by Zalman Shoval
Years from now, historians will compare this sordid affair to Watergate, only in this case, the repercussions could turn out to be much worse, both domestically and internationally.
"The Iran deal: The
full picture," was the headline of an investigative report featured on
the important political website Politico last month (another article in
the Politico series was titled "Obama's hidden Iran deal giveaway"). The
report details the extreme measures former president Barack Obama had
taken to secure the Iran nuclear agreement. These actions, as the
veteran journalist Josh Meyer says in the article, put essential U.S.
national interests in jeopardy. No less.
The report sheds new
light on the unbridled conduct of the former administration and its
leader to advance the negotiations on the agreement at all costs,
including undermining homeland security. "The deal was sacrosanct, and
the Iranians knew it from the start and took full advantage," said a
source involved in the negotiations. Obama perceived the Iran deal as
his political swan song and was determined not to let anyone or anything
destroy it.
According to Politico,
to expedite the negotiation process on the Iran deal, 21 prisoners of
dual Iranian and American citizenship, who were incarcerated in the
American correctional system for various proliferation charges, were
released in a prisoner swap deal. Some of the charges these men were
convicted of include smuggling advanced technological equipment and
aides to Iran (mainly in the nuclear field), assisting the ayatollah
regime in developing cruise missiles and satellite technology and
exploring different ways to transfer weapons to Lebanon-based terror
group Hezbollah.
After years of
investigations and monitoring, the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
Homeland Security Department and Justice Department put these culprits
behind bars only to have Obama -- together with former U.S. Secretary of
State John Kerry and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch -- secure
their release by dubious means, bowing to Tehran's terms.
The administration's
intervention in the proceedings of the courts and other legal
institutions was in explicit violation of the law. In an effort to
downplay the severity of this undemocratic act, Obama issued a
statement, calling it a "one-time gesture" applicable to seven
Iranian-born prisoners who "were not charged with terrorism or any
violent offenses." However, the seven somehow became 21 and even if they
had not engaged directly in terrorism, they played key roles in
Tehran's efforts to obtain nuclear weapons (the smuggling was for the
purpose of preparing uranium enrichment facilities in Natanz and Fordo),
as well as advancing additional military efforts.
The release was not a
sudden or hasty decision. As far back as the fall of 2014, the Obama
administration ordered a deferment of police investigations and legal
proceedings against Iranian smuggling networks. "Clearly, there was an
embargo on any Iranian cases," a former federal supervisor said.
Valerie Lincy,
executive director of the nonpartisan Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms
Control, concluded that "by letting so many men off the hook, and for
such a wide range of offenses, Washington has effectively given its
blessing to Iran's continuing defiance of international laws."
Years from now,
historians will compare this sordid affair to Watergate, only in this
case, the repercussions could turn out to be much worse, both
domestically and internationally. In retrospect, Israel's efforts to
prevent the nuclear deal from being concluded, including the skirmishes
between Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, now seem even more
justified than ever. It is hard to shake the feeling that the American
administration's statements at the time, asserting that Washington was
fully committed to the security cooperation with Israel, were intended,
among other things, to anesthetize concerns over the developing deal.
Even today, various
platforms still justify Obama's geo-political aspirations. For example,
the New York Times recently ran an editorial titled "Asking for trouble
on Iran," which endlessly praised the nuclear deal and leveled criticism
at Secretary of State Rex Tillerson for arguing that "Iran remains a
leading state sponsor of terror" and that the nuclear agreement "fails
to achieve the objective of a non-nuclear Iran" and "only delays their
goal of becoming a nuclear state."
The article also praised Obama's
efforts to provide Iran with a position of power in the Middle East
opposite the Sunni world, led by Saudi Arabia. Many of the ideas that
are making headlines in the American media these days result more from a
hatred of President Donald Trump than from an objective view of various
realities. But in the long run, it will become harder and harder to
ignore the facts and continue to disseminate this "fake history."
Zalman Shoval
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=18975
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Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
1 comment:
The FOUL Iran deal has to be SCRAPPED and Hussein Obama has to be INDICTED FOR HIGH TREASON !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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