
I have written several articles on postings related to politics. A list of links have been provided at bottom of this article for your convenience. This article will, however address different aspects on these political events.
Did former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, as a private citizen, collude with Iran in order to undermine then-President Donald Trump and save the nuclear deal?
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif met with multiple current Biden administration officials several years ago to “undermine” former President Trump’s dealings with the country, a report claims. One of the meetings between Zarif and Robert Malley, now the special envoy for Iran policy, took place in 2019 after Trump withdrew the US from the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal, The Washington Times reported Sunday. Former Secretary of State John Kerry also met with Zarif in the first few years of Trump’s presidency — which he had publicly acknowledged. And so did Obama-era Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, the report said. WNU Editor: Former Secretary of State John Kerry has confirmed that he has met with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif in the first few years of Trump’s presidency. I am sure they did not meet to discuss the weather. The optics …. to put it bluntly …. are not good.
Remember when Senator Tom Cotton sending a warning letter to Iran was denounced as a Logan Act violation? Secretary of State, whose entire career has been one long Logan Act violation, threw in his two cents.
“My reaction to the letter was utter disbelief,” Kerry said. “During my 29 years here in the Senate, I have never heard of, nor even heard of it being proposed, anything comparable to this. If I had, I can guarantee you no matter what the issue and no matter who was president, I would have certainly rejected it.”
“Nobody is questioning anybody’s right to dissent,” Kerry added. “But to write to the leaders in the middle of a negotiation, particularly the leaders that they have criticized other people for even engaging with, and suggest that they’re going to give a constitutional lesson — which by the way, was absolutely incorrect — is quite stunning. This letter ignores more than two centuries of precedence in the conduct of American foreign policy.”
He sat down at the United Nations with Foreign Minister Javad Zarif to discuss ways of preserving the pact limiting Iran’s nuclear weapons program. It was the second time in about two months that the two had met to strategize over salvaging a deal they spent years negotiating during the Obama administration, according to a person briefed on the meetings.
Utter disbelief.
Except of course he had done this with the Viet Cong, while not in office, and with the Sandinistas, while in office. Now he’s “negotiating” illegally with his Iranian collaborator.
Kerry also met last month with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and he’s been on the phone with top European Union official Federica Mogherini, according to the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal the private meetings. Kerry has also met with French President Emmanuel Macron in both Paris and New York, conversing over the details of sanctions and regional nuclear threats in both French and English.
If the Dems want us to take the Logan Act seriously, lock him up.
With the Iran deal facing its gravest threat since it was signed in 2015, Kerry has been on an aggressive yet stealthy mission to preserve it, using his deep lists of contacts gleaned during his time as the top US diplomat to try to apply pressure on the Trump administration from the outside.
Putting pressure on the United States government in collaboration with foreign regimes, some of them, like Iran, hostile.
You know what’s a good term for that… collusion.
I’m waiting for the FBI to raid his home, office and hotel room, spy on his phone calls (despite the communications with a terror state, I doubt anyone at the NSA is listening) and force him to spend hundreds of thousands on legal bills.
The law is supposed to apply equally to both parties. Isn’t it?
And if the Dems want to hunt for Russian collusion, Putin is the guy behind Iran. So, Kerry can be said to be colluding with Russia. So where are the midnight raids?
But here’s the Boston Globe talking up Kerry’s echo chamber.
Kerry is coordinating his push with a group of officials who were his top advisers at the State Department, and who helped craft and negotiate the Iran deal in the first place. The group, called Diplomacy Works, has an advisory council that includes lead Iran-deal negotiator Wendy Sherman, former State Department chief of staff Jon Finer, and former spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
The group claims to be responsible for 100 news articles, 34 television and radio hits, and 37 opinion pieces on the Iran question. They do fact checks of criticisms of the agreement and blast them out to an e-mail list of nearly 4,000 policy makers and foreign policy experts.
And engaging in Logan Act denial.
Stephen Vladeck, a law professor at the University of Texas, said the law is a red herring — since it’s never been used to prosecute anyone — and almost certainly would not apply to anything Kerry is doing.
