As the White House increases its rhetoric against ISIS, it is quietly softening sanctions on Iran and diverting attention away from its nuclear threat for the Middle East and for the United States.
- Senator Ted Cruz: The greatest threat to the US is not ISIS but a nuclear-armed Iran.
At the same time the US government's accusation against Syria of using chlorine gas to poison its own people draws attention away from the fact that Iran has been supplying Syria's Assad with that same poison.
- Columnist Mark Langfan: Iran has been enabling and arming Assad to gas Syrians to death with chlorine. And, as such, Iran is guilty under the 1925 Geneva Protocol, because Assad still is substantially, if not totally, under Iran’s command and control.
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Washington Free Beacon - Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) said the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) could lead to a “massive loss of life” in the United States if it is not stopped, but added that he still believes Iran’s nuclear ambitions pose a greater threat to the U.S. than the Islamic State, in an interview with the Washington Free Beacon last week.
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| Sen Ted Cruz - AP photo |
The senator also tied Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the Obama administration’s Iran policy, and warned the White House against using a military campaign against ISIL as an excuse to appease Tehran.
“As grave as the threat from ISIS is, in my view the most significant threat to U.S. national security remains the threat of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons capability,” said Cruz.
“The incoherence of the Obama-Clinton foreign policy will come to full flower if the peril of ISIS is used as an excuse to further appease Iran and facilitate their acquiring nuclear weapon capability.”
He added that “everything President Obama and Hillary Clinton and John Kerry have done have increased the chances of Iran acquiring nuclear weapon capability, and have perversely increased the chances of future military conflict.”
Cruz said both ISIL and the Iranian regime are “radical Islamic terrorists who want to kill us. The one thing on which they agree is killing Americans.”
Still, the senator warned that failing to confront ISIL could lead to massive U.S. casualties. “If we don’t act now and if they are able to consolidate power and control of a nation state with massive oil revenues, the inevitable consequence of that will be a significant and perhaps even massive loss of life here in the United States,” said Cruz.
He criticized the idea of arming Syria’s anti-Assad rebels, saying that many of them were allied with ISIL, and the Obama administration had not provided a clear plan on how to keep the weapons from falling into the hands of terrorist groups.
Cruz also defended his opposition to U.S. military action against the Syrian regime last summer. “Had the administration gotten what it wanted last summer, there’s a very real chance ISIS would be stronger today than it is right now,” said Cruz.
Read more
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/cruz-nuclear-iran-is-a-bigger-threat-than-isil/
The Obama ISIS red herring
that keeps IRAN in the clear
By Mark Langfan
President Obama is consistent. You must say that for him. Obama will do anything, and everything, to protect the Islamic Republic of Iran.
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| Mark Langfan |
Because it diverts world attention from Iran’s real war-crime violation of the 1925 “Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare,” known as the “1925 Geneva Protocol.”
Iran is behind Syria'
In this essay, I will begin to sketch the subject of why Assad likely committed war-crimes under the 1925 Geneva Protocol. But the key thrust of this essay (and a vital new subject that I will focus on in the future) is that Iran has definitely committed war-crimes under the 1925 Geneva Protocol.
Why is Kerry’s reference to a possible Assad CWC violation a red herring? The idiom is used to refer to something that misleads or distracts from the relevant or important issue. The legal reason is that chlorine is really not that grave a violation of the CWC.
Kerry even admitted as much when he testified on Capitol Hill that, "We believe there is evidence of Assad's use of chlorine, which, when you use it — despite it not being on the list — it is prohibited under the Chemical Weapons Convention. He's in violation of the convention."
I’m not going to waste time at this point on the CWC. Because chlorine gas is a war-crime in violation of the 1925 Geneva Protocol. Chlorine gas was exactly the gas the Germans used in World War I, and exactly the gas that was banned as a war-crime under the 1925 Geneva Protocol.
And all three of the following: Republic of Syrian Arab Republic, on 17 December 1968 (only reserving that “Does not constitute recognition of, or establishing any relations with Israel.”), the Islamic Republic of Iran, on 5 November 1929 (no reservations), and the Russian Federation, on 5 April 1928 (reservations withdrawn 2001) are explicit signatories under the 1925 Geneva Protocol.
There is a legal problem in applying the 1925 Geneva Protocol war-crimes to Assad. The problem is that gassing your own people to death was not literally a violation of the 1925 Geneva Protocol.
This rule, however, has substantially changed over the years, and could eventually hang Assad anyway. Besides, there are other avenues of Assad war-criminality under the 1925 Geneva Protocol which I will discuss in later essays.
This rule, however, has substantially changed over the years, and could eventually hang Assad anyway. Besides, there are other avenues of Assad war-criminality under the 1925 Geneva Protocol which I will discuss in later essays.
The key 1925 Geneva Protocol war-crime that Obama is diverting attention from is Iran’s war-crime (and, likely even the Russian Federation’s). Iran was, and is, explicitly and directly enabling and arming Assad to gas Syrians to death with chlorine.
And, as such, Iran is guilty under the 1925 Geneva Protocol because Assad was substantially, if not totally, under Iran’s (and possibly even Russia’s) command and control.
And, as such, Iran is guilty under the 1925 Geneva Protocol because Assad was substantially, if not totally, under Iran’s (and possibly even Russia’s) command and control.
It is entirely possible that without Iran’s assistance (and maybe even Russia’s assistance), Assad would have fallen a long time ago and not have been able to use chemical weapons at all to mass-murder his people.
Most important, as an “outside country,” Iran’s enabling of Assad’s forces to gas Syrians to death neuters the “against your people” 1925 Geneva Protocol ‘defense’ with regards to Iran. The very definition of Syria being a “Proxy War” means the outside-country, Iran, is directing its proxies inside of the country to act.
Hence, Iran, an absolute signatory to the 1925 Geneva Protocol, was an extra-sovereign country using controlled-proxy-armed forces inside of Syria to mass-murder Syrian Sunnis with chlorine, a directly banned 1925 Geneva Protocol substance.
Hence, the Islamic Republic of Iran is a 1925 Geneva Protocol war-criminal for its aiding, abetting, enabling, and possibly even directing, the chlorine gas mass-murder of Syrian Sunni Moslems.
Hence, the Islamic Republic of Iran is a 1925 Geneva Protocol war-criminal for its aiding, abetting, enabling, and possibly even directing, the chlorine gas mass-murder of Syrian Sunni Moslems.
So, don’t waste time on the CWC violations. Focus on the 1925 Geneva Protocol, and create a matrix of Iranian leadership statements and facts connecting Iran to Assad’s ability to gas Sunni Moslems to death.
Source - http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/15685#.VB4b-ZstCM8
Mark Langfan specializes in security issues, has created an original educational 3d Topographic Map System of Israel to facilitate clear understanding of the dangers facing Israel and its water supply. It has been studied by US lawmakers and can be seen at www.marklangfan.com.
Read more of his columns: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Author.aspx/983
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