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Obama won’t let top aide who revealed he lied about Iran nuke deal testify to House on the deal

May 17, 2016 11:33 am By Robert Spencer

“Chaffetz and the White House have been engaged in an escalating feud, all on the heels of a New York Times Magazine piece where Rhodes was quoted boasting about the administration’s success in crafting a public narrative for the Iran deal. The profile on Rhodes quotes him saying they built an ‘echo chamber’ of experts who sold that narrative to young, often inexperienced reporters.”

“Young, often inexperienced reporters”? No: reporters so in line with the administration ideologically that they were eager to do its bidding. The New York Times profile has Ben Rhodes’ assistant Ned Price explaining to compliant Times “journalist” David Samuels how the Obama administration would “shape the news” by reaching out to friendly reporters and columnists:

In this environment, Rhodes has become adept at ventriloquizing many people at once. Ned Price, Rhodes’s assistant, gave me a primer on how it’s done. The easiest way for the White House to shape the news, he explained, is from the briefing podiums, each of which has its own dedicated press corps. “But then there are sort of these force multipliers,” he said, adding, “We have our compadres, I will reach out to a couple people, and you know I wouldn’t want to name them — ”

“I can name them,” I said, ticking off a few names of prominent Washington reporters and columnists who often tweet in sync with White House messaging.

Price laughed. “I’ll say, ‘Hey, look, some people are spinning this narrative that this is a sign of American weakness,’ ” he continued, “but — ”

“In fact it’s a sign of strength!” I said, chuckling.

“And I’ll give them some color,” Price continued, “and the next thing I know, lots of these guys are in the dot-com publishing space, and have huge Twitter followings, and they’ll be putting this message out on their own.”

The point was not that they were young and inexperienced and thus easily manipulated; in fact, they’re “prominent Washington reporters and columnists.” The point was that they were “compadres.”

Nowhere was the media more thoroughly manipulated into presenting weakness and strength than with the Iran nuclear deal. Samuels reveals that “the way in which most Americans have heard the story of the Iran deal presented — that the Obama administration began seriously engaging with Iranian officials in 2013 in order to take advantage of a new political reality in Iran, which came about because of elections that brought moderates to power in that country — was largely manufactured for the purpose for selling the deal. Even where the particulars of that story are true, the implications that readers and viewers are encouraged to take away from those particulars are often misleading or false.”

The chief false and misleading aspect of Obama’s presentation of the deal to the American public was his claim that he was dealing with moderate elements of Iran’s Islamic regime – according to Samuels, a “narrative that Rhodes shaped.” Rhodes propagated the falsehood that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, elected in 2013, was a “moderate” who was struggling against “hard-liners” within the regime. Samuels describes this as “actively misleading,” and notes that “the idea that there was a new reality in Iran was politically useful to the Obama administration. By obtaining broad public currency for the thought that there was a significant split in the regime, and that the administration was reaching out to moderate-minded Iranians who wanted peaceful relations with their neighbors and with America, Obama was able to evade what might have otherwise been a divisive but clarifying debate over the actual policy choices that his administration was making.”

Samuels hears from no less an authority than former CIA director Leon Panetta that this was all a lie: “I ask him about a crucial component of the administration’s public narrative on Iran: whether it was ever a salient feature of the C.I.A.’s analysis when he ran the agency that the Iranian regime was meaningfully divided between ‘hard-line’ and ‘moderate’ camps.”

Panetta responded: “No. There was not much question that the Quds Force and the supreme leader ran that country with a strong arm, and there was not much question that this kind of opposing view could somehow gain any traction.”

The entire Obama case for the Iran deal was based on a lie.

In any case, the White House is clearly not allowing him to testify because he has already said too much, boasting about how the administration lied to the American people in order to sell the Iran nuke deal. There is nothing Rhodes can do to cover that up now, and given his loquacity and self-infatuation, he might end up making things even worse.

Ben Rhodes

“White House snubs Chaffetz, refuses to let aide testify after controversial Iran remarks,” Fox News, May 17, 2016:

The White House confirmed Monday that Obama adviser Ben Rhodes will not be allowed to testify before House lawmakers on the Iran nuclear deal, after a last-ditch attempt by Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz to pry the controversial aide loose for the hearing.

Chaffetz and the White House have been engaged in an escalating feud, all on the heels of a New York Times Magazine piece where Rhodes was quoted boasting about the administration’s success in crafting a public narrative for the Iran deal. The profile on Rhodes quotes him saying they built an “echo chamber” of experts who sold that narrative to young, often inexperienced reporters.

Chaffetz, R-Utah, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, wanted the deputy national security adviser to testify at a hearing set for Tuesday titled, “White House narratives on the Iran Nuclear Deal.”

“We’re planning as if he is attending, and he’ll have a comfortable seat awaiting his arrival,” Chaffetz said Monday afternoon of Rhodes.

But W. Neil Eggleston, White House counsel, sent a letter to Chaffetz late Monday saying Rhodes would not attend.