“The act only applies to conduct that is designed to ‘defeat the measures of the United States’ or influence the conduct of foreign governments,” Vladeck said. “If all Kerry is doing is working to keep in place something that’s still technically a ‘measure of the United States,’ I don’t see how the statute would apply even if someone was crazy enough to try it.”
As the Boston Globe’s own story states, Kerry is trying to “influence the conduct of foreign governments” while using them to apply pressure on the United States government.
Let’s see that NSA eavesdropping and FBI raids. Or do those only apply to people protecting this country against the left?
Pompeo: Trump’s claim that Kerry violated Logan Act is ‘true’
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday he believes President Trump was correct when he suggested former secretary of state John Kerry violated the Logan Act.
“It’s true. I was there in Munich … I saw not only Kerry … [others] met with the Iranian leadership,” Pompeo said during an appearance on “Fox and Friends.” “It’s unusual, but more importantly, it’s wrong.”
The secretary was commenting an explosive assertion from Trump earlier this month that Kerry committed a treasonous action when he reportedly was engaged in secret talks with Iranian diplomats in an attempt to salvage the Iranian nuclear deal after the current administration nixed it.
“What I would like to see with Iran, I would like to see them call me. John Kerry, he speaks to them a lot. John Kerry tells them not to call. That is a violation of the Logan Act. And frankly, he should be prosecuted on that,” Trump said.
The Logan Act forbids unauthorized persons from negotiating with foreign governments.
The U.S. relationship with Iran has been strained in recent months amid conflicting reports about “credible” threats U.S. military and intelligence officials say the powerful regime poses to American assets in the region and around the world.
The Trump administration has dismissed rumors of infighting among top staffers on how to deal with Iran while Republicans on Capitol Hill have accused Democrats of secretly negotiating with Iranian representatives.
“Every American should support America’s foreign policy, “ Pompeo said. “They had their moment, they had their day. It’s time to get off the stage.”
Trump has taken a hard line on Iran since taking office, declaring a section of the nation’s military a “terrorist organization” and pulling out of an Obama-era nuclear deal he decried as “disastrous.”
Pompeo said what Kerry was allegedly engaged in with Iran was risky at best.
“These acts border … we all know the Logan Act,” he said. “We all know the risk that is taken when people act as private citizens on behalf of the United States government.”
John Kerry never got out of bed with Iran
Failed former Secretary of State John Kerry spent so much time wooing Iran Foreign Minister Javad Zarif during the Obama administration that people started talking.
After years of public canoodling, romantic garden strolls and secret pallets of cold, hard American cash sent under the cover of night, Monsieur Kerry never could get Mr. Zarif and the Iranians to kick their habit of bankrolling terrorism around the globe.
With the election of Donald Trump, the world thought Monsieur Kerry had finally given up his lusty pursuit of Mr. Zarif. Turns out they had just gotten a room.
A shocking new report by The Washington Times reveals that Monsieur Kerry kept up his torrid bromance with Mr. Zarif during the entire Trump administration.
“These relationships blossomed into what high-level national security and intelligence sources say allowed the Iranian regime to bypass Mr. Trump and work directly with Obama administration veterans that Tehran hoped would soon return to power in Washington,” according to the report. It was a flagrant violation of the Logan Act — that antique law so preciously revered back when Democrats were trying to throw Trump officials in jail.
Remember Gen. Mike Flynn, Mr. Trump’s national security adviser whose phone calls with Russia’s U.S. ambassador were tapped by American intelligence services?
“Collusion!” they screamed. Then-Vice President Joe Biden, in an Oval Office meeting with President Obama and top intelligence officials, floated the idea of jailing Mr. Flynn for violating the Logan Act.
The Logan Act bars private Americans from conducting “shadow diplomacy” with foreign countries in contravention of official U.S. diplomacy.
Thin gruel, to be sure. Especially since — as Mr. Trump’s incoming top security adviser — Mr. Flynn had every right to begin talking with foreign officials about the upcoming administration.
What Monsieur Kerry and other wash-outs from the Obama administration were doing with Iran was much, much different. They were actively undermining the foreign policy of an elected administration. And they were doing that AFTER Americans voters had clearly chosen a starkly different path for dealing with the terrorist mullahs of Iran.
