Hostages freedom should trump nuclear deal

From the files of Jeff Jacoby at The Boston Globe

The Washington Post's Tehran bureau chief, Jason Rezaian, is being tried in
Iran on bogus espionage charges.

In his remarks to the White House Correspondents' Dinner in April, President Obama pledged that his administration would work tirelessly for the freedom of Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post reporter who has been held hostage by Iran since last summer on spurious espionage charges.

"Jason has been in prison for nothing more than writing about the hopes and fears of the Iranian people," Obama said. "We will not rest until we bring him home to his family, safe and sound."

Yet just four days later, the president warned Congress that he would veto any bill making approval of a nuclear deal with Iran contingent on the release of Americans in Iranian captivity. Obama may want the mullahs to set their US hostages free. But he wants that nuclear deal more.

On Monday, Obama boasted to a gathering of young Southeast Asian leaders that as a result of his policies, "today, once again, the United States is the most respected country on earth." Could anyone swallow such a risible claim without, as Hillary Clinton might put it, the willing suspension of disbelief?

It's hard to think of any nation on the planet that holds America in higher esteem because of the Obama presidency. Iran surely doesn't. Time and again, the White House has bent over backward to "engage" the Islamist regime in Tehran. At every step its overtures have been greeted with scorn.

The seizure of innocent Americans like Rezaian — whose trial, in a closed courtroom, began last week — fits a pattern of hostility that seven years of outreach and indulgence by the Obama administration has failed to soften.

"We will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist," entreated the president in his first inaugural address. But Iran's theocratic leaders have not unclenched their fists, not even when it would appear to be in their interest to do so.

The nuclear accord being pushed so fervently by Obama and John Kerry would be a dream come true for the Islamic Republic's rulers — generating tens of billions of dollars in sanctions relief, legitimizing their eventual path to the bomb, and entrenching Iran's malignant regional hegemony.

Yet hungry as they are for this deal, they know that Obama is hungrier still. No provocation, no act of aggression, no insult by Iran has been enough to make the White House walk away from the negotiations.

Rezaian isn't the only US hostage in Iranian hands. Saeed Abedini, 35, is a Christian pastor from Idaho who was arrested in 2012 while on a humanitarian trip to Iran to help establish an orphanage. He was convicted in 2013 "undermining the national security of Iran" and sentenced to eight years in prison.

American pastor Saeed Abedini, seen here with his two young children, has been
held in Iran since 2012. He was sentenced to eight years imprisonment on
charges of undermining national security through worship gatherings
held in private Christian homes.

Amir Hekmati, a decorated U.S. Marine, was born in Arizona and raised in Michigan. He was seized in 2011 while visiting his grandmother in Iran, accused of spying, and sentenced to death (a sentence later commuted pending a retrial). Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent, vanished during a trip to Iran in 2007. Iran's state-run media reported at the time that he was in the hands of the security services, making him one of the longest-held US hostages ever.

The brazen detention of American citizens is an outrage. The refusal of the White House to call a halt to negotiations until the men are released is a humiliation. Iran has an odious history of abducting guiltless Americans, then using them as bargaining chips to trade for some concession from Washington.

You'd think Washington would have learned by now that ransoming hostages only reinforces the incentive to seize more hostages in the future.

It is mind-boggling that the president would threaten to veto a measure making the freedom of the four US citizens the price of any more nuclear talks. Can Obama truly believe that this is the way to make America "the most respected country on earth"?

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Memorial Day 2015

From the Warning Signs of Alan Caruba at Facts-not-Fantasy

Know Alan Caruba's Warning Signs

We need to remind ourselves that Memorial Day is not just another three-day weekend or a day when all manner of sales are offered to those who want to go shopping.

It is a day set aside to honor the ultimate sacrifice of those who have fought to defend our nation and take military action in foreign nations. We honor, too, those who suffered wounds and returned home.

We like to think of America as a nation that has gone to war only when we had to, but a new book, “America Invades: How We’ve Invaded or Been Invaded with Almost Every Country on Earth” tells a different story based on history.

As documented by its authors, Christopher Kelly and Stuard Laycock, America, “has invaded or fought in eighty-four out of 194 countries (countries recognized by the United Nations and excluding the United States) in the world. That’s 43 percent of the total. And it hasn’t been militarily involved with just ninety or a hundred countries. It has had some form of military involvement with a spectacular 191 out of 194. That’s more than 98 percent.”

“Most people,” the authors note “would probably agree that much of what America has done around the world has clearly been wise and noble (as in helping liberate Europe from Nazi tyranny.) Some, however, have been wrong and/or unwise. And some of what America has done has been in-between. In some sense, it’s like looking at the history of one’s own family. And, indeed, all of it—the liberations, the fiascos, and follies—is, in some sense, part of the history of every American citizen.”

Facts-not-Fantasy

That’s why it is a good idea to pause on Memorial Day because as an American it is part of your history. “Americans are always hoping for peace but usually preparing for war” says the authors who remind us that “the American eagle is an ambivalent bird holding arrows in the talons of one foot and an olive branch in the other.”

Our natural instinct is for peace. Only aggressive nations, usually led by despots, want war. That is not a description of America. We have not, however, shied from war when the enemy was a well-defined aggressor.

“In the twenty-first century, the United States, though challenged by Russia and China, is the sole remaining superpower. The global responsibilities that we began to shoulder in the twentieth century seem today more burdensome than ever. The cost of being the world’s policeman seems exorbitant in terms of both lives and treasure.”

That’s why we need to remind ourselves that, as a former Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, has said of America, “We are the indispensable nation.”

