According to an exclusive report published by the Associated Press, leaked documents reveal that Iran’s breakout time to develop nuclear weapons may be much shorter than the Obama administration has led us to believe. The infamous Iran nuclear deal sits at the foundation of President Obama’s foreign policy legacy. And guess what?
It’s much, much worse than we thought.
“Key restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program imposed under an internationally negotiated deal will start to ease years before the 15-year accord expires, advancing Tehran’s ability to build a bomb even before the end of the pact,” reported the AP Monday after diplomats intimately involved with the nuclear deal negotiation process shared bombshell documents the Obama administration has been withholding from the public.
“The confidential document is the only text linked to last year’s deal between Iran and six foreign powers that hasn’t been made public, although U.S. officials say members of Congress who expressed interest were briefed on its substance,” added the AP.
Due to the sensitivity of the information being shared, the AP’s sources haven’t come forward and identified themselves. According to the leakers, Iran plans on growing its uranium enrichment program just 10 years after the deal’s ratification. During the negotiations Iran allegedly demanded that restrictions begin being eased on enrichment before the 15-year mark of the deal’s expiration. Iran submitted the request formally to the International Atomic Energy Organization. All six negotiating partners, including the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany, agreed to Iran’s request in an an add-on provision to the original deal.
The Obama administration refused to share this information during its aggressive public relations crusade to sell the deal with the American people. Indeed, President Obama himself appears to have deliberately hidden this shocking “add-on” during the series of interviews he granted several months ago “explaining” the “historic” deal to an unsuspecting public.
The AP details the generous allowances duly granted to Iran by Western negotiators:
But although some of the constraints extend for 15 years, documents in the public domain are short on details of what happens with Iran’s most proliferation-prone nuclear activity — its uranium enrichment — beyond the first 10 years of the agreement.
The document obtained by the AP fills in the gap. It says that as of January 2027 — 11 years after the deal was implemented — Iran will start replacing its mainstay centrifuges with thousands of advanced machines.
Here’s what this means.
Iran can develop nuclear weapons in a much shorter time span than we initially thought possible. Centrifuges are used to process nuclear material, namely uranium. It’s the central technology in the nuclear development process. “From year 11 to 13, says the document, Iran will install centrifuges up to five times as efficient as the 5,060 machines it is now restricted to using,” clarified the AP.
Iran has said that these centrifuges are going to be used to process nuclear material for peaceful purposes, including energy. That’s a joke. No sane person actually believes that. The fact that Iran was so eager to include an add-on provision that essentially guaranteed its ability to replace old centrifuges is evidence enough to suggest that nuclear weapons are at the forefront of the regime’s mind. The Iranian regime couldn’t care less about its people. It hasn’t given a second-thought to updating its energy grids in years. In fact, “energy” has long been used as an excuse to pursue uranium enrichment and weapons development for a number of years now.
Here’s what it gets downright scary.
The new machines Iran wants to install in a little over ten years have the ability to enrich uranium at double the speed of its old machines. “That means they would reduce the time Iran could make enough weapons grade uranium to six months or less from present estimates of one year,” reported the AP, adding:
And that time frame could shrink even more. While the document doesn’t say what happens with centrifuge numbers and types past year 13, U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz told AP that Iran will be free to install any number of advanced centrifuges beyond that point, even though the nuclear deal extends two additional years.
That will give Iran a huge potential boost in enrichment capacity, including bomb-making should it choose to do so. But it can be put to use only after the deal expires.
The Obama administration’s main pitch to the public was premised on this issue of break-out time. In interview after interview and speech after speech, administration officials pledged that Iran’s “break-out” time take to make weapons-grade uranium would take at least 12 months. That was a lie. According to the latest information we have available today, Iran can theoretically develop weapons-grade uranium in a time span of six months.
When confronted with the clear contradiction, Obama’s energy secretary Ernest Moniz told AP that the administration “made it very clear that we were focused on 10 years on the minimum one-year breakout time.” That is a lie. The administration has been far from transparent since it began negotiating with the theocratic regime of Iran.
“That means they would reduce the time Iran could make enough weapons grade uranium to six months or less from present estimates of one year.”
AP
Hell, Obama’s closest foreign policy advisor even gloated about the fact that he lied about the nuclear deal to The New York Times. Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes boasted about establishing a media “echo chamber,” in which he recruited popular foreign affairs journalists like The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg and Al-Monitor’s Laura Rozen to essentially work as the White House’s propaganda mouthpieces, publishing pre-scripted talking points and Obama-approved messages to advance the administration’s rose-colored narrative about the Iran nuclear deal.
If recruiting propagandists like a Kremlin-backed intelligence agency weren’t enough, the White House is still refusing to come clean about all the provisions in this seemingly disastrous nuclear deal. Who knows? There may be so much more the administration has kept from us. It may be up to the next president to divulge the the full details. Although if Obama-clone Hillary Clinton is elected, the most likely outcome in November, we probably shouldn’t hold our breaths.