“Although details of Mr. Zarif’s face-to-face conversations with leading Democrats remain murky, one former senior U.S. official told The Times that the Iranian foreign minister held meetings throughout the Trump years, in 2017, 2018 and 2019,” according to the report.
“The underlying goals of Mr. Zarif’s meetings, the official said, was to ‘devise a political strategy to undermine the Trump administration’ and to continue building up a reservoir of support for the [Iranian nuclear deal], or another like it, that could be drawn up if a Democrat returned to the White House in 2021.”
By any measure, these clandestine efforts violated the Logan Act, not to mention flagrant collusion with an avowed enemy of the United States.
And, perhaps, another thing: Treason.
John Kerry Blasted as ‘Anti-American’ for Secret Meetings with Iran
Former Trump State Department official and Iranian refugee Ellie Cohanim is calling the move “anti-American” and pushing back on the Biden administration’s latest capitulation to the regime.
“What John Kerry did is anti-American. He’s demonstrated a very cozy relationship with Iran and one can’t help but think about what happened with General Flynn who was in office and punished for having conversations with foreign governments. John Kerry did this when he was out of office. You have to wonder what exactly was it John Kerry was advising the Iranians because the Trump Administration wanted to hold the Iranians accountable with a maximum pressure campaign which was the strongest pressure campaign in history against the rogue regime so what exactly was it that John Kerry was telling them,” Cohanim said during an interview with Fox and Friends. “The maximum pressure campaign worked. The Iranians are at the weakest point in 43 years. They have been devastated in their economy. The Iranian people have taken to the streets and protested over and over again. And, the Iranian regime is struggling with COVID.”
“The Iranian regime is on the verge of collapse. They’re the ones who need the United States. The Biden administration has been practicing what I call diplomatic malpractice. We need to stop making unilateral concessions to the Iranian regime,” she continued.
Conclusion
It is pretty evident the John Kerry worked against President Trump and his presidency. He apparently had insider information in his knowledge of the 2020 election outcome. So he was able to reassure Iran that things would change in 2021, when Biden was in charge. Now that Biden is president and Kerry is in a position of power again, plans are being drawn up for relationships with Iran. All I know is that we will be negotiating from a position of weakness. it is also evident to any but the blind, that any relationship with Iran will be hurtful to any agreements made with other Middle Eastern countries under President Trump. But that doesn’t matter, so long as we can marginalize any accomplishments of President Trump. They still don’t realize that while they can undo his accomplishments, they can’t erase them. So only time will tell what the future holds for us. What I do know is that anything that happened under the Obama presidency will be nothing compared to what will happen under the Biden/Harris presidency.
Calls Growing for Investigation Into Kerry Over Iran Accusation
(Updated 4/27/2021)
Calls are growing for President Joe Biden’s climate czar John Kerry to be investigated and to resign over accusations that he told Iran about Israeli military operations while serving as Secretary of State under former President Barack Obama.
“This is something that deserves a Senate investigation,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., told Fox News, adding that Kerry has “put our men and women in uniform at risk.”
“This is something that is serious,” Blackburn, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said. “This is someone who has served our nation at very high levels, that had information, whether as a senator or as Secretary of State and knew what was happening on the diplomatic and military front, to give that information to someone who is an adversary is something of tremendous concern to me.”
The outcry over Kerry comes after Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javid Zarif claimed in a leaked audiotape that while Kerry was secretary of state, he revealed more than 200 operations that Israel had conducted against Iranian targets.
Kerry has also reportedly met with Zarif as a private citizen after leaving office, which is raising concern about what he may have told him and other Iranian officials.
In a statement posted to Twitter Monday, Kerry called the allegations being made about him “unequivocally false.”
“I can tell you that this story and these allegations are unequivocally false,” Kerry said while retweeting posts by Washington Post reporter John Hudson concerning the conservative backlash over the reports from Iran. “This never happened, either when I was Secretary of State or since.”
As U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, Kerry’s post is a Cabinet-level position that wasn’t subject to Senate confirmation.
Morgan Ortagus, the spokesperson for the State Department under former President Donald Trump, told Fox News’ “Fox and Friends” Tuesday that Zarif is Iran’s “chief propagandist” but there are a “lot of problems” with Kerry’s conversations with the key Iranian official.
