Someone demanded the pretender come front and center, and what he said is being discussed around the clock.  It wasn’t the best move, considering that it reinforced what everybody knows.  Maybe hiding wasn’t such a bad idea.  His own Do J released a report saying that he was guilty of a crime alright, but he’s such a kindly and forgetful old man that he’d be too sympathetic.  Whatever.  Meanwhile the mainstream is prosecuting Donald Trump on every front.  Not too successfully so far.

The tractors are blocking major thoroughfares across Europe.  They’ve figured out that everybody is going to starve if they follow these global warming mandates.  Not only that, there are all kinds of regulations, and have you seen the price of diesel?  You don’t see it on your television news.  No, they don’t want us to see what they’ve got in store for us.  Europe is ahead of the U. S. with this global warming theory.  Depending on the country, they’re seeking other means for power.  The windmills were never going to power cities, but who knew they’d be more trouble than they were worth?

So let’s get this straight.  We’ve got to send $60 billion to Ukraine in order to protect our southern border?  That’s right.  Apparently we can’t manage our border unless we send money to Ukraine.  Lots of it.  This is getting to be a habit.  Attach something everybody wants to something even bigger, that few continue to support.  The claim is we can’t do anything about the invasion without sending three times as much to Ukraine.  Oh yes, the bill contains “immediate solutions.”  

Tucker Carlson just interviewed Vladimir Putin at length.  Putin put on an extended history monologue, and Tucker became frustrated, thinking he was filibustering.  But Tucker says he has a point, after all.  Stand by for the fallout.  Putin asked a question we’ve been asking.  Why is the U. S. funding the protection of Ukraine’s border, while being invaded on its southern border.

It looks like the State of Texas has taken things into its own hands.  The Border Patrol, it turns out, doesn’t want to see us invaded any more than we do.  The pretender’s strategy hasn’t a chance.  So there are razor wire rolls six deep, and the cartels have re-routed the “migrants” to points West.  Have fun California!  Have you seen the blight?

By now everybody has seen the “migrants” arrested in New York.  They were busy kicking a cop while he was down, pounding another, rampaging like animals.  But New York, in its wisdom, let them go.  Some church-sponsored outfit has given them a free bus ride to California, where they’ll be welcome.  Or maybe they’re just trying to get close to the border in case they have to make a run for it.

They’re trying to put border security and money for Ukraine together.  You can’t have one without the other.  WHAT?  No nation on earth allows what is going on at our southern border.  But here they come, to get unknown benefits, cell phones and a bus ride to the destination of their choice.  Airline travelers have been noticing that the illegals get to bypass security, while we take off our shoes and submit to an X-ray.  

Now that seemingly every company has to hire on the basis of DEI, there are going to be a lot of accidents.  Who put on the door of the Alaska Airliner that blew off?  I’ve got suspicions.  If every company has to hire on the basis of fairness and equity, what kind of world will it be?  Personally, I like the door of the airplane to be bolted down.

John Kerry has made a career of being angry about global warming.  He comes with this dour look on his face, telling us what a horrible future we have if we don’t give up the luxuries.  A lawsuit has been filed over the secrecy of his staff and what they’re paid by the government.  Presumably we’ll find out.  What a tangled web!

Mark

The post Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – February 9, 2024 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Iran seized an oil tanker, fully loaded and bound for Texas.  That’s when a helicopter dropped a bunch of commandos and steered the ship back toward Iran.  They claim that there was a collision with another ship.  Meanwhile, things are getting crazy in Iran.  Somebody walked up and shot an important Iranian cleric at a bank.  He was a top advisor to the revered Ayatollah Khomeini.  

There are rumblings about former enemies getting together for meetings, and wouldn’t you know it, China looks to be the main player, getting these nations together.  It used to be the United States that had the clout.  It’s starting to look like we’ve been replaced, thanks to the pretender.  Maybe that was part of the secret bargain.  China is apparently making deals all over the world to do business in the yuan, not in U. S. dollars, as has been done for as long as anybody can remember.  What does that mean for the value of our money?  

China is stepping into the void, trying to come to some solution for the Ukraine war.  That’s a lot better than China intervening militarily to help Russia win.  That used to be what the United States did, but the munitions industry is making money hand over fist, and will hate to see the war end regardless of the images on television.

