, the networks repeatedly dismissed the overwhelming majority of Congress who opposed the Iran deal and refused to provide soundbites of those who planned to vote against the controversial agreement.

An Anti-American White House.  This week President Obama won the 34th vote in support of his nuclear deal with Iran.  The vote, from Senator Barbara Mikulski, guarantees that the deal will survive a rejection by Congress.  The fact that the deal will be made despite such opposition — something a few of us predicted months ago — is, in the words of the AP, a "landmark Obama victory."  It is worth asking how many more of these victories our country can withstand.

Democrats now own the Iran deal, lock, stock, and barrel.  To some extent, Democrats couldn't have escaped political ownership of the Iran deal even if Congress managed to hold the line and override a veto of a rejection of the deal.  Democrats backed Barack Obama's play to treat the deal as an executive agreement rather than a treaty, and then refused to issue an outright repeal of the statutes that would allow Obama to issue an unending series of waivers to sanctions on Iran without forcing a reversal of the treaty process on Republicans.  Don't forget that Corker-Menendez started as an attempt to close that option, but they couldn't get enough Democrats to override a veto for a clean repeal.  That's how we ended up in a position where it now takes two-thirds of both chambers to reject a deal rather than two-thirds of the Senate to ratify it.

UK's Former Defense Secretary: The West 'Surrendered' to Iran in Nuclear Talks.  Liam Fox, a conservative member of Parliament, said the P5+1 "caved" to Iran's demands by conceding to immediate sanctions relief rather than implementing the West's original condition of a gradual, rewards-based sanctions lift.  "We've given everything away at the outset and it's all predicated on hope, a hope that they will change," he said.  The $150 billion Tehran is estimated to receive in unfrozen assets, he said, will allow the regime to rapidly update its aging military and civilian infrastructure, calling it "ridiculous" to argue Iran will use most of the money to pay off debts.

Private Government Report: Iran Spending Billions to Pay Terrorist Salaries.  Iran has been spending billions of dollars to fund the salaries of terrorist fighters across the Middle East, including in Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, and the Gaza Strip, according to a private U.S. government analysis conducted for a leading senator, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.  Iran's defense budget ranges anywhere from $14 to $30 billion a year, with much of that money going to fund terrorist proxy groups and rebel fighters in a number of countries, according to a Congressional Research Service report conducted following a request by Sen. Mark Kirk (R., Ill.).  The report discloses that funding for these terrorist groups could actually be much higher, as Iran obfuscates public records about its defense spending and financial support for paramilitary groups secretly conducting operations outside the Islamic Republic.

Why Won't Obama Stop Lying About Iran's Military Budget?  What is Iran's military budget?  Read Obama's lips.  It's either $15 billion or $30 billion.  Either Iran's military budget changes every time Obama gives a speech or he's playing with numbers to make it seem small.  If $30 billion still seems big, how about $15 billion?  And if $15 billion is still too big, get ready for the $7.5 billion Iranian defense budget.  How can you be worried about that?  Obama is borrowing a trick from the Manchurian Candidate.  No one is talking about how big Iran's military budget is, but debating how small it is.

The Editor says...
Barack H. Obama won't stop lying, because that's what he does.  He is a liar and the truth is not in him.

Iran General: Military Buildup Won't Stop Until 'Full Annihilation and Destruction' of Israel.  A senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps Commander (IRGC) stated Wednesday [9/2/2015] that Iran will not stop building up its military until Israel is annihilated.  The United States and Israel "should know that the Islamic Revolution will continue enhancing its preparedness until it overthrows Israel and liberates Palestine," Iranian Brigadier General Mohsen Kazzemeini said Wednesday [9/2/2015], while leading military drills in Tehran, according to Iran's state-run Fars News.

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

Obama's political win on the Iran deal is a hollow victory.  By enlisting Barbara Mikulski as the 34th Senate vote for his disastrous nuclear deal with Iran, enough to sustain his veto of a resolution of disapproval, President Obama has scored a political victory — but a hollow one.  That's because his agreement, the most important foreign-policy measure in decades, will take effect with the support of only a third of Congress — and a similar minority of the American people.  The president won't win approval of his odious deal; a majority of Congress remains firmly opposed.  He's simply manipulated the process by demonizing his opponents as warmongers.

Iran Commander: We're Getting Prepared to Overthrow Israel.  As the White House secured their last needed vote to block a veto override in the Senate on the nuclear deal, Iran unleashed a double-pronged attack:  vowing to block inspector access to some sites, and vowing to continue preparations to destroy Israel.  Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan said today that the International Atomic Energy Agency — which inked confidential deals with Tehran that Congress has not been able to see — would not be able to see all the facilities it wants to.

Iran Army Commander: We'll Keep Arming Until Israel Overthrown.  One of Iran's top military commanders has said the Islamic Republic will continue to bolster its military capabilities until Israel is destroyed and a Palestinian Arab state established in its place.  Brigadier General Mohsen Kazzemeini, a senior commander in the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), was speaking to soldiers during a military drill in Tehran Wednesday [9/2/2015].  "They (the US and the Zionists) should know that the Islamic Revolution will continue enhancing its preparedness until it overthrows Israel and liberates Palestine," Kazzemeini said, according to the semi-official Fars News Agency.

Senate Democrats Favoring Iran Deal Have Blood On Their Hands.  Retiring Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland became the 34th Senate Democrat to announce support for the administration's nuclear weapons agreement with the world's foremost terrorist client state, ensuring an Obama veto would be sustained.  Mikulski and her 33 comrades have blood on their hands — and not only the blood of victims of future Islamist nuclear terrorism after Tehran exploits the deal's many holes, gets the bomb and either uses it itself or gives weapons to terrorist groups.  It's also blood from the conventional terrorism Iran will expand with tens of billions of dollars of sanctions relief.  Speaking Wednesday [9/2/2015] at, of all places, the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Secretary of State John Kerry made the case for surrendering to a regime that would burn our Constitution the way Iranian incendiary devices have burned and blasted our troops.

Vet Tears Apart Iran Deal: Obama Is 'Selling Out The Country'.  Recalling the Iranian bomb that cut through his armored vehicle in Iraq in 2005, "my scars are the direct result of Iran," says Sgt. Robert Bartlett.  His face was ripped from the temple to the jaw and his gunner's legs were blown off.  He had more than 40 procedures done and he died three times, only to live to speak today.  Bartlett is featured in a powerful, viral ad against the Iran deal sponsored by Vets Against the Deal. Sgt. Bartlett is appearing on many networks about the Iranian deal now.

Obama picks up more support for Iran deal, needs one more senator to prevail.  Two more Democrats announced support Tuesday [9/1/2015] for President Obama's nuclear deal with Iran, putting the White House a single senator away from assuring it can prevent Congress from scuttling the agreement and leaving GOP leaders hoping to avoid an even bigger embarrassment of losing to a filibuster.  With about 10 Democrats still to decide, it's a lock that at least one of them will back Mr. Obama, giving him the 34 votes needed to uphold his expected veto of a bill to halt the deal.

Revealed Secret Construction Makes Iran Deal Supporters Look Even More Foolish.  First, the debate over the Iran nuclear deal was roiled by the news that a side deal between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Tehran allowed the Islamist regime to self-inspect the Parchin military site.  Parchin is the place where Iran conducted much of the military research connected with its nuclear project including work on triggers for bombs.  Administration apologists first scoffed at the AP report with the shocking details about the inspections and, once the text of the agreement was published, incredibly claimed it was a fake.

Obama, Bush, Clinton: Secret Agents.  The record is uncontestable; Obama has destroyed his own party for the immediate future.  Even the left-leaning Politico concedes this. [...] The Iran deal is just the latest of the outrageous acts of a president so enamored of making a place in history for himself that he ignores good sense, public opinion, and the future of his party.

Wasserman Schultz blocked Iran resolution at DNC meeting: report.  Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz blocked consideration of a resolution at the party's summer meeting that would have praised President Obama and backed the his nuclear deal with Iran, The Washington Post reported Saturday [8/29/2015], citing unnamed sources.

214 Flag Officers Blast Iran Deal in NY Times Ad.  Over 200 retired generals and admirals called on Congress to reject the Iranian nuclear deal in a full-page New York Times ad on Sunday [8/30/2015], calling the agreement a threat to U.S. national security.  The ad, which was placed by the Warrior Legacy Foundation, followed a letter to congressional leaders from retired military officials last week warning of the national security risks of the Iran deal.  After the letter was published last Wednesday [8/26/2015], nearly 20 additional flag officers signed onto it.

The obscene drive to avoid any Senate vote on the Iran deal.  Whether to approve the disastrous nuclear deal with Iran is the most important question to face Congress in years — yet the president wants to stop the Senate from even debating it. [...] The Senate calls itself "the world's greatest deliberative body."  And the Constitution requires Senate consent for the approval of treaties.  Obama's already done an end-run around the treaty rules.  Will Senate Democrats enable even worse — a total mockery of Congress' role?

Cheney: "Iran deal makes war more, not less likely.".  It's safe to say that former Vice President Dick Cheney is not a fan of Obama, especially with regard to foreign policy.  While Obama is pushing congress to approve his Iran Deal, Cheney is ringing alarm bells.

Iran Pact's Secret Side Deals:  A National Security Fraud.  First, we know there are secret side deals that were not mentioned in the Obama administration's rollout of the Iran nuclear agreement.  The administration provided classified (that is, secret) briefings on the side deals to Congress during the week of July 20, in which it claimed that U.S. diplomats have been briefed on the side deal documents but have not seen them.  Obama officials told Congress that the side deals are routine International Atomic Energy Agency arrangements that were being briefed in a classified setting because they are confidential agreements between the IAEA and Iran.  So if the side deals are secret, from whom are they being kept secret?  The U.S. Congress, apparently.

The staggering stupidity of Iranian self-inspections.  Fresh off a golf vacation at Martha's Vineyard, President Obama is back to doling out disparaging dialogue about critics of his Iran nuclear deal.  Even now, after learning that the deal includes trusting Iran to self-inspect, the president calls opponents "crazies."  What's crazy, is putting trust in the hands of Iranian leaders. [...] The latest chapter in this rat-infested deal:  the Obama Administration has agreed to Iranian "self-inspections".  Letting the Iranians "self inspect" their nuclear energy facilities is like letting mass murderers run a gun shop, hoping they'll behave.

Pentagon Not Targeting Islamic State Training Camps.  The Pentagon has not conducted airstrikes against an estimated 60 Islamic State (IS) training camps that are supplying thousands of fighters each month to the terror group, according to defense and intelligence officials.  The camps are spread throughout Islamic State-controlled areas of Iraq and Syria and are off limits in the U.S.-led international bombing campaign because of concerns about collateral damage, said officials familiar with planning and execution of the yearlong bombing campaign.

Obama Trades Real Security for Spin to Secure His Legacy.  The anniversary of the U.S. war against the Islamic State passed with little notice.  It was August 7 of last year that President Obama authorized the first airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq, a campaign he expanded a month later to include targets in Syria.  So far this month, the president has delivered remarks on the Voting Rights Act, his deal with Iran, the budget, clean energy, and Hurricane Katrina.  ISIS?  Not a peep.  Obama's quiet because the war is not going well.

GOP: Why does Obama treat Iran like a law-abiding country?  Of course, Iran is the number one state sponsor of terrorism in the world.  Its leaders live by the motto "Death to America."  Iran doesn't behave like the peaceful countries that have nuclear programs.  Why does this agreement treat it like one?  Well, President Obama is betting that Iran will change over a few short years into a country that can be trusted with nuclear bomb-making technology.  He is betting against history.

State laughs off 195 retired brass opposing Iran deal.  The Obama administration had hyped a letter from three dozen retired admirals and generals in support of the deal, only to be trumped by a letter sent to Congress on Wednesday [8/26/2015] in which 195 retired admirals and generals rejected the deal.  The administration also put out a letter from rabbis in favor of the deal, but opponents of the deal immediately followed suit with more than twice as many signatures against it.

Obama's opinion is the only one that matters.
Spies: Obama's Brass Pressured Us to Downplay ISIS Threat.  [Scroll down]  Reports that have been deemed too pessimistic about the efficacy of the American-led campaign, or that have questioned whether a U.S.-trained Iraqi military can ultimately defeat ISIS, have been sent back down through the chain of command or haven't been shared with senior policymakers, several analysts alleged.  In other instances, authors of such reports said they understood that their conclusions should fall within a certain spectrum.  As a result, they self-censored their own views, they said, because they felt pressure to not reach conclusions far outside what those above them apparently believed.

Cotton blasts Reid for threatening to block Iran vote.  A leading Republican critic of the Iran nuclear deal Tuesday [8/25/2015] blasted Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid for pushing to prevent a vote on a resolution that could kill the agreement.

Iran Deal Opens a Vitriolic Divide Among American Jews.  The attacks on Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York, since he announced his support for the nuclear accord with Iran have been so vicious that the National Jewish Democratic Council and the Anti-Defamation League both felt compelled this week to publicly condemn Jewish voices of hate.  On the other side, three Jewish Democrats in the House who oppose the deal released a joint statement denouncing "ad hominem attacks and threats" against not only supporters like Mr. Nadler but also Jewish opponents, who have been accused of "dual loyalties" and treason.

The long, slow death of the rule of law in America.  Consider the current debate over the nuclear deal with Iran.  By any reasonable reading, the agreement should have been presented to Congress as a treaty, requiring a two-thirds supermajority in the Senate to take effect.  The White House, however, has refused to classify it as such, leaving Congress to haggle its way into an arrangement whereby the president can have his way with the support of just one-third of either house of Congress.  The Obama administration hasn't even attempted to dress this up as a matter of principle, with Secretary of State John Kerry telling the House Foreign Affairs Committee last month that the deal wasn't a treaty simply "because you can't pass a treaty anymore."

Retired generals and admirals urge Congress to reject Iran nuclear deal.  A group of nearly 200 retired generals and admirals will send a letter to Congress Wednesday [8/26/2015] urging lawmakers to reject the Iran nuclear agreement, which they say threatens national security.  The letter is the latest in a blizzard of missives petitioning Congress to either support or oppose the agreement with Iran, which lifts sanctions if Iran pares back its nuclear program.  Letters have been sent by ad hoc groupings of rabbis, nuclear scientists, arms control and nonproliferation experts — and now, retired senior military officers, many of whom have worked in the White House during various administrations dating back to the 1980s.

'Israel should be annihilated,' senior Iran aide says.  Hussein Sheikholeslam, a foreign affairs adviser to parliament speaker Ali Larijani, told Iranian media that contrary to remarks by British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, "Our positions against the usurper Zionist regime have not changed at all; Israel should be annihilated and this is our ultimate slogan."  Hammond was in Iran on Monday [8/24/2015] for the reopening of the UK embassy in Tehran, and said that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had indicated a "more nuanced approach" to Israel's existence.  Hammond said Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's "revolutionary sloganizing" should be distinguished from "what Iran actually does in the conduct of its foreign policy."

Obama's end-run around the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.  In an article for Forbes, Harold Furchtgott-Roth argues that President Obama's executive agreement with Iran violates and/or modifies the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1969.  Thus, it cannot lawfully take effect without true congressional approval (as opposed to the process established by the Corker-Cardin legislation).  Furchtgott-Roth's article appeared about a month ago, but has only recently come to my attention.  It is axiomatic, I should think, that an executive agreement cannot supersede a treaty.  As Furchtgott-Roth explains, treaties are the law of the land and have the status of federal statutes.  As such, they cannot be overridden by executive action.

Memo to Obama: It's Not Iran Deal Critics Who Are the 'Crazy' Ones.  Just back from his annual summer vacation at Martha's Vineyard, President Barack Obama has returned to disparaging his political adversaries and anyone who happens to disagree with him on policy.  According to a report in Politico, the president has taken to describing opponents of the hugely controversial Iran deal as "crazies."  The so-called "crazies" now include a majority of members of the House and Senate, a large chunk of the American electorate according to opinion polls, and the government of Israel, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.  It is significant that several leading figures in the president's own party have declared their opposition to the Iran deal, including Charles Schumer, the senior senator for New York, and Eliot Engel, the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Relations Committee from New York.

Military Experts: Iran Already Has Nuclear Weapons.  Amid debate over President Obama's nuclear deal with Iran, two retired military officers contend their accumulation of evidence from open and intelligence sources shows Tehran already has a nuclear-weapons capability.  Retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely and U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Dennis B. Haney assert that since 1979, a cabal of nations has aided and abetted Iran in its efforts to develop a robust nuclear program under the guise of generating a nuclear-energy system.  And they believe the White House is fully aware.

Traitor Senators Took Money from Iran Lobby, Back Iran Nukes.  Senator Markey has announced his support for the Iran deal that will let the terrorist regime inspect its own Parchin nuclear weapons research site, conduct uranium enrichment, build advanced centrifuges, buy ballistic missiles, fund terrorism and have a near zero breakout time to a nuclear bomb.  There was no surprise there.  Markey had topped the list of candidates supported by the Iran Lobby. And the Iranian American Political Action Committee (IAPAC) had maxed out its contributions to his campaign.  After more fake suspense, Al Franken, another IAPAC backed politician who also benefited from Iran Lobby money, came out for the nuke sellout.  Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the Iran Lobby's third Dem senator, didn't bother playing coy like her colleagues.  She came out for the deal a while back even though she only got half the IAPAC cash that Franken and Markey received.

The D.C. Idiocracy: Remember The Really Dumb Kids In School? They're Now In Charge Of Your Life.  Barack Obama cut a deal with Iran to supposedly stop it from getting nukes.  Setting aside the fact that it doesn't do that, Iran is holding four American hostages.  Obama didn't even bother to demand that they be freed before he began releasing billions of dollars to Iran.  He also allowed Iran to inspect its own nuclear sites.  Think about that.  We think Iran is working on nuclear weapons; |so to prove that it's not, we're going to let Iran inspect its own sites and say, "Nope, there's certainly nothing nefarious going on here.  Take our word for it, Great Satan!"  To top it all off, Obama admits the money we're releasing to Iran will be used to fund terrorism.  I know that Obama thinks that whole "war on terrorism" thing is passé, but should we really be funding terrorists who hate us now?  Is there ever a good time for that?

Obama and the Iran Nuclear Veil.  In less than a month, Congress will vote on the Iran nuclear deal.  It's a terrible deal, in all its sanctions-melting, cash-bestowing, arms-and-missile-embargo-lifting, nuclear-enrichment-approving and self-sunsetting capitulation to Iran.  It's even worse for having been rushed by the Obama administration to the United Nations Security Council for approval on July 20th, just six days after it was announced, and one day after the Obama administration officially transmitted a copy to Congress.  And it's worse still for relying on secret side deals between Iran and the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency to handle inspections pertaining to Iran's past work on nuclear weapons — the "possible military dimensions."

"A Stimulus Package for Jihad": Obama's Deal with Iran.  According to military experts, Iran has already slaughtered more than 1,000 U.S. soldiers since 9/11.

Critics say Obama flirts with anti-semitism in defense of Iran deal.  President Obama's efforts to sell his nuclear deal with Iran focuses heavily on overcoming objections by pro-Israeli and Jewish groups, to the point where some are saying the campaign is flirting with anti-Semitic stereotypes.  A pattern in the administration's rhetoric has raised concern that the White House and its allies are singling out Jewish and pro-Israeli interests for criticism, despite a larger universe of lobbying interests on both sides of the deal who may have other reasons for their positions.  This tactic stretches back to before the deal was signed on July 14.

The latest Iran revelation is utterly humiliating.  The inspection regime and dispute resolution system was already riddled with loopholes that Iran will exploit.  But with this there is not even the pretense that there is a viable inspection process.  With self-inspection comes the open door for Iran to cheat with impunity.

Self-Inspect Shock Should Kill Iran Deal, But Democrats Shrug.  We already knew our system of representative government is badly broken — from a president getting away with misrepresenting a health reform that he claimed would let us keep our current health plan and doctor, enacted through late-night trickery despite most Americans opposing it, to a Supreme Court that finds new "rights" hidden in the Constitution and uses them to legislate radical social revolution.  Now we have a new indicator, one that physically threatens Americans:  Congressional Democrats' irresponsible non-reaction to the Iranian nuclear side deal that lets Tehran conduct its own inspections.

Obama's Iran Deal is a complete and utter failure.  The issue before the Congress in September is whether to vote to approve or disapprove the agreement struck by the President and our P5+1 partners with Iran.  This is one of the most serious national security, nuclear nonproliferation, arms control issues of our time.  It is not an issue of supporting or opposing the President.  This issue is much greater and graver than that.

And when you thought the Iran deal couldn't get any worse, we discover Barack Obama is secretly sabotaging sanctions.  It appears President Obama is actively sabotaging any attempt at international sanctions against Iran even if the terror state violates the terms of the nuclear deal.

AP: Sorry Lefties, Our Reporting on the Iran Agreement's Secret Side Deals is Accurate.  In the wake of a major Associated Press-reported revelation published earlier in the week, Obama administration defenders undertook a furious campaign to discredit the core of the AP's story.  They lobbed accusations at the news organization, which pointedly declined to cower or backtrack — publishing the full text of the secret side deal at the heart of their bombshell scoop.  Its reporters openly defied critics to deny or refute the evidence.  To put an even finer point on it, AP reporter George Jahn published a devastating news analysis piece spelling out the implications of Iran's private agreement with the IAEA, to which the US and other Western negotiating nations were not party: [...]

House Dem endorses Iran deal after letter from Obama.  Rep. Jerrold Nadler on Friday became the first Jewish member of the New York delegation to back the Iran deal, though he did so tepidly, and admitted the deal has "flaws."  "After carefully studying the agreement and the arguments and analyses from all sides, I have concluded that, of all the alternatives, approval of the JCPOA, for all its flaws, gives us the best chance of stopping Iran from developing a nuclear weapon," he said of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.  "Accordingly, I will support the agreement and vote against a Resolution of Disapproval."

Senators: Obama administration hiding secret Iran deal letters.  Two leading U.S. senators are calling on the Obama administration to release secret letters to foreign governments assuring them that they will not be legally penalized for doing business with the Iranian government, according to a copy of a letter sent Wednesday [8/19/2015] to the State Department and obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.  Sens. Mark Kirk (R., Ill.) and Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) disclosed in the letter to the State Department that U.S. lawmakers have been shown copies of several letters sent by the Obama administration to the Chinese, German, French, and British governments assuring them that companies doing business with Iran will not come under penalty.

U.N. side deal lets Iran lead its own nuclear inspections.  In a development that incited more opposition in Congress to the Obama administration's nuclear deal, the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency has given Iran the rare benefit of using its own analysts to inspect a site where it is suspected of working on atomic weapons.  The Associated Press reported Wednesday [8/19/2015] that the condition is part of a secret bilateral agreement between Iran and the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency.  Inspections of Iran's closely guarded Parchin nuclear site will be ceded to the Iranians as part of the overarching deal reached by the U.S. and five other world powers in Vienna in July, the AP reported.

State Dept.: We Totally Trust IAEA with Inspections Where Only Iran Can Inspect.  The State Department said today [8/19/2015] that everybody shouldn't worry about the Iran side agreements, because the International Atomic Energy Agency will do a great job with inspections where they're not allowed.  Press secretary John Kirby was grilled about an Associated Press story focusing on a draft seen of one of the final inspection agreements.  According to "separate arrangement II" — the AP didn't see a "separate arrangement I" — Iran will take its own photos and video of Parchin and other military sites believed to be linked to the possible military dimensions of Iran's nuclear program.

The More We Learn, the Worse the Deal Gets.  In his March 5 Address to Congress, Prime Minister Netanyahu warned that the Iran deal would leave a vast nuclear infrastructure with a break-out time that would be "very short — about a year by U.S. assessment, even shorter by Israel's."  The last four words were a diplomatic way of noting Israel's lack of confidence in the one-year assurances of the Obama administration.  Based on the extensive analysis released this week by the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), "Breakout Timelines Under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action" (JCPOA), Israel's assessment is more accurate.  The ISIS study concludes that the likely breakout time is seven months.

Iran Is Serious About Nuclear Electromagnetic Pulse Warfare.  A copy of a draft of one of the side deals between Iran and the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency reveals that Tehran will be allowed to inspect its Parchin nuclear site itself, where it is suspected of testing nuclear detonators.  International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors won't get physical access and will just trust the Iranian self-inspectors.  In the meantime, Iran is obviously very interested in a type of nuclear weapon that Secretary of State John Kerry and the other negotiators for the U.S. and the major powers left unaddressed during their many months of talks — electromagnetic pulse.

Chilling animated propaganda video released by Iranian activists imagines the 'inevitable' destruction of Israel.  A chilling new propaganda video has been released by hardline Iranian activists imagining the 'inevitable' destruction of the Israeli state at the hands of Islamic armies.  The short animated clip shows heavily armed militants wearing the emblems of various militant and terror cells standing side by side as they prepare to march on the Israeli capital Jerusalem.

A Shariah-approved nuclear attack.  Congress must stop President Obama's nuclear deal with Iran.  The most important reason — Iran can threaten the existence of the United States by making an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack using a single nuclear weapon.  It may obtain one, relatively easily, by cheating in the use of the nuclear infrastructure permitted them under the agreement.

The Editor says...
When the Iranians unleash their nuke(s) over the east coast, and the electricity and cell phone services go out for several months, please remember that the whole mess was entirely the fault of Barack H. Obama, acting on his own, with only very minimal partisan support from the Senate.

'Death to America' and 'Black Lives Matter'.  A short while ago, President Obama made a deal with Iran — a deal in which they got nearly everything they ever wanted out of us, and we got almost nothing we wanted out of them.  But what was most interesting about the agreement was that after we'd capitulated and relations should have been smoothed (at least, that's what you expect when you make a generous deal with a respectable person), the supreme leader of the Iranian people was caught shouting "death to America" with a substantial portion of his political allies.  This is discomforting for several reasons, the first being that we just gave Iran the green light to work with nuclear materials, and above all they seem to want us dead.

The Iran Deal is Everything Bad About Obama in One Package.  Obama doesn't just enact policies.  He conducts domestic political warfare.  It's not enough for him to get his way, and he already made it clear to a Democratic congressman opposed to the deal that he will unilaterally remove sanctions even if Congress comes out against the deal, Obama has to turn everything into a larger political war that divides Americans.  Divisiveness is Obama's strength.  His political power is based on dividing and conquering Americans.

Did the Iranians threaten IAEA director with personal harm to prevent side-deal disclosures?  Normally, one might write this off as a rumor spread by opponents of the nuclear agreement with Iran, an attempt to remind people of the folly of dealing with a gangster government.  Normally, that is, except the source for this story comes from the state-run media that answers directly to the mullahs of Iran.

Iran Threatens The Chief Inspector Of Its Nuclear Facilities.  How much nerve does it take to go so far as to issue a vague physical threat — during "peace" negotiations — to the head of the agency charged with inspecting nuclear facilities where cheating could be going on?  Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, briefing Iranian lawmakers Monday [8/17/2015], boasted that its government sent a letter threatening Yukiya Amano, the chief of the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency.  Tehran's AEOI disclosed that the warning to Amano said that if the secret side agreements on inspections between Iran and the IAEA are revealed, "we will lose our trust in" the IAEA.

The President's Secret Offer to Iran Before Negotiations.  In 2013, Hassan Rouhani was, for lack of a better word, "elected" president of Iran replacing the noxious Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  Rouhani, a grandfatherly-like figure with an affable smile, appeared to be, at least outwardly, more moderate than his predecessor, but in reality expressed the same rancid, xenophobic views.  He was quoted as saying that "the beautiful cry of 'Death to America' unites our nation," and referred to Israel as a "wound," "a festering tumor" and the "great Zionist Satan," among numerous other reprehensible pejoratives.  Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an address to the United Nations, dryly noted that while Ahmadinejad was a wolf in wolf's clothing, Rouhani was a wolf in sheep's clothing, but both were wolves nonetheless.  What's more, real power in Iran vests not with the nation's president, but with its Supreme Leader, Ali Hosseini Khamenei, a pernicious man who seems incapable of addressing crowds without inserting at least one "death to America" reference somewhere in the speech.

Why Obama will open a US embassy in Iran.  What's next after the Obama administration's opening to Cuba?  Why, an embassy in Tehran, of course. [...] Having managed to successfully "reset" relations with Havana, the White House will now be on the hunt for additional diplomatic victories.  And there's no better candidate for a similar olive branch than the Islamic Republic of Iran.  Obama has hinted as much.

Iran Deal: Supporters Fail to Show at Town Hall — Again.  A campaign led by supporters of the Iran deal was supposed to make its way Monday into the rural Virginia district held by Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), but nobody showed up. [...] Monday's [8/17/2015] no-show provides more proof that the pro-deal Astroturf campaign is struggling to gather momentum with everyday Americans, outside of the hard-left and the Iranian expat community.

Sharpton calls for black churches to lobby on Iran deal.  Rev. Al Sharpton will push America's black churches to lobby in favor of the Iran nuclear deal, a new report says.  Sharpton is launching his push backing President Obama's pact with Tehran this weekend, according to The Huffington Post.  "I am calling on ministers in black churches nationwide to go to their pulpits Sunday and have their parishioners call their senators and congressmen to vote yes on the Iran nuclear plan," he said Friday.

Also posted under The one-sided separation of church and state.

Iran and the Roots of Obama's Rage.  This also explains why Mr. Obama joined the Rev. Jeremy [sic] Wright's congregation, a congregation that broke its ties with mainstream white Christianity and embarked on a mission of black power and liberation theology.  Wright took a dying congregation and rejuvenated it.  His liberation theology and sense of black pride, along with his anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism, spoke to thousands of black Chicagoans who felt alienated and marginalized in white society.  The Rev. Wright's rage was Mr. Obama's rage.  The Rev. Wright's theology was Mr. Obama's theology.  When the Rev. Wright upped the ante of outrageous comments and Mr. Obama had to part company with him, it was "them Jews" that the Rev. Wright blamed for Mr. Obama putting daylight between them.

Navy reducing presence in Persian Gulf.  The nation's most powerful symbol of strength and deterrence on the high seas won't be in the Persian Gulf as much in the near future.  Although the Navy has maintained at least one aircraft carrier in or near the Gulf for the last seven years, it is planning longer periods where there will be no carriers there at all.  The reduced presence is happening as the U.S. prepares to enter into a nuclear deal with Iran.

Worrying That The Ayatollah Might Stop Trusting America.  Secretary of State John Kerry provided a sad peek at the heart of the left's "tough diplomacy."  It's all about convincing Islamist terrorists to trust the America they consider the Great Satan.

House Intelligence Committee Democrats Play Political Games on Iran Deal.  The Hill ran a story today [8/14/2015], "Spy panel Dems rally to support Iran deal," which gives the impression that all of the House Intelligence Committee's Democratic members signed a letter supporting the nuclear agreement with Iran.  The article did not mention that a third of the committee's Democratic members did not sign the letter or the absurdity of the letter's claims.  I therefore believe a more accurate title for The Hill article would be "One-third of House Intel Committee Democrats Refuse to Sign Letter Supporting Iran Agreement."

Putting Obama Over Country is Treason.  The apocalyptic rhetoric out of the White House is meant to shut down the debate.  Threats of war and accusations of treason are not the language of an administration that is confident in its own arguments.  Democrats and Republicans have been accused of treason, of warmongering and of making common cause with Iranian leaders who chant "Death to America" by this administration and its allies.  These accusations are hysterical, unhinged and contradict themselves.  If you take them literally, Obama and his allies are accusing critics of both wanting war with America's enemies and collaborating with them.  Elected officials who don't want money going to terrorists are traitors.  Anyone who doesn't want to escalate the conflict in the region by enabling Iran's arms buildup is a warmonger.  And those who think that Obama's deal with a regime that chants "Death to America" is flawed are aligned with the enemy.

Iranian military official: 'We laugh' when US threatens to attack.  The West's frequent use of military threats and citing of their ability to attack Iran at will has become a joke among Iranian commanders in the military, according to a high ranking military official in the Islamic Republic's Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran's semi-official Fars news agency reported on Wednesday [8/12/2015].  Brigadier General Mohammad Ali Asoudi alluded to the West's hesitancy to use military force and mocked its resolve while speaking to troops in the North.  "We should thank Obama for refreshing us by referring to his 'options on the table', including the military one; we just relax and laugh at such ridiculous words," Asoudi said.

While Still a Senator, Kerry Communicated Obama's Capitulation Policy to the Iranian Regime.  In a column on Tuesday [8/11/2015] and follow-up post on the Corner, I relate that beginning in 2011, President Obama secretly enticed the Iranian regime to the bargaining table by communicating that he was open to abandoning longstanding American opposition to Iran's claimed "right" to enrich uranium.  This news comes to us from a new MEMRI report, which elaborates that Obama relied on then-senator John Kerry to grease the wheels for his entreaty to Iran's leader.

Obama Is A Lying Traitor.  Barack Obama has shown himself to be pro-Iranian.  Many reports which we have listed on this site by reputable sources have proven that we acted as Iran's agents or lawyers during the negotiations.  He is pro-Islamic and that has been clear since the beginning of his presidency.  His support for the Muslim Brotherhood is also well-documented.  Where his support slips is on issues concerning traditional America, Christianity and Judaism.  The Ayatollah has been giving us what he claimed to be the facts about the Iranian deal from the beginning of negotiations.  He has been proven correct and our spokespeople, Secretary of State John Kerry, and President Barack Obama have lied.

How Obama Misled Us about the Concessions He Was Making to Iran.  If what senior Iranian officials are saying is true, the Obama administration's duplicity in explaining its nuclear negotiations with Iran is even more staggering than we realized.  In a new report, MEMRI (the Middle East Media Research Institute) reveals that, according to Iranian officials, the Obama administration initiated secret negotiations with Iran not after the 2013 election of President Hassan Rouhani, but rather in 2011 when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was still Iran's president.

