Obama Pursuing Climate Accord in Lieu of Treaty

What US Constitution?

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is working to forge a sweeping international climate change agreement to compel nations to cut their planet-warming fossil fuel emissions, but without ratification from Congress.

In preparation for this agreement, to be signed at a United Nations summit meeting in 2015 in Paris, the negotiators are meeting with diplomats from other countries to broker a deal to commit some of the world’s largest economies to enact laws to reduce their carbon pollution. But under the Constitution, a president may enter into a legally binding treaty only if it is approved by a two-thirds majority of the Senate.

To sidestep that requirement, President Obama’s climate negotiators are devising what they call a “politically binding” deal that would “name and shame” countries into cutting their emissions. The deal is likely to face strong objections from Republicans on Capitol Hill and from poor countries around the world, but negotiators say it may be the only realistic path.

Report: Pentagon Has No Plan For Troops, Military Assets

The Pentagon has failed to produce a legally mandated policy report that outlines to Congress its upcoming plans for overseas troop deployments and the allocation of military hardware, according to an oversight report.

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel is required by law to inform Congress about its plans and strategy for the military. However, officials have failed to issue any policy and it could be months before a concrete plan emerges, according to Department of Defense officials who spoke to the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

The Pentagon’s failure to craft a “warfighter support” plan for America’s military operations means that Congress cannot provide the required oversight over these critical plans.

As of mid-April, the DoD “has not established a policy or submitted an implementation plan to congressional committees as mandated by public law,” according to a newly issued GAO report.

The Pentagon says that the major policy document will not be ready until at least November 15, according to one “senior DoD official” who spoke to the GAO.

Braced for imminent nuclear accord with Iran, US pulls away from military option, IDF stays on the ready

This is a followup from a previous DEBKAfile article, which can be found here:

Mystery of missing ayatollah: Ali Khamenei’s three-week seclusion for work on nuclear deal with US

Israel’s high command, working on the assumption that an American-Iranian nuclear accord is near its final stage, plans to keep in place advanced preparations for a unilateral military strike on Iran’s nuclear program into 2014 – hence the IDF’s request for a supplemental NIS3.5bn (app. $1bn) defense budget this week.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report exclusively that the main body of the accord is essentially complete. All the same, President Barack Obama plans to announce before Christmas that only partial agreement has been achieved and negotiations will continue.

He will be cagey in public – partly because not all parts of the accord have been finalized, although the pace of US-Iranian negotiations have been accelerated, and partly to avoid coming clean on the full scope of the deal with Tehran.

White House openly threatens US default as debt fight escalates

US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew has issued a categorical warning that the United States will default on its $16.7 trillion debt and throw the world into turmoil unless Congress agrees to raise the legal debt ceiling by October 17.

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Mr Lew said the treasury had already exhausted its normal funds in May and has been “creating room” by resorting to one-off tricks, but these, too, have run dry. The government will have just $30bn by October 17, half what is needed to cover immediate needs over subsequent days.

Obama launches diplomacy with Tehran after quietly accepting Iran’s current nuclear capabilities

Whatever direction gives Israel the short end of the stick is the one both Iran and the current White House administration will likely choose.

Iranian President Rouhani conspicuously avoided shaking the hand President Barack Obama extended to his government at the UN Tuesday, Sept. 24, by absenting himself from the UN reception for world readers. He made this gesture under strong international spotlight to underscore the value Iran places on being respected as an equal in the negotiations ahead with the United States, Iranian sources stress.

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Obama knew the “handshake rebuff” was coming, yet he went through with his announcement of direct engagement with Iran earlier Tuesday. To give his rhetoric weight, he demonstratively instructed Secretary of State John Kerry to take charge of the pursuit of “face to face negotiations” with Tehran.

The link Obama made in his speech between the Iranian and Palestinians negotiating processes as the two focal issues of his Middle East policy was further embodied by his appointment of the same official, John Kerry, to take charge of both tracks. This has placed Israel at a disadvantage on both fronts.

US default risk is real, Washington warns Wall Street

Money lenders trust America so implicitly that they generally dismiss the risk it won’t pay its debts. But in the US capital, fears are growing that political dysfunction might trigger the unthinkable.

A few years ago one would have said, ‘Don’t be silly. Of course they will raise the debt ceiling.’ But one can’t say that any more.  

Government veterans from both political parties are aghast that lawmakers openly speak of managing a default that could be triggered next month if they don’t authorise more borrowing.

Turning Point: Obama and Israel, The Next Three Years

It is not every day that one can announce a shift in world history, but this day is today. And we are now in a new era in the Middle East and the world.  This is not a joke–definitely not a joke–and as you will see, it is not an exaggeration.

