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	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; Nuclear</title>
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		<title>Sanction Relief Empowering the Mullahs, Not Citizens</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/majid-rafizadeh/sanction-relief-empowering-the-mullahs-not-citizens/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=sanction-relief-empowering-the-mullahs-not-citizens</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 26 Dec 2014 05:10:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Majid Rafizadeh]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[deal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iran]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[relief]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sanctions]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=248109</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A year later, the verdict is in on Obama's dirty deal with Iran. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/iran_2677161b.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-248111" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/iran_2677161b-450x350.jpg" alt="iran_2677161b" width="319" height="248" /></a>There has always been an argument claiming that economic sanctions normally do not yield any result due to the notion that economic sanctions do not target the ruling elite and governmental official, but the ordinary people. This argument is partially accurate.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, we need to remember that some targeted economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic (particularly the sanctions in oil and gas sectors and financial and bank institutions) did endanger the hold on power of the ruling cleric in Iran, particularly the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. That was the primary reason behind pushing the Iranian politicians to come to the negotiation table in nuclear talks.</p>
<p>On the other hand, the other side of the argument is that if economic sanctions are lifted, the major beneficiaries would be the ordinary people and the civilians. This argument would be accurate if the political and economic system of the given state is democratic, allows open opportunities for all, encourages the private sector, allows transparency, and holds those corrupt officials who commit illegal economic dealings accountable.</p>
<p>The Iranian political and economic system is devoid of the aforementioned standards. In fact, in states which the political system is mainly authoritarian or theocratic, and the economic system is monopolized by few people at top and is state controlled, any increase of wealth or flow of money will inevitably strengthening the ruling elite rather than the ordinary people.</p>
<p>To substantiate this argument, let us take a look on the ground in the Islamic Republic after the sanctions relief.</p>
<p>At the beginning, a majority of Iranian people were hoping that economic sanctions relief would alleviate their suffering, improve their standards of living, and push many families above the poverty line. Almost a year has passed since the Iranian government has been receiving sanctions relief.</p>
<p>After the interim nuclear deal and extension of the negotiations between the six world powers (known as the P5+1: China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) and the Islamic Republic, the Iranian government had received an estimated $7 billion.  Iran continues to receive approximately $700 million every month under the extension deal.</p>
<p>In addition, there has been some sanction suspension with respects to some of Iran’s major industries, including Iran’s auto sector, gold and precious metals, as well as Iran’s petrochemical exports. The Iranian currency, the rial, has appreciated due to the sanctions relief, Iran’s oil and non-oil exports have <a href="http://ameinfo.com/blog/finance-and-economy/irans-non-oil-exports-increase-28-per-cent/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">increased</span></a>, its economy is showing signs of stabilization, Tehran’s stock exchange has soared and Iran’s exports and business dealings with several countries have ratcheted up.</p>
<p>The suspension of sanctions has definitely given both psychological and financial support to the Iranian government.  But the real question is how this money is being spent and which institutions benefit primarily from this sanctions relief. Are ordinary people benefiting from these sanctions relief and flow of money?</p>
<p>Nevertheless, some Iranian civilians have begun to believe that even economic sanctions relief or even the lifting of the whole economic sanctions regime from the Iranian government are not going to assist civilians, their financial day-to-day activities, or bring concrete changes on the ground.</p>
<p>Four major institutions are benefiting mostly from the economic sanctions relief: Iran’s military-industrial complex, the Office of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a few top business figures who are connected with the government, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), through either legal and <a href="http://www.iranfocus.com/en/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=20355:irgcs-dominance-over-irans-politics-and-economy--part-1&amp;catid=29&amp;Itemid=121"><span style="color: #0433ff;">illegal</span></a> imports and exports.</p>
<p>For example, the IRGC controls and owns a considerable amount of shares in the aforementioned industries which have witnessed sanctions relief. In the petrochemical industry, The IRGC military-industrial complex <a href="http://www.iranfocus.com/en/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=20355:irgcs-dominance-over-irans-politics-and-economy--part-1&amp;catid=29&amp;Itemid=121"><span style="color: #0433ff;">owns</span></a> Zagros Petrochemicals; 40% of Pars Petrochemical Company, part of Arak Petrochemicals; 25% of Kermanshah Petrochemicals; as well as 19% of the shares of Maroun Petrochemicals.</p>
<p>This phenomenon of the monopolization of the economy applies in other sectors of Iran’s economy as well.  When it comes to Iran’s economic system, the Supreme Leader and IRGC do have a considerable amount of control and shares in almost all industries <a href="http://www.iranfocus.com/en/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=20355:irgcs-dominance-over-irans-politics-and-economy--part-1&amp;catid=29&amp;Itemid=121"><span style="color: #0433ff;">including</span></a> financial institutions and banks, the transportation industry, automobile manufacturing, mining, commerce, and oil and gas sectors.</p>
<p>As a result, these types of sanctions relief will mostly benefit the ruling elite, primarily the Supreme Leader and Iran’s military-industrial complex, IRGC. Iranian people will hardly observe any benefits from this economic sanctions relief or lifting of economic sanctions.</p>
<p>It appears that the easing of sanctions are strengthening the ruling elite without any sign of redistribution of wealth. This is predominantly due to the fact Iran’s economic system is a state and military controlled system, it lacks transparency, as well as the reality that it is crippled with <a href="http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1144661.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">widespread corruption</span></a> by the ruling elite and few on top.</p>
<p>If the intention of economic sanctions relief is to assist the Iranian people and alleviate their suffering, there ought to be more efficient approaches to develop some types of targeted sanctions relief (for example, being directed at Iran’s educational system, health care, etc.) which aim at empowering Iranian civilians and primarily the middle class.</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>.</b></p>
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		<title>Iran: &#8216;The Great Satan&#8217; Still Our &#8216;Number One Enemy&#8217;</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/majid-rafizadeh/iran-the-great-satan-still-our-number-one-enemy/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=iran-the-great-satan-still-our-number-one-enemy</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 14 Nov 2014 05:20:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Majid Rafizadeh]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[The deadline for nuclear negotiations draws near -- and the Islamic Republic isn't backing down. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Hassan-Rouhani.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-245076" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Hassan-Rouhani-450x299.jpg" alt="Hassan-Rouhani" width="324" height="215" /></a>The deadline for a final and comprehensive nuclear deal between the Iranian leaders and the six world powers (the P5+1: China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) is approaching in less than two weeks on November 24<sup>th </sup>.</p>
<p>It seems that the White House is also investing in the notion that after a final nuclear deal is struck between Tehran and the P5+1, and after economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic are removed, Iranian leaders will alter their foreign policies and regional hegemonic ambitions. This argument is anchored in unrealistic and naïve expectations. If we closely analyze the Islamic Republic’s political and power structures, as well as its major sources of legitimacy, it becomes evident that a major and fundamental change in Iranian leaders’ political calculations is completely unlikely.</p>
<p>Domestically speaking, for over thirty years, by blaming and pointing fingers to the United States and Israel for almost every social and political challenge that the Islamic Republic encounters, the government has been capable of deflecting attention from the high unemployment rate among the youth, high inflation, corruption, nepotism, social injustice, lack of freedoms (speech, press, assembly, etc.), and lack of equal opportunity. The fundamental and underlying tenets of the Islamic Republic are anchored in opposing the United States and Israel and their foreign policies in the Middle East.</p>
<p>Secondly, from the Iranian leaders&#8217; perspective, in order to be capable of legally oppressing and cracking down on domestic opposition, the regime must maintain an anti-American posture. Normally, any individual that criticizes the structure and legitimacy of the Iranian government, ruling clerics and the Supreme Leader, is characterized as a US agent, conspirator and traitor. These charges allow the government to use its judiciary system to oppress opposition and maintain its power.</p>
<p>Recently, in the midst of the international tensions and negotiations regarding Iran’s contentious nuclear program, Iran&#8217;s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) released a statement to Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency pointing out that the United States, “the Great Satan,” remains the Islamic Republic’s &#8220;number one enemy.&#8221; The IRGC’s statement <a href="http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/joseph-perticone/35-years-after-takeover-embassy-tehran-us-still-great-satan-iran"><span style="color: #0433ff;">read</span></a>, “The U.S. is still the great Satan and the number one enemy of the (Islamic) revolution and the Islamic Republic and the Iranian nation.”</p>
<p>Also recently, thousands of pro-government Iranians gathered around the US embassy to mark the 35<sup>th</sup> anniversary of the capture of the U.S. embassy and fifty-two Americans in Tehran by militant students. Demonstrators <a href="http://cdn.defenseone.com/defenseone/interstitial.html?v=2.1.1&amp;rf=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.defenseone.com%2Fthreats%2F2014%2F11%2Firanians-mark-35th-anniversary-hostage-crisis-protests%2F98165%2F"><span style="color: #0433ff;">chanted</span></a>  “Death to America,” “ Death to the Great Satan,” “Death to the United Kingdom” and “Death to Israel.”</p>
<p>Even if a comprehensive nuclear deal is reached between the Islamic Republic and the six world powers by November 24th, Iranian leaders’ position towards the United States, Western allies and Israel will not be altered for the following ideological reasons.</p>
<p>Having the largest Shiite population in the region, the Islamic Republic views itself as the major epicenter of Shiite revivalism across the region. Iran’s support for its proxies, Shiite militant political groups in the region (such Hezbollah in Lebanon, Liwa al-Imam al-Husayn in Syria, Asaib Ahl al-Haqq in Iraq, etc.), will remain to define Tehran’s foreign policy.<b> </b>Establishing itself as the front runner and leader of Shiism has been at the fundamental core of Iran’s foreign policy and regional hegemonic ambitions since 1979. This foreign policy objective will continue to define the Islamic Republic’s identity as long as the Ayatollahs are in power.</p>
<p>In addition, Iranian leaders have been investing in the Syrian regime, economically and politically, for over three decades. It is totally unrealistic to argue that if a final nuclear deal is sealed and if economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic are removed, Tehran will alter its unrelenting military, financial, advisory, and intelligence support to the Alawite-based government of al-Assad.</p>
<p>Without a doubt, some minor changes might occur if a final nuclear is struck. For example, Iran would be more incorporated in international organizations, particularly economically, and it would gradually open up its market to foreign and Western investors. It follows that the Islamic Republic will have to embed some international financial standards into its economic system. Nevertheless, the office of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and IRGC will remain the key economic generators with a monopoly over major industries and will be reluctant to allow equal opportunity and redistribution of wealth to the lower classes.</p>
<p>Furthermore, being incorporated more into world economic systems does not necessarily indicate that more political freedom, as well as civil liberties, will be granted to ordinary Iranian citizens. Historical evidence reveals that economic prosperity for some states can result in implementation of robust policies to tighten control over the population and further centralize power. In other words, similar to other authoritarian governments, economic liberalization will not go hand in hand with political liberalizations in the Islamic Republic.</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>It’s Not the Centrifuges &#8212;- It’s the Warhead</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/edwin-black/its-not-the-centrifuges-its-the-warhead/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=its-not-the-centrifuges-its-the-warhead</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 12 Nov 2014 05:40:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Edwin Black]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=245082</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Mullahs' design is nearly perfected.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/iran-nuclear.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-245086" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/iran-nuclear.jpg" alt="iran-nuclear" width="250" height="170" /></a>November 24, 2014 is a looming deadline for Iran, Israel, the United States and the world over its nuclear weapons program. Just days ago, the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] released a report summarized by its conclusion:</p>
<blockquote><p>The Agency is not in a position to provide credible assurances about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran, and therefore to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities. Iran has not provided any explanations that enable the Agency to clarify the outstanding practical measures, nor has it proposed any new practical measures in the next step of the Framework for cooperation.</p></blockquote>
<p>Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, leading the international negotiations, has described the back and forth as “a forest of distrust.” At the same time, she declares, “Our bottom line is unambiguous … Iran will not, shall not obtain a nuclear weapon.”</p>
<p>In the background, media revelations recently disclosed secret correspondence between the Obama White House to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — kept even from congressional leaders and America’s closest allies, including Israel. Washington is struggling to enlist Tehran in the faltering campaign against the Islamic State. This process has juggled agreed numbers of centrifuges — a limit of 4,000 … or is it 10,000 … or is it something in between? Centrifuges are a critical component because each vertical cylinder slowly but steadily distills uranium into a highly enriched weapon-ready state.</p>
<p>However, as the world ponders Iran’s dash to enrich more kilograms of uranium, the underlying concern is not so much about the enrichment process itself, but the end product: a nuclear warhead. Iran has been developing its warhead for some sixteen years. That design is nearly perfected.</p>
<p>Compare the process to gunpowder. To use gunpowder, you need load it into a cartridge, load the cartridge and a bullet into a rifle, and then find a marksman. Iran has nearly mastered all those steps — but in nuclear terms.</p>
<p>Four technological achievements are key to completing Tehran’s nuclear weapon:</p>
<p>1) accretion of enough nuclear materials, highly enriched to weapons-grade or 90 percent; 2) machining that material into metal for a spheroid warhead so it can fit into a missile nosecone; 3) developing a trigger mechanism to initiate the atomic explosion at a precise moment during missile reentry; and, of course, 4) a reliable delivery system.</p>
<p>Start with the nuclear material. Experts estimate that a single bomb would require approximately 25 kilograms of Highly Enriched Uranium, or HEU, with a U-235 concentration of at least 90 percent. Much of Iran’s nuclear enrichment remains at 3.5 and 20 percent levels. But the numbers are deceiving. Enriching to 3.5 percent is 75 percent of the task of reaching weapons-grade. Once Iran has reached 20 percent, it has gone 90 percent of the distance. Indeed, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani delivered a 2005 speech in his capacity as National Security Advisor in which he declared, “a country that possesses fuel cycle technology can enrich uranium —and the country that can enrich uranium to about 3.5 percent will also have the capability to enrich it to about 90 percent.” Today, Iran possesses enough nuclear material for a fast “break-out” that would finish the job, creating enough for five or ten bombs, in about six weeks.</p>
<p>Second, that HEU must be metalized and shaped into a dense spheroid compact enough to fit into a missile nosecone. Iran has mastered the metallurgical techniques using other high-density metals such as tungsten, which have been test-detonated in a special chamber to measure their explosive character.</p>
<p>Third, the spheroid must be detonated. Iran’s warhead design employs a R265 shock generator hemisphere drilled with 5mm boreholes that are filled with PETN—pentaerythritol tetranitrate, an organic high explosive favored by terrorists. When triggered with precision, the PETN array can cause a massive synchronized implosion. That will fire an internal exploding bridgewire which will in turn actuate an embedded neutron initiator to detonate the atomic reaction—and the mushroom cloud. This sequence of devices has been assembled and tested. Iran has some 500 exploding bridgewires.</p>
<p>Fourth, the warhead must be delivered. The Shabab-3 missile nosecone is large enough to accommodate the warhead. The outer radius of the R265 shock generator-encased warhead is 550 millimeters, less than the estimated payload chamber diameter of about 600 millimeters. Most of all, the Iranian military has selected the Shabab-3 not only because it possesses a range of 1200 kilometers, but because it can be detonated in an airburst some 600 meters off the ground on re-entry. The height of 600 meters was used in the Nagasaki explosion. Such a weapon cannot be crashed into the ground. It must be detonated while still airborne. Iran has a small fleet of Shahab-3 missiles.</p>
<p>Hence, Iran’s metronomic accretion of nuclear material is not just an ambiguous physics undertaking that should worry the West. It is part and parcel of a nuclear attack plan that the international community is determined to address.</p>
