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Republican Senators Undermine President’s Nuclear Deal with Iran

Originally published on March 11, 2015, at NationofChange.org

In a blatant effort to undermine President Obama’s negotiations with Iran over their nuclear program, 47 Republican Senators sent an open letter to Iran’s leaders on Monday threatening to sabotage any agreement reached between the two countries. Fearing Iran’s potential nuclear capabilities and enraged by the president’s utter disdain for them, Republican legislators have adopted casino mogul Sheldon Adelson’s and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rhetoric against diplomatic engagement with the Iranian government.

Drafted by Sen. Tim Cotton of Arkansas, the letter attempts to dissuade Iranian leaders from signing a deal with the president by insulting their understanding of America’s constitutional system. They point out that “the president may only serve two 4-year terms, whereas senators may serve an unlimited number of 6-year terms. As applied today, for instance, President Obama will leave office in January 2017, while most of us will remain in office well beyond then – perhaps decades.”

The senators added, “We will consider any agreement regarding your nuclear-weapons program that is not approved by Congress is a mere executive agreement between President Obama and Ayatollah Khamenei. The next president could revoke such an executive agreement with the stroke of a pen and future Congresses could modify the terms of the agreement at any time.”

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Former CIA Director Agrees to Plead Guilty to Leaking Classified Material

Originally published on March 5, 2015, at NationofChange.org

Retired four-star general and former CIA Director David Petraeus entered a plea bargain agreeing to plead guilty to leaking highly classified material to his former mistress and biographer, Paula Broadwell. In his plea deal, Gen. Petraeus also admitted to violating several Non-Disclosure Agreements with the Department of Defense (DOD), making false statements to the FBI during the course of a criminal investigation, and retaining classified documents after resigning from office. Although the Obama administration has a record of aggressively prosecuting conscientious whistleblowers, the Justice Department has been lenient on high-ranking officials responsible for leaking sensitive information.

After returning from the war in Afghanistan, Gen. Petraeus spoke with Broadwell about the location of sensitive documents referred to as the black books. In their conversation, recorded on August 4, 2011, Petraeus acknowledged that the black books contained highly classified material before eventually agreeing to lend her the journals. On August 28, 2011, Petraeus delivered the black books to a private residence in Washington, D.C., where Broadwell was staying for a week.

The black books consisted of eight sensitive notebooks possessing the identities of covert agents, war strategy, intelligence mechanisms, diplomatic discussion, notes from high-level National Security Council meetings, and Petraeus’ private discussions with President Obama. At the time, Broadwell was writing a biography of Petraeus titled “All In: The Education of General David Petraeus” while engaging in a sexual relationship with the married four-star general.

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CIA Whistleblower Faces 100 Years in Prison for Talking to NY Times Reporter

Originally published on January 29, 2015, at NationofChange.org

A former CIA case officer has been convicted for telling a New York Times reporter details concerning a reckless CIA operation that potentially sped up Iran’s nuclear advancement. Although the case against the CIA whistleblower was largely circumstantial and lacking evidence, former case officer Jeffrey Sterling faces a maximum sentence of 100 years in prison for speaking to New York Times reporter James Risen. Under threat of arrest, Risen tenaciously refused to reveal his sources to the government.

After joining the CIA on May 14, 1993, Sterling eventually rose to the rank of case officer and began working with the agency’s Iran Task Force. Between November 1998 and May 2000, Sterling had been assigned to a mission conspiring to deliver flawed nuclear blueprints to the Iranian government codenamed Operation Merlin. Unaware of the design flaws, the Iranian government would waste years devising a nuclear weapon that could not detonate.

The CIA planned to use a Russian nuclear engineer codenamed Merlin to transport the nuclear blueprints to the Iranians. In a luxurious hotel room in San Francisco, Sterling and a senior CIA officer gave the blueprints to Merlin, who immediately identified a flaw even though he had not been debriefed. Instead of aborting the mission because the design flaw was too obvious, the senior CIA officer went ahead with the operation.

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CIA Exposed Part 3: Fugitives, Conspirators, and Whistleblowers

Originally published on December 13, 2013, at WeAreChange.org

Continued from CIA Exposed Part 2: Convicts, Assassins, and Defectors

13. Kermit Roosevelt, Jr.

Grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt and distant cousin of FDR, Kermit Roosevelt, Jr. entered the Office of Strategic Service during World War II. After the dissolution of the OSS, Roosevelt became a political action officer of the CIA’s Directorate of Plans. In 1953, he orchestrated the coup d’etat against Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh, codenamed TP-AJAX. After returning to the US, Roosevelt worked in Washington as a lobbyist for foreign governments, including Iran.

“We were all smiles now… Warmth and friendship filled the room.”

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