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The U.S. State Department published its updated ‘Country Reports on Terrorism’ for fiscal year 2015 and at the top of their list in ‘State Sponsors of Terrorism’ is none other than Iran. This comes as no surprise that Iran would still remain in control of the top spot of state sponsors of terrorism, but what does come as somewhat of a surprise is that the United States through the State Department ‘helped’ Iran maintain that top spot. That ‘help’ came in the form of the State Department admitting that it deliberately edited the footage of the Iran deal presser in an attempt to mislead the press.
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Editing that footage may seem very minute in regards to ‘helping’ Iran maintain its infamous status, but it is important when it comes to the key factors that got this Iran Deal approved across the board, starting with Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton, the architect of the Iran Deal, is quite proud of her work on it despite the deal seeing final resolution under her successor, John Kerry, which leads to an important question needing to be asked: Who requested the deletion of several minutes of the State Department’s 2013 Iran Deal video footage?
Every year, the State Department publishes its updated “Country Reports on Terrorism” and as of a few days ago, the 2015 report was published. Chapter Three of that report focuses on countries who are leaders of state-sponsored terrorism and Iran has topped that list since 1984 and for good reason. Iran and its hardliner leadership, starting with the Ayatollah Khomeini, have been behind some of the most heinous terrorist attacks by proxy through the funding and supporting of their terrorist ‘vehicles’ of Hezbollah and Hamas. Iran additionally continues to fund and support rebel fighters around the Middle East with the most prominent being the Ansarullah fighters (Houthis) who are engaged in fighting with Saudi Arabian forces in Yemen. Of course, there is also Iran’s backing of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria where civil war rages on in the midst of fighting the Islamic State; Iran has a vested interested in keeping Assad in power so much so, that the special forces branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Forces (IRGC), Quds, was dispatched to Syria (and Iraq) in an “advisory” role.
Given Iran’s history and penchant for backing terrorists and terrorist attacks, it stands to reason that any type of US negotiation with the hardliner Iranian leadership would be fully disclosed to the American public; yes, we want to know what our government is getting us into with Iran considering the animosity this regime has had and continues to have towards America for decades.
In 1979, President Carter was faced with a hostage crisis for the ages, Americans trapped in the US Embassy in Tehran, which history would later dub it the “Iran Hostage Crisis.” Sanctions upon Iran were immediately put into place and the country, along with its hardliner leadership, were to become pariahs to the western world; countries doing business with Iran would also come under heavy scrutiny by the United States and the United Nations. Fast forward to present day and the Iran Deal. The Iran Deal, a nuclear agreement whose chief architect was former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, which saw it finalized under Secretary of State John Kerry.
Much to the disdain of the American public, the Iran nuclear deal framework agreement was pushed through along with the support and approval of several countries. Iran, who still chants its favorite mantras of “DEATH TO AMERICA” and “DEATH TO ISRAEL,” just got a deal of the ages and set upon to test the limits of the rules of this historical deal on an almost daily basis (threatening Israel, posturing its warships in Latin America, mocking the sanctions against them, and threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz are a few examples of Iran’s defiance towards the US and her allies). With Iran’s history of hatred and ties to terrorism, why would the State Department censor its own video footage of the Iran Deal presser from the press corps? This alludes to what many have felt all along, there is no transparency in the current administration and withholding information from the American public, especially in the form of a State Department press briefing on the Iran Deal, is very alarming.
State Department spokesman, John Kirby, said on Wednesday of the 2013 edited video,
“There was a deliberate request [to delete the footage] – this wasn’t a technical glitch. Deliberately removing a portion of the video was not and is not in keeping with the State Department’s commitment to transparency and public accountability.”
Kirby said he learned that on the same day of the 2013 briefing, a video editor received a call from a State Department public affairs official who made “a specific request … to excise that portion of the briefing.”
Who has the most to lose regarding the missing video segment of the State Department’s Iran Deal presser? It’s the only one who has direct ties to the nuclear deal and is running for president of the United States on the Democratic ticket, Hillary Clinton. The self-proclaimed architect of the Iran Deal even recognizes that Iran is a danger with its terrorist proxies and state sponsored terrorism and said during a February 11, 2016 PBS Democratic debate with Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton said,
“I think we have achieved a great deal with the Iranian nuclear agreement. That has to be enforced absolutely with consequences for Iran at the slightest deviation from their requirements under the agreement. I do not think we should promise or even look toward normalizing relations because we have a lot of other business to get done with Iran. Yes, they have to stop being the main state sponsor of terrorism. Yes, they have to stop trying to destabilize the Middle East, causing even more chaos.”
What’s disturbing is the fact the Secretary of State John Kerry is concerned that her efforts in the Iran Deal will lead to the funding of Islamic terrorist groups once Iran gets a portion of the $55 billion and the two terrorist factions that immediately come to mind are Hezbollah and Hamas.
Then there’s the issue of tracking Iran’s uranium; I wonder if Hillary Clinton cares that part of her Iran Deal that she created led to Ambassador Mull’s testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee that he could not locate 25,000 pounds of enriched uranium shipped from Iran to Russia. Hillary Clinton opened the door for Iran to enrich uranium and now the United States has no idea where 25,000 pounds of it are!
Lack of accountability and lack of transparency seem to be common place with this Iran Deal and the architect of this fiasco, Hillary Clinton, wants to be the president of the United States? It stands to reason that she is the one who has the most to lose regarding the missing video footage and it would be a huge hit on her Foreign Policy “accomplishment” that she will undoubtedly rely on as part of her platform for her presidential bid.
If she is in fact behind this, which I suspect she is, it’s just another fact revealed that will cement her failures during her tenure as Secretary of State (ignoring 600 requests for increased security in Benghazi that resulted in the deaths of four Americans, cannot account for the missing $6 billion in State Department funds, and her push to arm Benghazi rebels despite UN ban on arms to Libya are but a few of her failures). Who stands to lose the most and who requested the deletion of several minutes of the State Department’s 2013 Iran Deal video footage? I’ll put my money on the woman who wants to be president of the United States no matter the cost, Hillary Clinton.
Theresa Giarratano is a retired US Army NCO studying Middle Eastern affairs with special emphasis on global terrorism. Her current status is assisting the Kurdish people by disseminating information regarding the fight against ISIS via social media platforms.
