July 4, 2018

"The president’s tweet merits Four Pinocchios, although we may revise this ruling if any corroborating evidence emerges."

Hmm. That's a strange approach to fact-checking at The Washington Post. Isn't the President in a position to know whether Obama's Iran deal included a grant of U.S. citizenship to 2,500 Iranian officials? Why would WaPo need more evidence to stop it from going all 4 Pinocchios?
Trump’s claim appears to have originated with Mojtaba Zonnour [an Iranian cleric who opposes the deal].... Trump said the Obama administration granted citizenship to 2,500 Iranians during the JCPOA negotiations, including government officials, but Zonnour’s claim is somewhat different....

The White House did not respond to our request for comment. The Homeland Security and State departments didn’t answer our questions.

We asked Ben Rhodes, who was a key figure in the Iran deal negotiations and deputy national security adviser to Obama, whether it was accurate to claim that 2,500 Iranians were given U.S. citizenship or green cards during the JCPOA negotiations.

“I have never heard that figure before,” Rhodes said. “It is certainly the case that it was not part of the Iran deal.”
Rhodes's statement sounds cagey! He just hasn't heard "that figure." Has he heard some other figure or heard about it but without a specific figure? And "It is certainly the case that it was not part of the Iran deal" could just mean that it was a side deal not intended to be seen by the public. And then, too, Rhodes could be lying. Why no Pinocchios for him? Why not 4 Pinocchios, subject to revision if any corroborating evidence emerges? There is this additional support rustled up for Rhodes (and attempts at getting support for Trump were not responded to):
“This is not something that would have been negotiated without it being super public at the time,” [a senior Obama administration officials who had authority over immigration matters said to Fact Checker]. “There’s no question that Iranians were coming to the U.S. as refugees, and they have been for a long time. There are high levels of political and religious persecution in Iran. We may have brought in some refugees that were government officials of some level. But somebody who was a government official would be subject to a very high level of scrutiny and in most cases would be barred from entering because of the connection to the regime....

“I have never heard any reference to this claim previously,” [said said Suzanne Maloney, an Iran expert at the Brookings Institution]. “Frankly, if there is a single speck of truth to this, I’d be shocked.”...
The top-ranked comment at WaPo: "If trump says it, you know immediately that it is false. Very false. Bigly false. Yet, I would rather have 2500 Iranians in America than 1 trump."

110 comments:

rcocean said...

Why are we continuing to act like the Amazon Post is an objective news source?

Quaestor said...

They "may" revise. If it's true (why would Trump invent such a claim?) the Fact Checker will never admit his error.

Sebastian said...

"Why no Pinocchios for him?"

Funny!

"The top-ranked comment at WaPo: "If trump says it, you know immediately that it is false. Very false. Bigly false. Yet, I would rather have 2500 Iranians in America than 1 trump.""

Just in case anyone wondered whose side progs were on.

Rosa Marie Yoder said...

Shoot first, and ask questions later.

When that become the guiding principle for journalists?

chickelit said...

Isn’t Ben Rhodes the kid who cried the night Trump won? Why should be trust babies??

Oso Negro said...

How about an Althouse poll on the veracity of the NYT and Wapo. Something like:

1) Objective reporters and guardians of our democracy
2) Tend to be somewhat sympathetic to Progressive causes
3) Active supporters of Democrats, opposed on principle to Trump
4) Shameless propagandists for big state Progressivism
5) Lying, weaselly, motherfuckers.

Original Mike said...

”Rhodes's statement sounds cagey!”

We have it on record that Rhodes thinks we’re stupid.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Can a president legally give anyone citizenship? Maybe the Wapo could get the answer to that question for us.

Bay Area Guy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
chuck said...

It is the July 4, why would I read the WaPo, much less the comments therein?

Michael K said...

I am starting to get the feeling of a preference cascade like the one I began to sense in December 2015.

This time, it is the Congressional election that is affected.

The Democrats seem to be turning, at least in public, to the Democratic Socialists of America.

The ecstasy about the primary win by Alexandria Ocasia-Cortez, a Democratic Socialist member is an example.

The Abolish ICE lunacy goes mainstream with Democrats.

The idea was once relegated to the far-left. But the liberal push to abolish the federal agency that enforces federal immigration laws is going mainstream in the Democratic Party, with New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Mayor Bill de Blasio adding their support to the cause in the last 24 hours.

