Monday, May 7, 2018

Freelance Foreign Policy

By Gary Bauer

Former Secretary of State John Kerry appears to be violating the Logan Act.  News broke late Friday that Kerry has been secretly meeting with top Iranian officials, advising them on how to fight President Trump's efforts to renegotiate or cancel the 2015 nuclear deal.
 
This is not the first time Kerry has been caught freelancing when it comes foreign policy.  Earlier this year, he told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to "hold on and be strong" and "not yield to President Trump's demands" because Trump wouldn't be president for very long.
 
There never was any doubt about it before, but Abbas recently exposed himself as a blatant anti-Semite.  Even the Palestinian apologists at the New York Times condemned Abbas and declared that it was time for him go.
 
That is who Kerry is giving advice and counsel to. 
 
Of course, Kerry stayed at the table talking to the Iranians while the regime sponsored mass rallies calling for the death of America and a second Holocaust through the destruction of Israel. 
 
It is beyond the pale that John Kerry is giving advice to two governments hostile to the United States.  Perhaps Special Counsel Robert Mueller should be investigating Kerry to make sure he is registered as a foreign agent
 
And how can General Michael Flynn, after Trump's election and as a part of the transition team, be accused of violating the Logan Act?  Kerry's time in government is over.  He has no capacity, official or otherwise. 
 
If Flynn, as an incoming member of the new administration, violated the Logan Act then Kerry must be too.
 
Things are bad with Russia, but as far as I know, Russia is not responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans over the past decade.  Abbas and the Iranian regime are.
 
Iran has been a committed enemy of the United States ever since the 1979 Islamic revolution.  Yet the Obama Administration was determined to get this deal done.  And John Kerry seems determined to protect it.
 
Remember when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of our most reliable ally, spoke to Congress to warn the American people against the deal?  The Obama White House was livid.  Nearly 60 congressional liberals boycotted Netanyahu's address. 
 
Evidence appears to suggest that the political weaponization of the U.S. intelligence apparatus did not start in 2016 the presidential campaign, but during the domestic debate over the Iranian nuclear deal.  The Obama Administration was spying on Netanyahu and, in the process, it picked up conversations of members of Congress and leaders of pro-Israel groups. 
 
By the way, the Iranian parliament voted on the nuclear deal.  The United Nations voted on the deal.  But the United States Senate was repeatedly denied the opportunity to vote directly on the deal itself.  And, according to the New York Times, that was exactly how Obama wanted it.