Yank the Emergency Cord Now!  Someone must — Congress can do it — pull the emergency cord on the Obama-Kerry Express to Hell.  Their deal with the Islamic Republic is madness.  You don't give a five-year-old a can of gasoline and a box of matches to play with, and you don't allow a country to produce an atomic bomb whose leaders publicly aspire to incinerating hundreds of thousands of Jews with said bomb and destroying the world's only tiny Jewish state.  And that's just for starters.  In the end, America is threatened with annihilation too.

Iranian Government News Source: Obama will side with us in case of attack by Israel.  Analyst Omri Ceren observes, "Problem is not whether analysis is true.  Problem is emboldened #Iran thinks it's true, and will act accordingly."

Kerry: Rejection of Iran Deal Will Lead to U.S. Dollar Not Being the World's Reserve Currency.  During a discussion hosted by Reuters on Tuesday [8/11/2015], Secretary of State John Kerry said if the United States rejects the Iran nuclear agreement, the U.S. dollar would not be the world's reserve currency.  "That is a recipe, very quickly, my friends, businesspeople here, for the American dollar to cease to be the reserve currency of the world, which is already bubbling out there," Kerry said.  Kerry argued that if Congress rejects the deal, the United States would not be able to maintain an international coalition to impose sanctions on Iran and would have to resort to the sanctioning of allies.

Barack Obama's inability to grasp reality.  Barack Obama is afraid he might be a warmonger at heart.  Who knew?  But making war against an Islamic enemy?  That defies everyone's imagination.  The president keeps changing his arguments for approval of his deal with the mullahs in Iran, and the tone of his denunciations of anybody who argues with him grows ever harsher and disrespectful.  The latest refinement of tone is his assertion that it's his way or the highway, that war with Iran lies at the end of that forbidden highway.  But who would start such a war?  He doesn't say.

Today Iran is harming America directly in multiple ways.  The White House's dangerous suppression of seized al-Qaida-Iran documents, like its listless response to Iran's maritime aggression, its indifference to Iran's massive presence in Latin America, its lackluster response to Iran's terrorist activities in Latin America, and its belittlement of the importance of the regime's stated goal to destroy America — not to mention its complete collapse on all its previous redlines over the course of the negotiations — are all signs of the disastrous toll the nuclear deal has already taken on America's credibility, and indeed on US national security.  To defend a policy that empowers Iran, the administration has no choice but to serve as Iran's agent.  The deal destroys America's credibility in fighting terrorism.

No Trust, No Verification, No Sanctions: Obama's Humiliating Capitulation to the Mullahs.  The sanctions regime President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry vowed to step up has already collapsed.  The mullahs are already scooping up billions in unfrozen assets and new commerce, and they haven't even gotten the big payday yet.  Obama's promises of "anytime, anywhere" inspections have melted away as Tehran denies access and the president accepts their comical offer to provide their own nuclear-site samples for examination.

Is Obama's Smear Campaign to Defend the Iran Deal Backfiring?  The Obama administration's efforts to defend its controversial nuclear deal with Iran have turned ugly.  In a speech at American University last week, the president portrayed domestic opponents of the nuclear agreement as partisan Republicans in common cause with "death to America"-chanting Iranian hardliners.

Obama's desperate Iran deal sales job is a disaster in itself.  We've been here before.  Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said a while ago that an Iran deal would be the health-care bill of President Barack Obama's second term, and he was right.  Like ObamaCare, the Iran deal represents an ideological fixation of the president's; it is unpopular and it will get through Congress — or to be more exact, avoid disapproval by Congress — by sheer partisan force.

Blame America First: The Real Goal of the Kerry-Obama Iran Deal.  What is President Obama's deal with Iran really, essentially about?  I just realized that John Kerry has been trying to tell us all along, and it's only yesterday that he finally said it clearly enough to make it register.  In last week's Senate testimony, he first established the theme, warning that if Congress doesn't approve the deal, "we will have proven we're not trustworthy."  Get that?  We have a Secretary of State who conducted negotiations from the premise that we, not the Iranians, are the ones who have to prove we can be trusted.

Schumer Pledges Vote to Override Obama Veto of Legislation Opposing Iran Nuclear Deal.  New York Senator Chuck Schumer escalated his confrontation with President Obama over the Iran nuclear deal on Friday [8/7/2105] by promising a vote to override an expected Presidential veto of congressional legislation seeking to block the agreement.  "Yes, the Senator would be prepared to vote to override a Presidential veto of the bill," a representative from the leading Democrat's office told The Algemeiner.  Schumer's pledge comes soon after announcing his opposition to the deal late Thursday night in a lengthy and detailed critique of the controversial agreement.

The Most Dangerous Threat America Faces is Barack Obama.  Mark Levin eviscerated Obama tonight saying there will be war thanks to what he and John Kerry are doing with Iran.  He called Obama's speech today 'another Castro-like' speech filled with lies and arrogance and pointed out at the end of his monologue that the most dangerous threat this country faces isn't from China, Russia, or the Islamo-Nazis.  It's Barack Obama.

Report: U.S., Iran to Establish Joint Chamber of Commerce.  Mohsen Jalalpour, the head of Iran's Chamber of Commerce, said in a recent interview with Iranian journalists that the Obama administration has made overtures to the Islamic Republic, asking it to form a partnership.  The United States has "begun efforts to establish a joint chamber of commerce with Iran," Jalalpour told reporters, according to Iran's Tasnim News Agency.  The announcement comes as Iran gears up to receive some $150 billion in sanctions relief under a recently inked nuclear deal that will enable Iran to conduct business on an international scale.

Why History will Curse the Democrats.  Nothing like this has happened in the 66 years of the nuclear age.  The world is entering unknown territory, with the first sworn Armageddon cult equipped with nukes.  Destroy a stable balance of power and the world becomes much more dangerous, not less.  That is exactly what Obama has done, and not a single liberal newspaper has had the guts to say it.

Mr. Obama, your Iran deal will fall apart.  The Framers of our constitution probably would have regarded the nuclear deal with Iran as a "treaty," subject to a two thirds ratification by the Senate.  At the very least they would have required Congress to approve the agreement by a majority vote.  It is unlikely that it would have allowed the President alone to make so important and enduring an international agreement.  If President Obama doesn't treat the Iran agreement with more respect, all his arguments today are beside the point.  The agreement won't have the force of law.

Obama negotiator says she didn't see final Iran 'side deals'.  The only Obama administration official to view confidential "side deals" between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) admitted Wednesday [8/5/2015] she and her team have only seen rough drafts.  "I didn't see the final documents.  I saw the provisional documents, as did my experts," said Wendy Sherman, a lead U.S. negotiator for the deal, at a Senate Banking Committee hearing.

Dershowitz: Obama is an abject failure — by his own standards.  The night the Iran nuclear deal was announced was a sleepless one for Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz, utterly distraught by the terms of the agreement.  "I got up and emailed my eBook publisher and said I have an idea.  What if I do an eBook that could be out in time for the congressional debate?  He thought it was a great idea," Dershowitz explained in an exclusive interview with the Salomon Center for American Jewish Thought.  "He gave me two weeks to write it.  He got it in eleven days."  Fears of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon have haunted supporters of Israel and advocates of Middle East peace for over a decade, stoked by frequent public reminders by back-to-back regimes of the Islamic Republic that their goal is the annihilation of the Jewish State.

'This Agreement Doesn't Prevent War — It Brings it Closer.  A top Israeli official has released an official response to US President Barack Obama on Wednesday night [8/5/2015], after he attacked Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his opposition to the deal struck between the West and Iran during a jab-laden speech.  "Israel does not doubt the sincerity of President Obama, but disagrees with his position," the official stated to Arutz Sheva on condition of anonymity.  "This agreement does not prevent war, but brings it closer, because it gives international legitimacy to Iran to build the infrastructure to create an arsenal of nuclear bombs, and is financing the terrorist machine and its aggression with hundreds of billions of dollars."

Kerry 'Doesn't Know' if Iran is Serious about Destroying Israel.  US Secretary of State John Kerry has claimed the nuclear deal signed with Iran is "as pro-Israel as it gets," and claims he "doesn't know" if the Iranian leadership is serious about destroying the State of Israel.  The comments were made in an in-depth interview with The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg, which was published Wednesday [8/5/2015] following intense lobbying for and against the deal as it heads to a fateful vote in Congress.  Kerry warned Goldberg that if Congress voted down the agreement it would "be the ultimate screwing" of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

Prez says GOP supports Iranian "Death to America" Chants.  Post-racial, post-partisan healing.  It's what I love most about this administration.

Terror Victims' Lawsuit Seeks to Block Obama's Gift of $150 Billion to Iran.  A deal to provide Iran with as much as $150 billion in sanctions relief over its nuclear weapons program should be blocked until the Islamic Republic pays court-awarded damages to American victims of Iranian-sponsored terrorism, a lawsuit filed Wednesday [8/5/2015] in New York federal court said.  The plaintiffs, victims of attacks by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, have judgments worth $152 million that they have been unable to collect.  Similar lawsuits in U.S. courts have generated billions of dollars more in damages.  Iran, the lawsuit said, should not see a dime of sanctions relief until those victims are compensated.  By law, the lawsuit said, Iran should not be granted any relief until there is "a certification by the President that Iran is no longer a financier and sponsor of terror.  That terrorism condition has not been satisfied."  Even the White House admits that Iran continues to sponsor international terrorism.

Another Obama Success Story: New Taliban Leadership Cements Ties With ... Al-Qaeda.  With all the attention Obama's disastrous Iran nuclear deal is getting, it is easy to overlook yet another of the president's many foreign policy success stories: the Taliban.  It is under new leadership, and has strengthened its ties with the decidedly un-"decimated" al-Qaeda terror network.  Recall that just as Obama "ended" the war in Iraq by ceding our hard-won gains to Iran and the Islamic State (the former a longtime al-Qaeda ally, the latter the spawn of al-Qaeda in Iraq), the president is similarly "ending" the war in Afghanistan by consigning the country to the resurgent Taliban.  Toward that end, even though the Taliban continued to conduct and support jihadist attacks on American troops, the president appallingly traded five of its commanders in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, a deserter.

Obama admits some unfrozen Iran cash will fund terror.  President Barack Obama acknowledged Wednesday [8/5/2015] that Iran might use cash coming its way under sanctions relief to fund "terrorist organizations" but argued this is preferable to allowing it to develop nuclear arms.  "The truth is, that Iran has always found a way to fund these efforts," Obama said, in a speech to defend the Iran nuclear deal.

Kerry Warns on Iran Deal: Don't 'Screw' the Ayatollahs.  Secretary of State John Kerry gave an interview to Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic in which he warned Congress that if it rejected the Iran deal, it would "screw" the Iranian regime, and the Ayatollahs would not come back to the table.  "[T]he United States Congress will prove the ayatollah's suspicion, and there's no way he's ever coming back.  He will not come back to negotiate.  Out of dignity, out of a suspicion that you can't trust America.  America is not going to negotiate in good faith.  It didn't negotiate in good faith now, would be his point," Kerry said.

Democrats Under Pressure to Stay Silent on Iran Deal.  As Congress heads into its long August recess, the White House and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee are lobbying Democrats hard in anticipation of a September vote on the Iran nuclear deal.  But both sides have given those Democrats who are set to oppose them a second option; they are asking them to at least delay announcing their decision until they get back.

Iran Warns of 'Third World War'.  A senior Iranian official on Wednesday warned of an impending "third world war" that will be sparked by terrorists, according to regional reports.  Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the chairman of Iran's powerful Expediency Council, warned in comments that the "outbreak of World War III" is coming in the near future, according to a report by Iran's Fars News Agency.  "The threat of the outbreak of the third world war by the terrorists is serious," Rafsanjani was quoted as saying in a meeting with Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni, who was in Tehran this week for a meeting with Iranian officials.

Obama: Iran deal builds on diplomacy that won Cold War.  President Barack Obama assailed critics of his Iran nuclear deal Wednesday [8/5/2015] as "selling a fantasy" to the American people, warning Congress that blocking the accord would damage the nation's credibility and increase the likelihood of more war in the Middle East.

Obama: Rejecting Iran Deal Will Ensure 'Rockets Falling On Tel Aviv'.  In a meeting with American Jewish leaders on Tuesday, President Obama reportedly predicted that if Congress were to reject the nuclear accord that his administration signed with the Iranian regime, the result would entail Tehran's proxy, Hezbollah, firing rockets at Tel Aviv, according to multiple reports citing sources from the meeting with the President.  Greg Rosenbaum, who serves as the chair of the National Jewish Democratic Council — one of the few Jewish groups that supports the Iran deal — said that Obama again forwarded the much-pushed false dichotomy that there are only two ways to stop a nuclear Iran:  through war or through negotiations.

The Editor says...
Wait, Barry!  It will also cause climate change!  You left that part out!

Obama Admits Taking Out Iran Nukes Won't Lead To War.  The Pro-Iran Nuke side has been running its pro-deal campaign by claiming that it was the only alternative to war.  Obama kept blowing the Iraq War dog whistle insisting that the same people who got us into Iraq (like Hillary Clinton and John Kerry?) were trying to start a war with Iran by rejecting the deal that will let the Islamic terrorist state go nuclear and even protect its program.  The overriding message was it's either a deal or a war... and that opponents were warmongers.

Iran Already Sanitizing Nuclear Site, Intel Warns.  The U.S. intelligence community has informed Congress of evidence that Iran was sanitizing its suspected nuclear military site at Parchin, in broad daylight, days after agreeing to a nuclear deal with world powers.  For senior lawmakers in both parties, the evidence calls into question Iran's intention to fully account for the possible military dimensions of its current and past nuclear development.  The International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran have a side agreement meant to resolve past suspicions about the Parchin site, and lawmakers' concerns about it has already become a flashpoint because they do not have access to its text.

The Five Fatal Flaws in the Iran Deal.  On Tuesday [8/4/2015], the Senate Foreign Relations Committee heard testimony from Amb. Robert G. Joseph, Ph.D, currently Senior Scholar at the National Institute for Public Policy, formerly Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, and the person who in 2003 led the nuclear negotiations with Libya.  He testified the Iran deal is a "bad agreement" with "five fatal flaws":  (1) it does not effectively detect cheating unless Iran decides to do it openly, and Iran is more likely to cheat at military bases where it has cheated in the past and has ruled out inspections in the future; (2) it leaves a large-scale nuclear infrastructure in place that could be used to break out, or more likely "sneak-out," and then permits a significantly expanded program with a "virtually zero" breakout time; (3) it has "snap-back" provisions that are illusory; (4) the purported 12-month breakout time is ineffective, since, unless Iran breaks out openly, we will not even know when the clock begins, and months will go by while the U.S. debates internally what to do; and (5) Iran is permitted to continue work on long-range ballistic missiles that have no use other than eventual deployment of nuclear weapons.

Majority of House Backs Resolution to Kill Iran Deal.  A majority of House lawmakers now support a resolution to reject the recently signed nuclear agreement with Iran, marking another blow to the White House's aggressive push to convince Congress to back the deal, according to sources on Capitol Hill.  At least 218 Republican lawmakers have signed on to support a resolution expressing "firm disapproval" of the nuclear deal, which would provide Iran with billions of dollars in sanctions relief while enabling it to continue work on ballistic missiles and other nuclear research.

Iran Deal Is Obama's Foreign Policy Obamacare.  President Obama's sordid Iran nuke deal is looking more and more like the foreign policy version of Obamacare. It's duplicitous, secretive, destructive and legacy-driven, and he's going to have to go full community organizer to get it passed.

John Kerry admits: Iran deal isn't in treaty form because it would never be ratified by Congress.  If you're looking for someone who will admit what the left thinks, but usually doesn't say, John Kerry might be your new best friend.  Last week, we saw him testify that his nuclear deal with Iran would most likely lead to the deaths of American citizens.  It was a disgusting, and probably treasonous, moment.  It was also just the beginning of Kerry's revelations.

Iran: U.S. Banned from Knowing Details of Iran Nuclear Inspection Agreement.  Recent disclosures by Iran indicate that the recently inked nuclear accord includes a series of side deals on critical inspections regimes that are neither public nor subject to review by the United States.  Reza Najafi, Iran's ambassador and permanent envoy to the IAEA, stated over the weekend that no country is permitted to know the details of future inspections conducted by the IAEA.  In addition, no U.S. inspectors will be permitted to enter Iran's nuclear sites.

Majority of House Backs Resolution to Kill Iran Deal.  A majority of House lawmakers now support a resolution to reject the recently signed nuclear agreement with Iran, marking another blow to the White House's aggressive push to convince Congress to back the deal, according to sources on Capitol Hill.  At least 218 Republican lawmakers have signed on to support a resolution expressing "firm disapproval" of the nuclear deal, which would provide Iran with billions of dollars in sanctions relief while enabling it to continue work on ballistic missiles and other nuclear research.

Iran Deal: $150 Billion to Fund Obama's War.  In 1947, U.S. President Truman made history by launching the Marshall Plan, sending $13 billion (about $140 billion in today's dollars) to help rebuild post-war Europe, in order to prevent Western Europe from falling to Communist expansion.  Today President Obama is trying to make history through an Iranian nuclear deal that will give an astounding $150 billion of sanctions relief to a regime that was in 2014 considered by the U.S. Department of State, along with Sudan and Syria, one of the world's leading sponsors of terrorism.

Carson: Iran deal 'worst' 'in the history of America'.  Former neurosurgeon and Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson discussed the Iran nuclear deal, immigration and amnesty, the "black lives matter" movement and Trump's candidacy in an interview on "Meet the Press" Sunday [8/2/2015].  Calling the Iran deal "perhaps the worst deal in the history of America," Carson said he would get rid of it on day one as president because the deal does not have any verification, accountability or enforcement, the markers of a good deal.

How the left gets everything wrong.  [Scroll down]  Example 2: As we are on the verge of handing Iran nukes on a silver platter, Iran reasserts its desire to destroy us.  What does the left do?  They celebrate "the deal" as a "diplomatic masterpiece" and are pleased with Obama's "outreach."  Never mind that Iran wants to pick up where Hitler left off, has murdered thousands of Americans, currently holds four Americans hostage, is the largest state sponsor of terror in the world, and wants to destroy the United States.

Surprise! Iran to Build Two New Nuclear Facilities.  An Iranian nuclear official announced on Thursday [7/30/2015] that the country plans to build two new nuclear power plants in the country's southeast, just two weeks after a nuclear deal was signed between world powers (United States, UK, France, China, Russia) and the Ayatollah's regime in Tehran.  The Deputy Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Mohammad Ahmadian, said that the two plants will be constructed on the coastline of the Indian Ocean, and that the plants will be at full-working capacity within a few years.

Demand the Documents.  To evaluate the Iran deal, we need, to the degree possible, to understand the Iranian regime, its nature and its history, its past and present behavior.  The bad news is that the Obama administration doesn't want us to have all the information available to judge that regime and its behavior.  The good news is that Congress can insist the information be provided.

IAEA Refuses to Brief Senators on Iran Deal, Even in Classified Setting.  Leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said at a hearing on the Iran nuclear deal today [7/30/2015] that they requested a meeting with International Atomic Energy Agency on its agreements with Tehran.  These deals are not in the possession of the Obama administration and have never been seen by Secretary of State John Kerry, much less provided to Congress.  "I believe one person may have read it at the — at the facility, but doesn't have it, they don't possess it," Kerry told the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday.

Perry: $150 Billion in Sanctions Relief for Iran Can Be Used Against Our Soldiers.  Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R.) said the $150 billion in sanctions relief Iran receives as part of its nuclear deal will be used against U.S. soldiers during an interview Thursday [7/30/2015] with Fox Business personality Maria Bartiromo.  "So from my perspective that is just such nonstarter that we ever let ourselves get into a position to let $150 billion head into Iran," he said.  "It can be used against our soldiers for instance.  Iran is the country that attacked our Marines in Beirut, their weapons were used to kill our soldiers in Iraq.  It is a bad deal for a lot of reasons."

The Iran Nuke Documents Obama Doesn't Want You to See.  Seventeen unclassified Iran deal items have been locked in ultra-secure facilities ordinarily used for top secret info.  Why is the Obama administration trying to bury this material?

Iran: Obama Admin Lying About Nuclear Deal for 'Domestic Consumption'.  Senior Iranian officials are accusing the Obama administration of lying about the details of the recent nuclear accord in order to soothe fears among U.S. lawmakers and Americans about the implications of the deal, which will release billions of dollars to the Islamic Republic while temporarily freezing its nuclear program, according to reports from Iran's state-controlled media.  As Secretary of State John Kerry and other senior Obama administration figures launch a full-court press to convince Congress to approve the deal, Iranian leaders are dismissing the rhetoric as "aimed at domestic consumption."  Kerry and other top administration officials have been defending the deal on Capitol Hill in recent days, claiming that it will rein in the Islamic Republic's contested nuclear program and fix its nuclear "breakout" period, the time required for it to obtain the amount of highly enriched uranium necessary for a nuclear weapon, at one year.

Moniz: The Iran side deal is 'confidential,' not 'secret'.  Protocols spelling out how the International Atomic Energy Agency will examine and monitor a country's nuclear program are always confidential, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said on Friday [7/31/2015], trying to tamp down once and for all the notion that "secret" deals with Iran exist as part of an agreement Tehran reached with six world powers to cease its nuclear weapons program.  "There is no secret side deal," Moniz told reporters on Friday at the White House.  The actual deal sent to Congress for review forces Iran to allow the IAEA to go about its work unfettered, he said.

Joint Chiefs Chair: Obama Offering False Choice Between Deal and War.  Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey testified Wednesday [7/29/2015] that the United States has "a range of options" if it does not accept the Iran deal, contrary to President Obama's assertion that the choice is between his deal and war.  Dempsey was pressed on this point by Sen. Joni Ernst (R., Iowa) when he testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee.  "I understand that you advise the president on these issues," Ernst said.  "Is that what you have told the president — that we either take this deal or we go to war?"  "No, at no time did that come up in our conversation nor did I make that comment," Dempsey said.  "Who is advising the president, then, that we must go to war if this deal is not signed?" Ernst said.  "I can't answer that.  I can tell you that we have a range of options and I always present them," Dempsey said.

Kerry: We Can't Reveal Contents of Secret Side Deals to American People.  Secretary of State John Kerry testified on Capitol Hill today [7/29/2015] the U.S. government will not be revealing the contents of secret side deals with Iran to the American people.  Senator Tom Cotton wanted to know why it can't be made public.  [Video clip]

Cruz Slams Romney, Bush Over Iran: GOP Too 'Scared' To Speak Truth.  GOP presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), appearing on Chad Hasty's radio program in Texas, hammered former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush over their weakness when it comes to standing up to the Islamic Republic of Iran.  "First of all let me say that this Iranian nuclear deal is catastrophic," Cruz said when asked to respond generally to President Barack Obama's deal with Iran and specifically to Romney's criticism of his remarks hammering Obama on the deal.

Kerry: We Can't Reveal Contents of Secret Side Deals to American People.  Secretary of State John Kerry testified on Capitol Hill today the U.S. government will not be revealing the contents of secret side deals with Iran to the American people.  Senator Tom Cotton wanted to know why it can't be made public.  [Video clip]

Leaked Copy Of Obama's Iran Deal Goes Public — Paragraph 36 Will Blow Your Mind.  What makes this clause of paramount importance is that Iran can still receive its $150 billion and gain long term contacts with the West — then decide to use this exit strategy to its benefit, making the restrictions placed on it null and void.

The Democrat Party is on the Edge of the Abyss.  Two of the most powerful members of the Democratic Party, former and current senators from New York, now hold the fate of the putative deal with Iran in their hands.  Because they alone can overturn it, this means that presumptive presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and presumptive Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer carry a heavy burden that will deeply affect their personal reputations and, most probably, the trustworthiness of the Democrats in foreign policy for at least a generation.  Their former senatorial colleagues Barack Obama, Joe Biden and John Kerry already own their decision, though their logic still remains unclear to both the most diligent and the most casual observer.

Why the Iran deal's public support is plummeting.  It's been two weeks since the Iran deal was announced, and the American public's discomfort with its terms is deepening.  American Jews don't like it, despite efforts by Obama's court Jews to make it seem as though they're far more supportive of it than Americans in general.  On Tuesday [7/28/2015], CNN released a poll showing opposition to the deal at 52 percent and support at 42 percent.

When the Big Lie becomes the legacy.  The secretary of State and President Obama are not having an easy time trying to sell the sellout to Iran, and Mr. Kerry says he's worried that if the deal goes down "the international community" will blame Israel.  The Israelis are so far not very impressed with either Mr. Kerry's assessment of "the international community," or his outbreak of phony solicitude for Israel.

Case is Clear — Obama Deserves Impeachment over the Iran Deal.  By lying and withholding information about the agreement, he gives aid and comfort to America's enemy.

National Review Calls for Impeachment Over Iran Deal.  Even the normally restrained if not downright tepid National Review has reached the obvious conclusion that Obama must be impeached for facilitating the acquisition of nuclear weapons by America's worst enemy.

Kerry Can't Say If He Will Follow The Law If Congress Rejects Iran Deal.  While testifying before the House of Representatives on the Obama administration's nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran, Secretary of State John Kerry would not commit to following the law should Congress override a threatened presidential veto.

The Consequence of Ignorance.  Despite our proud history and unique American optimism, a weak and malicious Obama Administration has struck a deal with the leading state sponsor of terror.  The deal paves the way for the acquisition of lethal nuclear weapons placed into the evil clutches of the ayatollahs whose death culture embraces the destruction of non-believers and infidels.  Iran is the largest exporter of terror in the world.  They finance and support Islamic terror proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah who successfully kill, maim innocents and threaten the existence of sovereign nations.  Thousands of Americans have been murdered by Islamists and more killing is promised.  All one has to do is listen to the chants of the Iranian people led by their grotesque Supreme Leader screaming "Death to America," "Death to Israel."  How could one be so naive and cowardly to give in rather than incinerate their means to pursue this threat when we have the power to do so?

Democrat on powerful Foreign Affairs Committee goes on record opposing Iran deal, but DNC head can't make up her mind.  I commend [Rep. Juan] Vargas for his guts.  Would that we had a hundred patriotic Democrats like him serving in Congress:  we'd have an entirely different country, I suspect.  And isn't it curious that Jewish representatives (like Wasserman Schultz and Chuck Schumer) — who represent significant Jewish voting blocs — just can't seem to make up their minds on equipping Iran with billions in cash, ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons while refusing to disavow their promises to annihilate the United States and Israel.  While I'm not a Mike Huckabee fan, his faux-controversial remark was spot on.  Obama and his sycophants are marching Israel right to the precipice.

Sen. Ted Cruz Invites Obama 'To Debate the Substance of the Iran Deal'.  Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a critic of President Obama's Iran nuclear deal, is inviting President Obama to debate him on that topic:  "I'll make an invitation right here tonight," Cruz told Fox News's Sean Hannity on Monday [7/27/2015].  "I will invite President Obama at any time and place of his choosing to debate the substance of the Iran deal.  Let's do it in front of the American people anytime in the next 60 days that Congress has to review this deal.

Dems clash with Kerry over Iran deal.  Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee joined with Republicans in pushing back on the Iran nuclear deal Tuesday as Secretary of State John Kerry faced the panel.  Committee Ranking Member Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) said he was "troubled by" and "very disappointed" with parts of the agreement, citing a litany of concerns.  "Truth is, after 15 years, Iran is a nuclear threshold state, which means they can produce weapons-grade, highly-enriched uranium without limitations," he said.  "Our friends in Israel are rightfully concerned."

German business goals played key-role in Iran Nuclear Deal.  Germany had tremendous economic interest in ending sanction on Iran and it is not making any secrets of it.

A stunning and credible theory on the secret Iranian nuclear side deals.  John Kerry is lying when he claims he doesn't know what is in the Iranian side deals.  He would rather pretend ignorance than admit their contents.  No one calls the ruling class on their lies.  With a dysfunctional media — that is now fully intertwined with the government — the American people are left bereft of real news and thoughtful analysis.  We live in an alternate reality.  Nothing is real, except their lies and only their lies.  Lies are now the truth.  As for me, I believe the secret side deals with Iran are quite specific.  Incredibly specific.

Iran Deal Fails 4 of Schumer's 5 Demands.  New York Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), the third-highest ranking member of the Senate Democratic caucus, is emerging as the key figure in the congressional battle over the Iran deal.

Obama's secret Iran deals exposed.  President Obama promised that his nuclear deal with Iran would not be "based on trust" but rather "unprecedented verification." Now it turns out Obama's verification regime is based on trust after all — trust in two secret side agreements negotiated exclusively between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that apparently no one (including the Obama administration) has seen.  Worse, Obama didn't even reveal the existence of these secret side deals to Congress when he transmitted the nuclear accord to Capitol Hill.  The agreements were uncovered, completely by chance, by two members of Congress [...]

Congress "Alarmed" by Secret Side-Deals in Iran Nuclear Pact.  Writing at Bloomberg View, investigative journalists Eli Lake and Josh Rogin reveal new and crucial details of Barack Obama's nuclear agreement with Iran.  As we find out more about the nature of the deal, it is little wonder that members of Congress are growing increasingly "alarmed".

Obama Trusts a Terror State, But Not the American People.  President Obama said this week, with regard to the agreement inked with Iran, "There really are only two alternatives here.  Either the issue of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon is resolved diplomatically through a negotiation or it's resolved through force, through war.  Those are — those are the options."  There are so many more options available, that even he should be aware of, yet he's reduced to employing the common false dichotomy, or fallacy of bifurcation, in support of it.  But it explains his inanity in signing a deal that all but assures a nuclear Iran in the foreseeable future, and further underscores why Obamacare was foisted upon the nation; to him, there are but two options — his way or no way at all.  Obama added that no better deal was or is possible than the one he has negotiated.  Since the bargaining table was approached from a position of weakness, acquiescence, and appeasement, he's likely correct.

Congress Alarmed by Iran Pact's Secret Understandings.  As the White House campaign to persuade Congress about the wisdom of its Iran nuclear deal moves into its second week, important components of the complex agreement are emerging that will be shrouded from the public and in some cases from the U.S. government itself.  The existence of these secret clauses and interpretations could undermine the public's trust in the Barack Obama administration's presentations about the nuclear pact.  Already Republicans and other critics of the deal have seized on the side agreements between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency as a weakness in the deal closed last week in Vienna.

Obama's Iran Deal Is the Opposite of What He Promised the American People.  There's a confusing debate underway on the merits of the new nuclear agreement with Iran announced today.  The Obama administration and its supporters are praising the accord as a historic achievement for world peace.  The president's critics claim it is a terrible agreement that will bolster the nuclear program of a state sponsor of terror.  Both sides are throwing around nuclear terminology, timelines, and minutiae about the agreement.

Congress Must Hold Obama Accountable for His Deception Over Iran.  [Scroll down]  Despite the administration's chest-beating about these "red lines," the Iranians remained alternatively coy and intransigent:  When not lying about what cards they were willing to show, the mullahs insisted that Americans would not be permitted to snoop around their country and interfere in their military affairs.  Someone had to cave in, and — you could set your watch on it — that someone is Obama (if, that is, you are one of those who believed he was being honest in the first place).  Thus the problem:  how to cover up this decisive surrender within the surrender?  So, in his signature "if you like your health-care plan, you can keep your health-care plan" style, the president has come up with a fraudulent scheme:  use the IAEA (the International Atomic Energy Agency) as a smokescreen.

John Kerry: Liar or idiot?  Kerry and Obama gave away the store without getting a single significant concession.  Even if it doesn't cheat, Iran will get a nuke and relief from economic sanctions and an embargo on military supplies.  The deal is what's "very disturbing," as is Kerry's claim that he didn't realize that Iran would remain an enemy.  He's either a liar or an idiot.

Kill the Obama Deal, Before it Kills Us.  Team Obama's sales campaign for the Obamabomb deal is running into growing concerns about myriad concessions it has made to an Iranian regime that explicitly promises to destroy our country and its people.  These include: promises to enhance and protect Iran's nuclear program; agreeing to allow Iran to get renewed access to conventional weapons and ballistic missile technology; and removing some 300 designated Iranian terrorists and their organizations from sanctions lists.  Worst of all, Team Obama is giving our avowed enemies hundreds of billions of dollars to pursue their oft-stated promise to bring Death to America, its citizens and allies.

Iran Vows to Buy Weapons Anytime, Anywhere.  A senior Iranian official who led the negotiations with world powers that led to the recent nuclear deal said that the Islamic Republic will continue to import and export arms freely across the globe without restriction, according to recent comments flagged by the CIA's Open Source Center.  Abbas Araghchi, Iran's deputy foreign minister, said that he insisted during the negotiations that Iran be able to purchase and ship military hardware at any time and from any place, according to the comments made on state-controlled television.

Corker to Kerry on Iran Deal: I Believe You Have Been Fleeced.  Thursday at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing about the details of the nuclear agreement with Iran, committee chairman Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) told Secretary of State John Kerry he believed that he had been "fleeced" by Iran.

White House denies Iran 'side deal' it acknowledged yesterday.  The White House is now denying that there was a side deal to the Iran agreement, just a day after National Security Adviser Susan Rice acknowledged that there was an agreement between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency that falls outside the main Iran nuclear agreement.  The issue could be a matter of semantics because the White House is insisting that the accord between the IAEA and Iran is integral to the overall deal.  "This does not represent some sort of side deal," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Thursday [7/23/2015].

Kerry Says 'Nobody Has Ever Talked About Dismantling' Iran's Nuclear Program, But in 2013 Insisted Dismantlement Was The 'Whole Point' of Sanctions Regime.  During Thursday's [7/23/2015] Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the Iran nuclear agreement, Secretary of State John Kerry said the goal of the negotiations was never to dismantle Iran's entire nuclear program but rather to prevent them from obtaining nuclear weapons, despite saying in 2013 the "whole point" of sanctions was to get Iran to "dismantle its nuclear program."