Let me explain. For the last seven weeks I have been in the United States, mostly in Washington D.C.  I have spoken and listened to many people. As a result, I am in a position to describe for you with a high degree of accuracy what the policy will be for the next 3.5 years, and perhaps for many more.

The administration has crossed a line to, in simple terms, backing the “‘bad guys.”

This is literally true in Egypt, Syria, Sudan, the Palestinian Authority, Bahrain (with its support for the opposition), Qatar, and Turkey.

And in some ways, as we will see, the war on terrorism has been turned into the war for terrorism.

Iran, Russia advise Assad to transfer chemical stockpile to Tehran – to avert US attack

As what was done in Iraq before the second U.S. invasion (Second source here) is now being planned for Syria. The WMDs are being moved yet again.

The Iranian parliamentary delegation visiting Damascus Sunday, Sept. 1, advised Bashar Assad to move his chemical stockpile out of Syria and deposit it in Tehran under Iranian and Russian military supervision, to save himself from an American military strike, debkafile’s exclusive military and Iranian sources reveal.

Chairman of the Majlis Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ala-Eddin Borujerdi, who headed the delegation, explained that Presidents Hassan Rouhani and Vladimir Putin had discussed the stockpile’s removal ad hoc, as the basis of a Iranian-Russian plan for presenting to US President Barack Obama at the G-20 summit meeting in St. Petersburg later this week.

After the Americans accept the plan and the crisis blows over, the stockpile could be quietly returned to Syria, the Iranian lawmaker explained.

US eyes Port Blair as new drone base

A US report suggests that the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands could be ideally suited as a base for American drones in the event of an offensive against China.

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In possibly the first reference to the use of Indian territory for the US military in recent times, the paper, put together by the RAND Corporation, suggests that the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands could be ideally suited as a base for American drones in the event of an offensive against China.

The paper, titled ‘Overseas Basing of US Military Forces’, was commissioned by the Pentagon on the instructions of the US Congress and looks into the presence of the American military at various bases and locations across the globe.

Pentagon: Iran Expands Use of Proxies

Hagel shortens public version and for first time calls Iran strategy ‘defensive’

Iran’s terrorist-backing government is expanding the use of proxies around the world to carry out its military policies, according to a Pentagon report.

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The public portion of the first report to Congress under Hagel also was sharply curtailed this year from the four-page, unclassified assessment released in April 2012, to five paragraphs for the latest unclassified executive summary of the report dated January 2013.

Pentagon spokesmen initially said the five-paragraph executive summary was classified as “for official use only” and would not be released. A spokeswoman for the office of the undersecretary of defense for intelligence later made a copy of the new assessment available to the Washington Free Beacon.

Pentagon: Iran improving missiles to target vessels

Report submitted to Congress also reveals Tehran has ‘methodically cultivated network of sponsored terrorist surrogates capable of targeting US, Israeli interests’

WASHINGTON – The Iranian army is continuing to improve the accuracy and destructive power of its long-and-short-range ballistic missile force, according to a Pentagon report that was submitted to the US Congress.

The report, which was obtained by Bloomberg News, said that as part of the improvements, Iran’s military is designing a maneuvering weapon to target vessels.

The June 29 report, which was signed by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, states that Tehran “has boosted the lethality and effectiveness of existing systems by improving accuracy and developing new submunition payloads” that extend the destructive power over a broader area than a solid warhead.

According to Bloomberg, the report found that the improvements are in tandem with routine ballistic- missile training that “continues throughout the country” and the addition of “new ships and submarines.”

Bloomberg said the report also addresses the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program and the assistance it offers to Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas and Iraqi Shiite groups. It also repeated the US assessment that Iran with “sufficient foreign assistance may be technically capable of flight-testing” an intercontinental ballistic missile by 2015.

Full article: Pentagon: Iran improving missiles to target vessels (Ynet News)

10 Ways Attacking Iran Could Destroy The United States

The website itself is a crock, but the list is really worth considering. Here’s number eight:

8) Sleeper Agents Launch A War Along US Mexico Border

According to the US Congress, quoting US intelligence officials, Iran has set up an elaborate gun smuggling network within Mexico and has used Hezbollah to infiltrate the Mexican Drug Cartels. After the United States attacks Iran these agents quickly launch attacks along the Mexico border. The cartels are more than happy to provide foot soldiers for the war because instability means more drugs entering the United States and more profits.

Soon a sophisticated network of Hezbollah narcotunnels along the border are used to wage attacks on several US law enforcement and civilian control agencies. The resulting turmoil also weakens the agencies inside of Mexico fighting the cartels with the assistance of the US. Soon the destruction of various targets along the border bring the entire area under the control of the drug cartels and Iranian Hezbollah agents and the entire US Mexico border turns into an uncontrolled war zone.

Full article: 10 Ways Attacking Iran Could Destroy The United States (Hamsayeh)