Iran lied about its nuclear weapons program. It's something we all already knew, but somehow, the Obama administration was able to pass his legacy-defining nuke deal anyway. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did his best attempt at a Glenn Beck chalkboard yesterday, only he used a giant screen and powerpoint. He got close, but I'll have to talk to him about going a little more old school.
But there's a reason why I prefer using chalkboards to explain complex issues. It's really not that I'm breaking new information, or presenting something that I just uncovered from Al Capone's vault. The chalkboard is for me to be able to break down complex information that was already out there, but its true context has been hidden through time, subterfuge and obscurity.
This is important to know if you want to understand what Netanyahu did and revealed yesterday, because the people who defended the Iranian nuke deal back when it was signed are once again attacking the information revealed yesterday.
So what came out yesterday? Netanyahu revealed that Israel had smuggled a massive trove of intelligence out of Iran that proves Iran was lying about its nuclear weapons program. All in all, over 100,000 files were taken, including 55,000 pages and 50,000 files on 183 CDs. The documents reveal in detail Project Amad which was a “comprehensive program to design, build and test nuclear weapons." This information was hidden away and retained so that the Iranian Regime could restart their nuke program at a time of their choosing. Netanyahu goes point by point through Iran's final declaration to the IAEA, and shows how the documents Israel has recovered prove that Iran was lying.
So here's the thing, and it's the same point that people who are for the Iran deal are making this morning. Most of this information was already known.
The IAEA had written about Project Amad and shown how Iran wasn't being truthful back in 2015. If you Google "Project Amad," you'll see about 11 pages of current news referencing yesterday's presentation, but NOT ONE SINGLE mainstream news article from back during the time when the nuke deal was being debated. All I could find was a couple of obscure published papers and a few blog posts from some random people who must have actually read the full IAEA report. That's it.
We were duped and lied to, and Netanyahu's 'chalkboard' just proved it.
But remember this, the chalkboard isn't to show you what's inside Capone's safe, it's for explaining the complicated and what's been obscured. This is information we've known about, but didn't have the physical paperwork to look at. Now we do. Now, the media will be FORCED to report on it. The real question here is why didn't the media report on this back in 2015? They knew about it, but didn't say ONE WORD. The answer to that question is altogether obvious and sad.
Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security advisor, even bragged about it. He said, “We created an echo chamber. They were saying things that validated what we had given them to say."
America, we were duped and lied to, and Netanyahu's “chalkboard" just proved it.