Secret Side Deal Reveals Disturbing Flaw in Iran Nuclear Agreement

The Associated Press released a bombshell report on Wednesday that revealed that Iran will be allowed to use its own inspectors to investigate a military site where it is suspected of conducting nuclear weapons work, under the terms of a secret agreement it signed with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Although some supporters of the Iran nuclear deal sought to discredit the initial Associated Press report, the news organization stands by its reporting and the Obama administration has not denied the story. 

This unprecedented arrangement, which would involve Iranian personnel providing photos, videos, and environmental samples from the Parchin military complex to the IAEA, has stoked concerns that the IAEA investigation of Iran’s past work on developing nuclear warheads will amount to little more than a public relations exercise. 
The IAEA, as well as intelligence agencies from the U.S. and other countries, long have suspected that Iranian scientists experimented with high-explosive detonators for nuclear arms at Parchin and conducted additional weapons-related work at other sites.

Despite repeated promises to fully cooperate with the IAEA’s investigation, Iran has blocked IAEA inspectors from looking at the Parchin facilities and has razed buildings and stripped away large quantities of earth, further fueling suspicions that Tehran is concealing evidence of past nuclear weapons work.
The IAEA investigation, which began long before the nuclear agreement was signed in July, has become a crucial part of the deal because the accord stipulates that sanctions can only be lifted after Iran resolves the IAEA’s concerns over the “possible military dimensions” of its nuclear program.

The disturbing news that the IAEA has agreed to outsource some of its responsibilities to Iran has amplified concerns that questions about Iran’s past efforts to develop nuclear warheads will be swept under the rug in a rush to lift sanctions.

Fred Fleitz, who has worked on Iranian nuclear issues at the CIA, State Department, and House Intelligence Committee during a distinguished 25-year government career, has condemned the IAEA’s side deal as a “preposterous and unserious plan to investigate past and ongoing Iranian nuclear-weapons-related activities.”

The IAEA’s absurd arrangement with Iran is a far cry from “anytime/anywhere” inspections promised by the Obama administration. The final agreement reached at Vienna allows Iran to delay inspections for up to 24 days, and possibly a lot longer if the U.N. Security Council gets involved in deliberations over possible Iranian efforts to delay inspections.

Charles Duelfer, who oversaw inspections of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction programs as a top official of the United Nations Special Commission on Iraq (UNSCOM) from 1993 to 2000, has noted that Iran is likely to apply the lessons learned by Saddam Hussein’s regime in obstructing and thwarting U.N. inspectors. 

The disclosure of the IAEA secret agreement has ignited a firestorm on Capitol Hill, where many members already resented that they were being kept in the dark on important aspects of the Iran nuclear agreement. On Wednesday, Sens. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., called for the Obama administration to release secret letters to foreign governments assuring them that they will not be legally penalized for doing business with the Iranian government.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., blasted the administration on Thursday on the IAEA revelations:

Congress should not be finding out about the details of a secret side agreement with Iran through media reports. The House has already demanded that the administration give Congress the text of these agreements, as is required by the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act that the president signed into law. On its face, this agreement seems to give Iran much too much authority in determining how and when inspections happen at the Parchin military site. Though President Obama claimed that this agreement is not based on trust but on verification, this side deal makes it look like the exact opposite.

The IAEA’s ludicrous concessions allowing Iranian personnel to gather possible evidence about past Iranian nuclear weapons experiments set a dangerous precedent for future nuclear inspections.

Allowing Iran to assume such a prominent role in investigating itself would amount to putting the fox in charge of the chicken coop. 

http://dailysignal.com/2015/08/23/secret-side-deal-reveals-disturbing-flaw-in-iran-nuclear-agreement/

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I Saw Hamas' Cruel and Selfish Game in Gaza

During the 2014 Gaza War

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay accused Hamas militants of violating international humanitarian law by "locating rockets within schools and hospitals, or even launching these rockets from densely populated areas."^[61] The European Union condemned Hamas, and in particular condemned "calls on the civilian population of Gaza to provide themselves as human shields."^[62][63] Confirmation of urban warfare was produced by France24, whose team filmed a rocket launch pad which was placed in a civilian area next to a hotel where international journalists were staying.^[64] Peter Stefanovic of Australia’s Channel Nine News tweeted that rockets had been fired "over our hotel from a site about two hundred metres away. So a missile launch site is basically next door.” Janis Mackey Frayer of Canada's CTV reported seeing a Hamas gunman dressed in a woman's headscarf with a "tip of a gun poked out from under cloak.” Harry Fear reporting for Russia Today tweeted that rockets were fired from near his hotel. ^[65] His tweet was later deleted, and he was expelled from Gaza. Several journalists who alleged Hamas use of human shields and rocket locations close to civilian infrastructure reported being threatened by Hamas. 

