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Obama No Longer Represents the United States in its Negotiations with Iran [+video]

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By Joel B. Pollak. Democrats are pushing back against the letter [read the full text of it below], circulated by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and signed by 47 Senators in all, that warns the Iranian regime that any deal it signs with President Barack Obama could be voided by the next president if it is not ratified by the Senate under the U.S. Constitution. They have enlisted Vice President Joe Biden and even retired Sen. Richard Lugar to disparage the effort. In so doing, they have proved Cotton’s point–and checkmated the administration.

Lugar was a moderate, veteran Senator representing Indiana (though, as it turned out, not really living there) when then-candidate Obama held him up as a model of the kind of Republican he would like to work with. Lugar enjoyed wide respect as an authority on nuclear disarmament, and Obama relied on him to push the New START treaty with Russia through the Senate in 2010, over conservative objections that it gutted missile defense and required lopsided nuclear cuts for the U.S . . .

The brilliance of the Cotton letter is that it has forced Obama to admit openly what he had only hinted at indirectly before–that he has no intention of submitting any Iran agreement to Congress for ratification–or even for review. That admission exposes the fact that Obama no longer, in any meaningful sense, represents the United States at the negotiating table. That will only add momentum to efforts to override his promised veto on INARA. A freshman Senator has beaten the president. (Read more from “Obama No Longer Represents the United States in its Negotiations with Iran” HERE)


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Listen to Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Ace Lyons’ Describe the Iranian Threat and the Idiocy of Obama’s Negotiations:

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“Alaska’s Murkowski Refuses to Join with Republicans, Sign Iran Letter”


Here’s the full text of the GOP’s Iran letter, along with a listing of Republicans who signed it:

It has come to our attention while observing your nuclear negotiations with our government that you may not fully understand our constitutional system. Thus, we are writing to bring to your attention two features of our Constitution — the power to make binding international agreements and the different character of federal offices — which you should seriously consider as negotiations progress.

First, under our Constitution, while the president negotiates international agreements, Congress plays the significant role of ratifying them. In the case of a treaty, the Senate must ratify it by a two-thirds vote. A so-called congressional-executive agreement requires a majority vote in both the House and the Senate (which, because of procedural rules, effectively means a three-fifths vote in the Senate). Anything not approved by Congress is a mere executive agreement.

Second, the offices of our Constitution have different characteristics.

For example, the president may serve only two 4-year terms, whereas senators may serve an unlimited number of 6-year terms. As applied today, for instance, President Obama will leave office in January 2017, while most of us will remain in office well beyond then — perhaps decades.

What these two constitutional provisions mean is that we will consider any agreement regarding your nuclear-weapons program that is not approved by the Congress as nothing more than an executive agreement between President Obama and Ayatollah Khamenei. The next president could revoke such an executive agreement with the stroke of a pen and future Congresses could modify the terms of the agreement at any time.

We hope this letter enriches your knowledge of our constitutional system and promotes mutual understanding and clarity as nuclear negotiations progress.

Sincerely,

Senator Tom Cotton, R-AR
Senator Orrin Hatch, R-UT
Senator Charles Grassley, R-IA
Senator Mitch McConnell, R-KY
Senator Richard Shelby, R-AL
Senator John McCain, R-AZ
Senator James Inhofe, R-OK
Senator Pat Roberts, R-KS
Senator Jeff Sessions, R-AL
Senator Michael Enzi, R-WY
Senator Michael Crapo, R-ID
Senator Lindsey Graham, R-SC
Senator John Cornyn, R-TX
Senator Richard Burr, R-NC
Senator John Thune, R-SD
Senator Johnny Isakson, R-GA
Senator David Vitter, R-LA
Senator John A. Barrasso, R-WY
Senator Roger Wicker, R-MS
Senator Jim Risch, R-ID
Senator Mark Kirk, R-IL
Senator Roy Blunt, R-MO
Senator Jerry Moran, R-KS
Senator Rob Portman, R-OH
Senator John Boozman, R-AR
Senator Pat Toomey, R-PA
Senator John Hoeven, R-ND
Senator Marco Rubio, R-FL
Senator Ron Johnson, R-WI
Senator Rand Paul, R-KY
Senator Mike Lee, R-UT
Senator Kelly Ayotte, R-NH
Senator Dean Heller, R-NV
Senator Tim Scott, R-SC
Senator Ted Cruz, R-TX
Senator Deb Fischer, R-NE
Senator Shelley Moore Capito, R-WV
Senator Bill Cassidy, R-LA
Senator Cory Gardner, R-CO
Senator James Lankford, R-OK
Senator Steve Daines, R-MT
Senator Mike Rounds, R-SD
Senator David Perdue, R-GA
Senator Thom Tillis, R-NC
Senator Joni Ernst, R-IA
Senator Ben Sasse, R-NE
Senator Dan Sullivan, R-AK

Again, every Senate Republican except Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski and six of her GOP colleagues (Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker of Tennessee, Dan Coats of Indiana, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Susan Collins of Maine, Jeff Flake of Arizona) signed the letter. Shame.