"I believe that [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] has become a deportation force … and that's why I believe you should get rid of it, start over, reimagine it and build something that actually works," Gillibrand said in a CNN interview Thursday night.

“We should abolish ICE,” de Blasio said Friday morning on WNYC radio.
?

Is this a serious party ? I feel a disturbance in The Force.

Original Mike said...

”Can a president legally give anyone citizenship?”

I’d be looking more at the Secretary of State.

Seeing Red said...

It’s really 2499, not 2500.

Parse every letter. Thanks Bubba!

The truth will out.

More We, The People going on in Iran’s and Europe and China want that regime to stay.

Why?

Bay Area Guy said...

"We" are now fact-checking with Ben Rodes?

TheBen Rhodes? Political snowflake, Obama butt-boy, Ben Rhodes?

A bit of self-unawareness at WaPo, No?

chickelit said...

WaPo erects noses like they’re rating porn videos. During the Obama era they keep their woodies deeply buried [sic].

I'm Full of Soup said...

I'm of the belief the fed govt has few if any internal controls. We hear all this talk of FISA applications yet never hear of an official log of the FISA apps. We let a million people in legaly a year yet there does not seem to be a report that lists them and their country of origin. Stefan Halper was a paid FBI informant yet no one on the committee asked to see the 1099 the govt should have issued to him so we could find out what he was paid. Obama paid $1.4 Billion in cash to Iran - where did he get the authority to do that and where did he get the money- yet Trump can't do same to build the wall?

I don't get it.

Happy Independence Day to All!

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

It's all LIES, until we find out the truth and print a retraction on page 38, in fine print, hidden near the bottom of the page.

Wince said...

”Rhodes's statement sounds cagey!”

There you have it.

Trump supporter Althouse wants to separate Obama administration officials and put them in cages.

For shame! Shun her!

David Begley said...

Absolutely true. And the reason why it is true is Occam's Razor. The Iranians want a safe and great place to live when the People rise up and start chopping heads.

Bay Area Guy said...

Of course, these leftwing idjits wanna abolish ICE. In fact, they wanna abolish our borders, too.

"Imagine there's no country, it's easy if you try"

traditionalguy said...

OK, the debate is about how many Iranians and for what purpose. Other than that,Trump is spot on. At least the Iranians are no longer running the White House.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Trump has a better track record than journalists, “fact checkers” or Ben Rhodes.

Bob Boyd said...

The figure Rhodes heard was, "A shitload of Iranians"

Humperdink said...

Gee, I wonder if the WaPoo gave Trump four (4) Pinocchios when he made the "Obama tapped my wires" comment. Trump was vilified for it, same as today.

Trump plays the long game.

David Begley said...

What level of depravity writes this comment? "Yet, I would rather have 2500 Iranians in America than 1 trump."

The Godfather said...

The fact is that neither Trump nor the NYT has a strong commitment to the truth. In both cases the best advice (to paraphrase Reagan) is "Mistrust but verify."

David Begley said...

We need to appoint a Special Counsel just on this Iranian deal. I have a high level of confidence that millions in cash (or gold) got paid to Barack, Val and Ben.

Bob Boyd said...

Pinocchio himself was also given citizenship by Obama.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
dreams said...

To hell with The Washington Post, read this.

"Beame was there.

Koch was there.

Senators were there.

For crying out loud, George Steinbrenner was there.

And who was the main attraction for these sophisticated elites in Manhattan wanted to touch him>

Years before the iPhone came along, they wanted selfies with him. He had burst on the scene seven years earlier thanks to Liz Smith, the queen of gossip in a town with two daily tabloid newspapers.

Part huckster, part genius, and all American, Donald Trump dreamt big and made it so.

"Having just opened last year, Trump Tower is already becoming something of a New York landmark. The shimmering glass skyscraper rises above its understated neighbors on Fifth Avenue, upstaging even Tiffany, next door," the reporter wrote."

http://donsurber.blogspot.com/2018/07/he-didnt-need-job.html#more

Tom T. said...

This is typical of the fact-checking of the last few years. They found a Democrat who issues a denial of some sort, so it's ruled false. The reasoning isn't important, after all; they're just trying to get the conclusion out there to shut down the story.

Sebastian said...