It’s as though our “leadership” is determined to destroy every vestige of our lives while telling us they’re “saving the planet.”  Go save some other planet!  John Kerry and Al Gore are preaching the gospel of global warming to whoever will listen.  I can’t rightly stand the look on either of their faces.  So what happens when the people of the U. S. “save the planet” by way of electric cars and all the other claptrap they’re preaching, and India and China think it’s a bunch of hooey?   Does the planet still get saved, or do we have to follow the dictates of idiots, and the planet still gets warmer?  Or maybe all these goofballs ought to be told we’re not going along.  But they’ve got the corporations and their criteria for a social credit score.  Just like the controversy with Budweiser, we’ll have to weigh in with our money.  And they’ll just suffer the inevitable.  

Why have climate activists begun defacing priceless works of art?  What’s to be gained, other than notoriety for some truly ugly women?  Sometimes they’re ugly men, but they’re always ugly.  If you have some doubt, just look at them!  Idiots on display.

One of his last acts before being summarily dismissed, was Tucker Carlson’s interview with Elon Musk.  Musk warned that commercial real estate is in trouble, and will figure in whatever economic disaster is looming.  There are apparently whole buildings, tall ones, (in San Francisco specifically) that have no tenants.  What happens if commercial real estate collapses?  That might not be good for the economy, which is already faltering.

Border news is impossible to watch.  Millions  of “refugees” have crossed into the United States and we’re not supposed to be alarmed.  Mayorkas has such a dumbfounded look on his face at hearings, as if he doesn’t see what we do.  Border agents assigned to manage the flow, get the refugees on a bus and get ready for the next onslaught.  The numbers of “got-aways” are painful, as are the statistics on fentanyl deaths.  We’ve got government-sponsored commercials warning us about the dangers of fentanyl while managing the disaster we can’t stand watching.  This is a full-blown catastrophe, with the undesirables from every mudhole south of the border pouring into the U. S.  What happens when they are the majority?  What about democracy?  The idiots in charge of this insanity are busy calling us racist, and saying the border is under control.  Somebody, tell my TV! 

Mark

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[Disclaimer]

The post Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – April 28, 2023 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

They’ve decided to keep the Covid fear machine in place, at least until May 11, and you can bet there will be crocodile tears if it ever happens. You can hear them now. Covid did what Global Warming was supposed to. Not that they’re not still throwing fits about stuff we’ve never heard of. National Geographic must be slow on the uptake if these wild phenomena are taking place somewhere on the “planet.” Some of these guys nearly busted through their suits with anger. The trick is that we, the recipients of their wrath, can’t even conceive of their wealth.  

I’m trying to remember if a fit has been thrown in the U. S. Congress to compare to the bouncing and gesturing of AOC. Maybe she has a future at the pulpit. It’s as if some of those gestures were created in a mirror. She was nearly beside herself with anger at all the usual whipping boys. You know, racism, inequality, violence against women of color. Turns out the whole squad is apoplectic. What do you mean they can’t serve on important intelligence and national security committees? What an outrage! How dare we stand for it? This fit will be memorialized.

So you know we’ve got a Chinese spy balloon drifting high above the United States. Nothing can be done because… The explanations don’t make a lot of sense. Who knows what ramifications shooting down a Chinese spy balloon would have, or what backroom agreements would be breached. Word has it that the pretender wants it shot down and the military is balking. We can land vehicles on Mars, but have no idea how to deal with a spy balloon.  

I made the mistake of tuning in to one of the lesser news stations. There was a Ukrainian woman of some high office sounding like a true believer. She wants all Russian influence kicked across the border and the international community’s blessing. Nothing short of that is acceptable. That’s as unrealistic as it gets. It overlooks realities of decades, and guarantees perpetual war. It makes you wish our government was half as concerned about our southern border.  Only those borders halfway around the world really matter.  

Everybody’s after Trump. Old stories are being dredged up with all kinds of criminal implications. They’re going to destroy him no matter what. You’ve got to admit, all these years of throwing the book at him, and nothing to show for it has to be infuriating. I’m thinking of the Police Chief in the Pink Panther movies.  

Meanwhile, Hunter’s gone on offense. He’s got some of the finest lawyers money can buy. A lot of them. How dare his personal stuff go public! Somebody must be responsible. Sue everybody in sight, maybe that’ll work. You have to wonder what the big guy’s lawyers are thinking. I’m thinking this wasn’t their strategy, but who knows? You might have noticed, the details of some international deals are getting published all over the place. The “going on offense” posture is designed to call a halt to the revelations. It’s a little late. We already know.

We were kind of hoping we hadn’t heard the last of the Davos crowd, urgent to save us from ourselves as they were. Apparently our bosses (they think) have a lot of things figured out.  They’ve decided the planet can be saved if we just all stay home! Imagine the non-existent traffic jams and no office energy consumption. The Covid mandates showed the way, and if they could just get us all back indoors everything would be fine. Surely you won’t mind a little dietary diversity, like bugs.  