We have learned what happens when our President has retreated from the responsibility to deter war. Since leaving Iraq with no U.S. military ground support that nation which was stable at the end of our war there has come under attack by the Islamic State. The President’s efforts to reach a deal with Iran that would allow them to become a nuclear power is causing Arab states to regard the U.S. as abandoning them and could lead to a nuclear arms race in a part of the world that is far from stable.

The U.S. in the wake of World War Two has a vast network of bases and alliances that span the world. Many of those bases were created at the invitation of the host nation. The result, as the authors note is that “The U.S. military, but virtue of its global reach, is almost invariably the first to respond to natural disasters as they occur around the world. If not us, then who will?”

On Memorial Day we honor our sons and daughters who gave their lives when their nation called on them.

“Today the sacrifice of over 218,000 American servicemen and servicewomen is memorialized in military cemeteries in twenty-four different overseas cemeteries in eleven different countries. The boundaries of Jefferson’s Empire of Liberty, therefore, stretch around the world.”

We worry about the emergence of other world powers, but I doubt that Russia which lost 127 million of its people in World War Two or China which is focused on building an economy based heavily on world trade are serious wartime threats.

That does not, however, exclude the likelihood that events may cause the next President to conclude that the only way to put the lid on the Middle East is to return militarily to Iraq and to make it clear to Iran that its nuclear ambitions are untenable and unacceptable.

The ancient Romans knew a truth they share in the phrase, “Si vis pacem, para bellum.” If you want peace, plans for war.

About the only thing that is predictable is that somewhere in the world there will be new wars and, given its power and its responsibility, America may well be engaged in restoring the peace.

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Obama strategy for ISIS blows up in his face

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Saudi King: Meeting is an Obama photo-op

He won't Be There - The Warning Signs of Alan Caruba at Facts-not-Fantasy

King Salman of Saudi Arabia

I had to laugh when I heard that the new King of Saudi Arabia, Salman, told the White House he wasn’t going to attend Thursday’s photo-op get together of Arab leaders.

Some lesser Saudi officials will attend. The message is clear enough, so long as Obama continues to make nice with Iran, the center of the problems in the Middle East, the Saudis and the others are going to be wary of any proposal that comes out of the White House.

As far as the Middle East is concerned, Obama seems to have no idea of the history or the dynamics that affect all the actions there. His Secretary of State, Kerry, is no better. He met with Arab officials last Friday and they told him they want a defense treaty in the event they were attacked by “external forces”, something that the Congress will not approve so long as Obama is in the White House.

One would think that any President at this point would have concluded that the Palestinians have no intention of signing onto a peace treaty with the Israelis.

Writing in The New York Times on May 8, Jonathan Schanzer, vice president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, put it bluntly, “It doesn’t matter what these politicians think now or have said in in the past. Peace between Israel and the Palestinians is not happening in the next two years.” That’s how long we all have to wait until Obama leaves office.

David P.Goldman, a Senior Fellow of the Middle East Forum, writing in Asia Times Online on May 10, spelled it out. “It is inconvenient for diplomats to say so, but the Palestinian Authority collapsed quite some time ago,” noting that “President Mahmoud Abbas’ term in office began in 2005 and ended six years ago, and he has not called new elections for the simple reason that Hamas—the Palestinian branch of the Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood—would win those elections.”

These days the Egyptians label Hamas a terrorist organization and have taken steps to eliminate the Brotherhood. At least they know who the enemy is.

Know the Warning Signs from Caruba Online

Obama has been antagonistic to Israel from before he was elected and has made little effort to hide it. Consider this, as Goldman notes, “Hamas fired over 4,000 rockets at Israel in 2014, prompting Israeli counterstrikes during the summer.” Its declared intention and the reason for its existence is to eliminate the State of Israel.

Why are we surprised to hear that Obama wants to take the statehood issue to the United Nations, a hotbed of anti-Semitism, and has little to say of the Palestinian Authority’s assertion that it wants to drag Israel in front of the International Criminal Court for having defended itself against the attacks by Hamas!

Not only has the Saudi King sent Obama a message, but so did the Israelis when they overwhelmingly reelected Benjamin Netanyahu as their Prime Minister. “The Israelis look around the Middle East and see nothing but conflict, carnage, instability and danger,” said Schanzer.

“The Obama doctrine—which includes a deliberate contraction of American power in the Middle East—has undeniably made Israel less safe.”

It has made the U.S. and the world less safe too.

One of the most obscene aspects of the Obama obsession with Iran is that, in return for any deal—which Iran would ignore and cheat—they are ready “to provide as much as $120 billion in sanctions relief to satisfy the narrow technical parameters of a nuclear deal, which would legitimize Iran as a threshold nuclear state.

These funds,” said Schanzer, “will flow to Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other Iran terror proxies dedicated to Israel’s demise.”

To put all this in perspective, as Goldman reminds us, “From Israel’s standpoint, the Palestinian Authority was offered 95% of Judea and Samaria in return for a final peace agreement, and both times (at Camp David in 1999 under Ehud Barack and in 2008 under Ehud Olmert) the offer was rejected.”

“The U.N. Security Council,” said Goldman, “will punish Israel for the failure of negotiations that were meaningless to begin with, and establish a Hamas-controlled state within nine miles of the Mediterranean coast. Iran has already promised to arm West Bank Arabs, just as it armed Hezbollah and Hamas.”

Israel which has enjoyed the support of the United States since it declared its independence in 1948 is now put at risk by the first administration to deliberately turn its back on it in preference for a deal with the leading terror-sponsor, Iran, in the Middle East.

You cannot make a greater mess of the mess that already exists in the Middle East, but Obama is doing his best to add to it. What else should we expect from a President who refuses to utter words like “Islamic terrorism”?

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Jade Helm: Is it honor or deception?

From the files of The Next News Network with Gary Franchi


Is the largest military exercising in American history about impending martial law? Or is it really the prelude to war with IRAN?

