AND IRAN ALSO RISES – AT 9:36 A.M. ET:  If anything, the nuclear deal with Iran, implemented just last week, is becoming more controversial.  A leading congresswoman provides a revealing picture of an agreement too disgraceful for some even to discuss.  From the Washington Free Beacon: 

The full text of the recently inked Iranian nuclear deal is being kept in “a super secret location” shrouded in “a cone of silence,” according to House Foreign Affairs Committee (HFAC) member Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R., Fla.)

Lawmakers and experts alike criticized the White House for refusing to release publicly the full text of the deal, which temporary halts some of Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for billions of dollars in economic sanctions relief.

Ros-Lehtinen said on Tuesday during a HFAC hearing about the deal that even members of Congress must climb through hoops in order to view the deal.

“Why is it that members of Congress have to go to a super secret location, a cone of silence … to look at the deal?” Ros-Lehtinen asked a panel of nuclear experts.

Ros-Lehtinen described the secret document as “quite eye opening” and wondered why the Obama administration continues to keep it under lock and key.

“It’s a very easy to read document; one doesn’t have to be as expert,” she said, urging other members on the committee to examine the deal.

“If this is such a great deal and so good for peace and diplomacy in our time why is it held in secret?” Ros-Lehtinen asked. “If the administration is proud of it, I think they should highlight it.”

Nuclear expert Gregory Jones expressed concern that the administration “does not fully understand” the deal it signed.

“It does bother me” that the deal has been kept secret, said Jones, a senior researcher at the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center. “It appears to me the administration has negotiated an agreement it does not fully understand and I don’t understand how that can happen.”

“I don’t see how there’s going to be an agreement,” he said.

COMMENT:  By the way, isn't it the job of a free press to demand that the agreement be made public?  After all, The New York Times never seems to have a problem printing the national-security secrets of the United States?  Why is it so sanguine about a nuclear agreement being kept so inaccessible?  Because it was negotiated on behalf of Barack, come to save us, that's why.   The Times and its disciplines in journalism just don't care. 

And the Europeans, of course, are delighted by the agreement.  They are already lining up in Tehran for contracts, which is why all the talk about increasing sanctions should the further talks with Iran fall through is just that – talk.  The Europeans will never allow it.

January 29, 2014