Of course, what's especially funny here is that prog journalists give any credence to anything Rhodes says after he clearly explained how easy it was to foist the administration's narrative onto journalists who don't know a damn thing.

Fabi said...

Obama said he had to grant citizenship to those 2,500 because Iran is a shithole country.

MayBee said...

and in most cases would be barred from entering because of the connection to the regime...

I see a word doing a lot of heavy lifting.

dreams said...

"Yet, somehow, everyone at this sports function was drawn to Donald Trump, the 38-year-old owner of the New Jersey Generals, a franchise in the upstart United States Football League. As Mr. Trump inched his way toward the exit, dragging a dozen reporters, men in the crowd stood on their tiptoes to wave and call to him -- like so many bejowled rock-star fans. There was a desperation about them as they reached through the reporters to pat him on the back, to grasp his hand or just to stuff a business card into his coat pocket. If only he could cut them in."

http://donsurber.blogspot.com/2018/07/he-didnt-need-job.html#more

Etienne said...

Personally, I think Trump got conned.

A media company worth their slogan should be able to find one Iranian. You don't have to be spoon fed. Go out and investigate.

Anyway, Iranians make good Tailors and breed like rats. Something Americans aren't doing anymore.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

I too wonder how Obama acquired “the power of the purse” in regards to that pallet of cash sent to Iran. But like Amran plea bargain and the gun running to Mexico we have a “Press” that is decidedly incurious about such curious goings on. Remember when incurious was their “word of the year” weilded againdt Bush 43? Now it’s the Press that studiously sticks their collective heads in the sand. “If we don’t report it then it didn’t happen!”

dreams said...

They say that college students don't know the difference in a fact and an opinion, I've noticed the same thing in the media fact-checkers.

Ken B said...

I told my wife it was sunny out. She gave me 4 pinnochios subject to revision once she looked outside.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Tom T - exactamundo

Bob Boyd said...

Journolist reasoning:

Obama didn't do that.
And if he did, it was a good thing.
But the rubes mustn't know because they lack this understanding.
So Obama didn't do that.

Big Mike said...

Four Pinocchios because the real number is 2487, not precisely 2500. Something like that, I assume.

MayBee said...

Mike said...
I too wonder how Obama acquired “the power of the purse” in regards to that pallet of cash sent to Iran. But like Amran plea bargain and the gun running to Mexico we have a “Press” that is decidedly incurious about such curious goings o


Yeah, I will never understand why the pallets of cash to Iran wasn't a big huge deal. Or why after it Ben Rhodes has any credibility.

Rae said...

Obviously, granting citizenship to 2500 Iranian officials wasn't a part of the Iran deal.
.
.
.
.
.
It was part of a different deal. Remember this is the Obama admin we're talking about.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Ben Rhodes didn't say 'NO"... did he?

MayBee said...

“This is not something that would have been negotiated without it being super public at the time,” [a senior Obama administration officials who had authority over immigration matters said to Fact Checker]

This is absurd as far as fact-checkers goes. First of all, "super public". But second...there was nothing public about the Iran deal.

hombre said...

It sounds unlikely. But WaPo is not searching for the truth about the least transparent administration in history if it goes to Ben Rhodes who jokes about the dupes in the media.

AustinRoth said...

“This is not something that would have been negotiated without it being super public at the time,”

HA HA HA HA!!!

That whole negotiation was kept as secret and hidden from public view as possible, even after it was signed. That statement itself is the 4 Pinocchio one, and pretty much proves in my mind that Trump is correct.

Narayanan said...

Iran funds from time Shah's regime were in various banks.
Obama closed those accounts and drained the funds.
The Fed provided cash pallets in it's check clearing function.
Deep Money for Deep State.

tim maguire said...

Most likely scenario: True, but all 2,500 had current applications and were qualified. Obama merely expedited the process.

pacwest said...

Happy 4th to all the Althouse hillbillies. Best wishes to all of my fellow Americans.

God bless America. Off to the BBQ.

Big Mike said...

The thought crosses my mind that Suzanne Maloney needs to have some skin in the game if she’s going to publicly call the President of the United States s liar. How about “If there's any truth to this I pledge to resign from my cushy sinecure”?

hombre said...

'The top-ranked comment at WaPo: "If trump says it, you know immediately that it is false. Very false. Bigly false. Yet, I would rather have 2500 Iranians in America than 1 trump."'

