The TV news and other media are ablaze with headlines saying "Americans skeptical of Iran Deal" or "Senator says Kerry was fleeced." My take on this is that while all of them are correct it makes no difference. The Iran deal is a done deal and there will be no going back, at least or until a Republican occupies the White House. Get over it.
During the next 60 days or so there will be blustering by Senators and Congressman, and hand-wringing by others (like me) but all of it will mean nothing. The agreement is dishonest and disgusting and it brings the Middle East closer to an all-out arms race, if not a nuclear holocaust.
But so what? If the president can garner one-third plus-one vote (that's 1/3 plus 1 vote) in either the House or the Senate, the Iran accord becomes law. This is the most convoluted voting scam I've ever heard of, but that's what Congress agreed to and America is stuck with it. Without a doubt there will be at least 31 Democrats in the Senate and enough Democrats in the House (with maybe a few RINOs joining in) who will vote to let the president get away with implementing this very bad, very dumb and very dangerous deal.
John Kerry, Secretary of State and our chief negotiator, got nothing for us out of this deal. Iran is holding four American citizens hostage, but releasing them was never part of the discussion. Supposedly we (meaning the UN's IAEA inspectors) were to be allowed "anytime and anywhere inspections." Wrong! We are not allowed to inspect any of Iran's military bases nor can we inspect a facility known as Fordow where we believe Iran has secretly enriched uranium and installed thousands of centrifuges. Inspections will be allowed (maybe) 24 days after we submit a written request (this could be stretched to 59 days) and Iran gets to supply to us the evidence we are seeking if we suspect it is cheating. I could go on ad infinitum (and ad nauseam) but you get the idea. It is an exceedingly bad deal.
What we knew about the agreement is bad enough but we've learned recently it contains secret riders. We only know about these secret addendums thanks to our Senator Tom Cotton, who along with Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) traveled to Vienna to meet with IAEA inspectors who disclosed the secret side agreements, the contents of which are known only to the IAEA and the Ayatollah. I find it hard to believe that Kerry has not seen the contents of these secret side agreements. Was he asleep at the table when the Iranians and the IAEA worked on these things? Anyhow, Kerry says he's never seen them, yet he's offered to brief Congress about them. I'll leave it to you to figure that out. But none of that matters because the deal is done.
Hillary could be in trouble
Two Inspectors General made referrals to the Department of Justice contending that Hillary Clinton's State Department emails contained classified material. Of course Hillary denies these allegations. She said: "I did not email classified material to anyone on my email." However, one of the Inspectors General took exception to her statement and told a Congressional investigating committee: "To be clear -- the four emails mentioned were classified when they were sent and they are classified now."
An article in Politico pointed out another problem for Hillary. "It's a violation of Federal law for a government official to knowingly move materials containing classified information to an unauthorized location." Of course we all know that Hillary claims she maintained all her communications on a server that she kept at her home in New York. I caution you to not get your hopes up too high because this shady Justice Department could refuse the referrals, meaning it won't prosecute Hillary. We'll just have to wait and see. If Justice decides to accept this referral it could mean big trouble for her.
I opine, you decide.
-- Willie Williams is a Siloam Springs resident. He can be reached at [email protected]. The opinions expressed are those of the author.
Editorial on 07/29/2015