Making Stuff Up.  When the secretary of state says, as John Kerry did last week in his Senate testimony, that the Obama White House is "guaranteeing" Iran won't have the bomb, you can be sure that — well, you can be pretty confident that he doesn't mean it.  And that someday soon he'll pretend he never said it.

Khamenei propaganda video says nuclear deal doesn't ensure Israel's security.  A video threatening that the safety of Israel will not be ensured despite the nuclear deal signed between world powers and Tehran last week was released on the official YouTube page of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollal Ali Khamenei this week.  The video begins with a clip of US President Barack Obama ensuring that the US "will continue our unprecedented efforts to strengthen Israel's security."  A montage of Iranian missiles blasting off follows, accompanied by a voice-over from a speech by Khamenei in which he declares, "Israel's security will not be ensured whether there will be a nuclear agreement or not."

Secret Iran Deals Cover Military Site, Other Past Arms Work.  The Iran nuclear agreement includes two secret side deals covering a key Iranian military site and other past arms activities, according to two lawmakers who are demanding that Congress be granted access to the documents.  The secret agreements were reached between Iran and the International Atomic Energy (IAEA) on Tehran's past nuclear arms work and are a central component of the Vienna accord reached by Iran, the United States, and five other states.  A key part of the nuclear agreement requires Iran to disclose all military nuclear arms work before international sanctions are lifted.  The IAEA has until December to report on the past military activities.

Obama's dishonesty on Iran.  Under the Obama administration's nuclear deal with Iran, that nation's theocratic regime receives relief from economic and arms sanctions in exchange for curtailment of its nuclear program.  But there's a catch — when inspectors seek to verify Iran's compliance, the Iranians can delay the inspection of any site for at least 24 days.  But before the deal was struck, the Obama administration had promised much more — "anytime, anywhere" inspections, on demand.  When asked about this on Sunday [7/19/2015], Secretary of State John Kerry displayed symptoms of amnesia.

Lawmaker: Kerry doesn't know what's in the Iran side deal.  After classified briefings Wednesday with Secretary of State John Kerry and other administration officials, lawmakers say they aren't satisfied with the explanation of side deals on Iran's nuclear program that weren't sent to Congress, and still want to see the original documents.  Rep. Mike Pompeo said Kerry told lawmakers that he has not read the side deals, never possessed a copy of them, and approved the nuclear agreement without knowing their details.

Obama allows Iran and UN to see secret deal, but not Congress.  And why are key documents missing from the Iran nuclear deal that was submitted to Congress and the two leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for review?  What could possibly be worse than what we already know?  Seriously, what are they hiding now from the American people?

Kerry, Moniz Lie (Again) About Iran Deal.  If the Iran deal were any good, the Obama administration would not have to lie about it.  Yet Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz continue to do just that.  The latest example is a joint op-ed in the Washington Post, in which the Laurel and Hardy of American diplomacy attempt to defend the nuclear deal using a series of half-truths and blatant lies that is worth decoding concisely, in full.

Angry Allen West Unleashes Epic Attack On 'Weakling' Obama For Iraq Deal.  "The United States of America is about victors.  The United States of America is about champions.  The United States of America does not surrender to a bunch of black-robed, crazed clerics that want to see us destroyed."  With red-hot, red-meat rhetoric like that, retired Lt. Col. Allen West fired up a huge crowd that assembled in New York City's Times Square on Wednesday [7/24/2015] to protest the Obama-led Iran nuke deal.  Far from presenting himself as the soft-spoken political commentator you often see on Fox News, the former congressman from Florida delivered a highly-charged rant that was highly critical of a president whom West called a "weakling" and a "charlatan."

White House acknowledges 'side' deals between Iran, IAEA.  National security adviser Susan Rice on Wednesday acknowledged the existence of side agreements between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency.  Rice said the deals involve Iran accounting for past military uses of its nuclear program, but rejected GOP assertions that this represented "secret" side deals to the Iranian nuclear agreement.

Sen. Tom Cotton: 'Kerry Acted Like Pontius Pilate' In Iran Negotiations.  Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton has said that "John Kerry acted like Pontius Pilate, he washed his hands" on crucial issues in the Iran deal and left it to the IAEA to negotiate secret side deals with Iran on them.  Cotton made his remarks on today's [7/23/2015] Morning Joe.  It might be a mark of the regard, or lack thereof, in which Kerry is held that no one on the panel rose to his defense. [...] A bit later in the show, Dem Sen. Tim Kaine appeared.  Kaine presumably either watched or was briefed on Cotton's statement, but made not a peep to push back on the Pontius Pilate analogy.

Nets Ignore Controversy Swirling Around Secret Side Deals With Iran.  Despite the revelation on Wednesday [7/22/2015] that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) made secret side deals with Iran over nuclear weapons inspections and refused to disclose the details to the U.S. Congress, NBC, ABC, and CBS all ignored the story.  By contrast, Fox News's Special Report led with the breaking news that evening as anchor Bret Baier informed viewers:  "As President Obama continues to both court and mock critics of his legacy-shaping nuclear agreement with Iran, there is word tonight of a separate covert deal between the Islamic Republic and the U.N.'s nuclear team.  Two of them, in fact, that are not going to be shared with members of Congress nor with you."

Obama aides deny GOP accusations of secret U.N. side deals with Iran.  Obama administration officials denied Republican accusations Wednesday [7/22/2015] that the United Nations made secret side deals with Iran over the inspection of Iranian military sites, as lawmakers demanded that the administration disclose the fine print of the nuclear agreement and raised fresh objections to the historic accord.  White House National Security Adviser Susan E. Rice said the additional documents signed by the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran "are not public" but that the administration would share the information with lawmakers behind closed doors.  She indicated that the U.S. government doesn't have the documents.

McConnell, Boehner want Obama to hand over Iran 'side' deals.  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) want the administration to hand over two "side" deals between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).  The two leaders joined Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kansas) in a letter to Obama on Wednesday [7/22/2015] asking for the administration to hand over the agreements "immediately."

Corker, McConnell completely outraged that Obama hid Iran nuclear documents from Congress.  The apogee of Republican Failure Theater — the act of pretending to oppose radical Left policies while secretly supporting them — was the surrender of the Senate's treaty review rights with respect to Barack Obama's secret Iran nuclear agreement.  This complete abdication of Congressional power was orchestrated by the usual suspects — John Boehner and Mitch McConnell — along with their henchman, Senator Bob Corker (R-TN).

Susan Rice Admits Secret 'Side Deals' with Iran.  White House National Security Advisor Susan Rice admitted the existence of two secret "side deals" between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to accompany the main Iran nuclear deal agreed last week between Iran and the P5+1 powers (U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and China).

Kerry to House: No vote means war against Iran.  Secretary of State John Kerry told a packed meeting of skeptical House lawmakers on Wednesday [7/22/2015] that a vote against the Iran nuclear deal would be a vote to "go to war," according to members leaving the meeting. [...] But despite Kerry's shrill warning about the prospect of armed conflict, some left the meeting saying they weren't convinced.  Among the skeptical Democrats was Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., who said Kerry's approve-or-else pitch was falling flat.

Why Can't Obama Treat Iran as He Treats Republicans?  If President Obama's nuke deal with Iran is so wonderful, why do the major parties in Israel oppose it?  Why was Obama so excited about making a deal that, based on his previous positions, he would have opposed earlier?  This agreement is baffling on multiple grounds, even for Obama.

Obama's huge Iran hostage sellout:  The administration gives a pathetic performance at the UN.  Oops, we forgot the American hostages in Iran. After we handed Iran $150 billion dollars in sanctions relief.  That's the impression the Obama administration is now trying desperately to shake off while selling an Iran nuclear deal that left our fellow citizens behind.

The Many Lies Paving the Way to Obama's Legacy.  The president argues that he negotiated the best deal possible.  After all, what other choice did he have?  But this is a circular argument.  The president's false choice — either we have war or we have this treaty — ignores the alternative of a tighter, more comprehensive deal.

The Chamberlain-Obama Comparison is Apt.  The Iran deal will be remembered either as a masterful display of diplomacy or as a hopelessly naïve delusion.  Wishful thinking is not a sound basis for foreign policy.  When it comes to Iran, the stakes are too high to gamble on good faith.  Israel and Saudi Arabia have good reasons to worry.  And when before have these two nations had anything in common?

Iran: Of Course We'll Continue to Support Terrorists!  The worst feature of President Obama's disastrous deal with Iran is that it provides immediate sanctions relief that will cause $100 billion to $150 to flow into the regime's coffers, and will lead to substantial improvement in Iran's economy, which has been badly hurt by the sanctions that the U.N., the U.S. and others have imposed.  This means that opposition to the ayatollahs' rule will be weakened, and Iran will have more resources to support terrorist groups like Hezbollah and rogue governments like Assad's Syria, and to invest in nuclear weapons development, conventional armaments, and intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Our Rulers In The United Nations Now Make America's Treaties.  Few constitutional scholars thought it possible for a president to give away unilaterally American representative government to an international body.  The United Nations' Iran vote just did.

Also posted under Grounds for the impeachment of Barack H. Obama.

Iran: 'We Will Trample Upon America'.  A senior Iranian cleric delivered Friday prayers in Tehran while standing behind a podium that declared, "We Will Trample Upon America," according to photos released by Iran's state-controlled media.  Iranian cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Movahedi Kermani, who was handpicked by the Islamic Republic's supreme leader to deliver the prayers, delivered a message of hostility toward the United States in the first official remarks since a final nuclear deal was signed between Iran and world powers in Vienna last week.  A Persian-language message on the podium declared, "We will trample upon America" while the English phrase "We Defeat the United States" can be seen underneath.

After Iran, Climate Change.  President Obama's deal with Iran is not even called an "agreement."  Technically, it's a "joint comprehensive plan of action," a mushy term adopted precisely to avoid the implication that it's a formally binding agreement.  In truth, it's more like the sort of coordinated "plan of action" that desperate relatives negotiate with hostage-takers.  Sometimes it works and the hostages come out alive.  But lawyers are never required when negotiating this sort of arrangement.  Law has nothing to do with it.

Lieberman: Enough Opposition to Nuclear Deal in Congress to Override Obama Veto.  Former Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I., Conn.), Al Gore's 2000 running mate on the Democratic ticket, said that he believes there is enough opposition in Congress to the Iran nuclear deal to override a veto from President Obama.  "I think they're there," he said Tuesday [7/21/2015] on Fox Business.

Did Obama Just Provoke a Constitutional Crisis?  President Obama's decision to submit the Iranian nuclear deal to the United Nation Security Council before Congress has had their 60 days to review it could be as problematic for Congress as making a judgment on the deal itself.  Congress felt its responsibilities were already being usurped when they learned the Iranian deal would be treated as an agreement rather than a treaty.  In response to widespread protest, the White House had to permit the agreement to be submitted to both houses of Congress for approval.  Yet fearing that a negative vote — certain in the House — would occur, the administration decided to go to the UN immediately.  This makes any congressional veto useless; the provisions of the agreement almost impossible to turn back.

The Editor says...
This isn't a constitutional crisis at all — it's just one more reason to impeach Barack Obama and remove him from office, which should have been done years ago.

1938 and 2015: Only the Names Are Different.  Why? Because once people acknowledge evil's existence, they know they have to confront it.  And most people prefer not to confront evil.  That is what led to World War II.  Many in the West denied the darkness of Nazism.  They looked the other way when that evil could have been stopped and then appeased it as it became stronger.  We are reliving 1938.  British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain went to Munich to negotiate with Adolf Hitler.  He left believing Hitler's promises of peace in exchange for Germany being allowed to annex large parts of Czechoslovakia.  Upon returning to England, Chamberlain announced, "Peace for our time."  The American and European negotiations with Iran have so precisely mirrored 1938 that you have to wonder how anyone could not see it.

Obama's Iran Deal Sounds a Lot Like Clinton's Failed North Korea Deal.  President Obama's defense of his nuclear deal with Iran echoes President Bill Clinton's defense of his disastrous nuclear deal with North Korea, the [Washington] Free Beacon found.  In 1994, the Clinton administration tried to entice North Korea to forgo its nuclear program by giving it oil, nuclear energy technology, and sanctions relief.  The deal collapsed after a decade when North Korea pocketed U.S. concessions and raced for the bomb.  The hermit kingdom tested its first nuclear weapon in 2006 and has subsequently developed enough nuclear material for six bombs.

Obama's Iran Blunder Presages A Catastrophe.  Distinguished scientist Freeman Dyson has called the 1433 decision of the emperor of China to discontinue his country's exploration of the outside world the "worst political blunder in the history of civilization."  The United States seems at this moment about to break the record for the worst political blunder of all time, with its Obama administration deal that will make a nuclear Iran virtually inevitable.

Appeasement in Our Time.  [Scroll down]  An agreement was made in Vienna Tuesday only because the Obama administration capitulated to every demand made by Iran.  "It's a deal worse than even we imagined possible," wrote Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol.  "It's a deal that gives the Iranian regime $140 billion in return for ... effectively nothing:  no dismantlement of Iran's nuclear program, no anytime/anywhere inspections, no curbs on Iran's ballistic missile program, no maintenance of the arms embargo, no halt to Iran's sponsorship of terror."

Already?
Iran Parliament Wants to Revise Nuclear Deal.  While the UN Security Council passed the Iran deal in a unanimous 15-0 vote on Monday [7/20/2015], Iran's parliament, the Islamic Constituent Assembly, or Majlis, holds the power to revise or delay key parts of the nuclear deal with Iran — even as President Barack Obama and world powers seek a UN Security Council resolution before the U.S. Congress can review the deal.

Iran Deal: Obama Lauds U.N., Lectures U.S..  If only President Barack Obama were as hard-nosed and clever in undermining our adversaries as he is in kneecapping the U.S. Congress, the country's strategic position might be transformed.  The Iran deal went to the United Nations Security Council for approval Monday [7/20/2015], months before Congress will vote on it, and won unanimous approval.  The U.N. vote doesn't bind Congress, but it boxes it in and minimizes it — with malice aforethought.

Obama Does End Run Around Congress as UNSC Unanimously OKs Iran Deal.  President Obama did an end-run around Congress on the Iran deal today [7/20/2015] in what Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) noted will become known as "Capitulation Monday" in history.  The United Nations Security Council voted 15-0 this morning to endorse the P5+1 deal with Iran and start rolling back sanctions.  Both Republicans and Democrats had been frantically telling Obama to hold off on the vote.  Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Ranking Member Ben Cardin (D-Md.) wrote Obama on Thursday to remind the president what he would be violating if he took the deal to the UNSC right away.

Iran Deal Infographic.  (If you still need to be convinced.)

Obama's Next Move is to Gang up on Israel.  [Scroll down]  Mr. Obama still can't tell us why Muslims are slaughtering innocent people all over the world. Apparently, fourteen years after 9/11 the American people are still not grown-up enough to be told the truth about worldwide jihad.  So — after the Chattanooga massacre, Barack Hussein Obama went on vacation.  By embracing Iran's path to nukes, and by promising to protect the mullahs against any Israeli effort to stop them, Obama has openly switched sides between the modern world of human rights and freedoms and the most primitive kind of fanatical Islam, straight from the 7th century desert.

Iran 'Negotiations' Involved a Lot of Iran Shouting at Hapless U.S. Team.  The New York Times published an embarrassing look at what went on behind the scenes during the long, long months of "nuclear negotiations" with Iran.  Apparently, it involved a good deal of Iran shouting at the hapless U.S. team and declaring its demands non-negotiable, while Team Obama threw in one towel after another.

Reporter Challenges White House Over Claim of '99 Percent' Support for Iran Nuclear Deal.  ABC reporter Jonathan Karl on Friday [7/17/2015] questioned White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest about President Obama's claim that 99 percent of the world backs the nuclear deal with Iran reached last week.  After Karl asked Earnest during a press briefing to explain how the White House had arrived at the number, the press secretary claimed that when considering the populations of the countries represented in the nuclear deal, "99 percent of the world" sides with the U.S. about the agreement.

Also posted under What's the rush?.

Another alternative to Obama's Iran deal.  One alternative to President Obama's nuclear deal with Iran that I don't think we've discussed is for Congress to reject it and send him back to bargaining in the hope that he and John Kerry can negotiate a better one.  I haven't discussed this alternative because I consider it futile.  Not because Iran won't agree to a deal less favorable it to than the one on the table.  Obama and Kerry most likely could have negotiated a somewhat better deal if they hadn't been so desperate to enter into an agreement.

Top GOP senator slams Obama for allowing UN vote on Iran deal.  Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) slammed the Obama administration on Monday [7/20/2015] for backing a United Nations's vote on the Iran nuclear agreement, citing "bipartisan skepticism" of the deal in Congress.  "It is inappropriate to commit the United States to meet certain international obligations without even knowing if Congress and the American people approve or disapprove of the Iran agreement," the Tennessee Republican said.  "There is bipartisan skepticism about whether this deal can prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon and bipartisan concern over allowing the leading exporter of terrorism access to well over $100 billion in cash."

Obama: UN vote reflects 'broad consensus' for Iran agreement.  President Barack Obama says the U.N. Security Council's vote to approve the Iran nuclear deal shows there is a broad consensus that the agreement is the best way to ensure that Iran does not get a nuclear weapon.

Kerry: Trust Me, Iran Can't Use Unfrozen $150 Billion For Terror Operations — The UN Resolution Says So.  I'm not one to be all doom and gloom, but who expects the Iranians to actually honor any of these agreements?  I mean, how is that even a serious subject of conversation.

White House warns Congress: If you block this Iran deal, Iran gets everything for free.  You think you know that Obama sold out America's interests in cutting this deal with Tehran, but you really don't know the half of it.  Serious question:  Is this a bigger affront to Congress's authority than that executive mega-amnesty in November was?  Normally I'd say that nothing could top the latter, but read this and tell me. [...]

Congress Must Ditch the Corker Bill and Treat the Iran Deal as Either a Treaty or Proposed Legislation to be Voted Up of Down.  The Corker Bill and its ballyhooed 60-day review process that undermines the Constitution is a sideshow.  If you scrutinize President Obama's Iran nuclear deal, you find that the president ignores the existence of the Corker process.  So should Congress.  Obama's Iran deal also ignores the existence of Congress itself — at least, of the United States Congress.  As I've previously detailed, the deal does expressly defer to the Iranian Congress, conceding that key Iranian duties are merely provisional until the jihadist regime's parliament, the Majlis, has an opportunity to review them as required by Iran's sharia constitution.  The United States Constitution, however, is a nullity in the eyes and actions of this imperial White House.

Republicans fuming over UN voting on Iran deal before Congress.  Republican lawmakers are fuming that the Obama administration is asking the U.N. Security Council to endorse the newly struck Iran nuclear deal before Congress gets a chance to have its say.  A vote on the agreement before the Security Council already has been set for Monday [7/20/2015], with the resolution itself written and ready for consideration.  Top-ranking lawmakers have fired off a series of letters to the president urging him to delay the vote, calling it an "affront" to the public and Congress to go to the U.N. first.

Obama fires back at "dishonest" Iran deal critics.  After a long week of defending the recently negotiated Iran nuclear agreement to skeptics in Congress and the international community, President Obama continues to take on the laundry list of what he believes are "dishonest" criticisms against the deal.  "This deal will make America and the world safer and more secure," Mr. Obama said Saturday in a video.  "Still, you're going to hear a lot of overheated and often dishonest arguments about it in the weeks ahead."

White House: Congressional vote against Iran nuclear deal would be 'devastating'.  The White House said Friday [7/17/2015] that Congress would devastate the U.S. leadership role in the world if lawmakers vote to reject the Obama administration's historic nuclear deal with Iran.  "For the United States, because of a congressional action, to isolate our country on such an important issue, would be devastating to our standing in the world," said White House press secretary Josh Earnest.  "If Congress killed this agreement, it would have a terrible impact."

Iran says nuke deal won't change its US policy.  Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Saturday [7/18/2015] a landmark nuclear deal won't change his country's policy toward the "arrogant" U.S., making his first public speech since the Islamic Republic's historic pact with world powers.

U.S. Chief Negotiator Admits: 'Anytime, Anyplace Access' to Iran's Nuke Facilities Was 'Rhetoric'.  Wendy Sherman, the chief negotiator for the United States in the recently agreed upon nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran, has admitted that President Obama's guarantee of "anytime, anyplace access" to Iran's several nuclear facilities was more rhetoric than reality.

Iran Bans U.S. Inspectors from All Nuclear Sites.  U.S. and Iranian officials confirmed Thursday that no American nuclear inspectors will be permitted to enter the country's contested nuclear site under the parameters of a deal reached with world powers this week, according to multiple statements by American and Iranian officials.  Under the tenants of the final nuclear deal reached this week in Vienna, only countries with normal diplomatic relations with Iran will be permitted to participate in inspections teams organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).  The revelation of this caveat has attracted concern from some analysts who maintain that only American experts can be trusted to verify that Iran is not cheating on the deal and operating clandestine nuclear facilities.

The Deal Wasn't About Iran's Nukes.  The administration has always viewed Israel as an intractable troublemaker and the main catalyst for the region's woes.  An Israeli strike on Iran, especially if supported by the United States, would have been yet another display of destabilizing Israeli aggression that put Middle East peace further out of reach.  Barack Obama, therefore, repeatedly warned Israel against attacking Iran. [...] The Iran deal states that the U.S. will train Iranians to counter any sabotage attempts on its nuclear facilities and systems.  This is aimed at frustrating Israeli action.

Snapping Back Sanctions Won't Prevent A Nuclear-Armed Iran.  The president claims that if Tehran cheats, "sanctions that have helped to cripple the Iranian economy will snap back into place."  But he won't want them to, because then the deal would be dead.

Pelosi: US Hostages In Iran Shouldn't Be Released In Nuclear Deal.  House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said in her Thursday press conference the four remaining American prisoners in Iran should not have been part of the nuclear deal with the Iranians.  Pelosi argued that everyone needs to "appreciate the fact" that a "much brighter light is being shone" on the prisoners now that a deal is done, but that they should not have come up in the Iranian nuclear deal itself.

Obama's U.N. plan backfires on Congress.  President Obama's attempt to outmaneuver Congress and win quick United Nations approval for the Iran nuclear agreement is backfiring on him in Congress, and could further erode support among key players.  Key senators were already outraged that the administration was taking the lead in negotiating a deal and sidelining Congress' traditional role of being directly involved in haggling the finer points of arms control agreements.  They were resigned to let the administration handle the negotiations in return for the promise that they would have ample opportunity to review the deal and vote on it.  But Kerry this week moved to exert the maximum global leverage on Congress by circulating a legally binding draft of the deal to the United Nations Security Council.

We Aren't the World.  "Without this deal," said President Obama on Tuesday, "there is no scenario where the world joins us in sanctioning Iran until it completely dismantles its nuclear program."  That was nothing new.  Throughout the negotiations with Iran, "the world" has been one of the president's favorite defenses against criticism.  "Nothing we know about the Iranian government suggests that it would simply capitulate under that kind of pressure," he continued.  "And the world would not support an effort to permanently sanction Iran into submission."

President Obama's hissy fit.  There is not a lot to love in President Obama's nuclear deal with Iran, despite the attempted assurances in his what's-not-to-like press conference on Wednesday.  In addition to the near-unanimous doubts about his "air-tight verification" promises, which he insists make a nuclear arms race in the Middle East less likely, a short list of what's wrong with the deal must include the names of four Americans:  Jason Rezaian, Saeed Abedini, Amir Hekmati and Robert Levinson.  They're American hostages in Iran, and they just lost their best chance for freedom. Mr. Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry apparently "forgot" to press for their release.

Iran Is About to Open for Business.  Mobile phones in Tehran started beeping and buzzing well before Iran's nuclear agreement with the West was finalized.  They carried an important sentiment that couldn't wait for the niggling details to be ironed out in the talks between Iran, on one side, and China, France, Germany, Russia, the U.K., and the U.S. on the other.  "Congratulations, the agreement is almost signed!  Come dine with us for less," read the text from a local pizzeria.  Discounts and specials celebrating the coming end of the sanctions pinged around the capital.

Obama: Witting or Witless?  A question has hung in the air since Barack Obama first moved into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and began his "fundamental transformation" of this country:  Did he intend harm, or was he merely so blinded by ideology that he could not see the damage his policies were creating?  The Iran deal provides an answer.

Manufacturing Consent: Democrats Pretend to be "Skeptical" of the Iran Deal.  [Scroll down]  Again, several years ago, I actually believed in America, and participatory democracy, and all that.  Now I don't.  So now I find myself agreeing with Chomsky, albeit from a rightward direction.  I don't agree with him about who controls the country, or to what political ends; but I do with agree with him that it is controlled.  Now this brings me to the Manufactured Consent we're about to have on this Iran deal.

Wolf Blitzer Makes A Fool Of Susan Rice On Iran Funding Terrorists.  The Obama administration went on an all-out media blitz on Wednesday to defend the president's nuclear deal with the Ayatollah.  A number of Obama's advisers as well as the president, himself, stumbled in fighting back major criticism.  But none shot themselves in the foot in the manner National Security Adviser Susan Rice did when she attempted to rebut Wolf Blitzer's assertions on Iran funding terrorists while on CNN with The Situation Room host.  Blitzer repeated the widespread concern that when Iran's sanctions are lifted, the bad actor will have more resources to fund terrorists that destabilize the Middle East.  Rice admitted that additional funding would almost certainly go to Iran's military and extremists organizations that promote violence.

Clueless Reporters Question President Pinocchio: A Pathetic Press Conference.  Today [7/15/2015] President Obama met the White House press corps at length to defend his Iran nuclear deal.  One could deconstruct his evasions line by line, but that would largely duplicate the content of many posts we have done over the past weeks and months.  Instead, I want to focus on a few key issues.  But first, this observation:  if any of the reporters present had read the agreement, which is only 159 pages long, it was not apparent.  Maybe reporters are not accustomed to reading legal documents; maybe they are too lazy to try; maybe they have read and understood the agreement and are just partisan hacks, covering for their president.  But I have a full-time job, and nevertheless have read the agreement several times.  Why can't reporters do the same?  That would seem to be a prerequisite to participating intelligently in a press conference on the subject.

The Iran Deal: Normalizing a Mortal Threat.  Declaring an Iranian bomb "would be a game-changer," presidential candidate Barack Obama reiterated pledges to prevent it.  "The deal we'll accept is:  they end their nuclear program.  It's very straightforward."  He also promised to "take no options off the table ... including all elements of American power:  A political effort aimed at isolating Iran; a diplomatic effort to ... ensure the Iranian program is monitored; an economic effort that imposes crippling sanctions; and, yes, a military effort."  The truth is, every president since Carter has failed to deploy these powers to oppose Iranian hostility, allowing committed revolutionaries and skilled diplomats to out-flank and out-negotiate the mightiest nation on Earth.

Cruz Threatens to Cut Off Authorization for State Dept. Funding After Nuke Deal.  Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) is moving to block future State Department funding and nominees unless President Barack Obama guarantees that Congress will have the authority to fully review a recently inked nuclear accord with Iran before the deal is approved by the United Nations, according to a copy of a letter obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.  Cruz, a vocal opponent of the administration's diplomacy with Iran, maintains that the White House is seeking to circumvent congressional review of the deal by going straight to the U.N.  Such a move could lift key sanctions on Iran before Congress has had the chance to fully review and vote on the deal.

The leaking rancid details of the surrender to Iran.  It's possible, of course, that the president and his secretary of State forgot, with all the important things they must remember, that the United States is among the nations that have no diplomatic relations with Iran.  The presidency is a demanding job, as we all know, and who can expect the president to remember every little thing?  But there's more, and maybe worse.  The United States will assist Iran in combating nuclear sabotage and threats to its nuclear program.  This sounds like satire, something from an Evelyn Waugh novel, but it's true.

Obama's Iran Deal Should Die in Chattanooga.  It's unlikely the hideous terror attack in Chattanooga, Tennessee, was specifically ordered by ISIS, as was indicated by a tweet, but in the famous words of a woman who seeks to be our first female president:  "What difference at this point does it make?"  Inspired by or directed by is a distinction without a difference to the dead Marines and their families.

A Few Questions About Barack's Iran Deal.  Iran has, it is inarguable, prosecuted a ceaseless war of opportunity against the United States since the overthrow of the Shah.  The Iranians opened those hostilities with the taking of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, followed that hostile act with the taking of American hostages in Beirut by its proxies during the 1980s, engaged in naval warfare with us in the Persian Gulf in the early 1990s to their great detriment, bombed American servicemen stationed in Saudi Arabia and Beirut, fought a continuous proxy war against our ally Israel through Hezbollah and Hamas for most of the past three decades, and killed Americans with roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan.  This in addition to wholesale support for international terrorism from a wide array of sources; in fact, no other country on earth has promoted jihadist terror against America and the West on Iran's scale since 1979.

The Dawn of Iranian Empire.  This agreement is a massive capitulation to Iran.  Having started negotiations with the goal of ending Iran's nuclear program, the U.S. and its European negotiating partners are winding up legitimating Iran's status as a nuclear power in waiting.

Steyn: Comparing Obama to Neville Chamberlain is Unfair to Chamberlain.  ["]When Churchill became prime minister he kept Chamberlain on and had him chair the War Cabinet in his absence.  And Churchill wept over Chamberlain's funeral casket, and claimed he was an honorable man who just happened to be wrong.  I don't think you can say that about Obama.  I think what Obama did is significantly worse than what Neville Chamberlain did.  I don't think, in effect, Obama was negotiating on behalf of the United States.  I think what happened at these talks is that he and the Iranians were, in a sense, negotiating together to anoint Iran as the regional power in the Middle East and to facilitate Iran's reentry, the biggest planetary sponsor of terrorism, to facilitate its reentry into the global community.  That's what Obama was there doing."

Forget Obama... Republicans made the Iran nukes deal possible.  Mark Levin has been shouting until he is blue in the face that this truly awful nuclear deal with Iran has been made possible only with the help of Senate Republicans, who passed a bill (99-1, with Tom Cotton of Arkansas the only sane dissenter) making it nearly impossible to stop Obama's agreement with the ayatollahs. [...] It's an old game:  give sound bites against deficit spending, Obamacare, illegal aliens, and then vote exactly the way Obama wants them to.  Don't be fooled by all this simulated outrage.

Obama Scolds CBS's Major Garrett For Question About US Hostages In Iran.  During a Wednesday [7/15/2015] press conference to promote the Iranian nuclear deal he had announced a day earlier, President Barack Obama fielded a question from CBS White House correspondent Major Garrett regarding the four Americans held captive in Iran and why he didn't seek their release during these negotiations.

Obama asks Iran deal skeptics: What's your alternative?  President Obama on Wednesday [7/15/2015] challenged critics of the agreement with Iran to curb its nuclear program to present a viable alternative.  "This is the most vigorous inspection and verification regime by far that has ever been negotiated," the president declared in a press conference.

Obama Faces Widespread Public Distrust on Iran Deal.  President Obama will try to drum up support for the U.S.-Iran nuclear deal Wednesday afternoon at a news conference.  But with widespread public disdain and distrust of Iran, Obama may have trouble convincing Americans of the wisdom of dealing with a long-time arch enemy in the Middle East.

Three Americans the Iranians are Holding Captive That Obama Just Abandoned With His Odious Nuke Deal.  Obama decided to abandon three Americans that the Iranians are holding captive to get his nuke deal.  Obama could have made their release part of the package, but he didn't bother.  In fact, he and John Kerry never even mentioned these Americans held by Iran the whole time "negotiations" were ongoing (and by "negotiations" we mean Obama bending over backwards for the Mullahs).

Ted Cruz: We still have a chance to stop a 'mistake of historic proportion'.  Today, the international community led by the United States has agreed to not only legitimize and perpetuate the Iranian nuclear program, but also to further arm and enrich the brutal theocratic regime that has oppressed the Iranian people for more than thirty years — a regime that is wrongfully holding United States citizens captive, that is sponsoring radical Islamic terrorism across the globe, and that regularly promotes the destruction of both Israel and America throughout its streets.

Iran deal faces fight in U.S. Congress but will likely survive.  Republicans have majorities in both the House of Representatives and Senate, but they would need the support of dozens of President Barack Obama's fellow Democrats to sustain a "resolution of disapproval" that could cripple a deal.

Iran Agreement: Déjà vu All Over Again.  We awoke Tuesday morning [7/14/2015] to learn that history had indeed repeated itself.  The lessons of Neville Chamberlain's failed diplomatic effort were not studied nor learned by President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry.  The claims of "peace in our time" are empty if dependent upon the goodwill of despots, dictators, theocrats, and autocrats — of which the Iranian regime can be classified.

U.S. Will Teach Iran to Thwart Nuke Threats.  Under the terms of a deal that provides Iran billions of dollars in sanctions relief, Iran and global powers will cooperate to help teach Iran how to manage its nuclear infrastructure, which will largely remain in tact under the deal.  Senior Iranian officials, including the country's president, celebrated the deal as a victory for the country.  Iran's state controlled media quoted President Hassan Rouhani as saying that the deal will "remove all sanctions while maintaining [Tehran's] nuclear program and nuclear progress."

Obama's Foreign Policy 'Achievements': Wins For Putin, Castro And, Now, The Ayatollahs.  This deal reflects a profound shift away from the way America deals with dictatorial regimes — in this case, Iran, the largest state sponsor of terrorism on the planet.  This deal rewards Iran to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars that will allow them to continue conduct business as usual, giving nothing up in return.

Levin: Iran Deal 'Planted The Seeds' 'For World War III'.  [Scroll down]  He continued, "there's no effective inspection regime here.  There's no effective sanctions.  The Russians and the Chinese are not going to allow them in any event.  Obama has sealed the fate of the next generation. ... I really believe that one day this is going to lead to a horrific war."  And that the deal has "sealed the fate of the people of Iran" and "may well have" sealed Israel's fate.