The arrogance of buffoons knows no bounds. John Kerry’s got that look on his face again. Uh oh. There go the gas stoves. Everybody stay home, except when it’s time for your next booster shot. If these self-absorbed intellectual types weren’t so vain, it might be a little easier to take. We don’t believe in them. There’s a much higher power and we believe in Him and the common sense he gave us. Thanks anyway. 

Mark

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[Disclaimer]

The post Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – February 3, 2023 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The post Joe Biden is ‘angry’ that Americans are ‘complaining’ first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Jordan and the Palestinian Authority are expected to demand from the US that control over Jewish visits to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem be restored to the Muslim authority that administers the site, Palestinian sources say.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan’s King Abdullah II were to raise the issue with Secretary of State John Kerry, who is in the region this weekend, the sources said.

Amman and the PA are seeking to return the running of the Temple Mount — the holiest site in Judaism and third-holiest in Islam — to how it was before the start of the intifada in September 2000, and before the visit of then-opposition Likud leader Ariel Sharon, when the Waqf was responsible for Jewish visitors’ access to the site.

The Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, controlled by Jordan, administers the Islamic sites at the compound, including the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. Sharon’s visit is often said to have been the pretext for the Second Intifada, which broke out just a few weeks later and which saw hundreds of Palestinian suicide bombings that claimed the lives of over a thousand Israelis during a span of five years.

Until 2000, the entry of Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount was coordinated with the Waqf. The site was closed to Jews from 2000 until 2003, as the Second Intifada raged. Since then Israel Police have overseen visits by Jewish visitors. Under Israel’s regulations, imposed after the Old City was captured in the 1967 Six-Day War, Jews are allowed to visit, but not pray on, the Temple Mount.

The demand for Muslim oversight on Jewish access to the Temple Mount was first made by the Palestinian Authority on Thursday. “Israel must restore control of the Temple Mount to the Waqf,” said one official close to Abbas. “This is one of the only measures that can help calm the current situation.”

Palestinian sources also told The Times of Israel that Abbas will tell Kerry during their meeting in Amman on Saturday that he is interested in renewing peace talks with Israel and abiding by previous agreements, but that Jerusalem must first freeze all settlement activity and release the final 26 prisoners it had agreed to free last year as part of a US-brokered concession to Abbas.

Israel had agreed to release a total of 104 security prisoners jailed before the 1993 Oslo Accords in four phases. It went through with three of the four releases, setting free some of the worst orchestrators of terrorism, before talks collapsed in April 2014.

Senior Palestinian officials also told The Times of Israel that Israel had tried to create friction between Jordan and the Palestinian Authority by conveying messages to King Abdullah II warning him that Abbas’s inciting statements endangered Jordanian interests on the Temple Mount.

Abbas is expected to demand deeper American involvement in any renewed political process with Israel, and warn that if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues with his current policies, he is dooming the region to more violence and bloodshed.

When asked if they understood that meeting their demands would spell the end of the Netanyahu-led government, the sources said the Israeli prime minister must choose between his government and a willingness to make peace.

The PA’s demands for Waqf control of the Temple Mount come amid a wave of Palestinian terror and violence which has seen 10 Israelis killed in the past month and a half. More than 40 Palestinians have also been killed — about half of them while carrying out attacks, and most of the rest in clashes with Israeli security officials in the West Bank and on the Gaza border.

Israel has accused Abbas and the PA of partial responsibility for the terror surge, with Netanyahu repeatedly castigating Abbas for telling “lies” about purported Israeli plans to change the status quo at the Temple Mount and for inciting violence over the issue. Netanyahu, who has denied any such plans and offered to meet Abbas without preconditions, has also vowed to make no concessions to the Palestinians in response to the current surge in terrorism.

The PA officials said that their security forces have prevented a series of recent attacks on Israeli targets, including stabbings, shootings and the planting of explosives. PA security forces have also been active during Palestinian demonstrations to prevent the use of live fire against IDF soldiers, and intervened when a gunman opened fire on soldiers during a recent protest near the Beit El settlement, they said.

Israeli security officials have acknowledged the value of the ongoing PA security coordination.

On Wednesday, the Prime Minister’s Office denied that Israel has offered to reduce the number of Jewish and non-Muslim visitors to the Temple Mount in an effort to calm tensions at the site and help end the wave of terror attacks. Arab diplomatic officials had told The Times of Israel that this offer was rejected by Palestinian and Jordanian leaders as not going far enough to meet their demands.

