The Front Page Cover
2016 The truth will set you free
Featuring:
Now nObama wants to aid and abet
Iranian money laundering
Clifford D. May
~~~
.
No Time for slump-Trump to go Mainstream
Donald slump-Trump likes to say that he can change his tone to be more presidential any time he wants. There’s little evidence to suggest that that claim is true, but it reflects his sense that he can’t keep doing what he’s been doing. This hardly seems like the time for slump-Trump to change his ways.
The Republican frontrunner has retained the services of K Street stalwart Paul Manafort, who is the one you hire when you can’t get Charlie Black. The candidate is expanding his Washington presence, with his campaign setting up meetings with the little claque of lawmakers who support him, and he is reportedly preparing to open a D.C. office.
slump-Trump’s aim is to stop the bleeding on the delegate selection process. Remember that while almost all delegates will go to Cleveland bound to vote for a specific candidate, if the process continues into the third ballot, they will all be free agents. slump-Trump has to be concerned not just with the effort of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to nick delegates in places like Louisiana, Arizona, and Tennessee, by working the system but also with the loyalties of the delegates themselves.
It is a smart, if belated, move to start paying attention to the way things work. But, slump-Trump cannot let the process control his product.
slump-Trump was back to his insult-comedy routine at a packed Long Island rally on Wednesday. The crowd ate it up. It was a return to, ahem, normalcy for slump-Trump who in recent weeks has done things heretofore unthinkable, including apologizing, admitting error and saying flattering things about his rivals. -Sad!-
The temptation to change his tone and style is understandable given how poorly slump-Trump runs in the general election, as demonstrated in this new poll from must-win Virginia. slump-Trump also is struggling with the recalcitrance of the majority of his own adopted party. While slump-Trump can look forward to a big win in his native New York on April 19, the developments of the Wisconsin primary bear a potentially troubling message. slump-Trump’s supporters stuck with him, but the rest of the party effectively organized itself against him.
So how does slump-Trump broaden his coalition inside the GOP and make himself a more palatable general election candidate? He can’t. And he shouldn’t try.
sliump-Trump is a disrupter whose insults and wood-chipper approach to his lengthy list of enemies remade the Republican nominating process. If he can pull out the nomination, he’s not going to win as a conventional candidate. His only hope would be to turn the general election into WWE Smackdown.
But what “the experts” are telling slump-Trump is that he needs to change and be less insulting and less disruptive. Of course they are. The message of every Washington consultant is always the same: It’s complicated, it’s expensive and you can’t do it without them.
slump-Trump seems very worried that the party will try to “steal” the nomination from him and as poll-obsessed as he is he also must fear the general-election humiliation they portend. But this is no time for him to lose his nerve.
slump-Trump’s strategy should not be to change and broaden his coalition within the GOP. Instead he should focus on running up the score in New York and those districts of California where his white-hot rhetoric on immigration has won him many loyal followers.
He should be thinking about Staten Island and Bakersfield, not K Street. -Fox News
Donald slump-Trump likes to say that he can change his tone to be more presidential any time he wants. There’s little evidence to suggest that that claim is true, but it reflects his sense that he can’t keep doing what he’s been doing. This hardly seems like the time for slump-Trump to change his ways.
The Republican frontrunner has retained the services of K Street stalwart Paul Manafort, who is the one you hire when you can’t get Charlie Black. The candidate is expanding his Washington presence, with his campaign setting up meetings with the little claque of lawmakers who support him, and he is reportedly preparing to open a D.C. office.
slump-Trump’s aim is to stop the bleeding on the delegate selection process. Remember that while almost all delegates will go to Cleveland bound to vote for a specific candidate, if the process continues into the third ballot, they will all be free agents. slump-Trump has to be concerned not just with the effort of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to nick delegates in places like Louisiana, Arizona, and Tennessee, by working the system but also with the loyalties of the delegates themselves.
It is a smart, if belated, move to start paying attention to the way things work. But, slump-Trump cannot let the process control his product.
slump-Trump was back to his insult-comedy routine at a packed Long Island rally on Wednesday. The crowd ate it up. It was a return to, ahem, normalcy for slump-Trump who in recent weeks has done things heretofore unthinkable, including apologizing, admitting error and saying flattering things about his rivals. -Sad!-
The temptation to change his tone and style is understandable given how poorly slump-Trump runs in the general election, as demonstrated in this new poll from must-win Virginia. slump-Trump also is struggling with the recalcitrance of the majority of his own adopted party. While slump-Trump can look forward to a big win in his native New York on April 19, the developments of the Wisconsin primary bear a potentially troubling message. slump-Trump’s supporters stuck with him, but the rest of the party effectively organized itself against him.