The Democrats' Strategy: Insist the Deal Doesn't Restrict Inspections.  We now know how the Obama administration and its friends will sell the deal with Iran: lie. [...] There have been a lot of depressing lies from this administration and its friends — "if you like your plan, you can keep your plan," "I didn't call the Islamic State a 'JV' team"; "I believe marriage is between a man and a woman," — but the fact that the administration and its allies will lie to the public about an issue as important as Iran's nuclear program is thoroughly dispiriting.

Iran Nuclear Deal Is The Worst Accord America Has Ever Made.  The Iranian deceptiveness we can count on is already matched by our president's own deceitful announcement.  As expected, President Obama has already begun to bully Congress.  "I will veto any legislation that prevents the successful implementation of this deal," he promised in his announcement of the pact he claims will stop Iran from obtaining nuclear arms.  "I welcome a robust debate in Congress on this issue, and I welcome scrutiny of the details of this agreement" — that is, as long as afterward you agree to this badder-than-bad deal.

Iran can still get the bomb.  The proposed Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action between the United States, Iran and other negotiating partners, contains a number of flaws, any one of which should be fatal to the deal. [...] President Barack Obama said that the means to verify the agreement are strong, but that is largely based on hoping Iran will cooperate.

The More We Find Out About the Iran Deal, The Worse It Gets.  This was a deal made on U.S. weakness, thanks to Obama and Hillary Clinton, with some help from John Kerry.  This gives Iran most of everything they want, kicks the can down the road on a nuclear armed Iran, and will ultimately make the Middle East less stable.  Good job, O!  And, let's face it, as more details come out, it will get worse.  There is literally nothing of benefit to the United States.

We Already Know What Will Happen.  The Democrat Party is in open celebration.  Barack Obama deserves a second Nobel Prize.  It is all about protecting the precious for them.  And it will remain that way until Iran signals that it has a bomb.  War will begin.  The right and Israel will be proven correct.  But by then it will be too late.  President Obama brings the world one step closer to war, but the media that has defended the precious for so long will keep doing so.  They are invested in the legacy of the man they made.

Obama caves to Iran on every issue.  The president of the United States has agreed to provide a state sponsor of terrorism with nuclear weapons, to open to flow of conventional weapons, and give them about $100 billion in the process.

Kristol: Iran Deal Worse Than We Imagined Possible.  William Kristol, political analyst and founder of the Weekly Standard, issued a dire warning to Congress over the president's nuclear deal with the Iranian regime.  Calling the deal "worse than we even imagined possible," Kristol urged Congress to "rise to the occasion" and override the president's threatened veto.  Saying the deal gives Iran $140 billion in return for "effectively nothing," Kristol describes the moment as "the bottom, the nadir" of American foreign policy that Congress must now do the hard work of pulling us out of by rejecting the president's "very bad deal."

Time to Call Obama and Kerry What They Are: Traitors.  Obama and Kerry had both voted against designating Iran's IRGC terrorist ringleaders who were organizing the murder of American soldiers as a terrorist organization while in the Senate.  Today they have turned our planes into the Air Force of the IRGC's Shiite Islamist militias in Iraq.  Throughout the process they chanted, "No deal is better than a bad deal."  But their deal isn't just bad.  It's treason.  Obama isn't Chamberlain.  He doesn't mean well.  Kerry isn't making honest mistakes.  They negotiated ineptly with Iran because they are throwing the game.  They meant for America to lose all along. [...] Obama made this deal to cripple American power in the Middle East.

Also posted under Grounds for impeachment.

Iran deal: Obama leaves Pastor Saeed, other Americans behind.  The worst case scenario has happened.  The Obama administration has signed a deal with Iran — a deal that failed to secure the freedom of American Pastor Saeed Abedini and other Americans who remain imprisoned in Iran.  It is unconscionable that the United States would ink a deal and leave Americans behind.  But that's exactly what has occurred.

Obama's Nuke Deal Makes Israel The Enemy And Iran Our Ally.  The "Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action" is a bad deal because it's the first time the United States has offered extensive concessions to a nation that openly seeks to destabilize our interests.  It's the first time we will be offering an oppressive theocracy (one that still holds American hostages) hundreds of billions of dollars to menace our (former) allies via its proxies throughout the Middle East.  For the first time in history a president has legitimatized an openly anti-American state with expansionist aims to help him expand political legacy at home.

Hillary: I 'Twisted A Lot of Arms' to Get Iran Deal.  Hillary Clinton issued a lengthy statement tonight not only giving props to the Iran nuclear deal but also basically taking credit for it.

Trump: Why didn't Obama demand that Iran release its four U.S. prisoners as part of the deal?  When the guy's right, he's right, especially the bit about Obama dealing from desperation.  When your only options are bombing Iran, doing nothing, and making a terrible deal that can be spun as successful, and you've already ruled out the first two, you're going to give up whatever you need to in order to make the third option viable.

Nets Hail 'Historic' Deal With Iran, 'Major Victory' for Obama.  During live breaking news coverage of President Obama announcing a nuclear arms agreement with Iran Tuesday morning [7/14/2015], all three broadcast networks labeled the deal "historic" and cheered the development as a "major victory" for the commander in chief, who made the deal a "top diplomatic priority."  On NBC's Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie proclaimed:  "As we come on the air the President is about to deliver a statement on this historic nuclear deal reached with Iran overnight....  It could reshape the relationship between Iran and the rest of the world."

Bob Corker's Iran Nuclear Deal and the triumph of Failure Theater.  This morning the United States stands upon the cusp of abject surrender to Iran.  Not only are we about to sign an agreement which locks in Iran's ability to build nuclear weapons, we are doing so without requiring them to renounce terrorism and we will pay them something approaching $100 billion for the privilege.

Can Congress stop the Iran deal?  Now that the P5+1 and Iran have inked a deal that will unleash Tehran from decades of international sanctions, the agreement has to go before the legislatures in Iran and the US.  The former is a mere formality; if Supreme Leader Ali Khameini likes the deal — and there's zero reason to believe that Iranian negotiators would have acted without his express permission — then the Iranian parliament will rubber-stamp it.  That leaves Congress as the last remaining stage on which this deal must play before full implementation.

Obama's Deal: $150 Billion to Iran to Destroy Israel with Conventional Arms.  One of the most alarming and catastrophic elements being overlooked in yesterday's give-away deal to the mullahs is that Iran will soon receive $150 billion dollars.  With that money they can immediately go after Israel with tens of billions in horrific conventional weapons, missiles, bombers... way before any nuclear bomb is fully functional.  Israel will be overwhelmed as never before, and America will be more vulnerable to Iranian plots financed, bizarrely, by Mr. Obama's giveaways.  The mullahs can now echo Lenin:  "The West will supply us the rope to hang them.["]

A Very Good Deal — for Iran.  We have a deal.  It's a deal worse than even we imagined possible.  It's a deal that gives the Iranian regime $140b in return for ... effectively nothing:  no dismantlement of Iran's nuclear program, no anytime/anywhere inspections, no curbs on Iran's ballistic missile program, no maintenance of the arms embargo, no halt to Iran's sponsorship of terror.

Iranian Courts Issue $50 Billion in Fines Against the U.S..  Iranian courts have reached a series of verdicts against the United States totaling $50 billion in fines.  Iran's Judiciary Spokesman Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei announced the tally of lawsuits brought against the United States at a press conference Monday [7/13/2015].

Netanyahu slams Iran deal as a "historic" mistake.  Israel's prime minister condemned Tuesday's [7/14/2015] international nuclear agreement with Iran as a "stunning historic mistake" and said his country is not bound by the deal, strongly hinting that military action remains an option.

Obama Signs Iran Deal, Says Bye-Bye to Western Civ.  Now we know what hope and change really meant.  Somewhere Frank Marshall Davis must be smiling.  Barack Obama toasted what he always wanted, the decline of the West, as our president finally rolled over and made a big nuclear deal with Iran, giving the ayatollah virtually everything he could have dreamed of, let alone needed — including control over nuclear inspections, making them meaningless — and getting nothing in return.

Iran: Nuclear Deal in Line With Khamenei's Demands.  Iranian sources familiar with the details of a final agreement scheduled to be announced on Monday [7/13/2015] said sanctions and an arms embargo against Iran will be lifted and restrictions on its nuclear activity will only be "temporary" in a deal that falls "within the redlines" laid out by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, according to Iran's state-controlled media.  As world powers work to secure a final deal, Iranian sources are indicating that the United States has caved on most major issues, including the timing of sanctions relief, the length of the deal, and arms sales to Tehran.

Iran Nuke Deal All But Done.  Cue the fat lady in the burqa — the Iran nuclear deal is done.  Two diplomats told the Associated Press that negotiators will announce on Monday [7/13/2015] that an agreement has been reached for Iran to curtail its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

Awaiting historic sellout of Israel by Obama-Kerry.  President Barack Obama has, at least since 2012, claimed that he has Israel's back regarding his engagement with Iran.  But as the Iran nuke negotiations move closer to an agreement, with reports it could happen by tomorrow [7/13/2015], it is clear that Obama's words are empty rhetoric.

Who Benefits From Endless Iran Negotiations?  In the hands of a president that was tough enough to mean what he said when he threatened to walk away from nuclear talks with Iran if it didn't get what it wanted, a negotiating deadline would be an effective tool to obtain the West's objectives.  But over the course of the last two years, the Obama administration has realized that when a deadline loomed they were the only players in the diplomatic standoff that started to sweat.  The Iranians quickly learned that faced with the prospect of President Obama's cherished dream of a new détente with their regime, the West preferred concessions to walkouts and accordingly stiffened their stands on outstanding issues.  That's why the U.S. has treated every such recent deadline as a flexible rather than a rigid concept, a decision that was repeated when first the June 30 date for an end to the talks and then the July 7th date that was regarded as the true end point passed without either an agreement or the U.S. team packing their bags and leaving Vienna.

Iran Made Illegal Purchases of Nuclear Weapons Technology Last Month.  The question is not whether Iran can be trusted to uphold the nuclear deal now being negotiated in Vienna (it can't), but whether the Obama administration and its P5+1 partners can be trusted to punish Iran when it violates the agreement?  Experience shows that unless Iran violates the deal egregiously, the temptation will be to ignore it.  For instance, Iran got away with selling more oil than it should have under the interim agreement.

Obama the triple-loser.  Obama is delusional. [...] When terrorism is at a peak, he announces that he has contained it and that he decimated al Qaeda.  In a moment of insane revisionism, he says that because of him "the United States is the most respected country on Earth."  Other really powerful leaders thumb their noses at him and laugh. [...] He is pushing for a counterproductive nuclear deal with Iran in order to announce that he is a peacemaker.  The opportunities for Iran's double-crossing us are rife, and if this deal goes through, he will be celebrating himself while the destruction of the world is at hand.  He likes the glamour of a nuclear agreement, but he doesn't understand or care about the results.

The Rockefeller Fund Spent Millions to Make the Iran Deal Happen.  Behind every great act of appeasement is a whole lot of dirty money and political influence.  And some of the usual sources make their appearance here.

As Nuke Talks Grind On, Iran's "Moderates" Call for Israel's Destruction.  Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president of Iran and an ally of current President Hassan Rouhani, called for the destruction of Israel and described the country as "alien" and "temporary," according to a report Monday in Iran's official IRNA news agency. Rafsanjani, who heads the powerful Expediency Council, which advises Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, made the comments in an interview with a Hezbollah-affiliated news outlet.

Iran Revolutionary Guards to Get Huge Cash Infusion From Obama's Nuke Deal.  The sanctions relief that is slated to accompany the emerging nuclear deal with Iran will likely enrich and further entrench Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Reuters reported on Monday [7/6/2015].

12 Times The Obama Administration Caved to Iran on Nuclear Deal.  An analysis from the Foreign Policy Initiative's Tzvi Khan published June 29 laid out the myriad ways the United States has fallen short, misled, or simply kowtowed on sanctions, uranium enrichment, Iran's breakout capacity, whether Iran could be a good actor, and more.  President Obama claimed in his 2015 State of the Union address to have "halted" Iran's nuclear program and "reduced" its stockpile, sweeping and inaccurate claims for which he earned three Pinocchios from the Washington Post fact-checker.  On April 2, when Obama touted the framework agreement and "historic understanding" between Iran and world powers, he claimed "Iran has also agreed to the most robust and intrusive inspections and transparency regime ever negotiated for any nuclear program in history."

White House Officials Plot Ways to Pressure Lawmakers Into Supporting Iran Deal.  White House officials on Monday [7/6/2015] held a private conference call with liberal organizations to discuss ways of pressuring Democrats and other lawmakers on Capitol Hill into supporting a nuclear deal with Iran that is expected to be finalized in the coming days, according to an audio recording of that call obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.  The call, in which there were more than 100 participants, was organized by the liberal pro-Iran group Ploughshares Fund, which has spent millions of dollars to slant Iran-related coverage and protect the Obama administration's diplomatic efforts.

White House Instructs Allies To Lean On 'Jewish Community' to Force Iran Deal.  The White House is targeting Jewish groups in its latest push to blunt congressional criticism of an Iran deal that observers expect to be sealed in the coming days, according to a recording of a strategy conference call obtained by the Washington Free Beacon and experts familiar with the call.  The White House's liaison to the Jewish community on Monday [7/6/2015] advised dozens of progressive groups to push a poll commissioned and distributed by the liberal fringe group J Street, which has been defending a deal with Iran.

What Obama Has Taught Us.  Iran so far has repaid Obama's indulgence by blowing up a mock U.S. aircraft carrier in military drills, de facto running affairs in three other Middle Eastern states — Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen — and brazenly renouncing almost all the basic elements of prior nonproliferation understandings, from on-site inspections to cessation of enrichment to kickback sanctions in the event of noncompliance.  Iran embraces change, and looks forward to a nuclear future.

The U.S. response to Iran's cheating is a worrying omen.  If it is reached in the coming days, a nuclear deal with Iran will be, at best, an unsatisfying and risky compromise.  Iran's emergence as a threshold nuclear power, with the ability to produce a weapon quickly, will not be prevented; it will be postponed, by 10 to 15 years.  In exchange, Tehran will reap hundreds of billions of dollars in sanctions relief it can use to revive its economy and fund the wars it is waging around the Middle East.

The Obama Administration Has Become Iran's Attorney.  Reuters is reporting about the Obama administration taking the Iranian side regarding a long list of violations to the interim Joint Plan of Action (JPOA) agreed to at the beginning of April as well as the United Nations Security Council resolutions by seeking to procure illicit nuclear infrastructure and refusing to cooperate with the IAEA.  Despite evidence to the contrary, the Obama administration is denying they ever happened, or labeling them as inconsequential.

Obama Administration Gets Caught Sweeping Iranian Violations Under The Rug.  With great fanfare on Tuesday 6/30/2015], the State Department reported that Iran has complied with a key condition of the interim agreement; significantly reducing its stockpile of enriched uranium.  It was an accurate statement as long as one ignores Iran's violations.  And now a leading non-proliferation think tank is bashing the Administration for trying to sweep the violations under the rug.

The worst agreement in U.S. diplomatic history.  The devil is not in the details.  It's in the entire conception of the Iran deal, animated by President Obama's fantastical belief that he, uniquely, could achieve detente with a fanatical Islamist regime whose foundational purpose is to cleanse the Middle East of the poisonous corruption of American power and influence.  In pursuit of his desire to make the Islamic Republic into an accepted, normalized "successful regional power," Obama decided to take over the nuclear negotiations.

Iran Threatens to Go Nuclear If Talks Fail.  Iranian President Hassan Rouhani hinted this week that Iran would decide to fully pursue its nuclear program in a way "harsher than what they [the United States can] imagine" if Western powers fail to uphold any nuclear agreement expected to be finalized in the coming days.  Rouhani's comments come as negotiators in Vienna struggle to solve disagreements over a range of issues concerning the future of Tehran's nuclear program.  The ongoing disputes prevented the sides from finalizing the agreement before a self-imposed June 30 deadline.  Talks are now expected to continue through July 9.

Iran Repatriates 13 Tons of Gold Under Sanctions Relief.  Iranian officials said Monday [6/29/2015] that the Islamic Republic's Central Bank has successfully repatriated 13 tons of gold as part of a package of sanctions relief provided to Iran by U.S. and Western powers.  The gold was transferred to Iran by the government of South Africa, which had been holding onto the assets due to harsh sanctions meant to pressure Tehran to rein in its rogue nuclear program.  The gold appears to have been released as part of a sanctions relief package that will have awarded Iran nearly $12 billion in unfrozen cash assets by the time negotiations wrap up next week.

State Dept. Ejects, Threatens Journalist Covering Iran Nuke Talks.  The State Department today refused to allow a reporter for the Washington Free Beacon to attend a press briefing given by lead negotiator Wendy Sherman and threatened to call security to have him removed.

On Iran, this is a moment for President Obama to be strong.  In the next few days, we may see a signed deal that reflects the framework announced by the Obama administration and Iranian negotiators back in April.  It is an emerging agreement that almost no one, including former advisers to President Obama, believes would be a strong deal that sufficiently advances U.S. interests and bolsters our national security.

The President's Failed Leadership on Iran.  The truth is these talks were doomed from the start by the administration's pattern of retreat.  As the Iranians hang tough, insisting on their core demands, the president has steadily abandoned commitments he made to the American people and our allies.  In the most recent example, Secretary of State John Kerry backed off from the longstanding demand of the United States and its partners that Iran come clean about the possible military dimensions of its program before any deal is signed.

Congress Knows Everything the Administration Knows.  What can be so important that all of the above is overlooked by the Administration for a piece of paper outlining the terms of a deal that — if history is our guide — doesn't accurately reflect Iran's capabilities and on which Iran is prepared to cheat?  A hope and a prayer?  A legacy for Mr. Obama?  A Nobel Peace Prize for Mr. Kerry — consolation for losing the presidential race?  Too much risk of too many lives for too little return.  If a deal is signed — by June 30th or July 7th (the new possible date) — looking the way it looks now, Congress must find its unified voice and put a stop to it, voting a resolution of disapproval with more than 60 votes.

Nuclear Deal Would Leave Iran With 5,000 Centrifuges.  Iran will be permitted to operate more than 5,000 nuclear centrifuges under any final deal secured in the coming days, according to Western sources who fear that the Islamic Republic could use such technology to continue building a nuclear weapon.  Sources commenting on the resumed talks indicated on Tuesday [6/30/2015] that Iran and Western powers have reached a deal that would enable Iran to continue operating more than 5,000 nuclear centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium to a level needed for a weapon.

Report: Powers Give in — No Inspection of Iran's Nuke Facilities.  The P5+1 countries led by the United States under Barack Obama have caved in to Iranian demands and will not insist on inspections of nuclear installations as part of a deal on Iran;s nuclear weapons program, Channel 1 reported Sunday [6/28/2015].

Obama on Iran: 'I will walk away' from bad deal.  President Obama on Tuesday [6/30/2015] warned Iran that he is prepared to walk away from nuclear talks if Tehran does not submit to rigorous inspections of its nuclear sites.  "I will walk away from the negotiations if, in fact, it is a bad deal," Obama said.

Obama sent Iran message ahead of nuclear deadline: report.  US President Barack Obama recently sent a private message to Iran's leadership via Iraq's prime minister, an Iranian newspaper reported Monday [6/29/2015] on the eve of a deadline for a nuclear deal.  Hamshahri, Iran's highest-circulation daily, citing a lawmaker, said "one of the leaders of a neighbouring country" took the message from Obama to officials in Tehran.

White House denies private letters to Iran.  The Obama administration is denying reports the president reached out to Iran's leadership ahead of the deadline for a nuclear deal with Tehran.  "Reports that the president recently sent a letter to Iran's leadership are not accurate," a senior administration official said Monday [6/29/2015].

US intel chief calls Iran the leading terror sponsor, as nuke talks enter final phase.  The nation's top intelligence official labeled Iran the leading state sponsor of terrorism and called the regime — and its proxy Hezbollah — the single most important factors keeping Syrian dictator Bashar Assad in power, according to a letter obtained by Fox News.  The warning comes as Obama administration officials enter the final phase of nuclear negotiation with Tehran.  But despite the diplomatic track, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper assailed the country's role in destabilizing the region in the letter to Republican senators.

The Iran Deal, Then and Now.  One week before the June 30 deadline for a nuclear deal with Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made a series of demands about the final terms. Among them:  He called for an immediate end to all United Nations Security Council and U.S. economic sanctions on Iran; he said Iranian military sites would not be subject to international inspections; he declared that Iran would not abide a long-term freeze on nuclear research; and he ruled out interviews with individuals associated with Iran's nuclear program as part of any enforcement plan.

Obama cries 'uncle' on Iran.  If President Obama is trying to vindicate critics of his Iran policy, he could hardly do a better job than he is doing this week.  The Obama administration's desperation and eagerness to make a deal have been quite obvious for some time.  And no one has been more acutely aware of this than Iran's theocratic government.  The most recent manifestation of this desperation has been the State Department's protracted effort to delay release of a report on Iran's human rights record.  That report is supposed to be released Thursday — four months after the deadline, an unprecedentedly late stage of the calendar year.  And even now, it is only happening because Republicans in Congress threatened to cut the State Department's budget.

If you don't want a nuclear-armed Iran, stop appeasing it.  In 2013, when the Iranian regime came crawling back to the negotiating table to barter a deal over its illicit nuclear program, a well-placed sanctions regime had brought it to its knees.  This was the best opportunity to force Tehran to dismantle its nuclear program and settle Iran's nuclear issue once and for all.  But instead, Obama offered the Iranian regime nuclear concessions and gave it carte blanche over its other nefarious activities — a big mistake.

Bribing Iran With Technology Is A Strategy For Disaster.  If you knew a gambling addict at risk of losing his family's life savings was in Las Vegas at the blackjack tables, would you make a deal with him that limited him to slot machines that take only quarters?  That's similar to the approach that the Obama administration is taking a week before yet another deadline in the Iran nuclear talks.  Tehran is being offered advanced light-water nuclear reactors that the administration hopes would replace the heavy-water Arak plant, which when completed will be able to produce plutonium to fuel multiple atomic explosives each year.

Iran Demands More Nuke Concessions.  Iran is insisting the United States and world powers deliver more concessions at the negotiating table, including consenting to demands that any final nuclear agreement last less than 10 years.  The call for greater concessions was made in a speech Tuesday [6/23/2015] by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who accused the United States of "seeking to destroy Iran's nuclear industry" and of being "on the opposite side of everyone in Iran."

US, West ready to offer nuclear equipment to Iran if it limits possible atomic weapons programs.  The United States and its allies are willing to offer Iran state-of-the-art nuclear equipment if Tehran agrees to pare down its atomic weapons program as part of a final nuclear agreement, a draft document has revealed.  The confidential paper, obtained by the Associated Press, has dozens of bracketed text where disagreements remain.  Technical cooperation is the least controversial issue at the talks, and the number of brackets suggest the sides have a ways to go, not only on that topic but also more contentious disputes, with less than a week until the June 30 deadline for a deal.

Dems, Republicans & Experts Question Terms of Iran Deal.  Politicians and experts from across the political spectrum are calling into question the proposed nuclear agreement with Iran.  The two primary issues — verifiability and the possibility of military dimensions (PMD) of the Iranian nuclear program — threaten to derail the agreement.  A report, "Verifying a Final Nuclear Deal with Iran," written by the former deputy director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Olli Heinonen, states that for the agreement to be effective in real terms, verifiability must be a function of "unfettered," "anywhere, anytime" access and not subject to any bureaucratic procedures which would give Iran time to alter the results of any inspections.

Chanting 'Death to America,' Iran MPs vote to bar military inspectors.  With some lawmakers chanting "Death to the America," Iran's parliament voted Sunday [6/21/2015] to ban access to military sites, documents and scientists as part of a future deal with world powers over its contested nuclear program.

Kerry's Absolute Idiocy.  [Scroll down]  I don't think the administration has ever tried to spin up reporters on the claim that the US "has absolute knowledge" of Iran's military nuclear work.  Certainly it's never been a top message.  But administration officials have no choice:  the Associated Press confirmed last week that the P5+1 has collapsed on the demand that Iran come clean about its past atomic work, which would gut the verification regime that the White House has made the key criterion of any deal.  Without knowing what the Iranians did in the past there's no way confirming they've stopped doing those things, which means there's no way that Kerry's other line about confirming that prohibited "activities have stopped" could ever be true.

State Dept Struggles to Explain Massive Nuke Concessions To Iran.  State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke claimed Friday [6/12/2015] that the "goal posts haven't moved" in Iran negotiations as he struggled to explain the administration's latest concessions.  The United States is in negotiations with Iran in regards to their nuclear program.  During Friday's press briefing, Rathke struggled to define what concessions or conditions were required for the Iranians to meet for a nuclear deal to be achieved.

At what point does a President's actions become treason?  I don't know how else to say it.  Barack Obama seeks a nuclear Iran that has hegemony over the Middle East.

Huge AP Scoop Catches Obama With His Pants Around His Ankles (Not Reggie Love-related).  Barack Obama was just caught red-handed lying through his teeth about the Iran deal and attempting to fool Congress and the American people about "sanctions."  I contend this takes us well beyond the point of questioning Obama's judgment and brings us to the point of questioning his motives.  I fear if enough Americans continue to ignore what Obama is doing in broad daylight, we will become victims of the greatest scam since the Trojan Horse rolled into Troy — with similarly disastrous results only on a worldwide scale.

UN: U.S. Failed to Report Iran's Violations of Sanctions.  A UN panel says that the White House and other Western governments have neglected to report Iranian violations of the sanctions regime.  "The current situation with reporting could reflect a general reduction of procurement activities by the Iranian side or a political decision by some member states to refrain from reporting to avoid a possible negative impact on ongoing negotiations" between Iran and the P5+1, the UN panel said in its June 1 report, and made public today.

Lawmakers Take Aim at Iran's Missiles, Omitted From Nuclear Talks.  Three weeks before the deadline for a comprehensive nuclear deal with Iran, lawmakers will hold a hearing Wednesday [6/10/2015] on an issue that was left off the agenda at the nuclear talks — ballistic missiles.  The House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa has invited intelligence and security experts to testify on "Iran's enduring ballistic missile threat."

The lamest of negotiators.  Given the facts of the negotiations, it's impossible to see how any deal with Iran could possibly benefit American national security or that of any of our allies, especially including Israel, whose very existence Iran has promised often to end.

Forfeiting America's Military Leverage.  While there are numerous diplomatic strategies to accomplish that, one of history's more effective means of pursuing foreign policy goals was for a superior power to conspicuously display naval forces in the waters of the weaker power, posing a military threat until satisfactory terms with the weaker nation could be reached.  Such "gunboat diplomacy" could be remarkably persuasive.  But if there is such a thing as the opposite of gunboat diplomacy, we are witnessing it in the nuclear negotiations with Iran.  There will be repercussions.  The United States and other leading nations taking part in the negotiations have military capabilities that dwarf those of Iran, at best a second-rate power.  Yet, in spite of the huge military advantages — not to mention the moral gulf between the U.S and Iran, or the huge stakes of allowing Iran to go nuclear — negotiations have proceeded as if between equals.

Harf: 'All of the Nuclear Experts' Told Me Iran Will Reduce Stockpile Levels to Right Amount.  State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf continued pushing back Wednesday [6/3/2015] against a New York Times report on Iran's increased nuclear fuel stockpile and its potential violations of a deal with the U.S., saying "all of the nuclear experts" had assured her Iran would be in compliance with the Joint Plan of Action (JPOA) by the June 30 deadline.  One reporter asked if Iran keeps increasing that stockpile, would that not make it much more difficult to reduce it to the agreed-upon level by the end of the month?

Is Obama a villain? Or only delusional?  President Obama is trying to make nice with Jewish American voters again — those who haven't caught on to his multiple betrayals in the Middle East.  Israelis — those who are in touch with reality — feel betrayed.  The Saudis feel betrayed.  Egypt feels betrayed.  Libya was betrayed worst of all, and believe it or not, before Obama became president even Syria was considered to be friendly to the United States.  More than 200,000 dead Syrian Muslims, Christians and Kurds later, Obama may still smile and smile, but the Arab world and the saner half of Israel keep wondering if he is a villain.  The only regime that loves us over there keeps chanting, "Death to America! Death to Israel!"  Obama tells us they don't actually mean it.  He tells the world to "trust me" on Iranian nukes.

Iran's Nuclear Stockpile Grows, Complicating Negotiations.  With only one month left before a deadline to complete a nuclear deal with Iran, international inspectors have reported that Tehran's stockpile of nuclear fuel increased about 20 percent over the last 18 months of negotiations, partially undercutting the Obama administration's contention that the Iranian program had been "frozen" during that period.

If Iran's Program is Frozen, Why Is Their Nuclear Stockpile Growing?  The Obama administration is puzzled.  They're convinced that Iran is committed to a process of negotiations over its nuclear program that will forestall its efforts to build a bomb and begin a new period of détente between the Islamist regime and the West.  Moreover, they've been preaching endlessly that the interim agreement signed in November 2013 "froze" the Iranian program in place. How then to explain the fact that, as the International Atomic Energy Agency has reported, the size of their stockpile of nuclear fuel has increased by more than 20 percent over the last 18 months while they were talking with the West and supposedly freezing their nuclear work in place?

Obama Assures Iran It Has Nothing to Fear.  At this point, there is virtually no one in Israel or the United States who thinks it is remotely possible that the Obama administration would ever, under virtually any circumstances, use force against Iran.  Though President Obama and his foreign policy team have always claimed that "all options," including force, are always on the table in the event that Iran refuses to back down and seeks to produce a nuclear weapon, that is a threat that few took seriously.

Obama just tossed away his last card on Iran's nukes.  As the June 30 deadline for the Iran nuclear deal approaches, President Obama is putting all his cards on the table — by announcing he is keeping no cards in his hand.  In an astonishing interview with Israel's Channel 2, the president declared that "the best way to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon is a verifiable, tough agreement.  "A military solution will not fix it, even if the United States participates.  It would temporarily slow down an Iranian nuclear program, but it would not eliminate it."

The New Iranian Hostage Crisis.  When the family of Amir Hekmati, an Iranian-American Marine, learned he was taken prisoner in 2011, the State Department told them to keep quiet.  Family members were told Amir would be in greater danger if they went to the media than if they remained discreet.  That silence now looks like a mistake. [...] One might think that advocates for the four American captives wouldn't mind if they were released as part of a nuclear deal.  But at least for Hekmati, this is not the case.  According to his sister, he has said he does not want to be a pawn in the negotiations.

'We Need This Nightmare to End': Families of Iran Hostages Bring Their Stories to Congress.  Four relatives representing all of the American hostages in Iran made an unprecedented appearance before a congressional committee today [6/2/2015], telling lawmakers that they fear leverage slipping away as the Obama administration barrels toward its June 30 nuclear deadline with Tehran.  Jason Rezaian, who has reported from Tehran since 2008, was seized on July 22, 2014, in a raid on his home.

Obama: 'Military solution' will not stop Iran.  A deal between world powers and Iran is the only way to prevent Tehran from getting nuclear weapons, President Obama told an Israeli television station.  In the interview on Channel 2, which is slated to air Tuesday night [6/2/2015] in Israel, Obama reiterated his support for a nuclear deal with Iran over a military option.  A preview of the interview ran on Monday.  "I can, I think, demonstrate, not based on any hope but on facts and evidence and analysis, that the best way to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon is a verifiable, tough agreement," he said.

Ruthless Trials Show Iran Can't Be Trusted.  American journalist Roxana Saberi was convicted of spying and sentenced to eight years in 2009.  Iran released her after 100 days; she says she still doesn't know why authorities detained her.  In 2011, Iranian authorities arrested Amir Hekmati, a dual citizen who served in the U.S. Marines, when he went to Iran to meet his relatives for the first time.  Tried for espionage, Hekmati originally was sentenced to death; the punishment later was reduced to 10 years on lesser charges.  In 2013, a Revolutionary Court sentenced Saeed Abedini, a naturalized American from Idaho, to eight years for establishing underground churches in homes.

Obama's strategy for the Middle East has backfired.  The fall of the Iraqi city of Ramadi to the Islamic State and recent gains by the group in Syria are the latest signs that President Obama's strategy to defeat this brutal terrorist group is failing.  But the problem is far bigger than that.  The president's entire approach to the Middle East has backfired.  The Middle East is more dangerous and unstable than when Obama came into office — a time when Iraq and Syria were more stable, the Iranian nuclear program was considerably less advanced and the Islamic State did not yet exist.  Much of this instability is a result of Obama's disengagement from the region, best symbolized by the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq in 2011.

Iran's Third Path to a Bomb.  The emerging agreement with Iran that President Obama sees as his legacy will give Iran three paths to a bomb:  it can break out, wait out, or sneak out of the agreement.  Iran will pocket its huge signing bonus; take reversible steps toward "compliance"; then either break out (perhaps after a dispute about implementation, or while the U.S. is involved in some other crisis), or wait out (after which, President Obama concedes, Iran will face no further barrier to a bomb), or sneak out (using secret sites and undetectable methods).

Obama Says Iran Won't Be More Dangerous with an Extra $150 Billion Dollars.  The Goldberg interview with Obama reads like a conversation with an idiot.  Actually make that two idiots, both of whom are also compulsive liars.

Why aren't we taking out those flag waving ISIS trucks?  We know where President Obama's priorities are.  He sees global warming or climate change as the threat of our times.  Indeed, we have to care for our Earth but President Obama needs to read his daily security briefing more seriously.  By now, ISIS has taken Ramadi and sits 90 miles (i.e., Dallas to Waco) from our U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.  Do any of the "yes we can" screamers surrounding President Obama remember the Iran hostage crisis of 1979-81?  A Baghdad hostage crisis would make Tehran look like a PG movie.

Iranian Special Forces Commander: 'Obama Has Not Done a D*** Thing' to Fight ISIS.  Iranian elite paramilitary force leader Major General Qassem Soleimani accused the United States of having "no will" to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and blasted President Barack Obama as not having "done a d*** thing" to quell the terrorist insurgency.  The remarks follow news that Shiite terrorist group Hezbollah is planning to increase its presence in Iraq to combat ISIS.

