'Theater Of The Insane': Secret Deals, Double Standards, Lies And Distortions. The Usual

That first quote comes from an article seen in Gulag Bound and supported by a few other articles in circulation and it serves to define our times - as we approach the end of the age:

Secret Deals With Our Enemies

Iran just declared victory over the world, announcing a new nuclear agreement between Iran and the six world powers. The 30 page document has not been made public yet, but word has it, a secret deal was given to Iran. Figures. The agreement supposedly takes effect on Jan. 20, after which Iran will begin to get access to some frozen assets and will have to open more facilities to inspectors. Right. And Islamic pigs fly. This absurd theater of the insane is being led by the US

The White House is of course denying a secret agreement. But we know how much their word is worth, don’t we? From the LA Times:

When officials from Iran and the world powers announced that they had completed the implementing agreement, they didn’t release the text of the deal, nor did they acknowledge the existence of an informal addendum.

In the interview, Araqchi referred to the side agreement using the English word “nonpaper,” a diplomatic term used for an informal side agreement that doesn’t have to be disclosed publicly.

The nonpaper deals with such important details as the operation of a joint commission to oversee how the deal is implemented and Iran’s right to continue nuclear research and development during the next several months, he said.

Araqchi described the joint commission as an influential body that will have authority to decide disputes. U.S. officials have described it as a discussion forum rather than a venue for arbitrating major disputes.

Basically the State Department told everyone to cool their heels and they would release details when they were good and ready. Let me translate bull crap for you: never, or after we modify it and craft sufficient lies to cover our tracks temporarily until it is too late.

Those wanting the truth were locked out of heaven so-to-speak. This buys just enough time to get the bomb and go after the Little Satan, Israel. The US, China, Russia and the others damn well know it too. It’s a who’s who of lying 

U.S. officials said Sunday that Iran would be allowed to continue existing research and development projects and with pencil-and-paper design work, but not to advance research with new projects. Araqchi, however, implied that the program would have wide latitude.

“No facility will be closed; enrichment will continue, and qualitative and nuclear research will be expanded,” he said. “All research into a new generation of centrifuges will continue.”

President Hassan Rouhani crowed over the landmark nuclear deal as a massive victory for Iran. He declared to a crowd that the deal effectively means the “surrender” of Western powers to Iranian demands. Rouhani was quoted as saying the “Geneva deal means the surrender of big powers before the great nation of Iran.” Hear that? It’s the sound of the free world about to die. It’s the sound of a nuclear power being born to a monstrous bloodthirsty theocracy that will use it for the glory of Allah.

In the meantime, the Iran PM chose this moment to honor a terrorist bomber who killed hundreds of Americans. This deal is covered and signed in the blood of innocent Americans:

Ya'alon Apologizes But Does Not Recant

Israel’s Defense Minister Ya’alon was forced to apologize Tuesday night, Jan. 14, for off-the-record remarks he made to reporters, which relegated US Secretary of State John Kerry’s role in the oft-stalled Israel-Palestinian peace talks to “misplaced obsession and messianic fervor.” He was also quoted as dismissing the US security plan as “not worth the paper it was written on.”

In the background of Washington’s anger, were the words spoken by Netanyahu himself at the funeral of the late prime minister Ariel Sharon, on Jan. 13.  In the presence of Vice President Joe Biden, the prime minister quoted Sharon’s pledge of 2001 never again to allow Israel and the Jewish people to pay for the West’s errors of appeasing Hitler in 1938 as he set up his Final Solution for the Jewish people.

The Obama administration took the prime minister’s comment as a dig at what Israel sees as its appeasement of Iran and acceptance of its nuclear aspirations.

In this sense, Netanyahu’s criticism was more pointed than Ya’alon’s.

This clash between Washington and Jerusalem strongly reflected how far the Obama administration has downgraded Israel as a strategic asset compared with its new favorite, Iran, whose leaders get away with disrespectful comments about Washington which put Israeli remarks in the shade.

Rouhani has publicly crowed over the capitulation of the US President and the West to Iran’s dictates. Only this week, Abbas Araghchi, a mere deputy foreign minister, contradicted the White House – and President Obama - as being wide of the truth in stating that Iran would dismantle the key element of its nuclear program.

Articles:A Disturbing Double Standard

Afghan President Hamid Karzi has recently authorized the release of 72 prisoners, regarded as a threat to the security of the United States. The State Department has vociferously objected to that decision. On Thursday, Jen Psaki, a State Department spokeswoman said, "These 72 detainees are dangerous criminals against whom there is strong evidence linking them to terror-related crimes, including the use of improvised explosive devises, the largest killer of Afghan civilians."

White House spokesman Jay Carney added, "We are very concerned about the release of any detainees who would pose a threat to U.S. forces."