So how does slump-Trump broaden his coalition inside the GOP and make himself a more palatable general election candidate? He can’t. And he shouldn’t try.
sliump-Trump is a disrupter whose insults and wood-chipper approach to his lengthy list of enemies remade the Republican nominating process. If he can pull out the nomination, he’s not going to win as a conventional candidate. His only hope would be to turn the general election into WWE Smackdown.
But what “the experts” are telling slump-Trump is that he needs to change and be less insulting and less disruptive. Of course they are. The message of every Washington consultant is always the same: It’s complicated, it’s expensive and you can’t do it without them.
slump-Trump seems very worried that the party will try to “steal” the nomination from him and as poll-obsessed as he is he also must fear the general-election humiliation they portend. But this is no time for him to lose his nerve.
slump-Trump’s strategy should not be to change and broaden his coalition within the GOP. Instead he should focus on running up the score in New York and those districts of California where his white-hot rhetoric on immigration has won him many loyal followers.
He should be thinking about Staten Island and Bakersfield, not K Street. -Fox News
.
nObama's Political Constitution
Barack nObama only talks about the Constitution when it helps him politically, and even then, he's not correct. On Thursday, nObama paid a visit to the University of Chicago — the place where he lectured on constitutional law — though no word on whether he visited his old benefactor William Ayers. nObama lamented that Senate Republicans are cheapening the power of the Supreme Court by refusing to hold nomination hearings for his nominee, Merrick Garland.
"The courts will be just an extension of our legislatures and our elections and our politics," nObama warned. "And that erodes the institutional integrity of the judicial branch." Yes, Supreme Court justices are nominated through a political process by a president and a Senate that both swear to uphold the Constitution. Time and time again, however, the courts have held nObama's executive actions as unconstitutional.
Clearly, in those years teaching constitutional law, nObama didn't learn much. And it's most certainly demonstrable that the Senate cannot trust him to pick the justice to replace the grand originalist, the late Antonin Scalia. While nObama lectures with faux intellectualism, the Senate based its decision to not hold nomination hearings for nObama's pick on precedent set by Democrats.
However, senators — some Democrats and Republicans Mark Kirk and Lindsey Graham — all said they would or have sat down with Judge Garland to meet one-on-one. In Graham's instance, his office said Graham stands with the rest of the GOP in opposing a nomination process, but he still met with the nominee as a "courtesy."
Meanwhile, nObama touted his record of nominating minorities and people in the LGBT community to benches across the nation. "Yeah, he's a white guy," nObama said of Garland. "But he's a really outstanding jurist." The key word there was "but." To him, it's all about legacy and getting his way. -The Patriot Post
.
.
N Korea says it successfully tests
long-range rocket engine
.
{foxnews.com} ~ North Korea says it has successfully conducted an engine test of a new intercontinental ballistic rocket it claims will strengthen its ability to stage nuclear strikes on the United States... The move, if true, would be a big step forward for the North's nuclear weapons program. But South Korean officials still say North Korea doesn't yet have a reliable intercontinental ballistic missile, let alone the ability to arm it with a nuclear warhead. The North has threatened pre-emptive nuclear strikes against Washington and Seoul and fired short-range missiles and artillery into the sea in an apparent response to ongoing U.S.-South Korean military drills and tough U.N. sanctions imposed over an earlier nuclear test and long-range rocket launch...
.
DOJ Fails to Give Up All Subpoenaed Fast
and Furious Documents
Dan Spencer
.
.
{redstate.com} ~ The Washington Examiner reports that the nObama administration continued to thumb its nose at the other two branches of the federal government when nObama’s Department of justice failed to obey a federal court’s order to turn over all subpoenaed documents to Congress about the nObama Administration’s Fast and Furious gun-running scandal... During the nObama administration’s foolish gun-running federal agents lost track of more than 2,000 guns, two of which were found at the scene of the murder of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian A. Terry. Then Attorney General Eric Holder’s refusal to give Congress subpoenaed documents related to the gun-running scandal resulted in his becoming the first sitting attorney general held in contempt of Congress in U.S. history. It looks like Attorney General Loretta Lynch wants to be the second. The nObama/Lynch Justice Department’s continued failure to come clean on the Fast and Furious documents hints at how far it will be willing to go to protect Hilly Clinton from the FBI’s investigation into her email fiasco...