“Joe Biden did an interview with PBS a few years ago where he talked about the fact that John Kerry and Zarif used to talk to each other on John Kerry’s cell phone,” said Ortagus. “When I worked with Secretary (Mike) Pompeo, you always (went) through the State Department operation center for calls between foreign ministers, between leaders so that way there is a transcript and people know what’s being said.”
Kerry also has a “pattern of undermining Israel,” said Ortagus. “There is some very, very odd pattern of behavior where John Kerry seems to be beholden to the Iranians and works at every inch he can against Israel.”
Two lawmakers have called for Kerry to resign. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, said on the Senate floor that “it’s become clear … that our adversaries, whether Beijing or Iran, like it when John Kerry is in charge of foreign policy and national security. Why? Because they know how to use him to their advantage.”
Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., agreed, tweeting that Kerry should resign if Zarif’s claims turn out to be true.
Meanwhile, Mort Klein, president of the Zionist Organization for America, told Fox News that there should be an “immediate and thorough investigation” into Kerry, and Brian E. Leib, the executive director for Iranian Americans for Liberty, said that if Zarif’s allegations turn out to be true, they are “grounds for treason” charges against Kerry.
State Department Spokesman Ned Price declined to speculate on the authenticity of the tape, but said that the governments involved were “speaking publicly, on the record.”
The Kerry controversy has surfaced while the Biden administration is in negotiations to rejoin the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran nuclear deal. Trump pulled the United States out of the deal.
Blackburn has introduced a bill to stop the Biden administration from reentering the Iran nuclear deal unless the matter is submitted to the Senate for a vote first.
“What worries me a good bit, is how these despotic regimes are emboldened to push back against the United States,” she said. “We need to send a strong message to our adversaries, and this new axis of evil of Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea that we are going to push back on them and we will not let them win.”
Resources
worldisraelnews, “WATCH: Did Kerry ‘collude’ with Iran against Trump?”; dailyusnews, “Did Former Secretary of State John Kerry ‘Collude’ With Iran To Undermine President Trump;” freedomoutpost.com, “Logan Act Violation: John Kerry Colludes With Iran Against US,” By Daniel Greenfield; cnn.com, “Fact checking Trump’s claim John Kerry is in violation of the Logan Act,” By Maegan Vazquez; legalinsurrection.com, “Report: Biden Team “Colluded” with Iran to Undermine Trump Foreign Policy,” By Vijeta Uniya; washingtonexaminer.com, “Pompeo: Trump’s claim that Kerry violated Logan Act is ‘true’,” By Dominick Mastrangelo; washingtontimes.com, ” John Kerry never got out of bed with Iran,” By Charles Hurt; townhall.com, “John Kerry Blasted as ‘Anti-American’ for Secret Meetings with Iran,” By Katie Pavlich; clashdaily.com, “IRANIAN COLLUSION: Biden’s Secretary Of State Held ‘Backchannel’ Talks With Iran For YEARS To Thwart Trump Diplomacy,” By Wes Walker; newsmax.com, ” Calls Growing for Investigation Into Kerry Over Iran Accusation,” By Sandy Fitzgerald; newsmax.com, “Kerry Denies Telling Iranian Foreign Minister About Israeli Operations in Syria,” By Jeremy Frankel;
Addendum
Fact checking Trump’s claim John Kerry is in violation of the Logan Act
President Donald Trump accused former Secretary of State John Kerry of violating the Logan Act by taking part in negotiations with Iran’s government, which in recent days has announced it will reduce its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal that the Trump administration pulled out of last year.
Kerry promptly denied the President’s accusation.
During an event focused on medical billing at the White House, Trump alleged that Kerry, who served as secretary of state under President Barack Obama, is undermining the current administration’s efforts with Iran by participating in calls and meetings with the Iranian government.
“What I’d like to see with Iran, I’d like to see them call me. You know John Kerry speaks to them a lot. John Kerry tells them not to call. That’s a violation of the Logan Act and frankly he should be prosecuted for that,” Trump said.
