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See Part 1 here. The following is part of an ongoing roundup of substantive articles that point out the reasons why the Iran “deal” (text here) is a travesty, and must be opposed. This is not a right-wing or left-wing issue. It is an issue that may well determine the fate of Western civilization, and more acutely, whether this “deal,” left to stand, will be the direct cause of World War III.
If you have any news items or analyses that you think should be added here, email us.
Also, please attend the July 22 “Stop Iran Now!” rally in New York City. Details here.
The ‘Grand Bargain’ Is A Gift To Iran, by Michael Ledeen, Forbes.com, July 16, 2015.
Excerpt:
Lee Smith has it right: The long “grand bargain” that purportedly removes the risk of a nuclear Iran is actually a gift to the infamous Iranian warlord, Qassem Soleimani, who commands the nation’s foreign military and terrorist activities. It provides Tehran with cash, and all manner of opportunity to cheat on promises to eschew any activity having to do with military nuclear activities. It phases out sanctions on oil, gold, international banking activities and shipping. That translates into more cash–much of which will be spent on killing Iran’s enemies.
Iran has made war on the United States
We remain number one on Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s enemies list. Iran is directly responsible for killing five hundred Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan, not to mention the bloody death count from the Marine Barracks in Beirut in 1983 and other subsequent villainies.
U.S. Chief Negotiator Admits: ‘Anytime, Anyplace Access’ to Iran’s Nuke Facilities Was ‘Rhetoric’, by Jordan Schachtel, Breitbart News, July 16, 2015.
Excerpt:
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.
“I think this is one of those circumstances where we have all been rhetorical from time to time,” Sherman told a conference call of Israeli reporters, the Jerusalem Post reports.
“The phrase, anytime, anywhere, is something that became popular rhetoric, but I think people understood that if the IAEA felt it had to have access, and had a justification for that access, that it would be guaranteed, and that is what happened,” she added. In defending the agreement, which allows for Iran to have 24-day advance notice before inspectors are allowed to visit suspected nuclear facilities, Sherman said, “It’s not so easy to clean up a nuclear site.”
16 Reasons Why the Obama Administration Iranian Nuclear Negotiating Strategy is Unethical and Immoral
Iran Nuclear Negotiating Strategy
20 Signs of Pure, Unadulterated Evil: Islamic State vs Islamic Republic of Iran
Iran Deal: The Great Bamboozle Festival, by Douglas Murray, The Gatestone Institute, July 18, 2015.
Excerpt:
What exactly is it that the Obama administration thinks has changed about the leadership of Iran? Of all the questions which remain unanswered in the wake of the P5+1 deal with Iran, this one is perhaps the most unanswered of all.
There must, after all, be something that a Western leader sees when an attempt is made to “normalize” relations with a rogue regime — what Richard Nixon saw in the Chinese Communist Party that persuaded him that an unfreezing of relations was possible, or what Margaret Thatcher saw in the eyes of Mikhail Gorbachev, which persuaded her that here was a counterpart who could finally be trusted.
After all, the outward signs with Iran would seem to remain unpromising. Last Friday in Tehran, just as the P5+1 were wrapping up their deal with the Iranians, the streets of Iran were playing host to “Al-Quds Day.” This, in the Iranian calendar, is the day, inaugurated by the late Ayatollah Khomeini, when anti-Israel and anti-American activity come to the fore even more than usual. Encouraged by the regime, tens of thousands of Iranians march in the streets calling for the end of Israel and “Death to America”. Not only Israeli and American flags were burned — British flags were also torched, in a touching reminder that Iran is the only country that still believes Britain runs the world.
Iran General: Our Ultimate Goal Is the Destruction of America And Israel, by Reza Kahlili, The Daily Caller, January 5, 2015.
Excerpt:
The commander of Iran’s notorious Basij forces declared Monday that the Islamic Republic’s ultimate goal is the destruction of America and Israel.
“Today there is no mandate to end our fight because Iran’s greatness in the region and the repeated losses by the Zionists and America are the proof of our fight up to today,” Gen. Mohammad Naghdi said, according to Fars News Agency. “Our ideal is not [nuclear] centrifuges but the destruction of the White House and the annihilation of Zionism [Israel].”
