About that Iran Nuclear Deal . . . .

Remember the current     group of feckless fools and clueless tools’     Administration’s nuclear deal with Iran? You know, the one that     that gang of incompetent neophytes     the Administration refused to allow to be made public for review before it was signed?

Well, maybe now we know why. Turns out some some senior Administration officials who’ll have to implement the deal have taken a hard look at what this       clown krewe     Administration agreed to allow in that deal. And there’s a problem.

The deal appears to violate existing US law.  Law signed by – you guessed it – the current POTUS himself.  In fact, it runs afoul of multiple existing laws.

The deal purportedly allows subsidiaries of US firms to do business with Iran. This is a major part of the deal, and is expected to result in tens of billions of dollars of trade between Iran and those subsidiaries.

However, it so happens there’s this little thing called the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act of 2012..  It was passed by Congress in the summer of 2012. It was signed into law by the current Occupant, 1600 Penn Ave, in August of that year.

Section 218 of that law explicitly prohibits foreign subsidiaries of US companies from doing business with Iran. Section 605 of that law requires this to remain the case until (1) the POTUS certifies to Congress that Iran is no longer listed by the DoS as a state sponsor of international terrorism, and (2) the POTUS certifies to Congress that Iran has ceased efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction.  Both are required.

The Iran nuclear deal is not a treaty; it is an “executive agreement” It thus does not trump existing Federal law.

What’s more, the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015  – also signed by the current POTUS –  specifically states that prior sanctions on Iran mandated by Federal law are not affected by the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran; they thus remain in effect.  So the current POTUS has signed Federal law requiring any US nuclear deal with Iran to be IAW existing US laws regarding Iran sanctions not once, but twice.

I mean, really – how freaking incompetent must a group be to “accidentally” sign off on an agreement that is patently illegal?  Did they not bother to have any of their legal staff look at the damn thing before signing on the dotted line?

Looks to me like someone has painted themselves into a corner. Best I can tell, the only way to actually implement key parts of the Iran nuclear deal at this point would be to require a clear violation of Federal law. Or, alternatively, the POTUS could certify to Congress that Iran is now neither a sponsor of terrorism or pursuing any form of WMD program.

Personally, I’m betting on the former (ignore existing law). This Administration IMO seems quite comfortable with that, and I don’t think even this clueless krewe is stupid enough to do the latter.  But that’s just me.

Category: "Teh Stoopid", Foreign Policy, Legal, Military issues, Terror War