Obama's former defense intelligence chief savages nuke negotiations with 'clear and present danger' Iran as 'wishful thinking'
- Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn was director of the Defense Intelligence Agency until August 2014
- He testified Wednesday in a congressional hearing that the administration doesn't have 'a permanent fix but merely a placeholder' for the Iran crisis
- Flynn said the notion that the U.S. can 'snap back' sanctions on Tehran if it breaks an agreement is 'fiction'
- Warned that 'Iran’s nuclear program has significant – and not fully disclosed – military dimensions'
- Obama administration has less than three weeks to finalize a nuclear agreement that would pare back Iran's ability to build a nuclear weapon
President Barack Obama's former military intelligence chief shredded the White House's plan for a nuclear agreement with Iran on Wednesday, telling a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Capitol Hill that the administration's approach amoutns to 'wishful thinking.'
Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, who ed the Defense Intelligence Agency until last August, devoted 20 paragraphs of his opening statement to a blow-by-blow attack on the framework deal with Tehran, which is scheduled to be finalized by June 30.
It 'suffers from severe deficiencies,' Flynn said, alleging that the plan's central plank – trusting Iran's mullahs will abandon their nuclear ambitions after a ten year cooling-off period, is 'wishful thinking.'
'Iran has every intention to build a nuclear weapon,' he argued, adding that 'it is clear that the nuclear deal is not a permanent fix but merely a placeholder.'
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NOT IMPRESSED: Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, shown here in 2014, warned a House of Representatives panel that the Obama administration – whose Defense Intelligence Agency he ran until 10 months ago – is clueless in its approach to Iran's nuclear game
TRUST ME -- IT'LL WORK: President Barack Obama manitains that it's possible to hold Iran to the terms of an agreement designed to tamp down the Islamic republic's nuclear ambitions
Flynn questioned the Obama administration's unwillingness to challenge Tehran's separate but parallel ballistic-missle program aimed at building 'preparedness to weaponize a missile for nuclear delivery.'
Iran's arsenal is already 'of high quality and growing,' he told lawmakers. 'Even today, their missiles cover most all of the Middle East, and the next generation will include ICBMs capable of attacking the American homeland.'
And 'Tehran already has the largest inventory of ballistic missiles in the Middle East.'
The question of how to approach Iran's growing missile program took on new significance on Wednesday when the Associated Press reported that the U.S. is considering suspending sanctions against banks and companies that participate in it.
That would be a major departure from assurances given repeatedly by the White House, which has consistently said it would only lift nuclear-related sanctions as part of a deal – leaving other economic sanctions regimes in place.
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HAPPY WARRIOR: Secretary of State John Kerry is no longer on the front lines of US-Iran negotiations, following a bicycling accident that resulted in a broken leg
But now, based on interviews with unnamed officials, the AP reports that the Obama administration wants to reclassify sanctions on companies involved with ballistic missile production so that they're considered part of the nuclear framework.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the AP's Wednesday morning bombshell.
Administration officials have said on at least a dozen occasions that any suspended sanctions could be quickly restored if Iran violates the terms of a deal.
Flynn insisted on Wednesday that it's not so.
'The notion of "snap back" sanctions is fiction,' he said. 'The Iranian regime is already more economically stable than it was in November of 2013, while the international sanctions coalition that brought Tehran to the table in the first place is showing serious signs of strain.'
'It's unreasonable to believe that under these conditions we will be able to put the "Regime Sanctions Team" back together again.'
Flynn told Congress that any agreement the administration inks with Iran will be subject to a wide range of unknowns, since international inspectors are slated to only have '"managed access" to nuclear facilities, and only with significant prior notification.'
Iran’s nuclear program already 'has significant – and not fully disclosed – military dimensions,' he said. 'The intelligence community does not have complete “eyes on" the totality of the Iranian nuclear program, nor can it guarantee that we have identified all of Iran’s nuclear facilities and processes.'
California Rep. Ed Royce, the Republican subcommittee chairman who convened Wednesday's hearing, said that there are too many question marks hanging in the air as the International Atomic Energy Agency has been frozen out of most areas in Tehran's nuclear facilities.
'How close is Iran to achieving a nuclear warhead?' Royce asked.
'Iran continues to stonewall the IAEA on key questions – including missile warhead design – that its inspectors began pressing for over three and a half years ago. We just don’t know.'
Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn testimony uploaded by DailyMail.com
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