Globally the top story right now, if you are paying attention, is JADE HELM. The domestic military exercise that has America very concerned. Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, the Governor of Texas and even Chuck Norris are raising concerns.

A few days ago, Chuck Norris wrote, “Concerned Texans and Americans are in no way calling into question our brave and courageous men and women in uniform. They are merely following orders. What’s under question are those who are pulling the strings at the top of Jade Helm 15 back in Washington. The U.S. government says, “It’s just a training exercise.” But I’m not sure the term “just” has any reference to reality when the government uses it.”

We’ve been covering it for weeks now, our main investigation JADE HELM DECODED was even featured on the CBS National News. The pushback from the people is continuing to grow. Some say the whole exercise may be scrapped altogether.

JADE HELM can serve multiple purposes - Two of which are worst case scenarios.

The first is to acclimate troops to performing clandestine actions against US citizens in the event of total societal breakdown - economic collapse - civil uprising - or catastrophic natural disaster.

The second is the focus of this report and equally disturbing.

In our report titled “JADE HELM Preparing for Armageddon” we proposed that the US Military was training for expanding operations in the middle east in coordination with their NATO Allies fulfilling an apocalyptic prophecy.

Lets look now at the publicly available and verifiable information.

The military has been out in the public openly saying they are training for overseas deployment. If we accept that on its face, and it is true. then a covert invasion and takeover of foreign nations is definitely in play and multiple outlets have connected the dots in a startling way. Sputnik News did a great job dissecting this information and much of what follows is based on their research.

Analysts propose that the simulated invasion of Iran (or Texas) would be launched and coordinated across the Gulf of Mexico at Elgin Air Force Base. The Gulf of Mexico would be playing the role of the Atlantic Ocean or perhaps the Persian Gulf. Camp Shelby Mississippi would play the role of a Saudi Base.

New Mexico, labeled as a brown or Uncertain / Leaning Hostile state would play the role of Iraq. Geographically next to Texas it shares similar terrain as well as similar military bases that could offer staging and materiel support for an invasion of Iran.

Utah is colored Red and labeled a hostile nation - geographically on the map it falls into the same region as syria and follows a similar mixed terrain of flat lands and mountains. A simulated battle will occur in a remote area of Utah. Investigators propose the opposing force will represent the Syrian Army during an LSE or Large Scale Exercise. The state capitol is believed to be playing the role of Damascus as two Covert ops detachments will be deployed there.

Turkey is a NATO ally that is why experts believe Colorado is labeled a blue “permissive state/” Colorado and Turkey also share similar mountains terrain.

Arizona is labeled as a neutral leaning friendly state colored light blue. Experts believe Lebanon would be neutral should war break out with Syria. Nevada is permissive solid blue likely playing the role of Jordan sharing the geography.

California shares many of the same features of Israel through its terrain and coastal climate. The hostile area in red likely represents the West Bank or Gaza Strip - both would be hostile if an invasion of Iran occurred.

If this layout is accurate and the various states are in fact playing the roles revealed here then two things are certain.

ONE: The US Military planners who drafted JADE HELM are tremendously stupid for revealing their entire invasion plan for the world to see.

TWO: America is truly preparing for War with Iran.

Do you think this is the case? Do you believe the Military planners when they say this exercise is for use abroad? Comments section here.

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The Obama Middle East debacle

From the Warning Signs of Alan Caruba at Facts-not-Fantasy

From A.F. (Tony) Branco at Comically Incorrect.com

I had to laugh when I heard that the new King of Saudi Arabia, Salman, told the White House he wasn’t going to attend Thursday’s photo-op get together of Arab leaders.

Some lesser Saudi officials will attend. The message is clear enough, so long as Obama continues to make nice with Iran, the center of the problems in the Middle East, the Saudis and the others are going to be wary of any proposal that comes out of the White House.

As far as the Middle East is concerned, Obama seems to have no idea of the history or the dynamics that affect all the actions there. His Secretary of State, Kerry, is no better. He met with Arab officials last Friday and they told him they want a defense treaty in the event they were attacked by “external forces”, something that the Congress will not approve so long as Obama is in the White House.

One would think that any President at this point would have concluded that the Palestinians have no intention of signing onto a peace treaty with the Israelis.

Writing in The New York Times on May 8, Jonathan Schanzer, vice president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, put it bluntly, “It doesn’t matter what these politicians think now or have said in in the past. Peace between Israel and the Palestinians is not happening in the next two years.” That’s how long we all have to wait until Obama leaves office.

David P.Goldman, a Senior Fellow of the Middle East Forum, writing in Asia Times Online on May 10, spelled it out. “It is inconvenient for diplomats to say so, but the Palestinian Authority collapsed quite some time ago,” noting that “President Mahmoud Abbas’ term in office began in 2005 and ended six years ago, and he has not called new elections for the simple reason that Hamas—the Palestinian branch of the Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood—would win those elections.”

These days the Egyptians label Hamas a terrorist organization and have taken steps to eliminate the Brotherhood. At least they know who the enemy is.

Obama has been antagonistic to Israel from before he was elected and has made little effort to hide it. Consider this, as Goldman notes, “Hamas fired over 4,000 rockets at Israel in 2014, prompting Israeli counterstrikes during the summer.” Its declared intention and the reason for its existence is to eliminate the State of Israel.

Why are we surprised to hear that Obama wants to take the statehood issue to the United Nations, a hotbed of anti-Semitism, and has little to say of the Palestinian Authority’s assertion that it wants to drag Israel in front of the International Criminal Court for having defended itself against the attacks by Hamas!

King Salman - Saudi Arabia

Not only has the Saudi King sent Obama a message, but so did the Israelis when they overwhelmingly reelected Benjamin Netanyahu as their Prime Minister. “The Israelis look around the Middle East and see nothing but conflict, carnage, instability and danger,” said Schanzer.