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		<title>Reyhaneh Jabbari&#8217;s Execution Shows Emboldened Iran</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/majid-rafizadeh/reyhaneh-jabbaris-execution-shows-emboldened-iran/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=reyhaneh-jabbaris-execution-shows-emboldened-iran</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 06 Nov 2014 05:30:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Majid Rafizadeh]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[How the weakness of the U.S. is creating more victims inside the Islamic Republic. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/1412068835096_wps_19_A_picture_taken_on_July_8.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-244656" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/1412068835096_wps_19_A_picture_taken_on_July_8-409x350.jpg" alt="1412068835096_wps_19_A_picture_taken_on_July_8" width="290" height="248" /></a>Despite the surge in executions and human rights violations in the Islamic Republic, the mainstream media and some Western politicians still depict the Iranian president Hassan Rouhani and his governmental technocrat team as moderate or reformist.</p>
<p>Recently, a 26-year-old Iranian woman, Reyhaneh Jabbari, was executed in Iran’s prison for allegedly killing the man who raped her. Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi, the alleged rapist, was a former employee in Iran’s intelligence ministry. The trial of Jabbari lacked fair and due process.</p>
<p>The intriguing issue is that this execution led to a considerable amount of international outcry from human rights groups. Many requested that the Islamic Republic’s president, Hassan Rouhani, rescind the death sentence against Jabbari.</p>
<p>Normally, when there is significant international pressure, the Islamic Republic has tended to shift the death sentence or postpone it. But the fact that the Iranian government went ahead and executed this women highlights the increasing empowerment and emboldened sentiments of the Iranian regime as it defies, as well as disregards, the international condemnation.</p>
<p>Several crucial factors, including President Obama’s projection of weak foreign policy, leadership, as well as his administration’s appeasement policies toward the Islamic Republic’s domestic and foreign policy, play crucial roles in emboldening and empowering the Islamic Republic.</p>
<p>In addition, the new wave of acid attacks against Iranian women appear not to raise any concerns in the Iranian government with regards to its  global and regional image.</p>
<p>A new report by a United Nations Human Rights investigator further highlights the surge in executions and human rights violations, and it underlines the fallacy of the narrative that President Hassan Rouhani is distinct from other Iranian politicians, such as his predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.</p>
<p>The new report was provided by a United Nations human rights investigator, Ahmad Shaheed, who was a former diplomat from the Maldives and currently special rapporteur on human rights issues in the Islamic Republic.</p>
<p>Shaheed, who has been denied to entry into the Islamic Republic, conducted his report by amassing hundreds of interviews and substantiated records of human rights abuses, including those executions officially reported by the Iranian government. Although he did not directly blame Rouhani, Shaheed recently addressed and briefed the United Nations General Assembly on Iran’s human rights record, which corresponds with the timing that Rouhani had been in office.</p>
<p>The surge in human rights abuses appear to have been carried out on several crucial platforms. First of all, there is an alarming increase in the number of prison and public executions in comparison to the prior year.</p>
<p>In 2012, under the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the recorded number of executions was 580 people. This indicates that there has been an increase of approximately 45 percent in executions under Rouhani. In 2013, 687 people were executed.</p>
<p>In addition, the range of charges for executing Iranian citizens appears to have been widened. The legal reasons behind executions include political, economic, human rights activism, and drug trafficking. Addressing a General Assembly human rights committee this week, Ahmad Shaheed pointed out this &#8220;surge in executions in the country over the past 12-15 months.&#8221; Shaheed added, &#8220;At least 852 individuals were executed in the period since June of last year, including eight juveniles.&#8221;</p>
<p>The second manner of human rights violation is targeted at those who are engaged in freedom of information, particularly journalists. In addition, other reporters and posters, such as bloggers, Facebook users, and people who are active on social media, have been restricted as well. The number of journalists who have been detained in the Islamic Republic have also ratcheted up. According to Shaheed, there are currently 35 journalists under detention in Iran.</p>
<p>The third phenomenon appears to represent the concerns regarding the persecution of religious minorities, including the Christians, Sunnis, Dervishes, and Baha&#8217;i community. Currently, 120 people of the Baha&#8217;i community, as well as 49 Christians, have been documented to be in prison in Iran solely for religious practices.  Some members of the Arab community, characterized as “cultural rights activists,” as well as juveniles, have also been put to death sentence.</p>
<p>The fourth category of human rights abuses is linked to the restrictions on and deterioration of women&#8217;s rights in the Islamic Republic. For example, the Iranian government has also imposed a quota on the admission of Iranian girls to universities. According the UN human rights reports, the number of Iranian women being enrolled at universities has come down to 48 percent.</p>
<p>President Rouhani was elected by the majority of Iranian people as a moderate candidate who would potentially promote civil liberties, social justice, and individual freedoms (including freedom of speech, assembly and press).</p>
<p>Instead of taking a more robust position towards the Islamic Republic when it comes to dealing with the Islamic Republic, President Obama will more likely disregard the recent surge in egregious and appalling human rights abuses due to the administration&#8217;s extreme focus on striking a final nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic. The comprehensive nuclear deal would ultimately remove political and economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic. The United States should concentrate more on human rights violations in Iran by incorporating this issue with the country’s nuclear defiance.</p>
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		<title>Failed Negotiations With Iran</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/majid-rafizadeh/the-islamic-republic-human-rights-should-be-a-priority/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-islamic-republic-human-rights-should-be-a-priority</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 09 May 2014 04:20:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Majid Rafizadeh]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[How a hasty nuclear deal will exacerbate human rights abuses in the Islamic Republic. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/wor_hassan-rouhani_12314_539_332_c1.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-225076" alt="wor_hassan-rouhani_12314_539_332_c1" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/wor_hassan-rouhani_12314_539_332_c1-450x277.jpg" width="315" height="194" /></a>While the Obama administration and five other world powers (</span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://uk.reuters.com/places/france?lc=int_mb_1001">France</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://uk.reuters.com/places/germany?lc=int_mb_1001">Germany</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, Britain, </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://uk.reuters.com/places/china">China</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> and </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://uk.reuters.com/places/russia?lc=int_mb_1001">Russia</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">) are rushing into a comprehensive nuclear deal without seriously and adequately taking the required safeguards, the G5+1 have failed to press the Islamic Republic of Iran on its recent egregious record of human rights violations. </span></p>
<p>One of the most effective and timely potential strategies, with regards to the ruling Ayatollah and Mullahs, is to incorporate political pressure on the Iranian regime for its unprecedented level of human rights abuses under the presidency of Hassan Rouhani. This topic has yet to be a key point in any of negotiations between the G5+1 and the Islamic Republic.</p>
<p>The major reason lies behind the fact that the six world powers seem to be hurrying to strike a final nuclear deal and have their governments be recorded as the ones to have reached this historic deal. In addition, there is a convergence of political interests between the six world powers and the Iranian regime. This approach does not take into consideration the threatening and dangerous repercussions that such a hasty comprehensive nuclear deal would bear.</p>
<p>This week, U.N. atomic agency officials held talks with Iranian authorities to negotiate the process through which the Islamic Republic is supposed to provide transparency on its nuclear research program by conducting a series of steps. The six world powers and Iranian authorities, led by prime minister Javid Zarif, will also meet in the Austrian capital of Vienna on May 13 for the next crucial round of high-level nuclear negotiations.</p>
<p>The four Western members of the G5+1 (the United States, <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/places/france?lc=int_mb_1001">France</a>, <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/places/germany?lc=int_mb_1001">Germany</a>, Britain) have ignored recent statements by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who pointed out that so-called reformist and moderate president of the Islamic Republic Rouhani has failed to fulfill his promises of improving the human rights conditions in Iran.</p>
<p>The diplomats and politicians resuming nuclear talks in New York with Iranian authorities have expressed gratitude and have been optimistic about the Islamic Republic complying with the seven measures reached in February 2014.</p>
<p>Six out of the seven steps, fundamentally and generally, focus on the notion that Iranian authorities are required to provide some information about the nation’s nuclear enrichment and to permit access to nuclear sites, particularly Fordow.</p>
<p>One of the critical measures is linked to Iran’s efforts to develop explosive detonators. Almost three years ago, a report by the U.N. atomic agency indicated that Iran has secretly pursued nuclear research, advancing technology with constrained civilian purposes. According to the IAEA, the research and technology possessed &#8220;limited civilian and conventional military applications… given their possible application in a nuclear explosive device&#8230; Iran development of such detonators and equipment is a matter of concern.&#8221;</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">So far, the measures set by the six world powers and UN Atomic agency and IAEA, have been easy for Iran to follow. </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Iranian leaders, led by Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, have also joined the Western leaders, Russian and Chinese authorities to express their content that the nuclear negotiations have gone smoothly. </span></p>
<p>Iranian leaders are confident that they have fulfilled the seven agreed-to measures, which were reached between Iran and the IAEA, before the May 15<sup>th</sup> deadline.  Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman of Iran&#8217;s atomic department, pointed out &#8220;Following the visit, Iran will be able to say that the seven-agreed measures between Iran and the agency have [been] fulfilled,&#8221; adding, &#8220;Already six steps have been taken.&#8221;</p>
<p>If Iranian leaders are not pressured to address the egregious human rights abuses now, while reaching their desirable nuclear deal, it will be much more difficult or impossible in the future to push the Iranian regime to respect women’s rights, gender equality, and human rights.</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Last week, Iranian leaders had blatantly criticized human rights watch groups and the United Nations for claiming that there are human rights abuses in the Islamic Republic. Spokesman for Iran’s UN mission in New York Hamid Babaei, stated last week that “Iran categorically rejects baseless accusations raised in the statement of (Washington’s UN envoy Samantha Power) regarding status of human rights and civil liberties in the Islamic Republic of Iran and finds these assertions both unconstructive, obstructive and against the spirit of cooperation between sovereign member states.”</span></p>
<p>Some of the crucial threats and shortcomings of rushing into a comprehensive nuclear deal come down to the following:</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The final nuclear deal will require the international community to remove economic sanctions that have accumulated due to Iran’s decades long nuclear defiance. </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">A weak and flimsy final nuclear deal will empower the Iranian regime, including hardliners, reformists, and moderates in the Islamic Republic, to more powerfully suppress women’s rights, political prisoners, human rights activists and surge the level of executions, public hangings, and tortures. </span></p>
<p>In addition, while the West is rushing into a comprehensive nuclear deal before the July 20<sup>th</sup> deadline, the West, Russia, and China are ignoring the required the safeguards. The most effective policies that the West, particularly the Obama administration, should look into are providing a key platform for the IAEA inspectors to carry out intrusive inspections. IAEA inspectors should be allowed to be present in the Islamic Republic on a regular basis, and be capable of visiting different nuclear and heavy water nuclear sites and reactors. Moreover, there should be a mechanism for re-imposing sanctions in case the Islamic Republic defies IAEA standards in future. The Ayatollahs and Iranian leaders have a history of secrecy and defiance of IAEA standards after reaching deals.</p>
<p>The West needs to implement the best political and diplomatic approach to extend the temporary nuclear deal rather than rushing into a premature comprehensive one and hurriedly removing all sanctions without the necessary safeguards taken into consideration. Unfortunately, all of these safeguards are being ignored for the sake of reaching any sort of weak comprehensive nuclear deal.</p>
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		<title>Kerry&#8217;s Iranian Appeasement Pitch to Congress</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/majid-rafizadeh/kerrys-iranian-appeasement-pitch-to-congress/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=kerrys-iranian-appeasement-pitch-to-congress</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 13 Dec 2013 05:25:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Majid Rafizadeh]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[Will lawmakers have the fortitude to go through with necessary sanctions? ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/8983EC15-C321-41E5-AC3F-F2FFAAF51433_mw1024_n_s.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-213105" alt="8983EC15-C321-41E5-AC3F-F2FFAAF51433_mw1024_n_s" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/8983EC15-C321-41E5-AC3F-F2FFAAF51433_mw1024_n_s-450x300.jpg" width="315" height="210" /></a>Bipartisan legislation written by two U.S. senators— the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Robert Menendez and Republican Senator Mark Kirk— is asking for alternatives if the Islamist Ayatollahs in Iran do not abide by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and international community rules and standards.</p>
<p>Congress is preparing a piece of legislation to impose new sanctions on Iran in six months, if the provisional and interim nuclear deal on the Islamic Republic&#8217;s nuclear program does not lead to a comprehensive and final accord (and if it goes nowhere like all the previous nuclear deals reached in the past decade).</p>
<p>The details of the legislation, crafted by Menendez and Kirk, suggest that the sanctions would target Iran&#8217;s remaining oil exports, strategic industries, as well as foreign exchange reserves. A senior Republican Senate aide told Reuters, speaking on the condition of anonymity, that this bipartisan legislation is &#8220;an insurance policy to protect against Iranian deception.&#8221;</p>
<p>On the other hand, the Obama administration is focused on fixing the domestic economy, creating jobs and addressing unemployment, and has been recently spending most of its political capital in Congress to warn the legislative body to not pressure the Islamic Republic of Iran and the ruling Ayatollah.  After the Obama administration scored a victory (from their perspective) in pushing the international community to ease pressure on Iran and to reach an agreement, President Obama has shifted his current efforts toward Congress, to prevent further sanctions on the Islamist ruling leaders in Iran.</p>
<p>Secretary of State John Kerry is on a promotional tour in Congress, attempting to drum up support for the provisional and interim nuclear agreement that was recently reached with Iran.</p>
<p>Testifying before the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives on Tuesday, Kerry has spent a lot of political capital to remove fear about Iran as a threat or that Iran would become a nuclear power.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are asking you to give our negotiators and our experts the time and the space to do their jobs and that includes asking you while we negotiate that you hold off imposing new sanctions,&#8221; Kerry said.</p>
<p>However, it is crucial to point out that the same reasoning and process led to North Korea becoming a nuclear-armed state. In addition, Iran has been given almost two decades of time.</p>
<p>Although Republicans and Democrats (on the House Foreign Affairs Committee) alike are not persuaded by the policies that the Obama administration is carrying towards the Ayatollahs— and because of the president’s secret talks with the Mullahs— the administration is pushing hard to stop any bipartisan sanction bill on Iran from passing Congress’s floor.</p>
<p>Republican Committee Chairman Ed Royce, had a very astute observation and informative question for Kerry: “I am hard pressed to understand why we would be letting up sanctions pressure at the very time its economy is on the ropes without getting an agreement which stops its centrifuges from spinning.”</p>
<p>This question is fundamental to the issue in that it is very puzzling that although the international pressures and sanctions have pushed the Mullahs to a level that they would accept any deal, the Obama administration is not asking the Iranian regime to halt its nuclear program or to even roll it back. Instead, President Obama, has issued an executive order to release billions of dollars back to the Islamist Ayatollah, based on the recent nuclear deal.</p>
<p>The Obama administration has been successful at pursuing the Senate Banking Committee to hold off on passing a new Iran sanctions bill. Democratic Senator Tim Johnson said in a statement on Tuesday, &#8220;The president and Secretary Kerry have made a strong case for a pause in Congressional action on new <a href="http://www.reuters.com/places/iran?lc=int_mb_1001">Iran</a> sanctions, so I am inclined to support their request and hold off on committee action for now.&#8221;</p>
<p>The first issue is that there is a distinct bipartisan agreement and suspicion on the Obama administration’s foreign policies toward the Islamists and Ayatollahs, their nuclear program, their heavy-water reactor, plutonium processing, and their nuclear sites in various underground locations in Iran. Both Democrats and Republicans are puzzled as to why the Obama administration is pushing for more leeway for the Iranian Islamist Mullahs at these critical moments, when Iran is just a short technical step away from militarizing its nuclear industry.</p>
