Tuesday, April 3, 2018

EMET Congratulates 2012 EMET “Speaker of the Truth” Ambassador John Bolton for his Appointment as National Security Advisor

March 23, 2018

Today, the Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET) congratulated Ambassador John Bolton for his appointment to be the next National Security Advisor.  EMET has hosted Amb. Bolton multiple times on Capitol Hill to discuss important Middle East focused national security issues and has honored him with EMET's propitious Speaker of the Truth Award in 2012.
 
Amb. John Bolton is well-qualified to serve as a National Security Advisor.  He has had decades of service as a diplomat and a lawyer in public service.  From 1985-1989, he was Assistant Attorney General at the Department of Justice.  From 1989-1993, he was Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs Department.  From 2001 to 2005, he was under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security.  From August 2005 to December 2006, he served as the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations.  When not in government service, Amb. Bolton has been affiliated with the noted think tank, American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where his area of research is U.S. foreign and national security policy, and he has been in great demand as a commentator on foreign policy matters.  He also on the Advisory Board of United Against Nuclear Iran.
 
Amb. Bolton is a noted expert on Middle East affairs, and he has been a determined opponent of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), i.e., the Iran deal.  Recently, Bolton put together a plan to urge President Donald Trump to withdraw from the Iranian nuclear deal, which was cosigned by 45 National Security Experts.  EMET's Founder and President Sarah Stern, and General Counsel Adam Turner, were honored to be among the 45 signatories to the letter, all of whom are experts in national security, and many of whom have held senior positions in nuclear weapons, arms control, nonproliferation and intelligence fields. 
 
Amb. Bolton, and EMET, are united in believing that the JCPOA as negotiated is not in the United States' national interest, and that it has also been flagrantly violated numerous times by the Islamist Iranian regime.  Contrary to some claims, the Obama Administration's deal does not prevent a nuclear Iran.  As President Obama himself has admitted, the JCPOA, even if scrupulously followed, would only delay – and not prevent – the development of an Iranian nuclear bomb.  Further, even assuming that the 159 page document and the two secret side deals that make up the JCPOA are the entirety of the deal, it is still clear that Iran has materially breached the terms of the deal by producing excess heavy water and selling it for profit, shipping arms throughout the Middle East, and currently operating more advanced nuclear centrifuges than it is permitted under the JCPOA, among other violations.  Perhaps most disturbingly, the Iranians have violated the deal by barring the international inspectors from visiting military sites, where the Iranians would actually conduct their nuclear development.  To their discredit, the international inspectors have gone along with the Iranian demands.
 
Amb. Bolton and EMET are also concerned that Iran has used the vast amounts of money it received through the deal to accelerate its aggression and support of terrorism throughout the Middle East.  The total amount of money that Iran received is not known, but it is certain that the leading state sponsor of terrorism has received: 1) for the original six month negotiations with Iran, $4.2 billion in frozen funds; 2) for the first extension, $2.8 billion; 3) for the second extension, $4.9 billion; 4) for the final JCPOA, approximately $150 billion in frozen funds; 5) for the hostages ransomed on the same day as the JCPOA, $1.7 billion; and 6) for the suspension of international sanctions, which could provide Iran with another $700 billion over the next ten years.  Right now, this money has been funneled to the Assad regime of Syria, the Islamist Shia militias of Iraq, Lebanon's Hezbollah, and even the Sunni Islamist terror group Hamas.  As a result, in just the Syrian hostilities alone, half a million innocent people have been slaughtered, including women and children and the elderly, and in some cases, chemical weapons have been utilized to slaughter those innocents.
 
Sarah Stern said, "We are absolutely thrilled that President Trump has selected Ambassador John Bolton as our new National Security Advisor; EMET has had a long and a close relationship with the Ambassador, and we know he has a keen understanding of the nature of the many threats facing America, Israel and our other allies around the globe.  Both the extent and the depth of his knowledge can rarely be rivaled or matched by any of his peers. All of us in the United States can sleep a little better at night knowing that our national security interests will be in his capable hands."
 

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About The Endowment for Middle East Truth
Founded in 2005, EMET's mission is to educate policymakers in Washington and the general public about the importance of Israel to the United States in their common struggle against radical Islam. For more information, please visit, http://www.emetonline.org. Follow EMET on Twitter and Facebook.