The regime’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has also called for the continuation of the fight to destroy America, saying: “This battle will only end when the society can get rid of the oppressors’ front with America at the head of it, which has expanded its claws on human mind, body and thought. … This requires a difficult and lengthy struggle and a need for great strides.”
Naghdi denounced comments by the Rouhani government over the weekend on a possible referendum on the country’s nuclear issue in an effort to remove international sanctions and negotiate a solution with the West.“Those who have no faith in our ideals and in the name of rationalism have drawn a line on these goals and talk of ending the fight must speak honestly that they are no longer revolutionaries because we will continue with our goals,” Naghdi said.
7 Devastating Facts About Obama’s Iran Nuclear Deal, by Wynton Hall, Breitbart News, July 17, 2015.
Excerpt:
As Iran and President Barack Obama cheer and champion their controversial nuclear deal, critics are roundly condemning the deal as a historic and catastrophic agreement that will strengthen Iran and imperil national security for America and its allies.
Here, then, are seven facts about Obama’s proposed Iran nuclear deal Americans should know:
1. U.S. Nuclear Inspectors Are Banned From Inspecting Iran’s Nuclear Sites
Obama National Security Adviser Susan Rice admitted to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday that “no Americans will be part of the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] inspection teams.” The administration’s claim that the deal provides inspections “anytime, anywhere” is also false. Obama’s deal allows Iran to block inspector access to any undeclared nuclear site. As Charles Krauthammer notes, “The denial is then adjudicated by a committee—on which Iran sits. It then goes through several other bodies, on all of which Iran sits” and the whole process may take up to 24 days.
Dancing with the Devil: Obama’s “Stunning Historic Mistake”, by Ilana Freedman, The Freedman Report, July 16, 2015.
Excerpt:
On Tuesday, July 14, 2015, the world got a lot scarier. As President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry celebrated the completion of a ‘deal’ with Iran, an ominous feeling of déjà vu cast a long shadow over the news and on the prospects for peace in the world, perhaps for generations. While the administration told us throughout the long negotiations that they were prepared to walk away from the table, it was clear almost from the outset that these were negotiations they were not willing to see fail. In the process, they gave away the store and got nothing in return but the prospect of nuclear war.
Iran hasn’t been a viable negotiating partner since the days of the Shah, who was overthrown in 1979. They have cheated on every deal they have made, and there is nothing to suggest that their behavior will change now that they have so successfully concluded the negotiations in their favor. In fact, empowered by the agreement that gave them virtually everything they asked for and in which the P5+1 gave up every advantage, Iran is likely to be even more aggressive and deceptive in the future. Their arrogance was apparent even while the negotiations were going on, with huge rallies held simultaneously in Teheran in which the prevailing theme was “death to America, death to Israel”.
Déjà vu. Obama’s ‘deal’ is reminiscent of two other such events in recent history. In September 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain concluded the Munich Agreement with Adolf Hitler and declared on his return to England, “My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honor. I believe it is peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Go home and get a nice quiet sleep.”
Hitler had said he had “No more territorial demands to make in Europe.” But on October 1, less than a month later, German troops occupied the Sudetenland and, less than a year later, invaded Poland. This was the beginning of World War II in which more than 50 million people died.
The Iran Deal: Making War More Likely?, by Stephen Bryen and Shoshana Bryen, American Thinker, July 17, 2015.
Excerpt:
While the first of the deal’s unintended consequences is that it forces Israel to officially become a nuclear power, there are others.
The deal increases the chances of direct conventional warfare between Israel and an emboldened and wealthier Iran. It may come as a consequence of Israel’s “interdict and defeat” effort in Syria; too many Iranian missiles in the hands of Hizb’allah; the deployment of Iranian troops in Syria threatening Israel; a firefight in the Golan or southern Lebanon; or conflict on the high seas. The list is a long one.