<p>The second critical issue is the enigma over President Obama’s eagerness to halt any sanctions on Iran. Politically speaking, if Congress passes further sanctions, the Obama administration can use that as strong leverage against the Ayatollahs, particularly for the next round of talks and for making a permanent and final deal. But, why would President Obama not want this formidable leverage? Even Eliot Engel, the top Democrat on the House panel, told Kerry that he thought that the Obama administration would have more leverage if more sanctions were allowed to pass. He pointed out, &#8220;I think it could potentially strengthen your hand with a good cop, bad cop scenario.&#8221;</p>
<p>Finally, and more fundamentally, while the unemployment rate is high and economy is not showing any signs of improvement, President Obama is spending most of his political capital in Congress fighting to avoid new sanctions on the Iran and the Ayatollhahs. The question remains whether this is, in fact, the primary concern of President Obama rather than focusing on the domestic economy, the destiny of millions of American youth and unemployment.</p>
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		<title>American Jewish Groups Dropped Ball on the Iran Deal</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/sammy-levine/american-jewish-groups-dropped-ball-on-the-iran-deal/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=american-jewish-groups-dropped-ball-on-the-iran-deal</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 04 Dec 2013 05:05:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Sammy Levine]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[Purported pro-Israel groups are failing to do their job. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/131105175019-parsi-iran-talks-sitting-at-table-story-top.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-212337" alt="131105175019-parsi-iran-talks-sitting-at-table-story-top" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/131105175019-parsi-iran-talks-sitting-at-table-story-top-413x350.jpg" width="289" height="245" /></a>When I visited Israel in the summer of 2012 and the American Presidential campaign was in full swing, my group met with an anonymous source who told us that the highest levels of the Netanyahu government, possibly including the Prime Minister himself, considered an Obama victory to be “a nightmarish scenario” for the Jewish State. Now, that nightmare has become a reality.</span></b></p>
<p>The P5 + 1 reached an interim agreement last week with the Iranian government, whose leader Khameini <a href="https://remote.zoa.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=55e1e89dfad3490dbe1a453ab79265e3&amp;URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.jpost.com%2fIranian-Threat%2fNews%2fKhamenei-Israeli-regime-is-doomed-to-failure-annihilation-332403">recently said</a>, “Zionist officials cannot be called humans, they are like animals, some of them&#8230;the Israeli regime is doomed to failure and annihilation.” This deal will not dismantle Iran’s nuclear weapons program, and will only slow down its race to the bomb by a couple months, according to most estimates, as the Mullah’s will maintain their capability to enrich uranium. In return, the Iranians are getting major sanctions relief in the form of at least $13 billion now available to them. The tough sanctions regime, which took decades of tough diplomacy to build up, will now be shattered.</p>
<p>The Mullah’s in Iran are rejoicing. Iranian <a href="https://remote.zoa.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=55e1e89dfad3490dbe1a453ab79265e3&amp;URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.memri.org%2freport%2fen%2f0%2f0%2f0%2f0%2f0%2f0%2f7588.htm">President Rouhani</a> has proclaimed: &#8220;The results of these talks is that the 5+1&#8230;have officially recognized Iran&#8217;s nuclear rights&#8230; the right to enrich [uranium] on Iranian soil is the right of the Iranian nation, and everyone can interpret it as they wish&#8230; The text states explicitly that Iran will continue to enrich [uranium], and for this reason I say to the Iranian nation that the uranium enrichment activity in Iran will continue as in the past&#8230; In this six-month agreement, our [uranium enrichment] facilities at Natanz, Fordo, the Arak [plutonium reactor], [the uranium conversion facility at] Isfahan, and Bandar Abbas [i.e. the Bushehr reactor] will continue their activity.&#8221; <a href="https://remote.zoa.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=55e1e89dfad3490dbe1a453ab79265e3&amp;URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.memri.org%2freport%2fen%2f0%2f0%2f0%2f0%2f0%2f0%2f7588.htm">Supreme Leader Khameini added</a>, &#8220;The absolute achievements of this initial agreement are official recognition of Iran&#8217;s nuclear rights, and preservation of the nuclear achievements of the sons of this nation.&#8221; It has just come to light that Iran is planning to construct a second nuclear reactor in the province of Bushehr.</p>
<p>Former ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton calls this deal an “abject surrender” for the United States. Wall Street Journal writer <a href="https://remote.zoa.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=55e1e89dfad3490dbe1a453ab79265e3&amp;URL=http%3a%2f%2fonline.wsj.com%2fnews%2farticles%2fSB10001424052702303281504579219931479934854">Bret Stephens</a> calls it, “Worse Than Munich.” Prime Minister Netanyahu calls it “an historic mistake&#8230;this agreement has made the world a much more dangerous place.” Naftali Bennett, Chairman of the Jewish Home Party in Israel warns, “If a nuclear suitcase blows up five years from now in New York or Madrid, it will be because of the deal signed this morning.” Even Israeli left-leaning Tzipi Livni said, “This is a terrible deal that will threaten not only us [Israel], but the entire world.” At ZOA, we believe this deal is our eras “Munich” and Obama and Kerry the new “Chamberlain.”</p>
<p>It is important to note that an Iranian nuclear weapon is not just a threat to Israel, but to the United States and the rest of the world. U.S. intelligence states Iran will have ICBMs (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles) that can reach our homeland by 2015. Furthermore, Iran already has operational missile sites in Venezuela, virtually in the United State’s backyard.</p>
<p>For those of us who are politically sober and realistic, we saw this day coming, the capitulation of America to Iran. The Obama administration has proven time and again that it is not serious about preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. As ZOA National President <a href="https://remote.zoa.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=55e1e89dfad3490dbe1a453ab79265e3&amp;URL=http%3a%2f%2fzoa.org%2f2013%2f11%2f10219587-zoa-obamas-5-year-record-indicates-hes-not-serious-about-stopping-iranian-nuclear-weapons%2f">Mortot Klein stated</a>: “President Obama has not laid down any red lines beyond which the U.S. will not permit Iran to advance in its quest for nuclear weapons. This open-ended policy suggests that there is in fact no point at which President Obama would act militarily to stop Iran developing a weapon. Such suspicions can only be compounded by President Obama’s recent failure to act militarily on a red line that he actually did lay down, that is, the use of chemical or biological weapons by Syria against its own people.”</p>
<p>There are many Jewish and pro-Israel groups who are expressing dismay at the Iranian nuclear deal, but frankly, they are a little late to the party. The ZOA has been warning about this administration’s weakness for years.</p>
<p>Where were the myriad Jewish and pro-Israel organizations when the President chose notorious Israel hater and proponent of containing Iran, Chuck Hagel, to be Secretary of Defense? After all, Hagel’s selection, and subsequent confirmation by the Senate, and the Jewish communities general apathy, laid the groundwork for America’s appeasement of the Mullahs in Iran last week. The overwhelming silence of the Jewish community at the Hagel pick gave tacit approval to his anti-Israel, pro-containment views on Iran, which gave the administration an opening to pursue the disastrous deal reached last week.</p>
<p>Secretary of State John Kerry still maintains that there is &#8220;no daylight&#8221; between the United States and Israel. Who is he kidding?</p>
<p>In light of last week&#8217;s news, American Jews should ask themselves if the Jewish and pro-Israel groups they belong to are truly serving their interests.</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>Iranian Nuke Deal: An Islamist Victory</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/majid-rafizadeh/iranian-nuke-deal-an-islamist-victory/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=iranian-nuke-deal-an-islamist-victory</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 02 Dec 2013 05:25:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Majid Rafizadeh]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=212083</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Why the Mullahs will likely never return back to the negotiating table in good faith.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Hassan-Rouhani.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-212085" alt="Hassan-Rouhani" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Hassan-Rouhani-447x350.jpg" width="268" height="210" /></a>After a considerable amount of political capital was spent by the Obama administration, particularly President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry, the Iranian deal of the century was struck just a few months after Iran elected President Hassan Rouhani. After four days of negotiations in Geneva, and after Kerry himself flew to Geneva to push the agreement to the finish, an agreement with the Ayatollahs was reached.  Several American and Iranian officials confirmed a report by the Associated Press that the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/24/secret-usa-iran-talks-nuclear-deal">US has been meeting in private</a> for talks to make a deal with the Iranian mullahs ever since Rouhani was inaugurated several months earlier.</p>
<p>Obama and Kerry applauded the deal for being a successful and tangible. President Obama boasted about this historic deal, his unique efforts and leadership. On the other hand, Rouhani and his Foreign Minister Javad Zarif celebrated this deal at home, with Rouhani sending a letter to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, congratulating him on the historic deal. In an unprecedented move, Khamenei immediately issued a statement through a letter, showing his joy and suggesting that the Mullah had defeated the Western powers.</p>
<p>Khamenei stated, “Achieving what you have written is worth appreciation and praise to the nuclear negotiating team and other relevant officials and can be the basis for future smart moves,” adding “God willing, resistance against greediness (of the other sides) should always remain as an indicator showing that the officials in this sector are moving on a correct path, and (I believe) it will be so… Success in these negotiations showed the big powers can be urged to respect the Iranian nation’s rights and take firm steps towards the final definite resolution of the differences through a logical and reasonable presentation of the Iranian nation&#8217;s stances, while respecting all the principles and redlines of the ruling system”.</p>
<p>What are the exact details of the deal that President Obama is boasting about?  The transcript of the deal, published on the Iranian state media Fars News, indicates that the agreement implies no new nuclear-related sanctions will be imposed as long as the agreement lasts. Further, the Ayatollah and Iranian leaders will receive about $7 billion worth of sanctions relief on sectors including its metal industry. This sanctions relief can be accomplished by an executive order, by the Obama administration, without the need to appeal to Congress.</p>
<p>What will Iran give in return for these concessions?  Iran will not dismantle its nuclear infrastructure. Iran will not decrease the number of its centrifuges, which is about 19,000 (just a few thousands below the needed amount to created nuclear bomb). In addition, Iran will not close any of its nuclear sites. Iran will not even halt its nuclear enrichment. In fact, the Islamic Republic of Iran will continue enriching uranium. Rouhani, Khamanei, and other Mullahs and Ayatollahs have echoed the same message with glee on the Iranian news media.</p>
<p>Just a few hours after the Iranian nuclear team and six powers reached a first-step accord in Geneva aimed at easing Western concerns—concluding that Tehran could seek nuclear weapons— Rouhani gave a speech addressing Iranian politicians at home, pointing out that the nuclear deal was reached earlier in the day and that the US had recognized Tehran’s rights to maintain an atomic program. “No matter what interpretations are given, Iran’s right to enrichment has been recognized,” Rouhani stated.</p>
<p>Furthermore, Iran will not dismantle or roll back its heavy water reactor in Arak that processes plutonium— only used for militarized nuclear activity purposes. Iran will not shut down its Fordow nuclear site, south of Tehran and revealed in 2007, which is argued to be very close in its capabilities to produce a nuclear bomb. Instead, in six months, Iran would be in a much better economic position, hardening the possibility of pressing it anymore.</p>
<p>As a result, President Obama gave all these compromises, concessions, billions of dollars, along with Iran’s right to continue enriching uranium, keeping its nuclear infrastructure, and retaining its heavy water reactor just so that Iran and the ruling Mullahs will sign the agreement papers. If President Obama had been the same conciliatory leader, willing to give concessions and favors domestically, as he is with the Mullahs and Iran, Washington would not have been in such a deadlock, with the government defaulting, and economy staggering. Americans would more likely have been living in much better economic and political landscapes. However, President Obama is much more masterful at giving concessions and compromising to Iran.</p>
<p>All the efforts, decades of pressure, diplomacy, and four rounds of international economic sanctions— the same reasons that brought the Mullah back to the negotiating table—were given away by President Obama. While, in six months, Iran will regain its currency loss (Rial), will recover its economy, lure back oil companies, and would be in a much stronger position. Therefore, the leverage that the US had over Iran will be reversed and uranium will continue to be enriched, thanks to President Obama.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p><em>Don&#8217;t miss <strong>David Horowitz</strong> on<strong> The Glazov Gang </strong>discussing his new collection of conservative writings, <strong><a href="https://secure.donationreport.com/productlist.html?key=SZLFMGIYTBFM">The Black Book of the American Left, Volume I: My Life and Times:</a></strong></em></p>
<p><strong>Part I:</strong></p>
<p><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/QL9WUvnJ_Cs" height="315" width="460" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p><strong>Part II:</strong></p>
<p><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/eeN2K6romr8" height="315" width="460" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>From Munich to Geneva = Lesson Unlearned</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/joseph-puder/from-munich-to-geneva-lesson-unlearned/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=from-munich-to-geneva-lesson-unlearned</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 29 Nov 2013 05:10:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Joseph Puder]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=211806</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Welcome to a nuclearized Middle East.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/rouh_edited-1.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-211874" alt="rouh_edited-1" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/rouh_edited-1.jpg" width="280" height="252" /></a>Over the weekend of November 23-24, 2013, a deal was struck between the 5+1 powers and Iran. The deal was consummated following secret negotiations in Amman Jordan, between US and Iranian diplomats. The Obama administration’s eagerness to embrace the deal with Iran and its new president Hassan Rouhani, is transparent. Sadly, it is reminiscent of an earlier negotiation that took place between Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany and the western powers of Britain and France, in September,1938, known as the Munich Agreement. Now, as then, regime change was not the goal. The western powers have considered easing tensions in the region, and will get instead a nuclearized Middle East. In 1938, they sought to appease a rogue nation in order to prevent a war, and received instead a World War.</p>
<p>It is interesting to note that the talking heads appearing on ABC, CBS, CNN, and Fox, (to name a few), have discussed the variables of the agreement. Some supported it, yet others felt it was shortcoming and would enable Iran to continue to enrich uranium, and add centrifuges, and ultimately build a nuclear bomb. Few if any however, discussed the need for a regime change in Iran. What the White House and media have done in addition to the flawed interim agreement, is to legitimize the Islamic Republic, a regime that oppresses its own people, persecutes Sunni-Muslims and other minorities, such as the Baha’is, Christians and Jews. In addition, the Tehran regime is a global sponsor of terrorism.</p>
<p>Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the deal with Iran “an <a href="http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-netanyahu-israel-iran-deal-mistake-20131124,0,59571.story#axzz2lmK27k4r">historic mistake</a>,” and added that it “makes the world a much more dangerous place.” Netanyahu said that Israel will not be bound by it. He pointed out that the sanctions imposed on Iran offered the “best chance for a peaceful solution.” He told the Knesset that, “Israel has the right to defend itself by itself, and emphasized that Israel will not allow Iran to develop a military nuclear capability. For Israel, it signifies mortal danger and an existential threat.</p>
<p>On a previous weekend, Netanyahu asserted that “<a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-18/obama-defends-iran-dealmaking-amid-dispute-over-relief.html">easing the sanctions</a> would endanger the whole sanctions regime that took years to make.” In an interview with CNN’s State of the Union program he added, “You are going to get investors, companies, and countries scrambling one after the other to try to get deals with Iran, because economies and prices work on future expectations.” Netanyahu has proposed that Iran surrender some of its uranium stockpiles, which it has already been enriched, so that Tehran won’t have the fissile material needed for a nuclear weapon. He also declared that Israel does not trust Iran to cooperate in subsequent negotiations.</p>
<p>Recently, President Rouhani proposed that Iran will end its uranium enrichment at the 20% level in exchange for receiving fuel for its nuclear reactor, allegedly to manufacture medical drugs. Israel views Rouhani’s proposal as a cheap ploy. Jerusalem contends that isotopes needed for medical drugs could be obtained in the free market, and do not require a nuclear reactor. In his charm offensive towards the west, Rouhani has promised that Iran would never develop a nuclear weapon, but at the same time he insisted that Iran must retain the right to enrich uranium. And, while PM Netanyahu called Rouhani’s claims “fraudulent,” others might call him a “taqiyyah artist,” which Encyclopedia Britannica explains as “the practice of concealing one’s belief,” or simply put, lying and deceiving the enemy.</p>
<p>The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stated on Wednesday, November 20, 2013, that Iran will not give up the right to enrich uranium. Speaking to the Basij force which is controlled by the Revolutionary Guard, Khamenei declared “There are <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57613135/iran-nuclear-talks-resume-with-ayatollah-khameneis-blessing-and-a-warning-over-red-lines/">red lines</a>. There are limits. These limits must be observed.” He declared that Israel is doomed to fail and characterized the “Zionist regime” as the “sinister, unclean rabid dog of the region” and added that “<a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-unpleasantly-surprised-by-us-silence-on-khameneis-vicious-speech/">Israelis cannot be called human beings</a>.” The last regime to charge that Jews were not human beings was Nazi Germany. The world ignored it then and it helped facilitate the Holocaust.  Once again, the US and the European powers have chosen to ignore the leader’s vulgar statements, and signed a deal with his regime.</p>
