Another Illegal Activity By Your President.

Obama Signs Bill Barring Iranian Terrorist From Entering U.S., Then Says He Won’t Enforce It

April 18, 2014 by Ben Bullard 

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By now you probably know about Hamid Abutalebi. He’s the would-be diplomat whom Iran wanted to send to the United Nations – but whom Congress blocked, on a strongly bipartisan vote, because he was among the terrorists who helped take Americans into captivity in the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979.

Today, President Barack Obama signed Congress’ bill into law – and then immediately appended a signing statement informing the world he would not enforce the law he’d just signed.

“Acts of espionage and terrorism against the United States and our allies are unquestionably problems of the utmost gravity, and I share the Congress’s concern that individuals who have engaged in such activity may use the cover of diplomacy to gain access to our Nation,” Obama wrote.

“Nevertheless, as President [George H.W.] Bush also observed, ‘curtailing by statute my constitutional discretion to receive or reject ambassadors is neither a permissible nor a practical solution.’ I shall therefore continue to treat section 407, as originally enacted and as amended by S. 2195, as advisory in circumstances in which it would interfere with the exercise of this discretion.”

In other words, Obama is saying he intends to treat the bill, which bars Abutalebi from entering the U.S., as a piece of advice and nothing more, using as a pretense a Bush I precedent that emanated from a squabble with Congress over dictating to the President a job the Constitution already empowers him with carrying out.

The bill barring Abutalebi from setting foot on U.S. soil was authored by Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and received strong support from both side of the aisle. Senator Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) didn’t hesitate to use language so strongly condemning Abutalebi’s nomination that Cruz himself might as well have spoken the same words.

Iran’s foreign minister responded to the vote by calling Congress a pack of “radicals,” reaffirming in the process that Congress had made the right call from the start.

With Obama’s ambivalent action today, Abutalebi appears to be headed, illegally, to the U.S. as the Iranian ambassador to the UN. But it’s doubtful at this point that he’ll be deported.

Senate Denies Admission To US By Iranian Hostage Crisis Perp

Iranian Reaction Pretty Much Validates Why The Senate Voted To Keep An Iranian Terrorist Off U.S. Soil

April 11, 2014 by Ben Bullard 

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As though Congress’ bipartisan approval this week of an anti-terrorist bill — a bill that bars a 1979 Iranian hostage-taker from serving at the U.N. — needed further validation, Iran’s foreign minister made sure to drive the point home Thursday, calling the U.S. Congress a bunch of “radicals.”

The comments, proffered by Iranian foreign minister Mohammed Javad Zarif, came in the wake of the Senate’s overwhelming passage Monday of a bill sponsored by Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to keep Hamid Abutalebi — a militant terrorist who assisted in capturing American hostages as a participant in the 1979 hostage crisis — from setting foot on U.S. soil.

So strong was the bipartisan sentiment for that measure that even prominent Senate Democrats like Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) spoke unequivocally in its favor. “It may be a case of strange bedfellows,” said Schumer at the time, “but I’m glad Senator Cruz and I were able to work out a bill that would prevent this terrorist from stepping foot on American soil.”

On Thursday, Iran’s foreign minister displayed nothing but contempt for the vote — and the Senate — in an interview with Iranian media while in Austria.

“They [the U.N.] should not allow a group of radicals to determine the agenda of Iran’s presence at the United Nations organization and this behavior is unacceptable to us,” said Mohammed Javad Zarif to Iranian reporters in Austria. “The U.S. decision to deny a visa to Iran’s appointed diplomat is unacceptable for us. There are channels to follow this issue in the United Nations, and we will decide on the best way to follow this. The U.S. administration is well aware of the fact that the Islamic Republic of Iran considers the visa denial unacceptable.”

On that last point, the foreign minister is certainly correct. What’s interesting, though, is to contrast the tone of the Senators’ comments with those offered by the Obama Administration.

Cruz, the bill’s sponsor, laid out the case against rolling out the welcome mat for Abutalebi in plain language last week.

“This nomination is part of Iran’s clear and consistent pattern of virulent anti-Americanism that has defined their foreign policy since 1979,” he said Monday. “We need to send Tehran an equally clear message: The United States Senate is not going to just ignore this most recent insult, but is going to give our President the authority to affirmatively reject it.”

As you’ve already read, Senator Schumer didn’t mince words, either.

Now here’s Jay Carney on Tuesday, telling reporters the Obama Administration’s position:

“The U.S. government has informed the government of Iran that this potential selection is not viable.”

Only on Downton Abbey could that kind of phrasing be considered an ultimate dis.

Beat ‘em up, Jay.