.
Palestinian Terror Apologist Geraldo Rivera Has
No Right To Criticize Cruz
Jeff Dunetz
.
.
{lidblog.com} ~ Thursday night Geraldo Rivera joined CNN’s Jonathan Toobin in describing Ted Cruz’s New York values comment as anti-Semitic as he appeared on the O’Reilly Factor... But then again the liberal Rivera says he is a Republican, despite the fact that he spouts liberal views. The Fox news in-house progressive exhibits little affection for the Jewish State, but loves to announce that he is a long-time Zionist immediately before he throws Israel under the bus. Geraldo from Babylon is textbook passive/aggressive. For example, he exhibited his typical passive/aggressive behavior during an appearance on Fox and Friends in 2010. He began by saying how well he knew Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu, then threw the truth out the window to trash Bibi and Israel ... http://lidblog.com/palestinian-terror-apologist-geraldo-rivera-has-no-right-to-criticize-cruz/?utm_source=The+Lid+List&utm_campaign=2ebb9696c5-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_597b72c01c-2ebb9696c5-291705165
.
You Won’t Believe Infuriating Thing That
Foreign Billionaire Is Doing To Americans
John Thomas
.
.
{teapartybulletin.com} ~ Money. It influences so much in this world, and, while I have no doubt that most billionaires worked hard and caught a lucky break or two to become as fabulously wealthy as they are, there are a few who I feel just the opposite about. This story is about someone from that second group... You may have heard of this man, but you probably do not know what he has done and what he is doing in the United States. His name is George Soros. Katie Pavlich has this to say about how Soros makes his money. Now, maybe you don’t think that this is a big deal, but understand, to collapse a country’s currency, Soros has to have politicians in place who support economic policies that benefit his goal. He consistently supports political liberals, such as the Democrats in the United States. And guess what he has done in this election cycle? He has also dumped millions of dollars into this Presidential election. Bloomberg.com notes... Bytheway, Rick Wells you're totally wrong about Cruz being one of Soro's money crabbers. http://teapartybulletin.com/you-wont-believe-infuriating-thing-that-foreign-billionaire-is-doing-to-americans/
.
Bill Kristol Wipes Floor With
slump-Trump Mouthpiece...
Caleb Howe
Caleb Howe
.
{redstate.com} ~ This video from several days ago was too good to leave behind. When Donald slump-Trump, during his crybaby Twitter outburts and in his official post-Wisconsin statement... accused Ted Cruz of committing a crime, the Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol tore him apart and spit on his remains. It’s just another example of how grotesque slump-Trump’s campaign really. How desperate and pathetic it is. Exit question, to reiterate: Where’s the evidence, Donny boy?...
.
Trey Gowdy calls State Department
‘deplorable’ for what they just did
.
Frieda Powers.
{bizpacreview.com} ~ The State Department finally released documents on Friday that were requested by the Benghazi committee, but the more than one-year wait was deplorable to Rep. Trey Gowdy... Gowdy, chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, slammed the State Department for its delay in responding to subpoenas issued in March and August of 2015, following the initial request by the Republican congressman in November 2014. “It is deplorable that it took over a year for these records to be produced to our committee, and that our Democrat colleagues never lifted a finger to help us get them,” Gowdy said in a press release Friday... That's why this committee's cost is so high. http://www.bizpacreview.com/2016/04/09/trey-gowdy-calls-state-department-deplorable-for-what-they-just-did-327130
.
Turkish Justice: ISIS Walks Free;
Peace Activists Jailed
Uzay Bulut
.
In Turkey, signatories of the "Academics for Peace" petition have been subjected to
sustained attacks and threats from the Turkish government and nationalist groups
.