Iran's Ayatollah: Nuke Inspectors Will Not Have Access to Military Sites, Scientists.  As the Iran nuclear talks were due to resume in Vienna on Wednesday [5/20/2015], Iran's spiritual leader and its main nuclear negotiator both doubled down on rejecting a core element of any deal — the right of international inspectors to access military sites.  Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told military commanders Wednesday he will not allow international inspection of Iran's military sites or access to Iranian scientists under any nuclear agreement with world powers.  He said Iran will resist "coercion and excessive demands," the Associated Press reported.

Obama's Middle East Policy Is In a State of Collapse.  The "sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq" that Barack Obama and Joe Biden hailed as one of Obama's "great achievements" in 2014 has regressed into chaos as a result of Obama's premature withdrawal of American troops.  But it isn't just Iraq.  Syria is the closest thing to Hell on Earth.  Iran is working away on nuclear weapons and delivery systems.  Yemen has fallen to Iran's proxies.  Saudi Arabia is looking for nuclear weapons to counter Iran's.  ISIS occupies an area the size of Great Britain.  Libya, its dictator having been gratuitously overthrown by feckless Western governments that had no plan for what would follow, is a failed state and terrorist playground.

Obama: that chlorine gas Syria is using, well I'm fine with it.  Back in 2013, Syria was accused of using chemical agents against the opposition.  True to form, the Syrian army didn't make much of a distinction between combatants and civilians.  This quickly became one of Barack Obama's "red lines."  I use quote marks here because no one really knows what [...] Obama is talking about when he talks about "red lines."  I think it is some kind of a communist code phrase for "do whatever it is you want to do," because Iranian nuclear weapons were also a "red line" and now he's agreed that they can develop them.

Isolationism With Drones Is Leading to American Failure.  The Times of London reported this Sunday [5/17/2015] that, according to "senior American officials," Saudi Arabia has decided to purchase nuclear weapons "off-the-shelf" from Pakistan.  Whether or not this specific report turns out to be accurate, it is clearly the case that the Gulf Arabs feel betrayed by the Obama administration's facilitation of an Iranian nuclear program, not to mention our slow-motion withdrawal from the role of securing commerce in the Persian Gulf, and our abandonment of an ally in Yemen.  It stands to reason that the Gulf Arabs will want nukes of their own, and they have not been shy about broadcasting that fact.  So the result of Obama's extension of an olive branch to the mullahs, his pursuit of realignment and peace in the Middle East, is a regional nuclear arms race.

Iranian Ayatollah: We 'Will Never Allow' Inspections of Nuke Sites.  Iran will never allow Western powers or the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect Tehran's military sites as part of a final agreement with the P5+1 world powers, Iran's Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Movahedi Kermani said Friday [5/15/2015] in an address to Tehran University students.

Obama's credibility Gulf.  As President Obama this week urged Gulf state leaders to back his dangerous Iranian nuclear deal, the scene underscored Arab allies' escalating anxiety about an empowered Tehran — and America's increasingly desperate attempts to allay fears.  Those absent from the Camp David summit said as much as those present.  A rare snub by King Salman of Saudi Arabia and three other Gulf state leaders made clear that key allies aren't interested in being used as photo-op backdrops for the deal.

Fig leaves falling.  We have already learned that President Obama intends to reward Iran with a huge "signing bonus" at the outset of the arrangement.  He will agree to the removal of all United Nations sanction on Iran at the same time.  He will also waive our own statutory sanctions on Iran.  Just about the last fig leaf remaining on this element of the deal is the (utterly meaningless) assertion:  "If at any time Iran fails to fulfill its commitments, these sanctions will snap back into place."  Now Bloomberg News reports that this fig leaf is falling too.

Obama's Iran Deal Lie Collapses: Russia Says No 'Snap-Back' Sanctions.  President Barack Obama has defended the impending nuclear deal with Iran by promising Americans that there will be automatic "snap-back" provisions to restore sanctions automatically if Iran cheats on its obligations:  "If Iran violates the deal, sanctions can be snapped back into place," he said in April.  On Wednesday [5/13/2015], Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told Bloomberg News that there would be no such provisions:  "There can be no automaticity, none whatsoever," he said.

Fournier: Obama Could be One of the Worst Presidents Ever.  The relatively unbiased, and certainly not right wing, Ron Fournier of National Journal said Monday evening [5/11/2015] that President Obama could go down as "one of the worst presidents in our nation's history" if Iran develops nuclear weapons under the deal he's negotating with them and it inspires Arab Middle Eastern states to start constructing their own nukes.  Well, I have bad news for the liberal historians who write history.  The deal allows Iran to construct a nuclear weapon, and the Gulf monarchies aren't just going to [passively observe].

The Mideast Maelstrom on Obama's Watch.  Rarely in the history of American foreign policy has a U.S. president been so fundamentally wrong about a vital region in the world, with lethal consequences.  President Barack Obama's legacy will be an unstable, roiling Middle East and North Africa.  His policies are enabling a more aggressive Iranian regime to spread its Shiite brand of Islamic jihad throughout the region and gain a path to becoming a nuclear armed state.  His withdrawal of all combat troops from Iraq in 2011, coupled with his abetting of the false hopes of the Arab Spring, have given rise to a strengthened Islamic State with ambitions for a transnational caliphate.

The Fool on the Hill.  America, the country Madeleine Albright once called the "indispensable nation", is suddenly nakedly and humiliatingly dispensable.  Two of the most important Gulf rulers have decided not to attend the summit on Iran president Obama scheduled in Washington.  It's a vital meeting on which the president has staked the future of his so-called historic initiatives. [...] It's diplomatic cream pie in the face.  The signals being sent from the region are scathing and dismissive.

Top Iran Commander: 'We Welcome War With The United States'.  A top commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) told a state-run media outlet on Wednesday [5/6/2015] that Iran is prepared to go to war with the United States and will even "welcome war" to show off Tehran's power.

Great Work, Obama: Saudi Arabia Looking to Add Nuclear Weapons to Counter Iran.  Obama's policies would be worthy of a Monty Python skit were they not vectoring all of us toward an apocalyptic endgame.  A nuclear arms race in the Middle East?  How's that Mitt Romney vote looking now, dimwits?

A Bad Iran Deal Must Be Stopped Now.  Skeptics about the looming nuclear accord with Iran may be taking comfort from the promises of Republican presidential candidates to tear up the treaty as soon as they reach the Oval Office.  They shouldn't be.  Even assuming a Republican wins the White House next year (hardly a certainty), pulling out of the agreement won't necessarily fix its defects.  In fact it could make the situation even worse.

Ted Cruz: The Blood of Millions Will Be on Obama's head if this Insane Iran Deal Goes Forward.  Sen. Ted Cruz is an outspoken critic of the Obama administration's bizarre deal to loosen sanctions on Iran and allow it to continue to develop nuclear weapons.  A complicit GOP establishment — including "craven moron" Bob Corker and the mendacious malignancy known as Mitch McConnell are Obama's co-conspirators — and have essentially ceded the Senate's Constitutionally authorized power to ratify any treaty signed by the Executive.  Ted Cruz — reviled by the hacks in both parties — is one of the few statesmen left in Congress willing to fight this insane abdication of sanity on the part of Obama and the GOP fogies.  Tonight [5/6/2015] Cruz took to the Senate floor to rip Obama's deal and the GOP Establishment's support for it.

The Obama Deceit Doctrine.  Americans (at least those paying any attention) know that Barack Obama routinely lies to fulfill the one promise he has not broken:  to "fundamentally transform America."  But what he has done to empower Iran and pave its way to develop nuclear weapons trumps even that boastful claim:  Obama wants to, and probably will, fundamentally transform the world.  When he campaigned in 2008 Barack Obama dismissed concerns over Iran:  it is just a "tiny" country that doesn't pose a threat to us the way the Soviet Union did during the Cold War.  This was absurd.  Singapore is tiny; Andorra is tiny; the Vatican is tiny; Iran is not tiny.

Report: Iranian Navy Chases After U.S. Warships.  An Iranian naval fleet chased a U.S. warship and military planes through the waters off the southern coast of Yemen late Monday [5/4/2015] in yet another provocative encounter between the two nations, according to Iranian state media reports.  A U.S. warship and several planes reportedly "changed their direction" on Monday after encountering an Iranian naval fleet during a patrol in the Gulf of Aden near Yemen, Iranian state media revealed.

Obama weighs offering Saudi Arabia weapons provided only to Israel.  The Obama administration is quietly pushing Sunni Arab allies in the Persian Gulf to create an advanced missile defense system, and is preparing to ramp up sophisticated weapons sales to Saudi Arabia in an effort to ease regional fears over a potential nuclear deal with Iran.  With Secretary of State John F. Kerry set to visit Saudi Arabia Wednesday [5/6/2015] and Thursday, officials privately say the administration is weighing whether to offer Riyadh — already a major buyer of American and European weaponry — GBU-28 bunker buster bombs Washington has so far only been willing to provide to Israel.

Obama cowers as Iran hijacks a U.S.-flagged ship.  The U.S. should not allow Iran to seize any ships but President Obama's Pentagon has found some lawyers who advised them they don't have to defend a seized ship sailing under the Marshall Islands flag, despite the fact that the Marshall Islands is a U.S. protectorate.  What a message.  If an ally's ship is seized, the U.S. will look for a lawyer to say they don't have to defend them.

Obama Has Sown the Seeds of War: The Middle East Arms Race Explodes.  As Obama's deal with Iran gets closer, the panicky Gulf States are asking for assurances, weapons and security pacts from Obama before they take matters in their own hands.  Can you spot the problems with anything Obama might promise them?  It's hard to take anything the man says seriously.  Would you stake the life of your country on his word?

Like the Iranians, the Saudis Think Obama Is Weak.  If we decipher the causes of the U.S.-Saudi breakdown, two specific events stand out.  First, the American withdrawal from Iraq in December 2011. That decision led to Iran's seizure of Iraqi political dialogue and to Iraq's sectarian fragmentation, delivering it into the hands of ISIS. Second, President Obama's repeated WMD "red line" impotence in Syria.  Repeated, because Assad has repeatedly murdered Syrian civilians with chlorine gas since his Ghouta massacre of August 2013.  These two events encouraged the Saudis to believe that President Obama is unreliable and uninterested in their concerns.

Obama Has Given Up On Guaranteeing Free Traverse of the Seas.  The United States has enforced the free transit across the seas for centuries.  Iran is now taking piratical prizes; and Obama, you will not be surprised to hear, is okay with that.  The seizing of the Maersk Tigris wasn't just an act of piracy; it was a declaration of a new order on the seas, and Obama has, as usual, bowed to a foreign potentate.

The Real Fatwa.  [Scroll down]  The biggest sign that things are going swimmingly comes from Washington, where the Obama willingness to favor, or at least tolerate, most any Iranian advance or demand has long since transcended shame and transmogrified into parody.  When Pentagon lawyers coughed up the outrageous view that our defense pact with the Marshall Islands doesn't require us to do a thing for their captured ship and hostage sailors (except maybe pay off the mullahs, I suppose), it removed all doubt that we were the pulling guard for Iran's end-run around law and order when and where they wish.

Clever new Rubio amendment to Corker's Iran bill: The final deal must match this month's WH "fact sheet".  You remember the "fact sheet," don't you?  That's the document the White House released on April 2nd, the day it reached a "framework" deal with Iran, describing the terms that Iran had allegedly agreed to.  Snap nuclear inspections of all suspicious sites, a greatly reduced number of centrifuges, delayed sanctions relief until Iran satisfied its denuclearization obligations — it wasn't half bad, and certainly better than what an Obama skeptic might have expected.  The only problem:  Apparently no one told Iran that this is the deal they had agreed to.

Biden: 'Path has already been paved' to Iranian bomb.  Iran would have enough enriched uranium within three months to be able to make up to eight nuclear weapons if negotiations with the international community blow up, Vice President Joe Biden said late Thursday [4/30/3015], noting that "the path has already been paved" for that outcome.  Biden's remarks at a dinner for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy played off concerns by critics, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that the Obama administration is negotiating an agreement that paves the path for Iran to get a nuclear weapon.

Iran nuclear deal: Obama's desperation is showing. And it's dangerous.  Rather than stand firm against Iran's regional expansionism and its constantly shifting nuclear redlines, the president has gone to great lengths to avoid alienating Tehran and repeatedly revised his own definition of success.  The result is that Iranian demands and red lines are dictating the contours of the emerging deal, instead of the interests of the U.S. and our Middle East allies forging the way ahead.

None Dare Call Them Treason: Obama's Iran Nuclear Weapons Deal & the Corker Bill.  The Islamic Republic of Iran, the world's number one state sponsor of terrorism, has been "fighting" the United States for almost 40 years.  And for the same period of time American policy toward Iran has been to prevent the Islamic Republic from acquiring nuclear weapons.  To advance that policy the United States Congress has imposed economic sanctions on Iran and past Presidents have made it clear that the United States was prepared to enforce that policy with all means necessary — implying at least the potential for military action if necessary to stop the Iranian nuclear weapons program.  The nuclear weapons deal President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have "negotiated" with Iran discards that wise policy and, in conjunction with legislation written and sponsored by Tennessee Republican Senator Bob Corker, the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015, turns American constitutional processes for ratifying a treaty with other nations on their head.

Iran Announces Obama will be Lifting Nuke Sanctions in July.  Our president has emboldened the Iranians so much that they feel comfortable telling Americans sanctions will be lifted in July while at the same time informing U.S. Senator Tom Cotton he will basically have nothing to say about it.  President Obama is allowing Iran to become a superpower in the region.  He has abandoned our allies and has embraced Iran for a terrible deal.  While Mr. Obama won't sit down or try to work with the Republican Congress, he will sit down with Iran and give them more power than he gives Congress.  Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif blasted Sen. Tom Cotton in a speech today [4/29/2015].  He said there will be a relief of sanctions in July, "whether Sen. Cotton likes it or not.

Report: Kerry Told Iran He Wishes 'U.S. Had a Leader like Iran's Supreme Leader'.  Secretary of State John Kerry told his Iranian counterpart that he wished the United States had a leader more like Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, according to comments made by a senior Iranian cleric and repeated in the country's state-run media.  Ayatollah Alam al-Hoda claimed during Friday prayer services in Iran that in negotiations over Tehran's contested nuclear program, Kerry told the country's foreign minister that he "wished the U.S. had a leader like Iran's supreme leader," according to a Persian-language report on the remarks published by the Asriran news site.

Pentagon lawyers discover we don't have to defend our allies if threatened by Iran.  Since the conclusion of the final round of nuclear negotiations, Iran has been engaging in conspicuous displays of aggression.  The U.S. Navy revealed on Tuesday [4/28/2015] that four Iranian Revolutionary Guards ships intercepted a Maersk cargo vessel in the Strait of Hormuz that was flying a U.S. flag.  The episode happened last week and ended without incident, but it was only revealed to the press after Iranian naval vessels performed a similar act of belligerence on Tuesday.

U.S. Navy Dispatches Vessels After Obama's Iranian Negotiating Partners Seize Allied Cargo Ship.  A ship traveling in international waters, owned by a company with significant ties to the U.S. government and flagged to the U.S.-protected Marshall Islands, was diverted under fire by Iranian naval forces to the port of Bandar Abbas.

Obama Lied About Iranian Nukes.  President Obama lied to the American people about the true nature of Iran's nuclear program, according to declassified material.  Add this to a litany of lies told by our president.

Obama Lied: He Has Known All Along That Iran is Only 4 Months From Making Atomic Bombs.  Obama and his corrupt regime attacked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for saying that Iran was only months away from being able to build its own nuclear weapons.  On the contrary, Obama insisted that Iran was a year or more away from that feat.  But now news has emerged that Obama lied.  He knew all along that Iran was only months away from the bomb.

Obama's credibility gap: The President has forfeited the people's trust in his nuclear negotiations with Iran.  In selling his nuclear deal with the Iranians, President Obama says that his "historic understanding" would "cut off every pathway that Iran could take to develop a nuclear weapon."  He asks the American people to trust his word and judgment.  That trust must be denied, because Obama hasn't been straight with the American people about Iran's nuclear capabilities.

Did Susan Rice Disclose Classified Info on Iran?  Bloomberg's Eli Lake reports Tuesday [4/21/2015] that the Obama administration kept secret until the beginning of April Iran's two to three month breakout time for a nuclear weapon, saying "the administration only declassified this estimate at the beginning of the month, just in time for the White House to make the case for its Iran deal to Congress and the public."  Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, speaking to reporters on Monday [4/20/2015], said that the administration has held this assessment for "quite some time."

Read the fine print on Iran.  The Obama administration has capitulated on so many aspects of the Iran deal that the press has learned not to take its statements at face value. [...] The administration is desperate for a deal.  Once it agreed to let Iran keep its facilities and thousands of centrifuges — and gave every indication it would not use force (What — you want war?!) — Iran could patiently wait to whittle down the administration's must-haves to pale imitations of their original form.  It is for this reason that the nub of the deal set out in the framework is unacceptable, and that Congress should insist the president start over.

Obama's Three Premises.  Obama's worldview is not consistent with the foundational heart of America's founding.  He sees nothing wrong whatsoever in his actions.  Thus, his opprobrium against America continues because we, as a nation, are wrong.  Our values are distorted; our strengths are our weaknesses; our foundations are ill-begotten and need to be dismantled.  His contempt for the nation is the correct reaction for Obama.  And thus, we find Obama will agree to a "phased-in relief to sanctions" for Iran with absolutely nothing in return but empty gestures.

State Department Won't Rule Out $50 Billion 'Signing Bonus' For Iran.  The State Department on Monday [4/20/2015] would not rule out giving Iran up to $50 billion as a so-called "signing bonus" for agreeing to a nuclear deal later this year, according to comments made to journalists following reports that the Obama administration had formulated a plan to release tens of billions of frozen Iranian funds.  Experts have said this multi-billion dollar "signing bonus" option, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, could be the largest cash infusion to a terror-backing regime in recent memory.  A cash release of $30 to $50 billion upon reaching a final nuclear agreement would come in addition to the more than $11 billion in unfrozen assets that Iran will already have received under an interim nuclear accord reached in 2013.

Congress Should Try to Kill the Iran Deal Now.  We thought we had a bad deal with Iran; then it looked like we didn't really have a deal at all.  Now it appears President Obama is doing everything he can to make whatever we have worse.

Obama Kept Iran's Short Breakout Time a Secret.  The Barack Obama administration has estimated for years that Iran was at most three months away from enriching enough nuclear fuel for an atomic bomb.  But the administration only declassified this estimate at the beginning of the month, just in time for the White House to make the case for its Iran deal to Congress and the public.

Watchdog Group: White House Gaslighting Journalists Over Iran.  The Obama administration has been gaslighting reporters over concessions to Iran that could release between $30 to $50 billion dollars in frozen Iranian assets as soon as a nuclear deal is signed, Washington DC-based watchdog the Israel Project accused on Monday [4/201/2015].  The group cited President Obama's move on Friday to placate Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei's latest demand for immediate sanctions relief upon signing a deal.  While the Obama administration insisted it had not shown flexibility and offered no new concessions, it was simultaneously preparing to phase out sanctions in such a way that would offer the Iranians immediate and significant economic relief, the Israel Project said.

The Corker Bill Is Worse Than Nothing.  The Iran deal is of significant enough national security consequence that it should be treated as a treaty, subject to the Constitution's condition precedent of supermajority approval (two-thirds) before it can be ratified.  To be sure, a practice has snowballed over the last century under which international understandings are treated as executive agreements not subject to the Constitution's treaty process.  This has happened largely because the number of international arrangements has increased, and most of them (though not all of them) are uncontroversial.  Nevertheless, this practice has not repealed the Constitution's treaty clause.

Obama's "breakout time" shell game.  Eli Lake shows that the Obama administration has been playing a shell game with the public when it comes to estimating Iran's nuclear "breakout time."  Behind closed doors, the White House has long estimated that Iran is three months (at the most) from developing enough fissile material for a nuke.  Until recently, however, Obama did not disclose this estimate.  Instead, he stated publicly that it would take Iran at least a year to develop nuclear weapons.

Obama's Iran Disaster.  I'm guessing that President Obama, despite his roots in Kenya and Indonesia, has never negotiated for a carpet or anything else in a Middle Eastern bazaar.  If his negotiations with Iran are any indication, he is the kind of innocent abroad who pays $100,000 for a carpet that's worth $100.  Already his talks with Iran have been characterized by American concession after American concession.

The Iran nuclear deal is unwritten, but it's the best we can do, Obama assures.  Remember the hundreds of thousands of new jobs certain to erupt by 2010 thanks to $1 trillion in extra Obama administration spending?  Remember how President Obama vowed swift justice to the murderers of four helpless Americans in Benghazi?  Remember how you can keep your doctor and health insurance under ObamaCare?  Remember how Obama promised to halt Iran's development of nuclear weapons because they would launch a nuclear arms race in the world's most volatile region and allow Iran to attempt its avowed erasure of Israel?  Well, folks, your favorite incumbent president is morphing again right before your disbelieving eyes.

When did America forget that it's America?  The Obama administration apparently believes that only after a nuclear agreement is signed can the free world expect Iran to stop its attempts at regional domination, improve its human rights record and, in general, behave like the civilized state it hopes the world will recognize it to be.

Iran's nukes are the greatest threat to peace in our time.  Iran is the world's biggest state sponsor of terror.  Iran's Aytatollahs are now trying to build their own nuclear weapons.  Iranian leaders have repeatedly threatened to annihilate Jewish families across the state of Israel.  Four years ago I authored a bipartisan Iran sanctions Legislation that passed the Senate by a vote of 100-0.  These sanctions forced Iran back to the negotiating table.  They were so effective they dropped the value of Iran's currency by 3/4.  This was probably the entire reason why the Iranians even showed up at the negotiations.

Obama on Russian Missile Sale to Iran: No Big Deal, They're Just 'Defensive'.  President Obama said today [4/17/2015] he's "surprised" that Russian President Vladimir Putin actually waited until now to sell missiles to the Iranians.

Obama's partners in peace rebuilding Hamas war machine in Gaza: tunnels, missiles and more.  No wonder Israeli liberals and conservatives alike have aligned to oppose Barack Obama's diabolical plan to give Iran the bomb.  They see what's going on in Gaza — where the Palestinian people are segregated from their fellow Arabs in Egypt by an apartheid wall that no one ever seems to mention — as Iran rebuilds its terror proxy Hamas in order to wage another war with Israel.

Levin: 'US Senate Just Capitulated to Obama,' and Rewrote the Constitution's Treaty Provision.  Nationally syndicated radio show host Mark Levin called out Senator Corker and the Republican-led Senate yesterday [4/14/2015] saying, "the United States Senate just capitulated to Obama," and "just rewrote the treaty provision of the Constitution."

Was History Made Today?  In case you haven't heard, the Senate today finally threw up a roadblock in front of Obama and his mad dash to give Iran the H-Bomb. [...] As far as I can recall this is the first time since his inauguration that one of Obama's pet policy objectives has been turned back at the door.  May this set a precedent for the final years of this disastrous presidency.

Netanyahu Not the Cause of Obama's Dislike of Israel.  [Scroll down]  Just last month, Barack Obama published classified information showing the world photographs of Israel's hidden nuclear site, and its inner workings.  It was his gift to Iran, Hamas, and ISIS. [...] Obama's inner identity is tied to Islam.  We all identify with the ethos of our formative years.  His father and stepfather were Islamic, as is his family back in Kenya and Indonesia.  His brothers are active Islamists.  He was raised on the Koran in Islamic countries, and attended Islamic madrassa and grew up with its attitudes, sights and sounds, aspirations and narrative, likes and dislikes.

Obama is the most dangerous president in history.  He lied when promising the world that the U.S. would never allow Iran's war fanatics to have nuclear weapons.  While Obama was demagogically repeating, "Never! Never!," his alter ego Val Jarrett carried on secret talks with the mullahs, resulting in today's total surrender.  Today we have a fuzzy "framework" (that Iran denies even agreeing to), which gives the world thirteen years before the mullahs can set off Armageddon.  After thirteen years, all bets are off, assuming the enemy doesn't violate its "promises" tomorrow, which it has a long history of doing.  This is not sane.

How the White House lost control on Iran.  It's not often that a White House gets clobbered on a major foreign policy initiative, unanimously, in Congress.  The Senate Foreign Relations Committee's 19-0 vote on the Corker-Cardin measure after virulent administration opposition up until this morning was the end result of a series of events that have rendered a thumbs-down verdict on the president's credibility in preventing a nuclear capable Iran.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee unanimously backs bill demanding congressional vote on Iran deal.  This is some nice maneuvering by Bob Corker around a president who's gotten used to blowing off Congress and having his party back him up on it.

Russian Missile Sales to Iran Cross White House 'Red Line'.  Russia's announcement on Monday [4/13/2015] that it will proceed with the sale of advanced missile systems to Iran crosses a so-called "red line" established by the Obama administration in 2010, according to comments by senior administration officials.  Following years of dissent from the United States, Russia announced on Monday [4/13/2015] that it would proceed with the sale of the advanced S-300 air defense missile system to Iran, which has been vying to purchase the hardware for years.  The announcement sparked criticism from the Obama administration, which has been pressuring Iran since at least 2010 to withhold the sale.

Don't Believe What Obama Says Iran Says.  For the past week President Barack Obama has been busy talking up an "historic understanding" with Iran.  Since April 2, when negotiators ended marathon talks and an overnight session in Lausanne with the announcement of a framework agreement on the future of Iran's nuclear program, the administration has been in overdrive trying to sell the arrangement to Congress (and wary Gulf countries) as a "good deal."  But what is the administration selling?  What is the deal?

Netanyahu told cabinet: Our biggest fear is that Iran will honor nuclear deal.  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a recent meeting of the security cabinet that if a comprehensive nuclear agreement between Iran and the six world powers is indeed signed by the June 30 deadline, the greatest concern is that Tehran will fully implement it without violations, two senior Israeli officials said.

Obama Deal With Iran Leaves a U.S. Marine Behind.  A Marine veteran has been held captive in Iran since August 2011, when he was taken prisoner while visiting family and charged with spying.  Does President Obama hear his plea for unconditional freedom?

How you know there's a huge problem with the Iran nuclear agreement.  You know there's a problem with the Iran nuclear agreement when The White House releases a fact sheet to the press outlining the agreement, and Iran issues a statement claiming the fact sheet is false... within 15 minutes.

Putin's Missile Could Make U.S. Attacks on Iran Nearly Impossible.  This nuke deal with Iran had better work.  Because the Kremlin is lifting a ban on selling a powerful air defense system to Iran that would render an air strike on Tehran's nuclear weapons facilities nearly impossible.

Obama's Iran 'Framework' Is a Chimera.  There is not, nor has there ever been, an Iran deal.  The "framework" the president announced last week was just a stunt.  As yet another negotiations deadline loomed with the president plainly unwilling to walk away despite Iranian intransigence, Congress appeared poised to end the farce by voting to stiffen sanctions.  The "framework" is a feint designed to dissuade Congress and sustain the farce.

Trouble for J Street? Liberal Jews Turn on Obama Over Iran Deal.  The top political and intellectual leaders of the Israeli left are coming out against President Obama's capitulation to Iran.  This development will impact the political dynamics in Israel, the American Jewish community, and the US-Israel relationship.  And it will leave J Street on the fringe, once again.  Israel's Labor Party opposition, known during the recent election campaign as the Zionist Union, issued an official press release on April 2 criticizing Obama's Iran deal.

Obama says partisanship wrangling over Iran nuclear deal 'needs to stop'.  President Obama said Saturday [4/11/2015] that partisan wrangling over the nuclear agreement with Iran has gone beyond pale and said the harsh criticism of the deal "needs to stop."  Obama said that Arizona Sen. John McCain had suggested Secretary of State John Kerry's explanations of the framework agreement in Iran were "somehow less trustworthy" than those of Iran's supreme leader.  "That's an indication of the degree to which partisanship has crossed all boundaries," an exercised Obama said in a news conference at the end of the two-day Summit of the Americas.

The Editor says...
Mr. Obama's partisanship has no known boundaries.  No doubt Mr. Obama would prefer that all criticism of him would stop.  He has this in common with dictators everywhere.

Read Obama's Lying Lips.  On November 4, 2008 Barack Obama was elected President in what many considered a landslide victory, winning the popular vote by 8 million votes.  One of his campaign slogans was "change we can believe in."  Let's take a look at what he said after being elected.  Here are some examples of his statements regarding Iran.  On July 1, 2010 he said, "the United States and the international community are determined to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons."  In the 2012 State of the Union address he again made his views clear by stating emphatically, "America is determined to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and I will take no options off the table to achieve that goal."

What If Nobody In Washington Knows How To Stop Iran Nukes?  Even if the framework the Obama administration has announced is the least bad option, it is still suboptimal.  What if the actual deal is worse than what's described in the State Department's so-called fact sheet?

Framework 'deal' more like nuclear Rorschach test.  Something unusual happened last week:  President Obama told the truth.  But don't worry, the State Department quickly told a lie to cover it up.  The short version is this:  The president said that in the 13th year after the nuclear "deal" with Iran, the Islamic republic will be able to build a nuclear bomb virtually on demand.

Thinking the unthinkable about Obama's Middle East Policy.  Just to recap, we have the Saudis already bombing [...] the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.  The Egyptians are bombing ISIS jihadists in Libya who slaughtered Coptic Christians.  There are credible reports of Iranian troops massing near the Israeli lines in the Golan Heights.  Thousands of suicidal Hamas fanatics, modern day troglodytes, are once again digging tunnels in Gaza and being re-armed by Iran.  And Iran's bootlicking spawn Hezb'allah, among the foremost virulent Jew haters on the planet, eagerly waits for orders to launch an estimated 40,000 well-entrenched surface-to-surface missiles into the Israeli population centers.  Plus, Hamas desires Abbas's untimely demise, and ISIS is out-tweeting Iran for bragging rights as the radical Islamic state most likely to restore a 9th century theocracy.

Why The Obama Admin Will Pretend Ayatollah Khamenei's Comments Were Never Made.  Not long after Israelis chose to keep Benjamin Netanyahu in office, White House Chief of Staff Dennis McDonough told J Street, the left wing anti-Israel Jewish organization, "We cannot simply pretend these comments were never made."  The comments in question were Bibi's declaration that there would never be a Palestinian state under his watch.  However, when it comes to Iran, the Obama Administration is modern day version of The Great Pretender.

White House admits lying to Congress and America on Iran deal.  Since announcing the nuclear weapons deal with Iran, we've documented numerous instances where Obama blatantly and callously lied about the substance of the deal in communications to Congress and the American people.  In the past three days other developments have taken place that demonstrate the extent to which Obama has lied about what the deal says.

Obama's Mindless Spin on Iran.  If one were to deny Barack Obama the use of straw-man attacks, misrepresentation of facts, accusations that opponents are operating in bad faith, and other non-sequiturs, one would hear mostly silence coming from the White House.  This administration is chronically incapable of having a serious argument with its opponents.

The Iran Deal And Its Consequences.  Iran's centrifuges have multiplied from about 100 at the beginning of the negotiation to almost 20,000 today.  The threat of war now constrains the West more than Iran.  While Iran treated the mere fact of its willingness to negotiate as a concession, the West has felt compelled to break every deadlock with a new proposal.  In the process, the Iranian program has reached a point officially described as being within two to three months of building a nuclear weapon.

Iran Repudiates Obama Deal, Will Use Military-Grade Centrifuges to Enrich Uranium.  Iran's foreign minister and lead nuclear negotiator, Mohammad Javad Zarif, told legislators that Iran would start feeding uranium into advanced centrifuges as soon as the nuclear deal with the P5+1 nations goes into effect, The Times of Israel reported today [4/8/2015].  Enriching uranium in advanced centrifuges would violate the parameters agreed to last week, according to American and French fact sheets showing their understandings of the deal.

Iran nuke deal is no deal at all.  The first thing one needs to know about the nuclear deal with Iran is that it is not, in fact, a deal.  The various parties to the talks did come away with an agreement, but it was an agreement to haggle more about what a deal might look like.  We don't have a good word for such things, so people use "deal" as a placeholder.

Obama's absurd Iran deal.  There goes the credibility of America's intelligence chiefs in judging President Obama's tentative framework of a nuclear deal with Iran.  "I certainly am pleasantly surprised that the Iranians have agreed to so much here," CIA Director John Brennan said Wednesday evening [4/8/2015].  Based on the terms touted by Obama as Iranian concessions, Brennan added:  "The individuals who say that this deal provides a pathway for Iran to a bomb are being wholly disingenuous."

Iran's Humiliation Of Obama Continues: Sanctions Must End Instantly When Deal Signed.  Eventually, Iran will go too far, the more sensible Europeans who negotiated against Obama and Iran in Lausanne will pull out, and the whole thing will be formally scuttled, probably before Congress has a chance to shoot it down with a bipartisan vote.  But meanwhile, the world's leading sponsors of terrorism are enjoying themselves tremendously at Obama's expense.

Iran pulls the rug from under Obama.  President Obama wanted a deal with Iran so badly that he thought he actually had one.  However, today President Rouhani of Iran spelled it out for him.  The deal he had isn't the one he thought he had.

Carly Fiorina: Iran Talks Have Failed Negotiating 101.  Carly Fiorina, former chairman and CEO of Hewlett Packard, said President Obama is "rewarding bad behavior" with the Iran nuclear deal, adding that the president should have stopped talking to Iran after the first 6-month deadline for an agreement passed.  "The reason I say that is because we have been sending signals to Iran and to everyone else in the world that bad behavior will be rewarded.  Why do I say that?  Think about Iran's behavior over decades," Fiorina said during a discussion at Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Ex-secretaries of state Kissinger, Shultz pan Obama's Iran nuclear deal.  The former top diplomats said that the framework agreement with Iran effectively concedes any option of using military force to compel Iranian compliance.