“The Obama doctrine—which includes a deliberate contraction of American power in the Middle East—has undeniably made Israel less safe.”

It has made the U.S. and the world less safe too.

One of the most obscene aspects of the Obama obsession with Iran is that, in return for any deal—which Iran would ignore and cheat—they are ready “to provide as much as $120 billion in sanctions relief to satisfy the narrow technical parameters of a nuclear deal, which would legitimize Iran as a threshold nuclear state.

These funds,” said Schanzer, “will flow to Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other Iran terror proxies dedicated to Israel’s demise.”

To put all this in perspective, as Goldman reminds us, “From Israel’s standpoint, the Palestinian Authority was offered 95% of Judea and Samaria in return for a final peace agreement, and both times (at Camp David in 1999 under Ehud Barack and in 2008 under Ehud Olmert) the offer was rejected.”

“The U.N. Security Council,” said Goldman, “will punish Israel for the failure of negotiations that were meaningless to begin with, and establish a Hamas-controlled state within nine miles of the Mediterranean coast. Iran has already promised to arm West Bank Arabs, just as it armed Hezbollah and Hamas.”

Israel which has enjoyed the support of the United States since it declared its independence in 1948 is now put at risk by the first administration to deliberately turn its back on it in preference for a deal with the leading terror-sponsor, Iran, in the Middle East.

You cannot make a greater mess of the mess that already exists in the Middle East, but Obama is doing his best to add to it. What else should we expect from a President who refuses to utter words like “Islamic terrorism”?

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Does Tehran mean what it says? Oh Yes

From the files of Jeff Jacoby at The Boston Globe

Who trusts Iran? Most Americans don't. According to two new polls, a majority of the public strongly doubts that the ruling theocrats in Tehran can be counted on to keep their end of any nuclear deal negotiated in the US-led "P5+1" talks in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Asked in a Fox News poll how much of Iran's claims on nuclear matters can be trusted, 55 percent of respondents replied that the United States "can't trust anything" the regime says, while 28 percent were willing to trust only "a little." Similarly, a survey by NBC News found that 68 percent of Americans consider Iran unlikely to abide by any nuclear agreement.

Nothing unusual there. Given Iran's long history of deceit, it would be strange if Americans and their allies didn't regard as worthless any nuclear promises the mullahs make.

Iran was an early signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 1970 and it signed a detailed safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency in 1974. But after the Ayatollah Khomeini and his followers seized power in 1979, Iran began lying about its nuclear activities.

Virtually everything we know about Iran's nuclear program was uncovered only after years of stonewalling, concealment, and outright denial. The construction of a vast uranium enrichment installation near Natanz and a heavy-water reactor in Arak, for example, didn't come to light until 2002, when an Iranian exile group exposed their existence in a press conference in Washington.

Iran has repeatedly flouted UN Security Council resolutions ordering it to suspend all enrichment-related activities. Even now, reports the IAEA, Tehran refuses to answer questions about the "possible military dimensions" of its nuclear activities.

With such a track record, it stands to reason that Iran's commitments are so widely regarded as worthless. No piece of paper signed in Switzerland will take the ayatollahs' eyes off the nuclear prize they have pursued, by means mostly foul, for so long. And of what value is any agreement if one of the signatories can't be trusted not to cheat?

Yet what makes the framework nuclear deal so grotesque and dangerous isn't Iran's trail of deception. The real reason to block any nuclear accord with Tehran's rulers isn't that they always lie. It's that they don't.

Maybe Iran would cheat on the loophole-ridden deal being promoted the Obama administration. But it wouldn't have to. Even President Obama admits that Iran could abide by the terms agreed to and wait for them to run out in a little more than a decade.

"At that point, the breakout times [to nuclear weapons capability] would have shrunk almost down to zero," the president told NPR. Cheat or don't cheat, the end is the same: The Lausanne deal paves Iran's path to the bomb either way.

And then it will be clear — apocalyptically clear — that the ayatollahs were telling the truth.

They were telling the truth last November, when the Iranian Revolutionary Guards proclaimed that "the US is still the great Satan and the number one enemy of the [Islamic] revolution and the Islamic Republic."

They were telling the truth in February, when Ali Shirazi, a senior Iranian cleric and aide to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, declared that his troops are in a global war that will one day bring "the banner of Islam over the White House."

They were telling the truth a decade ago when Hassan Abassi, a high-ranking intelligence operative, warned that Iranian agents had identified "29 sensitive sites in the West, with the aim of bombing them. . . . Our intention is that 6,000 nuclear warheads will explode" as part of a "strategy . . . for the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization."

They were telling the truth when a commander of Iranian forces insisted that "America has no other choice but to leave the Middle East region beaten and humiliated." And when Iran's supreme leader raged that "there is only one solution to the Middle East problem, namely the annihilation and destruction of the Jewish state."

And when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asserted that "a world without America is not only desirable, it is achievable."

And when, over and over and over, they have incited crowds in chants of "Death to America."

Tehran's rulers may have lied for years about their nuclear activities; their negotiated commitments to suspend enrichment and submit to inspections may not be worth the ink they sign them with.

But the mullahs don't lie about what matters to them most: death to America, the extermination of Israel, unrelenting global jiihad. They say they are deadly serious.

Believe them.

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Iranian roulette: The ricochet effect

From the art studios of A.F. (Tony) Branco at Comically Incorrect.com

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Unusually rare sightings - one anyway

From the art studios of A.F. (Tony) Branco at Comically Incorrect.com

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Should ISIS receive a Nobel Prize?

A quote from the New York Times leaves a question

The U.N. human rights chief told the Security Council on Friday that in a “most terrible irony,” the Islamic State group may be more accepting of the ethnic diversity of its members than some states are about ethnic differences among their own citizens.

