Republicans Overreach: Part Deux

[applegrove]

Republicans Overreach: Part Deux

by Jim Lobe

http://www.lobelog.com/republican-overreach-part-deux/

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Of course, the story of the day on the Iran front is the publication of what its authors titled, “An Open Letter to the Leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran.” It was signed by 47 Republican senators led by freshman Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, who, as reported by LobeLog, received nearly $1 million in advertising support from Bill Kristol’s Emergency Committee for Israel (ECI) in the closing days of last November’s campaign. The basic thrust of the letter is to warn the recipients that, once President Barack Obama leaves office in January 2017, any deal that he and his P5+1 partners may have reached with Iran regarding the latter’s nuclear program could be revoked “with the stroke of a pen.”



There are already lots of arguments breaking out over whether the basis of the analysis contained in the letter was an accurate statement of U.S. law. One prominent Harvard law professor who also served as a top Justice Department official under George W. Bush, Jack Goldsmith, called at least one of the letter’s assertions about the ratification process “embarrassing.” (Especially embarrassing not only because Cotton graduated from Harvard Law School, but also because Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, who earned a M.A. and PhD in international law at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver—Condoleezza Rice’s alma mater—felt compelled to correct his understanding of Washington’s international legal obligations.)

There is also a dispute over whether the letter constitutes a violation of the Logan Act, which provides:


Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.



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