Saturday Email Bag -- Iran Has Hustled Obama

It's Saturday Email Bag time (join at casey.popshots@yahoo.com) and this week there was only one topic -- the Iran nuclear deal. Is it good...bad...a danger to Israel...likely to break up the normal Middle East American alliance with Arab states and Israel. ~~~~~ President Obama is pressing for acceptance of his Iran nuclear deal in various ways. He had his own disastrous news conference, in which his timid words suggested that the US was the junior member at the table, tiptoeing so as not to anger a big bad Iran. ~~~~~ Obama has also sent National Security Advisor Susan Rice to talk to the media in the same way he sent her to Sunday political shows to talk about Benghazi. Rice spun tales about a video causing the Benghazi attack and death of Ambassador Chris Stevens -- spin that proved to be untrue, casting doubt on the truthfulness of Rice, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Obama. Rice must have learned some sort of lesson from the Benghazi farce, because she seems to be brutally frank in her comments about the Iran deal -- leaving behind her a swath of negative impressions about the ability of the Obama/Kerry team to negotiate any terms that protect the US, the EU, sunni Arab states or Israel from Iran's nuclear-terrorist intentions. In Rice's long interview with Reuters, she said the only goal of the Iran deal was to prevent its having a nuclear bomb. Yesterday, Rice talked to CNN's Wolf Blitzer, telling him that the US will not be part of Iran inspection teams. Blitzer was clearly astounded by Rice's admission. Here is the key segment of their conversation. **BLITZER: “Let’s clarify a few points as far as the nuclear deal with Iran is concerned. I take it that all of the IAEA inspection teams all inspectors who go in will have to be from countries that have formal, full diplomatic relations with Iran. As a result, no Americans will directly be involved in any on the ground inspections in Iran -- is that right?” **RICE: “Wolf, yes. The IAEA, which is a highly respected international organization, will field an international team of inspectors. And those inspectors will in all likelihood come from IAEA member-states, most of whom have diplomatic relationships with Iran. We of course are a rare exception.” **BLITZER: “No Americans - I want to be precise on this. Sorry for interrupting. No Americans will be on the ground in Iran actually inspecting?” **RICE: “No Americans will be part of the IAEA inspection teams.” **BLITZER: “Will Americans be outside? ” **RICE: “There are Americans in Iran on a daily basis, Wolf. I’m not sure what you are asking.” **BLITZER: “American government officials or military officials who could be inspecting?” **RICE: “There are not going to be independent American inspectors separate from the IAEA. The IAEA will do the inspections on behalf of the United States and the rest of the international community.” **BLITZER: “I know there are American tourists and Americans who go visit family members in Iran. I’m talking US government-sent people, diplomats or others to go in there and see what is going on. I take it they will not be doing that?” **RICE: “I don’t anticipate that, no.” ~~~~~ Friday, Secretary of State Kerry appeared on MSNBC to defend the 24-day delay in the "managed" inspections between the time the IAEA asks for an inspection and Iran grants it. The deal allows IAEA inspectors to visit suspect Iranian facilities, but the inspections may only take place 24 days after a request. American allies, especially Israel and Saudi Arabia, see this as a major flaw and a loophole for concealing forbidden nuclear work. But Kerry insisted that UN inspectors will have plenty of time to detect any Iranian bid to cheat : “I can assure you our intelligence community is completely comfortable that 24 days is not enough time for them to be able to evade our technical means, our capacity to observe." Susan Rice had already 'explained' it in her Reuters interview, saying the deal would not give Iran any room to oppose inspections if Washington or others had information believed to reveal a secret site. They would take their information to the IAEA for review, according to Rice : "If the Iranians said, 'No, you can't see that site,' whether it's a military site or not, the IAEA, if it deems the site suspicious, can ask for access to it. If Iran refuses access but five of the eight international signatories to the deal demand an investigation under a newly created joint commission, Iran must comply. It's not a request. It's a requirement. Iran would be bound to grant that access." Rice has clearly never heard of Iran's suspected military nuclear facilities that the IAEA has been trying to get access to for ten years. ~~~~~ Obama is also sending Defense Secretary Ash Carter to Saudi Arabia to convince skeptical allies about the benefits of the Iran nuclear deal. Carter's trip next week, which the White House had announced, will now include a stop in Israel this weekend. Carter will, according to Rice, also look at ways to deepen US security cooperation with Israel : "We will...be looking forward, if the Israelis are interested and willing, they haven't said so yet, to discuss with them how we might further deepen and strengthen our security and intelligence cooperation," Rice said. Really! We might wonder whether Susan Rice sees Israel as an ally or a fly in the Iran ointment. ~~~~~ ~~~~~ Listening to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, we might also wonder whether he sees America as a fly in the P5+1 deal ointment. Today, he withheld his verdict on the nuclear deal, and in a defiant address vowed enduring opposition to America and its Middle East policies, saying Washington sought Iran's 'surrender.' Speaking at a Tehran mosque, Khamenei joined in the crowd's chants of "Death to America" and "Death to Israel." Khamenei said he would not allow the disruption of Iran's revolutionary principles or defensive abilities : "Whether the deal is approved or disapproved, we will never stop supporting our friends in the region and the people of Palestine, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Bahrain and Lebanon. Even after this deal, our policy toward the arrogant US will not change." Khamenei's remarks reflect a broad mistrust of US intentions, as he declared that if war broke out, America would come off worst, nursing "a broken head." He said the slogans of "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" show what Iranians think. "We have repeatedly said we don't negotiate with the US on regional or international affairs; not even on bilateral issues. There are some exceptions like the nuclear program that we negotiated with Americans to serve our interests." He said US policies in the region were "180 degrees" opposed to Iran’s policies. ~~~~~ And finally, last Friday in Teheran, just as the P5+1 were in Vienna wrapping up their deal with the Iranians, on the streets of Iran crowds were celebrating "Al-Quds Day," the day -- inaugurated by the late Ayatollah Khomeini and named for the foreign component of the Revolutionary Guard -- when anti-Israel and anti-American activity is highlighted even more than usual. Tens of thousands of Iranians march in the streets calling for the end of Israel and "Death to America." Israeli and American flags were burned. "Moderate" Iranian President Hassan Rouhani appeared at one of the parades to see the Israeli and American flags being burned. Did he intervene? Did he explain to the crowd that they were behind the curve? No. ~~~~~ Dear readers, we are up to our waists in alligators. An uninformed, anti-history White House team led by a naive, timid President has been hustled by Iran's experts at diplomatic sleight of hand. Obama is not Steve McQueen coming back to beat the Hustler another day. This is Obama winding up like the Sundance Kid...driven off a cliff by outlaw militia who pretend to be legitimate. There is no tomorrow. In the P5+1, Germany and Britain will buckle. The UN joined the Hustlers long ago. Russia and China have always been Hustlers. Obama, Kerry and Rice are fighting to save not the world but the Hustlers -- in the name of "Legacy," a word that should be stricken from presidential vocabularies. I have called for a real Middle East coalition to save themselves because Obama will not save them. The frightening truth is that Obama will not save the West or America, either. For reasons buried too deep inside him to be adequately analyzed, Barack Obama has joined the Iranian Hustlers. America and Europe must now look to Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan to save them. With sufficient voter pressure, Congress may stand tall, but nothing is less sure. A new Republican President in 2017 will still have a chance to reverse this suicidal trend, but not just any GOP President -- it must be the person who both undersrands the depth of the crisis and has the backbone to face it down. Chamberlain proved it once. Obama has proved it twice. Appeasement does not work. Where is our Churchill?