Sanctioned by Iran. Mostly national security on X. Senior Adviser @FDD. Past: @SenatorKirk; US-China Working Group; @WHNSC45; @GovRauner; @navy_reserve.
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Apr 21 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
“Josh Paul leaves Biden administration for DAWN, which supports BDS and calls Israel an apartheid state”
This is not hard to piece together folks. The documents will not stand up to scrutiny once we have a full and honest public debate about what DAWN is. jewishinsider.com/2024/02/josh-p…
“A recent ProPublica report documented that despite recommendations of the State Department's "Leahy Vetting Forum" to sanction Israeli military units, including one unit whose abuses DAWN documented, Secretary Blinken has acted alone in refusing to impose the legally required, non-discretionary sanctions.” dawnmena.org/secretary-of-s…
Jan 24 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
The outrage isn't that Israel is finally calling out Qatar as a state sponsor of Hamas that is responsible for the hostages. The outrage is that it took more than 100 days for it to happen. And that the White House is still covering for Doha. Pressure on Qatar long overdue.
Qatar's sleazy scheme began within hours of 10/7. Reaching out to the US to offer support to get hostages back. Activating its influence network in the US and Israel. A Qatari-funded NGO serving as senior advisor for strategy for Hostage HQ -- even right now. This has to end.
Jan 23 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Northwestern President’s “Advisory Committee on Preventing Antisemitism and Hate” launches with clear intent to block any recognition of antisemitism at the university. The co-chair and membership make that clear. This is absurd. northwestern.edu/leadership-not…
Meet this helpful member of the committee, an activist in the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement: canarymission.org/professor/Jess…
Dec 21, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Tonight’s provably false statement from @NorthwesternU responding to a new campaign calling on the university to combat antisemitism: These are outlandish claims not based on facts, including the claim that “student and faculty groups ‘resoundingly support’ Hamas Terrorism.”
From the Northwestern Students for Justice in Palestine Instagram:
Nov 17, 2023 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
Here's a thread to respond to each misleading claim just issued by the National Security Council in attempt to conceal its $10 billion sanctions waiver for Iran, which is likely tied to a still unacknowledged nuclear deal that evades mandatory Congressional review requirements.
Myth: "This was the 21st time the U.S. government approved this waiver, continuing a practice that began under the Trump Administration. It does not represent any changes in our policy regarding Iran or Iraq."
Facts: This is the second time the U.S. government has approved THIS waiver. The first time was in July and Biden had the chance to stop this sanctions relief after October 7. He chose to keep the sanctions relief flowing. The Trump administration did not issue THIS waiver. The prior policy was to trap Iraqi payments in escrow in Baghdad. This is a major policy change allowing Iran to convert Iraqi dinars into euros and move the money to third countries for broad-based budget support purposes.
This is an administration completely twisted in knots. Blinken's speech is all over the place. I can't tell if the policy is to support the destruction of Hamas or to undermine that objective.
Blinken blames Hamas for using human shields then pivots to reward the practice of using human shields - letting Hamas know it works and will lead to pressure on Israel. Blinken says more aid is needed for Gaza, but then admits Hamas is stealing the aid.
Waiver issued in July to allow Iran to move $10+ billion frozen funds out of Iraq to third country reported by @Reuters reuters.com/business/energ…
Jun 8, 2023 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Some 101 for those suddenly trading oil on speculation of an Iran nuclear deal. The Biden administration is already tacitly allowing Iran to export 1 million bpd by failing to enforce US sanctions. Authorizing the licit purchase of another million bpd, however, requires a waiver.
US sanctions on Iran's oil exports are statutory. Thus, promising Iran a waiver for oil exports tied to nuclear concessions by Iran triggers a law called the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act (INARA), which prohibits the waiver for 30 days pending Congressional review.
Jun 27, 2022 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
As Iran Deal talks restart, Rob Malley is counting on everyone in Washington having fallen asleep at the wheel over the last few weeks, forgetting the details of a horrible deal already on the table. Here's a reminder of some major problems Malley will try to ignore. 🧵
President Biden says the IRGC Quds Force is a terrorist organization. But Malley is offering to lift terrorism sanctions on the group's top financiers. Congress should declare it will reimpose any and all IRGC-connected sanctions that are lifted in a deal. wsj.com/articles/foil-…
Mar 9, 2022 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
A lot of ink being spilled over Saudi Arabia ignoring White House requests to increase oil production. The contrast to the close coordination between the Trump administration and Riyadh in 2019 in stabilizing the market when Trump ended Iran oil sanctions waivers is striking. 1/
The US-Saudi relationship historically, albeit with certain exception, was built on the concept of oil for security. Saudi swings to stabilize the market when needed and the US provides security guarantees to defend Saudi Arabia. 2/
Apr 23, 2021 • 14 tweets • 6 min read
The Biden administration is having great difficulty spinning why it is offering to lift terrorism sanctions on Iran when everyone from @BarackObama to @POTUS to @SecBlinken told the American people the US is allowed to keep terrorism sanctions on Iran during JCPOA.
