Thursday, July 30, 2015
From: Gary L. Bauer
Secret Side Agreements
Two things have been said in last 24 hours that should alarm the American people, including every congressman. During testimony yesterday before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) confronted Secretary of State John Kerry and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz over the secret side agreements in the Iranian nuclear deal. Their exchanges should stop this deal dead in its tracks. Consider this excerpt:
Sen. Cotton: Secretary Kerry, have you read either of these two side deals between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran?
Kerry: No, I haven’t read them.
Sen. Cotton: Have you read any previous drafts?
Kerry: No, I haven’t. . . . I believe one person may have. . . But I don’t know for sure.
Sen. Cotton: Secretary Moniz, have you read the text of these agreements?
Moniz: No, sir.
Sen. Cotton: Has anyone on your team at the Department of Energy?
Moniz: I’m not sure. . .
Sen. Cotton: Secretary Kerry, has anyone else in the U.S. government reviewed the text of these agreements?
Kerry: Not that I’m aware of.
What we know about the deal is bad enough. When the negotiations ended, the photo that sticks in my mind is that Iranian negotiators looked like they had just won the lottery. There were celebrations in Tehran.
But knowing that neither John Kerry nor anyone else in the government has read the ENTIRE agreement, how on earth can any member of Congress possibly vote for it?
Another cause for alarm came from Tehran itself. Hamid Baeidinejad, one of the lead Iranian nuclear negotiators, said, “The remarks by the Western officials are ambiguous comments which are merely uttered for domestic use.”
According to the Iranian news agency, Baeidinejad went on to say that “U.S. officials’ remarks . . . are meant to calm opponents in the Congress and Zionist lobbies to soothe the internal conditions prevailing over debates on the nuclear agreement in that country.”
It is a sad sign of the times that I am more inclined to believe the Iranians than our own negotiators.
Crying For Cecil
I am sure you have seen the news about the “murder” of Cecil the lion by a Minneapolis dentist. The dentist has since been driven into hiding as a result of death threats after Mia Farrow published his home address.
I’m not going to jump into the Cecil debate. I’ve got enough on my plate already.
But like many others, I am struck by the moral outrage over the shooting of a 13 year-old lion (CBS News last night devoted a second day of coverage to the death of Cecil) and the lack of outrage over the routine destruction of innocent unborn children who are 13 weeks and older.
Apparently, Cecil the lion was beheaded and skinned, which is a fairly accurate description of various types of dismemberment abortions. Of course, we have discovered in recent weeks that not only are these little babies destroyed, but Planned Parenthood employees were making a market in body parts, bartering for livers and other organs.
Maybe Cecil has a better PR company. Whatever the difference is, he was able to walk the earth for thirteen years and have cubs of his own. If only our own unborn children were as fortunate to have a chance at life.
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