Obama's Right.  Now I consider the agreement Obama has negotiated a dishonorable and dangerous product of appeasement, and so it pains me to side with him against political figures I admire and generally support.  Nevertheless, I have to confess that I think he is right in arguing that the only alternative to a deal is war.  By this I do not mean that war is the only alternative to Obama's deal alone.  What I mean is that war is the only alternative to any deal the Iranians would be willing to sign — if, that is, the purpose is really to prevent them from getting the bomb.

Iran Framework Deal: Greatest Political Hoax Ever?  I have fallen into the trap almost everyone has, in referring to an Iran "nuke deal" and "Framework deal."  Based on what the White House has revealed, the "deal" is a very bad deal, as we have explored here repeatedly:  It purports to give Iran its dual goals of maintaining and improving its nuclear infrastructure while removing sanctions and ensuring the economic viability of the oppressive Mullah regime.  But it's even worse.  Based upon statements made after the initial announcements, it's clear that there is no deal, just enough vague verbiage to allow each side to portray the "deal" however it wants.  There is no meeting of minds, not binding contract, nothing.

Obama's Partners in Peace: The complete obliteration of Israel in another Holocaust is "nonnegotiable".  Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Naqdi, the commander of Iran's Basij militia, said in an interview that "erasing Israel off the map" is "nonnegotiable," The Times of Israel reported today [3/31/2015].

When Iran tests its first nuclear weapon, Obama should be forced to return his Nobel Peace Prize.  Only fools express any trust in Obama these days or the Iranians who have made him look the fool when no one in their neighborhood or the world trusts a thing they say or do.  After more than six years of listening to President Obama's unremitting lies, when he says of the latest "accord" with Iran, "It's a good deal" and standing in the Rose Garden declares that the U.S. and Iran have reached "an historic understanding" the only history being made his own ignominy and idiocy.

Obama: Recognition of Israel won't be part of Iran deal.  It's not exactly a secret that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes the terms of the framework for the deal with Iran on their nuclear program, but he offered a suggestion to improve it this week:  demand that Iran recognize the state of Israel and its right to exist.  If the Iranians want to create a peaceful nuclear energy program and refrain from using the economic windfall to sponsor regional terrorism and insurrection, what better way to show it than to open normal diplomatic relations with Jerusalem?

Beauty Queen Barack and the Tehran Mullahs: Partners in peace.  [Scroll down]  Mr. Obama has pinned all his hopes and his legacy on achieving world peace with the Mullahs of Iran.  Yes, these are the same Mullahs who shout "Death to America!"  Who call us the "Great Satan." [...] Even as they sponsor rogue terrorists.  Openly fund radical Islamists hellbent on suicidal annihilation of modern civilization.  They call us the "Great Satan" as they openly and brazenly provide arms to Hamas jihadists who lob missiles at civilians trying to live peaceably in Israel.  They call us "Great Satan" as they vow to obliterate Israel from the map of the Middle East.  Truly, the only hint of modernity these robed savages seem to embrace is the atomic bomb.  Or as President Obama calls it, peaceful, civilian energy production.  Yes, in the land of unlimited oil in every direction, Iran is just innocently looking for cheap fuel that is vastly expensive to manufacture and use.

Obama Faces New Opposition from Congress over Iran Deal.  The president assumed that he would be able to bypass Congress altogether or render them ineffectual in obtaining a final nuclear deal with Iran.  He did not seem to take into account that Republicans won a majority of both houses in 2014.  Nor did he grasp the fact that many in Congress, both Democrat and Republican, resented being bypassed and ignored for seven years and having their constitutional responsibilities usurped.  Congressional pushback came in the form of the Iran Nuclear Agreement Act of 2015, put forth with bipartisan support by the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn).

Mark Levin explains what Congress should do with Obama's Iran nuke deal.  Mark Levin said he had a brilliant idea this weekend on what Congress should do with Obama's nuclear deal with Iran.  Based on the Constitution, Levin explains that the Senate should treat the deal like a treaty and vote on it.  And if it doesn't pass, it's done.  [Audio clip]

Obama Admits His Plan Will End With Iran Getting The Bomb.  President Obama admitted in an NPR interview Tuesday morning [4/7/2015] that Iran will end up with the bomb in the end.  "What is a more relevant fear would be that in Year 13, 14, 15, they have advanced centrifuges that enrich uranium fairly rapidly, and at that point, the breakout times would have shrunk almost down to zero," Obama said.

The Brutality of Obama and the Left.  If [Wesley] Pruden is correct, the president, along with the rest of the left, wants an enemy to develop nuclear weapons in order to diminish the U.S.  Iran is developing ICBMs, too.  The implications are stunning. Any deal Obama strikes with Iran will only be about forestalling nuclear weapons attainment.  The consequences of Obama humbling his own nation: a nuclear armed Iran sparks a Middle Eastern nuclear arms race.  (Sunni Saudi Arabia won't tolerate Shia Iran menacing it.)  Iran, with delivery capability, can strike targets in the U.S. Thirty-six years of hatred toward America, and calling for America's death, by Iran can't be shrugged off.

Tough Sell: Obama Ramps Up Lobbying Campaign On Iran Deal.  Defending an emerging nuclear deal, President Barack Obama said Iran would be kept a year away from obtaining a nuclear weapon for more than a decade, but conceded Tuesday [4/7/2015] that the buffer period could shrink to almost nothing after 13 or more years.

Echoes of Clinton in Obama's awful Iran deal.  In announcing his nuclear framework, the president declared:  "This agreement is good for the United States, good for our allies, and good for the safety of the entire world."  He said the deal requires them to "freeze [their] existing nuclear program and to accept international inspection of all existing facilities."  He said the agreement "does not rely on trust.  Compliance will be certified by the International Atomic Energy Agency."  The president who spoke those words was not Barack Obama.  It was Bill Clinton, on Oct 18, 1994, announcing that his administration had reached agreement on a nuclear framework with North Korea.  Twelve years later, North Korea exploded a nuclear bomb.

Obama's Iran Deal is Utterly Insane.  This deal would pose a grave danger to the region and to the world and would threaten the very survival of the State of Israel.  The deal would not shut down a single nuclear facility in Iran, would not destroy a single centrifuge in Iran and will not stop R&D on Iran's advanced centrifuges.  On the contrary.  The deal would legitimize Iran's illegal nuclear program.  It would leave Iran with a vast nuclear infrastructure.  A vast nuclear infrastructure remains in place.

Iranian President: All Sanctions, Boycotts, Embargos Will Be Gone Forever on Day One.  According to Fars News Agency, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani dismissed the US officials' claims that Tehran and the world powers have agreed on the suspension of the sanctions against Iran, reiterating that boycotts and embargos will be lifted forever under a final deal.  "During the negotiations, we have always planned for the termination of the economic, financial and banking sanctions and we have never negotiated on their suspension, otherwise, no understanding would be made," Rouhani said on Sunday [4/5/2015].  Secretary of State John Kerry said they will be phased out.

NPR: The Deal Struck with Iran Was Not the Deal Announced by President.  NPR aired a fascinating segment Saturday morning [4/4/2015].  "Iranian and American officials are busy selling the deal back home, but it does seem as if they're talking about two different agreements."

Iran framework: Not good, not a deal.  On the most general level, the Obama administration, which once called for ending Iran's nuclear weapons program, is now copacetic with a radical Islamist state, a state sponsor of terror devoted to the destruction of Israel, retaining a nuclear weapons infrastructure capable of making multiple bombs.  To believe that we will cut off all pathways to Iran's development of a nuclear weapon with a deal such as this is to ignore the nature of the regime, its current and past history in obstructing inspections, the veto power we have given to the United Nations Security Council to resolve disputes about violations and a multiplicity of concessions already suggested in the framework.

Obama Undermines His Own Case for the Iran Deal.  [Scroll down]  Here's the catch: Two days earlier, at the announcement of the framework agreement, Obama praised the efficacy of renewing sanctions in case Iran cheats.  "If Iran violates the deal," he said.  "Sanctions can be snapped back into place."  All of this presents a major problem for Obama and his team as they try to sell their deal to a skeptical Congress.  If Obama doesn't think the sanctions that have cut off Iran's banks from the international finance system and blocked the Tehran government from legally selling its oil will halt the regime's nuclear program, why does he think snapping them back would deter Iran from cheating?

After nuclear framework, will Obama be able to confront Iran?  Perhaps Obama's greatest liability as his administration looks to push the Iran talks across the finish line is the concern that this arrangement would embolden Iran and that the lifting of sanctions might allow the Iranian regime to devote even more resources to anti-American interests.  Obama is willing to gamble that a nuclear deal he sees as central to his legacy will not send the Middle East spiraling further into chaos.

Munich, Anyone? Obama's Iran Agreement in Translation.  When Barack Obama told us on dozens of occasions that we could keep our previous health plan and doctor under the Affordable Care Act, he was doing it for one of two reasons.  Either he was ignorant of his own legislation (unlikely) or he was deliberately lying to get it passed.  He knew best what was good for us and if he had to prevaricate, so be it.  The so-called framework agreement on Iranian nuclear activities is almost exactly the same.

Sen. Bob Corker Pushes Congressional Review Of Iran Deal On Fox News.  Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), appeared on Fox News Sunday [4//2015] saying discrepancies on the political framework agreement between the U.S and Iran reveal the necessity for congressional review of any final deal.  The Senate Foreign Relations Committee plans to vote April 14 on Corker's "Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015."

Our Once-In-A-Lifetime President.  Obama has learned not to repeat the grandiose claims of his first-term Cairo speech about what a difference he himself being president can make.  Indeed, he's learned to cloak his deep narcissism in a matter-of-fact pseudo-realism of the kind he displays in the Friedman interview.  But the "once-in-a-lifetime" claim is the giveaway.  The claim doesn't make any sense unless he thinks that once he, Barack Obama, is no longer president, the opportunity will be gone.  Only he, Barack Obama, can pull this off.  Not Hillary Clinton or Marco Rubio a few years from now, after the biting sanctions of 2012 have been allowed time to put more pressure on the Iranian regime.  No.  It has to happen now if it's to happen at all.  Because only Barack Obama, Barack Obama truly believes, can make this historic and transformative deal happen.

More about Obama's narcissism.

Obama is no Neville Chamberlain.  Like Andreas Lubitz, the president knows what he's doing.  He does not believe that the Iranians, the world's third greatest oil exporters, are interested in generating nuclear energy.  He does not believe that the mullahs will fail to cheat on any agreement, or fail to use the revenue flowing in with the lifting of sanctions to fund global terrorism.  He does not believe that there will be much will to reimpose sanctions on the part of countries profiting from trade with Iran.  What the president is depressed about as he takes the country lower and lower is America's arrogance and America's role as a neo-colonialist exploiter.  The prospective agreement with Iran is not appeasement.  It's suicide.

Israel must explode a nuclear device.  When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.  The same principle applies to nuclear weapons.  When only North Korea and the sadistic theocracy of Iran have nukes, sane nations must show their willingness to use overwhelming power.  Charles de Gaulle built an independent French nuclear deterrent because he would not trust the United States to protect France.  In the long term he was right.  Obama has broken faith with all our allies, and Putin is pressing his advantage.  He has the nukes, and the Ukraine was talked into giving up its nuclear weapons.  Obama has made the word inestimably more dangerous and brutal, because he is dangerous and brutal himself.

Washington Post hammers Obama's Iran deal as a catastrophic mistake.  Noting that President Barack Obama's stated goals for an acceptable nuclear deal with Iran in 2012 would see Tehran "'[...] end their nuclear program' and 'abide by the U.N. resolutions that have been in place,'" an unsigned staff editorial published today [4/4/2015] in The Washington Post laments that the president has retreated "a long way" from these positions.

The Tricks Obama Is Trying to Play with the Iran Announcement.  If you look at what happened today between the U.S. and Iran through the lens of domestic American politics, Barack Obama has made a very clever play here — because what might be called "the agreement of the framework of the possibility of a potential deal" gives him new leverage in his ongoing battle with the Senate to limit its ability to play a role in the most critical foreign-policy matter of the decade.  The "framework" codifies the Obama administration's cave-ins but casts them as thrilling reductions in Iran's capacities rather than what they are — a pie-in-the-sky effort to use inspections as the means by which the West can "manage" the speed with which Iran becomes a nuclear power.

Iran has a Pet BaRock.  The creator of the iconic Pet Rock passed away just the other day, but following Obama's "negotiations" with Iran, it is now clear that the president may in fact be the 2015 equivalent.

We Have a Deal with Iran, and It Looks Like They Got Almost All They Wanted.  There isn't really a deal, there are just "parameters," and much of the explicit wording of them won't even be made public.  The details of the deal are supposed to be decided by the end of June, and it's not clear that they will become public then, either.  The actual interim agreement under which Iran, the U.S., international agencies, and others have been operating under for a year and a half now has never been made public.  The details, such as they are, are seriously worrisome.

"Diplomacy has brought war upon us".  The world powers assembled at Lausanne, Switzerland, with the representatives of the Islamic Republic may or may not reach a framework deal regarding Iran's nuclear program.  But succeed or fail, the disaster that their negotiations have unleashed is already unfolding.  The damage they have caused is irreversible.

Missing From the Iran Deal Announcement: Ballistic Missiles.  The framework agreement on Iran's nuclear program announced in Switzerland on Thursday [4/2/2015] has no direct reference to reining in Tehran's ballistic missile activities, despite international concerns that the Iranians in past years carried out work relating to developing a nuclear payload for a missile.

The Iran nuke deal: Another Obama bungle.  Boy do I have a deal for you.  Give me enough money to build a fancy new house, and I promise I won't try to blow up yours.  You can even check my basement to make sure I'm not stockpiling dynamite.  Oh, and I promise I won't try to buy any explosives from those shady characters I hang out with or hide what I already have in a storage unit somewhere else.  Sound like a good bargain?  Well, in simple terms, it pretty much describes the framework the Obama administration has signed on to in order to persuade Iran to give up its quest to build nuclear weapons.

A deal with Iran built on lies.  Everything about the so-called deal with Iran, including the reputations of the men who negotiated it, is a lie.  It's likely to be a deadly lie for millions of people who will die on account of it.  The world should mark well everyone responsible for it.  The first lie is that an agreement for more talk is already "a deal."  So far the only agreement is to further pursue "a deal."  President Obama couldn't wait to take a victory lap.  But not even Mr. Obama, desperate to make something he can call "a deal," says there's an actual deal.  Look closely at the slippery "clinton clauses," as they were once called, in his announcement Thursday:  "I am convinced that if this framework leads to a final comprehensive deal, it will make our country, our allies and our world safer."  That was Lie No. 2.  There's nothing in the "framework" that leads to a conclusion like that.

The Iran Deal's Fatal Flaw.  We don't yet know all the details of the nuclear agreement that Iran, the United States and five other world powers announced Thursday [4/2/2015] they are aiming to complete by June 30.  What we do know is that any acceptable final deal will depend on a strong weapons inspection element.  In his remarks in the Rose Garden, President Obama declared Tehran had agreed to precisely that.  "If Iran cheats, the world will know," he said.  Yet weapons inspectors can be no tougher than the body that empowers them — in this instance the UN Security Council.  And herein lies the agreement's fundamental weakness — and perhaps its fatal flaw.

The Shape of Things to Come.  President Obama's vow to seek support in Congress for his proposed deal with Iran reminds us of the Norway Debate.  This is the argument that erupted in the Mother of Parliaments in May 1940, after the Nazis invaded Norway.  When the debate began, the architect of the Munich appeasement, Neville Chamberlain, was still prime minister.  By the time it was over, Chamberlain was out and Churchill had been handed up as the war premier.

Agents of the Enemy.  If any further evidence was needed to show that the nuclear talks with Iran were a tragic farce, choreographed and orchestrated by Iran, the startling revelations from a former top aide to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani ought to do the trick.  "The US negotiating team are mainly [in Lausanne] to speak on Iran's behalf with other members of the 5+1 countries and convince them of a deal," he told an opposition television network in London.

A Naïve Deal with Iran Tops Obama's Bungled Mideast Policy.  Obama has doggedly pursued negotiations aimed at restricting Iran's access to a nuclear weapon even though the mullahs in Tehran have done nothing to prove their peaceful intentions.  They have continued and even expanded their proxy wars throughout the Middle East, while also refusing to answer questions about their presumed development of advanced weapons.  In the talks, they have conceded almost nothing.  Notwithstanding Iran's intransigence, the United States, which is orchestrating the talks, has apparently backtracked on demands that Iran shut down most of its centrifuges, ship its stockpile of enriched uranium out of the country, close or permanently disable its once-secret underground facility at Fordo and answer questions raised by the IAEA about its research on possible delivery systems.

Surprise: Israel catches Obama in major Iran nuke flip-flop.  Like your doctor, keep your doctor.  He 'evolved' on gay marriage.  He's against wiretapping American citizens.  He's drawing a "red line" with Syria on its use of chemical weapons.  Yada yada yada.  So, I ask you drones, leftists and other miscreants:  why would you believe anything this man says, ever?

President Obama Must Not Complete a Disastrous Deal With Iran.  Barack Obama has been compared to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who concluded the ill-fated Munich Pact with Hitler in 1938.  But Chamberlain acted out of a sincere belief that he was avoiding a greater evil.  Chamberlain was not thinking of his place in history.  He was thinking only of the Britain that he loved, a Britain that was all but disarmed, exhausted, and vulnerable. [...] In sharp contrast, Mr. Obama is acting out of personal aggrandizement.  He believes he is replicating President Richard Nixon's historic opening of China.  For Mr. Obama, the Iranian nuclear arms deal is about his place in history.

What else is Iran hiding?  We don't know all that has transpired in the talks on Iran's nuclear program being conducted in Switzerland, but we do know that the White House has shied away from a potentially paralyzing issue:  the "possible military dimensions" — the PMDs — of the regime's program.  As Olli Heinonen, a former No. 2 at the International Atomic Energy Agency, has warned, outsiders really can have no idea where and how fast the mullahs could build a nuclear weapon unless they know what Iranian engineers have done in the past.

Washington Post Rips Obama-Iran Nuke Deal: Would Reward Terror State's Past Violations.  The question of whether to trust Iran's claims that its nuclear program is purely for peaceful purposes can be answered by a single issue:  "Iran's failure to deliver on multiple pledges to answer questions about its suspected research on nuclear warheads," a staff editorial in The Washington Post asserted on Saturday [3/28/2015].

Teeing It Up To Serve Iranian Interests?  Despite our good faith negotiating with Iran (i.e. faithfully promising to serve Iranian interests while running interference for them with the other European delegates) the Ayatollah's team pulled a fast one at the last minute.  Now they want to keep all of the enriched uranium they have been manufacturing for the past 5 years instead of giving it to Russia for safe keeping (Ha ha!  That's a good one too:  "give it to Russia for 'safe keeping'.")

Americans Support Nuclear Deal With Iran?  For the Obama administration, this is all about politics (unless Obama really is the Manchurian President, and he wants to empower Islamic extremists).

The hidden truth about Iran's nuclear program.  Last month, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) exposed a secret Iranian facility used to conduct research and enrichment with advanced centrifuge machines for the nuclear weapons program.  The revelation of this secret site, named Lavizan-3 in northeast Tehran, was met with panic and hysteria by the Mullahs in Iran, and was taken seriously by Members of Congress.  But what have the nuclear negotiators done?

Etiquette Versus Annihilation.  Recent statements from United Nations officials, that Iran is already blocking their existing efforts to keep track of what is going on in their nuclear program, should tell anyone who does not already know it that any agreement with Iran will be utterly worthless in practice.  It doesn't matter what the terms of the agreement are, if Iran can cheat.

Obama, son of anarchy in the scrambled Middle East.  As the Arab Spring has been followed by a long, hot summer of Middle Eastern warfare, President Obama's vision of stable, reasonably democratic states is increasingly preposterous.  His boast that "the tide of war is receding" under his watch is laughable.  And his desperation to strike a nuclear deal with the Israel- and Western-hating mullahs of Iran increasingly seems a desperate push to claim any accomplishment in the region by ignoring the facts on the ground.

Obama Creates Chaos and Calls it 'Peace'.  President Obama has surrendered to Iran's fanatical thirst for nukes, and now all of Iran's Muslim enemies are going to war, because they understand the mullahs a lot better than Obama does.  A huge regional war is breaking out between the two biggest enemies in Islam, the Sunnis and Shi'ites.  This war has its roots in Ayatollah Khomeini, Jimmy Carter's favorite Islamofascist "spiritual leader," who was allowed to take over the 70 million people of Iran by the terminally delusional Carter regime.  But our guy Obama has made everything worse, by siding with the two most extreme and murderous forces in the region, the mullahs of Iran on the Shi'ite side, and the Muslim Brotherhood on the Sunni side.

Iranian Defector: Barack Obama wants Iran to get nukes.  Two more data points that offer additional evidence that Barack Obama is doing his level best to see Iran acquire nuclear weapons.

Obama is charging toward an Iran deal, no matter what.  After years of talks with Iran, world powers see a light at the end of the tunnel.  Israel, however, sees only darkness.  The idea of Iranian nuclear weapon is surreal and frightening.  But by Tuesday [3/31/2015], it may be a fact on the ground.  This is truly crazy.

Richard Engel: Military officials say allies 'simply don't trust' U.S. under Obama.  NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel said Friday that military officials believe U.S. allies in the Middle East no longer trust the Obama administration with sensitive intelligence information. Mr. Engel was asked to explain the complexity U.S. foreign policy as it pertains to Iran and its effect on diplomacy in the region.  The Obama administration is fighting Iran-backed actors in the Middle East while backing others — sometimes within the same country — all while trying to negotiate a deal on its nuclear program before the end of the month.

Obama Admin Threatens U.S. Allies for Disagreeing with Iran Nuke Deal.  Efforts by the Obama administration to stem criticism of its diplomacy with Iran have included threats to nations involved in the talks, including U.S. allies, according to Western sources familiar with White House efforts to quell fears it will permit Iran to retain aspects of its nuclear weapons program.  A series of conversations between top American and French officials, including between President Obama and French President Francois Hollande, have seen Americans engage in behavior described as bullying by sources who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon.

Report: President Obama Threatens France For Not Supporting Iranian Nuclear Deal.  Several media sources have stated over the past two weeks that France is not happy with the rushed acquiescence inherent within a dangerous nuclear deal with Iran.  Last week, citing her own first-hand (eye-witness) information — CBS's State Dept. Correspondent, Margaret Brennan, who is traveling with the negotiation team, stated the French contingent was highly concerned about how Secretary Kerry seemed to be rushing for a deal regardless of consequence.

Israeli official brands emerging Iran deal as 'incomprehensibly' bad.  As Iran hailed "massive progress" toward a deal on its nuclear program, an Israeli official described the terms of the looming agreement as "incomprehensibly" bad and rejected the Obama administration's contention that it would keep the regime a year away from accumulating enough fissile material for a bomb

America's New Role: As Iran's Air Force.  Perhaps it's time to rename the USAF (U.S. Air Force) as the IAF (Iranian Air Force).  That, at least, is the only conclusion I can draw from news reports that the U.S. is now conducting bombing as well as surveillance flights in support of the Iranian-directed forces that are besieging Tikrit.  The operation, launched almost entirely by Shiite militias under the supervision of Gen. Qassem Suleimani, head of the Iranian Quds Force, began on March 2.  The Iraqis were quite proud of the assistance they received from Iran, which included Iranian tanks and rockets arriving in Iraq.

Report: Obama/Kerry Agree To Allow Iran Continued Operation of Underground Fortified Nuclear Enrichment Bunkers.  The United States is considering letting Tehran run hundreds of centrifuges at a once-secret, fortified underground bunker in exchange for limits on centrifuge work and research and development at other sites, officials have told The Associated Press.

Obama Sells Out Israel to Iran.  The timing of the disclosure puts to rest any notion that President Obama acted out of spite for Bibi Netanyahu's election win last week — but this is still a sellout of Israel, and the reason for it is plain.

Obama-Iran Nuke Deal Keeps Getting Crazier.  My short take: virtually the Western world opposes Obama's horrific Iran deal that will allow the terror state to continue to enrich uranium and eventually deliver nuclear warheads through ICBMs or its terror proxy, Hezbollah.  As a result of their opposition to the deal, Obama has targeted Israel (by repeatedly revealing Top Secret information that harms the security posture of the Jewish state) and any allies that dare speak up against the deal (e.g., France).  Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia and Iran are now engaging in a proxy war in Yemen (which Obama claimed was a success story just six months ago) as ISIS continues its expansionary efforts.

Obama's Naïve Iran 'Deal' Cloaked in Islamic Deception?  When PLO leader, Yasser Arafat, negotiated a "peace" treaty with Israel, he was criticized by other Muslims for conceding too much. Arafat responded with, what would be to the West, a cryptic response.  "I see this agreement as being no more than the agreement signed between our Prophet Muhammad and the Quraish in Mecca."  This reference is to a peace treaty between Muhammad and his Quraish opponents in Mecca in 628, in which Muhammad broke the treaty after 2 years, claiming a Quraish infraction.  In justifying his actions, Muhammad said, "If I take an oath and later find something else better, I do what is better and breach my oath."

US may let Tehran run hundreds of centrifuges at a once-secret bunker.  The United States is considering letting Tehran run hundreds of centrifuges at a once-secret, fortified underground bunker in exchange for limits on centrifuge work and research and development at other sites, officials have told The Associated Press.

Bam's disastrous deals.  The Army has now charged Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, swapped last spring from captivity in Afghanistan for five top Taliban commanders, as a deserter who endangered his fellow soldiers' safety.  Five of the worst of the worst, for a deserter.  And that was President Obama's idea of a trade worth celebrating in a Rose Garden ceremony.  So how can the nation possibly trust this president to make a deal over Iran's drive to build nuclear weapons?

White House on Ayatollah's 'Death to America': 'Intended for Domestic Political Audience'.  On Monday [3/23/2015], the White House dismissed Ayatollah Khamenei's "Death to America" rhetoric, telling CNN that it was "intended for a domestic political audience."  That comment came on the heels of White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest explaining that such rhetoric provided even more reason for negotiating a deal with the Iranian regime.

Obama Tacitly Endorses Iranian EMP Attack on U.S..  Last month in a speech to his air force commanders, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, boasted of Tehran's achievement in enriching uranium to the 20% level.  A BBC transcript of his speech showed that twice the assembled air force commanders chanted, "Death to America."  Is there something about this that President Obama does not understand?

Cotton: Obama Treating Iran like Legitimate Democracy as Ayatollah Chants 'Death to America'.  Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) took to the Senate floor Monday to question President Barack Obama's decision to trust and negotiate with Iran's Ayatollah.  Citing Iran's track record of funding terrorism, inciting hatred towards Israel and America, and its likelihood not to keep their word, Cotton used one of his first floor speeches to disparage the president's attempts to cut a nuclear deal.  Cotton took aim at President Obama's message to Iranians, in which he encouraged Iranians to push their leadership to accept a nuclear deal.  Cotton said the president's strategy was naive.

367 House lawmakers warn Obama on Iran.  A veto-proof, bipartisan majority of House lawmakers have signed an open letter to President Barack Obama warning him that any nuclear deal with Iran will effectively require congressional approval for implementation.  A group of bipartisan senators have penned a bill mandating that any deal be reviewed and approved by Congress, but the House letter notes that lawmakers have another way to halt an agreement — by refusing to roll back sanctions.

Majority of U.S. House signs letter to Obama warning of opposition to Iran deal.  For liberals, opposition to Republicans is as much about defending President Barack Obama's honor as it is in opposing the GOP's policies.  The left's antipathy toward the GOP is shared by many in the political press, which spent the better part of the last two months defending the president's patriotism, his devotion to the Christian faith, and examining the basis for charging 47 Republican senators with violating the Logan Act.  The president's good name, not his policies, moves the left to rise to his defense.  It was this impulse that inspired the Democratic base and their allies in the media to embrace the logic behind the asinine "47 traitors" campaign.

Obama Resurrects his 'Fairytale Fatwa'.  This week isn't the first time that President Barack Obama would have us believe the Fairytale Fatwa that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has issued a fatwa against the development of nuclear weapons.  "Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has issued a fatwa against the development of nuclear weapons, and President Rouhani has said that Iran would never develop a nuclear weapon," Obama said [CNS News, 3/21/2015].

Obama: 'Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei Has Issued Fatwa Against Development of Nuclear Weapons'.  President Barack Obama said this week that the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, has isued a fatwa against the development of nuclear weapons.  "Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has issued a fatwa against the development of nuclear weapons, and President Rouhani has said that Iran would never develop a nuclear weapon," Obama said.  Other administration officials — including Secretary of State John Kerry and Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes — have previously referred to the ayatollah's reported fatwa in the context of the ongoing nuclear negotations with Iran.

The President Pretends We Are on the Same Side as the Iranian Regime.  Obama has us living in an alternative universe.  It's absolutely absurd to pretend they are our allies.

Our Supreme Leader is a Supreme Fool.  Whatever the sophisticated thinking behind it, Obama's strategy looks like appeasement.  It certainly has a lot in common with it.  Indeed, we seem to have entered the tertiary stage of appeasement, in which wishful thinking and self-deception are the dominant characteristics.  To take one example, I give you President Obama's annual statement on Nowruz, the Persian new year.

Obama Addresses His People — in Iran!  So here's the president of the United States speaking to the people of Iran.  He is in the process of arranging and negotiating a nuclear deal with the mullahs of Iran, which will give them a nuclear weapon in ten years, if we are to believe what we're being told about the deal.

Obama Claims Republicans are Just Like Iranian Terrorists As He Celebrates Another Muslim Holiday.  During the video statement where he slobberingly told the Iranian Mullahs that he was celebrating another Muslim holiday in the White House, Obama went on to lie that the Ayatollah issued a fatwa against nuclear arms and then said that Republicans are just like the Iranian hardliners and terrorists who won't let our two countries work together. [...] As Obama celebrated the Muslim holiday of Nowruz (to be clear this one is a non-religious holiday) in the White House — just one of the many Muslim holidays Obama has observed as president — he sent a video statement to Iran.

Obama courts Iran in charm offensive.  The Obama administration is turning on the charm, as it aims to secure the framework of a nuclear deal with Iran before a negotiating deadline later this month.  In the last week, both President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama have taken time to recognize Nowruz, the Persian New Year, as has Secretary of State John Kerry, who on Friday morning [3/20/2015] sent condolences to the Iranian president over his mother's death.  Obama used his annual Nowruz message, which was released Thursday evening, to implore the Iranian people to "speak up for the future we seek."

AP Reporter to State Dept: Why 'Over the Top' Condolences for Iran, State Terror Sponsor?  Associated Press reporter Matt Lee questioned the State Department on Friday [3/20/2015] about why the U.S. seems to be giving "over the top" condolences to Iran for the death of its president's mother, and asked specifically whether it has anything to do with gaining leverage with ongoing nuclear talks.  "I'm just wondering, aren't you guys laying it on a bit thick here?" Lee asked.  "Is there something that you're expecting in terms of Iranian concessions in the negotiations with this display?"

Intelligence community softens Iran threat rhetoric amid Obama nuclear talks.  The intelligence community's public statements on Iran this year in some cases are milder about the threat posed by Tehran than in previous years.  The "worldwide threat assessment" has been released as the Obama administration negotiates a nuclear deal with Tehran and relies on Iran's battlefield leadership to reverse gains by the Islamic State terrorist army in Iraq.

Obama urges Iranians to accept 'historic' nuke deal.  President Obama addressed the Iranian people directly in a video message Thursday night [3/19/2015], saying the U.S. and Iran have "an historic opportunity" to resolve Tehran's nuclear issue peacefully.  "We have the best opportunity in decades to pursue a different future between our countries," Mr. Obama said in a greeting for the Persian holiday of Nowruz.  "The days and weeks ahead will be critical.  There are people, in both our countries and beyond, who oppose a diplomatic resolution.  My message to you — the people of Iran — is that, together, we have to speak up for the future we seek."

On Iran, Obama Is Ignoring Public Opinion at His Own Peril.  Throughout the contentious debate between the White House and Congress over the Iran nuclear negotiations, one important piece of the equation has been largely overlooked:  American public opinion. [...] The administration is so focused on process and protocol in attacking the opposition because it's a useful distraction from how unpopular the administration's eagerness to strike any deal with Iran has become.

Obama tells Iran of 'historic' opportunity.  US President Barack Obama has told the Iranian people that a deal to transform the relationship between the two countries could be within reach.  "We have the best opportunity in decades to pursue a different future between our countries," he said in a video message for Persian New Year.  Six world powers are negotiating a deal aimed at limiting Iran's nuclear activity, with a March deadline near.

Obama's Iranian partners in peace endorse nuclear EMP attacks on U.S..  Yesterday, Iran's leaders were quoted as saying:  "...a society steeped in the spirit of homicide bombings is unstoppable."  Today [3/19/2015], we discovered that Iran plans to engage in a nuclear EMP (electromagnetic pulse) attack on the U.S., which would effectively destroy the electric grid and kill tens of millions.

Now that 'treason' charges are in the air.  According to the noisy left, Senate Republicans are "traitors" for explaining the Constitutional requirement for the Senate to "advise and consent" on treaties, so that the world and the mullahs will know the truth.  Obama's sole signature cannot commit the United States to surrender to Iranian nuke demands.  The US Constitution insists on the Senate's "advice and consent" to pass treaties with other nations.  That constitutional language is clear and unambiguous.  Only by pretending that Obama's pending nuclear surrender is an "executive agreement" rather than a treaty can slick media liars evade the clear language of the US Constitution.

Obama administration won't commit to making Iran deal public.  Some details of a nuclear deal with Iran may not be made public, a senior Obama administration official said Thursday [3/19/2015].  "With regard to whether the agreement will be made public, certainly the core elements will," Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. [...] The administration's concessions in the talks are being closely watched by Republicans, who fear Obama will strike a bad deal that will preserve Iran's ability to build a nuclear bomb.