The Obama White House in 2015: "Authorities will remain in place to allow the U.S. government to target Iran’s support for terrorism. For example, Executive Order 13224, a broad terrorism authority...would be retained under the JCPOA." obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/…
Feb 22, 2021 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
As Iran announces it will halt complementary access requests by the International Atomic Energy Agency under the Additional Protocol, let's remember that Iran was already in breach of its AP commitment last year during a stand-off over undeclared nuclear sites. Short thread.
The media focuses a lot on what we can see Iran doing: enrichment. What Iran wants us to see for their own extortion strategy to gain sanctions relief without giving up its nuclear ambitions. It's time to focus on what we don't see - what Iran doesn't want us to see or to learn.
Feb 18, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
And here we go. Biden just reversed US policy and endorsed: an Iranian enrichment program, nuclear sunsets, nuclear-capable missile testing and Iran's import of advanced conventional weapons from Russia and China. The move raises a number of questions. reuters.com/article/us-ira…
Executive Order 13949 threatens sanctions against persons who attempt to transfer arms to Iran. It is the unilateral imposition of an arms embargo on Iran via US secondary sanctions in the absence of consensus over UN snapback. Is Biden planning to rescind or not enforce it now?
Feb 16, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Notable how the Biden administration is going out of its way to avoid using even the most veiled of military threats like "we will never allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons." True for the nuclear file; true last night after attack on US forces. Dangerous projection of weakness.
Thursday's press briefing...
Q: Obama used to say before JCPOA that it was unacceptable for Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon, explicitly ruled out containment of a nuclear Iran as a policy option & reserved all options to prevent Iran from obtaining a bomb. state.gov/briefings/depa…
Jan 14, 2021 • 15 tweets • 6 min read
One of the most important statements on Mideast policy over the past four years. It's more than eight years in the making. USG finally upends the fiction of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). Numbers & policy statements to be cited by scholars for years. Thread.
UNRWA claims to serve millions of “Palestinian refugees." These "refugees" are in some cases kept in poverty and hopelessness, told they are waiting for the day when they will return to their rightful homes within modern Israel (to end the Jewish majority of the state).
Dec 6, 2020 • 13 tweets • 4 min read
Just read this @DanielBShapiro, which essentially asks “why can’t we all just get along” if a Biden administration decides to go back into the Iran nuclear deal. Sounds nice on its face but the details reveal at least three major fallacies. Thread. washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/1…
First, if you accept premise the Iran deal was "good" for US/Israel in first 5 years, but then good for Iran once sunsets kicked in, you’d have to conclude the deal today is now "bad" for US/Israel. The first sunset has already kicked in (arms embargo). The second comes in 2023.
Nov 8, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Four days later, I stand by this tweet. I was a Republican staffer on Capitol Hill when I served as a reservist in Afghanistan. My commander in chief was President Obama. I was honored to serve in the Trump administration. And I congratulate President-elect Biden and his team. /1
We have serious policy differences in America. How to create economic opportunity. How to empower everyone in our country to achieve the American dream. How to keep our country safe & secure. These differences will continue. High-minded debate makes us all better. /2
Aug 21, 2020 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
THREAD. Reading E3 letter to the Security Council (which by the way shreds any credibility for those countries to ever opine on the virtues of international law again) it becomes clear that they (plus Russia and China) would have said a US snapback in May 2018 was invalid, too.
Obama, Biden, Kerry, Sherman, Lew & others vowed the US could snapback even if all other countries opposed it. Were they lying? Was that the understanding? Are these official lying today when they say we could have in 2018 but we can't now? Was this supposed to be a jump ball?
Aug 16, 2020 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
THREAD. This is an important issue to tackle because I see variations of this argument out there. It basically concedes that the US *does* have the legal right to snapback based on the reading of UNSCR 2231 but that the snapback will be meaningless because Russia will ignore it.
First, procedure matters a great deal because the question of enforcement and legitimacy will have a lot to do with what has happened (or hasn't happened) at the end of the 30-day snapback period. Did the UNSC take a vote on a resolution to ignore a complaint as required by 2231?
Aug 16, 2020 • 6 tweets • 4 min read
THREAD. Wendy, did you ever read the Resolution you negotiated? Operative Paragraphs 9-12. A legally independent snapback is in the plain text of UNSCR 2231 as is the US' eligibility to trigger it (with no provision for ever changing that eligibility). undocs.org/S/RES/2231(201…
Here's @wendyrsherman on August 5, 2015: "If Iran fails to meet its responsibilities, we can ensure that UN Security Council sanctions snap back into place, and no country can stop that from happening.” Where did Wendy 2015 go? banking.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/…
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