http://current.com/1k56ikcWasting no time after its success in getting the administration to oppose Palestinian statehood at the United Nations, and still celebrating the UNESCO funding cutoff, AIPAC has returned to its number one priority: Pushing for war with Iran. The Israelis have, of course, played their own part in the big show. In the past few weeks, Israel has been sending out signals
http://mediamattersaction.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=0e7994932b5c293ad6e9e40d8&id=796e48a31e&e=e04febec32 that it is getting ready to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities (and embroil the United States in its most calamitous Middle East war yet).
snip
The House Foreign Affairs Committee hurriedly convened this week to consider a new "crippling sanctions" bill
http://mediamattersaction.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0e7994932b5c293ad6e9e40d8&id=e3350abba9&e=e04febec32 that seems less designed to deter an Iranian nuclear weapon than to lay the groundwork for war. The clearest evidence that war is the intention of the bill's supporters comes in Section 601:
(c) RESTRICTION ON CONTACT - No person employed with the United States Government may contact in an official or unofficial capacity any person that -
(1) is an agent, instrumentality, or official of, is affiliated with, or is serving as a representative of the Government of Iran; and
(2) presents a threat to the United States or is affiliated with terrorist organisations.
(d) WAIVER - The president may waive the requirements of subsection (c) if the president determines and so reports to the appropriate congressional committees 15 days prior to the exercise of waiver authority that failure to exercise such waiver authority would pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the vital national security interests of the United States.
So what does this mean? It means that
neither the president, the secretary of state, nor any US diplomat or emissary may engage in negotiations or diplomacy of any kind unless the president convinces the "appropriate congressional committees" (most significantly, the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which is an AIPAC fiefdom) that not permitting the contacts would pose an "extraordinary threat to the vital national security interests of the United States".snip