State Department warns Congress on Iran: Sanctions 'must not happen'.  Deputy Secretary of State Anthony Blinken tried to reassure skeptical lawmakers on Thursday [3/19/2015] that any nuclear deal the Obama administration signs with Iran would prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon.  Blinken, accompanied by Adam Szubin, acting Treasury Department undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, came to Capitol Hill as his boss, Secretary of State John Kerry, was in a fourth day of talks with Iranian officials aimed at closing the remaining gaps in the two countries' positions.  "The negotiations have been substantive and intense," Blinken told members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.  "We've made some progress on the core issues.  Significant gaps remain on some of the other issues."

House writes its own Iran letter, but to Obama.  A bipartisan letter on Iran signed by 360 members of Congress will be sent to President Obama on Thursday [3/19/2015], one of its House signers said.  The letter, like one 47 Senate Republicans sent to Tehran's leaders, reminds the administration that permanent sanctions relief on Iran as part of a deal to rollback its nuclear program would require new legislation from Congress.  It comes as international negotiators approach a March 24 deadline to reach a framework agreement.

Top Democrat: Obama clinging to 'preposterous argument' on Iran.  Bipartisan resistance to the Obama administration's push for a nuclear deal with Iran surged on Capitol Hill on Thursday, even as details emerged about a potential agreement that would allow Tehran to retain up to 6,000 uranium enrichment centrifuges while getting immediate relief from international economic sanctions.  Administration witnesses got an earful from representatives of both parties over the administration's handling of nuclear negotiations involving the U.S., Iran and other world powers that could be reaching a climax in Geneva this week.  Many lawmakers say the White House is flagrantly icing Congress out of the deal.

The Cotton Letter's Inconvenient Truth.  It has been an Iranian tradition since 1979 to end Friday prayers with chants of "Death to America!"  In a purely rational world, that would be all one needed to know that Iran is not a reliable negotiating partner.  Alas, we do not live in such a world.  But there's more evidence.  Iran, according to our State Department, has been the chief exporter of terrorism for the last three decades.  It has worked closely with al-Qaeda, facilitating its attacks on America and our allies.  Most of the September 11 hijackers traveled through Iran with the help of the Iranian government.  U.S. judges have ruled that Iran was an accomplice in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in East Africa and the September 11 attacks.  During the Iraq War, Iran was responsible for numerous American deaths.  And it's not like any of this is ancient history.

Expert Fears White House Deliberately 'Whitewashing' Iran, Hezbollah Terror Threat.  A recent US Intelligence report which appears to downplay the terrorist activities from Iran and its proxy groups has raised questions about what could have motivated the change from previous similar reports.  Cliff May, President of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a Washington DC think tank, called the Director of National Intelligence's 2015 Worldwide Threat Assessment "disturbing."  May said he is worried that the Administration is attempting to minimize the terror threat of Iran and Hezbollah in an effort to lift sanctions against Iran, and further nuclear negotiations.  As first reported in The Times of Israel, the 2015 report to the Senate Armed Services Committee by James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, appears to largely omit the terrorism threat posed by Iran and Hezbollah when compared to previous reports.

Obama administration reports Iran and Hezbollah are no longer terror threats!  What a relief!  The 36-year long era of state-sponsored terror by the Iranian regime has finally drawn to a close.

Obama using the U.N. to enter a "binding" Iran nuclear agreement without Congress.  The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday [3/14/2015] that Secretary of State John Kerry is still upset about the open letter Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) wrote last week that was signed by 46 other Republican senators arguing that it was Congress' role to review treaties. [...] It strikes me as odd that Kerry is doubling down on his non-binding argument.  An executive agreement is not binding, unlike a treaty, and therefore not subject to Congressional review.  It's also odd that he claims, "as far as we are concerned."  Shouldn't the Constitution be the standard by which the Republican claims are judged?

Bolton calls Iran deal 'unprecedented' surrender.  Former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton said Saturday [3/14/2015] that President Obama is negotiating "an unprecedented act of surrender" with Iran in discussions over its nuclear weapons program.  "This deal is fundamentally flawed," Bolton said at the South Carolina National Security Action Summit in West Columbia.  "There really is no deal I'd trust Iran with.  It is a regime determined to have nuclear weapons and this deal will give it to them."

The Faustian Pact Between Obama And Iran.  As the Democrats scream "Traitor!" and are off on another black is white, up is down tirade after the letter signed by 47 US Senators, all Republicans, was sent to Iran pointing out the minor detail that any agreement made between Obama and Iran without approval by the Senate is unconstitutional, Obama readies a deal nevertheless that he claims he will explain to America after it has been reached.  How very dictatorial.  How very suicidal for America and Israel.

Ted Cruz Blasts Obama: You Can't Appease Radical Islamists Like Iran.  Speaking in South Carolina yesterday [3/14/2015], Senator Ted Cruz (who made what amounts to an unofficial announcement on Glenn Beck's show on Friday that he'll run for president) made clear that he, unlike the current administration, does understand that radical Islam poses a significant threat to the United States... and the rest of the world.

US intel report scrapped Iran from list of terror threats.  An annual report delivered recently to the US Senate by James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence, removed Iran and Hezbollah from its list of terrorism threats, after years in which they featured in similar reports.  The unclassified version of the Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Communities, dated February 26, 2015, noted Iran's efforts to combat Sunni extremists, including those of the ultra-radical Islamic State group, who were perceived to constitute the preeminent terrorist threat to American interests worldwide.

Iran Removed From Terror Threat Report As Obama Negotiates Nuclear Deal.  President Barack Obama's appointees have airbrushed Iran out of the terror section of the 2015 annual report on national security threats, just as he tries to negotiate a nuclear weapons deal with Iran's theocratic leaders.  The 2015 "Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community" excludes Iran and its network of jihadi groups who are motivated by Islam's Shia sect, from the report's terror section.  Instead, the assessment focuses entirely jihadis motivated by the Sunni sect of Islam, including those in al-Qaida and ISIS, sometimes known as the Islamic State.

Kerry Claims 'Great Respect' for 'Religious Importance' of Khamenei's Fatwa.  While addressing the press during a visit to Egypt, Secretary of State John Kerry spoke about the ongoing negotiations with Iran over that country's nuclear programs.  As he and President Obama have several times in the past, Kerry cited a report that Iran's "Supreme Leader" issued a "fatwa" against the development of nuclear weapons by Iran, a fatwa that remains unpublished according to a recent article by U.S. News.  Nevertheless, Kerry said that the United States has "great respect — great respect — for the religious importance of a fatwa."

Michelle Obama Celebrates Iran's Festival of Spring at the White House.  The Obamas sure are big fans of all things Iran, aren't they?  I'm sure this White House celebration of Nowruz has absolutely nothing to do with President Obama's non-binding nuke deal with Iran.  There are so many religious spring holidays that could have been celebrated at the White House.  Easter, Passover, the Spring Equinox, etc.  Yet the First Lady is celebrating Nowruz.  How many Americans have ever even heard of Nowruz?  I'm guessing not many.

2008 Candidate Senator Obama Sent U.S. Secret Emissary To Iran Telling Them Not To Negotiate With George Bush.  From a radio interview in October of 2014 Mark Levin discusses with Michael Leeden the details of a secret message sent by candidate Senator Barack Obama to Iran in 2008 via a former Ambassador, William G Miller.  In essence the content of the communique was Senator Obama telling the Iranian government not to negotiate with the outgoing George Bush administration because Obama was more friendly toward the position of Iran and he would work to structure a more favorable outcome to the Iranian people.

Obama's Treason Is the New Patriotism.  [Scroll down]  Meanwhile Joe Biden, Obama's number two, accused Republicans of undermining Obama.  This would be the same Biden who threatened to impeach President Bush if he bombed Iran's nuclear program and who blasted Bush and the idea of an Axis of Evil at a fundraiser in the home of a pro-Iran figure.  Biden undermined President Bush's efforts to rein in Iran's terrorism by voting against listing the Revolutionary Guard, which was supplying weapons to help the Taliban kill American soldiers, as a terrorist group (a position he shared with Kerry, Hagel and Obama) and berating Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for not negotiating with Iran and Assad. [...] The administration that Biden is part of has instead been releasing $490 million a month to Iran.

It's Not Just Iran You Can't Trust.  Though many presidents have claimed (and often been granted) primacy in foreign affairs, this is tradition, not law.  The president must submit treaties to the Senate for "advice and consent."  He has the power to make ambassadorial appointments (again, with the Senate's OK), and he is commander in chief.  He is nowhere designated the sole arbiter of foreign policy.

A One-Man Deal.  President Obama is headed for disaster in the nuclear deal with Iran.  The nearly completed agreement, as best we know, would allow Iran to keep its nuclear infrastructure intact and its centrifuges churning out enriched uranium.  The mullahs would be free to build an arsenal of nuclear weapons in as few as 10 years from now. [...] Meanwhile, their ballistic missile program, sponsorship of terrorism, and growing control over Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen would be unaffected.  All this is frighteningly far from the original goal of the negotiations:  to require Iran to dismantle its nuclear facilities entirely.

Is Obama Sidestepping Congress and Going to UN on Iran Deal?  The letter to Iran signed by 47 Republican senators has provoked a lot of commentary — and some welcome clarification on the White House's negotiations with Iran.  The letter argued that any deal President Obama makes with Iran isn't binding past his second term.  "[W]e will consider any agreement regarding your nuclear-weapons program that is not approved by the Congress as nothing more than an executive agreement between President Obama and Ayatollah Khamenei," wrote the senators.  "The next president could revoke such an executive agreement with the stroke of a pen and future Congresses could modify the terms of the agreement at any time."

Michelle Celebrates an Iranian Holiday at the White House.  Wednesday [3/11/2015], Mrs. Obama celebrated at the White House something called Nowruz, the Iranian festival of spring that marks the beginning of the Persian new year.  There are somewhere between half a million and a million Iranian Americans in the United States, about the same as the number of Lithuanian Americans.  Where's the White House Lithuanian American holiday celebration?  No, this is not about Nowruz.  This is a clear attempt to appease the Iran government, and it is exactly what is wrong with President Obama's approach to Iran and the rest of the world.  It explains why Iran has been able to extract a deal that will allow the centrifuges to keep spinning and, ultimately, a bomb to be built.

Now the House writes Iran letter to Obama on Iran.  A bipartisan majority of House lawmakers have written a letter to President Obama backing up the letter 47 GOP senators controversially addressed to Iran on Monday with dire warnings about the impending nuke deal.  Some 250 members had signed the House letter by Friday afternoon [3/13/2015], a clear majority of the chamber.

Obama Blasts Republicans For Letter to Iran: 'I'm Embarrassed For Them'.  In the most direct statement to date about the Republican open letter to Iran, President Obama said that he's "embarrassed for them."  "For them to address a letter to the ayatollah — the supreme leader of Iran, who they claim is our mortal enemy — and their basic argument to them is:  don't deal with our president, because you can't trust him to follow through on an agreement... That's close to unprecedented," he said in an interview with VICE News.

What Really Upsets Barack Obama About the Letter to Iran from 47 Senators.  The letter infuriated Barack Obama because it told the Mullahs that any deal must include Congress and the president is not the sole decision maker.  It infuriates Obama personally and ideologically to have his power limited.  Forty-seven members of the Republican senate united to make a point and the other seven are uniting to throw them under the bus along with the media.

Laura Ingraham Brings Up Impeachment... Over Iran.  Laura Ingraham brings up the idea of Congress impeaching President Obama, though she doesn't actually say impeachment.  Instead, it's the "I Word." [...] Of course, the case can be better made that President Obama should be impeached for his unconstitutional actions on immigration, which is a far more direct danger to our national security.  But this is another good sign that the issue is at least being discussed.

Energy Secretary To Meet With Iranians For The Third Time.  Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, a trained nuclear physicist, is headed to Geneva, Switzerland for at least the third time in recent months to participate in the Iranian nuclear negotiations.

Persian New Year celebration held at White House.  U.S. First lady Michelle Obama hosted a Nowruz celebration to mark the Persian New Year — traditionally celebrated in Iran and Afghanistan — amid a firestorm over a Republican-signed letter to the Iranian government.  The Silk Road Dance Company performed Wednesday [3/11/2015] in the East Room of the White House in celebration of the more than 3,000-year-old holiday.

Obama More Guilty of 'Treason' than Senate Republicans.  Obama's explicit policy is to elevate a sworn enemy of the United States to a "regional power," in what he has called a "new equilibrium" that would balance the Shia regime against Sunni powers and Israel.  To that end, he has undermined existing UN Security Council resolutions negotiated by previous administrations that ban any nuclear enrichment at all by Iran.  He has also turned a blind eye to Iranian terrorism — including attacks planned in the heart of Washington, D.C. on his watch.  Iran remains committed to destroying the United States, as well as Israel.  It has the blood of hundreds, if not thousands, of American soldiers on its hands.

Senator Obama's 2008 Message to Iran Undermines Condemnation of GOP Letter.  President Obama set his Vice Presidential attack dog on the forty-seven GOP senators who dared send their March 9th letter to Iran's leadership warning them any deal signed with Team Obama may be short-lived when a new president comes to office.  But Biden, like his boss, fails to do his homework before making outlandish statements or else chooses conveniently to overlook the facts.

Life Under the American Umbrella.  [US Under Secretary of State Wendy] Sherman negotiated the US's nuclear pact with North Korea in the 1990s.  The North Koreans used the deal as a smokescreen behind which they developed nuclear weapons while receiving financial assistance from the US which paid off the regime for signing the deal.  Once Pyongyang was ready to come out as a nuclear power, it threw out the nuclear inspectors, opened the sealed nuclear sites, vacated its signature on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and began testing nuclear bombs.  Sherman is now the US's chief negotiator in the P5+1 nuclear talks with Iran.

'Letter of 47' Not the First Time Senators Have Intervened in Foreign Policy.  "In 36 years in the United States Senate, I cannot recall another instance" in which senators intervened in the conduct of U.S. foreign policy," Vice President Joe Biden declared, outraged by the "open letter to the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran," signed by 47 Republican senators.  But in fact, a number of U.S. senators, including then-Senator and now Secretary of State John Kerry, have contacted unfriendly governments, in opposition to the policies of the White House at the time.

Republican Senators' Iran Letter Might Stop Bad Deal.  Maybe the GOP isn't that foolish after all.  In what may be a trump card that it's been keeping up its sleeve for months, the Senate GOP leadership — and all but a handful of the party's senators — has penned "An Open Letter to the Leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran."  The letter's tone is that of a helpful guide to the U.S. Constitution for a foreigner.

Ted Kennedy Secretly Asked The Soviets To Intervene In The 1984 Elections.  Earlier this week, 47 Republican senators published an open letter informing the leaders of Iran that any nuclear deal with the United States that failed to be approved by the Senate would likely expire in 2017, once President Barack Obama's term ended. [...] The letter enraged progressives, who immediately began accusing the senators of treason for having the audacity to publish basic constitutional facts about how treaties work.

Five times Democrats undermined Republican presidents with foreign governments.  On Monday, 47 Republican senators led by Tom Cotton, R-Ark., released an "open letter" to Iran's leaders noting that any deal the regime signs with President Obama without the approval of Congress could be revoked by a future president or changed by Congress.  The White House went into a tizzy trying to portray the move as somehow "unprecedented" — a view that has found a friendly audience with the media.

Senate Was Warned About Obama's End Run on Iran.  Congress is struggling to thwart President Obama's attempt to strike a nuclear deal with Iran on his own, in violation of the Constitution.  Lawmakers are taking unprecedented measures — the invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Corker-Menendez bill and even a letter to Tehran to stop it.  None of this would be necessary if the U.S. Senate had done its job instead of rubber-stamping John Kerry's nomination as secretary of state.

Obama Jabs at GOP's 'Unusual Coalition' with Iran over Letter.  President Obama responded earlier today to the 47 Republican senators who sent an open letter to the leaders of Iran warning them about the nuclear deal Obama is trying to negotiate.  The open letter explained how American government works to the Iranian leaders and asserted Congress' role in voting on any deal reached.  Democrats, of course, aren't happy.  Obama said, "It's somewhat ironic to see some members of Congress wanting to make common cause with the hard-liners in Iran.  It's an unusual coalition."

Adding up the costs of a nuclear deal with Iran.  The price President Obama is willing to pay for a nuclear weapons deal with Iran is rising steadily.  In fact, it has been rising since Mr. Obama's 2008 campaign in which he promised negotiations with Tehran with no preconditions.  When he entered office, the president extended an open hand to Tehran only to have it slapped away repeatedly.  In 2009 and 2010, Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad fairly shouted Iran's preconditions for talks, such as reduced sanctions against Iran's economy.  But the P5 plus 1 group — the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France plus Germany, which had been trying to negotiate with Iran since 2006 — persisted, prodded along by Mr. Obama.

Obama: I'll Make Case to American People After Iran Deal Is Made.  President Obama will wait until after a nuclear deal with Iran is made to make the case to the American people that it's the right thing to do.  He made the comment today after being asked about this letter from nearly 50 U.S. senators to Iran, which stated, "The next president could revoke such an executive agreement with the stroke of a pen and future Congresses could modify the terms of the agreement at any time."

The National Security Disaster That Is The Obama Administration.  According to an article in the WSJ, the 2012 raid on the bin Laden compound in Pakistan netted the single greatest collection of intelligence materials since 9/11.  At the time — and since — the Obama message was that al Qaeda was all but destroyed and that it was time to wind down the war on terror.  As Obama said, when two years ago he asked Congress to repeal the Authorization For Use of Military Force (AUMF) passed in the wake of 9/11, this war on terror "must end."  However, the wealth of materials captured in the bin Laden raid told a different story.  They told of a vastly expanding threat from al Qaeda, the Taliban and the ISIS, as well as complicity by Iran.  Those facts contradicted the Obama administration's narrative, so not only were they kept from the public eye, but in what can only be seen as treasonous insanity, they were walled off from analysis by our intelligence community for at least a year, and have had only limited availability since.  Yes, read that last line twice and let it sink in.
[Emphasis added.]

12 Questions Iran Refuses to Answer About its Nuclear Weapons Program.  The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has questions about twelve aspects of Iran's past nuclear weapons research that the Islamic Republic has failed to satisfactorily answer, according to an analysis that appeared in The New York Times on Sunday [3/8/2015]. [...] American officials are vague when pressed on how fully Iran will have to answer questions it has avoided for years from United Nations inspectors with the International Atomic Energy Agency, based in Vienna.

The Nuke Horse is out of the Barn.  The United States now has an Obama-Jarrett foreign policy, predicated on the unproven guess that Iran's daily threats are mere bluff.  Obama is so mentally rigid that he simply will not consider any other possibility.  But others, including the Saudis, the thousand-year enemies of Shi'ite Iran, are preparing for the possibility that Obama is wrong.  The United States must come back to strategic sanity as soon as possible.

Obama's Ongoing Assault on the Constitution.  Throughout his tenure in office, Obama has been exercising powers outside the scope of his constitutionally prescribed executive authority. [...] Most recently, and quite disturbingly, Obama has signaled his intention to consummate a nuclear arms deal with Iran without so much as conferring with the Senate — much less getting its approval, as required by the Constitution's treaty clause in Article 2, Section 2.

King Barry.  Obama is a lawless leader, choosing to rule by memorandum, regulation and executive order — he is not a president; he is a king.  Any treaty negotiated by a president and his minions must be approved by a two-thirds vote in the Senate.  An accord bears no such restraints.  The former is a legally binding agreement, whereas the latter is not.  Barack Obama knows that any agreement negotiated with Iran, allowing them to continue enriching nuclear fuel for a weapon, will not pass in the Senate.  An agreement with sunset provisions, allowing Iran after a certain period of time, the option of producing weapons-grade enriched uranium to build as many bombs it desires also doesn't stand a chance in Congress.

Netanyahu Rebuts Obama: 'I Presented a Practical Alternative' to Administration's Iran Deal.  Countering President Obama's assertion that he offered no alternative to Washington's plan for an Iran nuke deal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after landing in Israel that there was indeed an alternative offered.

A Simple Question About Iran.  We keep hearing from Democratic critics of Prime Minister Netanyahu's speech that if we don't reach an agreement with Iran, then the path will be clear for Iran to have a bomb soon.  Explicit is the idea that even a bad agreement is better than no agreement.  Hold on a minute.  Isn't there something missing here?  I thought "all options were on the table."  Obama has said this repeatedly.  Now he and his political allies seem to admit it isn't true.

Saudi Columnist: Netanyahu Is Right To Insist On Addressing Congress About Iran Deal.  Since Obama is the godfather of the prefabricated revolutions in the Arab world, and since he is the ally of political Islam, [which is] the caring mother of [all] the terrorist organizations, and since he is working to sign an agreement with Iran that will come at the expense of the U.S.'s longtime allies in the Gulf, I am very glad of Netanyahu's firm stance and [his decision] to speak against the nuclear agreement at the American Congress despite the Obama administration's anger and fury.  I believe that Netanyahu's conduct will serve our interests, the people of the Gulf, much more than the foolish behavior of one of the worst American presidents.

Have We Forgotten We're A Superpower?  One of the most puzzling aspects of America's relationship with Iran is the reality that — by rhetoric and conduct — the United States acts as if it fears Iran, while Iran behaves as if it has nothing to fear from the U.S. Iran commits repeated acts of war against the U.S., unlawfully holds our citizens and violates their human rights, wages proxy wars against us, and vows to destroy our close ally — a vow made out of genocidal hate.  And yet we constantly respond to these provocations — if we respond at all — with fear and timidity, as if Iran is the greater power.

U.S. Centcom Chief: 'Iran Represents the Most Significant Threat'.  Gen. Lloyd Austin, the top commander of U.S. military efforts against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), told a congressional panel that Iran poses the "most" serious threat to the region he oversees.  "Iran represents the most significant threat to the Central Region... Iran continues to pursue policies that threaten U.S. strategic interests and goals throughout the Middle East," declared Gen. Austin in written testimony prepared for a March 3 hearing held by the House Armed Services Committee.

Experts: U.S. Concessions Give Iran a Clear Path to Nuclear Bomb.  The Obama administration is pursuing a nuclear deal with Iran that leaves the Islamic Republic a year away from obtaining a nuclear bomb and which, according to experts, gives the United States insufficient leverage to dismantle Tehran's nuclear infrastructure.  As negotiations with Iran hit a critical juncture, U.S. officials and policy experts from across the spectrum are warning that the Obama administration is poised to agree to a deal that all but guarantees Tehran the ability to build a nuclear bomb.

Admiral Lyons on Obama's Strategy: 'It's Anti-American ... Pro-Islamic, It's Pro-Iranian, and Pro-Muslim Brotherhood!.  Admiral James "Ace" Lyons, Jr. (Ret.), the former commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, said that President Barack Obama does have a strategy for dealing with Islamic radicals in the Middle East and it is an "anti-American" and "pro-Islamic" strategy," as well as "pro-Iranian" and "pro-Muslim Brotherhood" strategy.

Benjamin Netanyahu believes in American Exceptionalism, too bad Obama doesn't.  Mr. Obama pointedly skipped Mr. Netanyahu's speech but was quick to dismiss it as "nothing new."  He may be as arrogant as he is ignorant, but at least he is modest.  Negotiating with such feral beasts as Iran's theocratic dictators is certainly dangerous.  It is also a fool's errand.  And who better to tap for a fool's errand than Secretary of State John Kerry himself!  The fool's fool, the very jester in the court of jesters!  John Kerry's unbridled whorishness for a deal with Iran has become so desperate that even The New York Times felt compelled to print a front page story this week about the "unseemly intimacy" between Kerry and Iran's foreign minister, Javad Zarif.  The story chronicled the long hours alone together, the private emails and even their river walks together.

Shades of Churchill's 'Iron Curtain Speech'.  [Scroll down]  It once again makes you wonder about President Obama's instincts or the people that he listens to.  What if President Obama had embraced the visit?  What if he did a joint press conference with the prime minister and assured this deal was good for all, especially Israel?  What if President Obama had taken advantage of this opportunity to make his case for the nuclear deal?  Instead, President Obama looks small and petty.  He looks like a man who was avoiding the debate or hiding the truth of the deal with Iran.

Iran Poses an Existential Threat to Western Civilization.  While the focus since 9/11 has been on al Qaeda and its spin-off ISIS, the greatest danger to the Western world is Iran — a country that, with a wink and a nod from the U.S., is on the precipice of becoming a nuclear hegemon.  Iran is the world's largest sponsor of international terrorism, killing Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan and threatening pro-American regimes across the region.  Its warships are expanding their movement in regional waters and cruising to Venezuela.

Obama smears Netanyahu, coddles Iran.  The Obama White House is in full war mode against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of our best ally in the Middle East, for accepting House Speaker John Boehner's invitation to speak before Congress, while it mollycoddles that region's most dangerous nation, Iran.  No one crosses Obama without facing his wrath.  No one dares.  He is the president.

Why Obama's Iran deal is a path to war.  The Obama administration and its supporters insist that, although the agreement on Iran's nuclear program now taking shape may not be perfect, the only alternative is war with Iran.  A failure of the nuclear talks, they also contend, would sacrifice important temporary agreements that now restrict Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons.  Both arguments are false.  Worse, the nuclear deal that the administration is pursuing may make war with Iran more likely.  The world would be safer if the nuclear talks with Iran were stopped now.

This Man Is Dangerous.  [O]ne nation stands out as the most bloodthirsty and violent and dangerous of all.  Iran.  From the day the Ayatollah took over, a disaster of kidnapped American diplomats, endless sponsorship of terror against Americans including the catastrophic bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut more than 30 years ago.  Iran is the bankroller of the terrorist Hezbollah.  They have been listed at the top of the world's state sponsors of terrorism for decades now.  And, just as the perfect touch, they are working feverishly to get a nuclear bomb (lots of nuclear bombs) and the rockets to deliver them to Israel, to Europe, to New York.  Iran has already promised to have "a Holocaust in an afternoon" if they get The Bomb.  They are apparently [very] close to getting it.  But guess who Obama has now decided is his best friend and partner in the world?  Yes.  You got it.  Iran.  He's keeping Israel from bombing them.  He's trying to prevent the primary branch of government, the U.S. Congress, from hearing the Prime Minister of Israel speak on how best to keep Iran from getting a bomb.

Kerry: Give Obama 'the benefit of the doubt' in Iran nuclear talks.  The Obama administration deserves "the benefit of the doubt" over a pending nuclear deal with Iran, Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday, maintaining that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's objections to it shouldn't be "turned into some great political football."

Appeasement in Our Time.  Is Barack Obama another Neville Chamberlain?  I've been reluctant to make the comparison, but as talks with Iran have unfolded, it's become impossible not to think of the 1938 Munich conference, where Britain and France agreed that strategically and economically vital Czech territory be ceded to Germany, leading soon after to German conquest of Czechoslovakia and World War II.  America's looming deal with Iran rivals Munich in its unnecessary and catastrophic recklessness.  It is an inexplicable unforced error that will have disastrous consequences unless Congress, or Israel, does something to stop it.

Will Obama's Iran Deal Be the Worst Deal Ever Made?  To begin with, the agreement is said to have a sunset clause of 10-15 years.  Whatever the number turns out to be, that tells us that Iran is free to do anything it wants in the nuclear weapons field after a set amount of time, assuming that it hadn't disobeyed the strictures of the agreement before then — a monumental assumption given past history.[...] The idea — if it can be called that — behind this sunset clause is a kind of bet that Iran will turn into a normal country during the time frame, abjuring the fanatical religious doctrines (global war bringing about the twelfth Imam/Mahdi, etc.) inherent in Khomeinist Shiism that would make allowing Iran the bomb equivalent to giving a loaded gun to a two year old, only with global implications.

Iran hangs Obama in effigy even as it negotiates nuclear deal with US.  Just weeks before Secretary of State John Kerry held new nuclear talks with Iran's foreign minister in Geneva, Iranians were hanging Kerry's boss in effigy at a huge Tehran-sponsored rally marking the Islamic Revolution's 36th anniversary, an event that critics say underscores the absurdity of the ongoing diplomatic effort.  The U.S. and Iran are trying to reach a final nuclear agreement by a March 31 deadline against a backdrop of ongoing anti-American hatred in the Islamic republic.

Obama's Partners in Peace Destroy Mock U.S. Aircraft Carrier in Persian Gulf.  The motives of Obama and his Iranian-born chief adviser Valerie Jarrett are truly unknown.  But their actions make clear this much:  they are intent on seeing Iran become a nuclear power.  As for their rationale, I leave that as an exercise for the reader.

Obama's Iran Obsession.  The Obama administration values a future relationship with Iran more than it values the historic relationship it has with Israel.  Unless there's a reversal in the reported deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran, all the superficial talk about this extraordinary friendship between Israel and the United States isn't going to mean much.  And the histrionics surrounding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's planned speech in front of a joint session of Congress only confirm that there are plenty of people who are happy about it.

Obama's Nuclear Iran Deal Portends "Spectacular Attack" on the U.S..  There is an article you might want to read on Maggie's Notebook about defense intelligence being told NOT to update Barack Obama on the bin Laden documents.  During a terrorism trial this week, 8 new documents were presented with information that shows a top al Qaeda operative, Younis al-Mauritani asked bin Laden's permission to relocate to Iran in June 2010.  From there, he would plot terror attacks around the world.  The documents not only showed a mutually beneficial relationship between Iran and al Qaeda, they give evidence of Iran's presence in Afghanistan.  Reports that Iran is cooperating with al-Qaeda on a "spectacular attack" on the West have been circulating since 2011.

Selling the ObamaCare of Foreign Policy.  Secretary of State John F. Kerry met with significant skepticism at yesterday's House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, not only from Republicans, but Democrats as well.  Ranking Member Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) told Kerry "we're hearing troubling reports on the scale and duration of the program that Iran may be allowed as part of a deal."  He noted "very disturbing" reports that the administration "would ease limits on Iran's production during the later years of an accord ... [as] an attempt to bridge the difference between the two sides over how long an agreement should last."  Kerry did not deny those reports.

White House Lowers Bar for Iran Nuke Deal.  For anyone hoping a nuclear deal with Iran might stop the Tehran government from destabilizing the Middle East or free its political prisoners, the Obama administration has some bad news:  It's just an arms control agreement.  As details of a proposed pact leaked out of the Geneva talks Monday [2/23/2015], administration officials told us they will ask the world to judge any final nuclear agreement on the technical aspects only, not on whether the deal will spur Iranian reform.

Thanks to Obama, Iran will be getting the Bomb.  Earlier this month, the Washington Free Beacon reported on comments in Iranian media that the United States was desperate to get a deal done on the country's nuclear ambitions."  "Americans are begging us for a deal on the negotiation table," are the exact words used by Mohammad Reza Naghdi of Iran's Basij, a paramilitary group under the authority of the country's Revolutionary Guard.  Iran's English language  propaganda  news service has followed this up by quoting former American diplomat and adviser to the Senate Republicans James George Jatras who is saying basically the exact same thing.

Synopsis:  Obama hates America so much, he is trying to get us nuked!
15 Photos From Iran's Revolution Day 2015 Demonstrations You'll Never See In Legacy Media.  Curiously, a massive wave of vicious anti-American sentiment in Iran has been utterly ignored by vintage media, even as the Obama administration does its level best to position the regime as a nuclear power. [...] Experts indicate that the deal being worked out by the Obama administration fails to address Iran's nuclear weaponization program whatsoever.  Which should work out well in the future, what with its development of ballistic missiles, its support of terror groups worldwide, and its virulent hatred of America.

Nuclear deal could allow Tehran to make bomb.  Secretary of State John Kerry met in Geneva Monday with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif amid reports that a deal was taking shape that might allow Tehran to build nuclear weapons in its final years.  Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, meanwhile, met separately with Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran's nuclear program, on technical details before joining the broader talks.

U.S. enemies are better off now than they were six years ago.  Iran and Vladimir Putin are both better off, and Islamist extremists are better off beyond their wildest dreams of six years ago, but that about does it.  Israel is not better off — its relations with us are worse than the weather; Ukraine is not better off — it is being slowly dismembered; Syria, Libya and Yemen are not better off — they had dictators then, but were not yet a war zone — Denmark, France and Australia are not better off — their cities were not yet the targets of Islamist extremists; and Iraq — the subject of so much intense misrememberance — is perhaps the least better-off of them all.

Obama Lies.  Whereas many presidential lies protect us; Obama lies are protecting our enemies: ISIS marches on; Iran gets closer to the bomb as Obama rejects calls for more sanctions.  Obama lies are insidious because they wriggle their slimy way through his delicate psyche, untethering him from the vast world beyond self or golf course.  When reality dare intrude into his bubble of self-deceit it elicits cognitive dissonance, prompting his auto defense mechanisms to blast the interlopers as phony, or blame it on hyperbolic social media.  Meanwhile, ISIS marches on, Iran gets closer to the big one, and the real interloper is our supposed Commander-in-Chief.

Our Dangerous Historical Moment.  America has convinced its European partners to drop tough sanctions against Iran.  In the manner of the Allies in 1938 at Munich, they prefer instead to charm Iran, in hopes it will stop making a nuclear bomb.  The Islamic State has used almost a year of unchallenged aggression to remake the map of the Middle East.  President Obama had variously dismissed it as a jayvee team or merely akin to the problems that big-city mayors face.  Europeans pay out millions to ransom their citizens from radical Islamic hostage-beheaders.  Americans handed over terrorist kingpins to get back a likely Army deserter.

Doomed Diplomacy: There's no way Iran will ever help fight al Qaeda.  Not long after his inauguration in January 2009, President Barack Obama penned a letter to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran. As a presidential candidate, Obama had promised to conduct "tough, direct diplomacy" with the Iranians.  And Obama figured, correctly, that all diplomatic entreaties would end up on Khamenei's desk.  So, the newly elected president decided to write Iran's ultimate decision-maker directly.  And he has written several letters since.  According to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported on the correspondence, Obama sent his latest letter to Khamenei in October of last year.