Exactly. 2500 Iranians, thousands of jihadis, MS-13, and 11 million Latino illegals, but not Trump or his supporters.

Democrat lunatics!

Bruce Hayden said...

Think about it for a minute - what sort of Iranian would Obama give provisional citizenship to? Is it someone we would want living next door? On the one side, Iranians are very likely a lot more sophisticated than the Arabs to the west of them, or esp of the N African Muslims streaming into at least France and practicing Sharia justified group rape on any white women the can get their hands on. But on the flip side, Iran has very likely been the biggest backer of terrorism in the world over the last several decades. Certainly since Saddam Hussein was found hidden in his spider hole. And these are presumably the leaders, who routinely use murderous violence against their own countrymen to maintain their power. These are some of the most rabid apocalyptic Twelvers in the world, willing to sacrifice everyone and everything to hasten the advent of the Mahdi. With tens, if not hundreds, of billions of dollars obtained by skimming oil revenues and topped off by "Uncle Sugar" Obama.

Bob Boyd said...

Just be grateful they didn't write, "President's tweet garners four Pinocchios"

Narayanan said...

Also could have been family members of Shah regime government officials.
But that would be a decent thing to do.
Would not need to be
secret.
Ergo, qed, etc.

dreams said...

Here is some more fake news.

"The audience laughed because they knew he’d been telling a joke at his own expense. His comment about being a genius was just to get a laugh. The punchline was that Trump was saying he wasn’t a genius and it was silly that he’d thought he was.

Trump then said that what he did do is what Presidents for the last 30 years didn’t do -- implement the solution the smart folk had come up with and actually help ensure that vets get prompt medical care.

So CNN took a self-deprecating joke that Trump told about his own intelligence and by removing the context made it look like Trump was boasting.

Now, that’s fake news."

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/07/cnn_turns_a_trump_joke_into_fakenews.html#ixzz5KIZYN6V1
Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook

Mary Beth said...

Yet, I would rather have 2500 Iranians in America than 1 trump.

Can we trade some WaPo commenters for Iranians?

Bob Boyd said...

There's a rumor that Lamboghini's coming out with a new 300 mph super car called the QuattroPinocchio, but I'll believe it when I see it.

William said...

Fall back position: The ancestors of these Iranians were not involved in the slave trade or the eradication of Native Americans. Unlike many white Americans, they were born without the original sin of racism. Ontologically, they are better Americans just because they weren't born here. It is bigoted and unfair to not welcome them to this country. Perhaps one of them can address the next Democratic National Convention and instruct us on our duties as citizens,

YoungHegelian said...

But somebody who was a government official would be subject to a very high level of scrutiny and in most cases would be barred from entering because of the connection to the regime....

This sentence is, for me, the tell that it happened & that the Obama circle knew about it.

It's not the government official, the participant in the regime, who gets the green card. It's one of his chosen relatives. That way, the official is seen within his extended family as having done his familial duty & looked out for them all. The relative who gets to go abroad then becomes a safe conduit for sending money aboard, &, if necessary, is morally bound to take in members of his extended family should the shit hit the fan at home.

The Chinese ruling class does the same thing -- set a kid up in the US, the a relative or child in Canada, and then maybe the UK. Ports in the storm. This makes so much sense to me as a "cherry on top" gift to the Iranians that I'm believing it until proven otherwise.

dreams said...

Here's a fact that the media fact-checkers won't like given their opinion of Trump.

"President Trump’s approval rating on his second Independence Day is at 48% with likely voters.

And that is with 90% negative coverage from the far left mainstream media.

And after a month of anti-ICE protests by Democrats President Trump jumped 10 points with Hispanics in the recent Harris-Harvard poll."

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/07/results-matter-president-trump-tops-obama-in-approval-numbers-at-same-point-in-his-presidency/

Bay Area Guy said...

@dreams,

I don't think your numbers are correct. We better call Ben Rhodes to validate them.

Tyrone Slothrop said...

How old was the reporter who interviewed Ben Rhodes? Twenty-seven?

Loren W Laurent said...

The Tweet feels like a trap to me.

Get the usual suspects faux-outraged, get them to commit to the defense that of course it's not true.

Then...

Michael K said...

Unlike many white Americans, they were born without the original sin of racism.