Facts First: Putting aside Trump’s charge against Kerry, which Kerry flatly denies, here’s what you need to know about the Logan Act. The act was established in 1799 and makes it a felony for individuals who are not authorized by the US government to negotiate with foreign governments which have disputes with the US. Though the term has been thrown around as an accusation several times this century – and has been used more than once by Trump to attack Kerry – there have been few cases when someone has been indicted for violating the act. These cases took place in the 1800s and no one was ever convicted.
Since the act’s creation, correspondence and interaction between Americans – lawmakers, former lawmakers, and citizens alike – has become increasingly common.
It’s also common for former secretaries of states and diplomats to stay in touch with their counterparts around the world.
Last year, before the administration decided to pull out of the deal, the Boston Globe reported that Kerry was taking part in meetings with big players in Iran, meetings which were promptly criticized by the Trump administration. However, last October, Kerry told reporters that he had not met with Iranians since the US pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018 and had seen Iran’s foreign minister at a few international security meetings.
Trump alleged that Kerry “is talking to Iran and has been. He’s had many meetings and phone calls and he’s telling him what to do.”
But Matt Summers, a spokesman for Kerry, said in a statement that Trump’s claim “is simply wrong, end of story.”
“He’s wrong about the facts, wrong about the law, and sadly he’s been wrong about how to use diplomacy to keep America safe. Secretary Kerry helped negotiate a nuclear agreement that worked to solve an intractable problem. The world supported it then and supports it still. We’d hope the President would focus on solving foreign policy problems for America instead of attacking his predecessors for theater,” Summers said.
A source close to the former secretary of state said Kerry hasn’t talked with Iranian officials since President Trump announced the US was pulling out of the Iran deal last year.
Prior to the withdrawal, the source said Kerry did communicate with the Iranians to urge them to stay in the deal.
The source also denied that Kerry ever discouraged the Iranians from talking to Trump. At the time, the source said, Kerry urged everyone on all sides to talk and use diplomacy.
Former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was also accused of potential Logan Act violations.
At Flynn’s sentencing hearing in December, special counsel team prosecutor Brandon Van Grack said this about Flynn’s case: “[T]he facts could potentially, potentially support a violation of the Logan Act.”
Flynn did two things, that he later lied about, during the presidential transition that could have had Logan Act consequences. First, he encouraged world leaders to vote against a United Nations resolution on Israeli settlements, bucking the Obama White House position.
Second, he undermined sanctions established under President Barack Obama against Russia in his phone conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
But Flynn was never charged with violating the Logan Act.
Report: Biden Team “Colluded” with Iran to Undermine Trump Foreign Policy
recent report disclosed that leading members of President Joe Biden’s administration, including former Secretary of State and current Climate czar John Kerry, may have “colluded” with Iran to undermine President Donald Trump’s foreign policy.
Kerry, Biden administration’s Iran envoy Robert Malley, and other former Obama officials were in “backchannel” talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif in “an apparent bid to undermine the Trump team and lay the groundwork for post-Trump relations,” the Washington Times reported.
The Washington Times published the details of these unauthorized talks:
President Trump in 2019 sought to open a back channel of communication with top Iranian officials and saw the U.N. General Assembly meeting in September as a potential opportunity to defuse escalating tension with Tehran, but the effort failed.
Two months earlier, however, a different back channel was thriving in New York. Iran’s smooth, English-speaking foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, met with Robert Malley, who was President Obama’s Middle East adviser, in an apparent bid to undermine the Trump team and lay the groundwork for post-Trump relations.
The attempt at counterdiplomacy offers a window into the deep relationships Mr. Zarif forged with influential U.S. liberals over the past decade. These relationships blossomed into what high-level national security and intelligence sources say allowed the Iranian regime to bypass Mr. Trump and work directly with Obama administration veterans that Tehran hoped would soon return to power in Washington.
One of those was former Secretary of State John F. Kerry, who met with Mr. Zarif during the Trump years. So did Obama-era Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz. They, along with Mr. Malley, were top U.S. negotiators of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). As part of the deal, Tehran promised to limit its nuclear enrichment activities in exchange for economic sanctions relief and access to tens of billions of dollars in frozen bank accounts.