He cited what appeared to be an executive privilege-related claim, asserting that such a senior presidential adviser’s appearance “threatens the independence and autonomy of the President, as well as his ability to receive candid advice and counsel.” For those reasons, he said, “we will not make Mr. Rhodes available to testify.”

Chaffetz earlier had made a last-ditch attempt to pressure Rhodes into appearing. After White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest initially said he should invite GOP Sen. Tom Cotton, whom he accuses of spreading false information about the deal, Chaffetz did exactly that — inviting Cotton to testify, on condition that Rhodes appeared as well.

“[Earnest] suggested that you should be invited to appear at the hearing as well, because you have some ‘interesting insight’ into the JCPOA [the Iran deal]. Therefore your appearance before the Committee would be contingent on Mr. Rhodes’ appearance at that hearing,” Chaffetz said in a letter Friday.

Asked earlier Monday about the possibility of a Rhodes appearance, Earnest did not rule it out but expressed what he called “thinly veiled skepticism about the whole exercise” and reiterated his claim that it is Republicans who should answer “for saying a lot of things about the Iran deal that turned out not to be true.”

The letter from Eggleston later made clear Rhodes would not attend. Though Eggleston cited an executive privilege claim, Earnest told Fox News just four days earlier that “this has nothing to do with executive privilege.”…

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Filed Under: Barack Obama, Featured, Iran Tagged With: Ben Rhodes, Jason Chaffetz


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Comments

  1. miriamrove says

    May 17, 2016 at 11:39 am

    This nightmare is coming to an end though not soon enough. m

    • Carmel says

      May 18, 2016 at 12:12 am

      Stop praying God . Pray Allah , it will stop sooner.

      • foxtrapper says

        May 18, 2016 at 6:16 am

        How would praying to Satan make it end sooner?

  2. Angemon says

    May 17, 2016 at 11:39 am

    Unfortunately for the Obama administration, Ben Rhodes (brother of CBS News’ president David Rhodes) is a straight white male – they can’t play a “Minority” card and claim victim status.

    • Polk1970 says

      May 17, 2016 at 10:27 pm

      Actually, ,on the contrary,Rhodes is a walking billboard for “White Privlledge”
      imagine that
      This LYING bastard “White Privileged”this country into GIVING Iran Nuclear weapons

      • Polk1970 says

        May 17, 2016 at 10:28 pm

        not to overlook the fact that Rhodes was serving his potentate

    • Carmel says

      May 18, 2016 at 12:16 am

      That’s exactly what I told myself . This guy is too pale , too mainstream and he look like a real heterosexual . Ouach ! He’s got all the odds against him . He is not « in » for a penny . Next generation, please.

  3. خَليفة says

    May 17, 2016 at 11:44 am

    Obama’s house of cards could be falling at any time.

  4. Zeke Zick says

    May 17, 2016 at 11:49 am

    Off topic, but worth mentioning that it has been recently exposed that back in his collage days, Barry de Firefly had 3 sexual harassment suits filed against him for trying to seduce 3 different straight GUYS!

    2 at Harvard, one later in Chicago.

    • Alarmed Pig Farmer says

      May 17, 2016 at 3:18 pm

      You talking about Barack Hussein himself? Is this true?

      • Zeke Zick says

        May 17, 2016 at 3:26 pm

        Google sexual harassment/Obama-see for yourself

        • Zeke Zick says

          May 17, 2016 at 3:31 pm

          You will also find the story on the “Renew America” website.

        • Alarmed Pig Farmer says

          May 17, 2016 at 5:26 pm

          Wow, that’s some good reading. I always took Obama to be an asexual, which would be expected given that he’s got a brain with an IQ up there in the Isaac Newton/Albert Einstein range. Well good for him, he’s got a hobby that gets him some exercise, gets his blood flowing. Regular cardio is healthy, and that’s what I think every time I see Prez Barack Hussein on the TV, what a healthy fellow he is..

  5. David says

    May 17, 2016 at 11:51 am

    What further proof of Obama’s TREASON does the public need????

    • Panmelia says

      May 18, 2016 at 8:11 am

      Remember how the Israeli leader Nethanyu (apologies if misspelt) BEGGED the USA not to do that deal with iran because muslims can’t be trusted to keep their word and their assurances meant nothing?

      The Israeli leader was ignored or criticised as having an irrational extremist view by the dhimmis.

      And all the time Obummer’s lackeys were lying and spinning like demented tops.

  6. SoCalMike says

    May 17, 2016 at 12:37 pm

    If this treason were limited to Obama that would be bad enough but it isn’t.
    The Left ideologically represents the forces we defeated abroad in the 20th century during the Cold War and WW2.
    Domestically they defeated us at home.
    They captured our media and academia.
    From that point forward they controlled thinking and public opinion.
    From there politics is only a short step away.
    They won it and us now.

    We just don’t recognize it because they didn’t use guns.
    It’s no longer of, by and for We the People.
    It’s now We the State.

    In the words of one hard core commi I’ve known for many years “Money is Ours (the government’s), we just let you use it.”

    • Alarmed Pig Farmer says

      May 17, 2016 at 3:23 pm

      Domestically they defeated us at home.