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Obama: I’ll Make Case to American People After Iran Deal Is Made

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By Daniel Halper. President Obama will wait until after a nuclear deal with Iran is made to make the case to the American people that it’s the right thing to do. He made the comment today after being asked about this letter from nearly 50 U.S. senators to Iran, which stated, “The next president could revoke such an executive agreement with the stroke of a pen and future Congresses could modify the terms of the agreement at any time” . . .

“I think what we’re going to focus on right now is actually seeing whether we can get a deal or not. And once we do — if we do — then we’ll be able to make the case to the American people, and I’m confident we’ll be able to implement it.”

(Read more from “What Happens After Iran Deal” HERE)


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Obama Mocks Republican Letter to Iran over Nuclear Talks

By BBC News. US President Barack Obama has criticised a letter from Republican senators to Iran, accusing them of “interfering” in ongoing nuclear talks.


He said the 47 senators made an “unusual coalition” with Iran’s hard-line religious leaders.

The letter reminds Iran that any deal is just an executive agreement unless it gets congressional approval.

Talks on Iran’s nuclear programme are at a critical stage, with an outline agreement due on 31 March.

Last week Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Congress the deal currently being negotiated could “pave Iran’s path to the bomb”. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Iran Foreign Minister: We Believe We Are ‘Very Close’ to Nuke Deal [+video]

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Iran has no intention of building a nuclear weapon, and the sooner the world recognizes that, the sooner there will be a deal aimed at curbing its nuclear capabilities in exchange for the lifting of crippling economic sanctions, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told NBC News.

“Iran is not about building nuclear weapons,” Zarif said in an exclusive interview with Ann Curry Wednesday. “We don’t want to build nuclear weapons, we don’t believe nuclear weapons bring security to anybody, certainly not to us.”

Zarif said his country’s nuclear ambitions were solely in the pursuit of “scientific advancement” and boosting national pride. “Once we reach that understanding, once this hysteria is out, once this fear mongering is out, then we can have a deal, and a deal that is not going to hurt anybody,” he said.

He added: “We are prepared to work round the clock in order to reach an agreement. We believe that we are very close, very close and we could be very far.” He said “there are details that need to be worked out.”

“We are very close if the political decision can be made to get to yes, as President Obama said,” he said. (Read more about what the Iran foreign minister said HERE)

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Obama’s Chilling Iran Nuke Lie

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Reports that President Obama agrees Iran should be free to make a nuclear bomb in about 10 years put the lie to his repeated vow never to allow an Iranian nuke. The broken promise is the international twin to his domestic whopper that you “can keep your doctor.”

You can’t, but Iran can keep its enriched uranium, making this lie an even bigger bombshell. As in, bombs away.

It is impossible to overstate the potential catastrophe of the emerging deal. If the terms reported by the Associated Press, the Wall Street Journal and others become final, it would mean the United States and leading UN powers give their blessing for the world’s largest sponsor of terrorism to have the ultimate weapon, effectively rewarding Iran for decades of criminal behavior and acts of war against America, Israel and others.

The deal also would launch a new round of nuclear proliferation among Arab states, with Saudi Arabia long promising to get a bomb if Iran does. Others fearful of Iran’s dominance are sure to follow, escalating the tit-for-tat patterns in the region into a nuclear nightmare.

In addition, an unbound Iranian nuclear industry and spreading enrichment technology make it likely that one or more of the Islamic terror groups, including Hamas, Hezbollah, al Qaeda, Boko Haram and Islamic State, is likely to get the bomb. And there is no doubt they would use it. (Read more about the Iran nuke lie HERE)

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Mainstream Media Totally Ignores Explosive Anti-American Demonstrations in Iran

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On February 11, 2015, the Iranian regime marked the Islamic Revolution’s 36th anniversary. Regime spokesmen, and first and foremost Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, emphasized in processions and speeches the anti-American character of Revolution Day, the Iranian regime’s hatred for the United States and its yearning for America’s downfall. Regime spokesmen motivated the public to participate in processions in which the regime’s top leaders, including the heads of the pragmatic camp took part.