{gatestoneinstitute.org} ~ Turkey's "fight" against the Islamic State (ISIS) continues. On March 24, Turkey released seven suspects who had been arrested in a case involving the Turkish branch of ISIS... Halis Bayancuk, alleged to be the "Emir," or commander-in-chief, of ISIS, is among the suspects. This was the fourth hearing of the trial known as the "Istanbul ISIS trial." A total of 96 suspects are on trial. Only seven had been jailed; the others had not. Although those seven were released on March 24 at the end of the hearing, their trial is still ongoing; the final verdict has not been given. All of them are now outside jail, free, and living their lives as they wish. The indictment prepared by the chief public prosecutor's office of Istanbul stated that the suspects: "engaged in the activities of the terrorist organization called DAESH [Arabic acronym of ISIS]. The suspects had sent persons to the conflict zones; they applied pressure, force, violence and threats by using the name of the terrorist organization, and they had provided members and logistic support for the group. Ilyas Aydin, the leader of the ISIS cell, gave verdicts at a so-called sharia court about killing people."... http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7807/turkey-justice-isis-kurds
.
US brings B-52s back to the Mideast
to target IS
.
A US Air Force B-52 Stratofortress aircraft from Barksdale Air Force Base,
Louisiana, arrives at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar
.
{timesofisrael.com} ~ The United States has deployed B-52 bombers to the Mideast nation of Qatar to take part in the US-led bombing campaign against the Islamic State group, the Air Force said Saturday... It is the first time the Cold War-era heavy bombers will be based in the region since the 1991 Gulf War, when they operated from neighboring Saudi Arabia. The Air Force said the B-52s arrived at Qatar’s al-Udeid Air Base from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana on Saturday... http://www.timesofisrael.com/us-brings-b-52s-back-to-the-mideast-to-target-is/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=8c2cf338cd-2016_04_10&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_adb46cec92-8c2cf338cd-54638825
.
Amerigeddon – Martial Law, Gun Confiscation,
Total Chaos – In Our Future?
Rick Wells
.
.
{rickwells.us} ~ The movie opens in the near future with a call for Congress to take action in response to “a most imminent threat.” Although the trailer doesn’t specify what that threat is, it soon becomes quite clear that it is an EMP as the electrical grid is completely knocked down... including the Internet and banking system. The narration says, “The smokescreen of national security used by government at every level.” The characters discuss the fact that a strong America is the only thing standing in the way of their plans, with their plan then executed soon after, with a major explosion and the destruction of at least one satellite but probably others as well. Noting that the average family only has a three day supply of food, the government has the people precisely where they want them. The mission is stated – disarm the population and restore order. The scene shifts to an American citizen in his doorway, confronted by some type of military unit engaged in the confiscation of their firearms... http://rickwells.us/archives/28315
{rickwells.us} ~ The movie opens in the near future with a call for Congress to take action in response to “a most imminent threat.” Although the trailer doesn’t specify what that threat is, it soon becomes quite clear that it is an EMP as the electrical grid is completely knocked down... including the Internet and banking system. The narration says, “The smokescreen of national security used by government at every level.” The characters discuss the fact that a strong America is the only thing standing in the way of their plans, with their plan then executed soon after, with a major explosion and the destruction of at least one satellite but probably others as well. Noting that the average family only has a three day supply of food, the government has the people precisely where they want them. The mission is stated – disarm the population and restore order. The scene shifts to an American citizen in his doorway, confronted by some type of military unit engaged in the confiscation of their firearms... http://rickwells.us/archives/28315
.
Iran: U.S. Violating Nuke Deal
Adam Kredo
.
.
{freebeacon.com} ~ Iranian officials on Monday accused the United States of violating the recent comprehensive nuclear agreement by working behind the scenes to stop American companies from conducting business with Iran, according to regional media reports... Iran has been complaining for months that it is not being granted enough sanctions relief under the agreement. These complaints have reportedly pushed the nObama administration to consider offering Iran greater concessions, including access to the U.S. dollar and American financial markets. However, Iranian officials continue to insist that the nObama administration is violating the deal. Sadeq Amoli Larijani, Iran’s judiciary chief, “warned” the United States in remarks on Monday, claiming that the administration’s current actions violate the agreement...Nothing is mention about their testing of missiles.
..
Now nObama wants to aid and abet
Iranian money laundering
Clifford D. May
.
.
{jewishworldreview.com} ~ President nObama's critics charge that he's never developed a strategy to defeat terrorism, the weapon of choice for those waging what they call a global jihad. The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg, the journalist whose ear Mr. nObama most likes to bend, says that's wrong - that the president does have a strategy. "He is, after all, killing jihadists at a frenetic pace."
