You have to hand it to Obama and Kerry. They sure know how to bargain. Today the AP reports that Iran will be permitted to do its own inspections of a questionable nuclear site.
VIENNA (AP) — Iran will be allowed to use its own inspectors to investigate a site it has been accused of using to develop nuclear arms, operating under a secret agreement with the U.N. agency that normally carries out such work, according to a document seen by The Associated Press.
The revelation on Wednesday newly riled Republican lawmakers in the U.S. who have been severely critical of a broader agreement to limit Iran’s future nuclear programs, signed by the Obama administration, Iran and five world powers in July. Those critics have complained that the wider deal is unwisely built on trust of the Iranians, while the administration has insisted it depends on reliable inspections.
Wow, that’s impressive. This is highly unusual:
The agreement in question diverges from normal procedures by allowing Tehran to employ its own experts and equipment in the search for evidence of activities it has consistently denied – trying to develop nuclear weapons.
Olli Heinonen, who was in charge of the Iran probe as deputy IAEA director general from 2005 to 2010, said he could think of no similar concession with any other country.
The White House has repeatedly denied claims of a secret side deal favorable to Tehran. IAEA chief Yukiya Amano told Republican senators last week that he was obligated to keep the document confidential.
Iran has refused access to Parchin for years and has denied any interest in – or work on – nuclear weapons. Based on U.S., Israeli and other intelligence and its own research, the IAEA suspects that the Islamic Republic may have experimented with high-explosive detonators for nuclear arms.
The IAEA has cited evidence, based on satellite images, of possible attempts to sanitize the site since the alleged work stopped more than a decade ago.
This sounds like a joke, but it’s not. This deal is pretty entertaining. Iran got absolutely everything it wanted and the US gets nothing. Our feckless leaders could not even manage to secure the release of four American hostages.
In 2013 Barack Obama said that he wouldn’t take military options off the table. That was, as Tommy Vietor would say, so two years ago, dude!
Remember back Obama said there were no side deals while at the same time the State Department said they’d read the side deals?
Obama has framed his demands in his own inimitable way:
WASHINGTON — President Obama took on critics of the nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers in an aggressive speech on Wednesday, saying they were the same people who created the “drumbeat of war” and played on public fears to push the United States into the Iraq war more than a decade ago.
“Let’s not mince words: The choice we face is ultimately between diplomacy and some form of war — maybe not tomorrow, maybe not three months from now, but soon,” Mr. Obama told about 200 people in a speech at American University. “How can we in good conscience justify war before we’ve tested a diplomatic agreement that achieves our objectives?”
In other words, “If you disagree with me, you’re a whore.”
Obama is curiously bent on acquiescence to Iran. The question is- why? Obama has bombed seven countries so far. More than Bush! But now Obama’s channeling John Lennon. All he was saying was
give diplomacy a chance and give peace a chance.
So I am wondering- why didn’t obama want to “give peace a chance” in Libya? Why did he want to bomb Gaddafi to hell but not Rouhani and his gang? Why did Obama want to take out the more secular leaders in Libya, Egypt and Syria while kissing Iranian ass? Why couldn’t Iran get the Libya treatment if they didn’t comply?
A year and a half ago Iranian President Hassan Rouhani boasted that world powers had surrendered to Iran:
“Our relationship w/ the world is based on Iranian nation’s interests. In #Geneva agreement world powers surrendered to Iranian nation’s will.”
He was right. Obama has all but surrendered.
I’d like to know why.
DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 30 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 30 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter on her way into the field of education.
DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.
Except for liberals being foolish.
First it was New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, the chamber’s third-ranking Democrat, who announced his opposition to the nuclear deal negotiated by Obama/Kerry.
Now it is Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey.
But, if you recall, Sen. Bob Menendez was the target of federal corruption charges meant to silence him.
Now, probably as a result of that, Sen. Bob Menendez is promising to speak as persuasively as possible to every Democrat, House or Senate, still undecided on this plan.
He certainly has had plenty of ammunition handed to him lately.
One is hard pressed to find any other explanation than a pro-Iranian motivation for this unfathomably bad deal.
What is even more disgusting is the kabuki theater coming from McConnell claiming – after setting up the ultimate passage of this horrendously pro-terrorist deal through congress – that there is no way for republicans to stop the deal.
Obama and Kerry merely joined the rest of the world that does not care what happens to other countries as long as they can cultivate their own economic interests. They never see the threat aimed at themselves because they all realize the power of surrender.
Mommie: Did you ever clean your room?
Son: Yes, mommie I just did.
Mommie: Well, go back in there and look it over then tell me how it looks.
Son (coming back) : Mommie, it’s spotless.
Mommie: Very good!
The Iranians play poker, Obama plays checkers.
It looks like a setup. We could see a situation not unlike Iraq in 2002 where the US falsely accuses Iran of non-compliance and uses it to force Iran to let in outside inspectors or be attacked.
@Les: So, aside from trying to rewrite the facts as they were prior to the Iraq war, you think Obama is trying to lead us into war with Iran?
Shocking, but not entirely accurate. Iran’s technicians will be allowed to collect samples in certain locations under the direct supervision of U.N. overseers. Congress was briefed on the point.