Zeid Raad al-Hussein, the first human rights chief from the Muslim and Arab worlds, spoke as French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius chaired a special meeting on the abuses in the Middle East on ethnic and religious grounds.

Both said the Security Council should refer the situations in Iraq and Syria to the International Criminal Court, and Zeid said the council should take unanimous action to end both conflicts.

Appearing at The NYT and other media.

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But What Does the Supreme Leader Say?

From the Warning Signs of Alan Caruba at Facts-not-Fantasy

Iran's Supreme Leader Sayyed Ali-Khamenei

What Americans have a hard time understanding is that, for all the Iranian negotiators, the outcome of the nuclear arms deal that the United States is leading all comes down to just one man, Sayyed Ali-Khamenei, otherwise known as the Supreme Leader of Iran.

In the 21st century, it is hard to comprehend that a nation could be ruled by a man whose powers supersede that nation’s president, its civil government, its judiciary and its military.

Iran has had only one other Supreme Leader since its founding in 1979, Ruhollah Khomeini who held the position until his death in 1989. The 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran overthrew the Shah in order to secure greater freedom, but the Iranians ended up more servile than before.

This is who Obama and P5+1 team (France, Great Britain, Russia, China, plus Germany) is negotiating with as they move toward the March 31 deadline for the talks. Khamenei has already said that the only thing he wants is the immediately lifting of the economic sanctions that are credited with bringing the Iranians to the negotiation table.

The negotiations have to be seen in the context of Iran’s daily cries of “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.” They have to be seen in the context of a history of Iranian aggression against America and Israel that has included the bombing of our Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, attacks on U.S. embassies and countless other examples of their bad intentions, not the least of which has been its sponsorship of two anti-Israel groups, Hezbollah in Lebanon and, to a lessor extent, Hamas in Gaza.

Any nuclear deal that permits Iran to continue to enrich enough uranium to make its own nuclear weapons is a very bad deal. Netanyahu came to the U.S. at the invitation of Congress to make that point as the leader of the nation the Supreme Leader intends to destroy. We would be next.

All this is just slightly insane when one considers that President Obama has been obsessed with reaching an agreement with Iran before and since he took office in 2009. He has done everything possible to demonstrate his desire to remove the obstacles to conferring approval on Iran. In the process, he has made us look and be weak.

It is hopeful news, therefore, as reported in The Hill that “Congress is growing hostile to the emerging nuclear deal with Iran, leaving President Obama with little political cover as he approaches a critical deadline in the talks. Should a deal be reached, it would transform U.S. and Iranian relations and potentially give Obama the most important foreign policy achievement of his second term.”

His most significant foreign policy failure, however, has been his betrayal of Israel, the only ally in the Mideast that the U.S. truly has had. Declassifying information about Israel’s nuclear arms was pure treachery. That said, it was no secret and no doubt has protected Israel against apocalyptic destruction.

Consider the Middle Eastern foreign policy failures Obama has had to date. The Saudis and other Gulf States have abandoned hope that Obama would resist the Iranian proxies taking over Yemen. They are pursuing their own military operation there.

Egypt which replaced the Muslim Brotherhood with a U.S.-friendly president has not seen any renewal of the former friendly relations that existed. Iraq is in turmoil thanks to Obama’s removal of U.S. troops in 2011 and even has Iranian military units fighting ISIS. Syria has been in a civil war that has killed thousands. It’s a long list but it comes down to Obama’s ending of the U.S. role in the Mideast.

Just as the Iranians are controlled by their Supreme Leader, we have a President who sees himself and his role in a similar way. He has demonstrated his dissatisfaction with the Constitution and the limits it puts on the Executive branch.

He has ignored Congress and has been experiencing reversals of policy by the judicial branch. In the case of the Iran negotiations Congress has been kept in the dark along with the rest of the American people.

Know Alan Caruba's Warning Signs from Facts-not-Fantasy

The Secretary of State, John Kerry, has declared that any outcome of the negotiations would legally non-binding. If so, why are they being pursued? Such negotiations at the treaty level have always required the consent of the Senate, but the Obama regime is seeking to by-pass that mandatory factor.

On the other side of the table, it has been reported that the main stumbling block to agreement has been Iran’s failure to cooperate with a United Nations probe into whether it tried to build atomic weapons in the past. If United Nations inspectors, in the future as in the past, are unable to verify that Iran is not continuing its nuclear weapons program, there is no way an agreement of any kind could be achieved.

On March 26, the Washington Examiner reported “The Obama administration is giving in to Iranian demands about the scope of its nuclear program as negotiators work to finalize a framework agreement in the coming days, according to sources familiar with the administration’s position in the negotiations.”

You can be very sure that the Supreme Leader is watching this closely. If he can continue to get the kind of negotiations—an accord—that will result in Iran becoming a sanctions-free, nuclear-armed nation, he will permit the deal to proceed.

The Iranians, as always, will cheat on any deal to achieve this goal. Sadly, everyone at the table knows that, but Russia and China have strong economic reasons to pretend otherwise.

If the Supreme Leader gets what he wants the prospect for war in the Middle East would increase immeasurably. The threat level to the U.S. and Israel would be off the charts.

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Israel 101: Bibi still on top

From the art studios of A.F. (Tony) Branco and featured at Comically Incorrect.com

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Middle East: One big happy family

From the art studios of Dan Youra at Utoons.com

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Dan Youra is one of the outstanding conservative cartoonists in the trade today who follows in the footsteps of the great political cartoon masters, whose quotes inspire a new generation of followers.

"Outside of basic intelligence, there is nothing more important to a good political cartoonist than ill will." ~ Jules Feiffer, Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist.