Malley, the architect of the flawed Obama-era nuclear deal, told the ruling Mullahs of Tehran to wait out the Trump presidency in hopes of better terms under a Democratic administration, the report suggested. In a 2018 interview, Kerry also admitted giving Iranians similar advice.
“Malley, in his meeting with Zarif, likely urged Iranian officials to sit tight until 2021, when it was expected a Democratic administration could restore the deal,” the New York Post reported on Monday.
Malley seems to have a history of holding secretive talks with entities hostile to the United States. The 20o8 Obama presidential campaign fired him after embarrassing details of his “unauthorized” discussions with the Iran-supported Islamic terrorist group Hamas came to light.
The Washington Times article also exposed the reach Iran’s diplomat has within the Democratic foreign policy establishment:
(…) Zarif’s power extends far beyond the negotiating table. Numerous sources have told The Washington Times that he wields tremendous influence over a tightly knit group inside the U.S. that has long advocated for Washington to take a more accommodating tack toward Iran.
The sources, including several from the U.S. intelligence community who spoke on the condition of anonymity, described a “web” of activity tied to prominent think tanks across the United States, as well as lobbying efforts that reached directly into the White House during the Obama years.
It’s an informal union of Iran apologists and pro-diplomacy advocates that helps amplify Mr. Zarif’s talking points, giving the Iranian Foreign Ministry influence over public opinion in the United States and considerable sway in left-leaning political and social circles.
Responding to the damning revelations, former Secretary Mike Pompeo called the conduct of the senior Biden administration officials “unamerican.”
“We knew this was going on,” he told the Fox News on Wednesday. “It’s unamerican. It’s very troubling. It’s not the right thing to do.”
Former acting director of national intelligence, Richard Grenell, on Tuesday, called for a detailed inquiry into these previously undisclosed meetings between the prominent Obama-Biden officials and the Iranian regime’s top brass.
“I think we’ve got to look at the details because if these meetings were happening and he was undermining U.S. policy by offering a different alternative, a different set of carrots if you will, we really need to get to the bottom of this,” he told the Newsmax, referring to the Logan Act, which prohibits unauthorized U.S. citizens from negotiating with foreign governments.
When the first revelations about John Kerry’s alleged backdoor dealings with Tehran first came to light in mid-2019, President Donald Trump took a similar stance.
“[Biden]’s talking to Iran and has been — has many meetings and many phone calls, and he’s telling them what to do. That is a total violation of the Logan Act,” President Trump said in May 2019.
“The United States does not need John Kerry’s possibly illegal Shadow Diplomacy on the very badly negotiated Iran Deal. He was the one that created this MESS in the first place!” he subsequently tweeted.
By rehiring Obama officials with the history of backdoor dealings with Tehran, Biden sends all the wrong signals to the regime.
With his old friends back in the White House, Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif told the Biden administration to pay $1 trillion in “reparation” for the U.S. sanctions.
The regime is also expecting President Biden to lift “all sanctions in the near future,” a senior Iranian regime spokesman declared on Saturday.
IRANIAN COLLUSION: Biden’s Secretary Of State Held ‘Backchannel’ Talks With Iran For YEARS To Thwart Trump Diplomacy
While Democrats were trying to criminally prosecute Trump loyalists over ‘backchannels’ looking into allegations of corruption leading back to the Obama-era White House, were Democrats secretly working with Iran to undercut American diplomacy?
In the very beginning of Trump’s presidency, ClashDaily was among the conservative websites highlighting sketchy foreign meetings between John Kerry and his contacts in Iran, encouraging them to hang tight until after the Trump Presidency and everything could get ‘back on track’ when Democrats reclaimed what they view as their rightful place in the White House.
We also remember the ‘shadow presidency‘ Obama seemed to be conducting in the early part of Trump’s time as president. So much for ‘one president at a time’, and ‘defenders of democracy’.
How serious do our counterparts from across the aisle consider such actions? Clearly they are a threat to the national interest. Remember all the way back to impeachment 1.0?
