DEMOCRATS AND THE IRAN DEAL

Democrats are critical of the Iran deal but they stand behind the president in this agreement. The next few years will see if their gamble in supporting the president pays off.

Top congressional Democrats have done a great job laying out the terms of the Iran nuclear deal, a Free Beacon SuperCut finds.

These members of Congress explained how Iran will ramp up its campaign of terrorism and Middle East destabilization with funds gained through the nuclear deal. They expressed “concern”—grave concern, even—over key concessions such as the curtailment of inspections on Iran’s military sites, the removal of a ban on arms sales to Iran, and the 15-year sunset clause on restrictions to Iran’s ability to enrich nuclear material.

Still, as other Democrats have unceasingly reminded us, the Iran deal was ultimately an inviolable vote of conscience for each member of Congress.

OBAMA DOES HAVE A STRATEGY

Michael Ledeen argues that Obama does have a plan--he is trying to establish an alliance with Iran and is using Valerie Jarrett (of Iranian descent) as a major intermediary to the ayatollahs.

The actual strategy is detente first, and then a full alliance with Iran throughout the Middle East and North Africa. It has been on display since before the beginning of the Obama administration. During his first presidential campaign in 2008, Mr. Obama used a secret back channel to Tehran to assure the mullahs that he was a friend of the Islamic Republic, and that they would be very happy with his policies. The secret channel was Ambassador William G. Miller, who served in Iran during the shah’s rule, as chief of staff for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and as ambassador to Ukraine. Ambassador Miller has confirmed to me his conversations with Iranian leaders during the 2008 campaign.

Ever since, President Obama’s quest for an alliance with Iran has been conducted through at least four channels: Iraq, Switzerland (the official U.S. representative to Tehran), Oman and a variety of American intermediaries, the most notable of whom is probably Valerie Jarrett, his closest adviser. In recent months, Middle Eastern leaders reported personal visits from Ms. Jarrett, who briefed them on her efforts to manage the Iranian relationship. This was confirmed to me by a former high-ranking American official who says he was so informed by several Middle Eastern leaders.

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION BLOWING IT ON IRAN

From WAPO. And keep watching what Iran does in Iraq, because it could further disillusion the Saudis who are not keen on Shiites.

On Thursday, at the invitation of the pro-Israel group JINSA, former George W. Bush administration officials John Hannah and Eric Edelman, together with Ray Takeyh, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and Dennis Ross, former adviser to President Obama, assembled to discuss the prospects for a final Iranian deal. It was illuminating, to say the least.

Ross and the other panelists were emphatic that bringing Iran into the Iraq picture and allowing the mullahs to succeed in their aspiration of a Shiite state beholden to Tehran was a very bad idea. Ross reminded the audience that Iran has killed numerous Americans by its manufacture of improvised explosive devices and “in many ways Iran is responsible for what is happening in Iraq.”

It is easy to lose U.S. credibility in the world. We’ve done it before in the Middle East, Ross reminded us. But what is different now is that the administration thinks it has been wildly successful. It doesn’t use leverage and won’t use leverage because the president fails to admit that anything is amiss. As bizarre as this may sound, inside the White House bubble presidents — especially ones surrounded by political hacks — can convince themselves of a great many things. This one seems especially prone to do so.

IRAN SIMULATES NUCLEAR ATTACK ON ISRAEL

Secretary of State Kerry and President Obama are negotiating a nuclear inspection agreement with Iran, but the Iranian people are seeing pictures like this.

A report on Obama's secret negotiations to bring about detente with Iran.  Will Obama be able to outfox the ayatollahs?

Israel's view. Israel’s most painful lesson from the two-day Geneva conference on Iran’s nuclear program is that the man who guaranteed to defend Israel’s security, President Barack Obama, is now marching hand in hand with Tehran towards a nuclear-armed Iran.

OBAMA & IRAN

It is hard to know whether Obama lied or just didn't know what he was talking about, but the London Daily Mail has reported on a serious misrepresentation that Obama has recently made.

An organization that monitors foreign-language media broadcasts in the Middle East said Sunday that one of the central claims President Obama is using to justify negotiating with Iran is a 'lie.'

Obama claimed during his Sept. 24 address before the United Nations General Assembly that Iran's supreme leader, Ali Hosseini Khamenei, 'has issued a fatwa against the development of nuclear weapons.' He repeated that claim three days later in the White House briefing room

But MEMRI, the Middle East Media Research Institute, claims there is no evidence any such fatwa exists.

And Rouhani is saying he turned down 5 requests from Obama to meet at the UN!  This doesn't make Obama look good.

SITUATION IN IRAN

Excellent summary of the political factions in Iran and how it may be impacting current problems.  There is a power struggle occurring.

More on Iranian infighting.

IRAN PENETRATING VENEZUELA

Iran is laundering billions of dollars through Venezuela and Hezbollah is setting  up bases to expand its operations into the western hemisphere.  Terrorism is growing closer to home.  I haven't seen this covered in the media, but it is from an "off-the-record" State Department official. 

IRAN IN THE BALKANS

The presence of Iranians in Sarajevo has increased (not to neglect other Islamic groups).  It could pose some serious issues for Europe, especially with Iran developing nuclear weapons.  And there are large Muslim minorities in most European countries (although most are Sunnis and not Shias).

The threat Iran and its proxies pose to Western interests in the Balkans is multiplied by the growth of Wahhabi movements in Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, and the mountainous Sandzak region straddling the border between Montenegro and Serbia. In remote, isolated villages throughout the Western Balkans, Wahhabi groups have developed a network of extra-territorial, sharia-run enclaves that over the past two decades have become safe havens and recruiting grounds for jihadis from around the world. Under the guise of running “youth camps,” Islamist extremists in recent years have systematically transported young people into national parks or local hills and forests where they are given military training by former mujahedin. The camps are intentionally transitory, re-established in different places and under different auspices each year, to make it more difficult for security officials to track them, but despite their ad hoc nature they have been effective in fostering the relationships needed for creating extremist networks.