Source: https://www.timesofisrael.com/pa-jordan-want-muslim-control-over-jewish-visits-to-temple-mount/

The post PA, Jordan to tell Kerry they want Muslim control over Jewish visits to Temple Mount first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

U.S. Special Climate Envoy John Kerry on Monday denied allegations that while he was serving as secretary of state under Barack Obama informed the Iranian foreign minister of Israeli operations in Syria.

In a Twitter post, Kerry called the claims – detailed in leaked audio obtained by several media outlets – ‘unequivocally false.’

The post John Kerry denies allegations he divulged Israel’s covert operations first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed to the United Nations General Assembly that Israel has discovered a second hidden atomic site in Iran’s capital city of Tehran – before promising that whatever the Islamic Republic tries to hide, Israel will find.

“Just a few months after Netanyahu revealed that Israel had discovered a secret Iranian atomic archive, he revealed a second facility,” CBN News reported.

Israel not fooled by Iran

Netanyahu made it a point to assure the UN that Israel is not fooled by Iran’s smoke and mirrors – which have led the global peacekeeping agency, the former Obama administration and numerous European nations from holding the Islamic Republic accountable for violating the so-called Iran nuclear deal.

“In May, we exposed the site of Iran’s secret atomic archive – it’s right here … in the Shorabad district of Teheran,” Netanyahu told the UN General Assembly, according to CBN News. “Today, I am revealing the site of a second facility; Iran’s secret atomic warehouse. It’s right here … in the Turouzabad district of Teheran – just three miles away.”

The Israeli leader used his classic visual aids while addressing the assembly, impressing that the atomic sites were not destroyed by Iran because its goal is to produce nuclear weapons to be used against its enemies – including Israel and/or the United States.

“In fact, it planned to use both of these sites in a few years – when the time would be right to break out to the atom bomb,” Netanyahu asserted. “But ladies and gentlemen, rest assured that won’t happen. It won’t happen because what Iran hides, Israel will find.”

Iran mocks and denies …

The leadership of the Islamic terrorist-harboring nation mocked Netanyahu’s assertions.

“Iran’s foreign minister is deriding as an ‘arts and crafts show’ Israel’s visual-aid-enhanced accusation that his country is keeping a secret atomic warehouse,” The Associated Press (AP) announced Thursday night. “State-run media report that Mohammad Javad Zarif said Thursday there’s nothing to the allegation that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made at the U.N. General Assembly.”

Netanyahu’s assertion about massive hidden storehouses in Tehran used to produce nuclear weapons were quickly dismissed by Zarif, who used the infamous Iran nuke deal – brokered by former Secretary of State John Kerry under then President Barack Obama – as so-called proof that Iran has kept its end of the agreement.

“Displaying maps and a photo, Netanyahu said Iran has been keeping tons of nuclear equipment and material in a property near its capital,” AP informed. “Zarif notes the International Atomic Energy Agency has certified that Iran is in compliance with its obligations under the 2015 nuclear deal meant to keep it from developing nuclear weapons. The U.S. withdrew from the deal this year.”

In an attempt to take the attention off its own amassing nuclear arsenal, Iran began pointing the finger at Israel, alleging that it is building up nuclear arsenals of its own –  defenses that would be used to counter attacks from the hostile Islamic terrorist-supporting nations surrounding it in the infamously known “Powder Keg” region of the volatile Middle East.

“In a tweet, Zarif called Netanyahu’s presentation an ‘arts and crafts show’ by a country that he says needs to come clean about its own nuclear program,” the AP report added. “Israel is widely believed to have a nuclear arsenal – but has never publicly acknowledged it.”

Netanyahu setting the record straight

The outspoken Israeli PM stressed that Iran’s aggressive intentions in the Middle East are more than obvious.

“In Syria, Iran is trying to establish permanent military bases against us, and has already launched missiles and drones into our territory,” Netanyahu pointed out, according to CBN News. “In Gaza, Iran is arming terror groups to launch rocket attacks into our cities and terror attacks against our civilians.”

He said this is true in Lebanon, as well, where the hostile Islamic Republic has ordered the terrorist group Hezbollah to construct hidden bases to strengthen its missile capabilities next to Israel.

“Hezbollah – listen to this – Hezbollah is deliberately using the innocent people of Beirut as human shields,” Netanyahu continued. “They’ve placed three of these missile convergent sites along Beirut’s international airport. Here’s a picture that is worth a thousand missiles.”

The leader of Israel’s Likud Party went on to emphasize that Israel will not stop its efforts to defend itself against the militant Iranian plots and facilities being organized around it.

“We will continue to act against you in Syria; we will act against you in Lebanon; we will act against you in Iraq; we will act against you wherever and whenever we must act to defend our State and to defend our people,” Netanyahu vowed to Iran.