And Israel is not the only country that views Iran with alarm. Egypt and Saudi Arabia will urgently step up their search for nuclear capability. Egypt has gone down this road before and the Saudis have been leaning on Pakistan for a bomb. Neither Egypt nor Saudi Arabia is inherently stable, and instability runs different scenarios. Saudi Arabia has IRBM delivery systems and F-15s that can be used to deliver a nuclear weapon. Egypt does not presently have the rockets, but it has a good nuclear science base that it gained in cooperation with different international partners. How viable its nuclear science pool is today is unclear; but in the 1980s Egypt was working with Iraq on the creation of plutonium fuel for weapons (at the Osirak reactor, among other locales) and was partnered with Argentina and perhaps others in building a version of the American Pershing II mobile nuclear missile. It is not unreasonable to think these programs or variants of them will in some way be revived.
Obama’s Iran Nuke Deal: ‘Plan A’ for the Ultimate Annihilation of Israel, By Rabbi Aryeh Spero, CNSNews.com, July 16, 2015.
Excerpt:
One of the most alarming and catastrophic elements being overlooked in this week’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, and rockets … 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.”
There is no reason for President Obama to give Iran that amount of money, which will be used tomorrow to hire tens of thousands of ISIS, Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists, to try to destroy Israel, and to finance terrorism against America and other countries. It will put at risk our navy in the Persian Gulf, with Obama probably ordering some type of American retreat when challenged by the Iranians, so as not to jeopardize our “partnership” with them as well as the hopes he has placed in the mullahs and his sympathy for other Iranian goals. This so-called treaty has been a hoax from the beginning, a ruse and cover-up for Mr. Obama’s plan to resurrect Iran and financially fortify the mullahs and Iran. He, single-handedly, has rescued the mullahs and given them a controlling future over the Persian people.
We’ve been suckered into believing that it was about making Iran compromise and avert a nuclear program. The so-called deal has been a pretext for Barack Obama to do what he has always wanted to do: strengthen Iran and make it an undisputed power in the Middle East, a nation that can use its power to threaten Israel and any other nation in the region partnering with Israel. It has nothing to do with “his legacy,” rather his conviction.
The Iran Deal, Explained, by Noah Pollak, The Weekly Standard, July 15, 2015.
Excerpt:
To cut through the rhetoric surrounding the Iran deal, and to better understand what the two sides conceded and gained, I’ve compiled a balance sheet on the Iran deal. It’s simple and non-technical; a basic list comparing what the U.S. gets versus what Iran gets. The reader is free to make up his own mind about the merits of the deal and the extent to which it advances U.S. interests and U.S. security, and that of our allies.
Forget how far away the terms of the deal may be from the ones President Obama insisted on two years ago, last year, or even last month. The saga of U.S. concessions to Iran is what’s known as a “process story,” and one thing the Obama years should teach us is that process stories – stories about how the administration achieves its policy objectives, as opposed to the policies themselves – have increasingly little purchase on our political debates. So, without further ado:
What we get:
- Iran reduces by about half the number of centrifuges actively enriching uranium.
- Iran reduces its stockpile of enriched uranium from about five tons to 300 kilograms.
- Iran repurposes its heavy water reactor in Arak so it does not produce plutonium.
- An unspecified increase in inspections by the IAEA.
What Iran gets:
Sanctions relief:
- Almost every type of U.S., EU, and UN sanctions lifted.
- Repeal of six UN Security Council resolutions declaring the Iranian nuclear program illegal.
- Top IRGC and Quds Force terrorists removed from the sanctions list, including Qassem Suleimani, leader of Iran’s campaign against U.S. soldiers in Iraq, and Ahmad Vahidi, mastermind of the 1994 Jewish community center bombing in Argentina that killed 85 people.
- The removal from the sanctions list of approximately 800 people and legal entities, including 23 out of 24 Iranian banks.
- $100 to $150 billion to be unfrozen and given to Iran with no restrictions on its use to purchase arms and fund terrorism, including funding for Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Assad regime in Syria.
Continue here. (STW Ed.: And as Pollak explains, that all that’s before we even get to the collapse of our original nuclear demands.)
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