      Just as Lenin predicted. For a double whammy, the Moslems will defeat us at home too, just as the Moslem Brotherhood predicted. The consolation prize is that they’ll wrest the power from the globo-socialists who have recently take us over.

  7. Walter Sieruk says

    May 17, 2016 at 1:12 pm

    The reason why Obama won’t let his top aide speak may be that Obama effort to cover up,as in hide, his total incompetence by the “Iran deal” which reveals just how unfit he really is for the Office of the President of the United Stated. By this so called “deal” Obama had exposed just how gullible and naive he was to be taken in ,as in deceived, by the very disingenuous speech and outright lying words of the officials of the mullahs and other Muslim tyrants in power in the Islamic regime of Iran

    • Polk1970 says

      May 17, 2016 at 10:47 pm

      It’s not incompetence.
      Not REAL incompetence
      It’s an administration following the whims,desires,and ,(his favorite word) Notions of Barack Hussein Obama
      They KNOW they are doing drastic things to America,and without the permission of the American People.

      On a brighter side:246 days and a wake-up

      • Polk1970 says

        May 17, 2016 at 10:48 pm

        and NO times out

  8. Guest says

    May 17, 2016 at 1:19 pm

    Let him speak Obama! Your only making it worse for you if you don’t.

  9. Eagle says

    May 17, 2016 at 1:57 pm

    Congress has the power to have Obama adviser Ben Rhodes testify before House lawmakers on the Iran nuclear deal. Congress doesn’t have the courage to stand up to the Mushead in charge.

  10. SoCalMike says

    May 17, 2016 at 3:13 pm

    Everyone capable of rubbing 2 neurons together knew this deal was bogus and Obama went after Mendez because Mendez was effective in opposing this sellout.
    So I’m not so impressed with Chaffetz asking for another Dog and Pony show.
    It means nothing.

    Trey Goudy likes to bark but he has no bite.
    Chaffetz on the other hand is more of a poser.

  11. Sam says

    May 17, 2016 at 7:21 pm

    Obama won’t let top aide who revealed he lied about Iran nuke deal testify to House on the deal

    REALLY?

    • Polk1970 says

      May 17, 2016 at 10:58 pm

      Wouldn’t going public,,the NYT,,nullify “Executive Prviilege”:?

  12. Wellington says

    May 17, 2016 at 7:39 pm

    If a Republican President lied as much as Obama has, the MSM would be 24/7 exposing such mendacity. Alas, the MSM is in the tank for Obama, being essentially an arm of the Democratic Party. Yes, this is how compromised the MSM has become, virtually to the point of being a parody of themselves.

    A free press is a key element in the preservation of a free society. But the press must be as scrupulously objective as it is possible to be in order to uphold their part of this liberty-preserving “bargain.” Alas again, the MSM has failed miserably here and those not knowing this should be dismissed far more than they should be listened to.

  13. Tony46 says

    May 18, 2016 at 8:32 am

    Impeach him.
    Done with him..

  14. TopDrifter says

    May 18, 2016 at 11:46 am

    When I 1st heard the name “Barak Hussein Obama”, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and hearing. A blatant “Radical Communist Muslim” being considered for the job of President of the United States of America. Hell, the man couldn’t distinct between the 50 States of our union to the 57 states of Islam…WTF!!! I just knew this Charlatan would fail, no way could the citizens of the USA make this fraud our POTUS and CINC…boy was I wrong!
    This lying S.O.B. and his lying followers have perpetrated irreparable damage to our America, when he was re-elected, I was convinced “We the People…” have no more control over the running and welfare of our blessed United States of America. It is now the Peoples Republic of the Amerikan Socialist Union or Amerika, free for the taking just come and bring all your baggage with you. Tuberculosis is in epidemic stages in Minnesota, California are experiencing several epidemics of what were once eradicated diseases. Measles epidemic in Louisiana while Hundreds of thousands of inbred middle east refugees are assimilated into the awaiting communities of homeland America. Feeling sick lately, maybe small pox, measles, polio, tuberculosis and the worst part is our Corrupt Government are bringing these people into our midst without our knowledge. An epidemic exploded in Memphis Tn. where else but a Mudslime Mosk where 70,000 unvetted refugees entered the USA via the “New-World-Order”!
    Aside from death (I am 67yo) and will not live a lot longer, but my last years should be a pleasure and comfort not political correct stupidity and supreme idiocy perpetrated by those that don’t follow commonsense and orderly living. No morals, marry your daughter, let your son think he’s a woman, expose your children to pedophiles and laud “Pedophiles” like Bill Clinton as heros…
    “As it was in the time of Noah, so shall it be at the coming of man”…Something’s got to give. Only 30% of Americans participated in the 1st American Revolutionary War. 70% were happy being “Subject to the King of England”, think about it…

  15. UNCLE VLADDI says

    May 18, 2016 at 5:28 pm

    Congress is probably on board with this, after all, why would they want to be reminded that THEY had CHOSEN to listen to Rhodes’ lies via the enemedia press, in stead of actually thinking something this crucial to global security through, for them SELVES?!

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