<p>Iran’s Islamic Republic has a pretty murky record on trust. It has cheated the international community, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) regarding its nuclear facilities. It took Iranian defectors and opposition leaders to reveal the truth about Iran’s nuclear program, and the existence of hidden nuclear facilities in Arak (heavy water facility) and a uranium enrichment plant in Natanz. The IAEA also revealed Iran’s policy of deception and lies, and in October, 2003, it served Iran with an ultimatum to come clean on its nuclear program. Another ultimatum in 2004 ordered Iran to cease its uranium enrichment. All of these ultimatums had little effect on Iran, which was aided by the Egyptian head of the IAEA, Muhammad el-Baradei. IAEA warnings were not followed by sanctions, and it encouraged Tehran to continue with its tactics of revealing one facility while hiding two others from the international community.</p>
<p>Writing in the <i>Wall Street Journal </i>(11/19/2013), Claudia Rosett pointed out that “Mr. Kerry and his team have yet to address one of the biggest challenges: the example set by North Korea, which over the past two decades has shown the world – Iran, not least – how a rogue state can exploit <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304439804579207422182734460">over-eager western diplomacy</a> to haggle and cheat its way to the nuclear bomb.” The Tehran regime is just as much a rogue state as North Korea. It is the premier terror-sponsoring state in the world, with a doomsday ideology that believes in order to usher in the coming of the Mehdi (Shiite messiah), “hidden imam,” an Armageddon must occur, which will wipe out the non-believers, first and foremost the big and little Satan, namely the US and Israel. While America is too big, too far, and too strong for Iran to tackle, Israel is close, small, and perceived as weak. Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahamdinejad declared his vision of a world without Zionism and stated on October 27, 2005, “that Israel must be <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/26/world/africa/26iht-iran.html?_r=0">wiped off the map</a>.”</p>
<p>The Tehran regime may or may not adhere to the interim agreement. Regardless, it continues to be a dangerous regime that threatens genocide and fosters instability in the region. The only way to regain peace and stability in the region is by affecting a regime change in Iran. The majority of Iran’s population would welcome it, and the Sunni minorities (Kurds, Baluchis, and Ahwazi Arabs) who are locked in combat with the regime, would opt for peace. The Arab Gulf states would be relieved, and cancel their plans to nuclearize. Active support for opposition groups in Iran and tough sanctions might very well bring down the regime. This should be the goal of the Western governments. The interim agreement does the opposite. It strengthens the regime’s grip on the Iranian people.</p>
<p>The Obama administration’s efforts to disengage the US from conflict by appeasing dangerous foes such as Iran will surely bring consequences that cannot be imagined. The Obama administration’s failure to act on the Red Line it presented to Assad of Syria on his use of chemical weapons, served to encourage Iranian President Rouhani. It has emboldened his negotiators to demand relief from western sanctions while Tehran refuses to refrain from uranium enrichment. Iran continues to develop its strategic nuclear weapons. In short, we are living through a repeat of the 1938 Munich Agreement, which sacrificed Czechoslovakia on the altar of “peace in our time” as proclaimed by Neville Chamberlain. It cost humanity 60 million dead souls. Nazi Germany was unrestrained by western weakness, and so is Iran.</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>.   </b></p>
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		<title>Reid Goes Nuclear</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/arnold-ahlert/reid-goes-nuclear/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=reid-goes-nuclear</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 22 Nov 2013 04:40:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Arnold Ahlert]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[On to packing the court system with Obama's radicals. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/reid_1.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-211339" alt="Harry Reid" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/reid_1.jpg" width="281" height="232" /></a>On Thursday, 225 years of Senate tradition was cast aside by Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) when he <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/senate-poised-to-limit-filibusters-in-party-line-vote-that-would-alter-centuries-of-precedent/2013/11/21/d065cfe8-52b6-11e3-9fe0-fd2ca728e67c_story.html">invoked</a> the so-called &#8220;nuclear option&#8221; and eliminated filibusters against most presidential nominations. &#8220;The American people believe Congress is broken. The American people believe the Senate is broken. And I believe they are right,&#8221; Reid <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/11/21/harry-reid-nuclear-senate/3662445/">said</a> Thursday on the Senate floor. &#8220;The need for change is so very, very obvious.&#8221; What&#8217;s just as obvious is the primary motive behind this effort: to tilt an evenly-divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit decidedly to the left.</p>
<p>The historic rule change was passed by a vote of 52-48, with three Democrats, Sens. Mark Pryor (D-AK), Joe Manchin (D-WV), and Carl Levin (D-MI), opposing the alteration. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was incensed, not only by the change itself, but the fact that a simple majority of 51 votes was used to change the rule itself, rather than a supermajority of 60 votes that normally applies to Senate rule changes. After accusing Democrats of a power grab, McConnell suggested they will regret their decision when Republicans regain control of the chamber. “We’re not interested in having a gun put to our head any longer,” McConnell said addressing his colleagues form the Senate floor. “Some of us have been around here long enough to know that the shoe is sometimes on the other foot.” Addressing Democrats directly he predicted that they will regret their decision &#8220;a lot sooner than you think.”</p>
<p>As of now, the change does not apply to Supreme Court nominations. But on Wednesday, Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-IA), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, warned Democrats that if they insisted on changing the rules, the GOP will up the ante when they attain majority status, leaving Democrats no opportunity to filibuster appointments to the nation&#8217;s highest court.</p>
<p>The move marks quite a <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/191042-dems-reid-may-go-nuclear-thursday">change of heart</a> by Reid. In 2005, when Republicans had a Senate majority and threatened to invoke the nuclear option over stalled nominees, Reid argued passionately against the very same procedure he used yesterday. “They are talking about doing something illegal. They are talking about breaking the rules to change the rules, and that is not appropriate,&#8221; he said in April of that year. &#8220;That is not fair, and it is not right.” A month later he remained just as adamant. “To change the rules in the Senate can&#8217;t be done by a simple majority. It can only be done if there is extended debate by 67 votes,” he insisted.</p>
<p>Thus, it was no surprise that Republicans accused Reid of hypocrisy. Democrats countered that McConnell was ready to support the nuclear option when former Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) wanted to strip the power to filibuster from the Democrat minority eight years ago. The most obvious flaw in the Democrats&#8217; argument is that it never actually happened.</p>
<p>Now that it has happened, courtesy of Reid&#8217;s about-face, the three nominations blocked by Republicans from sitting on the nation&#8217;s second most powerful court will undoubtedly be confirmed. Those nominees are Patricia Millett, Nina Pillard and Robert Wilkins.</p>
<p>Patricia Millet is by far the most <a href="http://www.msjdn.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/MilSpouseJD-Network-Faith-and-Family-Patricia-Millett-Profile-OCT-2013.pdf">reasonable</a> pick for a spot on the DC Court. She is a former member of the Solicitor General&#8217;s Office under both Democratic and Republican administrations, and magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School. She has argued more than 30 cases before the Supreme Court, has advocated for members of the military and their spouses (she is married to a Naval Reservist) and is a woman of faith.</p>
<p>Nina Pillard and Robert Wilkins are entirely different stories. Pillard is a radical feminist who wrote a 2007 law review <a href="http://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1191&amp;context=facpub&amp;utm_source=NAEA+-+Media&amp;utm_campaign=20b9cc8e8aPress_Release_Vital_Signs&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_ad71f7ead5-20b9cc8e8a-233038341">article</a> contending that abstinence-only sex education is not only &#8220;permeated with stereotyped messages and sex-based double standards about acceptable male and female sexual behavior and appropriate social roles,&#8221; but that it is <i>unconstitutional</i>. She defines ultrasounds as “deceptive images of fetus-as-autonomous-being that the anti-choice movement has popularized since the advent of amniocentesis.”</p>
<p>Yet perhaps the best <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/bench-memos/354112/dc-circuit-nominee-cornelia-pillard-part-5-ed-whelan">example</a> of her radical mindset was her discussion of the Supreme Court case &#8220;Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church v. EEOC&#8221; at a September 2011 press briefing for Georgetown’s Supreme Court Institute. The case was about the right of the Lutheran Church to choose their religious ministers. She characterized the Church&#8217;s position as “a substantial threat to the American rule of law,” and predicted the Court would be unlikely to uphold it. The Court ruled <i>9-0</i> in the Church&#8217;s favor. Thus, it would not be unreasonable to assume Pillard is to the left of even the most leftist judges on the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>Robert Wilkins&#8217; <a href="http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/03/08/breaking-radical-cronyism-sit-in-leader-nominated-as-judge-by-pres-obama/">press release</a> reads like a dream. He received his B.S. from the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in 1986 and his  J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1989. <i>The Legal Times </i>has named him one of the 90 Greatest Washington Lawyers of the Last 30 Years, and he currently practices &#8220;corporate defense/white collar, technology, and commercial litigation.&#8221;</p>
<p>What Wilkins&#8217; press release fails to mention is that he led an illegal occupation of a Harvard law school building. He and his fellow students <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/12/us/black-students-end-occupation-of-office-at-harvard-law-school.html">demanded</a> a commitment from Harvard to hire 20 women or minority group members over the next four years as tenured or tenure-track professors. Seven of the professors, including four women, were to be black. That protest was undertaken in support of radical bigot Derrick Bell, whose Critical Race Theory posits that America is, and always has been, an <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2012/03/derrick_bell_controversy_what_s_critical_race_theory_and_is_it_radical_.html">intrinsically</a> racist society.</p>
<p>Democrats were primarily frustrated by the Republicans&#8217; use of the filibuster to hold up these nominations, along with the main reason they cited for doing so, which was the assertion that the DC appellate court&#8217;s light work load didn&#8217;t require additional judges. Republicans further asserted that their aggressiveness with regard to filibustering nominations was exactly the same approach Democrats have taken when they were in the minority.</p>
<p>Harry Reid has now altered the equation entirely.</p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, President Obama <a href="http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/11/21/harry-reid-likely-to-go-nuclear-today/">supported</a> the move. &#8220;A deliberate and determined effort to obstruct everything, no matter what the merits, just to re-fight the results of an election is not normal, and for the sake of future generations, it cannot become normal,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Just as unsurprisingly, Obama, like Reid, took the <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/tv/obama-in-2005-if-republicans-kill-filibuster-gridlock-will-only-get-worse/">exact opposite</a> position in 2005. “I sense that talk of the nuclear option is more about power than about fairness,” Obama said in a speech before the Senate in April of that year. “I believe some of my colleagues propose this rules change because they can get away with it rather than because they know it’s good for our democracy.”</p>
<p>He also issued a warning. “The American people want less partisanship in this town, but everyone in this chamber knows that if the majority chooses to end the filibuster&#8211;if they choose to change the rules and put an end to democratic debate&#8211;then the fighting and the bitterness and the gridlock will only get worse,” Obama said.</p>
<p>Now that the filibuster has been eliminated, Republicans are equally pessimistic. “When you start, it’s like wars&#8211;there’s no end to this. I don’t know where it goes,” said Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) had an even darker perspective. “In my view this is the most important and most dangerous restructuring of Senate rules since Thomas Jefferson wrote them at the beginning of our country,” he warned.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most cogent understanding of the consequences was <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/11/21/how-the-button-was-pressed-on-nuclear-option/">presented</a> by Richard Arenberg, an adjunct lecturer at Brown University. Arenberg also served as a Senate staffer for 34 years. “For more than 200 years, the Senate has protected the privileges of the minority to debate and to amend legislation,” he explained. &#8220;As poisonous as it gets sometimes, lines of communication between the majority and the minority are always open.” With the change, he believes it&#8217;s only a matter of time before the filibuster is eliminated completely, destroying the fundamental way the Senate operates.</p>
<p>Sen. Mark Pryor, one of the three Democrats who opposed the measure, <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/senate-nears-vote-curbing-filibusters-20960653?page=2">echoed</a> Arenberg&#8217;s central assertion, contending in a statement that the Senate was &#8220;designed to protect&#8211;not stamp out&#8211;the voices of the minority.&#8221;</p>
<p>Nonetheless, progressives were ecstatic. &#8220;This was not a decision made easily or taken lightly. There was no choice. The Republican minority had turned the existing rules into weapons of mass obstruction,&#8221; said Alliance for Justice President Nan Aron. Conservatives were disgusted. &#8220;For Harry Reid and President Obama, this is not about a couple circuit court judges; this is an attempt to remake America to reflect their unworkable and unpopular progressive vision,&#8221; said Michael Needham of Heritage Action.</p>
<p>Many Republicans <a href="http://nation.foxnews.com/2013/11/21/reid-tries-distract-obamacare-disaster-breaks-senate-rules-and-goes-nuclear">contend</a> the move was designed to distract from the most unpopular progressive vision currently before the public, namely ObamaCare. &#8220;Today we face a real crisis in the confirmation process, a crisis concocted by the Democrat majority to distract attention from the ObamaCare disaster and, in the process, consolidate more power than any majority has had in more than 200 years,&#8221; said Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) in a statement.  House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) concurred. &#8220;It sounds to me like Harry Reid is trying to change the subject and if I were taking all the incoming fire that he&#8217;s taking over ObamaCare, I&#8217;d try to change the subject too,&#8221; he contended.</p>
<p>Ultimately, it doesn&#8217;t matter why Reid did what he did. What matters is that the congressional chamber long described as &#8220;the world&#8217;s greatest deliberative body&#8221; can no longer lay claim to that mantle. Reid who is every bit the bully Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/11/rand-paul-harry-reid-nuclear-option-100215.html?hp=f1">described</a> him as, has opened up a Pandora&#8217;s Box destined to radicalize Congress&#8217;s upper chamber. Each switch of party control is likely to strip away more minority rights as a tit-for-tat consolidation of power is played out over and over, with no end in sight. As that happens, each side will become even more hardened than they are now.</p>
<p>Currently, progressives are happy with that development. Ironically, their elation may be far more short-lived than they imagine. Most Americans have yet to experience the full scope of the debacle ObamaCare represents. But when the next round of 50 million to 100 million insurance policy <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/11/20/second-wave-health-plan-cancellations-looms/">cancellations</a> that await employees with &#8220;ungrandfathered&#8221; policies hits&#8211;beginning a month before the 2014 mid-term elections&#8211;there is a good possibility that Reid and company may find themselves as neutered as they are making Republicans right now. In other words, what goes around, comes around.</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>Will Obama Give Iran the Deal of the Century?</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/davidhornik/will-obama-give-iran-the-deal-of-the-century/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=will-obama-give-iran-the-deal-of-the-century</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 11 Nov 2013 04:55:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[P. David Hornik]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[The world narrowly avoids surrendering to the Islamic Republic. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p dir="LTR"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/562885.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-210214" alt="562885" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/562885-423x350.jpg" width="254" height="210" /></a>Israeli officials were <a href="http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=13207" target="_blank">described</a> as “furious at the Obama administration” over what seemed to be an emerging nuclear deal between the P5+1 countries (the U.S., Britain, France, Russia, China, plus Germany) and Iran.</p>
<p dir="LTR">One official was quoted saying that “the Americans capitulated to Iranian maneuvering…. Kerry wants a deal at all costs and the Iranians are leading the Americans by the nose.”</p>
<p dir="LTR">As for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, he was described as being “in shock.” That was evident enough in a <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/netanyahu-bad-deal-very-very-bad-deal_766449.html" target="_blank">statement</a> Netanyahu released Friday morning after seeing off Secretary of State Kerry at the airport, in which Netanyahu dispensed with diplomatic bromides and said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="LTR">I urge Secretary Kerry not to rush to sign, to wait, to reconsider, to get a good deal. But this is a bad deal—a very, very bad deal. It’s the deal of a century for Iran; it’s a very dangerous and bad deal for peace and the international community.</p>
</blockquote>