Yet, just in order to get the Palestinian Authority to deign to sit down at the negotiating table with Israel, the United States pressured the Israelis to release 104 terrorists, all of whom are responsible for the most heinous crimes imaginable. It is an absolute fallacy to believe that the terrorists that murder Israeli or American Jews on the streets of Jerusalem or Tel Aviv are any less a threat to the survival of Western civilization as we know it, then those released on the streets of Afghanistan.

Joel Rosenberg: White House Strikes 'Secret Side Deal' With Iran

The Obama White House appears struck a previously undisclosed “side deal” with Iran over the nuclear issue, despite the fact that just yesterday a State Department spokeswoman denied such a deal existed.

The Los Angeles Times is reporting the existence of a secret 30-page documentthe spells out understandings between the U.S. and Iran regarding expectations of what Iran can and cannot do with its nuclear program, understanding not included in the official, public deal that is being negotiated in Geneva.

The Times indicates that according to the “secret side deal” worked out by the Obama administration:

• not a single Iranian nuclear facility will be shut down
• Iran will continue to enrich uranium
• Iran’s nuclear research operations will actually expand; and
• new, state-of-the-art centrifuges will be allowed to come on-line in Iran

Is this accurate? Is it the full picture? Will the document be released to the public, and to the full U.S. government and our allies?

Members of Congress are only just hearing about this now, and have yet to react.

No official reaction yet from Israel yet either, though the existence of a secret deal with Iran could add to the tensions between the Obama and Netanyahu governments over how to stop the mullahs in Tehran from being able to build operational nuclear warheads.

More on this story as it develops.

The Inevitable Outcome Of Socialism: Venezuela

Beauty queens are revered in Venezuela, none more so than those crowned "Miss Venezuela." So when a beloved former "Miss" named Mónica Spear and her ex-husband were murdered by highway bandits, the crime sparked national outrage -- touching off street protests, non-stop media coverage, and an ongoing national conversation about the socialist government's failure to a stop a runaway murder epidemic.

Now, outrage over the murders is prompting many Venezuelans to confront the contradictions of Venezuela-style socialism. One of the biggest ironies: violent crime has exploded since President Hugo Chávez, a firebrand leftist, took office 15 years ago. This has happened, moreover, as capitalism has increasingly been dismantled -- supposedly replaced by more economic equality and "social justice" in the oil-rich yet impoverished South American nation.

Chávez, who died last March of cancer, coined the term "21^st Century socialism." He contended it would reverse corruption-riddled Venezuela's long economic decline, as would his strategy of pursing anti-American alliances. But as fallout continues over the high-profile murders, many Venezuelans are becoming more cynical about President Nicolás Maduro's socialist agenda as tens of thousands of Venezuelans are being murdered annually. Maduro, Chávez's hand-picked successor, is grappling with food shortages, falling oil prices, and annual inflation topping 50%. He rules a politically polarized country where just over 50 percent of voters support his leftist agenda. He possesses neither Chávez's charisma nor mystical connection to Venezuela's poor majority.

With Spear and Berry's murders, Venezuela's skyrocketing murder rate suddenly has human faces -- and President Maduro is on the defensive. He'd been focusing on deepening "21^st Century socialism." This included an "economic offensive" against the commercial class: from owners of supermarkets to electronics stores to car dealerships -- all were being ordered to offer government-set "fair prices." And before November's make-or-break municipal elections, he'd won votes by taking bread-and-circuses populism tonew heights, tacitly giving Christmas shoppers, as some observers saw it, a green light to loot electronics stores. "We're doing this for the good of the nation," he said. "Let nothing remain in stock!" A number of retailers were jailed -- accused of speculating, hoarding, and unfair lending.

Venezuela suffered the world's fourth highest murder rate in 2010 after Honduras, El Salvador, and Jamaica, according to United Nation's statistics. Official Venezuelan crime statistics are non-existent: the government stopped providing them ten years ago. But sociologist Roberto Briceño León, president of the Venezuelan Observatory on Violence, a watchdog group, estimates that yearly homicides have increased 427% since Hugo Chávez was elected president in 1998

Venezuela is broke. Draconian currency exchange and price controls have left many supermarket shelves empty; even toilet parper is in short supply. Attracting significant foreign investment is not an option -- not after Chávez nationalized large swaths of the economy. Recently, Bloomberg News reportedthat Venezuela's "economic distress is so acute that the central bank stopped releasing regular statistics for the first time ever, threatening to increase borrowing costs further as the nation faces $10 billion of financing needs." Benjamin Wang, a money manager at PineBridge Investments LLC, was quoted as saying: "There's no transparent data to measure the risk."

As the fallout over the death of a beauty queen plays out, cynicism is likely to grow toward Venezuela-style socialism. So will murder, corruption, and economic decline. How ironic that a beauty queen's death may serve as a catalyst for positive change that opposition candidates have been unable to achieve by defeating Hugo Chávez or Nicolás Maduro at the polls.

Also see:

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