Hillary Clinton embraces fake fatwa

Hillary Clinton recently downplayed concerns over Iran's nuclear program by referring to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's supposed fatwa (there are serious doubts such a fatwa ever even existed ) that nuclear weapons are contrary to Islam.  This has been seized  by Hillary Clinton and EU diplomats as a reason to cast doubts on concerns that Iran plans to develop nuclear weapons.

The Daily Telegraph took note of her views

Clinton revealed that she has been studying Khamenei's fatwa, saying that she has discussed it with religious scholars, other experts and with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "If it is indeed a statement of principle, of values, then it is a starting point for being operationalized," Clinton said.

Of course, this follows the administration of dismissing concerns about Iran and its potential to develop nuclear weapons. Recently, press secretary Jay Carney said the administration was in no rush to deal with Iran, the administration slowed down the sanctions legislation in Congress and then used its allies in Congress to weaken the bill, eliciting a rare and brave rebuke from Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) , and has used its power to issue waivers to allow foreign companies to do business with Iran, with predictable results.

However, his fatwa is not to be taken at face value-as Hillary Clinton and EU diplomats years to do.

Joby Warrick of the  Washington Post points out that Khamenei himself has justified the development of nuclear weapons in the past, calling them essential not only to preserve the regime but also highlighting their role in perhaps bringing about an apocalypse that would lead to the return of the 12^th, or "Missing" Imam:

According to an internal U.N. document, Khamenei embraced the concept of an Iranian nuclear bomb during a meeting of the country's top leadership more than two decades ago, saying nuclear weapons were essential for preserving Iran's Islamic Revolution.

The 2009 document, prepared for the International Atomic Energy Agency, is a collection of statements made by Iranian leaders about nuclear weapons, as gleaned from the nuclear watchdog's intelligence sources. It cites an April 1984 meeting in which Khamenei allegedly endorsed a decision by then-leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to launch a secret nuclear weapons program.

"According to Ayatollah Khamenei, this was the only way to secure the very essence of the Islamic Revolution from the schemes of its enemies ... and to prepare it for the emergence of Imam Mahdi," states the IAEA document, which was obtained by the Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington-based nonprofit group that analyzes nuclear weapons programs. In Shiite Islam, "Imam Mahdi" is the prophesied 12th Imam who will purge the world of evil in humanity's last days (emphasis mine)

Khamenei allegedly embraced the idea of an Iranian nuclear arsenal that would "serve Iran as a deterrent in the hands of God's soldiers," the IAEA memo states.

Wishful thinking regarding Iran is not a policy -- despite Jim Jones (recently retired National Security Adviser to Barack Obama) exhorting us to have "good thoughts" regarding Iran and its nuclear program.

President Obama is not only not leading (even from behind) but he is trying to throttle even tougher actions against a nuclearizing Iran -- a nation that is the leading sponsor of state terrorism in the world but one that has been responsible for the deaths of many Americans over the years.