Acting Ambassador William Taylor testified during Wednesday’s public impeachment hearing that Giuliani’s involvement in Ukraine policy was troubling to many of the official, “regular” diplomats, including himself. It was clear to Taylor that Giuliani was pushing an agenda that had nothing to do with the national interest and everything to do with President Trump’s personal political interests.
It’s this last part that alarmed Taylor. It’s not unusual for the U.S. government to take into consideration the opinions of private citizens, such as Giuliani, when conducting foreign policy. But it is highly unusual for the aforementioned private citizen to influence and shape policy in a way that directly undermines the national interest. —WashingtonExaminer
In the past couple of years, we’ve had a tense relationship with Iran. They have continued their push toward nuclear armament. They have engaged in hostilities with their neighbors in the Gulf, have attacked and seized merchant vessels, and shot down an American drone in international airspace.
What has the Democrat party’s approach to these hostile forces been during the Trump administration? Secret backroom meetings with them. Run parallel diplomacy to undercut the duly-elected one. Here we were thinking that was an impeachable offense… at least, that’s what we were told.
President Trump in 2019 sought to open a back channel of communication with top Iranian officials and saw the U.N. General Assembly meeting in September as a potential opportunity to defuse escalating tension with Tehran, but the effort failed.
Two months earlier, however, a different back channel was thriving in New York. Iran’s smooth, English-speaking foreign minister, Javad Zarif, met with Robert Malley, who was President Obama’s Middle East adviser, in an apparent bid to undermine the Trump team and lay the groundwork for post-Trump relations.
The attempt at counterdiplomacy offers a window into the deep relationships Mr. Zarif forged with influential U.S. liberals over the past decade. These relationships blossomed into what high-level national security and intelligence sources say allowed the Iranian regime to bypass Mr. Trump and work directly with Obama administration veterans that Tehran hoped would soon return to power in Washington.
…Mr. Kerry and Mr. Malley are now in the Biden administration, Mr. Kerry as a climate adviser and Mr. Malley poised to play a major role in U.S.-Iranian relations from his perch as special envoy for Iran policy at the State Department.
But Mr. Zarif’s power extends far beyond the negotiating table. Numerous sources have told The Washington Times that he wields tremendous influence over a tightly knit group inside the U.S. that has long advocated for Washington to take a more accommodating tack toward Iran.
The sources, including several from the U.S. intelligence community who spoke on the condition of anonymity, described a “web” of activity tied to prominent think tanks across the United States, as well as lobbying efforts that reached directly into the White House during the Obama years.-WashingtonTimes
This will directly undercut the historic peace initiatives that Trump managed to negotiate between Israel and several of their neighbors.
Why would aligning with Iran be a bad idea? Here’s a reason: Remember Al Qaeda? Their HQ Has Relocated To Iran … Your Move, Sleepy Joe! That’s right, they aren’t just the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. They’re also giving safe harbor and sanctuary to Al Queada. You remember them… ‘some people who did something’ just about 20 years ago? And dragged us into an endless war that Biden has no intention of ending?
It wouldn’t be the first time Obama/Biden put Iran’s interests ahead of our national ones, either.
Before he went full Never-Trump nutter, Mattis was honest enough to say that Iran had tried to blow up a cafe in Washington that was frequented by some high-end clientele.

Kerry Denies Telling Iranian Foreign Minister About Israeli Operations in Syria
(Update 4/27/2021)
Special Climate Envoy John Kerry went on Twitter on Monday and denied telling Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif about Israeli operations in Syria while he was secretary of state under Barack Obama.
The New York Times has reported on a leaked recording it obtained detailing a three-hour conversation between Zarif and an economist named Saeed Leylaz. The recording, damning to Kerry, is said to include Zarif saying Kerry revealed detail on some 200 Israeli attacks on Iranian interests in Syria.
Kerry insisted by tweet, though, that “this story and these allegations are unequivocally false. This never happened — either when I was Secretary of State or since.”
As reported earlier by Newsmax, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh said in a statement that the recording “was by no means an interview from the beginning, nor was it supposed to be an interview. … It was part of a routine and confidential dialogue that takes place within the administration.”
In the wake of the allegations, which suggest a betrayal of Israel, a staunch U.S. ally in the turbulent Mideast, many called on Kerry to resign from his current duties.