With nuclear negotiations between the U.S. and Iran in an attempt to reach an agreement soon in the background, the displays of hatred towards President Obama, depicted as hanging from a gallows, and towards Secretary of State Kerry, who was shown as a devious fox were prominent…















Experts indicate that the deal being worked out by the Obama administration fails to address Iran’s nuclear weaponization program whatsoever.

Which should work out well in the future, what with its development of ballistic missiles, its support of terror groups worldwide, and its virulent hatred of America. (“Mainstream Media Totally Ignores Explosive Anti-American Demonstrations in Iran”, re-posted with permission HERE)

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Posted in-full courtesy of Doug Ross, blogger and cartoonist at Doug Ross @ Journal. Please visit his website for more updates, and check out his novella “Hard-Boiled” at Amazon.com

Iranian Resistance Reveals Secret Nuclear Site in Iran

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By NCRI. National Council of Resistance of Iran revealed on Tuesday the details of an underground top-secret site currently used by Iranian regime for research & development on nuclear field using advanced centrifuges for uranium enrichment.

Ms. Soona Samsami, the Representative of the NCRI in the US and Alireza Jafarzadeh, the Deputy Director of the NCRI US Representative Office made the revelation in a press conference at Press Club in Washington D.C.

Existence of the site, known as Lavizan-3, was unknown until now and had been kept secret for years by the Iranian regime.

The NCRI announced that the explosive revelation was result of several years of detailed work by the network of the Iranian opposition movement, the People’s Mojahedin Organization in Iran (PMOI/MEK).

The PMOI has obtained the intelligence from sources inside of Iranian regime, vetting info from scores of sources independently. (Read more about the Iranian resistance HERE)

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John Kerry Takes Swipe at Netanyahu Over Iran Nuclear Talks

By Reuters. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday appeared to take a swipe at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying critics of an emerging nuclear deal with Iran did not know what they were talking about.

Kerry told a U.S. Senate subcommittee that he also expected to know soon whether Iran was willing to craft an “acceptable, verifiable” plan that would satisfy major powers that it is not seeking to develop a nuclear weapon.

Netanyahu, who is scheduled to make a speech before a joint session of Congress on March 3, has described the agreement under negotiation with Iran as a “bad deal,” and said he would do what he could to prevent it.


“Anybody running around right now jumping in to say, ‘Well we don’t like the deal,’ or this or that, doesn’t know what the deal is. There is no deal yet,” Kerry told senators at a hearing on the State Department’s budget. “And I caution people to wait and see what these negotiations produce.”

It was the second time in recent days in which the Obama administration, irked that Netanyahu’s speech to the Republican-led Congress was scheduled initially without its knowledge, appeared to criticize Israel over Iran. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Fools Trust the Obama Administration, While Experts Correctly Fear Rising Threats From Russia and Iran

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New York- February 18, 2015. Informed foreign policy and economic experts rightly fear one gathering threat today even more than genocidal attacks by the purported Islamic State and its shadowy network of affiliates–Russia could soon provide military and diplomatic cover to Iran as that nation contrives to topple the monarchy in Saudi Arabia, and subsequently extends control by force over other energy-rich Arab kingdoms, including United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, and Bahrain.

Russia and Iran each have far longer histories as independent nations than America does–over many centuries, they have been enemies, rivals, and friends. In recent months, and particularly since 2008, ties among Russia and Iran have strengthened for defensive reasons, to blunt pressures emanating from the United States and from the European Union.

Going forward, Russia’s potentially muscular protection for Iran (whose Muslim population chiefly are Shia) is particularly irksome for Saudi Arabia, where a majority of the populace is Sunni–no series of workshops or teach-ins will soon reconcile this doctrinal schism.

Worse, given Iran’s demonstrated propensity to meddle throughout the Middle East since 1979, Russia’s growing support for Iran may accelerate attempts by Iran to de-stabilize the energy-laden, eastern province of Saudi Arabia, where a substantial proportion of the population is Shia.