Wartime admiral: Obama is 'anti-American, pro-Islamic'.  Retired Adm. James "Ace" Lyons, also a former deputy chief of naval operations, said that the administration's approach to the multiple confrontations with Muslim-based enemies follows a string of White House failures to strike Islamic terrorists stretching back to the Carter era's failure to strike at Iran's leadership after the 1979 hostage taking.  "We've had many opportunities to changed the course of history.  It hasn't mattered whether it's a Democratic or Republican administration, we've failed every one of them," says Lyons, who headed PacFleet from 1985 to 1987.

Obama's Secret Iran Talks Deserve Scrutiny.  Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported that the exchange of secret letters between President Obama and Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has resumed.  The letters are believed to concern Obama's offer of cooperation with Iran against ISIS terrorists if Tehran will agree to a deal on its nuclear program.  These letters have clearly been a crucial element in the six-year administration effort to forge a new détente with the Islamist regime.  But they must also be placed in the context of the ongoing dispute between the U.S. and Israel about the nuclear talks.

Is Obama a Manchurian Candidate?  Obamacare and the sabotaging of the immigration system were bad enough, but they are absolutely trivial compared to what is going on now.  We have the next thing to a jihadist in the White House.  From the inability to name Islamic terrorists as Islamic, to the failure to name Jews as the objects of homicidal anti-Semitism at a kosher market, to the complete omission of the word Christian when 21 Christians have their heads cut off (simultaneously!) for being Christian, we have in the Oval Office not only the worst president in the history of our country, we have the worst person to be president.  And now he is opening the door to a huge number of Syrian refugees, who knows how many of whom may be members of ISIS, al Qaeda or some group we haven't even heard of yet. [...] And if this weren't enough, Obama is colluding with the Iranian ayatollahs as if he were an [sic] Shiite imam, not only to help them get nuclear weapons, but to form a permanent alliance with the United States against the Sunni world.

Even President Bush Got Involved trying to Stop Obama's Pro-Iran Tilt.  It's becoming increasingly obvious that Obama has sold out American foreign policy to Iran.  What happened in Yemen hasn't changed that.  And former American allies are getting increasingly desperate to be heard. [...] Obama isn't just selling out Israel to Iran.  He's also selling out the Sunnis in Iraq to Iran.

Obama's so selfie absorbed.  [Scroll down]  Recent events show a disturbing picture of the emerging world order he favors.  It starts with bringing Iran in from the cold, a plan Obama has been working on since taking office in 2009.  His concessions to the mad mullahs' nuclear program are alarming, but that is only a piece of his strategy.  As national defense veteran Michael Doran writes in Mosaic magazine, Iran is key to Obama's "thinking about the role of the United States in the world, and especially in the Middle East."  He argues persuasively that the president wants a grand bargain that would, in Obama's own words, "integrate Iran into the international community" and "make it a very successful regional power."

Who Benefits from Our Inaction Abroad?  [Scroll down]  The best insight into the president's motives is supplied by a very troubling piece in Mosaic magazine by the Hudson Institute's Michael Doran.  The president has been consistent, Doran shows, from his first days in office.  "Obama based his policy of outreach to Tehran on two key assumptions of the grand-bargain myth:  that Tehran and Washington were natural allies, and that Washington itself was the primary cause of the enmity between the two."  The president has been secretive and dishonest about negotiations with Iran — and aides have hinted of his intention to block the Senate's ratification power by not calling a nuclear agreement a treaty.  All of Obama's seemingly inexplicable decisions, Doran argues, from Syria to Iraq to the spurning of the Green Revolution in 2009, are of a piece.  Obama believes that once a nuclear agreement is reached, Iran will become a stabilizing power in the region and the world.

President Obama: Iran Won't Develop Nuclear Weapons Because It's "Contrary" To Islam.  [Scroll down]  This follows four years of Obama saying one thing, and yet delivering an outcome totally divergent to what is claimed.  Here is a timeline of the Obama administration's Iran policy, as the world's most dangerous nation and leading state sponsor of terrorism moves inexorably towards acquiring the world's most dangerous weapon.

Obama: According to Iran's Supreme Leader, "It Would Be Contrary To Their Faith To Obtain A Nuclear Weapon".  At a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel President Obama addressed the ongoing nuclear negotiations with Iran.  According to the Supreme Leader of Iran, said Obama, "it would be contrary to their faith to obtain a nuclear weapon."

Obama, Susan Rice Repeat Claim to Have 'Halted' Iran's Nuclear Progress.  More than two weeks after saying during his State of the Union address that an interim agreement with Iran had "halted the progress of its nuclear program" — a claim since disputed — President Obama repeated the assertion in his National Security Strategy report, released on Friday [2/6/2015].  "We are currently testing whether it is possible to achieve a comprehensive resolution to assure the international community that Iran's nuclear program is peaceful, while the Joint Plan of Action has halted the progress of Iran's program," Obama wrote in the introductory letter to the NSS.

Obama on Iran Negotiations: 'What's the Rush?'.  At a news conference today [2/9/2015] with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Obama was asked whether nuclear negotiations with Iran were headed for another extension.  His response, in part:  "What's the rush?"  "I think there was always the assumption that although the interim agreement lasted a certain period of time that we would probably need more time to move forward," Obama said.

Will Democrats Formally Announce an Alliance With Hamas and Boycott the Israeli Prime Minister's Speech to Congress?  This sort of thing must pose quite the head-scratching conundrum for many in the American Jewish community.  If they support their far left ideology, they also must support the Nazi-backed, Islamofascist movement and all it entails.
1. Obama is entertaining Muslim Brotherhood leaders in the White House and at the State Department
2. Obama is doing his level best to ensure Iran continues its work on nuclear weapons
3. Obama is doing his level best to ostracize Israel and ridicule its self-preservation instinct
4. Obama continues to legitimize the tactics of Hamas
5. Obama refuses to call the Islamic state "Islamic"
And Democrats, instead of speaking out, are in lockstep with him.

We Still Don't Know Why Obama Wants Deal with Iran.  [Scroll down]  The secret talks began in 2008, before Obama was even elected, and the back channel, as I was the first to reveal, was retired U.S. Ambassador William Miller, who confirmed the story to me and others.  In other words, Obama entered the White House with the intention of forging an alliance with our most dangerous enemy in the Middle East.  That fact has to be the baseline of any serious analysis of our government's policies.  Which takes us straightaway to the great unanswered question:  Why does the president want this alliance?

The Obama Era Has Been Very, Very Good for Iran.  When trying to make sense of Barack Obama's foreign policy, it is difficult to escape the conclusion that a great deal of it has been meant to reward, placate, or at least avoid angering Iran.  With the world in flames after six years of Obama, there are two things he wants to fish out of the smoldering wreckage and hold up as "legacy" triumphs: a nuclear deal with Iran and a Palestinian stat

Obama has agreed to 80 percent of Iran's demands in nuclear talks, Israeli officials tell Ch. 10.  According to unnamed officials, Washington "has given the Iranians 80 percent of what they want" out of the negotiations, Channel 10 is reporting.  Jerusalem officials appear alarmed at the prospect that the United States will soon strike a deal with the Iranian regime that will leave it with a "breakout point" of months before it can gallop toward the bomb.

The Lying Sleeps Tonight.  [Scroll down]  Iran is convincing the administration to retreat everywhere by explaining each time that it is really a victory for Obama.  In consequence, America's enemies are finding it childishly simple to manipulate the experts in Washington.

Obama Squirms to Dodge the Truth.  Iran is on the verge of nuclear weapons and Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs).  Obama is pretending it aint' so, so he can sign his totally phony "peace agreement" with the mullahs.  But Israel's Netanyahu won't sign on to a treaty that will give the genocidal cult of Iran all the power in the world.  That is why Obama hates Netanyahu, and wants to destroy him.  Obama is therefore making exactly the same move made by the appeasers of Hitler and Stalin in Europe.  He is gambling on a losing game of appeasement, but nobody, certainly not the Arabs, believes a word.

Jihad by Civilian.  Jihad has rapidly taken a new and ominous shape.  In the past, bombs were exploded — either human homicide bombs or car/truck bombs.  Rockets were launched.  Unbelievably, planes were once flown into major Western targets.  Now, President Obama empowers the radical Islamic world further by refusing to join the words "terrorism" and "Islam" and by insisting that Islam is a religion of "peace."  Obama continues to empower Iran to become a nuclear power and, most fatefully, empowers the recruitment efforts of The Islamic State.  He does so each time he refuses to say that the Free World or the Judeo-Christian West is at war with Islamic barbarianism or with radical political Islam.

Obama lives in ignorance of Islamic threat.  President Obama has a happy and untroubled life on Fantasy Island, where he lives in splendid isolation from the world where the rest of us live. [...] When an Islamic radical shoots up an Army base, dispensing wholesale death in the name of Allah, the president sees only "workplace violence."  Trouble in Syria?  He'll draw a red line around that.  Nuclear weapons in Iran?  He's on that, too.

The Editor says...
Mr. Obama is either thoroughly incompetent, or he is a Muslim.  Take your pick.

Democrat Senator Slams Obama's Pro-Iranian Propaganda.  "I have to be honest with you, the more I hear from the administration and its quotes, the more it sounds like talking points that come straight out of Tehran.  And it feeds to the Iranian narrative of victimization when they are the ones with original sin," [Sen. Robert] Menendez said during a Congressional hearing.

U.S. to Award Iran $11.9 Billion Through End of Nuke Talks.  The Obama administration on Wednesday paid $490 million in cash assets to Iran and will have released a total of $11.9 billion to the Islamic Republic by the time nuclear talks are scheduled to end in June, according to figures provided by the State Department.  Today's $490 million release, the third such payment of this amount since Dec. 10, was agreed to by the Obama administration under the parameters of another extension in negotiations over Tehran's contested nuclear program that was inked in November.

Top Dem: Obama Admin Sounds Like Getting Talking Points 'Straight Out Of Tehran'.  Menendez directed his comments to Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken.  "They get to cheat in a series of ways and we get to worry about their perceptions" about sanctions, Menendez said going on to read a quote from Blinkin indicating that is an administration concern.  In his State of the Union address Tuesday evening, Obama said he would veto any new sanctions on Iran.

State Dept: Iran Allowed to Build New Nuclear Reactors.  Iran is permitted to build new nuclear reactors under the existing conditions of an interim deal with the United States meant to curb Tehran's nuclear ambitions, a State Department official told the Washington Free Beacon less than a day after Iran announced the construction of two new nuclear plants.  The construction of these new nuclear plants is not prohibited under existing United Nations restrictions or under the terms of the current interim nuclear agreement inked in 2013 with the United States, according to the State Department official.

White House won't rule out nuclear deal with Iran while the Islamic regime holds American citizens captive without criminal charges.  President Obama's chief spokesman refused on Thursday to rule out the possibility that the U.S. will strike a nuclear deal with Iran while the Islamic Republic holds several Americans captive — including a Washington Post journalist being tried by the mullahs' Revolutionary Court without public notice of the charges.  The case is the mirror opposite of Cuba, where the White House announced steps toward normalizing diplomatic relations on the condition that President Raul Castro release American Alan Gross and a Cuban citizen who had been a U.S. intelligence asset.

As Obama Dithers, Iran Builds Nuclear Plant, Missiles in Syria.  As the western powers prepare for the latest round of never-ending talks with Iran over the fate of its nuclear program, the Tehran regime is reportedly overseeing the construction of a nuclear plant in Syria, as well as the building of new missile sites.  Both moves underscore the contempt that Iran has for UN Security Council resolutions and for the nuclear talks themselves, and suggest that President Barack Obama's quest for a deal at any price has only encouraged Iran to behave more aggressively.

Obama on Iran Embassy: 'Never Say Never'.  President Barack Obama hinted that he might be prepared to establish a new U.S. embassy in Tehran "if we can get a deal on making sure that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon," and the deal led to warmer relations with the Iranian regime.  Obama's remarks were published Monday [12/29/2014] in an interview with National Public Radio host Steve Inskeep.

Obama won't rule out embassy in Tehran.  President Barack Obama said Monday that Iran might join Cuba as a second rogue state to enjoy normalized diplomatic relations with the United States under his administration.

The Week in Pictures: Emperor's New Clothes Edition.  This week we learned that Hagel is not Hegel:  he does not represent the end of Obama's historical mission to return the U.S. to its isolation of the 1920s and 1930s.  (But nice of Obama to give Iran seven more months to build a Bomb.  It must be frustrating to Obama that it is taking so long.)

Obama's Parallel Universe.  You've got to hand it to Obama.  He is no slouch when it comes to redefining reality.  He can look at an elephant and proclaim it a donkey without a bat of the eye.  Or in the case of Iran, look at spinning centrifuges and see no threat.  Over the weekend he told George Stephanapolous that the nuclear deal with Iran, which his negotiators extended for another eight months on Monday without a single concession from Iran, has "definitely stopped Iran's nuclear program from advancing."

How the Obama Administration Has Already Caved to Iran.  The deadline for the Joint Plan of Action ended it seems without a final agreement between the P5+1 and Iran over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.  It's not yet clear what happens next. [...] According to Omri Ceren at the Israel Project, a pro-Israel public affairs organization that focuses on the Middle East, there are several issues on the table, many of which the Obama administration has already caved on.

Iran: Obama's Biggest Failure Fails Again.  Among the many lies and failures of Barack Obama, ultimately the most dangerous, the most lethal for humanity, is his meretricious and pathetic pursuit of a nuclear deal with Iran.  In negotiation, Obama and his minions have been treating the mullahs as if they were the leaders of Denmark, even to the point of sending fawning multiple mailings to Ayatollah Khamenei, as absurd an approach as it is asinine.

Iran Appeasers in Bed With Obama: The Truman Project Unmasked.  What do Eric Bolling of Fox News and President Obama's strategy on Iran have in common?  Answer:  the Truman National Security Project.  A few weeks back in this space ("The Hit Job on Fox News") it was revealed that an arrogant, huffy letter from veterans demanding an apology from Bolling was in fact a setup.  Left unrevealed by the letter's sponsor — the Truman National Security Project — many of the signers in question were in fact Democratic Party or liberal special interest activists.  This is not, but of course, how the Truman Project presents itself.  The impression given by its website is that it is just another independent-no-alliances-out-there think tank.

Iran: This deal keeps getting worse all the time.  When dealing with the Soviets and their nuclear aggression, President Ronald Reagan famously cited an old Russian proverb:  "Trust, but verify."  In his current dealings with Iran and its nuclear ambitions, President Obama seems to be forgetting about that second part.  He is asking Americans to trust a negotiating adversary who keeps trying to remind the world that it remains the same bad actor it was during the 1979 hostage crisis.

Obama: No Coordination With Iranians Over ISIS, But We Told Them 'Don't Mess With Us, We're Not Here to Mess With You'.  President Obama said Sunday [11/9/2014] the U.S. was not coordinating with Iran in the fight against "our common enemy" in Iraq — the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL) — but added that the Iranians had been informed, "don't mess with us, we're not here to mess with you."  Obama also denied having offered Iran a deal linking a nuclear agreement with cooperation against ISIS.  He declined to comment on media reports saying he had sent Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei a letter suggesting such linkage.

The dumbest move yet on Iran?  The news media broke (or were given) the story that President Obama penned a letter to Iran's Supreme Leader: [...] Writing one letter , let alone four, is among the dumbest moves in a foreign policy with far too many blunders in it already.  Even worse, Obama seemed to be suggesting just the sort of alliance critics have suspected was his objective all along and which will certainly terrify Israel and our Sunni allies.

Romney: Obama 'Diminishing Himself and America' with Letter to Iran.  2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney called President Obama's secret letter to Iran's supreme leader "an enormous error" that legitimizes the Iranian regime and weakens America's hand.  Romney said Obama's weak foreign policy is one of the reasons why nations like Russia and China are not worried about America's reaction to their "bold actions."

Ayatollah Khamenei Doesn't Want To Be Pen Pals With Obama.  The President of the United States has had a tough week.  First he watched the voters thoroughly repudiate him.  Now the news is out that he's been begging and pleading for help from the Supreme Leader of Iran, who has no time for him either.

Obama's secret letter to Iran.  Ayatollah Ali Khamenei received a secret letter from an unlikely person last month:  President Obama.  In the midst of airstrikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Obama reportedly sent Iran's Supreme Leader a letter in the middle of October, expressing the importance of cooperation in fighting the militants, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Keywords:  collaboration, cahoots, Muslim sympathizer.
Letters to the Ayatollah: Obama's 'Keys to Paradise'.  I admit I didn't much care for Barack Obama before the revelation that he had secretly written Khamenei to induce the Iranian supreme leader to sign a nuclear deal in return for U.S. help battling ISIS.  Now I despise our president.  He is contemptible.  Ayatollah Khamenei is a man who has been leading the massive chants of "Death to Israel" (and the Jews) literally every day since 1979.  Only a true anti-Semite could attempt to make a secret deal with such a person.

Senior WH Official Plans to Usurp Congressional Authority for Iran Deal.  Ben Rhodes, President Obama's deputy National Security adviser, revealed in recently released audio tapes that the White House intends to usurp the authority of Congress to strike a long-term nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran.  Rhodes' remarks were given to a group of White House officials last January, who were joined by members of left-wing interest groups, according to information obtained by The Washington Free Beacon.

Barack Obama Flies E-L-A-L.  When it comes to Muslim terrorists or other problems in the Middle East, President Obama is a very slow learner, and each "teachable moment" becomes an eternity as Obama argues with or ignores the facts:
  •   For two years, Obama largely waved off the problem of Islamic terrorists in Syria and Iraq knocking off major cities like dominoes, and he began to focus on the problem after broadcasts of beheadings of Americans by the terrorists;
  •   Three years ago, President Obama blithely dismissed the view of US generals who said the US had to keep some forces in Iraq to prevent a vacuum that would be filled by terrorists and by Iranian influence.  Even though the generals were proven right, Obama refuses to admit it;
  •   A Muslim terrorist murdered 13 people at the Fort Hood army base in 2009, as he yelled "Allah is Great," but Obama still calls the attack "workplace violence;" [...]

Why Obama Refuses to support anti-Islamist, Secular Moslems.  For reasons unknown, the Obama Administration had no qualms in removing and even bombing the secular Arab dictators, citing the human rights of their citizens, but when it comes to the human rights of the citizens living under the bloodiest Islamist dictators in Iran, this administration has gone out of its way to ignore the victims and empower the aggressors.  President Obama did not support the secular uprising in Iran but chose to stand by the Islamist clerics and their international terrorist Revolutionary Guards who are creating havoc across the Middle East, Africa, South America, and even here in the United States.  Hizb'allah is the brainchild of Khomeini.  Hamas is another gang of Islamists that Khamenei supports, leaving the people of Iran hungry.  The Revolutionary Guards are operating in Africa, in every city in Europe, and in South America making deals with the drug cartels.  If we are really determined to eradicate Islamism, we should stop making deals with them and start supporting the people against the Islamist regimes.

Netanyahu: Militant Islam Aims to 'Dominate World;' State Dept.: 'No' It Doesn't.  In a hard-hitting speech at the United Nations, the Israeli leader said that entities such as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL), Hamas, the Iranian regime, Hezbollah, al-Qaeda and Boko Haram share that eventual goal.  Jen Psaki was asked at the State Department daily briefing later whether the administration agreed with Netanyahu's argument that those various groups "are all part of the same kind of militant Muslim — Islamic attempt to rule the world."  "We would not agree with that characterization, no," she replied.

Obama Defends Islam, Smacks Israel, American Racism at UN.  Taking on issues ranging from Iran to Russia, from Ukraine to Syria, from global warming to Ebola, Obama pledged to utilize American might in service to the United Nations, speaking grandly of the beauty and power of the world's least effective and most morally bankrupt international institution.

US Reportedly Providing Indirect Military Aid to Hezbollah.  Mohammed Afif, the new head of public relations for the Lebanese-based Iranian-backed terror organization Hezbollah, gave a rare New York Times interview as Lebanese experts reveal his group is indirectly receiving American intelligence aid in its fight against Islamic State (ISIS).  Following ISIS's temporary conquest of Arsal last month on the Lebanese side of the Syrian border, the US sent new weapons to the Lebanese army, which coordinates with Hezbollah.  Likewise, US intelligence has found its way to Hezbollah according to Lebanese experts.

Latest Big Lie: 'We Have No Strategy'.  They DO have a strategy, but they prefer to appear indecisive.  That's because the strategy would likely provoke even greater criticism than the false confession of endless dithering.  The actual strategy is detente first, and then a full alliance with Iran throughout the Middle East and North Africa.  It has been on display since before the beginning of the Obama administration.

National Security Policy Adrift.  How did we get to the rudderless position we are in today?  Clearly, a series of policy mistakes have been made.  It should be remembered that it was President Carter's misguided policies that gave rise to Islamic resurgence by undercutting our key ally, the Shah of Iran by fostering the return of the Islamic zealot Ayatollah Khomeini with his 7th century mentality. [...] Today, we have the Obama Administration's embrace of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), which has clearly facilitated the advance of the Islamic global agenda.  President Obama's 4 June 2009 Cairo speech was the catalyst for the Arab Spring movement which evolved under the political direction of the Muslim Brotherhood.  We all know how that has turned out.

Obama's 'All Options' Include Surrender.  President Barack Obama tried to fend off criticism of his Iraq policy, as that country fell into the clutches of a terrorist army this week, by insisting that he was considering "all the options" for a response.  "I don't rule out anything," he said.  Of course he doesn't.  The essence of postmodernism — of which this president is the political fulfillment — are a profound moral relativism, a habitual flexibility, a hermeneutical hanging-out.  Yet what does it mean to consider "all the options"?  The president uses that phrase to suggest that he has not ruled out military force.  He said much the same thing about Iran's nuclear program, for example, and Syria's chemical weapons.  But "all the options" could mean, in the literal sense, that Obama is also considering the opposite:  i.e. surrender.  And that, in effect, is what Obama's foreign policy has been for the last six years.

American Nazi gives Hitler Salute from Rose Garden.  We can now see Obama's version of the Knockout Game against our allies, always favoring our deadliest self-proclaimed enemies.  Here's the game:  First, Obama says nice things about defending our allies, like endlessly repeating the conscious lie that "Iran will never possess weapons of mass destruction."  Then he stabs our allies in the back, and does a victory lap, applauded by the bloody-handed mullahs, the Taliban, the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Nusra in Syria, the whole gangland world of theological criminals.  Repeat that pattern of "flattery and betrayal" over and over again, and you have BHO's foreign policy from the beginning.

U.S. Releases Another $1 Billion to Iran.  The United States has released $1 billion in cash assets to Iran in April alone under the interim nuclear deal aimed at ratcheting back Iran's nuclear program, according to the White House.  The Obama administration unfroze Iranian assets totaling $550 million on April 10 and another $450 million on April 15.  The United States has now released $2.55 billion to Iran since February, when the scheduled cash infusions first began.

Iran to Receive Another $550 Million Cash Infusion.  Iran is scheduled to receive another $550 million in unfrozen assets from the Obama administration on Friday [3/7/2014], just days after Tehran unveiled a slew of new weapons and advanced ballistic missiles.  Iranian banking authorities on Wednesday confirmed that another $550 million is now on its way to Tehran under the interim nuclear accord inked last year with the United States and other Western nations.

Obama may trust Iran but America should not.  President Obama's proposal in Geneva to the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council allowing Iran to enrich some uranium violates previous U.N. resolutions demanding the Islamic Republic stop "all" uranium enrichment activity.  To avoid a violation of current U.N. resolutions, the permanent members must ask the entire Security Council to vote to weaken and supersede their previous demands.

President Costanza and the Nuclear Deal with Iran.  The president has seemingly determined that the Iranian theocratic regime is trustworthy, and perhaps a potential ally for us in the Middle East, even though Iran:  1) is technically at war with the U.S.; 2) has a long history of lying in its diplomacy; 3) continues to be the leading state sponsor of international terrorism; 4) cruelly suppresses the human rights of its people; 5) backs the vicious Assad regime in Syria; 6) routinely threatens the extermination of our close ally Israel; and 7) often acts to undermine the stability of other Middle East nations, such as Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Bahrain.

Senate Democrats Back Off Iran Sanctions to Save Obama.  Unnamed sources told AFP that Democrats who were signed up for more sanctions against Iran have now "privately recoiled from a damaging vote against their own president."  According to AFP, "several Democrat Senators who previously backed a bi-partisan sanctions bill stepped back after Obama threatened a veto during his State of the Union address on Tuesday."  With the Democrats changing position, the bill is quickly losing momentum, and the once-imminent vote on new sanctions is imminent no more.

Obama Has Made it Impossible for Israel to Strike Iran.  It's done.  Iran will get a bomb.  They want a bomb and they will not be denied unless somebody stops them.  Obama does not want to stop them.  He does not want a friendly regime in Iran.  He wants Iran as a counterforce to America and Israel.  Obama is not a Muslim, but he is a radical.  He sees the U.S. and Israel as imperialistic and oppressive.  He doesn't like the U.S. military.  He'd cut it to nothing if he could get away with it.

The Editor asks...
What makes the writer think Obama's not a Muslim?  There is abundant evidence that Obama is in fact a Muslim.

Barack Obama — our appeaser in chief.  Obama and his team have worked to argue for Tehran against the American Congress for several months, insisting that the representatives of the American people should accept the promises of an Iranian government which has spent the last 20 years lying about its weapons programs.  Not to speak of Iranian support for terrorism, murder of Americans, and domestic abuses.

Obama Is Eagerly Mainstreaming the Iranian Regime.  A State Department spokesman announced Monday that the United States and the European Union will begin offering sanctions relief to Iran because the country "has begun to take concrete and verifiable steps to halt its nuclear program."  Here's just three items over the past week that suggest that Iran's behavior perhaps isn't quite worthy of State's praise: [...]

Holder's terror surrender.  If indeed he follows through on promises made to New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and reported in yesterday's New York Times, Holder should quite simply be impeached.  Now no one supports racial profiling in the conduct of ordinary policing.  Nor do we support the harassment of our Muslim neighbors and friends.  But to ignore the role of radical Islamists as a genuine security threat to this nation is nothing short of insane.

Iran says Obama administration LIED about details of nuke deal.  Iranian officials claimed on Tuesday that the Obama administration concocted a fact sheet on a landmark nuclear agreement that doesn't match what they endorsed over the weekend. [...] At issue are several differences between the White House's summary of the accord and the plain text of the agreement between Iran, the U.S. and five other industrialized nations — specifically the administration's claim that Iran has agreed to stop enriching uranium for the next six months.

Iran: White House Lying About Details of Nuke Deal.  Iranian officials say that the White House is misleading the public about the details of an interim nuclear agreement reached over the weekend in Geneva. [...] The White House released a multi-page fact sheet containing details of the draft agreement shortly after the deal was announced.  However, Iranian foreign ministry official on Tuesday [11/26/2013] rejected the White House's version of the deal as "invalid" and accused Washington of releasing a factually inaccurate primer that misleads the American public.

The Editor says...
Wow, there's a surprise.  The White House is lying about the Middle East.  Again.

Obama's full grovel to Iran.  There's good news and bad news in Barack Obama's sucker deal with Iran.  The Iranians get all the good news, and the West gets all the bad news. [...] The president and his administration, having done the full grovel in Geneva, is now into full defensive mode.  Stung by the cries of disbelief in Washington from a growing number of his partisan allies in Congress, the president insists that his handiwork "halted the progress of the Iranian nuclear program."

Now the Twelfth Imam Can Come.  Among the many who decried the Obama Administration's catastrophic capitulation to the nuclear ambitions of the Islamic Republic of Iran, none spelled out its potential consequences as trenchantly as Israel's Economy Minister Naftali Bennett:  "We awoke this morning to a new reality," he said Sunday.  "A reality in which a bad deal was signed with Iran.  A very bad deal.  If a nuclear suitcase blows up five years from now in New York or Madrid, it will be because of the deal that was signed this morning."

Obama Chose Dishonor.  President Obama had to choose between dishonor and war and he chose dishonor.  Now we will have war.  He has dishonored U.S. allies in the Middle East, including Israel and the Persian Gulf states, by abandoning their security concerns regarding a nuclear Iran by believing that appeasing Iran is the only way to avoid war.

Obama White House betrays an American pastor.  The Obama administration has left an American pastor behind.  In its quest for a "deal" with the hostile, jihadist Iranian regime, the Obama administration has thrown an American Christian, Saeed Abedini, under the bus — the latest American victim in the administration's continual, naïve (at best) quest to bargain with Islamic radicals.

The Secret Talks Between Obama and the Mullahs.  I have long pointed out that Barack Obama's administration, and particularly president Obama himself, has been more than likely clandestinely communicating and working with the Islamic Republic of Iran much longer than just before the current nuclear talks, and even long before President Hassan Rouhani came to the United States to attend the UN General Assembly.  Several national and international outlets have just released more details and reports on this issue.

Obamacare Victims and Israel.  As was the case with ObamaCare, the White House knows that most Americans won't support its policy of doing nothing to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.  So the White House never says that this is its policy.  Obama and his advisers insist that preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power is a central goal of the administration.  But their actions move US policy in the opposite direction.

Dangerous Times: The Crisis-Monger.  The Obama presidency pre-emptively surrenders to the enemy whenever it gets a chance.  It has appointed Muslim Brotherhood loyalists to high positions in this administration.  It has swept under the rug jihadist assaults on our military and our civilian population.  It has failed to stop the aggressive jihadist regime in Iran in its assault — not just on Israel, but on America itself.

Barack H. Obama wishes God's blessing on the leader of a terrorist state.
Obama to Rohani: May God be with you.  "Have a nice day" — this is how Iranian President Hassan Rohani concluded his phone conversation with US President Barack Obama, the first direct contact between leaders of the two nations in over three decades.  A message on Rohani's Twitter page, which has since been deleted, stated that Obama answered in Farsi by saying "khodahafez" to indicate goodbye, whose literal meaning is "may God be with you."

Obama speaks by phone to Iran's Rouhani, sees chance for progress.  [Scroll down]  Rouhani said on a Twitter feed believed to be genuine that in his phone conversation he told Obama "Have a Nice Day!" and Obama responded with "Thank you.  Khodahafez (goodbye)."

The Editor says...
Nice try, Reuters.  Khodahafez means more than just goodbye.

Details of Conversation With Obama Deleted From Twitter Account in Rouhani's Name.  Another of the deleted updates, captured by The Lede, described the two presidents wishing each other farewell in their own languages.  Mr. Rouhani offering the American blessing, "Have a nice day!" and Mr. Obama responding with the Persian word for goodbye, "Khodahafez" — literally, "May God protect you."

Global Jihad Is Here.  In fact, historians may date the start of the Global Jihad to October 1979 — to the Islamic Revolution in Iran, after Jimmy Carter betrayed our loyal ally the shah of Iran to the most cruel and oppressive reactionary ideology in the world.  That was the first major explosion of Muslim imperialism in modern times.  Iran is now moving toward nukes and missile production, with the quiet consent of Barack Hussein Obama.

Franklin Graham: Why is Obama Silent as Iran Tortures American Pastor?  One of the nation's most prominent evangelical leaders wants to know why President Obama has remained silent as Iran tortures an American pastor held captive in one of the Islamic republic's most notorious prisons.  Franklin Graham, the president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan's Purse, told Fox News the imprisonment and torture of Pastor Saeed Abedini is a blatant example of "religious intolerance."

The IRS, the NSA, and Obama's Dirty Tricks.  [Scroll down]  The NSA collection of data also has a political motivation.  Since the NSA is clearly violating the Fourth Amendment and the Patriot Act, the information they are gathering cannot be used in court.  It would be very difficult for the government to prosecute a terrorist — and Obama wants terrorists prosecuted in criminal court — if the information they obtained violated their rights.  Proof of this is the fact that Obama wanted the Boston bomber to be given a lawyer and Miranda rights.  So the investigation of the Boston bombing case — an investigation likely to yield important information about the terrorist network in the U.S. — was stopped by none other than the president, who claimed the NSA wiretapping is necessary only for national security.

Obama is Abrading the Social Fabric.  [Scroll down]  In any event, with the FBI having ignored specific warnings from the Russians about the Boston bombers and the administration announcing it will provide military support for the Syrian rebels just as they in turn announce their affiliation with Al Qaeda, the need for this elaborate record-gathering becomes ever less clear.  From the outside it seems as if in Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, Iran, and Egypt we are doing everything in our power to strengthen our enemies.  What's the point then creating this expensive apparatus to permit listening to their communications as if we still regarded them as enemies?

The Humiliation of John Kerry.  The secretary of state was back in Washington on Thursday, begging the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to take it easy on the poor Iranians.  Enough with the sanctions, he said.  Secretary Kerry has joined decades of his predecessors, buying into the latest version of the 30-year old illusion that we can make a deal with the Tehran regime if only we deal properly and humbly with them.

Whose side is Obama on?  Team Obama decided precipitously to charge the surviving alleged bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, in civilian court.  This action resulted in his being read Miranda rights and obtaining a lawyer, prompting him to refuse to answer more questions from investigators.  Former federal prosecutor Andrew C. McCarthy observed, "Obama was determined to end the public debate over whether the jihadist is a wartime enemy combatant or a mere criminal defendant."

Gohmert: Muslim Brotherhood Is Guiding Obama In Boston Bombings Investigation.  Appearing on World Net Daily's radio show, Gohmert speculated that Attorney General Eric Holder read bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev his Miranda rights to "shut him up" and undermine the investigation into the brothers' possible ties to radical Islam.  "It's very clear to everybody but this administration that radical Islam is at war against us," he said, before noting that Obama has displayed a "real pattern" of "incompetence" in responding to the threat from extremists during his tenure.

This is an original compilation, Copyright © 2024 by Andrew K. Dart

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