Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Iran Lobby Makes Vast Inroads In Obama's Washington

You know how that "all-powerful" Israel/Zionist lobby is supposed to carry so much weight in D.C.? Turns out that in Obama's Washington, it's the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), the Iran lobby helmed by a smooth operator named Trita Parsi, that's throwing it's weight around and inserting itself into the thick of things. It is Parsi and NIAC that helped smooth the way for the Iran nuke deal--not that the Obami want you to know anything about the lobby and how influential it is at this time:
In part, Parsi and NIAC’s relative anonymity is the work of a White House that would rather pretend that there is no Iran Lobby, in accordance with the standard Beltway wisdom that a “lobby” is any group of people who advocate things that you are opposed to (lobbies that advocate things you are for are known as “supporters”). But the White House surely knows better, in part because so many friends and graduates of the Iran Lobby now staff key Iran-related government posts. The White House’s Iran desk officer, Sahar Nowrouzzadeh, for example, is a former NIAC employee. NIAC’s advisory board includes two former U.S. diplomats, Thomas Pickering, a former ambassador to Israel, and John Limbert, who was held hostage by the revolutionary regime in 1979. Past speakers at NIAC leadership conferences include Joe Biden’s National Security Adviser Colin Kahl, and the White House’s Middle East Director Rob Malley. Other past speakers from the political realm include: Robert Hunter, former U.S. ambassador to NATO; PJ Crowley, State Deptartment spokesperson under Hillary Clinton; Hans Blix, former director general of the IAEA. Other reputable names include figures like Aaron David Miller from the Wilson Center, Robert Pape from the University of Chicago, and Suzanne Maloney from the Brookings Institution.
 A pox on the lot of 'em.

No comments: