The Coming Bonanza for Jihad from the Obama/Kerry-Ayatollah Nuclear Bargain

Posted on 26/11/2013 by terrortrends

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Lost in the discussion about the disastrous P5+1 agreement on nuclear technology forced on the world by Barack Obama, John Kerry and the Ayatollahs in Tehran are the profound implications for Jihadist terrorism.

No where in the agreement is the issue of Iran’s sponsorship of terrorism even addressed. For all we know, John Kerry didn’t even raise it as an issue in his talks with the Iranians.

It’s not like the Obama administration can deny Iran’s role in the sponsorship of terrorism. The State Department has for years called Iran the world’s most active state sponsor of terrorism. We have chronicled that in the past:

https://iranbulletin.me/2010/08/06/irans-sponsorship-of-terror-detailed-in-new-state-department-report/

Note that in the State Department report we cited in our 2010 post on Iran’s sponsorship of terrorism, the Obama State Department acknowledged not only Iran’s sponsorship of Shia Hezbollah, but also Sunni terrorist organizations, such as HAMAS and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. In addition, Iran was cited for providing safe haven for Al Qaeda and for providing arms and training to the Taliban, who were fighting US forces in Afghanistan.

Iran’s complicated, on-again, off-again relationship with Al Qaeda was the subject of an article I wrote for National Review way back in 2008 as well:

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/223992/iranian-entanglements/christopher-w-holton

Meanwhile, TerrorTrendsBulletin detailed Iran’s ongoing support for the Taliban as long ago as 2009:

http://terrortrendsbulletin.com/2009/06/08/taliban-continue-to-get-heavy-weapons-from-iran/

How does all this fit in with the nuclear agreement?

The point is, it takes money to arm, train, supply and provide safe haven for Hezbollah, HAMAS, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Money is the lifeblood of Jihad and no one supports Jihad more than Iran does. That money has to come from somewhere. For the most part Iran gets money from oil and natural gas. Divestment and sanctions policies in the US and the West over the past 8-10 years have been geared toward reducing Iran’s oil revenue.

Now, with the stroke of a pen, Obama and Kerry have provided a renewed stream of revenue to the Ayatollahs by easing sanctions that were designed to pressure the Iranians into changing their behavior. This was done with the hope that the Iranians would not build nuclear weapons, a fool’s errand most likely. But even so, the deal was done in a vacuum of consideration for Iran’s sponsorship of Jihadist terrorism. So, whether the Iranians build an atomic bomb next week, next month or next year, Obama and Kerry obviously don’t care that Iran is the world’s foremost sponsor of Jihadist terrorism.

How much of a financial bonanza will the Iranians enjoy as a result of Obama and Kerry’s handiwork?

Well, one estimate forecasts that the Iranians will see an increase in their oil exports of as much as 50%. Given that Iran exports 1 million barrels of oil per day, that figure could rise to 1.5 million barrels of oil per day. Assuming a price of oil of $100 per barrel, that comes to an increase of $50 million each and every day over and above what the Iranians bring in now. Multiply that times 365 days per year and you get a figure of $18,250,000,000.

http://freebeacon.com/analysts-iran-oil-experts-could-increase-50-percent/

In other words, over the next year, the Iranians will earn an extra $18 billion thanks to Barack Obama and John Kerry.

How much of that ends up in the form of weaponry and training for Hezbollah, HAMAS, Islamic Jihad, Al Qaeda and the Taliban is anyone’s guess. Surely a portion of it will also go to Iran’s ballistic missile development program as well…which is yet another nefarious Iranian activity that Obama and Kerry actively ignored in putting together this unprecedentedly horrible deal.

 

 

 

Filed under: Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, ballistic missiles, Country Reports on Terrorism, Gas & Petroleum, HAMAS, Hezbollah, Jihad, John Kerry, missiles, nuclear program, nuclear talks, Obama, Oil, sanctions, sunni groups, Terrorism, US State Department, Useful Idiots | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Total CEO: The Ayatollahs’ French Whore

Posted on 03/07/2010 by terrortrends

One of the absolute worst companies in the entire world is Total SA.

Back when the US first imposed sanctions on Iran and Libya barring US oil companies from giving corporate life support to the regime in Iran, Total established a business strategy to pursue business in those terrorist, rogue nations so they wouldn’t have to compete with US oil companies.

Last week, when the US imposed more stringent sanctions on Iran–sanctions which could have resulted in penalties for foreign oil companies that continue to help Iran fund its nefarious activities–Total decided to finally quit selling refined petroleum to Iran. This belated decision came after other companies, Royal Dutch Shell among them, had long ago decided that enabling the Iranian regime was a risky proposition and bad business practice:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/middle_east/10437336.stm

Now, Christophe de Margerie, Total’s shameless CEO, is whining over the new sanctions against Iran. It seems that de Margerie is suddenly worried about “ordinary” Iranians, claiming that the sanctions would harm the “population.” De Margerie went on to say that it was a mistake to “mix” things that were “political and civil.”

