From the outset of his presidency in January 2009, Hussein pursued a purposely doomed-to-fail dual-track Iran policy of diplomatic engagement and escalating sanctions. Obama’s primary tactic was unilateral concession. We gave, Iran took.
In his first year, Obama extended an “unclenched fist” in public messages and the 2009 Cairo speech, offering direct talks while supporting UN Security Council resolutions and congressional measures (such as the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010 (CISADA) that supposedly tightened sanctions on Iran’s nuclear program and oil sector. This approach led to secret negotiations and the 2013 interim Joint Plan of Action, culminating in the July 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Under JCPOA, Iran agreed to reduce its uranium stockpile by 98%, limit centrifuges, and accept enhanced IAEA inspections in exchange for the lifting of nuclear-related international sanctions. Opponents, including many Republicans and Israeli officials, rightly argued that this constituted a major giveaway because it released $100–150 billion in previously frozen Iranian assets overseas (with roughly $50 billion becoming usable after debts), without dismantling Iran’s nuclear infrastructure or addressing ballistic missiles, terrorism sponsorship, or human rights. The agreement’s sunset clauses further eased restrictions over time, which critics said emboldened Tehran rather than permanently curbing its ambitions.
Richard A. Epstein, Hoover.org, “Obama’s Disastrous Iran Deal,” July 20, 2015:
Epstein started his article with this prophetic statement, “It will increase the risk of war and terrorism in the Middle East.”
Any examination of this deal has to start with the ugly but accurate assumption that Iran will, at every opportunity, act in bad faith.
The agreement starts off on a grand note: “The goal for these negotiations is to reach a mutually-agreed long-term comprehensive solution that would ensure Iranˈs nuclear program will be exclusively peaceful. Iran reaffirms that under no circumstances will Iran ever seek or develop any nuclear weapons.” But it is straight downhill from there.
The first problem with the deal is that it gives Iran an undeserved respectability that comes simply from being allowed to sign a significant international agreement.
Iran’s promises count for nothing. Iran is quite happy to fund Bashar al-Assad in Syria, to back Hamas, and to launch terrorist attacks throughout the Middle East. It is eager to confront its Sunni rivals, most notably Saudi Arabia, by supporting their enemies. It is eager to annihilate Israel. Indeed now that the agreement seems in place, the Ayatollah says flat out that deal or no deal, “we will never stop supporting our friends in the region and the people of Palestine, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Bahrain and Lebanon.”
Subsequent actions provided additional giveaways leading to policy failure.
In January 2016, on the same day four American hostages were released and the JCPOA was implemented, the administration delivered $400 million in cash (the first installment of a $1.7 billion settlement resolving a pre-1979 arms dispute at The Hague), later admitting it was withheld as leverage until the prisoners were safely out—prompting widespread accusations of ransom despite Obama’s denials.
A 2018 Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations report revealed that in February 2016 the Treasury’s OFAC secretly issued a license authorizing Iran to convert $5.7 billion in Omani rials through the U.S. financial system (a transaction two major banks ultimately refused), contradicting public assurances that Iran would gain no such access. Critics maintained these steps, combined with reduced sanctions enforcement, allowed Iran to fund proxy militias in Syria, Yemen, and Lebanon (via Hezbollah and the Houthis), expand regional influence, and resume uranium enrichment after the U.S. withdrawal in 2018—ultimately leaving Iran closer to nuclear breakout capability than when Obama took office.
CNBC.com, “The Obama administration secretly sought to give Iran access to the US financial system,” June 6, 2018:
The Obama administration secretly sought to give Iran access — albeit briefly — to the U.S. financial system by sidestepping sanctions kept in place after the 2015 nuclear deal.
The administration did so despite repeatedly telling Congress and the public it had no plans to do so.
“The Obama administration misled the American people and Congress because they were desperate to get a deal with Iran,” said Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio.
Portman’s Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) majority staff report released on the same day. Key findings:
After the 2015 Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA) went into effect (Implementation Day, January 16, 2016), Iran asked to convert approximately $5.7 billion in Omani rials (held at Bank Muscat in Oman) into euros.
Because the Omani rial is pegged to the U.S. dollar, the most practical route required a brief intermediary step through the U.S. financial system (converting rials → U.S. dollars → euros).
On February 24, 2016, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued a specific license authorizing this conversion through U.S. banks. The license was never publicly disclosed at the time.
The Obama administration then approached two major U.S. banks to carry out the transaction. Both banks refused, citing reputational, compliance, and legal risks.
The license expired on February 28, 2017, and the transaction never occurred.