"Too many of today's artists regard editorial cartooning as a trade instead of a profession. They try not to be too offensive. The hell with that. We need more stirrer-uppers." ~ Bill Mauldin.

Youra was one of the first recipients of a Fulbright Scholarship and worked in Latin America. He served as an editor of Current Thought on Peace and War at the United Nations in New York.

"As long as there are politicians who continue to try and fool the voters, there is no chance of ever running out of material to work with because they create it themselves and about themselves," says Dan Youra.

Dan is the small business owner and operator of the Youra Studios located in the State of Washington.

Visit the Youra Studios at Utoons.com

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Netanyahu brought down Iran and Obama

ROOT for Liberty ~ ROOT for Freedom ~ ROOT for America by Wayne Root

Speaker of the House Boehner Stands with Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu

The media will concentrate on the substance of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu's speech. But let's first look at the style. I am a business and motivational speaker who speaks all over the globe, often to audiences in the thousands. I understand communication, charisma, chutzpah and salesmanship. Bibi gets an A+ in all four categories. He delivered the speech of a lifetime.

Americans and the world just got a lesson in CHUTZPAH. That's the Jewish word for "balls." No one else in the world could have pulled off what Bibi just did. Talk about a masterful speech. He walked into a joint session of the U.S. Congress like he owned it. Like he was the President of the United States. He received 29 standing ovations. If you just dropped in from another planet, you might have assumed you were watching U.S. President Netanyahu give his State of the Union.

Keep in mind Bibi is the leader of a tiny nation with the population of some anonymous, obscure African nation. Yet he held court over the U.S. Congress for almost an hour like he was the most powerful man in the world. Like he was the leader of America, Russia, China, UK or Germany. That takes chutzpah.

Can you imagine the look on the faces of Obama, Michelle and Valerie Jarrett. I'd have paid a million dollars to be a fly on that wall!

Can you imagine the looks on the faces of the leaders of every Muslim nation on earth? The anger, shock, jealousy. Why Bibi? Why is he presiding over the U.S. Congress? Why are they fawning over his every word? Oh to be a fly on the wall of the leaders of Iran or Qatar or Afghanistan.

How about the looks on the faces of the leaders of ISIS. Can't you picture them saying, "Israel's leader gets the attention of the world by addressing a joint session of Congress...we have to set fire to prisoners in cages to get anyone's attention!"

And that vibe. Bibi gave off the vibe that he alone holds the key to saving the world. And just maybe...he does.

Now to the substance of Bibi's speech. Bibi walked onto the biggest stage in America and embarrassed Obama. He schooled him. He took him to the woodshed. And here's the masterful part- he killed him with kindness! Bibi pulled off a speech ripping America's president to shreds, in front of the political leadership of America...in front of Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi...in front of the American people...and he did like only a master of communication, chutzpah and salesmanship could- by first praising him. By thanking Obama. By showering him with compliments. Then he proceeded to strip him naked and pummel him into submission.

What was the main takeaway of the speech? That you can't reward bad behavior. That you must punish bad behavior. That you can't agree to deals with tyrants, terrorists, liars, thieves and murderers whose word cannot be trusted.

That the only deal worth doing punishes Iran and takes away their nuclear capabilities until they change their behavior...until they stop supporting and funding terrorism...until they stop vowing to annihilate their neighbor Israel and kill all the Jewish people...until they check their aggressive support of militant, radical Islam all over the world. That to allow any nuclear capability for a militant Muslim nation is suicide for the entire world.

Do you understand the chutzpah of Bibi. The leader of tiny Israel was giving Obama lessons in negotiation. This was more entertaining to conservatives like me than watching "American Sniper." I asked my family to pass the popcorn.

Bibi made three great points that emasculated Obama:

#1) The art of negotiating. Bibi compared negotiating with Iran to negotiating at a Persian bazaar. Hilarious, and so true. "If they threaten to walk away, let them." Bibi said. "Because they'll be back." It takes an Israeli to understand the human nature of Persians. That threat of walking away is just part of a negotiation. Bibi understands that.

Can Obama be that stupid? Bibi sure made him seem that stupid. But I know Bibi knows what I know. He just can't say it in public. Obama is not stupid. He knows exactly what he's doing. He's not on Israel's side. So Bibi had to play a masterful game of chess with Obama. So he painted him as naïve and stupid. He embarrassed him in front of the world. He made it clear the deal Obama has negotiated is Neville Chamberlain all over again. It's a repeat of the worst deal ever agreed to- Chamberlain's deal with Hitler.

#2) Secondly, Bibi made it clear that Iran is not a normal country. It shouldn't be treated like a normal country. It is a militant Islamic country. Obama can't even use those words. He thinks "Islamic" is some kind of compliment. Remember we're dealing with a man who claims Islam was a founding religion of America. Bibi understands who he is dealing with.

Bibi pointed out that Iran is a rogue terrorist state no different than ISIS. Iran is the enemy of ISIS, so Bibi had to make a very interesting point. Iran and ISIS are the same people. They want the same thing. They say it. They tweet it. Iran wrote it in their constitution. They are dedicated to killing, conquering, converting and enslavng first the entire region, then the world. Iran is only fighting ISIS to determine who gets to do it in the name of Allah. Bibi then drove the nail home, "The enemy of your enemy...is your enemy." Great line! I hope Obama was wearing a cup. If not, he may be down for a while.

#3) Thirdly, Bibi made a simple clear point that the American people can understand. Forget intellectual arguments. Forget the fancy words of lawyers and Ivy Leaguers like Obama, meant to obscure, confuse, distract and deceive the people.

Bibi spoke from the heart. He painted a picture of militant radical Muslims like ISIS and how they act- they cut off heads...they torture...they throw gays off buildings...they parade prisoners in cages...they set people on fire...they kill women and children...even babies are cut in half and mutilated at the hands of militant radical Muslims.

