Category Archives: defense policy

More of the Dishonesty of Iran’s Nuclear Weapons Deal

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First, this lie from President Barack Obama, spoken through his Guy Who Sits in the State Department’s Chair, John Kerry:

Iran had 12,000 kilograms of highly enriched uranium, and that’s enough if they enriched it further for 10 to 12 bombs. They had it. That’s what Barack Obama was dealt as a hand when he came in: 19,000 centrifuges already spinning….

The facts, via Omri Ceren:

The Iranians didn’t have 12,000 kg of highly enriched uranium (HEU) when Obama took office they had 0 kg of HEU. Kerry might have been thinking of the 12,000 kg of low enriched uranium (LEU) they had by 2014, but that doesn’t work either because the Iranians stockpiled most of that under Obama: as of February 2009 they only had 1,010 kg of LEU. They also didn’t have “19,000 centrifuges already spinning” they had 3,936 centrifuges spinning. And they were not 2 months away from breakout but instead were just getting around to stockpiling enough uranium for a single bomb.

Obama claimed, this time through his Energy Secretary, Ernest Moniz, in response to the question of why he welched on his promise to us fellow Americans that he would end Iran’s program:

Well, first of all, the issue of Iran having a nuclear program was already established in the previous administration.

He said that with a straight face, too, as though he actually were serious. Never mind that, being an existing program, there was, indeed, something to end—something which he had promised to end, and which he chose not to.

 

h/t Power Line and Omri Ceren, who corresponds with Power Line

Nuclear Weapons Deal Agreed

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President Barack Obama and his lesser foreign policy wonk, John Kerry, have agreed that Iran can have nuclear weapons and the missile delivery systems to carry them.

This is from Omri Ceren, via Power Line:

The Iranian nuclear program will be placed under international sponsorship for R&D

Sort of: “a major power” will work with Iran to develop next-generation centrifuge technology, ostensibly merely for production of useful isotopes of various elements. Never mind that “isotope production” other than bombarding atoms with neutrons is exactly what is done to enriching uranium.

The sanctions regime will be shredded

Completely. The sanctions to be lifted are limited to sanctions against the Iranian nuclear weapons program. However, this better policy wonk than his policy wonks has agreed that all sanctions currently in place against Iran are to be defined as part of the “anti-nuclear weapons program” sanctions régime. Thus, sanctions on Iran for terrorism, human rights abuses, “conventional” weapons, and ballistic missiles will be lifted. This one is especially well done by Obama.

The US collapsed on anytime-anywhere inspections

Completely. The IAEA gets to ask, “Pretty please,” the Iranians get to say, “No,” and the whole thing goes to arbitration. With Iran as an arbitration panel member. With no deadline, no maximum time frame within which the question must be arbitrated.

Under this deal in our time, Iran gets to traffic in conventional arms, legally, in five years, and it gets to build/acquire ballistic missiles, legally, in eight years.

Iran’s legal path to nuclear weapons is wide open. Actually, that path is a multiplicity of multi-lane highways.

Obama, with a straight face, proclaims his pride in this failure. What a legacy he’s built.

Irrelevant Indeed

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The spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition targeting Yemen’s Shiite rebels in airstrikes since March says the coalition is not bound by a new truce deal.

Saudi Brig Gen Ahmed Asiri’s comments, posted Saturday on the website of the semi-official Saudi newspaper al-Riyadh, cast doubt over the fragile truce that begin at midnight Friday.

Well, it is, after all, a UN-declared “truce.” It’s not like all the combatants were even consulted. Like the Houthis, or the Saudis, or many of (any of?) their coalition partners.

An Accelerating Nuclear Program?

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Iran keeps threatening to greatly accelerate its nuclear weapons program if the current “negotiations” break down.

While US-led world powers hold talks with Iran in Vienna to curb Tehran’s illicit nuclear weapons program, the Islamic Republic’s spies have been seeking atomic and missile technology in neighboring Germany as recently as last month, according to German intelligence sources.

Iran’s illegal activities have continued since talks between Iran and the P5+1 [now carefully relabeled “EU + 3”]…began with a Joint Plan of Action in 2013, according to German intelligence sources. The JPOA was intended to stop Iran’s work on a nuclear weapon until a comprehensive agreement is reached.

It seems they already are—have been for some time—accelerating their nuclear weapons program.

Given this, on what basis could anyone possibly accept a deal signed by the current men of the Iranian government—beginning with Ali Khamenei?

National Security Teams

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USMC General Joseph Dunford, in a Senate confirmation hearing concerning his nomination as our new Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, had this to say about threats to our national security.

My assessment today…is that Russia presents the greatest threat to our national security.

So if you want to talk about a nation that could pose an existential threat to the United States, I’d have to point to Russia.

In Russia we have a nuclear power. We have one that not only has the capability to violate the sovereignty of our allies and to do things that are inconsistent with our national interests, but they’re in the process of doing so.

So if you want to talk about a nation that could pose an existential threat to the United States, I’d have to point to Russia. And if you look at their behavior, it’s nothing short of alarming[.]

To which President Barack Obama responded through his Press Secretary Josh Earnest:

Certainly, General Dunford is somebody who has spent a lot of time thinking about these issues and has his own view, but I think that he would be the first to admit that that reflects his own view and doesn’t necessarily reflect the consensus analysis of the President’s national security team[.]

What an alarming thing to say about his own national security team.