They’re riled by nature. “Riled” is their default setting these days.
@Greg:
Briefed by whom?
This can only mean one thing- no other way to interpret it: Most Americans want war:
Wait a minute!
Who here believes Obama will lead America to war?
Especially against Iran?
Obama has been soft toward Iranians since Day One.
He even was quietly dealing with opening diplomatic doors to the Iranians while Ahmadinejad was still in office.
He’s been their weak horse and nothing indicates he would ever change on that.
I doubt Iran could do anything Obama would go to war with them over,
If the deal is approved, the Iranians give up 98 percent of their existing stockpile of low-enriched uranium and limit their stockpile for 15 years. More than half of their enrichment centrifuges go into supervised storage. This could extend the time it would take them to produce a uranium bomb from a year to a decade or more.
Additionally, Arak reactor would be modified so that it could not be used to produce plutonium. That closes their path to producing a plutonium based bomb.
No agreement means that neither of the above will happen. Iran might have a bomb by late next year. They would have no reason not to complete their program. It’s possible that they’d accelerate it, since they’d feel an increased threat of attack.
Nobody would be able to renegotiate squat before then. We’d have traded our chance to get something with clear benefits for a far more dangerous situation.
I can think of few moves that would be more abysmally stupid for the United States at this point than war with Iran. Obama knows that. Anyone with any understanding of the screwed up situation in the Middle East, the other geopolitical threats that exist, and the least bit of imagination should be able to figure that one out.
@Greg:
They can buy from Russia. And don’t worry, they’ll be inspecting them selves.
@Greg:
I guess it just never occurs to you that what you believe will happen and what will actually happen are two different things. Your level of trust in the Iranians is just plain naive.
@Wordsmith: I wonder if that was taken before or after it was revealed that Iran is going to inspect its own nuclear sites.
@Greg: Who briefed Congress on the secret side deals?
@Nanny G: hey whatever happened to the chorus of guilty screams over the “scandal” of Dominican underage hookers”?
A Maxist/Alinsky rooted community organizer whose PR pretends was a professor, is hardly the one you want negotiating anything on your behalf, much less a nuclear deal against a regime hellbent on spreading its disease.
The Ayatollah did not sign this deal and he won’t, . . . and even if he had, it would still not restrict him. Khamenei has made enough pronouncements making his position clear — including the fact that he will not allow any inspections of what he considers “military” or “technological” sites. End of story.
Obama screwed up, but his ego cannot back-up. Narcissism is a wonderful thing, . . . in the mirror.
Perhaps the most weird part of this is that Iran’s Parliament is holding off signing onto this plan.
Perhaps they will, perhaps not.
But Obama won’t know until a few days after he finds out if his own Congress has gone along with it.
@Nanny G: #18
They will do what Khamenei tells them to do.
Europe wants any deal since it’s in serious financial trouble and it wants access to Iran’s oil and access to the market that would be created in exchange for that oil. I suspect China will get more of Iran’s oil than Europe will.
You guys have to stop listening to those clowns who told us Saddam had WMD
Stop it !!!
@Greg: I remember that Obola, Hilldabeast, and Biden told America that we have a stable Iraq after Bush left office. Looks like the JV team ISIS messed that up for them. Brilliant!!
@Mully, #14:
Some people instantly accept any bullshit spin that reinforces their preexisting view.
The fact that Iranian technicians have some level of supervised involvement in the collection of samples for later trace radiation level analysis does not equate to a generalization that “Iran gets to do its own nuclear weapons site inspections.”
The line connecting those two widely-spaced dots would do Glenn Beck credit.
The government of every country on the planet thinks this is a good agreement. You want a nuke free mideast ? Start with Israel
@John: Whatever happened to “the most transparent and honest administration in history”? That sure flushed down the tubes, didn’t it?
Some people instantly accept any bullshit spin that reinforces their preexisting view. Greg, I think this describes you fully . You can only repeat what the master says just like a highly prized parrot.
@Randy, #26:
Perhaps you could explain how Iranian personnel collecting samples under direct UN supervision would be the same thing as UN responsibility for nuclear inspections being surrendered to Iranian control.
@Greg: Why don’t you review the whole “Oil for Food” program and get back with us as to how dependable UN personnel are.
That would be an entirely different topic and an entirely different sort of program, wouldn’t it?
I still haven’t heard any of the nuclear deal’s critics putting forward an alternative that accomplishes more—or accomplishes anything at all, for that matter. What they’re going to get us to is a nuclear-armed Iran, sooner rather than later. And then they’re going to try to blame the Obama administration for the results of their own stupidity, just as they try to blame the Obama administration for the geopolitical consequences of their last major screw up.
@Bill: @Bill: I saw first hand how reliable the UN inspectors are. It is the same thing Greg. The UN can only be trusted to rape innocent girls from 3rd world countries and take bribes.
We also seem to forget North Korea. Iran will have the Cash to acquire nuclear weapons from North Korea. The insane Un is starving so Iran won’t have to pay much.
It will take little time for Khamenei to have his dirty bombs and he will also have the delivery vehicles.
Democrats in Congress supporting this clown of a deal should be charged with treason.