And Obama wants to allow them to possess NUCLEAR WEAPONS? And he thinks that's okay? He thinks they'll change? He thinks they'll stop being angry and aggressive with a nuclear weapon now in their hands?

No wonder Obama didn't show up at the speech. At this point the whole world could see our emperor has no clothes.

No one watching can forget Bibi's lesson: No militant Islamic state can ever be allowed to possess nuclear weapons...or they will certainly use them. No one in the world will be ever again sleep soundly. No one's children will ever again be safe. Bibi made it clear Obama's deal with Iran allows them to possess nuclear weapons. It's only a matter of when. That cannot be allowed to pass.

I think I could hear Obama and Valerie Jarrett screaming at the TV set inside the White House "war room." Bibi embarrassed them. Thrashed them. Emasculated them. By the way, not only is it clear Obama does not like Israel...that Obama is a Muslim sympathizer...that Obama is trying to weaken Israel and put her people in danger...but the ruler of Obama's White House is Valerie Jarrett. Where was Valerie born? Iran.

Obama's actions and negotiations are no mistake...fluke...coincidence...not done out of naivete. Bibi knows that as well as I do. So he had to deconstruct this president and his Iranian-born svengali in a nice way...in front of the Congress...in Obama's own house.

Bibi had to kill Obama with kindness. He could not win over the American people by ripping our president in our own home stadium. So he never once named Obama as the bad guy. He never once blamed Obama for a bad deal, or bad negotiations. He never said out loud "Your president is trying to hurt Israel." But he didn't have to. We all know.

Bravo Bibi. You just showed us all what a real leader looks like - someone who stands up to evil, instead of negotiating and compromising in the face of another Hitler. Bibi made his point subtly...as subtly as a jackhammer and blowtorch. Congrats Bibi, you made a lot of smart Americans wish you were our president instead of Obama.

And the bonus is...we all got a 2 for the price of 1. Bibi's speech destroyed both Iran and Obama. A 2 for 1 sale on the floor of the U.S. Congress? It's kind of like a Persian bazaar.

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Netanyahu and Jewish survival

From the Warning Signs of Alan Caruba at Facts-Not-Fantasy

Know Caruba's Warning Signs

In 1933, approximately 9.5 million Jews lived in Europe, representing 1.7% of the total European population which, in turn, was about 60% of the Jewish world population, estimated to have been 15.2 million.

By 1945, in the wake of the Holocaust, two out of every three Jews would be dead.

By 2012 the global Jewish population by had reached 13.75 million. That is less than 0.2 percent of the world’s population.

The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics reported that 43% of the world’s Jewish community lives in Israel. Sharing Israel as their home were 1,636,600 Arabs and a diverse population of Christians and non-Jews, numbering around 318,000.

If the Iranians make good on their threat to “wipe Israel off the map”, presumably with nuclear weapons they would acquire by stealth and deception, the Jewish world population would be cut nearly in half.

Meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

All of this was on Benjamin Netanyahu’s mind when, as the Prime Minister of Israel, he addressed a joint meeting of Congress. It was his third such speech.

On July 10, 1996, he said the world must act to prevent Iran’s nuclearization, since “the deadline for attaining this goal is getting extremely close.”

In 2011 he returned, saying “When I stood here, I spoke of the consequences of Iran developing nuclear weapons. Now time is running out. The hinge of history may soon turn, for the greatest danger of all could soon be upon us, a militant Islamic regime armed with nuclear weapons.”

So now it is 2015 and the only thing Netanyahu knows for sure is that the Iranians remain intent on being able to produce their own nuclear weapons.

The March 2nd edition of The Times of Israel reported that Yukiya Amano, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said “Iran has yet to provide explanations that enable the agency to clarify two outstanding practical measures”, a diplomatic way of referring to “alleged explosive tests and other issues related to research that may also be useful for military uses of atomic energy.” This is the same problem that the U.N. agency has with North Korea.

Netanyahu was worried about Iran’s nuclear weapons program in 1996, in 2011, and now in 2015; more than enough time for Iran to have made considerable progress toward their goal. At the heart of this third address to Congress is the survival of nearly half of all the Jews in the world because they live in Israel.

It’s no secret there is no love-loss between Bibi Netanyahu and Barack Obama, but this third effort to urge Congress to go on record supporting the survival of Israel is necessary because, for the first time since 1948, there is some cause to wonder whether a war-weary U.S. would come to Israel’s defense.

Obama has said in no uncertain terms that he wants to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. However, the world has learned that the gap between what he says and what he does is often wide or non-existent. It must be said, however, that past Presidents have decried North Korea’s acquisition of nuclear weapons, but that has not translated into any direct action because China entered the Korean conflict in the 1950s to defend it and no one wants a repeat of that.

Netanyahu does not speak for “all Jews.” He speaks for Israel and other than national survival the political divisions there are even more diverse than our own. The fact that he is running for reelection there is not a factor for his speech to Congress—timing is.

One suspects that the best intelligence both Israel and the U.S. have been able to secure suggests that, this time, Iran is very close to its goal of being able to produce its own nuclear weapons despite the sanctions that have been imposed.

Netanyahu is understandably concerned about the negotiations that Obama has relentlessly pursued with Iran, the result of which has alienated not only Israel, but Saudi Arabia and all of the Gulf nations. The P5+1 parties to the negotiations include Russia, China, France, United Kingdom and Germany. The negotiations have deadlocked in the past and may do so again despite the fact that both Russia and China have close ties to Iran.

Even if Iran agrees to terms that would supposedly slow or stop its nuclear weapons program, there is not a scintilla of evidence that they would fulfill their promises. Iran, after all, is the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism worldwide.

