Since Iran's 1979 Revolution, the Islamic Republic has been widely identified as the world's number one sponsor of terrorism. From then until now, the fanatical religious Iranian regime has funded, trained, armed, and launched clandestine attacks by numerous terrorist groups. Brookings Institute reports that Iran has backed "not only groups in its Persian Gulf neighborhood, but also terrorists and radicals in Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, Bosnia, the Philippines, and elsewhere. Iran calls this "exporting the Revolution."
However, no country has been more repeatedly and specifically targeted by Iran -- in word and deed and by proxies -- than the Jewish State of Israel.
"Death to Israel" continues to be the hateful chant repetitively heard during Iran's official state-sponsored rallies, parades and political gatherings. Iran's tireless calls for the destruction of Israel is well-known by most Americans. And, of course, no one knows about Iran's demands for violence and terrorism against Israel better than former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
Yet, as we recently learned, John Kerry has apparently betrayed both America and Israel, and has done so with potentially deadly intelligence leaks about Israel to Iran.
As Tony Perkins recently explained on "Washington Watch," according to news reports, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said John Kerry informed him about classified U.S. intelligence regarding some 200 Israeli strikes on Iranian targets in Syria.
In a shocking revelation, disclosed during a leaked three-hour recorded interview inside Iran, Zarif complained that Iran's military has long kept him in the dark on crucial matters. He then said he had to find out about Israeli attacks against Iranian interests in Syria from none other than John Kerry.
In light of Zarif's remarks, three GOP House Foreign Affairs Committee members wrote to the U.S. State Department's Inspector General last Wednesday to demand an investigation into Kerry. The House member leading that charge, Congressman Andy Barr of Kentucky, serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He spoke to Tony about Kerry's alleged treachery.
"Imagine a former U.S. secretary of state," Barr began, "divulging sensitive, perhaps classified top-secret military related information to a sworn enemy of the United States about our key ally in the region, the state of Israel. If these reports are true, not only did John Kerry undermine our critical American-Israeli alliance, he really turned his back on Israel. He betrayed Israel."
Congressman Barr continued, "And, I would argue, because Israel is this island of moderation and a democracy in an otherwise very dangerous part of the world, Kerry really threatened and undermined U.S. national security interests as well. And this is a kind of a pattern for John Kerry. He has a very bad habit of cozying up with the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism." We know this because he was not only the architect of the flawed Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA), but if these recent reports are true, he appears to be putting his own personal ego and his interest in salvaging this flawed deal way ahead of U.S. national security and certainly above the security of our friends in Jerusalem."
Barr went on to say, "We know that John Kerry has admitted having two conversations with the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Zarif, during the period of time when Secretary Pompeo and the Trump administration -- the previous administration -- was directly in the process of withdrawing from the flawed agreement and reimposing sanctions and initiating a maximum pressure campaign."
Barr explained, "If that timeline is accurate, then we have John Kerry working directly at odds with U.S. foreign policy, in something akin to a shadow diplomacy that was undermining the official policy of the United States. John Kerry was actively trying to undermine the official policy of the United States -- a policy that was intended to reestablish deterrence against the world's state sponsor of terrorism."
Was John Kerry's activity illegal? According to Congressman Barr, most likely it was. He, along with Congresswoman Ann Wagner (R-Mo.) and Congressman Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), have written to the State Department's Inspector General asking for immediate answers to some key questions:
"We want to know what the State Department knew and when they knew it. We want to know the status of John Kerry's security clearance. We want to know whether these leaks and shadow diplomacy put the Israeli Defense Forces in danger of retaliation. We want to know if there were any retaliatory attacks launched on Israeli allies."
Barr concluded, "We need to get to the bottom of this. And we want the State Department Inspector General to take it seriously."