Do you know the origin of the term Iran ?

"Aryan."

MayBee said...

I'm still laughing at the "super public" quote. Wish the person would have said "super public, dude"

YoungHegelian said...

@Michael K,

Unlike many white Americans, they were born without the original sin of racism.

OMG! Whoever said that has never heard what Iranians think of Arabs! That mutual loathing is by no means a modern invention, either!

Michael Fitzgerald said...

Not a speck of truth, huh? And not a smidgen of corruption. Obama and his anti-Americans are shameless liars. Can we keep our doctor and our health insurance? Obama found out by watching TV, just like you. Democrat party members are a disease destroying America.

YoungHegelian said...

That Trump! Everybody knows he tweets out stupid shit that just ain't true! I mean, he's on another planet! Remember that time he tweeted that the Obama admin had been spying on him?

Oh, wait......

Lyle said...

I hope Ben Rhodes is the face of Democrats for his entire life. Live long Ben Rhodes!

Michael K said...

The future is almost here, if only we don't pay attention.

In a Tuesday interview, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez said that Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the surprise winner of last week’s congressional primary for NY’s 14th Congressional District, represents the future of our party.”

Pretty cocky to announce it publicly.

Michael Fitzgerald said...

As someone above pointed out, Iranians have been engaging in terrorism for decades. Exactly the kind of people OFA needs to mentor their Democrat Party groups like Antifa, BLM, OWS, BAMN, CPUSA, etc. They are the terrorists they have been waiting for. Most likely the figure is closer to 25,000 than 2500.

Sam L. said...

One more reason for me to despise the WaPoo!

n.n said...

Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez said that Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the surprise winner

She's Hispanic in a district that votes diversity lines. The future of America is diversity through illegal and excessive immigration reform. The Democrat demographic.

clint said...

@Humperdink said...
"Gee, I wonder if the WaPoo gave Trump four (4) Pinocchios when he made the "Obama tapped my wires" comment. Trump was vilified for it, same as today.

Trump plays the long game."

Here you go

"We’re still waiting for the evidence. In the meantime, Trump earns Four Pinocchios.

Update, Sept. 22: After CNN reported that the U.S. government wiretapped former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, some readers asked us to reconsider this ruling, saying he was vindicated. We still found no evidence to support Trump’s claim and reaffirmed the Four-Pinocchio ruling.

Four Pinocchios"

Gahrie said...

5% of registered voters people. It was all about the turnout. He took his for granted, she didn't.

narciso said...

just like there is a white democrat, which won in a predominantly latino, republican district in miami, now it did help she was the richest candidate in the race,

Seeing Red said...

The black turbans. It takes a special kind of crazy to align the Sauds and Israel.

cubanbob said...

Four Pinocchios from the Pravda on the Potomac is indeed high honor.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

“We asked Ben Rhodes,”

Immediately laughed out loud.

Martin said...

Rhodes' non-denial is damn near corroboration that some very large number of citizenships were granted in a side deal.

Unless he is just trolling...

gilbar said...

back when O'Bama and the dems were proposing O'Bama care, they were saying that it was going to save umpteen bazillion tax dollars.
The Republicans said; "OH, NO! This is going to Cost: Big Time"

And NPR's 'fact checker' looked at the republican statement; and ruled it "Mostly False"; 'cause O'Bama said it would save money, thus the Republicans were lying.

So, we had two predictions of possible future events.
The republican prediction was; "Mostly False", Because it contradicted O'Bama.

It was at this time, that i realized that it was true: O'Bama was a deity; and, as such, was infallible. The republicans weren't guilty of heresy; they were guilty of sacrilege.

narciso said...

the fellow linked admitted along with rouhani, he had deceived the p5+1

https://twitter.com/Doranimated/status/1014475170365485058

Jim at said...

Yet, I would rather have 2500 Iranians in America than 1 trump."

Oh, but don't you DARE question the left's patriotism.
Or worse? Call them (gasp) traitors.

walter said...

Feeling their loss of SCOTUS, we see the rare moment Dems want to eliminate a component of Federal government.

Yancey Ward said...

Yes, Rhodes' statement is the classic non-denial denial.

HT said...

""If trump says it, you know immediately that it is false. Very false. Bigly false. Yet, I would rather have 2500 Iranians in America than 1 trump." "

Me too.