<p dir="LTR">Kerry’s visit to Israel had already been a rough one, in which he first <a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/davidhornik/kerrys-slander-of-illegitimate-israeli-settlements/" target="_blank">stigmatized Israeli communities as “illegitimate”</a> and then, on Israeli TV Thursday night, as The Times of Israel’s Raphael Ahren <a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/frustrated-kerrys-peace-critique-a-heavy-slap-in-netanyahus-face/" target="_blank">aptly put it</a>, “appeared to come perilously close to empathizing with potential Palestinian aggression against Israel.” (Reactions by other Israeli commentators were titled <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4451456,00.html" target="_blank">“Kerry, give it a rest”</a> and <a href="http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=6263" target="_blank">“Kerry: Stay home”</a>.)</p>
<p dir="LTR">But the real stunner came on Friday when Jerusalem apparently got word of the deal that seemed to be taking shape in Geneva. It led to the canceling of a joint media appearance between Netanyahu and Kerry, and prompted, instead, a bitter exchange between them before Kerry headed off to the Swiss city.</p>
<p dir="LTR">The possible deal gravely worries Israel—and others with a realistic view of the situation—because it allows Iran to continue uranium enrichment (albeit at a lower level—now meaningless given Iran’s advanced centrifuges), continue the construction of its heavy-water reactor in Arak (aimed at producing plutonium bombs), while not requiring the dismantling of a single centrifuge.</p>
<p dir="LTR">At the same time, in “reward” essentially for nothing, the deal gives Iran sanctions relief far beyond what Israeli officials had been led to expect, reportedly <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Iranian-Threat/News/Political-sources-The-US-folded-during-Iran-nuclear-talks-331075" target="_blank">including</a> “the unfreezing of $3 billion of fuel funds, an easing of sanctions on the petrochemical and gold sectors, an easing of sanctions on replacement parts for planes and a loosening of restrictions on the Iranian car industry.”</p>
<p dir="LTR">With Chinese, Italian, German, and other companies champing at the bit to resume doing lucrative business with Iran, it’s believed such an opening will lead to the sanctions regime’s total collapse.</p>
<p dir="LTR">So Israel was relieved when it turned out the deal—for the time being—had fallen through on Saturday. But with the talks set to resume in nine days, trepidation remains high.</p>
<p dir="LTR">Israel’s ally in objecting to the putative deal has turned out to be France. That appeared to validate earlier reports that, among the Western powers, France was the most clear-eyed about the ayatollahs’ regime and the closest to Israel in its perceptions. France has long had tight ties with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states and appears to have absorbed some of their realism—and fear—about a nuclear Iran.</p>
<p dir="LTR">Meanwhile, on Sunday morning, Netanyahu’s office issued a press release in which he stated:</p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="LTR">Over the weekend I spoke with President Obama, with President Putin, with President Hollande, with Chancellor Merkel and with British Prime Minister Cameron. I told them that according to all the information reaching Israel, the impending deal is bad and dangerous.</p>
<p dir="LTR">It is not only dangerous to us; it is dangerous for them, too. It is dangerous for the peace of the world because in one fell swoop it lowers the pressure of the sanctions which took years to build, and conversely, Iran essentially preserves its nuclear uranium enrichment capabilities as well as the ability to advance on the plutonium enrichment path.</p>
<p dir="LTR">…I asked all the leaders what the rush is. And I suggested that they wait…. It is good that this was ultimately the choice that was made but I am not fooling myself—there is a strong desire to strike a deal….</p>
</blockquote>
<p dir="LTR">Iran’s allegedly “moderate” president Hassan Rouhani, for his part, did not sound conciliatory on Sunday when he <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/11/10/uk-iran-nuclear-rouhani-idUKBRE9A902R20131110" target="_blank">said</a> Iran’s “red lines” included uranium enrichment and that “We will not answer to any threat, sanction, humiliation or discrimination.” But with Iran’s interlocutors—possibly with the exception of France—already apparently ready to fold on the enrichment issue, Rouhani’s words seemed aimed mainly at Israel.</p>
<p dir="LTR">For Israel, after so many avowals of President Obama’s determination to prevent Iran from going nuclear, the latest turn of events is alarming and disillusioning. Many believe that, as long as diplomatic activity between the P5+1 and Iran is going on, Israel is effectively screened out of taking military action. Netanyahu had that in mind when he also <a href="http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=13189" target="_blank">said</a> on Friday: “Israel is not obliged by this agreement and Israel will do everything it needs to do to defend itself and the security of its people.”</p>
<p dir="LTR">If the situation looks desperate and Israel takes that course, it will not be without (tacit) allies in the region.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank">Click here</a>.</strong></p>
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		<title>Two Decades of “Negotiations” and “Talks” with Iran</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/majid-rafizadeh/two-decades-of-negotiations-and-talks-with-iran/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=two-decades-of-negotiations-and-talks-with-iran</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 18 Oct 2013 04:10:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Majid Rafizadeh]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[What has been the result? ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/017159092_30300.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-207770" alt="0,,17159092_303,00" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/017159092_30300-450x253.jpg" width="270" height="152" /></a>The two-day nuclear talks between Iran and the West, which are the first formal negotiations since the election of Hassan Rouhani, the Iranian president, resumed this week in Geneva. The talks in Geneva, which were held on Tuesday and Wednesday, involved representatives of Iran (primarily  Including  Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister and Iran&#8217;s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi) and the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, plus Germany &#8211; the so-called &#8220;P5+1&#8243; group — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany.</p>
<p>The predominant mainstream and liberal media &#8212; which has abandoned professional and nuanced journalism and analysis when it comes to its coverage on US foreign policy towards the Islamic Republic of Iran &#8212; has naively projected a “positive” result of meeting with the Iranian nuclear team, showing trust towards the Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear enrichment, and revealing assurance of the advancment in the nuclear negotiations. In that regards, the coverage of these two-days talks have been very shallow and rudimentary.</p>
<p>Even the Obama administration’s delegation and the European representatives issued remarks that showed their satisfaction with the path that the Islamist leaders are taking in Tehran regarding spinning centrifuges and enriching uranium.</p>
<p>The US delegate and European representatives were pleased and contend with the presentation of the shrewd Iranian foreign minister, Javad Zarif, who used the English language and power points to outline Tehran’s classic position through his presentation titled &#8220;Closing an unnecessary crisis: Opening new horizons.&#8221;  He insisted that Iran has the right to enrich uranium.</p>
<p>According to Reuters news, a senior State Department official said on condition of anonymity &#8220;The discussion was useful, and we look forward to continuing our discussions in tomorrow&#8217;s meetings with the full P5+1 (six powers) and Iran&#8221; several Western diplomats and representatives including a US State department official and Michael Mann, a spokesman for Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s top foreign policy official and the lead negotiator in the talks with Iran, pointed out that the Iranian proposal had been “very useful…. For the first time, very detailed technical discussions continued this afternoon.”</p>
<p>Without doubt, the Iranian Islamist and radical clerics and Ayatollah view this as scoring a significant victory against the West and Israel. Iranian leaders are probably even astonished at how easily it was to delude the West- with some nice words, exchanges of pleasantries, presenting a power point in the English language, and using a softer tone. What the leaders and the Ayatollahs of Islamic Republic of Iran really needs and are anxious bout, is one thing: Buy a little bit more time. Iranian leader are very anxious to have a year or less than year more time to achieve their hegemonic dream.</p>
<p>They have been very successful at achieving this method for over a decade since their clandestine nuclear activities in cities of Natanz and Arak were revelead by a Iranian oppositional group based outside the Islamic Republic of Iran. The meetings this week definitely indicated that Obama’s administration and European Union leaders are more than willing to buy the argument of the Islamic Republic of Iran to do more negotiations and more talks, and to give Tehran want it desires. They have been doing these talks and negotiations for 14 years and no result have been yielded. However, for the theocratic and Islamist leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran, many crucial  outcomes have resulted since they started playing around with the negotiations and talks -over its nuclear clandestine activities- with United States and the West 14 years ago.</p>
<p>First of all, by being able to buy time and delude the West, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the West, the Ayatollahs, Islamists, Imams and clerics in the Islamic Republic of Iran have been capable of reaching a 20 percent of Uranium which is considered to be a relatively technical short step from obtaining weapons-grade material and arms. Secondly, only in the last year, Iran’s nuclear abilities have advanced considerably in comparison to 2011-2012.  The Islamic Republic of Iran has increased thousands of advanced centrifuges which are continuing to spin as well as more Iranian engineers have been added to work on a plant that will produce plutonium. Increasingly number of  nuclear experts points out that Tehran is short step from having the capacity to quickly produce a nuclear weapon.</p>
<p>The almost two-decades of negotiations, dialogues, sanctions, exchanges of nice words and pleasantries, sending letters to the Supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and nicely requesting the Islamic  Republic of Iran to slow down or halt its nuclear activities, have not yielded any constructive result. The Iranian regime is getting more and more fundamental, Islamist, abusing minorities, human rights, and threatening other states.</p>
<p>On the other hand, what is more intriguing, puzzling, mind boggling, and enigmatic is that  the  Obama’s administration and the European allies have not learned anything or acquired any experience from the years of failure to diplomatically and “kindly” requesting the Islamic Republic of Iran to slow down, halt its nuclear program, or become more transparent.</p>
<p>Finally, and more fundamentally, the only phenemonon that the Iranian Aytollahs and Islamist are anxious about is having a little bit more time  in order to culminate their over-a-decade of secrecy and clandestine nuclear work into concrete nuclear weapons and bombs and in order to transfer the 20 percent enriched uranium into nuclear warheads. This goal does not seem to be far anymore to achieve.</p>
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		<title>Iran Getting Set to Con the West</title>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 10 Oct 2013 04:45:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[P. David Hornik]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[Will leaders fall for the Islamic Republic's deception? ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/143022.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-206876" alt="143022" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/143022-415x350.jpg" width="291" height="245" /></a>The difference between ordinary people and Western leaders is that while the former are wary of con men, the latter seem to seek them and need them. As State Department official Wendy Sherman <a href="http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-state-congress-iran-sanctions-20131003,0,1909747.story">said last week</a>, “We know that deception is part of the [Iranians’] DNA.” It seems all the more reason for Western leaders to hurry to Geneva for the October 15-16 nuclear talks with Iranian representatives.</span></b></p>
<p>Chamberlain was eager to be conned by Hitler, paving the way to 60 million dead in World War II. In the early 1990s the Israeli left anointed Yasser Arafat as Israel’s peace partner even though not a single <i>Arab </i>leader would have believed a word out of his mouth. Israel then lived with Arafat’s terror right up to his death over a decade later.</p>
<p>The North Korean case was highlighted in Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s <a href="http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=62001">speech to the UN</a> last week. North Korea, he noted, detonated its first nuclear device in 2006—a year after “agreeing” to give up all its nuclear activities. It remains a dangerous nuclear power to this day.</p>
<p>What U.S. and European leaders seek from con men is the message that there is no such thing as implacable, ideological hostility and never a need for military operations or even credible threats of them. There are no enemies out there, just grievances that can be satisfied. Everyone is ultimately reasonable and shares Western values, and the easy, luxurious life of Western elites can go on unruffled.</p>
<p>On Wednesday the <i>Wall Street Journal</i> <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304441404579123593924760138.html">reported</a> that Iran was preparing proposals for the mid-October talks. They are said to include ceasing uranium enrichment to the 20% level, allowing “more intrusive” international inspections of its nuclear sites, and possibly closing down its underground enrichment site near Qom—in return for the easing of Western sanctions.</p>
<p>Israeli intelligence minister Yuval Steinitz <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Steinitz-Irans-P51-proposals-are-a-joke-328238">called</a> the proposals “a joke.” He pointed out that “closing the Qom facility means Iran will be able to produce five instead of six nuclear bombs in the first year, and giving up enrichment at 20% is less meaningful now that Iran has 20,000 centrifuges.”</p>
<p>In other words, even if Iran really did give up 20% enrichment, it now has such numerous (and such advanced) centrifuges that it could quickly and clandestinely convert part of its 3%-enriched stock to bomb-grade material.</p>
<p>And yet Western voices are already starting to sing in harmony with the seductive song. The <i>Wall Street Journal</i> article quotes a “former Western diplomat who has discussed the incentives with senior Iranian diplomats in recent weeks,” and who says “The Iranians are preparing to go to Geneva with a serious package.”</p>
<p>The <i>Journal</i> notes that:</p>
<blockquote><p><i>By falling short of a complete shutdown of enrichment, the anticipated Iranian offer could divide the U.S. from its closest Middle East allies, particularly Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who have cautioned the White House against moving too quickly to improve ties with Tehran. </i></p></blockquote>
<p>The momentum, however, may once again be on the appeasers’ side. AP already <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/british-foreign-secretary-were-taking-steps-toward-reopening-uk-embassy-in-tehran/2013/10/08/48b0e1f2-302c-11e3-9ddd-bdd3022f66ee_story.html">reported</a> this week on a possible thaw in British-Iranian relations, with Foreign Secretary William Hague telling the House of Commons:</p>
<blockquote><p><i>It is clear that the new president and ministers in Iran are presenting themselves and their country in a much more positive way than in the recent past. There is no doubt that the tone of the meetings with them is different.</i></p></blockquote>
<p>Hague added:</p>
<blockquote><p><i>We must not forget for one moment that as things stand today Iran remains in defiance of six UN Security Council resolutions&#8230;and is installing more centrifuges in its nuclear facilities. In the absence of change to these policies we will continue to maintain strong sanctions.</i></p></blockquote>
<p>But with an opportunity to be conned beckoning, can prudence prevail over recklessness?</p>
<p>That will be the question as the P5 + 1 countries and Iran convene in Geneva on Tuesday. Sunni Arab states—which are themselves part of the conning culture and can’t be conned by Iran—and Israel—which has existed in the region long enough to shed Western illusions—will be watching. It is hard to be optimistic.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank">Click here</a>.</strong></p>
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		<title>No Nuclear Option in the Senate</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/matthew-vadum/no-nuclear-option-in-the-senate/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=no-nuclear-option-in-the-senate</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 17 Jul 2013 04:58:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Matthew Vadum]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Democrats]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[filibuster]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nomination]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nuclear]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Republicans]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=197188</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Filibuster deal lets radical left-wingers impose their agenda on Americans.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/mc.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-197195" alt="mc" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/mc-450x271.jpg" width="315" height="190" /></a>Organized labor scored a huge victory yesterday when Republicans who had been blocking President Obama&#8217;s radical nominees lost their nerve and reached a deal with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to allow confirmation votes to proceed.</p>
<p>The backroom political deal preserves &#8212; at least for now&#8211; the filibuster in the Senate.</p>
<p>As usual, Republicans got nothing in return.</p>
<p>Egged on by union bosses, Reid had vowed to execute a controversial parliamentary maneuver called the nuclear option in order to allow filibustered executive branch nominations to go forward and be approved with a simple majority of senators. (Republicans called it the constitutional option when they were in the majority in the Senate.) Under longtime Senate rules, the chamber will not normally proceed to a vote on legislation unless 60 senators or more vote to end debate. If the Senate is considering a change in its rules, the threshold rises to 67.</p>
<p>The nuclear option procedural playbook calls for the Senate&#8217;s presiding officer, who is always going to be a Democrat as long as that party is in the majority in that chamber, to rule that instead of a supermajority only a simple majority of senators is required to cut off debate. If a majority of the senators votes to uphold the presiding officer, his or her interpretation of the rules becomes a precedent. By this means the filibuster rule could be weakened or even abolished, a development that in the current environment would make it easier for President Obama to impose his economy-killing socialist agenda on the nation.</p>
<p>Reid gloated after his victory. “This must be a new normal,” he lectured. “Qualified executive nominees must not be blocked on procedural supermajority votes.&#8221;</p>