The report and CNBC article highlight that Obama administration officials (including Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and Under Secretary Adam Szubin) had repeatedly told Congress and the public that Iran would not be granted access to the U.S. financial system under the JCPOA.
The Obama administration intentionally mislead Congress, undermined sanctions, and went beyond the letter of the nuclear deal in its eagerness to make the agreement work.
Internal emails cited in the report showed some officials acknowledging that the action “exceeded our JCPOA commitments.”
Former Obama officials defended it as consistent with the “spirit” of the deal — helping Iran access its own frozen overseas assets — and noted that core U.S. sanctions on Iran’s financial system remained in place.
John Kerry, Obama’s Perfect Secretary of State
Obama mentor Frank Marshall Davis, card-carrying member of the Communist Party and anti-USA activist, opposed U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. He aligned with broader communist and left-wing critiques of American foreign policy during and after the Cold War. His opposition was rooted in his ideological commitment to communism and criticisms of U.S. imperialism, which he ingrained in Barry Obama from age 10 to 18 (1972-1979) during their mentoring sessions in Hawaii.
John Kerry’s 1971 testimony as a Vietnam veteran against the war, alleging widespread US war crimes, betrayed his country and fellow soldiers. The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth charged him with dishonoring veterans and misrepresenting his service.
John E. O’Neill and Jerome R. Corsi, “Unfit For Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry,” August 15, 2024:
John Kerry commanded PCF-94 (Patrol Craft Fast, a Swift boat) during his tour in Vietnam (late 1968 to early 1969). Kerry left Vietnam in March 1969 after completing his four-month tour.
Navy Officer John E. O’Neill took command of the same boat (PCF-94) several months after Kerry returned to the States. O’Neill served on it and returned from his own tour in June 1970.
O’Neill and Corsi pose, "What sort of combination of hypocrite and paradox is John Kerry?" As the 2004 Democrat presidential candidate, Kerry’s Vietnam-era military service and antiwar activism make him unfit to be president. According to O’Neill, then a lawyer and spokesman for The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, Kerry misrepresented his wartime exploits. Interviews with Navy veterans who served alongside Kerry, he exaggerated minor injuries, self-inflicted others, wrote fictitious diary entries and filed "phony" reports of his heroism under fire, all in a calculated quest to secure career-enhancing combat medals.
The vets also maintain that Kerry, whom they call a "moral coward," committed atrocities that alarmed his peers and superior officers during his four-month tour of duty. Kerry’s subsequent activities on behalf of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War and damning evidence of his "total unfitness" for any command. His testimony against the war "caused more deaths and prolonged the war in Vietnam by undermining support at home and contributing directly to a Vietnamese Communist victory."
It is no coincidence that Davis’s mentorship and Kerry’s U.S. betrayal aligned, making Kerry “the perfect choice” for selection by Obama for Secretary of State during the negotiations with Iran. Of course Obama floated a cover story that ignored Kerry’s duplicity, while stating that his entire life—including being the son of a foreign service officer—prepared him for the role.
So, America hating Secretary of State John Kerry became the primary architect and lead negotiator of the JCPOA. His actions were complicit in the flawed agreement.
Armstrong Williams, KATV.com, “John Kerry’s betrayal of America and Israel to Iran warrants removal,” April 29, 2021:
…recorded conversations between Kerry and Iran’s leading diplomat at that time are proof that Kerry sold out Israel, America’s closest ally in the highly contentious region, to its arch enemy Iran.
John Kerry's daughter, Dr. Vanessa Kerry, married Brian Vala Nahed, an Iranian-American neurosurgeon, in 2009. Nahed is a physician of Iranian descent based in Los Angeles. The couple met at Massachusetts General Hospital and married in Boston.
IranPrimer.USIP.org, “Kerry’s Iran Connection on Nowruz,” March 24, 2013:
On March 20, Secretary of State John Kerry sent “warm wishes for health and prosperity” to Iranians for Nowruz, the Persian New Year. He noted the contributions of Iranian-Americans and Iranian students in the United States. “I am proud of the Iranian-Americans in my own family,” he said in a reference to his son-in-law Brian Vala Nahed. The neurosurgeon married Kerry’s daughter Vanessa, also a physician, in 2009. The secretary said the United States wants to build more people-to-people ties to promote “greater understanding, peace, and progress.”
Kerry also emphasized that the United States is committed to resolving differences with Iran over its controversial nuclear program. “We sincerely hope Iran’s leaders choose to fulfill their obligations to not only the international community but also to their people…”.
This Substack exposes the mere tip of the treasonous iceberg of Obama bowing to the Iranian Thugocracy. More to follow.
Do those dots connect? You decide.
The search for truth in The Barry Zone continues.
John 1:5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
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