He also extolled U.S. President Donald Trump for dumping the failed Iran nuclear deal and re-imposing sanctions on Iran – before exhorting European leaders at the UN assembly to also uphold sanctions against the jihadist regime.

“Instead of coddling the Iranians, join the U.S. and Israel and most of the Arab world in supporting new sanctions against a regime that endangers all of us – and all of the world,” Netanyahu urged Europeans in attendance.

He also ripped into representatives of European nations at the UN for cowering to Iran and not holding the hostile Islamic nation accountable for keeping its end of the deal.

“[Netanyahu] blasted European countries for turning a blind eye to the nuclear activity,” Newsmax reported. “He also condemned European nations for ‘appeasing’ Iran by trying to renew trade – despite the nuclear activity.”

The leader of the Jewish State did not stop there in his rebuke of Europe for sticking to the failed nuke deal.

“Invoking historical European maneuvering in the Middle East, Netanyahu laced into Europe’s leaders for sticking to the 2015 Iranian nuclear accord – which allows for a lifting of sanctions in exchange for curbing Iran’s nuclear activities, the AP reported,” Newmax’s Cathy Burke noted.

Through his condemnation, he attempted to invoke representatives of Europe to finally take action against the militant Islamic regime.

“Have these European leaders learned nothing from history?” Netanyahu asked, as quoted by AP and published by Newsmax. “Will they ever wake up?”

One good take from the deal …

Despite his staunch opposition to the Iran nuke deal, the Israeli leader conceded that one positive outcome has poured out from the failed Iran deal brokered by the Obama administration.

“By empowering Iran, it brought Israel and many Arab states closer together than ever before – closer together than ever before in an intimacy and friendship that I’ve not seen in my lifetime and would have been unimaginable a few years ago,” Netanyahu stressed.

However, many obstacles to peace and security remain in the region.

“Netanyahu didn’t mention Russia in his speech – [a nation that] is set to deliver a more advance anti-aircraft missile system to Syria after the Syrian military mistakenly shot down a Russian military plane,” CBN News’ Julie Stahl noted. “That system could make it more difficult for Israel to prevent an Iranian military buildup inside Syria.”

Source: https://www.onenewsnow.com/national-security/2018/09/28/netanyahu-uncovers-2nd-tehran-atomic-site

The post Netanyahu uncovers 2nd Tehran atomic site first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blasted his Obama-era predecessor on Friday for engaging in talks with Iranian government officials, saying John Kerry’s actions were “actively undermining” the Trump administration’s foreign policy.

Kerry, who served as former President Barack Obama’s secretary of state, said in a national radio interview on Wednesday that he had met with Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, “three or four times” since leaving his post. He said the conversations occurred at two conferences they both attended, one in Norway and another in Munich.

Kerry said they discussed a wide range of issues, including Iran’s role in the Syrian and Yememi civil wars – two conflicts where the U.S. is involved. But much of the focus has been on what Kerry said to Zarif about the Iran nuclear agreement.

That deal, negotiated by the U.S. and five other world powers, was intended to block Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, in exchange for relief from crippling economic sanctions. Kerry was deeply involved in those negotiations during the Obama administration. Earlier this year, President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from that agreement, a move that Kerry has sharply criticized.

Asked by conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt if he was “coaching” Zarif about how to handle Trump’s withdraw from the deal, Kerry said no.

“No, that’s not my job, and my coaching him would not, you know, that’s not how it works,” Kerry said, according to a transcript of the interview. “What I have done is tried to elicit from (Zarif) what Iran might be willing to do in order to change the dynamic in the Middle East for the better. You know, how does one resolve Yemen? What do you do to try to get peace in Syria?”

Kerry, in an interview this week with FOX News host Dana Perino, did not directly answer a question when asked whether he specifically told Iranian government officials to wait out President Trump until he leaves office.

“I think everybody in the world is talking about waiting out President Trump,” Kerry responded.

“What Secretary Kerry has done is unseemly and unprecedented,” Pompeo told reporters during a news conference in Washington on Friday. “This is a former secretary of state engaged with the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism.”

Pompeo said Kerry’s actions were aimed at “actively undermining U.S. policy” as directed now by Trump. “It is beyond inappropriate,” he added.

Pompeo’s comments came after Trump weighed in with a tweet that accused Kerry of holding “illegal meetings with the very hostile Iranian Regime.” Trump posted that message just after 9 p.m. on Thursday.

Trump suggested Kerry’s talks would require him to register as a lobbyist for a foreign country.

Kerry responded to Trump with a tweet of his own, suggesting the president did not understand the Iran nuclear deal and had bigger problems to worry about.