The odds are that Netanyahu knows that Iran, this time, is very close to becoming militarily nuclear. Addressing Congress calls attention to the danger, not only domestically, but worldwide.

What Netanyahu also knows is that President Obama seems to have a blind spot when it comes to the growing anti-Semitism that resembles what existed in the 1930s in Europe. When Jews in a French kosher supermarket were murdered, Obama referred to it as an act of “violent, vicious zealots who behead people or randomly shoot a bunch of folks in a deli in Paris.”

Whoa! It wasn’t “a bunch of folks.” They were Jews buying food for the Sabbath meal. And those “violent, vicious zealots” were Muslims, just like the ISIS Muslims beheading, crucifying, burning, kidnapping, and enslaving those they don’t kill for being Christian, Jewish, Yazidis, or just not Muslim enough!

Netanyahu’s speech will, indeed, be historic. It may not be his last visit to the chambers of Congress.

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Did Obama threaten to down Israeli planes?

From the files of Colonel Allen B. West

President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu

I have come to learn in “politics” that there’s always an ulterior motive to any “breaking story.”

With the impending visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address the AIPC conference and a joint session of Congress — there is a doozy of a breaking story.

As reported by Arutz Sheva, “The Bethlehem-based news agency Ma’an has cited a Kuwaiti newspaper report Saturday, that US President Barack Obama thwarted an Israeli military attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities in 2014 by threatening to shoot down Israeli jets before they could reach their targets in Iran.”

“Following Obama’s threat, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was reportedly forced to abort the planned Iran attack. According to Al-Jarida, the Netanyahu government took the decision to strike Iran some time in 2014 soon after Israel had discovered the United States and Iran had been involved in secret talks over Iran’s nuclear program and were about to sign an agreement in that regard behind Israel’s back.”

“The report claimed that an unnamed Israeli minister who has good ties with the US administration revealed the attack plan to Secretary of State John Kerry, and that Obama then threatened to shoot down the Israeli jets before they could reach their targets in Iran. Al-Jarida quoted “well-placed” sources as saying that Netanyahu, along with Minister of Defense Moshe Yaalon, and then-Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, had decided to carry out airstrikes against Iran’s nuclear program after consultations with top security commanders.”

Now, there are two reasons why this story has surfaced at this moment.

First, it could be to evidence the true schism between America and Israel and call into question President Obama’s support of Prime Minister Netanyahu. Now, we all know that Israel in the past has carried out airstrikes on known nuclear facilities against Islamic nations before, such as Iraq and Syria. And in both occasions — there was not a peep of a response or negative press from the countries receiving the assault.

So could Israel actually have the intelligence and resolve to take down the Iranian nuclear threat? Do they know more than we do as to the level of success and advancement towards a nuclear weapon capacity for the Islamic Republic terrorist regime?

One would tend to believe U.S presidents were informed of previous actions in Iraq and Syria by Israel and got the green light — as well as backing. But it’s not just about the singular strike; it’s about the ability to thwart the response.

Israel is a sovereign state with the right to exist and protect itself from declared existential threats such as Iran and its Islamic terrorist proxies — Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Quds, and Al Aqsa Martyrs.

So this purpose of the story would certainly be to benefit Netanyahu, completely embarrass the Obama administration and put President Obama on defense — and especially so, since he will be departing Washington D.C., along with the vice president, as Netanyahu visits our nation’s capital.

Secondly, this could have been leaked in an attempt to discredit Netanyahu. The end state objective would be to make him appear as a crazed war monger who would drag America and others into World War IV ( the Cold War was WW III). Now this may seem a stretch to some, but the hypothesis would be based on a “war weary” atmosphere — as evidenced by the Code Pink crew, whose leader was recently over in Iran — that is against any military activity towards Iran.

This version could attempt to make President Obama appear as the senior statesman attempting to “give peace a chance” by way of negotiations — even though Obama and Kerry are actually negotiating with themselves.

Regardless, if this story is true, it is a bombshell for this week. And I can just hear the spin doctors prescribing their remedies. Based on previous actions and the stated vehemence of any sanctions being levied against Iran, the story certainly seems plausible.

According to the report, “Netanyahu and his commanders agreed after four nights of deliberations to task the Israeli army’s chief of staff, Benny Gantz, to prepare a qualitative operation against Iran’s nuclear program. In addition, Netanyahu and his ministers decided to do whatever they could do to thwart a possible agreement between Iran and the White House because such an agreement is, allegedly, a threat to Israel’s security.”

I think it is just a tad bit easier for the Obama administration to not take Iran seriously — after all, America is not in the immediate neighborhood. But if anyone thinks all this stops with the decimation of Israel, well, you do not understand this enemy.

“Former US diplomat Zbigniew Brzezinski, who enthusiastically campaigned for Obama in 2008, called on him to shoot down Israeli planes if they attack Iran. “They have to fly over our airspace in Iraq. Are we just going to sit there and watch?” said the former national security advisor to former President Jimmy Carter in an interview with the Daily Beast. “We have to be serious about denying them that right,” he said. “If they fly over, you go up and confront them. They have the choice of turning back or not. No one wishes for this but it could be a ‘Liberty’ in reverse.’” Israel mistakenly attacked the American Liberty ship during the Six-Day War in 1967.”

So there you have it, the ol’ moral equivalency trick — heck it worked in comparing the medieval Crusades with burning alive and beheading by ISIS.

What actually happened here ends up being lost in the conversation. What has happened is that at a time when President Obama’s attitude towards Israel is clearly negative, this story just adds several more nails to the coffin that holds the relationship between America and Israel.

Me?

I truly am praying this isn’t a true story. Because, if it is, the ramifications are horribly damning — and emboldening to our enemies, of which one of the greatest is Iran.

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