First, it's really not clear that Mr. nObama is engaged in anything more than a less-than-successful holding action against the Islamic State, al Qaeda, the Taliban and similar adversaries. Second, killing - at whatever pace - is a tactic, not a strategy. Third and perhaps most important: There are Sunni jihadists and Shia jihadists and both utilize terrorism. What is Mr. nObama doing about the Shia jihadists? He's rewarding and enriching them.
To be fair, that may be a strategy, or at least part of one. It's based on a set of assumptions, all of which I'd call dubious, e.g., that the Islamic Republic of Iran has "legitimate grievances" that deserve to be addressed; that Iran's theocrats, like us, seek compromise; that they, like us, favor "conflict resolution" through diplomacy and regard violence as a last resort.
Pursuant to this thinking, Mr. nObama concluded - without congressional consent - what he considers a good deal with Tehran. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) obligates Iran's rulers to delay a nuclear weapons program they do not acknowledge exists. In exchange, the United States and its European allies have agreed to release more than $100 billion in frozen assets and lift those sanctions imposed in response to Iran's illicit nuclear activities.
Other sanctions - such as those imposed because Iran, according to the U.S. government, continues to sponsor terrorism, develop ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads, and conduct illicit financial activities - were meant to stay in place.
Mr. nObama and his deputies were adamant about this when they were attempting to persuade Congress to go along with the JCPOA. There was one specific and enormous concession that Secretary of the Treasury Jacob Lew specifically assured Congress would not be granted: access to dollar transactions and the American financial system. "Iranian banks will not be able to clear U.S. dollars through New York, hold correspondent account relationships with U.S. financial institutions, or enter into financing arrangements with U.S. banks," he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "Iran, in other words, will continue to be denied access to the world's largest financial and commercial market."
In recent days, however, Mark Dubowitz and Jonathan Schanzer, colleagues at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, have assembled evidence leading to the conclusion that Mr. nObama has indeed been planning to grant this concession.
He has asked Iran's rulers for nothing in return. On the contrary, since the conclusion of the JCPOA, they have been "testing" ballistic missiles in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, aiding and abetting the slaughter in Syria, supporting Houthi rebels in Yemen, and threatening Israelis with genocide. They have seized and humiliated American sailors. Recently, for the first time ever, the U.S. Justice Department charged state-sponsored individuals - seven Iranians - with hacking to disrupt critical American infrastructure.
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei remains as anti-American and bellicose as ever. "Those who say the future is in negotiations, not in missiles, are either ignorant or traitors," he said last week. So why give him a prize?
It could be because Mr. nObama sees the Iran deal as an important part of his legacy. It could be because he fears that Ayatollah Khamenei will walk away from the deal as soon as the stream of benefits stops flowing. It could be because Mr. nObama wants to bolster Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, whom he regards - incorrectly, I'd argue - as a moderate. It could be all of the above.
Whatever the explanation, many members of Congress, on both sides of the aisle, are furious over having been deceived. "I do not support granting Iran any new relief without a corresponding concession," Steny Hoyer, the No. 2 Democrat in the House, said in a statement.
Rep. Mike Pompeo, a Kansas Republican who serves on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said either Congress has been "intentionally misled" or "the nObama administration and the Iranians are changing the terms of the nuclear deal months after it was finalized. Either scenario is unacceptable."
Responding to this pushback, Mr. nObama said it is "not necessary that we take the approach of Iranians going through dollar-denominated transactions. It is possible for them to work through European financial institutions as well." Translated into English, this appears to endorse some kind of workaround involving offshore dollar clearing, a less direct way of giving Iran's rulers what they want, thereby allowing, as Mr. nObama put it, "deal flows to begin."
If you're puzzled as to why he'd be eager to facilitate Iran's "deal flows," consider this possibility: He believes in the power of commerce to transform the regime, to convert its theocrats into tycoons more eager to make money than war, more focused on building nest eggs than spreading the Islamic Revolution.
In other words, that could be Mr. nObama's strategy to combat Shia jihadism-terrorism. Its most obvious flaw: Iran's theocrats are already filthy rich - and they've never been overly concerned about the deprivations suffered by the average Iranian. "This revolution was not about the price of watermelons," Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran's first "supreme leader," famously stated. Not a shred of evidence suggests that his heirs see things differently.
