There is a direct line from Obama's 2015 Iran deal to President Trump needing to bomb Fordow this weekend.
Until spring 2015, the U.S. position was that of course the Iranian regime had to close Fordow, because it was so obviously part of a military nuclear weapons program.
In December 2013, Obama had said "We know they don’t need to have an underground, fortified facility like Fordow in order to have a peaceful program." In February 2014, Wendy Sherman had repeated that position in a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing: "As the President said..."
In response to Sherman's testimony, the very next day, Zarif said that the American stance was "worthless" and the Obama negotiators would have to cave. Guess what happened next.
At the end of March 2015, Iran deal negotiators went to Lausanne, Switzerland for talks to get to a preliminary framework agreement.
To get the Iranians to say yes, Team Obama had begun with day 1 concessions on keeping Fordow open and letting the Iranian regime slide on past nuclear weapons work (a few days later the Iranians would pull a bait-and-switch on how their stockpile was calculated, which would cascade in diplomatic and technical ways through the rest of talks, so that when the deal was implemented the next year they would ask for and get secret carveouts to keep enriched uranium beyond what the deal allowed. They were always cheating).
Anyway, by April 2 the parties were ready to announce a framework and held a press conference at the Swiss Federal Technology Institute, where they confirmed a range of concessions the Obama administration had been denying all week.
Jan 12, 2024 • 7 tweets • 6 min read
The Biden admin made a Day 1 decision to appease Iran and dismantle Houthi sanctions.
They knew they were doing bad things for bad reasons so they lied to the public and reporters about their decision. As the Houthis escalated, they couldn't respond.
They're still doing it. 🧵
On Jan 11, 2021, the Trump administration imposed terrorism sanctions on the Houthis as a group and on their terrorist leaders. To limit any humanitarian fallout they broadly exempted aid groups, agriculture, medicine, etc.
But Washington DC's expert class – think tankers, journalists, the Hill, Democrat operatives, etc. – always considered anything Trump did on foreign policy illegitimate, and at this point we were post-January 6 so they were convinced they'd be in power forever. They bragged that they were going to quickly and permanently reshape America and American foreign policy. Especially Iran policy: Rob Malley, who had hired operatives who literally answered to Iranian regime figures, was put in charge of America’s Iran policy.
Remember also that for the Obama-Biden foreign policy crew everything is comms. The Trump administration's late sanctions announcement had left the issue at the top of the news cycle.
So here's Blinken at his first press availability, on Jan 28. He was asked which Trump administration policies from "the last several months" he was going to prioritize reversing. He said Houthi sanctions. "That's the priority in my book."
Nov 7, 2023 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
At the Washington Post it's all hands on deck.
These are their news reporters by the way. This isn't their opinion side, which publishes Iranian terrorists. These is what counts as journalism over there right now.
Nov 7, 2022 • 51 tweets • 11 min read
For half a decade the political left - Dems, journos, Big Tech, politicized law enforcement, echo chamber experts and academics, etc. - convulsed the US with psychotic conspiracy theories about how Republicans steal elections. They said it was treason, murder, and fascism. 1/50
2/50
Oct 29, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
The debate over the lab leak theory was driven by anti-Trump hysteria (of course justified in identity language).
What no one could ever explain was US intel showing the Chinese knew what they had on their hands by Dec 2019. And some of the intel was declassified so no excuses.
I remember talking to journalists in spring 2021 when some of the intel was coming together about PPE hoarding and telling them they should pump the brakes on their "Republicans falsely assert..." headlines. But the needs of The Narrative and Orange Man Bad were more important.
Aug 17, 2022 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
Periodic reminder: the Kabul airport attack which killed 13 US servicemembers was the result of a political, comms-driven decision by Team Biden to run up the total number of Afghan evacuees, which they did as damage ctrl for abandoning Americans. No one's been held accountable🧵
For Team Biden everything is comms. Acela Corridor articles and tweets might as well be reality.
For Afghanistan that meant pushing back vs criticism that they were incompetent and weak. At first they said they'd planned for "every contingency" & wouldn't leave Americans behind.
Mar 24, 2022 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
I mean, it's just unbelievable.
Here's what happens when you do a Google search of the WH website for 'sanctions deter Russia Ukraine' and start opening transcripts straight down. Nothing fancy. Not even alternative forms like "deterrence."
Sullivan: "The President believes that sanctions are intended to deter. And in order for them to work - to deter..."
Jan 2, 2021 • 14 tweets • 4 min read
I'm morbidly fascinated by the rhetorical conceit where journos & other Dem operatives are tweeting as if they didn't just spend 4 years establishing New Rules about litigating elections. They're not arguing, just tweeting as if. The fascination is - I wonder if they believe it.
Oct 27, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Aug 16, 2020 • 32 tweets • 7 min read
I mean, you can't do what leftwing journalists and operatives did to a democratic polity - you can't institutionalize paranoia as the aesthetic and sensibility of one-half of the country, let alone really dumb paranoia - and expect to come out whole on the other side.
Neutrinos will no longer be said to oscillate but will instead be called stunning and brave.
Dec 27, 2018 • 12 tweets • 4 min read
Great achievements in CNN chyrons, 2018 edition. A thread.
A couple of these I snapped myself. Most of them I stole from Twitter over the last year and have no idea who to credit. For that I apologize. 1/
This guy is the "Must Be Aliens" meme except for people who think their tweets about Eisenhower and the 25th amendment are real life. 2/
At the end of March 2015, Iran deal negotiators went to Lausanne, Switzerland for talks to get to a preliminary framework agreement.
