Monday, August 17, 2015
From: Gary L. Bauer
Deal Funds Iranian Terror
Critics of President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran have argued that the numerous concessions, including as much as $100 billion in sanctions relief, make the radical Islamic regime stronger and will be used to fund its terrorist activities. The leaders of the regime are confirming those fears.
Over the weekend, Ali Akbar Velayati, a key adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, said: “The Islamic Republic of Iran will always support the current (Resistance Front) and of course, with the nuclear agreement, it will have more power to side with its friends in the region.” And by “friends in the region,” Velayati is referring to Hamas, Hezbollah and the Assad regime in Syria.
Any hope that this deal represented a change for the better was dashed today when Ayatollah Khamenei said:
“[The Americans] thought this deal . . . will open up Iran to their influence. We blocked this path and will definitely block it in the future. We won’t allow American political, economic or cultural influence in Iran.”
Any member of Congress who votes for this deal does so knowing that Iran is not moderating and remains an avowed enemy of America and Israel. That’s one reason why Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona came out against the deal over the weekend.
Flake was heavily courted by the Obama White House, hoping that his support would give the deal the appearance of bi-partisan support. He traveled with the president to Africa recently and was with Secretary of State John Kerry in Cuba last week. But now the only bi-partisan aspect of the Iran deal is the opposition against it.
In announcing his opposition, Flake said:
“While Congress has received assurances from the administration that it does not forfeit its ability to impose sanctions on Iran for behavior on the non-nuclear side, these assurances do not square with the text of the [Iran agreement]. . . As written, this agreement gives Iran leverage it currently doesn’t have. . . . Hoping that Iran’s nuclear ambitions might change after a 15-year sabbatical might be a bet worth making. Believing that Iran’s regional behavior will change tomorrow — while giving up tools to deter or modify such behavior — is not.”
Server Scandal Update
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s troubles stemming from her use of a private email server erupted over the weekend. Here are the latest developments:
- According to the Washington Times, State Department officials reviewing Mrs. Clinton’s emails have flagged more than 300 messages or “5.1 percent of those processed so far” for containing classified information.If that rate holds up, more than 1,500 emails out of the 30,000 she surrendered could have classified data in them. This news appears to confirm the worst fears of intelligence analysts — that there was in fact a trove of classified data on her server.
- Sources at Platte River Networks, the company that managed Mrs. Clinton’s private server, told ABC News that “it’s highly likely that a full backup of the server was made, meaning those thousands of e-mails she deleted may still exist.” It also means that this company may still be in possession of classified information.
- What do we know about Platte River Networks? Late Friday afternoon, the chief public affairs officer of the Defense Security Service (the federal agency charged with approving security clearances for private contractors) said that Platte River Networks was not cleared to handle classified data.Past precedent suggests Mrs. Clinton could be in legal trouble. Top government officials such as Sandy Berger, John Deutch and General David Petraeus were prosecuted for their sloppy handling of classified material.As it turns out, the Justice Department’s investigation of Mrs. Clinton is being handled by two “veteran prosecutors,” one of whom reportedly “helped manage the prosecution of David H. Petraeus.”On MSNBC this morning, famed Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward, who helped expose Watergate, said that Hillary Clinton’s emails reminded him of the Nixon tapes. “This has to go on a long, long time and the answers are probably not going to be pretty,” Woodward added.Woodward also debunked left-wing claims that this investigation is just a partisan witch hunt, saying, “That dog will not hunt at all. You’ve got Barack Obama’s government now investigating her.”
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