Obama Administration Releases Classified Report on Israel's Nuclear Program

  Investor's Business Daily reports that the Defense Department has quietly and deliberately declassified and released a top-secret 1987 report on Israel's nuclear program.  IBD editorializes:

The same administration that refused to divulge what's in its soon-to-be-concluded nuclear "deal" with Iran, last month stealthily released a top-secret 1987 report on Israel's nuclear program — information that might be used by Israel's enemies.

IBD quotes from the reporter who initially broke the story, Michael Karpin in The Jewish Daily Forward online. Karpin writes:

I have some knowledge about the build-up process of Israel’s nuclear capacity and after reading the report in question I must express my astonishment: I have never seen an official American document disclosing such extensive revelation on subjects that until now were regarded by both administrations as unspeakable secrets.

Karpin writes that the report's authors "drew particular attention to the development and progression of Israel’s nuclear infrastructure and research labs."

The report was compiled by the Institute for Defense Analysis (IDA), under a contract with the U.S. Government. The IDA sent its engineers and physicists not only to Israeli installations, but also to military laboratories, factories and private companies of NATO countries. Curiously, and perhaps sinisterly, the Defense Department only declassified the information assembled by the IDA team on Israel, not on the NATO allies.

The timing and selectivity of the report suggest that once again the Obama Administration is retaliating for Israel's opposition to U.S. negotiations with Iran over the Iranian nuclear weapons program. However, this goes beyond the pale--the deliberate release of previously classified information that certainly has the potential to be used against Israel, both diplomatically and militarily, is an outrageous breach of trust.

Obama Administration Removes Iran, Hezbollah, from List of Terror Threats

Hey, everybody, there's great news. The Obama Administration has defeated terrorism in Iran and Lebanon. We know this because in the 2015 Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Communities, delivered by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to the United States Senate in February, Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah no longer appear as terrorist threats, for the first time in years. (The Times of Israel has the story, along with a link to a PDF file copy of the unclassified version of the intelligence report.)

What felicitous timing for the Obama Administration to announce this glorious victory!  Previously, one might have been concerned that President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry were enabling Iran to obtain nuclear weapons, which one might hesitate to do if Iran still promoted terrorism and sponsored a terrorist organization such as Hezbollah.  Now, however, there is no danger whatsoever, because Iran and Hezbollah are no longer terrorist threats.

Never mind that just this past January 18, Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman was found murdered in his home. His murder occurred only one day before he was scheduled to report to the Congress of Argentina on alleged collusion between Iran and the Argentine government in covering up the role of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah in two terrorist bombings of Jewish targets in Buenos Aires: the 1992 car bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, which killed 29 people and wounded more than 250 others; and the 1994 bombing of the Buenos Aires Jewish Community Center, which killed 87 people and injured at least 100 more.  One prominent theory is that Iran ordered Nisman's murder, but, hey, Iran would not do that, because it is not a terrorist threat.

Another serendipitous result of the removal of Iran and Hezbollah from the terrorist watch list:  the Obama Administration is increasingly cooperating with Iran and Hezbollah in the fight against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.  That might give some people--although probably only neocons--pause, if Iran and Hezbollah were still engaged in and promoting terrorism.  But they're not--look, they no longer appear on the list of terrorist threats in the Worldwide Threat Assessment!  Just don't tell that to Sunni Iraqis, who live in abject fear of massacre by the Shiite militias operating under the supervision of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

Is Hezbollah still helping Syrian President Bashar Assad commit mass murder of his own citizens?  Sure, but just yesterday Secretary of State Kerry announced that he is willing to negotiate with Assad.  After all, the dude gave up his chemical weapons, and now uses only artillery, armored vehicles, small arms, and barrel bombs to do his bloodletting. Plus, most of his recent victims are fighters in Sunni militias (or civilians who hang out with them), which do appear as terrorist threats in the Worldwide Threat Assessment.  So Iran, Hezbollah and Assad are just doing God's work, so to speak

Does Hezbollah still call for the eradication of Israel, and is it busily stockpiling Iranian missiles along the Lebanese and Syrian borders with Israel, to prepare for carrying out that threat?  Well, sure, but look how friendly Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan appears in the photo above.  He's waving at us, for crying out loud!  In contrast, Israel's Prime Minister, as of today, is still that nasty Netanyahu fellow, of whom President Obama is not very fond.  And if Israelis don't elect a government more to President Obama's liking tomorrow, well, guess what country may make its featured debut in the 2016 Worldwide Threat Assessment.