Wednesday, August 12, 2015
From: Gary L. Bauer
Can Obama Be Trusted?
In making the case for his nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran, President Obama has frequently claimed that the inspections regime is the most intrusive ever, and if Tehran is caught cheating sanctions will be “snapped back.”
There are serious deficiencies with both the inspections regime and the ability to reimpose sanctions. But the biggest fault with the deal is Obama’s lack of will.
U.S. intelligence agencies discovered some time ago that the Russians are cheating on the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty. Members of Congress are demanding a response, but the Obama White House is blocking the release of the intelligence report — essentially giving Russia a pass.
Russia is reportedly responsible for a massive cyberattack on the Pentagon. And the White House does nothing. Obama is responsible for enforcing treaty violations and defending our country. Yet he does nothing.
How can we trust this president to enforce any deal against Iran’s cheating when the deal is such a critical part of his legacy?
Kerry’s Admission
According to Secretary of State John Kerry, we shouldn’t expect the administration to stop Iran’s cheating either.
Kerry said yesterday that if Iran violates the terms of the arms embargo included in the nuclear deal, sanctions will not be reimposed. That is a stunning admission.
According to Reuters, Kerry said, “The arms embargo is not tied to [sanctions] snapback. It is tied to a separate set of obligations. So [Iran is] not in material breach of the nuclear agreement for violating the arms piece of it.”
Wait a minute. Remember the American hostages languishing in Iranian jails?
We were told that they could not be part of this deal because it only involved the nuclear issue and nothing else. But the arms embargo was included and Kerry is admitting it is a separate issue. So the administration caved on Iranian demands over weapons and gave up on our citizens.
It gets worse. Kerry seemingly attempted to shift the burden for enforcing the weapons embargo to the United Nations. “There is a specific U.N. resolution outside of [the Iranian nuclear] agreement that prohibits [Iran] from sending weapons to Hezbollah. There is a separate and specific U.N. resolution that prohibits them from sending weapons to the Shia militia in Iraq.”
Yet as Reuters acknowledges, and as Kerry surely knows, “Tehran has consistently violated the U.N. arms embargo and missile sanctions. Since 2010, those breaches have been documented by the U.N. panel of experts on Iran.”
Members of Congress who vote for this disastrous deal will do so knowing in advance that this administration will not stop Iran’s cheating on the weapons embargo. The next time Hamas and Hezbollah attack Israel with weapons made or purchased by Iran, those senators and representatives will have blood on their hands.
Hillary Surrenders
News broke late last night that Hillary Clinton has agreed to surrender her private email server to the FBI. In addition, her attorney, David Kendall, will also hand over a thumb drive that contains copies of the emails she had on the server.
It was also revealed yesterday that at least two of Mrs. Clinton’s emails contained information deemed to be “Top Secret.” Mr. Kendall’s thumb drive contains this information as well.
For months Hillary Clinton has refused to give up her server. In March she said that it contained “personal communications from my husband and me . . . and the server will remain private.”
David Kendall refused a request from Rep. Trey Gowdy, chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, for a third-party review of the server because “no emails . . . for the time period January 21, 2009 through February 1, 2013 reside on the server or on any back-up systems associated with the server.”
Evidently, the FBI isn’t willing to trust Mrs. Clinton’s or her attorney’s assurances that nothing relevant remains on the server.
Poll Position
Here are the latest developments in the 2016 campaign:
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders now leads Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire for the first time. According to a poll by Franklin Pierce University, Sanders leads Clinton 44% to 37%.
There is a bit of an upset taking place in the GOP race too. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker had dominated polling in Iowa, the nation’s first caucus state, since February. No longer.
Two post-Cleveland debate polls released in recent days show Donald Trump taking the lead in Iowa for the first time. That said, at this point in the 2012 campaign Rick Perry was leading in Iowa.
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