The Iran Deal: A Shabby And Pathetic Spectacle

On September 19, 2017 President Trump addressed the 72nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly.  In his remarks he said of the Iran deal:

“We cannot let a murderous regime continue these destabilizing activities while building dangerous missiles, and we cannot abide by an agreement if it provides cover for the eventual construction of a nuclear program.” 

“The Iran deal was one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into,” Trump continued. “Frankly, that deal is an embarrassment to the United States and I don’t think you have heard the last of it, believe me.” 

“It is far past time for the nations of the world to confront another reckless regime, one that speaks openly of mass murder, vowing ‘death to America,’ destruction to Israel, and ruin to many nations and leaders in this room,” Trump said, accusing Iran of hiding behind a “false guise of a democracy.”

“It is time for the entire world to join us in demanding that Iran end its pursuit of death and destruction,” Trump said.

A month later, speaking from the Oval Office, the President made the following assertions in his speech on the Iran nuclear agreement known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA):

“The regime harbored high-level terrorists in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, including Osama bin Laden’s son.” 

“The regime remains the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, and provides assistance to al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Hezbollah, Hamas and other terrorist networks.”

“The previous administration lifted these sanctions, just before what would have been the total collapse of the Iranian regime, through the deeply controversial 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.”

JCPOA “also gave the regime an immediate financial boost and over $100 billion its government could use to fund terrorism. The regime also received a massive cash settlement of $1.7 billion from the United States, a large portion of which was physically loaded onto an airplane and flown into Iran.”

“The deal allows Iran to continue developing certain elements of its nuclear program and, importantly, in just a few years, as key restrictions disappear, Iran can sprint towards a rapid nuclear weapons breakout.”

“The Iranian regime has committed multiple violations of the agreement. For example, on two separate occasions, they have exceeded the limit of 130 metric tons of heavy water. Until recently, the Iranian regime has also failed to meet our expectations in its operation of advanced centrifuges.”

“There are also many people who believe that Iran is dealing with North Korea. I am going to instruct our intelligence agencies to do a thorough analysis and report back their findings beyond what they have already reviewed.”

How eager was The World’s Most Dangerous Community Organizer to see Iran break through its isolation and become a successful regional power? Profoundly eager. 

In 2014, Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communication and a member of the president’s innermost circle, told a group of activists in the Democrat Party the agreement in 2013 between Tehran and the P5+1 gave the Obama Administration “the best opportunity we’ve had to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue.” 

Rhodes confided, “This is Obamacare just to put it in context…it’s probably the biggest thing President Obama will do in his second term on foreign policy. We’re already kind of thinking through, how do we structure a deal so we don’t necessarily require legislative action right away.”

NOTE:  Rhodes was unaware his comments were being recording.

“Structuring” the Iran deal in order to bypass legislative action involved ripping apart Project Cassandra.  The entire effort was done from the top down.  According to a report which has been widely linked to Politico, the Obama White House directly prevented actions by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to battle the terror group Hezbollah.

Project Cassandra was launched in 2008 after the Drug Enforcement Administration amassed evidence that Hezbollah had transformed itself from a Middle East-focused military and political organization into an international crime syndicate that some investigators believed was collecting $1 billion a year from drug and weapons trafficking, money laundering and other criminal activities.

Over the next eight years, agents working out of a top-secret DEA facility in Chantilly, Virginia, used wiretaps, undercover operations and informants to map Hezbollah's illicit networks, with the help of 30 U.S. and foreign security agencies.

They followed cocaine shipments, some from Latin America to West Africa and on to Europe and the Middle East, and others through Venezuela and Mexico to the United States. They tracked the river of dirty cash as it was laundered by, among other tactics, buying American used cars and shipping them to Africa. And with the help of some key cooperating witnesses, the agents traced the conspiracy, they believed, to the innermost circle of Hezbollah and its state sponsors in Iran.

They followed cocaine shipments, tracked a river of dirty cash, and traced what they believed to be the innermost circle of Hezbollah and its state sponsors in Iran.

But as Project Cassandra reached into the hierarchy of the conspiracy, Obama Administration officials threw an increasingly insurmountable series of roadblocks in its way, according to interviews with dozens of participants who in many cases spoke for the first time about events shrouded in secrecy, and a review of government documents and court records. When Project Cassandra leaders sought approval for some significant investigations, prosecutions, arrests and financial sanctions, officials at the Justice and Treasury departments delayed, hindered or rejected their requests.

CIA Director John Brennan had long advocated better relations with Hezbollah and Secretary of State John “Horseface” Kerry was hell-bent to make every conceivable concession to the terror state of Iran including shipping pallets of cash totaling $400 million to the mullahs in an unmarked cargo plane.  That sum of money was used to secure the release of Americans who were being held hostage by Tehran.

I think the facts here are undeniable.  The United States, under the direction The World’s Most Dangerous Community Organizer, made extensive concessions to a nation that openly sought to destabilize our interests, attack our allies, and kill our people—for nothing in return but the chance to strut like a banty rooster and give self-flattering speeches.