Iran Deal Poses Bigger Threat to US Than to Israel

As their U.S. Ambassador Ron Dermer told Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, the Obama administration has agreed to a “tail wind of sanctions relief” that gives Iran both a legal nuclear program and money for an intercontinental ballistic missile system. He pointed out that since Israel and Iran are on the same side of the world, “those ICBMs are for you [us].”

Ambassador Dermer warns that Israel and Saudi Arabia finally see eye-to-eye on a common threat. Lifting of temporary constraints after 10 years will enable Iran to expand its march of conquest and terrorism throughout the Middle East — in Syria, in Lebanon and Yemen.

He pointed out that: “For 18 months, Iran . . . was desperate to come to the negotiating table. And instead of actually dismantling their nuclear program, which was what everyone said two years ago . . . we’ll dismantle the sanctions regime when they dismantle their program . . . what you are doing is dismantling the sanctions regime and leaving their program intact.”

A late final-hour concession grants Iran relief from an international embargo on conventional arms sales after five years, and from restrictions upon ballistic missile technologies after eight years. This will afford the world’s leading terrorist sponsor and dedicated America/Israel arch enemy — one which refuses to sign ballistic missile arms control treaties — free access to international markets.

Politico has reported that top Pentagon officials have recently expressed highly critical opposing views to U.S. and international negotiators both in public and through closed-door meetings. Only days before the Vienna deal was inked, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey told a Senate committee: “We should under no circumstance relieve pressure on Iran relative to ballistic missile capabilities and arms trafficking.”

Referring to long-range missiles, Defense Secretary Ash Carter told the Senate Armed Services Committee: “The reason that we want to stop Iran from having an ICBM program is that ‘I’ in ICBM stands for intercontinental, which means having the capability of flying from Iran to the United States.”

And just how scary is that?Consider that the blast from a relatively small and primitive atomic electromagnetic pulse (EMP) device detonated in orbit above the U.S. would black out a vast region of our critical civilian and military electronics infrastructure for months or even years. According to an unclassified 2008 congressional EMP Commission report, a year-long blackout would cause 90 percent of the population — tens of millions of Americans — to perish from starvation and societal chaos.

Dare to imagine circumstances with grid disruptions shutting down all water pumping and sanitation stations; lights and refrigerators; TV, radio and Internet communications; and manufacturing industries. All equipment that relies upon complex electronic micro circuitry would cease to function, including banking transactions, air traffic control operations, and ground transportation vehicles, law enforcement communications, gasoline pumps, heating and air-conditioning, and tiny implanted medical devices.

A 2009 Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States co-chaired by former Secretaries of Defense William Perry and James Schlesinger urged immediate action to protect the power grid from just such a threat. Study conclusions of the Academy of Sciences, the Department of Energy, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the National Intelligence Council agreed.

Clearly recognizing vulnerability to a devastating EMP attack, the Pentagon is moving NORAD’s early warning and command/control headquarters to a hollowed-out Cheyenne Mountain bunker near Colorado Springs, Colo. The greatest strike threat is from a small nuclear device detonated in orbit above our mainland following a south-polar trajectory which will be blind to our ballistic missile early-warning radars and ground-based interceptors facing south.

Iran and North Korea have both demonstrated capacities to orbit payloads over the South Pole. While Iran’s nuclear weapons timetable is uncertain, former congressional EMP Commission chairman William Graham and former National Intelligence Council chairman Fritz Ermarth have warned Newsmax that Iran should be regarded as already having nuclear missiles capable of delivering EMP attacks.

Whether the Iran nuclear accord is viewed as a historic success or the “stunning historic mistake” characterized by Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, there’s next to nothing opponents can do to reverse it. Overturning President Obama’s commitment to veto any congressional legislation “that prevents the successful implementation of this deal” will require an exceedingly unlikely two-thirds vote.