<p>As long as the Senate keeps approving Obama&#8217;s radical left-wing nominees, the Democratic majority won&#8217;t change the filibuster rule. Unlike a 2005 agreement on judicial nominees that restricted filibusters to “extraordinary circumstances,” this new bargain does not limit the use of procedural tactics aimed at stalling or blocking nominees. After the initial round of nominees is approved, the deal may yet fell apart.</p>
<p>The cave-in, predictably, was orchestrated on the Republican side by Sen. John McCain of Arizona. “Is it a panacea?&#8221; said the failed 2008 presidential candidate whose loss ushered in the Obama era. “No, but I think it’s an important step forward.”</p>
<p>“Look, we see the polling numbers,” McCain said, sucking up to the media. “Ten percent approval of Congress. Members of Congress want to work more together and get things done for the American people. We appreciate approval, obviously. That’s what politicians largely are about.”</p>
<p>Republicans could have allowed Reid to &#8220;nuke&#8221; the Senate and then fought back furiously by holding up congressional business until the other side cried uncle, but they chose not to bother.</p>
<p>Despite that warm and fuzzy feeling senators call comity that is allegedly spreading through Senate office buildings like an airborne virus, tempers are certain to flare in coming weeks as that chamber considers a series of controversial nominations for federal appellate courts. With Janet Napolitano&#8217;s retirement as Homeland Security Secretary, the Senate is expected to consider a new nominee who has yet to be named by the president. Maryland Gov. Martin O&#8217;Malley, a Democrat who, like Napolitano, <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://spectator.org/blog/2013/07/15/possible-dhs-pick-martin-omall">thinks</a></span> all conservatives are terrorists, is rumored to be a contender for the post.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, as a result of the agreement, the Senate will soon vote on the nominations of Thomas Perez to be Labor Secretary, Gina McCarthy to head the Environmental Protection Agency, and two nominees to the National Labor Relations Board.</p>
<p>As part of the pact, the Senate moved forward yesterday with a vote on Richard Cordray as the first permanent director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Cordray, whom Obama unconstitutionally recess-appointed to the position previously when the Senate wasn&#8217;t in recess, is a <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://spectator.org/archives/2011/12/05/richard-cordrays-heroes-occupy">longtime supporter</a></span> of violent community organizers. He was confirmed by the Senate in a 66 to 34 vote.</p>
<p>The White House agreed to withdraw the stalled NLRB nominations of Sharon Block and Richard Griffin, two individuals who somehow managed to do an end-run around required <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://blog.heritage.org/2012/01/06/obamas-nlrb-recess-appointments-circumvent-background-checks/">background checks</a></span>. Griffin has been accused of union election improprieties and has been <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324081704578231960669011712.html">linked</a></span> to organized crime. As he did with Cordray, the president unconstitutionally recess-appointed the two nominees to the board when the Senate was not actually recessed.</p>
<p>To replace Block and Griffin, within hours Obama <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/07/16/presidential-nominations-and-withdrawals-sent-senate">nominated</a></span> labor lawyer Kent Yoshiho Hirozawa of New York and former AFL-CIO counsel Nancy Jean Schiffer of Maryland to the board.</p>
<p>But why is the NLRB, which most Americans have never heard of, such a big deal?</p>
<p>This powerful socialist anachronism left over from the New Deal supervises union elections, investigates labor practices, and hands down rulings interpreting the National Labor Relations Act. An NLRB in the hands of the Left always seeks to expand the power of organized labor at the expense of individual rights.</p>
<p>While states are rushing to endorse right-to-work laws that uphold employees’ rights, the NLRB is going in the opposite direction by favoring union bosses. Obama’s toadies on the board have been hell-bent on making America more like bureaucratic, dysfunctional Europe where labor disruptions and union violence are everyday occurrences. Hirozawa and Schiffer are expected to follow suit.</p>
<p>Probably the worst of President Obama&#8217;s pending nominees is the Labor Department nominee, Thomas Perez. Despite his refusal to respond to congressional inquiries, this lawless community organizer is now expected to be confirmed as part of the deal.</p>
<p>One conservative commentator <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://spectator.org/archives/2013/03/12/thomas-perez-should-be-blocked">described</a></span> the in-your-face radical lawyer as &#8220;one of the most loathsome figures in the thoroughly loathsome political ranks of Obama’s Justice Department,&#8221; adding that he &#8220;has overseen most of the unprecedentedly naked politicization of DoJ’s Civil Rights Division.&#8221;</p>
<p>In his current DoJ post, Perez, a longtime ally of ACORN and Project Vote, led the Obama administration&#8217;s assault on voter ID laws last year. He helped to disenfranchise overseas military personnel last year by sabotaging improvements planned for the military voting system. He&#8217;s tried to force governments to accept fraud-prone <i>matricula consular</i> ID cards issued by Mexican consular offices. He was a board member of Casa de Maryland, an advocacy group for illegal aliens funded by George Soros and the late Hugo Chavez that openly encourages illegals to break the law.</p>
<p>Perez is apparently in favor of Saudi-style anti-blasphemy laws. He has <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/03/obama_to_nominate_sharia_supporter_illegal_immigrant_advocate_as_labor_secretary.html">worked</a></span> with groups such as the terrorist-linked Islamic Society of North America and applauded Islamists for lobbying against airline security measures. He played a major role in enacting the Church Arson Prevention Act, legislation based on the false premise that black churches were being targeted with disproportionate frequency by arsonists.</p>
<p>Perez targeted Maricopa County, Ariz. Sheriff Joe Arpaio, for legal harassment because he doesn&#8217;t like Arpaio&#8217;s tough-on-crime approach, especially with respect to illegal aliens. He has refused to prosecute hate crimes committed against white Americans and played a role in the dismissal of a case involving two Philadelphia-based members of the New Black Panther Party who intimidated white voters on Election Day 2008.</p>
<p>Perez is proud of his role in inflating the mortgage bubble. He’s a fierce defender of financial affirmative action programs that forced banks to lend money to uncreditworthy borrowers.</p>
<p>Perez <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/matthew-vadum/tom-perez-obamas-radical-labor-secretary-nominee/">likens bankers</a></span> to KKK members, arguing that racial discrimination is afoot whenever a member of a minority group is turned down for a loan. The only difference between bankers and Klansmen is that bankers discriminate “with a smile” and “fine print,” but they are “every bit as destructive as the cross burned in the neighborhood,” Perez said.</p>
<p>Republicans may not have to put up with the Democrats&#8217; strong-arming in the not-too-distant future.</p>
<p>The <i>New York Times</i> golden boy of psephological statistics, Nate Silver, is <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/15/senate-control-in-2014-increasingly-looks-like-a-tossup/">now putting the odds</a></span> of a GOP Senate takeover as &#8220;close to even-money&#8221; in the 2014 elections.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our best guess &#8230; is that Republicans will end up with somewhere between 50 and 51 Senate seats after 2014, putting them right on the threshold of a majority.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank">Click here</a>.  </strong></p>
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		<title>The Democrats&#8217; Threat to &#8216;Go Nuclear&#8217;</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/arnold-ahlert/will-dems-go-nuclear/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=will-dems-go-nuclear</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/arnold-ahlert/will-dems-go-nuclear/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 12 Jul 2013 04:57:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Arnold Ahlert]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[appointment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[confirmation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[executive]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nuclear]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[power]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Senate]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=196594</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Progressives plot to dramatically shift constitutional powers to Obama. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/100817_obama_reid_ap_605.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-196624" alt="100817_obama_reid_ap_605" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/100817_obama_reid_ap_605-450x312.jpg" width="270" height="187" /></a>Yesterday, in an angry speech given on the Senate floor, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) <a href="http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/07/reid-mcconnell-filibuster-nuclear-option.php">warned</a> he would go &#8220;nuclear&#8221; and change the Senate rules in order to end filibusters on President Obama&#8217;s executive branch nominations. “Senator [Mitch] McConnell broke his word,” Reid fumed. “The Republican leader has failed to live up to his commitments. He’s failed to do what he said he would do&#8211;move nominations by regular order except in extraordinary circumstances. I refuse to unilaterally surrender my right to respond to this breach of faith.” Reid can sanctimoniously frame this effort any way he wants, but his real agenda is to dramatically shift power to the executive office, a move that President Obama is anxious to exploit to impose his radical policies through bureaucratic means.</p>
<p>Invoking the nuclear option would be a <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/07/harry-reid-mitch-mcconnell-nominations-94013.html">two-step</a> process. First, Reid would push through the rule change itself with a simple majority, instead of the 67 votes it currently requires. After that, ending a filibuster would only take a 51-vote majority, rather than the current 60-vote threshold. During his speech, Reid <a href="http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/07/reid-mcconnell-filibuster-nuclear-option.php">cited</a> Republican efforts to delay the nominations of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and CIA Director John Brennan. Republicans have promise to filibuster Richard Cordray, along with other nominees for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), unless Democrats are willing to limit the power of that agency. “It is a disturbing trend when Republicans are willing to block executive branch nominees even if they have no objection about the qualification of the nominee,” Reid said. “They’re blocking qualified nominees because they refuse to accept the law of the land.”</p>
<p>The law of the land is a slippery term when it comes to Democrats in general and this administration in particular. In January 2012, President Obama <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jul/11/reid-prepares-senate-end-nomination-filibusters/">attempted</a> to implement an unprecedented use of recess appointment powers to install people at the CFPB and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), despite the reality that the Senate was not in recess at the time. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit <a href="http://www.policymic.com/articles/24233/obama-recess-appointments-court-says-they-re-unconstitutional">ruled</a> against the president, calling the move unconstitutional. On June 24, the U.S. Supreme Court <a href="http://reason.com/blog/2013/06/24/supreme-court-will-rule-on-constitutiona">announced</a> it would hear the case, <i>National Labor Relations Board v. Noel Canning,</i> which will determine the scope of executive recess appointment power. If the Court rules in favor of the president, it would essentially eviscerate the Senate&#8217;s role in vetting presidential nominees.</p>
<p>But Reid is threatening to eviscerate this power of the Senate himself by curtailing the ability of minority members to conduct filibusters. Yesterday he emerged from a closed-door meeting with the Democratic Caucus and reiterated his threat, warning the GOP to drop its objections to the president&#8217;s appointments for both the NLRB and the CFPB. “[W]e have the votes to move forward on this,” Reid told reporters.</p>
<p>Maybe not. As of now, Sens. Carl Levin (D-MI) and Mark Pryor (D-AK) refuse to go along with the idea, while Sens. Patrick Leahy (I-VT)), Max Baucus (D-MT) and Jack Reed (D-RI) remain undecided. Since Democrats have 54 senators, such defections could scuttle Reid’s plans. In the event of a 50-50 tie, Vice President Joe Biden gets to cast the tie-breaking vote. Biden has indicated he would side with Reid.</p>
<p>The roster of pending nominations <a href="http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/07/nuclear-summer-filibuster-wars.php">include</a> three individuals for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, five for the NLRB, three for CFPB (including Cordray), Labor Secretary nominee Tom Perez and EPA nominee Gina McCarthy. “I’m going to start the process today,” Reid <a href="http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/07/reid-mcconnell-filibuster-nuclear-option.php">said</a> Thursday. “We’re going to file cloture on a bunch of nominations. And those votes will occur next week.”</p>
<p>Sen. McConnell, clearly upset by Reid&#8217;s speech and accusations, noted that it was Reid who breached an <a href="http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/01/reid-promises-no-rules-changes-without-gop-consent.php">agreement</a> made last January not to make any Senate rule changes without following the regular order. McConnell was equally upset by Reid&#8217;s threat. “I just hope the Majority Leader thinks about his legacy, the future of his party, and most importantly, the future of our country before he acts.” McConnell warned. “Senate Democrats are gearing up today to make one of the most consequential changes to the United States Senate in the history of our nation. And I guarantee you, it is a decision that, if they actually go through with it, they will live to regret.”</p>
<p>That assessment has a familiar ring. The hypocritical Harry Reid made almost identical pronouncements in 2005 when Republicans had control of the Senate and Democrats were engaged in the process of repeatedly blocking former President George W. Bush’s nominees for the federal courts. Republicans also considered implementing the nuclear option at the time, but backed away when the bipartisan “Gang of 14” emerged to facilitate the nomination process. As Reid bemoaned at the time,</p>
<blockquote><p>For the past several months, the Senate has operated under a nuclear cloud. As a result of the Senate’s decision to reject a small number of President Bush’s judicial nominees, the Republican majority has threatened to break the Senate rules, violate over 200 years of Senate tradition and impair the ability of Democrats and Republicans to work together on issues of real concern to the American people.</p></blockquote>
<p>Now that Reid is in control, he has changed his tune. But his sudden change of heart is disingenuous. McConnell, who characterized Reid&#8217;s accusations of Republican obstructionism as an “absolutely phony, manufactured crisis,” revealed that at least two of the nominees opposed by Republicans, McCarthy and Perez, can already garner more than the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster. What is really behind Reid&#8217;s about-face, McConnell <a href="http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/mcconnell-mccarthy-perez-have-votes-to-be-confirmed">illuminated</a>, is that the Democrats and their Big Labor backers &#8220;want &#8230; the Senate to ratify the President’s unconstitutional decision to illegally appoint nominees to the NLRB and the CFPB without the input of the Senate.&#8221;</p>
<p>The reasons for that is fairly obvious. Much of Obama&#8217;s agenda is DOA in Congress, and installing apparatchiks, who will implement his un-passable policies administratively, will allow the president to bypass Congress and impose his will by fiat. As for the far Left and Big Labor, which overwhelming represents government unions, their agenda has been seriously undermined by the aforementioned D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, along with a slew of other stunning successes for free market labor policies, including Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker&#8217;s victory limiting the power of government unions and the previously unimaginable right-to-work law recently enacted in Michigan. In short, the government union lobby senses its waning influence and is desperate to secure an avenue of power by whatever means necessary &#8212; and it knows that the window of opportunity may be closing.</p>
<p>The NLRB is one such powerful perch that radical labor activists hope to infest. Think back to the board&#8217;s 2011 attempt to <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/transportation-report/labor-employment/198399-labor-board-withdraws-boeing-complaint">dictate </a>where Boeing airlines could do business, which it did in order to placate Boeing’s labor unions in Washington State. If NLRB members are not confirmed by August, the board will <a href="http://legalnewsline.com/news/federal-government/242747-members-of-congress-tell-mcconnell-to-stop-blocking-nlrb-nominees">cease</a> to function, leaving labor decisions to regional NLRB offices.</p>
<p>As for some of the other nominees, CFPB nominee Richard Cordray would be a disastrous choice to head the consumer protection agency birthed by the Dodd-Frank comprehensive financial reform bill. As Bloomberg News reported in 2011, Cordray was an enthusiastic <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-18/obama-s-pick-for-consumer-agency-has-record-of-fighting-banks.html">supporter</a> of Empowering and Strengthening Ohio’s People (ESOP) during his stint as state treasurer. ESOP is a left-wing guerrilla activist group with a penchant for <a href="http://spectator.org/archives/2011/12/05/richard-cordrays-heroes-occupy">storming</a> banks and private residences.</p>
<p>EPA nominee Gina McCarthy was one of disgraced former EPA head Lisa Jackson&#8217;s top lieutenants and <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323478004578306313547424452.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop">author</a> of some of that agency&#8217;s most economy-crushing carbon rules. As the <i>Wall Street Journal</i> notes, McCarthy &#8220;has been a notably willful regulator, even for this Administration. Her promotion is another way of saying that Mr. Obama has given up getting Congress to agree to his anticarbon agenda, especially given the number of Senate Democrats from coal or oil states.&#8221;</p>
<p>Thomas Perez may be the most radical nominee of all. Prior to his nomination for Secretary of Labor, Perez was the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the Justice Department, where he was a more-than-willing <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/03/21/Progressive-Radical-Record-of-Labor-Nominee-Tom-Perez">perpetrator</a> of that agency&#8217;s radical and racially polarizing agenda. His efforts included wars against photo ID for voting, attacking banks for not granting enough mortgages to “people of color,&#8221; (reprising the same tactics that led to the financial collapse of 2008), and suing state fire and police departments for not hiring black applicants who failed employment tests.</p>