Pompeo did not answer a question about whether he agreed with Trump that Kerry’s meetings were potentially “illegal.”

In the Fox interview, Kerry dismissed any suggestion that he had acted inappropriately.

“When I met with the Iranians, the policy of the United States was still to be in the Iran deal because the president had not decided and not pulled out,” he said. “Secondly, every secretary of state, former secretary of state continues to meet with foreign leaders, goes to security conferences, goes around the world. We all do that.”

Kerry said the meetings should not be confused with negotiations or interference with current policy directives. Asked by Hewitt if he had called Pompeo after his conversations with Zarif to give him a read-out, Kerry noted that his meetings with the Iranian official took place before Pompeo became secretary of state. Pompeo was sworn in on May 2, replacing Rex Tillerson as Trump’s chief diplomat.

Kerry accused the Trump administration of seeking “regime change” in Iran and said that would be a failed strategy.

“It appears right now as if the administration is hell bent for leather determined to pursue a regime change strategy to bring the economy down and try to isolate further,” Kerry told Hewitt in the radio interview.

Pompeo rejected that assertion Friday.

“That is not U.S. policy,” he told reporters. “We are very supportive of the Iranian people having the leadership that they want.”

Pompeo also addressed North Korea, saying the Trump administration has no plans to weaken sanctions on Kim Jong Un’s regime. He said the sanctions are “central” to the president’s efforts to press Kim to give up North Korea’s nuclear arsenal.

Pompeo accused Russia of trying to undermine international sanctions on North Korea.

Contributing: Sergio Bustos

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/09/14/trumps-secretary-state-mike-pompeo-blasts-kerry-over-iran-meetings/1302703002/

The post Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blasts John Kerry over Iran meetings as ‘unseemly’ first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Mr. Trump said he fears the 2015 deal will allow the Iranian regime to amass nuclear weapons.

“In just a short period of time, the world’s leading state sponsor of terror will be on the cusp of acquiring the world’s most dangerous weapons,” Mr. Trump said from the White House Diplomatic Room. “Therefore, I am announcing today that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.”

• TRANSCRIPT: Trump announces U.S. will “withdraw” from Iran deal

What that means practically speaking, is the U.S. will not renew the sanctions waiver and will no longer participate in the Iran nuclear deal, CBS News political correspondent Ed O’Keefe and Rebecca Kaplan reported. According to the U.S. Treasury, its Office of Foreign Assets control is taking action immediately to implement Mr. Trump’s decision. Sanctions will have 90-day and 180-day wind-down periods, at the end of which relevant, previous sanctions the U.S. had waived will be reinstated.

• Most Americans don’t know what U.S. should do on Iran deal — CBS News poll

U.S. intelligence has verified that the deal has been an effective arms control deal that has kept Iran’s nuclear program frozen for three years, CBS News “Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan has noted. Mr. Trump is delivering on another campaign promise, says Brennan, but one which is arguably far more consequential than any other deal he’s torn up.

Mr. Trump did not answer shouted questions from a reporter in the room about how leaving the deal will make the U.S. safer.

The Iran nuclear deal, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was forged in 2015 during the Obama administration under then-Secretary of State John Kerry, as a multi-nation effort to keep Iran’s nuclear program at bay.

“In theory, the so-called “Iran deal” was supposed to protect the United States and our allies from the lunacy of an Iranian nuclear bomb, a weapon that will only endanger the survival of the Iranian regime,” Mr. Trump said Tuesday. “In fact, the deal allowed Iran to continue enriching uranium and, over time, reach the brink of a nuclear breakout.”

The United Kingdom, France and Germany were all unable to persuade the Trump administration to broker a side deal that would satisfy the U.S. enough to keep it a party to the 2015 agreement. Shortly before the president was to announce his decision, the leaders of those countries, U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel were on a call to discuss their response to Mr. Trump’s announcement, CBS News’ Kylie Atwood reported, citing European diplomatic sources. The response from the international community was swift.

French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted that France, Germany and the U.K. “regret” Mr. Trump’s’ decision, saying the “nuclear nonproliferation regime is at stake.”

Mr. Trump insisted America will not be held “hostage” by such a deal.

“America will not be held hostage to nuclear blackmail,” the president said. “We will not allow American cities to be threatened with destruction and we will not allow a regime that chants ‘death to America’ to gain access to the most deadly weapons on Earth.”

Mr. Trump spent much of the 2016 campaign and early days of his presidency slamming the 2015 nuclear pact as “a mess” and “badly negotiated.”

That sentiment did well with his supporters.

