A pro-Israel and anti-Iran stance written in a Letter to Obama on the P5+1 negotiations shortly before reaching the June 30 deadline, covered by CNN GPS host Fareed Zakaria on Sunday.
- “It was signed by 18 experts, including five former top Obama administration officials who were critical advisers on Iran. Those senior advisers include former State Department official Robert Einhorn, former White House official Gary Samore, former State Department adviser Dennis Ross and retired Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. James Cartwright.
Members of a bipartisan group of experts have been meeting regularly within the last three years, under the auspices of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy [WINEP] to discuss the Iran nuclear issue, the letter said.”
[Source: The Hill]
I had expressed my low opinion of the GPS Show here in a comment to Booman’s fp story My Hunch On Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Nuclear Bomb.
Former Obama aides slam the Iran nuclear deal | MSM – Business Insider – Reuters |
A group of prominent American security advisers, including five with ties to President Barrack Obama’s first term, warned on Wednesday that a deal on curbing Iran’s nuclear program was at risk of failing to provide adequate safeguards.
In an open letter, the group of former U.S. officials and foreign policy experts cautioned that an Iran nuclear deal would “fall short of meeting the administration’s own standard of a ‘good’ agreement” unless it included a tougher line on United Nations nuclear inspections and conditions for sanctions relief.
The release of the letter, which was signed by Dennis Ross, an adviser [to Hillary Clinton] on Iran and the Middle East in Obama’s first term, comes as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry prepares to fly to Vienna on Friday to join the talks.
Negotiations between Iran and six major powers are aimed at reaching an agreement under which Tehran would curtail its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
“Most of us would have preferred a stronger agreement,” the letter released by the Washington Institute said. “The agreement will not prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapons capability. It will not require the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. It will, however, reduce that infrastructure for the next 10 to 15 years.”
In addition to Ross, the letter was signed by David Petraeus, former CIA director [plea deal convict breach of US Secrets Act] and U.S. commander in Iraq, Robert Einhorn, a former member of the U.S. negotiating team with Iran, retired U.S. General James Cartwright and Gary Samore [Clinton-era NSC official], an Obama adviser on nuclear policy turned president of the [pro-Israel] advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran.
Gary Samore is an academic and former White House adviser who serves as president of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), an advocacy group that promotes a hardline U.S. stance on Iran’s nuclear enrichment program. He is also the executive director of Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, which has hosted foreign policy hawks like Eric Edelman, Meghan O’Sullivan, Paula Dobriansky, and Robert Zoellick.
Samore, who was a founding member of UANI’s advisory board, was hired to lead the organization in September 2013, just as negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 powers appeared to be gaining momentum. Although UANI claims to have a politically centrist posture, its board has been heavily weighted with neoconservatives and rightwing nationalists, including James Woolsey, Roger Noriega, Henry Sokolski, Mike Gerson, Mark Lagon, and Otto Reich.
[Source: RightWeb – profiles]
The letter was also signed by Stephen Hadley [edited Colin Powell’s UN presentation full of lies to go to war in Iraq] , a national security adviser [Neocon and advocate for the removal of president Assad in Syria] to both former President George W. Bush and his brother, Republican presidential contender Jeb Bush.
Iran is hoping to reach a deal with six world powers — Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States — in exchange for relief from international sanctions. Negotiations are widely expected to slide past a self-imposed June 30 deadline.
Coalition of the Willing Against Iran: US Justice Dept, Ungar, UANI and Mossad
Where is U.S. Foreign policy drafted? In think-tanks, billionaires, political friends and business alliances? WTF
(Pakistan Defense Forum) – Mark D. Wallace, chief executive of United Against Nuclear Iran and a former Bush administration official, also would not discuss it. In court documents, the group’s lawyers call Mr. Restis’s lawsuit “little more than a thinly veiled effort to silence a U.S. organization’s efforts to prevent business transactions with Iran and thwart Iran’s efforts to obtain nuclear weapons.”
Founded in 2008, United Against Nuclear Iran is run and advised by a long list of former government officials. Its advisers include Joseph I. Lieberman, the former Democratic senator from Connecticut; Francis Townsend, the former homeland security adviser to President George W. Bush; Dennis B. Ross, a former Middle East adviser to both Republican and Democratic presidents; and former intelligence chiefs from Israel, Germany and Britain.
“It is not clear what the government believes it risks from the revelation of the group’s donor list and internal documents. According to the Times, the government is prohibited from secretly working with non-government groups to influence public opinion.
Among others, Restis wants to subpoena Meir Dagan, a former chief of the Israeli Mossad spy agency who is an adviser to the group, and Rami Ungar, an Israeli businessman Restis claims approached him on behalf of backers of United Against Nuclear Iran in order to settle the case.”
With about $1.7 million a year in donations, the group has lobbied Congress and helped draft legislation. But it is best known for its “name and shame” campaigns, which unearth information about Western companies suspected of doing business with Iran. Using news releases, letters, Facebook and its website, the group pressures them to stop.
- ○ US Justice Dep’t Successfully Shields Anti-Iran Group’s Files In Court
○ U.S. Anti-Iran Lobby Group Accused of Mossad Ties | Tikun Olam |
Still a damning article on why Hillary Clinton should not be nominated by the Democrats to run as their candidate for President of the United States of America …
○ Our Hawk Running the State Department with USIP Support by Oui on June 9, 2012
