Obama refuses to tell Congress how many Americans Iran has killed

The Iran nuclear deal may be one of the first such deals in the history of mankind. We have acquiesced to Iran building a nuclear weapon even as Iran continues to kill Americans wherever it can. Think that sounds extreme, do you? Remember this is the administration that purposefully killed American and Mexican citizens by Operation Fast and Furious and probably continued that trail of blood in numerous other ‘gunwalking’ capers run by the morons at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. They seem to have let our consulate in Benghazi be sacked with the loss of American life. They set off two civil wars, one in Iraq and one in Syria.

Back in July, America’s own Secretary of State, John Kerry, took valuable time out from bouncing his Lycra-clad ass off various European streets to deign to talk to the Congress. In the course of that conversation he admitted that the administration knew Iran would use the money released under the Iran nuclear deal to kill Americans.

Mr. Brooks: Well do you believe that Iran is the world’s foremost sponsor of terrorism?

Secretary Kerry: Yes.

Mr. Brooks: And, that they will use the conventional weapons made available by the Iran nuclear treaty to kill Americans or Israelis?

Secretary Kerry: Well, they may, they may. We have, as you know, responded to that from 1979 when they took over our embassy forward. We have put sanctions in place specifically because of their support for terror, because of their abuse of human rights.

Mr. Brooks: OK, I understand that. You answered my question when you said, “Yes, they may.”

Now, courtesy of the Free Beacon, we have the administration’s answers to a series of questions put to them by [mc_name name=’Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’R000595′ ]. Though they admit Iran is still in the business of killing Americans they won’t give the estimated number.

In the list of questions submitted to Kerry, Rubio asks: “How many U.S. citizens have been killed by Iran, including by Iran’s terrorist proxies, since 1979?”

The secretary of state declined to provide an answer, instead saying that the administration takes the murder of American citizens “very seriously.”

“The death of any U.S. citizen due to acts of terrorism is a tragedy that we take very seriously,” Kerry writes. “As the President said in his Aug. 5 speech, a nuclear-armed Iran is a danger to Israel, America and the world.”

“The central goal of the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] is to eliminate the imminent threat of a nuclear-armed Iran,” Kerry continued.

When asked a second time by Rubio to specify “How many U.S. troops and soldiers were killed by Iranian-provided weapons or by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Kerry said, again sidestepping the question.

“We are extraordinarily grateful for the service of the men and women of the United States Armed Forces, and we mourn the loss of every service member,” Kerry writes. “The JCPOA is not about a change in the broader U.S. relationship with Iran. It is about eliminating the biggest and most imminent threat—a nuclear-armed Iran.”

When separately asked to detail “how many Israelis have been killed by Iran, including by Iran’s terrorist proxies since 1979,” Kerry again declined to respond.

“The central goal of the JCPOA is to eliminate the imminent threat that Iran will acquire a nuclear weapon,” Kerry said. “But the JCPOA cannot erase decades of Iranian anti-American and anti-Israeli rhetoric and actions.”

The number of Americans killed is not trivial:

Michael Pregent, director of the advocacy organization Veterans Against the Deal, called it shocking that the administration would not release these figures.

“We find it absurd that the Obama administration and the State Department would deny information on Iran’s direct role in the deaths of Americans in Iraq from sitting U.S. senators,” said Pregent, whose organization has released several ads highlighting Iran’s terror operations against U.S. soldiers.

“For the State Department to protect Iran by keeping information detrimental to Iran’s Quds force and [IRGC Leader] Qasem Soleimani from the American people is an affront to veterans affected by this enemy and service members currently in harms way in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Pregent said.

Recent estimates by U.S. intelligence officials put the number of American soldiers killed by Iran in Iraq and Afghanistan at around 500.

In addition, it is virtually certain that Iran was behind the downing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

This is not the action of an executive branch of a representative government. This is the action of an executive branch that refuses to give the Congress the information it needs to make informed decisions. The actions by Kerry and the State Department are simply shameful but they are well established practices under the Obama regime.

As odious as this is, it only exists because the GOP leadership of the House and especially the Senate use their Constitutional power to compel compliance with civilized norms by this lawless administration.