Governmental and Political Posts Both National and International
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/11/04/is-the-democratic-party-the-judas-party/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/10/15/what-are-the-panama-papers/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/10/11/what-amendments-will-be-in-jeopardy-under-a-democratic-government/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/10/04/nominating-and-vetting-supreme-court-justices/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/09/24/george-soros-revealed/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/08/24/hud-housing-mandates/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/09/28/roe-vs-wade-redux/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/09/14/chinas-100-year-plan-for-world-domination/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/09/13/when-the-soviet-union-collapsed-what-type-of-government-did-it-take-and-does-it-still-exist/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/09/11/israel-and-the-united-arab-emirate-brokered-deal-how-big-is-this/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/09/11/the-plot-to-destroy-america-when-and-how-did-it-start/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/08/26/what-ruined-this-country/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/08/25/how-to-make-our-country-great-again/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/08/18/socialism-explained/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/08/17/communism-explained/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/08/05/can-american-win-the-war-for-the-world-market/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/07/30/do-you-remember-the-movie-independence-day/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/07/22/why-does-the-left-hate-this-country/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/07/16/essential-and-non-essential-businesses-blast-from-the-past-or-not/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/07/13/cancel-culture-needs-to-end-its-unamerican/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/07/09/financial-disclosure-for-politicians/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/07/10/athletes-speak-out-but-who-cares/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/06/26/why-democratic-leaders-are-okay-with-the-destruction-of-our-statues/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/06/25/how-would-the-left-respond-to-the-right-if-they-reciprocated-with-violence/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/06/25/what-drives-the-agenda-of-the-democratic-party-fear-or-far-left-ideology/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/06/23/violence-and-fear-as-a-tool-of-the-left/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/06/23/why-are-state-and-local-leaders-allowing-looting-and-rioting-to-occur/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/06/21/did-christopher-columbus-deserve-a-statue/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/06/20/give-an-inch-take-a-mile-the-age-of-aquiescence/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/06/19/daca-right-or-wrong/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/06/18/should-tax-payer-dollars-be-used-to-rebuild-decimated-cities/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/06/18/the-national-debt-dangerously-high/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/06/17/open-our-country-now/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/06/16/green-new-deal-what-the-hell/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/06/14/public-figures-speaking-out-good-or-bad/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/06/12/rejuvenating-our-infrastructure/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/06/12/our-history-deserves-to-be-protected-not-destroyed/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/06/10/should-we-be-afraid-of-china-our-asian-competitor/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/06/09/why-the-left-socialist-and-communist-hate-religion/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/06/08/insurrection-act/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/10/26/history-of-the-republican-party/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/06/06/what-makes-a-leader-great/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/06/05/government-reform-proposal-february-17-1999/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/10/25/history-of-the-democratic-party/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/10/31/what-does-the-socialist-democratic-party-think-of-the-american-people/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/11/03/green-new-deal-what-the-hell-part-2/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/11/06/china-and-russia-are-among-the-worlds-worst-human-rights-violators/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/11/07/how-does-the-biden-sanders-platform-compare-to-the-1936-ussr-constitution/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/11/13/voter-fraud-in-2020-how-will-effect-future-elections/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/11/14/what-will-happen-if-biden-reverses-trumps-accomplishments/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/11/17/the-confederate-constitution-what-can-we-learn-from-it/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/12/08/our-new-two-party-system-where-is-it-taking-us/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/12/04/what-will-become-of-our-capitalistic-society/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/06/12/what-every-leader-needs-to-be/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/06/06/what-makes-a-leader-great/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/07/05/4th-of-july-celebration-2020/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2020/12/22/roosevelt-stalin-and-churchill-how-they-formed-our-world/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2021/01/29/what-gives-the-top-1-percent-the-right-to-rule-the-world/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2021/02/26/impeachment-dissected/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2021/02/28/is-the-equality-act-about-equality/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2021/03/09/1871-us-corporation-fact-or-fiction/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2021/03/12/are-we-entering-into-a-global-nuclear-cold-war/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2021/04/16/our-2nd-amendment/
https://common-sense-in-america.com/2021/04/20/did-kerry-collude-with-iran/