First, it's really not clear that Mr. nObama is engaged in anything more than a less-than-successful holding action against the Islamic State, al Qaeda, the Taliban and similar adversaries. Second, killing - at whatever pace - is a tactic, not a strategy. Third and perhaps most important: There are Sunni jihadists and Shia jihadists and both utilize terrorism. What is Mr. nObama doing about the Shia jihadists? He's rewarding and enriching them.
To be fair, that may be a strategy, or at least part of one. It's based on a set of assumptions, all of which I'd call dubious, e.g., that the Islamic Republic of Iran has "legitimate grievances" that deserve to be addressed; that Iran's theocrats, like us, seek compromise; that they, like us, favor "conflict resolution" through diplomacy and regard violence as a last resort.
Pursuant to this thinking, Mr. nObama concluded - without congressional consent - what he considers a good deal with Tehran. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) obligates Iran's rulers to delay a nuclear weapons program they do not acknowledge exists. In exchange, the United States and its European allies have agreed to release more than $100 billion in frozen assets and lift those sanctions imposed in response to Iran's illicit nuclear activities.
Other sanctions - such as those imposed because Iran, according to the U.S. government, continues to sponsor terrorism, develop ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads, and conduct illicit financial activities - were meant to stay in place.
Mr. nObama and his deputies were adamant about this when they were attempting to persuade Congress to go along with the JCPOA. There was one specific and enormous concession that Secretary of the Treasury Jacob Lew specifically assured Congress would not be granted: access to dollar transactions and the American financial system. "Iranian banks will not be able to clear U.S. dollars through New York, hold correspondent account relationships with U.S. financial institutions, or enter into financing arrangements with U.S. banks," he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "Iran, in other words, will continue to be denied access to the world's largest financial and commercial market."
In recent days, however, Mark Dubowitz and Jonathan Schanzer, colleagues at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, have assembled evidence leading to the conclusion that Mr. nObama has indeed been planning to grant this concession.
He has asked Iran's rulers for nothing in return. On the contrary, since the conclusion of the JCPOA, they have been "testing" ballistic missiles in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, aiding and abetting the slaughter in Syria, supporting Houthi rebels in Yemen, and threatening Israelis with genocide. They have seized and humiliated American sailors. Recently, for the first time ever, the U.S. Justice Department charged state-sponsored individuals - seven Iranians - with hacking to disrupt critical American infrastructure.
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei remains as anti-American and bellicose as ever. "Those who say the future is in negotiations, not in missiles, are either ignorant or traitors," he said last week. So why give him a prize?
It could be because Mr. nObama sees the Iran deal as an important part of his legacy. It could be because he fears that Ayatollah Khamenei will walk away from the deal as soon as the stream of benefits stops flowing. It could be because Mr. nObama wants to bolster Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, whom he regards - incorrectly, I'd argue - as a moderate. It could be all of the above.
Whatever the explanation, many members of Congress, on both sides of the aisle, are furious over having been deceived. "I do not support granting Iran any new relief without a corresponding concession," Steny Hoyer, the No. 2 Democrat in the House, said in a statement.
Rep. Mike Pompeo, a Kansas Republican who serves on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said either Congress has been "intentionally misled" or "the nObama administration and the Iranians are changing the terms of the nuclear deal months after it was finalized. Either scenario is unacceptable."
Responding to this pushback, Mr. nObama said it is "not necessary that we take the approach of Iranians going through dollar-denominated transactions. It is possible for them to work through European financial institutions as well." Translated into English, this appears to endorse some kind of workaround involving offshore dollar clearing, a less direct way of giving Iran's rulers what they want, thereby allowing, as Mr. nObama put it, "deal flows to begin."
If you're puzzled as to why he'd be eager to facilitate Iran's "deal flows," consider this possibility: He believes in the power of commerce to transform the regime, to convert its theocrats into tycoons more eager to make money than war, more focused on building nest eggs than spreading the Islamic Revolution.
In other words, that could be Mr. nObama's strategy to combat Shia jihadism-terrorism. Its most obvious flaw: Iran's theocrats are already filthy rich - and they've never been overly concerned about the deprivations suffered by the average Iranian. "This revolution was not about the price of watermelons," Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran's first "supreme leader," famously stated. Not a shred of evidence suggests that his heirs see things differently.
Comments