Given recent events in Yemen, where Iranian-backed Houthi rebels quickly seized control over large portions of a country touted as a success story and strong ally by the Obama Administration as recently as last September, Saudi officials watch Russia’s engagement with Iran, America’s retreat from the Middle East, and America’s fomenting of regime change since 2008 everywhere except Iran with profound concern. (Read more from “Fools Trust the Obama Administration, While Experts Correctly Fear Rising Threats From Russia and Iran” HERE)

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Secret Iranian Unit Fueling Mideast Bloodshed With Illicit Arms Shipments

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By Jennifer Griffin. As conflicts and civil wars rage across the Middle East and North Africa, a shadowy covert cell operating under the Iranian government is fueling the bloodshed.

Unit 190, a secret arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force made up of about two-dozen employees, has for years smuggled arms to these conflict zones.

After an extensive investigation tracing the land, air and sea routes used by the Quds Force to move weapons to Hezbollah, Hamas and now the Houthis in Yemen, Fox News has also learned from western intelligence sources the name of the Iranian man who is a key player in Unit 190: Behnam Shahariyari, born in 1968 in Ardabil, northwest Iran.

According to western intelligence sources, Shahariyari runs a network of straw companies — which skirt sanctions packing RPG’s, night-vision equipment and long-range rockets in powdered milk, cement and spare vehicle parts.

“Very often arms and explosives were placed in trucks underneath legal cargo in order to hide them,” said Michael Eisenstadt, director of Military and Security Studies programs for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. (Read more about the illicit arms shipments HERE)

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Iran Marks 36th Anniversary of Islamic Revolution Amid Nuclear Talks

By Associated Press. Iran is marking the 36th anniversary of its 1979 Islamic Revolution as the country continues negotiations with world powers over its contested nuclear program.

State television aired footage of commemorations in Tehran and elsewhere across the country Wednesday. Some participants chanted “Down with the U.S.” and “Death to Israel.”

On Feb. 11, 1979, followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ousted U.S.-backed Shah Reza Pahlavi. America helped orchestrate the 1953 coup that overthrew Iran’s popularly elected prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, which brought Pahlavi to power and set the stage for decades of mistrust between the countries. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Unbelievable: Obama Agrees to 80 Percent of Iran’s Nuclear Demands

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Photo Credit: Jerusalem Post Israeli officials told Channel 10 on Friday that they are convinced the Obama administration has already agreed to most of Iran’s demands in the P5+1 negotiations over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.

According to unnamed officials, Washington “has given the Iranians 80 percent of what they want” out of the negotiations, Channel 10 is reporting.

Jerusalem officials appear alarmed at the prospect that the United States will soon strike a deal with the Iranian regime that will leave it with a “breakout capacity” of months during which it can gallop toward a nuclear bomb.

The practical significance of the American compromises in the talks is that Iran will be permitted to keep over 7,000 centrifuges, enough for the Iranians to produce enough enriched material to sprint toward the bomb within a matter of months.

These developments have apparently fueled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s sense of urgency in traveling to Washington and addressing Congress in hopes of lobbying American lawmakers to pass tougher sanctions against the Islamic Republic. (Read more about the nuclear demands HERE)

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Obama Admin. Bribed Iran to Stay in Nuke Talks With $11.9 Billion in Payments

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By Adam Kredo. The Obama administration on Wednesday paid $490 million in cash assets to Iran and will have released a total of $11.9 billion to the Islamic Republic by the time nuclear talks are scheduled to end in June, according to figures provided by the State Department.

Today’s $490 million release, the third such payment of this amount since Dec. 10, was agreed to by the Obama administration under the parameters of another extension in negotiations over Tehran’s contested nuclear program that was inked in November.

Iran will receive a total of $4.9 billion in unfrozen cash assets via 10 separate payments by the United States through June 22, when talks with Iran are scheduled to end with a final agreement aimed at curbing the country’s nuclear work, according to a State Department official.

Iran received $4.2 billion in similar payments under the 2013 interim agreement with the United States and was then given another $2.8 billion by the Obama administration last year in a bid to keep Iran committed to the talks through November, when negotiators parted ways without reaching an agreement.

Iran will have received a total of $11.9 billion in cash assets by the end of June if current releases continue on pace as scheduled. (Read more about from “Obama Admin. Bribed Iran” HERE)

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Saudi Arabia’s King Dies

By BBC. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz was the fifth of his brothers to take the throne and became king in 2005, reports Caroline Hawley

Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz has died, royal officials have announced, weeks after he was admitted to hospital.

King Abdullah, who was said to be aged about 90, had been suffering from a lung infection.

A statement early on Friday said his 79-year-old half brother, Salman, had become king.

Abdullah came to the throne in 2005 but had suffered frequent bouts of ill health in recent years. (Read more about Saudi Arabia’s king dying HERE)

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