In this Saturday, Aug. 2, 2014 file photo, Palestinians look for their belonging after houses were destroyed in an Israeli strike in Rafah, in southern Gaza Strip.AP

Israeli report on 2014 Gaza op accuses Hamas of war crimes

Six takeaways from the UN's Gaza war report

Why I need to tell my truth about serving in Israeli army

I spent a month in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge. It was one of the worst and deadliest months I have seen in my life. The reality there was much more complicated than was seen from a safe distance in Europe or the United States.

Yes, Israel bombed Palestinian houses in Gaza. But Hamas is also to blame for its cruel and selfish game against its own people. I do not have hard evidence but for me, spending a month in the middle of this hell, it was obvious that they were breaking international rules of war and worst of all, were not afraid to use their own citizens as living shields.

The first incident happened late in the evening. I was in the bathroom when I’ve heard a loud rocket noise and my Spanish colleague, a journalist who was renting with me a flat near the Gaza beach, started to scream. He wanted to light a cigarette and came to one of the open windows. The moment he was using his lighter, he saw a fireball in front of his eyes and lost his hearing.

From what our neighbors told us later, a man drove up in a pickup to our tiny street. He placed a rocket launcher outside and fired. But the rocket failed to go upwards and flew along the street at ground level for a long time before destroying a building. It was a miracle that nobody was hurt or killed.

When we calmed down, we started to analyze the situation. It became obvious that the man or his supervisor wanted the Israel Defense Forces to destroy civilian houses, which our tiny street was full of. Whoever it was, Hamas, Iz al-Din al-Qassam or others, they knew that the IDF can strike back at the same place from which the rocket was fired. Fortunately for us, the rocket missed its target in Israel.

The second story happened in the middle of the day. I was sitting with other journalists in a cafe outside one of the hotels near the beach. During wartime, these hotels are occupied by foreign press and some NGOs. Every hotel is full and in its cafes many journalists spend their time discussing, writing, editing stories or just recharging the phones. Suddenly I saw a man firing a rocket from between the hotels. It was obvious that we journalists became a target. If the IDF would strike back, we all would be dead. What would Hamas do? It would not be surprising to hear about the “cruel Zion regime killing innocent and free press.”

For me, provoking is also creating living shields.

While I was interviewing people on the streets of Gaza, I couldn’t meet anyone who spoke something other than official propaganda. But some Palestinians, when they were sure my microphone was turned off, told me they have had enough but they are afraid. No one would dare to say publicly that Hamas is creating a hell inside Gaza. But they were also asking “what if not Hamas?” The Palestinian Authority government would have no authority there. So if not Hamas, they say, there could be somebody much worse. “The choice is between evil and evil plus,” one of them said.

The reality is much more complicated than can be seen from a distance.

The writer is a foreign news correspondent for Polish Radio.

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.672684 

During the 2008-2009 Gaza War

The United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict that took place in 2008-2009 stated that it "did not find any evidence of civilians being forced to remain in their houses by Palestinian armed groups". The Mission "asked numerous witnesses in Gaza why they had stayed in their homes in spite of the shelling, bombing and Israeli ground invasion"; respondents stated they "did not think they would be at risk as long as they remained indoors or because they had no safe place to go".^[54] An Amnesty International report in 2009 criticized Hamas for human rights violations, but found "no evidence Palestinian fighters directed civilians to shield military objectives from attacks, forced them to stay in buildings used by militants, or prevented them from leaving commandeered buildings".^[55]

A review article in Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law stated that Israel warned residents to leave by using warnings such as roof knockingand phone calls, and that "Israel asserted that Palestinian civilians who did not abide by the warnings were acting as 'voluntary human shields,' and were thus taking part in hostilities and could be targeted as combatants." The article determined this assertion to be unsupportable in international law.^[56]

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs says Hamas now regularly uses human shields to protect the homes of Hamas officials.^[57] The Israeli Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center accused Hamas and other armed groups of making extensive use of human shields as integral part of their war doctrine, in order to prevent the IDF to target them, during the Gaza War (2008-2009).^[58] The IDF released footage allegedly showing Palestinian fighters using ambulances for military purposes. Magen David Adom, the Israeli ambulance and medical emergency service, submitted to the UN a report concluding the accusation was unfounded.^[59]

In relation to Al-Fakhura school incident during the Gaza War of January 2009, Israel accused Hamas of "cynically" using civilians as human shields. A UN Board of Inquiry found that there was no firing from within the school and no explosives within the school. The Board could not establish with certainty whether there had been any firing from the vicinity of the school.^[60] 

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The Canary Mission database was created to document the people and groups that are promoting hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews on college campuses in North America.