• Former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State John Kerry had opinions in wake of President Trump’s decision Tuesday. Obama’s office issued a statement:

  “Without the JCPOA, the United States could eventually be left with a losing choice between a nuclear-armed Iran or another war in the Middle East,” Obama said in his statement. “We all know the dangers of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon. It could embolden an already dangerous regime; threaten our friends with destruction; pose unacceptable dangers to America’s own security; and trigger an arms race in the world’s most dangerous region. If the constraints on Iran’s nuclear program under the JCPOA are lost, we could be hastening the day when we are faced with the choice between living with that threat, or going to war to prevent it.”

  Kerry said Mr. Trump’s decision “weakens” U.S. security.

  

  

  John Kerry @JohnKerry

   My thoughts on President Trump’s Iran statement:

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• John Bolton explains how backing out of the Iran nuclear deal works

  National security adviser John Bolton briefed reporters Tuesday afternoon on how backing out of the deal would work, at least, to some extent.

  CBS News’ Margaret Brennan reports Bolton provided no evidence that Iran was in violation of the deal, despite Mr. Trump’s claims of the existence of Israeli intelligence. Bolton, Brennan reports, had no roadmap for how to deal with Iran other than suggesting there perhaps should be more sanctions beyond the 2015 ones.

  “We are out of the deal,” Bolton said.

  ---

• Trump says Mike Pompeo is on his way to North Korea

  Mr. Trump made news after signing off on his decision by saying Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is now on his way to North Korea, where he will hold meetings ahead of Mr. Trump’s expected meeting with the North Koreans.

  Mr. Trump said last week a date and location have been set for such a meeting, although he hasn’t revealed those details.

  ---

• Trump signs off on decision to withdraw from Iran deal

  Mr. Trump, sitting at a desk, signed off on a document memorializing his decision to withdraw from the 2015 deal.

  He showed off his signature to the press and others present.

  ---

• Trump says U.S. will “withdraw” from Iran deal

  Mr. Trump, after laying out his case for withdrawing from the deal, made the announcement official: The U.S. will “withdraw” from the 2015 agreement, Mr. Trump said.

  “In just a short period of time, the world’s leading state sponsor of terror will be on the cusp of acquiring the world’s most dangerous weapons,” the president said. “Therefore, I am announcing today that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.”

  ---

• Trump says it is “clear” Iran nuclear bomb cannot be prevented under current deal

  The president said he has consulted extensively with U.S. allies.

  “The Iran deal is defective at its core. If we do nothing, we know exactly what will happen.”

  ---

• Trump cites “definitive” proof Iran violated the deal

  Mr. Trump, citing Israeli intelligence he said was published last week, claimed there is “definitive” proof Iran violated the deal. He didn’t detail those claims extensively.

  ---

• Trump blasts the 2015 Iran deal

  Mr. Trump blasted the 2015 Iran deal forged by the Obama administration and other nation, calling the deal “disastrous” and saying it gave a regime of great terror too much power.

  “At the heart of the Iran deal is a giant fiction,” the president said — that a regime wanted a peaceful nuclear program.

  ---

• Trump denounces Iranian regime

  Mr. Trump began his remarks by blasting the Iranian regime, calling it the leading state sponsor of terror.

  “The Iranian regime has funded its long reign of chaos and terror by plundering the wealth of its own people,” Mr. Trump said.

  ---

• Trump speaking any moment

  Mr. Trump is expected to speak any moment from the Diplomatic Room of the White House. He is running slightly behind.

  ---

• The details of what the Trump administration is doing

  According to congressional aides, Mr. Trump will announce the U.S. will not renew sanctions waivers and will no longer participate in JCPOA, CBS News’ Ed O’Keefe and Rebecca Kaplan report.

  One sources tells CBS News that senior administration officials have begun informing Congressional leaders of their intent to remove the U.S from the JCPOA and reimpose sanctions.

  Another source signaled that there would be 90-day and 180-day wind downs on various aspects of the Iran deal.

  ---

• Congressional leadership briefed on Iran deal

  Ahead of the president’s decision, House leadership including House Speaker Paul Ryan and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi have been briefed on the president’s announcement.

  According to Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong, “Vice President Pence has briefed the speaker on the president’s announcement.” CBS News’ Rebecca Kaplan reports that Pelosi received a similar call from the vice president shortly before 1 p.m.

  ---

• What will President Trump decide on the Iran deal?

  International allies, including most recently officials from the U.K., have been pressing the president to stay a part of the agreement, vowing to find workable solutions to his issues with the deal.