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j9Eq8NcJPlT6IBH1oDcMn3qBi2Wg

We are not sure what his definition of “civil” is, but we would ask Monsieur de Margerie if it would have been a mistake to “mix” things that were “political and civil” back in 1938 or 1939, a year or two before Hitler’s stormtroopers marched triumphantly into downtown Paris to accept the surrender of France?

After all, Germany’s largest trading partner at the time was none other than France.

Let’s get a few things straight about the Islamic Republic of Iran:

First of all, there is no “free enterprise” system running in Iran. Iran has a centralized economy and the regime, especially the Revolutionary Guard Corps, has their mitts on everything in one way or another. You can’t do business in/with Iran without benefiting the regime in some way. For instance, all the banks in Iran are state-owned and operated, which is why they’re all under sanctions in the first place. When Total’s CEO says that sanctions only hurt “ordinary” people, he’s either ignorant or else he’s lying.

In essence, when de Margerie speaks against sanctions against Iran, he is serving the interests of the Ayatollahs who run the brutal regime in Tehran, he’s not looking out for the interests of “ordinary” Iranians. I promise you, Christophe de Margerie couldn’t care less about ordinary Iranians and by doing billions of dollars of business with their rulers, he has prolonged their misery.

Now let’s review just why it’s such a bad idea to be providing corporate life support to the Ayatollahs:

• Iran is the world’s most active state sponsor of Jihadist terrorism.

They give training, arms and funding to HAMAS. Hezbollah is essentially a wing of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Iran also aids Al Qaeda. For those who doubt that Shia Iran would help Salafi Sunni Al Qaeda, we would remind them that HAMAS is Sunni as well and no one doubts that Iran supports HAMAS. In fact, both HAMAS and Iran acknowledge this. Moreover, there are mountains of evidence of Iranian cooperation with Al Qaeda going back years:

http://article.nationalreview.com/352385/iranian-entanglements/christopher-w-holton

To our knowledge, Iran is one of two nations, the other being Syria, that is involved with HAMAS, Hezbollah and Al Qaeda at the same time.

• Iran played a large role in training, arming and funding the insurgents in Iraq and are now doing the same for the Taliban in Afghanistan.

These activities have led directly to the deaths of numerous American GIs, as well as the deaths of Allied servicemen as well. France has soldiers and airmen serving in Afghanistan, fighting against the Taliban. The Taliban are armed and supported by Iran. Total, France’s largest oil company, is cozy with the rulers of Iran.

Maybe that makes sense to Christophe de Margerie, but we doubt this guy agrees:

• Iran is working on nuclear weapons.

No rational, unbiased observer believes that Iran’s nuclear program is a peaceful energy program. Iran is awash in oil and sitting on huge amounts of natural gas. Moreover, as long ago as 1994, the US State Department was saying publicly that Iran’s nuclear program bore no resemblance to a peaceful energy program, but had all the hallmarks of a weapons program. Nothing has happened to change that assessment. In fact, Iran continues to enrich uranium to levels suitable for weaponry, in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions.

If there is one country in the world that you don’t want to have nuclear weapons, it’s Iran.

• Iran has a robust domestic ballistic missile program.

Iran continues to develop ballistic missiles with intercontinental reach. This makes their other weapons programs all the more worrisome.

Training and supplying terrorists costs money.

Enriching uranium costs money.

Building ballistic missiles costs money.

Western companies like Total that do business with the Ayatollahs enable the Iranians to earn money to develop the means with which to kill us. Despite what Christophe de Margerie says, it doesn’t have anything to do with “politics.” It’s much more important than that.

Filed under: Gas & Petroleum, nuclear program, Oil, sanctions, Terrorism | Leave a comment »

New Iran sanctions passed, Obama given right to waive

Posted on 25/06/2010 by terrortrends

Congress has approved new U.S. sanctions against Iran with legislation that reserves for President Obama the right to waive the sanctions on a case-by-case basis.

The sanctions, passed by the House and Senate on June 24, were meant to target Iran’s banking and energy sectors. Under the legislation, passed about two weeks after sanctions by the United Nations Security Council, foreign companies with links to Iranian energy projects and banks would also be banned from doing business in the United States.

At one point, the White House pressed the Democratic leadership in Congress to grant Obama the power to grant blanket exemptions from sanctions. Instead, the bill would allow the president to waive sanctions on companies on a case-by-case basis for no more than a year.

http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2010/ss_iran0572_06_25.asp

Filed under: Gas & Petroleum, nuclear program, Oil, sanctions, U.S. Congress, United Nations | Leave a comment »