Kerry's denials of telling Iran about Israeli ops don't ring true

 streiff:

On Sunday, the New York Times committed a rogue act of journalism. It reported on an obvious violation of the Espionage Act by Joe Biden’s Special “Presidential” Envoy for Climate, former Secretary of State, former Democrat presidential candidate, former senator, and perennial douchebag John F. (Mr. Teresa Heinz) Kerry.

You can read the whole story in Shipwreckedcrew’s post NYT: John Kerry Disclosed Israeli Military Operations in Syria to the Iranian Foreign Minister, but this is the synopsis.

In March of this year, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif set down for a seven-hour “oral history” (I was going to make a joke about Kamala Harris and throat swabs, but I’m much too mature to do that) with an Iranian economist/journalist named Saeed Leylaz. The oral history was not intended to be released any time soon as the interview slams the martyred Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force Qasem Soleimani, whom a US Hellfire missile put through a Cuisinart on a Baghdad highway and Iran’s reliance upon terrorism as the keystone of its international diplomacy. It is highly critical of US-Iran relations, including the Iran nuclear deal that Zarif dictated to a hapless John Kerry. A recording of this oral history was leaked to a Persian-language outlet, Iran International, and shared with the New York Times.

There is every reason to believe the recording is legit. The Iranian foreign ministry has not disputed the authenticity. The opinions Zarif express are too heterodox to be anything other than candid, and Zarif’s own account of Iranian foreign policy is not flattering to him. It makes him look duplicitous and irrelevant and should leave any diplomat wondering why they should even deal with him when he admits the IRGC, not the foreign minister, sets foreign policy.

The shocker in the story is that John Kerry gave highly classified information to Zarif.

Former Secretary of State John Kerry informed him that Israel had attacked Iranian interests in Syria at least 200 times, to his astonishment, Mr. Zarif said.

Both Kerry and the State Department spokescritter Ned Price have denied it.

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Because, of course, they did. There is no reason to take these statements more seriously than we took Kerry’s fantasies about traveling up the Nung River to eliminate Colonel Kurtz. Israel did not release information on “at least 200” operations against Iranian interests in Syria. It acknowledged a few attacks.

To claim that all the information Zarif got from Kerry was open source is ludicrous and could only be explained by monumental incompetence or widespread illiteracy in the Iranian intelligence community.

Kerry’s ex parte meetings with Zarif while President Trump was trying to un-f*** the mess Obama and Kerry had left him were well documented. This is from 2018:

The Trump administration is vehemently criticizing former Secretary of State John Kerry after he confirmed this week that he had met with Iranian officials since leaving office.

Current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blasted Kerry on Friday for “actively undermining” U.S. policy on Iran, and, in a tweet Thursday night, President Donald Trump accused Kerry of holding “illegal meetings” with Iranian officials.

“John Kerry had illegal meetings with the very hostile Iranian Regime, which can only serve to undercut our great work to the detriment of the American people. He told them to wait out the Trump administration! Was he registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act? BAD!” the president tweeted.

Pompeo said he would leave “legal determinations to others,” but said there was “no precedent for this in U.S. history.”

It is also well established that Kerry was advising Iran on how to counter US actions in the Persian Gulf.

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As my colleague Bonchie points out, the John Hudson who is pushing the story that there is nothing to see here is the same clown who pushed the bogus “Russian bounties” story. Read John Kerry Just Backed the Biden Administration Into a Corner Over His Reported Collusion With Iran.

In short, there is no reason to think Zarif’s oral history is anything but accurate. He has maintained a close relationship with Kerry since rolling him on the Iran nuclear deal. The oral history is damaging to Zarif both at home and abroad. If you are going to claim this was a clever ruse to further discredit John Kerry, you have to answer two questions: a) why bother? and b) why Zarif made himself and Iran look bad in the process. Everything we know about Kerry since he flung someone else’s medals over a fence in front of the US Capitol in 1971 screams, “THIS IS TRUE!!”

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When Kerry first became a public figure he did so by making untrue claims about his fellow troops in Vietnam.  He made claims of atrocities that no one was able to verify and also claimed that the command in Vietnam was aware of the alleged atrocities.   I was in Vietnam at about the same time initially working in the 3rd Marine Division Communications Center.  I spent 12 hours a day reviewing messages before they were sent to the addressee.  I never saw any indication of atrocities during that time.  I later became XO of a rifle company on the DMZ and none of the troops I was with engaged in any such activity.  The Mylie atrocity happened long after he and I both left Vietnam.

I tell you another reason why the allegations against Kerry appear true.  The deal he and Obama did with Iran was one of the worst in history and it screams of desperation by both to do a deal even if it was a bad one.  The deal involved what turned out to be the funding of Iran's terrorist operations in the region.  Yeah.  I think he told them about the Israeli ops to let them know he was on the side of Iran in the conflict.

See, also:

John Kerry Can't Keep His Mouth Shut When He Thinks Someone Wants to Hear What He Wants to Say

Kerry’s Denial on Leaking to Iran Doesn’t Add Up

BTW, Zarif also admits that the regime forced him to lie about the downing of a Ukraine airline.