  But “Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan says any way you slice it, the Trump administration appears to have decided to deal a severe blow — potentially a fatal blow — to what U.S. intelligence has verified to be an effective arms control deal that has kept Iran’s nuclear program frozen for three years. Mr. Trump is delivering on another campaign promise, says Brennan, but one which is arguably far more consequential than any other deal he’s torn up.

  ---

  Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/live-news/trump-iran-nuclear-deal-announcement-today-2018-05-08-live-stream-updates/

  [Disclaimer]

The post Trump announces decision to “withdraw” from Iran nuclear deal first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

That was State Department spokesman John Kirby in June 2015, speaking as negotiations for the Iran nuclear deal were wrapping up. But Tehran did not “take the steps agreed.” The deal was founded on a lie.

Two lies, actually. The first was Iran’s declaration to the International Atomic Energy Agency, before the implementation of the deal, of the full extent of its past nuclear work. This was essential, both as a test of Tehran’s sincerity and as a benchmark for understanding just how close it was to being able to assemble and deliver a nuclear warhead.

The second lie was the Obama administration’s promise that it was serious about getting answers from Tehran. In a moment of candor, then-Secretary of State John Kerry admitted “we are not fixated on Iran specifically accounting for what they did at one point in time or another” — but then he promised Congress that Iran would provide the accounting.

That was when the White House feared Congress might block the deal. When it failed to do so, thanks to a Democratic filibuster, the administration contented itself with a make-believe process in which Iran pretended to make a full declaration and the rest of the world pretended to believe it.

“Iran’s answers and explanations for many of the IAEA’s concerns were, at best, partial, but overall, obfuscating and stonewalling,” David Albright and his colleagues at the nonpartisan Institute for Science and International Security wrote in December 2015. “Needed access to sites was either denied or tightly controlled as to preclude adequate inspections.”

So much, then, for all the palaver about the deal providing an unprecedented level of transparency for monitoring Iranian compliance. So much, also, for the notion that Iran has honored its end of the bargain. It didn’t. This should render the agreement null and void.

That’s the significance of Benjamin Netanyahu’s show-and-tell Monday of what appears to be a gigantic cache of pilfered Iranian documents detailing Tehran’s nuclear work. The deal’s defenders have dismissed the Israeli prime minister’s presentation as a bunch of old news — just further proof that Iran once had a robust covert program to build a bomb. They also insist Iran has complied with the terms of the agreement since it came into force in January 2016.

Yet it’s difficult to imagine that the IAEA can now square Iran’s 2015 declaration with what the Israelis have uncovered. Iran’s mendacity is no longer the informed supposition of proliferation experts such as Albright. It is — assuming the documents are authentic, as the U.S. has confirmed — a matter of fact that the IAEA chose to ignore when it gave Iran a free pass under political pressure to move to implement the deal. If the agency cares for its own credibility as a nuclear watchdog, it should decide that Iran’s past declaration was false and that Iran’s retention of the documents obtained by Israel, with all the nuclear know-how they contain, put it in likely breach of the agreement.

As for Iran’s current compliance, of course it’s complying. The deal gave Iran the best of all worlds. It weakened U.N. restrictions on its right to develop, test and field ballistic missiles — a critical component for a nuclear weapons capability that the Iranians haven’t fully mastered. It lifted restrictions on Iran’s oil exports and eased other sanctions, pumping billions of dollars into a previously moribund economy. And it allows Iran to produce all the nuclear fuel it wants come the end of the next decade.

Yes, Iran is permanently enjoined from building a nuclear weapon, even after the limitations on uranium enrichment expire. But why believe this regime will be faithful to the deal at its end when it was faithless to it at its beginning?

Netanyahu’s revelations were plainly timed to influence President Donald Trump’s decision, expected later this month, on whether to stay in the Iran deal. Trump is under pressure from the French, British and Germans to stay in it, on the view that, if nothing else, the agreement has kept Iran from racing toward a bomb.

But the deal now in place allows Iran to amble toward a bomb, even as it uses the financial benefits of the agreement to fund its militancy in Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen and especially in Syria. And Iran’s own nuclear history suggests the country’s leaders have always been cautious in the face of credible American threats, which is one reason they shelved much of their nuclear program in 2003 after the U.S. invaded Iraq.

I opposed the Iran deal, but immediately after it came into effect, I believed that we should honor it scrupulously and enforce it unsparingly. Monday’s news is that Iran didn’t honor its end of the bargain and neither need the United States now. Punitive sanctions combined with a credible threat of military force should follow.

Bret Stephens is a columnist for The New York Times.

Source: https://lasvegassun.com/news/2018/may/05/iran-deal-has-been-a-lie-all-along/

The post Iran deal has been a lie all along first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.