We have many more than that (Tehrangeles, afterall). Iranians are very cool people.

BJM said...

Dear Media,

It's a TRAP!

rehajm said...

A few summers ago Iranians were flooding into Boston. One Sunday afternoon there were 100s. Why? Nothing made sense. No media reports of why. They were all here for no particular reason. Over six months or so they dissapated to the point they were gone.

Strange.

rehajm said...

Remember WaPo fact checker us op-ed, short on facts and nobody’s checking.

Sebastian said...

@Bob:

"Obama didn't do that.
And if he did, it was a good thing.
But the rubes mustn't know because they lack this understanding.
So Obama didn't do that."

True, in a way, but their typical spiel goes more like this:

1. O didn't do that! No way! How could you say that? It's terrible. Impeach Trump.

2. O did it. He had to. What do you mean, he tried to hide it? Everyone who was someone knew. So? Trump is old news. Impeach him.

3. Of course O did it. It was the right thing to do. Only racist traitors would question him. Impeach Trump.

Gk1 said...

Occam's razor time. Given how shitty and one sided this "agreement" was it sounds like something the obama crowd did because they wanted this deal so badly. Would it surprise anyone that the actual number was 1,200 instead of 2,500? Would it surprise anyone that Washpo will give Trump 4 Pinnochios no matter what the issue is, even when Trump's right?

Paul McKaskle said...

Ben Rhodes' statement is similar to a "negative pregnant" and in the law, if such a statement is included in an answer to a complaint it is treated as an admission of the next lowest number. So if a complaint alleges the defendant was driving at 80 miles an hour and the defendant answers by "I was not driving at 80 miles an hour" the Court will treat it as an admission that the defendant was driving at 79 miles an hour. Applying that to Rhodes' statement, there must have been 2,499 grants of citizenship or green cards.

Comanche Voter said...

For WaPo if Trump blows his nose, he gets 4 Pinnochios. I'm not impressed.

Michael K said...

We have many more than that (Tehrangeles, afterall). Iranians are very cool people.

Those were pre-Khomeni. Some are my friends.

Dude1394 said...

Ben effing Rhodes. So the world renown Washington post didn’t follow up with “what number do you know”.

iowan2 said...

When is the media going to admit that the way more people believe President Trump than the media doing the fact checking?

walter said...


Ben Rhodes
‏Verified account @brhodes
Jun 27

Ben Rhodes Retweeted Vice President Mike Pence

Apparently Trump officials only welcome refugees in other countries.


Vice President Mike Pence
‏Verified account @VP

Powerful visit with families who fled the Maduro regime at the Santa Catarina Shelter in Manaus, Brazil today. These refugees didn’t flee simply for a better life — but to save their lives. These families told me they want to return to a free & democratic Venezuela. #Libertad

Bruce Hayden said...

“Those were pre-Khomeni. Some are my friends.”

I know some who had family members at the top of the Shah’s military. Always thought it hilarious when one of my best friends harassed the guy (who long had the office next door) about being a camel jockey. Even decades later, this Persian would get all huffy, and remind us that his people were living in cities several millennia before the Arabs (otherwise known as “Sand Ni##er#”) started moving out of their tents in the desert and started giving up their camels. And I remember one beautiful young woman who was graduating from American University and going back to serve in the military, since the Shah’s govt had made her schooling here possible. Always wondered whether she survived (I know from the guy above that many of the military officers did not - his family only escaped because of their high level connections). For sure, if she did, her military career was very likely cut short a couple years later, when the religious fanatics toppled the Shah. I should add that my kid has had an Iranian woman as a post Doc in their research group (which is a problem with DoD contracts). One of the nicest women they have ever met.

Maybe those were the types of Iranians that Obama gave citizenship or Green Cards to. But I seriously doubt it. I think it far, far, more likely that it was the rulers and their families. Gave them somewhere to run to, if (and when) the Iranians throw off their brutal totalitarian shackles. Maybe it was just the families- but at the time it was assumed that Crooked Hillary was going to follow Obama as President. And the president can pretty much override the visa laws and regulations if they want to. So they may not have thought such would be that much of a hinderance, as it is under Trump.