<p>These are the nominees Obama needs to install by any means necessary if he is to have any hope of expanding his radical agenda while there is still time left. McConnell made the intentions of Reid and his fellow Democrats clear. “They want the power, and they want it now. They don’t care about the consequences,” he contended. He spoke to <i>Politico</i> regarding what may happen next. “We’ve requested a meeting of all Senators. We haven’t had one of those this year,” he said. “This is a matter of extreme importance to the institution and the country, and we think we ought all get together to discuss. We’re happy to do that as soon as possible.”</p>
<p>Reid said he’d consider such an idea: “I’m happy to have a joint meeting &#8230; I want this resolved, and I want it resolved one way or the other.&#8221;</p>
<p>When working towards that resolution, Harry Reid would be very wise to remember one of the oldest political adages ever: what goes around, comes around. Despite their current hubris, Democrats will not control the levers of power forever. They need to think long and hard about the <i>long-term </i>consequences that would arise from the recklessness of invoking the nuclear option &#8212; lest they become victims of their own making at some future point in time.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank">Click here</a>.</strong></p>
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		<title>U.N. Dithers in Response to North Korean Provocation</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/joseph-klein/u-n-dithers-in-response-to-north-korean-provocation/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=u-n-dithers-in-response-to-north-korean-provocation</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/joseph-klein/u-n-dithers-in-response-to-north-korean-provocation/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 13 Feb 2013 04:43:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Joseph Klein]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kim Jung Un]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nuclear]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[testing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[United Nations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[weapons]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=177458</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The communist death cult continues to utter threats with impunity. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/joseph-klein/u-n-dithers-in-response-to-north-korean-provocation/north-korea-jong_2206619b/" rel="attachment wp-att-177464"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-177464" title="north-korea-jong_2206619b" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/north-korea-jong_2206619b.jpg" alt="" width="293" height="232" /></a>Once again North Korea has thumbed its nose at the international community, including its ally China, by confirming on Tuesday (February 12th) that it had conducted its third and most powerful nuclear test.</p>
<p>&#8220;A third nuclear test has been successfully staged,&#8221; the North&#8217;s state-run Korean Central News agency said. &#8220;The nuclear test was conducted as part of measures to protect our national security and sovereignty against the reckless hostility of the United States that violated our republic&#8217;s right for a peaceful satellite launch.&#8221;</p>
<p>In response, the United Nations Security Council met in an emergency closed consultation session Tuesday morning. Its rotating presidency this month just happens to be filled by South Korea, no doubt one of the reasons that North Korea chose this particular month to conduct its latest test.</p>
<p>Approximately two hours after the closed session began, South Korea&#8217;s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Kim Sung-hwan emerged from the Security Council chamber to read the following press statement to reporters:</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;The members of the Security Council held urgent consultations to address the serious situation arising from the nuclear test conducted by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).</p>
<p>The members of the Security Council strongly condemned this test, which is a grave violation of Security Council resolution 1718(2006), 1874(2009) and 2087(2013), and therefore there continues to exist a clear threat to international peace and security.</p>
<p>The members of the Security Council recalled that in January they unanimously adopted resolution 2087, which expressed the Council’s determination to take “significant action” in the event of a further DPRK nuclear test.</p>
<p>In line with this commitment and the gravity of this violation, the members of the Security Council will begin work immediately on appropriate measures in a Security Council resolution.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Thus, in a situation crying out for immediate &#8220;significant action,&#8221; the Security Council punted with a statement of condemnation and the promise to &#8220;begin work&#8221; on yet another Security Council resolution for North Korea to disregard.  When I asked Foreign Minister Sung-hwan the target time for completion of the resolution and its passage, he would not say other than to note that work in the Security Council has just started.</p>
<p>The United States Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice followed Mr. Sung-hwan to the podium. She said that North Korea&#8217;s &#8220;highly provocative nuclear test&#8221; directly violates its obligations under several unanimous Security Council resolutions.  &#8220;North Korea’s continued work on its nuclear and missile programs seriously undermines regional and international peace and security and threatens the security of a number of countries, including the United States,&#8221; she said.</p>
<p>Ambassador Rice would not specify the additional measures against North Korea that she said the Security Council would consider. However, with her customary show of steely determination, she vowed that what the Council will be discussing &#8220;will not only tighten the existing measures but—we aim to augment the sanctions regime that is already quite strong.&#8221; When asked whether such measures would include sanctions on financial institutions, she replied that &#8220;those categories are areas that we think are ripe for appropriate further action.&#8221;</p>
<p>Kim Jong-un, North Korea&#8217;s young leader who succeeded his father as dictator of the rogue state, is trying to prove his mettle with his military, which holds the real power in North Korea. He has engaged in a series of provocative actions leading up to the latest nuclear test, including a rocket launch testing North Korea&#8217;s ballistic missile technology that led to the last Security Council resolution in January and an incendiary video portraying a nuclear attack on the United States.</p>
<p>Raising the stakes further, North Korea&#8217;s most powerful military body, the National Defense Commission, warned that its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs were targeted at the United States.</p>
<p>Realistically, there is little the United Nations can do that would have any material impact on North Korea&#8217;s military strategy.  North Korea has such little respect for the United Nations that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon &#8211; who voiced his own condemnation of the latest test &#8211; admitted that North Korea&#8217;s leadership won&#8217;t even take his phone calls.</p>
<p>In concert with its would-be nuclear arms mate Iran, which has weathered enormous economic pain to pursue its ambitions, North Korea will continue to push the boundaries of its own nuclear and ballistic missiles capabilities irrespective of any new UN sanctions.</p>
<p>China is the only country with the leverage to possibly make some headway. It could threaten to cut off the supply of oil to North Korea, for example, which would cripple North Korea&#8217;s military and economic development unless it could somehow get oil from Iran.</p>
<p>China did once briefly cut off the supply of oil to North Korea ten years ago. And China has expressed its &#8220;firm opposition&#8221; to North Korea&#8217;s latest nuclear test, siding with the &#8220;widespread opposition from the international community.&#8221; However, while China may be inclined to go along with more financial sanctions through the Security Council, which will have only a minor incremental impact on North Korea, it is not likely to take any significant extra steps on its own to strangle North Korea&#8217;s economy for fear of the destabilizing effects of such actions, including a mass movement of refugees from North Korea into China.</p>
<p>We can expect a lot of fanfare in the coming days or weeks as the Security Council ends up finally producing a more toughly worded unanimous resolution with some enhanced sanctions. But, to quote William Shakespeare, it will be &#8220;full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.&#8221;</p>
<p>Iran is watching how President Obama reacts to North Korea&#8217;s latest provocation. Will he hide behind the United Nations curtain and continue to push for world-wide nuclear disarmament, or will he finally confront the rogue nations whose possession of nuclear arms poses a danger to all of humanity?</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank">Click here</a>.</strong></p>
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		<title>Why an Israeli Strike on Iran Will Happen Before the Election</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/why-an-israel-strike-on-iran-will-happen-before-the-election/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=why-an-israel-strike-on-iran-will-happen-before-the-election</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/why-an-israel-strike-on-iran-will-happen-before-the-election/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 24 Aug 2012 04:20:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[attack]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iran]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Netanyahu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nuclear]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=141430</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Countdowns in Tehran and Jerusalem.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/israel.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-141438" title="israel" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/israel.jpg" alt="" width="279" height="227" /></a>If Israel jets show up in Iranian airspace, it will most likely happen while Obama is too busy  accusing Mitt Romney of secretly storing all his money in a giant cave in the Rocky Mountains to do more than dispatch a flunky to chew out Netanyahu over the phone. The election is the perfect window for a strike on Iran&#8217;s nuclear program, because Team Obama will be too tied down on the Romney Front to do much damage to Israel.</p>
<p>The Obama Administration is interested in somehow making Iran&#8217;s nuclear capabilities go away in the interests of regional stability. Particularly the regional stability of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar. But the last thing that this form of regional stability needs is Israeli planes flying over Saudi Arabia to take out that nuclear capability.</p>
<p>Just like during the Gulf War, regional stability demands that the United States protect Saudi Arabia and the Gulfies, while keeping Israel out of it. Since Iran&#8217;s Revolutionary Guard isn&#8217;t camped out in Kuwait City, protecting them is a matter of posture. The posturing is hollow because everyone knows that Obama is not about to bomb Iran on behalf of Saudi Arabia. He is as likely to bomb Iran for Israel as he is to move to South Carolina and join the NRA. If a third Gulf War is fought, it will be fought for Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, one more time.</p>
<p>In 1988, the United States fought Iran to protect Kuwaiti oil tankers. If oil prices go high enough to potentially cost Obama the election, then he might pry away his foreign policy people from drawing up maps of Syrian targets long enough to actually hit some Iranian naval installations.</p>
<p>None of this has anything to do with Iran&#8217;s nuclear program&#8230; and that&#8217;s the point. George W. Bush did appear to think that Iranian nuclear weapons might be bad news for the United States. He was nearly unique in that regard. The diplomatic and military establishment is full of experts who view Iranian nuclear weapons purely as factors in the balance of power and utterly refuse to look at them from any other angle. To them, Israel isn&#8217;t really concerned about a nuclear attack; it&#8217;s only playing a regional power game.</p>
<p>For Israel, violence is not a posture or a theory. It has few trading connections and no alliances in the region. Its foreign policy has always been about dissipating physical threats to its people, whether through diplomatic or military means. It does not follow this line because it is a saintly state, but because it is a state always on the edge. It has too little territory and too many enemies around it to follow any other path.</p>
<p>Surrounded by countries for which destroying it is a matter of national pride and religious fervor, its only real deterrent is military. Winning several wars won it enough breathing room to try diplomatic solutions. And now the first and last of those diplomatic solutions has failed. It can still count on the military as a deterrent, but there is no deterrent against a nuclear attack carried out by terrorists under plausible deniability. The only remaining deterrent after a nuclear attack is killing as many of those responsible as possible before succumbing to radiation poisoning.</p>
<p>Everyone in the region understands the nature of the countdown. Most of the Sunni Gulfies also privately welcome Israel doing something about Iran&#8217;s nuclear weapons, even as they redouble their efforts against the Jewish State to avoid allowing their Shiite enemies to benefit ideologically from a confrontation with the Zionist Entity. The rhetoric out of Iran now echoes the rhetoric out of Egypt in the 1960&#8242;s. That buildup eventually ended in a preemptive Israeli strike that destroyed Egypt&#8217;s air force.</p>
<p>But in Washington D.C., the countdown is not a real thing. The received wisdom among the press and the political and diplomatic establishments is that Netanyahu is an obstinate paranoid man who is playing games with them. They don&#8217;t believe that Israel will do anything about Iran, because they wouldn&#8217;t do anything about Iran and they assume that Netanyahu is just like them, only more deceptive because he pretends that he will do something about Iran.</p>
<p>It has become fashionable among Western elites to view aggression as either a posture or madness. They have forgotten that sometimes violence isn&#8217;t a move on an international chessboard or a prelude to a set of political steps. Sometimes it&#8217;s as simple as one side wanting to kill the other and the other side not wanting to be killed.</p>
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		<title>An Electromagnetic Pulse Catastrophe</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/jamie-glazov/an-electromagnetic-pulse-catastrophe/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=an-electromagnetic-pulse-catastrophe</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/jamie-glazov/an-electromagnetic-pulse-catastrophe/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 06 Aug 2012 04:24:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jamie Glazov]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[electromagnetic pulse]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[EMP Attack]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nuclear]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Prepare]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Terrorism]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=139575</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Dr. Peter Vincent Pry sheds light on the threat our nation faces from a nuclear or natural electromagnetic pulse (EMP) event.  ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/emp.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-139577" title="emp" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/emp.jpg" alt="" width="280" height="153" /></a>Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, Executive Director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security who advises Congress on the full spectrum of security issues. He is now focused on preventing a nuclear or natural electromagnetic pulse (EMP) catastrophe&#8211;the greatest threat now facing civilization.</p>
<p>Dr. Pry has spent his entire career protecting America from Weapons of Mass Destruction and EMP, first at the Central Intelligence Agency, then at the House Armed Services Committee, on the Congressional EMP Commission and Strategic Posture Commission.  He is the author of the new book, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Civil-Military-Preparedness-Electromagnetic-Catastrophe-ebook/dp/B008QM1IHI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1344021354&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=Civil-Military+Preparedness+For+An+Electromagnetic+Pulse+Catastrophe" target="_blank">Civil-Military Preparedness For An Electromagnetic Pulse Catastrophe</a></em>, a Kindle e-book available on Amazon.com</p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> Dr. Pry, welcome to Frontpage Interview.</p>
<p><strong>Pry:</strong> Jamie, thanks for this opportunity to inform your readers about the threat our nation and families face from a nuclear or natural electromagnetic pulse (EMP) event.</p>
<p>The gravity of the EMP threat is still insufficiently understood by most political leaders and the general public, despite the efforts of two Congressional Commissions and several major U.S. Government studies over the past decade to educate and warn that EMP is the most immediate and gravest danger to our nation.<strong>   </strong></p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> Let’s begin with the “electromagnetic pulse.” What exactly is it?</p>
<p><strong>Pry: </strong>An EMP can be generated by a nuclear weapon, any nuclear weapon, detonated above the atmosphere.  Or an EMP can be generated naturally, by the Sun sending a solar flare or coronal mass ejection that causes a geomagnetic storm on Earth.  In either case, whether the EMP is generated by a nuclear weapon or the Sun, the effects are very similar.  An EMP is like a super-energetic radio wave, harmless to people in its direct effects, but lethal to electronics and electronic systems&#8211;and everything, including human life, is directly or indirectly dependent upon electronics.  The EMP by destroying electronics can collapse everywhere, nationwide, all the critical infrastructures&#8211;electric power, communications, transportation, banking and finance, food and water&#8211;that sustain modern civilization and the lives of 300 million Americans.</p>
<p>That EMP can pose such a threat to the nation is not controversial, but the official consensus of the Congressional EMP Commission, that examined the EMP threat and possible solutions for nearly a decade.   Several subsequent major Congressional and U.S. Government studies re-examined the facts.  All independently arrived at the same conclusion as the EMP Commission, including the National Academy of Sciences, the Congressional Strategic Posture Commission, the Department of Energy, and the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.  Not one official study by the Congress or the USG dissents from the original conclusions of the EMP Commission.</p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> Why is EMP the greatest threat now facing the civilized world?</p>
<p><strong>Pry:  </strong>EMP is in the category of a very small number of threats that can literally end civilization as we know it.  The Congressional EMP Commission estimated that, given our nation&#8217;s current state of unpreparedness, within one year of a nuclear or natural EMP catastrophe, about two-thirds of the population, 200 million Americans, could perish from starvation, disease, and societal collapse.  Other credible estimates indicate the loss of life could be even higher, on the order of 90 percent, because it may be optimistic to assume, as the EMP Commission did, that America&#8217;s largely urbanized population could learn the survival skills necessary to live without modern technology and the critical infrastructures.  If the EMP is from a great geomagnetic storm, like the 1859 Carrington Event, the effects would not be limited to the United States but would be global.  If another Carrinton Event happened today, it could collapse electric grids and critical infrastructures worldwide, putting at risk the lives of billions.<strong>  </strong></p>
