In the wake of Monday’s revelations from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that intelligence officials had captured a cache of Iran’s secret nuclear files detailing its hidden weapons program, ex-Obama administration officials desperate to prop up the Iran deal tried to dismiss the findings as old news. But there’s one problem: While negotiating with Iran, Obama administration officials said Iran would have to “come clean” about its past efforts to develop nuclear weapons.
Obama administration veterans and their allies like to move the goal posts and gaslight people about what was said at the time, but there are very clear records on the matter. During the debate over what to do about Iran, one key aspect was to address the possible military dimensions of the program, of which understanding past weapons developments was a significant part.
Here are several examples of Obama or his officials claiming Iran would have to come clean — dating all the way back to the first year of the administration:
President Barack Obama on Sept. 25, 2009, G-20 press conference: “I think Iran is on notice; that when we meet with them on Oct. 1, they are going to have to come clean…”
White House press secretary Jay Carney on Jan. 13, 2014: “The purpose of the sanctions regime, the purpose of the approach the President took when he took office in 2009, was to make clear that the onus was on Iran to come clean and to come into compliance with its international obligations.”
Carney on Jan. 24, 2014: “[Obama] believes it’s absolutely the right and responsible thing to do to test the hypothesis that Iran may be willing to negotiate a comprehensive solution to this challenge; to come clean, if you will, and get right with the international community and its international obligations …”
Then there was this exchange that Secretary of State John Kerry had with Judy Woodruff on PBS News Hour in April 2015, as the administration was dashing toward an agreement:
JUDY WOODRUFF: Still, another issue; the International Atomic Energy Agency has said for a long time that it wants Iran to disclose past military-related nuclear activities. Iran is increasingly looking like it’s not going to do this. Is the U.S. prepared to accept that?
JOHN KERRY: No. They have to do it. It will be done. If there’s going to be a deal; it will be done.
WOODRUFF: Because it’s not there now.
KERRY: It will be done.
WOODRUFF: So that information will be released before June 30th, will be available.
KERRY: It will be part of a final agreement. It has to be.
Of course, not since Sonny Corleone was anybody as hot for a deal as Kerry was for one with Iran. So it is true that in the weeks leading up to signing the deal, Kerry reversed himself and said the U.S. was “not fixated” on past activities.
But his late shift doesn’t change the fact that for years Obama officials insisted that Iran would have to come clean about its past nuclear weapons work. Instead, Iran lied to the IAEA, denied military dimensions to its program, and hid the information. And the Obama administration signed a deal that gave a windfall of tens of billions of dollars to Iran, allowed it to become a greater conventional threat, enabled it to keep developing ballistic missiles, and then allowed restrictions imposed by the deal to go away over time.
If everybody knew the details that Netanyahu disclosed on Monday, then it means the Obama administration engaged in a cover up of Iranian wrongdoing in order to ink the deal.