And that time may be coming quicker than anyone expected, with Trump not only rolling back the sanctions that Obama had lifted, but tightening them. Iran appears to be losing much of their European market for their oil, which is their major source of foreign currency. Meanwhile, their tourist industry has never recovered from the fall of the Shah đŸ˜‰. A relatively young country, most never lived under the Shah, and many of the younger Iranians look wistfully to those years as their golden years, where Paris fashions were not uncommon on the streets of Tehran. Instead, the women find themselves clothed head to toe in black tents. We may be seeing the signs of another democratic uprising - probably more worrisome to the rulers there, because a priority this time seems to be acquiring military grade firearms. For this reason, the next major Insurrection is unlikely to be as easily put down by importing armed peasants from the countryside to viciously and violently shut it down, as they have in the past.

h said...

Are the journalists so stupid that they don't see (and follow up on) the prevarications of Rhodes -- "I don't remember that specific number" "It was not part of the official deal."

This is one of the reasons that the public suspects the mainstream press as being part of "protect democrats - attack Trump" brigade.

And there is absolutely no point in trying to raise this question in the Washington Post comments sections since it is so full of anti-Trump vitriol that you can't find anyone to engage in a rational informed way. ("sad" as we might say).

FIDO said...

I don't care. For my part, Trump is more trustworthy than WaPo. How sad is that?

Michael K said...

Glendale CA has become little Tehran along with lots of Armenians.

Two doctor friends of mine left during the Shah's reign. One was a classmate in medical school and was at my birthday party in February so we stay in touch. He left during the Shah period and then, when he had finished his medical training, including orthopedic surgery, he wanted to see his parents who still lived in Tehran. His took his wife (who is named Dixie) and the kids and flew from New York.
He was met in the Tehran airport by the SAVAK and given two choices. He could get back on a plane and go back to the US, or he could serve his year of military service in the Iranian army. If he did that, he could visit his parents. He elected to stay and Dixie took the kids home after they met their grandparents. He spent a year as a doctor in an oil field.

That's where he learned to play golf. The had golf courses that were all sand. The greens were oiled sand.

They carried a piece of Astroturf around and put the ball on it to hit it.

He is still a fanatic golfer.

The other guy I knew in my training but not since.

My daughter's best friend in high school was an Iranian girl whose parents ere killed in car crash. Her grandparents were raising the girls. She had a sister.

She met the US Border Patrol in one of their moments of stupidity.

Joe said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Joe said...

The rumor I read during the Obama administration wasn't that many Iranians were being granted citizenship, but that they were being given E class visas

mockturtle said...

OMG! Whoever said that has never heard what Iranians think of Arabs! That mutual loathing is by no means a modern invention, either!

The Kuwaiti guy I dated in college not only wouldn't speak to the 'Persian' students but didn't want me to, either. He warned me gently that 'they really are not good people'.

RichardJohnson said...

Etienne:
Anyway, Iranians make good Tailors and breed like rats. Something Americans aren't doing anymore.


Breed like rats? Fertility rate, total (births per woman)
Iran, Islamic Rep.

1979 6.4
2016 1.7


In 2016, the US had a fertility rate of 1.8- higher than Iran.

Sounds like Etienne doesn't get out much.

Michael K said...

The Iranian birth ate has crashed since the regime went into mass terrorsm and starving the population.

David Goldman has a book aboit the Muslim world, especially Iran.

More here.

Positive demographics are a result of societies that are forward-looking and self-confident, he said.

“A lack of desire for children is typically a symptom of civilizational decline,” and the Muslim world is currently witnessing such a phenomenon, he avers.

Europe is going through a similar phase and there are obvious parallels with the Muslim world, he says, pointing out that when “traditional societies encounter the modern world and lose self-confidence, traditional behavior such as religion, childbearing, and other cultural patterns change radically.”

“In Iran this occurred in one generation, while in Turkey it took two.”

The estimated birthrate in Iran is around 1.86 children per woman for 2013, below the replacement rate of two births per woman, according to the CIA World Factbook. However, many demographers think Iran’s fertility rate is even lower, at around 1.6 to 1.7.


The women are voting with their uteri. It would be interesting if they managed to overthrow the regime and the birth-rate recovered.

Achilles said...

The leftists are giving up.

Not just the pretense either.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

as an Italian Hyphen American, I am offended by the use of 'Pinocchio' to brand statements as lies.
'0bamas', 'Soetoros' or 'Sowetos' should be used in substitution, as they are more current and applicable.