Perhaps no administration in American history has so consciously and willfully politicized intelligence as the Obama administration. Forget the “Bush lied” nonsense: the Bush administration got some of the Iraq intelligence wrong, but the White House was simply amplifying what not only the Central Intelligence Agency and Defense Intelligence Agency had told it, but also the British, French, German, and Russian governments and the United Nations.
But the Obama administration has willfully suppressed and denied incontrovertible intelligence for the sake of increasingly tenuous diplomatic goals. Take Russia: President Obama and the Clinton State Department wanted to win agreement on a Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (“New START”). Afraid that recognition of Russian cheating on other commitments might undercut the senate’s appetite to trust the Kremlin again, the White House and State Department buried reports about Russian violations of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. Ultimately, Obama got his treaty. By the time senators found out the truth, they were furious. The treaty empowered Russian President Vladimir Putin, but perhaps in President Barack Obama’s twisted worldview, that was the point. And Obama got away with it. The Congress did not extract a price for those in the State Department who suppressed the truth.
Obama sought to suppress the truth with regard to Syrian chemical weapons use. Red lines proved ephemeral. The deals held up as a triumph of diplomacy turned were unfulfilled, though Obama would never accept such a formal finding, even suggesting chlorine was not a chemical weapon. Once again, congressmen did nothing beyond making an occasional angry speech.
The Obama administration has taken its willingness to bury intelligence to privilege diplomacy to a new level with regard to Iran. Whatever the original purpose of the Iran talks has gone out the window as Secretary of State John Kerry not only concedes every single American redline, but also crafts an agreement which simply normalizes Iran’s nuclear quest rather than restrain or prevent a nuclear breakout. The latest revelations about the State Department’s disdain for Congress and the law are that Secretary of State John Kerry and his teamfailed to report Iranian sanctions violations as required by the Iran, North Korea and Syria Nonproliferation Act (INKSNA). Al-Monitor explained that under INKSNA:
State is supposed to inform Congress every six months of attempts to help the three countries obtain weapons of mass destruction and certain missile technology. The law requires the agency to sanction violators or justify its decision not to. But the department has fallen way behind in recent years, according to a government watchdog report obtained by Al-Monitor. Delays have kept on getting longer, with Congress receiving an update on violations committed in 2011 only in December 2014…. The GAO report is but the latest example of questionable sanctions enforcement that has raised congressional ire in recent months.
Earlier this year, according to Israel, the United States allowed Iran to purchase used airplanes for an airline that the United States has blacklisted for its ties to Hezbollah and the Iranian National Guard. And just this month, a panel of experts for the UN’s Iran sanctions committee said that member states have not been reporting international sanctions violations by Iran. That’s despite widespread evidence of continued arms shipments to Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen in addition to Hezbollah and Hamas.
In short, it appears that Kerry and his staff are slow-balling if not defaulting on their reporting requirements so as not to allow Congress or the public which elects it to demand that U.S. policy be calibrated to the reality of Iranian policy.
Enter Senator Ted Cruz, whom The Free Beacon reports will seek to fine the State Department five percent of its budget for every 30 days it postpones release of the report. While that might seem drastic, it’s long past time Congress held the State Department to account for being out-of-control. Diplomats might believe they craft foreign policy, but the reality is they simply carry it out. Chief foreign policy initiatives come from either the White House or Congress. When the White House acts irresponsibly, as with Jimmy Carter’s proposal to withdraw U.S. forces from the Korean peninsula or the current capitulation to Iran, Congress can step in to constrain the Executive. More often, Congress must intercede to prevent the State Department from downplaying or ignoring evidence that adversaries aren’t going to abide by agreements or play by the rules. Had it not been for senators like the late Jesse Helms, for example, and his spearheading of the PLO Commitments Compliance Act (PLOCCA), the State Department would have continued working with the PLO regardless of its involvement in terrorism. (In my recent book, I contrasted public statements by Clinton-era peace processors like Dennis Ross with now declassified intelligence that they had at their disposal, and it appears even with Congressional reporting requirements, some officials purposely mislead if not lied outright to Congress). Now, Helms and his colleagues never took as drastic a measure as Cruz proposes, but they were willing to delay confirmation hearings and hold individual ambassadors and Foreign Service officers accountable for individual decisions that showed poor conception of the greater U.S. interest, clientitis, or simply poor judgment.
It’s not easy for individual senators or representatives to hold the State Department to account. Foggy Bottom plays dirty. It will fight Congress directly and indirectly. It has long cultivated specific journalists whom it uses to criticize individual senators and representatives. It will suggest that delayed confirmation or withheld money undercuts critical missions and security. For much of the past two decades, Congress simply hasn’t has the resolve to fight what might be a necessary political war of attrition. Senators might give good speeches, but when in the cross hairs of hostile press for a sustained period, they fold.
The inmates should never run the asylum, however. Unless Congress wishes to forfeit its oversight completely, it’s time to fight back. Precedent dictates that it should a bipartisan interest, regardless of which report the State Department withholds. Foggy Bottom might scream bloody murder and will insist that any delays or cuts hurt American foreign policy. Certainly, host nations like having ambassador, but they can function with a chargé. And if the State Department plays dirty, their bluff can be called. Congress must craft any cuts to avoid undercutting security or enabling Kerry and his staff to blame security incidents on Congress, but there is a lot of fat among the margins, even as the State Department complains that it is underfunded.
Obama and Secretary Kerry’s willingness to effectively bypass Congress and ram through a bad Iran deal shouldn’t simply about Iran. It’s just the latest manifestation of a corrupted culture that has forgotten whom it represents and for what purpose it serves.
