Imagine a group of Israeli’s huddled around a monitor in a darkened room listening to the closed-door Iran nuclear negotiations. What a coup!?They are capturing each word from Secretary of State, John Kerry as the ultra-sensitive talks with Iran wend on into the night. Israeli spies!
Then imagine a group of Americans huddled around a monitor listening to the Israeli’s listening to the Iranian nuclear talks! We spy on Israel??Yep. Apparently spying on our friends is what everyone does. It is accepted procedure. Who knew?
Republicans: A Country Unto Themselves
Now imagine our spies caught Israel leaking the progress of those vital talks with Iran to our Republicans! What? This means that House Republicans have mutinied and turned themselves into a state separate from the country President Obama leads.
That is the only possibility. The Republican leader, Speaker John Boehner, invited Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak in front of Congress, and Netanyahu accepted the invitation.
As we know, Boehner went around all the existing protocol by not asking the President. Not even informing President Obama.
That is just not done, especially when Netanyahu’s elections were just two weeks away. The Prime Minister used the Republicans to influence Israel’s elections. When American support did not put him over the top, Netanyahu played to the Israeli conservatives, promising no two states during his tenure.
Denis McDonough, White House chief of staff said Monday,
?We cannot simply pretend that these comments were never made.?
Obama was not happy to say the least. Netanyahu leaked information to the Republicans, including presidential hopefuls Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Rand Paul.
Republicans Hope To Derail Peace Talks
Then Republicans wrote that famous letter to a foreign power, the Iranians, basically saying that Obama is inept.
So what’s the deal with House Republicans? Only the Executive Branch negotiates with foreign countries. Writing to the Iranians undermined the authority and power of our president, and it was subversive.
Autonomously receiving information from the Israeli’s on the nuclear talks with Iran is bad, really bad.?A senior U.S. official said,
?It is one thing for the U.S. and Israel to spy on each other. It is another thing for Israel to steal U.S. secrets and play them back to U.S. legislators to undermine U.S. diplomacy.?
The Republicans do not like our President, clearly because he is a Democrat. But their profound disdain seems to go much deeper. But Boehner and his minions? motivation doesn’t matter.
It was a clear attempt to sabotage the nuclear talks, which served both the Republicans and Netanyahu. They want peace talks to fail.?By writing that letter to Iran, the Republicans were?mobilizing with a foreign power for the purpose of promoting war.
Republicans Commit Espionage
By accepting leaked information, Boehner committed espionage. Technically every House Republican committed espionage, too. But we can’t very well prosecute 245 people.
But prosecuting King Boehner has a certain appeal.
“According to U.S. law, ‘espionage’ is defined loosely as ‘The act of obtaining, delivering, transmitting, communicating, or receiving information about the national defense with an intent, or reason to believe, that the information may be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation.’
Our Espionage Act?states,
“Accepting any sensitive intel that is harmful to U.S. defense or interests is a federal crime, carrying sentences of up to life in prison or execution depending on the state.”
Chelsea Manning, for example, received 35 years in prison for handing over classified documents to Wikileaks.?Speaker Boehner may think he is above the law. He may believe he can rule the House as his own distinct soverign nation. But he is wrong. Very wrong.
I vote for prosecution!