<p>Unfortunately, these threats are not remote theoretical possibilities, but clear and present dangers.  Iran is on the verge of developing, or may already have nuclear weapons.  Iranian military writings openly describe making a nuclear EMP attack on the United States, to eliminate the U.S. as an actor on the world stage.  Iran has practiced missile launches and high-altitude fusing to perform an EMP attack.  Iran does not need a sophisticated ICBM to make an EMP attack, but could launch a short-range missile off a freighter near the U.S. coast&#8211;and has practiced doing a ship-launched EMP attack too.  Iran has already twice successfully orbited satellites, and so already has an ICBM capability for delivering to the United States a small warhead, like a nuclear artillery shell.</p>
<p>Former CIA operative Reza Kahlili, who still has sources in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, reports that Iran already has several Russian tactical nuclear warheads, neutron artillery shells, that would be ideal for making an EMP attack, because warheads designed to emit neutrons also emit a lot of gamma rays, which is what causes the EMP effect.  If Iran or terrorist proxies can make a ship-launched EMP attack against the United States, without launching from their own territory, they could deliver an EMP catastrophe upon us anonymously.  The high-altitude EMP detonation leaves no bomb debris for forensic analysis, as would detonating a bomb in a city.  EMP attack leaves no fingerprints.  We might never know who attacked us.</p>
<p>Even more troubling are the prospects of a great geomagnetic storm.  The Congressional EMP Commission estimated that a Carrington Event class geomagnetic storm, that would effect the entire world, occurs about once a century.  It does not take a genius to do the arithmetic that 1859 was more than a century ago, that we are overdue for another Carrington Event.  Most scientists are concerned that another great geomagnetic storm might occur during the next solar maximum.  Every eleven years, the Sun enters a phase, lasting about a year, where it emits many more solar flares and coronal mass ejections, very significantly increasing the prospects for a great geomagnetic storm.  The next solar maximum is only months away now, will begin in December 2012 and last through 2013.  Sooner or later, another Carrington Event is inevitable.</p>
<p>EMP is the greatest threat to the civilized world because of the magnitude and likelihood of an EMP catastrophe.</p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> What is being done about this threat?</p>
<p><strong>Pry:  </strong>The good news is that there is no excuse for the United States to be vulnerable to EMP.  The Department of Defense has been hardening military systems against EMP for 50 years, and the technology for EMP protection is transferrable to civilian critical infrastructures.  EMP protection is also affordable, very low cost compared to the cost of vulnerability.  At bare minimum, the U.S. should protect the 300 EHV transformers servicing the major cities, which would cost only $100-200 million, and give us some chance of saving the 200 million lives that would be lost in an EMP catastrophe, at a cost of about one dollar per life.  Robust protection of the national electric grid would cost about $1-2 billion.</p>
<p>The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission estimates that robust grid protection could be paid for easily, by merely increasing the electric bill to the average rate payer by 20 cents annually.  The Congressional EMP Commission estimated that robust protection of ALL critical infrastructures could be achieved for $10-20 billion over 3-5 years.  The EMP Commission plan to protect the critical infrastructures from EMP would also mitigate all other hazards&#8211;cyber threats, sabotage, natural disasters like hurricanes.  When the EMP Commission made its estimate in 2004 that EMP preparedness could be achieved in 3-5 years, the solar maximum was then eight years in the future, a future which then looked bright for EMP preparedness, since there was plenty of time to implement the EMP Commission&#8217;s recommendations.</p>
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		<title>Peace in Our Time with Iran</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2011/kenneth-r-timmerman/peace-in-our-time-with-iran/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=peace-in-our-time-with-iran</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 20 Oct 2011 04:49:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kenneth R. Timmerman]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[centrifuges]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hillary Clinton]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[IAEA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iran]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nuclear]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=109399</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Obama wants us to believe he has tamed the Mullahs' nukes.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Ahmadinejad1.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-109403" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Ahmadinejad1.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="566" /></a></p>
<p>Now we can all rest assured. Iran’s nuclear weapons program has “stumbled badly” and is “beset by poorly performing equipment, shortages of parts and other woes,” <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/irans-nuclear-program-suffering-new-setbacks-diplomats-and-experts-say/2011/10/17/gIQAByndsL_story.html">the Washington Post proclaimed</a> on Tuesday.</p>
<p>An alleged joint U.S.-Israeli cyber attack known as Stuxnet and other problems have taken “a mounting toll” on Iran’s nuclear centrifuge program that could “hurt Iran’s ability to break out quickly” into the ranks of the world’s nuclear powers,” the Post concluded.</p>
<p>In other words, it’s “peace in our time” when it comes to Iran. Obama’s policy of pressure and incentives (the old “carrots and sticks” approach) is working. We can all go home, pop open a good bottle, and relax.</p>
<p>In case you were wondering about his “administration” sources, the author of this good news story, Joby Warrick, jetted off to Libya with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as his story appeared on the front page of Post’s printed edition on Tuesday. Pravda has spoken.</p>
<p>To give his fairy tale the “audacity of hope,” Warrick cited two just-released reports by David Albright, who briefly worked as an on-site inspector for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).</p>
<p>Citing fragmentary evidence gathered by IAEA inspectors in Iran, Albright <a href="http://isis-online.org/isis-reports/detail/test1/">extrapolated graphs</a> for the production of low-enriched uranium (LEU) at Iran’s primary enrichment plant at Natanz, which many analysts believe was hit by the Stuxnet virus in the fall of 2009.</p>
<p>While overall production of LEU appeared to have remained stable, there appears to have been an abrupt drop over the summer. Albright attributes this to problems Iran is having with acquiring centrifuge production materials, and to the lingering impact of Stuxnet. “Without question, they have been set back,” he told the Post.</p>
<p>But at the same time, the IAEA data shows that Iran has actually <em>increased significantly</em> the number of centrifuges that are actively spinning. So if their setbacks are temporary, they quite feasibly could dramatically increase their production in the very near future. That is just the opposite of what the Washington Post wants you to believe.</p>
<p>Albright has a history of downplaying the progress of Iran’s nuclear program, and tried to get Rep. Sylvester Reyes (D, Tx) to call back a report by the Republican staff of the House intelligence committee in 2007 once he took over as committee chairman.</p>
<p>The report warned that the IAEA and the U.S. intelligence community were downplaying the seriousness of Iran’s nuclear weapons efforts, in particular, its successful procurement of centrifuge gear from Pakistani nuclear weapons guru A. Q. Khan, as I <a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=24778">described on this website</a> at the time.</p>
<p>The HPSCI report criticized then IAEA Secretary General Mohamad ElBaradei for firing chief inspector Christophe Charlier, a U.S. nuclear weapons expert, for raising concerns about Iranian deception. Albright defended ElBaradei for firing the Charlier and <a href="http://www.isis-online.org/publications/iran/reportintelcommittee.pdf">called on HPSCI to recall</a> the report.</p>
<p>In a parallel report, released on Monday, Albright claimed that Iran appears to have abandoned using imported maraging steel to make the bellows of its new, more efficient uranium enrichment centrifuge design. Instead, they are using carbon fiber, a material Iran claims to be manufacturing locally.</p>
<p>There are several possible explanations for the shift. Albright says the most likely is that U.S. and international “sanctions may have forced Iran into choosing a less desirable technical centrifuge design.”</p>
<p>In fact, according to design information Iran provided the IAEA, Iran always intended to use carbon fiber for the bellows and rotors of its newer, more efficient IR-2 centrifuges, and is not resorting to a cheap substitute because of sanctions.</p>
<p>A fellow left-leaning analyst writing the <a href="http://lewis.armscontrolwonk.com/archive/1388/bellows-bearings-and-rotors">“arms control wonk” website</a> pointed out four years ago that Iran’s IR-2 (also known as P-2) centrifuges would be using carbon fiber, not maraging steel.</p>
<p>Despite this evidence, Albright concluded, “Constraints on Iran’s advanced centrifuge program have resulted directly from the effectiveness of targeted sanctions against critical goods necessary for the manufacture of centrifuge components.” That certainly warranted a front-page story in Tuesday’s Washington Post, since it gave the key to the “Peace in Our Time” theme that ran throughout.</p>
<p>But Warrick went even further by tying the apparent (and I believe, unsubstantiated) setbacks in Iran’s nuclear programs to the <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2011/10/13/if-only-they-had-picked-the-right-mexican-why-i-think-the-iran-saudi-terror-case-is-for-real/">apparent stumble-bunnie plot</a> to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington, DC.</p>
<p>‘“We’re used to seeing them do bad things, but this plot was so bizarre, it could be a sign of desperation, a reflection of the fact that they’re feeling under siege,” said [an Obama administration] official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity so he could discuss the matter candidly,” Warrick reported.</p>
<p>In other words, this attempted act of terror was not an act of war; it was the act of a desperate man that can be safely ignored.</p>
<p>To further enhance the impression that we have nothing to worry about, Warrick then hauled out a real whopper:</p>
<p>“U.S. officials have said that the alleged assassination plot originated from elements within Iran’s elite Quds Force, a covert paramilitary group. But <em>it is not clear whether the nation’s top leaders knew about or approved the plan</em>,” he wrote (emphasis mine).</p>
<p>Now the indictment states clearly that Gen. Qassem Suleymani, the head of the Quds Force, <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2011/10/13/if-only-they-had-picked-the-right-mexican-why-i-think-the-iran-saudi-terror-case-is-for-real/">approved the plot.</a> The Quds Force is the overseas expeditionary wing of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, the IRGC, and takes its orders directly from Supreme leader ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Gen. Suleymani is a close confidant of Khamenei. What more “top” leader could possible have approved such a plot?</p>
<p>The Obama White House believes that Khamenei feels trapped, and they are trying to give him some wiggle room. They argue that he is fighting for his political life against Ahmadinejad and Rafsanjani, both of whom would like to unseat him, and that he doesn’t have a direct line to Washington so he can arrange a Kumbaya moment with our president.</p>
<p>So what we are getting is excuses for the Iranian regime’s murderous impulses. Next perhaps will be, “the devil made him do it.”</p>
<p>The IAEA has already told us that Iran has <a href="http://kentimmerman.com/news/2011_06_02-iaea-iran-cold-test.htm">cold-tested the components of a workable nuclear weapons design</a>. Forget this nonsense about some illusory “setback” to their program. All clandestine nuclear weapons programs, including our own in the 1940s, have had their setbacks. Our biggest worry should be the upcoming nuclear weapons test Iran is planning to conduct with North Korea, especially if they focus on a smaller yield but potent EMP warhead.</p>
<p>Peace in our time? Sure, we’ve seen that film before, and we ought to know how it ends.</p>
<p>Stay tuned.</p>
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		<title>The Toothless Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/joseph-klein/the-toothless-nuclear-nonproliferation-treaty/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-toothless-nuclear-nonproliferation-treaty</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 17 May 2010 04:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Joseph Klein]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[How Obama's useless nuclear disarmament endangers us all.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/iran-nuclear-testing-wide-horizontal.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60332" title="Iran nuclear facility" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/iran-nuclear-testing-wide-horizontal.jpg" alt="" width="480" height="302" /></a></p>
<p>Every five years or so the United Nations hosts a foreign minister level conference to review the implementation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).  The United Nations has been hosting the latest such review conference this month.</p>
<p>This year, Iranian strongman Mahmoud Ahmadinejad decided to join the party.  He delivered, on the first morning of the review conference, his customary condemnation of Israel and of the United States while defending his country’s nuclear program.</p>
<p>Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke later the same day, accusing Iran of being the only country attending the UN review conference that is acting with impunity when held to account by the International Atomic Energy Agency and Security Council.  Iran, she said, is consistently violating its obligations under the NPT.   That was a good start, but then she rhetorically crouched into a defensive position.</p>
<p>Clinton said that President Obama had come to office with “an open hand” extended to the Iranian regime.  We “reached out” in many ways, she said, without elaborating and without acknowledging the fact that we have wasted over a year in this futile exercise while Iran marches on towards developing nuclear weapons.</p>
<p>Then, in order to show how transparent the United   States really is, Clinton announced that the Obama administration had decided to unilaterally reveal the number of nuclear arms in our arsenal.  She reiterated Obama’s unilateral pledge to develop no new nuclear weapons.  And, in an implied threat to Israel, Clinton said that the United States was &#8220;prepared to support practical measures&#8221; towards the objective of a nuclear-free Middle East – a stalking horse pushed by Egypt and other Muslim countries in the region to force Israel to give up its suspected nuclear arsenal without any means of assuring that Iran or the other Islamic countries would desist from pursuing their own nuclear arms ambitions.  This was not just feel-good rhetoric.  U.S. officials are reportedly in talks with Egypt over a plan to make the Middle East a nuclear-free zone.</p>
<p>Some have criticized Israel for not joining the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and refusing to declare its suspected nuclear arsenal.  However, Israel has observed the conduct of rogue states that have joined the NPT like North   Korea, which quit the treaty once it had successfully tested nuclear weapons, and Iran which regularly flouts its NPT obligations.  Faced with existential threats from Iran and its armed terrorist surrogates, Israel is correct in asserting that there must be real peace in the Middle  East before agreeing to any nuclear-free zone.</p>
<p>Hillary Clinton also mentioned in her speech at the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty review conference that the Obama administration would submit Protocols to the Senate for ratification regarding nuclear-free zones in Africa and the South Pacific.  However, our Secretary of State said nothing about maintaining a nuclear-free zone in Latin America even though there is a real threat of the spread of nuclear arms technology from Iran and North   Korea to Venezuela.  The reason for Clinton’s silence on Latin America, I believe, was not to embarrass Brazil, whose foreign minister addressed the UN conference immediately after Clinton.</p>
<p>Brazil, according to some reports, is busy moving forward with its own nuclear development program.  It has already had three secret military nuclear programs between 1975 and 1990, and is now embarking on the building of nuclear-powered submarines.  During his election campaign, Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva criticized the NPT, calling it unfair and obsolete.  Although Brazil has signed the treaty, it has placed restrictions on inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency and has defended Iran’s nuclear program.</p>
<p>President Obama has called Lula, as the Brazilian president is called, “my man.”  Obama said he “loved this guy,” calling him “the most popular politician in the world.” Yet Lula is the same man whose pals include Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez.  He is the same man who said that there was “no fraud in the Iranian election,” congratulating President Ahmadinejad on his stolen election.   He is the same man who decided to open a Brazilian embassy in North Korea shortly after Kim Jong Il’s missile testing. And he is the same man who laid flowers in the terrorist Yasser Arafat’s grave, but refused to follow the custom of other visiting presidents to Israel of laying down flowers in the grave of Theodor Herzl, revered in Israel as its founder.</p>
<p>Obama loves Lula and trusts him more than he trusts the leader of one of our closest allies, Israel.  He is willing to press Israel to give up its nuclear deterrent in pursuit of a nuclear-free Middle East that Iran is certain to ignore, while giving Lula (not to mention Hugo Chavez in Venezuela) a free pass to possibly pursue a nuclear arms capability.</p>
<p>Hillary Clinton’s speech to the UN Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty review conference was yet another demonstration of the appeasement policies that the Obama administration is recklessly pursuing.  It wants to show the world the virtues of nonproliferation by unilateral actions that put our security at risk.</p>
<p>The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty is ineffective and Clinton even admitted in her speech that it would not be fixed anytime soon to give it the enforcement teeth that it would need.  Yet the treaty appears to be a centerpiece of President Obama’s nuclear disarmament policy along with unilateral actions he is taking.</p>
<p>Not once did we hear Clinton mention the only multilateral mechanism that has proven effective in preventing dangerous nuclear proliferation &#8211; the Proliferation Security Initiative.  This Bush administration initiative involved naval surveillance and interdiction to stop the transport of nuclear arms materials and missile technology to and from states and non-state actors of proliferation concern.  It was used successfully, for example, to effectively end Libya’s nuclear ambitions.</p>
<p>President Obama has expressed support for enhancing the PSI, but there is scant evidence to date that he means it.  Instead of emphasizing muscular diplomacy to stop dangerous nuclear proliferation backed by a credible threat of interdiction, Obama wants to lead the way to total nuclear disarmament.  He may lead the way, but the world’s dictators who get their hands on nuclear materials will surely not follow.</p>
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