Barack Obama supports designating the IRG a terror organization (straight fact, not interpretation) [View All]

You won't find instances of Senator Obama objecting to designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Quds force a terror organization because he supports the designation. (That is a testable assertion. Citing a clear statement of specific opposition to the IRG designation would disprove the statement.)

He supported it nine months ago.
He supported it the day Kyl/Lieberman was voted on.
He supported it the day Condi Rice announced that the State Department had made the designation.

There is not, nor has there ever been, any difference between Senators Clinton and Obama on the IRG terror designation.

The illusion of opposition to the IRG designation is built on the assumption that audiences will fall for a false syllogism.

1) The entire progressive left says Kyl/Lieberman is insane because of the IRG designation.

2) Obama spends a lot of time saying he disagrees with Senator Clinton on Kyl/Lieberman.

3) Voters conclude that a key difference between Obama and Clinton is the IRG designation, though Obama actually supports that aspect of Kyl/Lieberman.

This is how politics works... you seek to deceive people without actually saying the false phrase. It's a pretty common form of political lying-by-intentional implication. Obama's Iran campaign strategy has been very good. It just happens to involve elements of intentional deception.


In addition to the fact that Senator Obama has spoken in favor of the designation, and NEVER spoken against it, there is the supporting evidence that he co-sponsored S970, which was itself the source of the K/L section on the IRG designation. Every time I have posted on Obama's official and consistent support for designating the IRG a terrorist organization, someone "explains" that S970 (the bill he co-sponsored) and Amendment 3017 (K/L) are "completely different bills." This is, itself, a clever lie by insinuation.

Of course the two different bills are different. That's why they are two different bills. But the K/L section on the IRG designation was taken word-for-word from the earlier bill Obama co-sponsored. So to those who say "read the bills," I have. As it relates to the IRG designation they are the same. (I have also read a claim that S970 merely called for retaining the State Department sanction against Iran, not urging a new designation for the IRG. This is what is called "a lie," as you can ascertain by reading what S970 says.
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S. 970: Iran Counter-Proliferation Act of 2007 (Senator Obama one of 68 co-sponsors)

SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

The following is the sense of Congress: ...(8) The Secretary of State should designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guards as a Foreign Terrorist Organization under section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1189) and the Secretary of the Treasury should place the Iranian Revolutionary Guards on the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists under Executive Order 13224 (66 Fed. Reg. 186; relating to blocking property and prohibiting transactions with persons who commit, threaten to commit, or support terrorism).

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s110-970

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Kyl/Lieberman Amendment No. 3017 to the 2008 Defense Authorization Act.

...(5) that the United States should designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a foreign terrorist organization under section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act and place the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps on the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists, as established under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and initiated under Executive Order 13224

http://iranlegislation.wikispaces.com/space/showimage/ARM07R69_xml.pdf