Over 150 National Security Experts, Concerned Citizens Express Gratitude to Sen. Tom Cotton and Colleagues for Leadership on Iran

Washington, D.C.: Today, over 150 national security experts, former Senior military and government leaders, public policy practitioners and other American patriots have written to Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) and 46 other United States Senators. They expressed their gratitude for the letter they wrote to the Iran’s leaders serving notice on them that in accordance with the United States Constitution, any agreement between President Obama and Ayatollah Khamenei reach on Iran’s nuclear program will be considered to be only an executive agreement that can be revoked by the next president or modified by congress – unless it is approved by the legislative branch.

The letter, organized by the Center for Security Policy, states in part:

“Given the chimerical nature of the so-called framework agreement – which is, at the moment, being characterized in wildly different ways by the various parties, raising profound uncertainty about the nature and extent of the commitments Iran is making, their actual value in preventing an Iranian nuclear weapons program, the timing and extent of sanctions relief, etc. – the need for congressional oversight, advice and consent concerning any accord that flows from that agreement can no longer responsibly be denied. “

“It would be a serious affront to the Constitution and to the American people were an agreement of this potentially enormous strategic consequence not to be submitted for such action by the Congress. Grievous insult would be added to injury should the United Nations Security Council instead be asked to approve it.”

Among the signatories of the letter were:

Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, USA (Ret.), Former Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence

Admiral James A. Lyons, USN (Ret.), Former Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet

Lt. Gen. Dave Deptula, USAF (Ret.), Former Chief, Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance

Ambassador Henry F. Cooper, Former Director of the Strategic Defense Initiative, Chief U.S. Negotiator to the Geneva Defense and Space Talks

Ambassador Eric M. Javits (Ret.), PermRep and Ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament, Organization for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons

Hon. Joseph E. Schmitz, Former Inspector General of the Department of Defense

Andy McCarthy, Former Chief Assistant United States Attorney, Southern District of New York

Hon. J. Kenneth Blackwell, Former U.S. Ambassador, U.N. Human Rights Commission

Lt. Col. M.L. “Buzz” Hefti, USMC (Ret.), Former Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, Legislative Affairs

Kenneth deGraffenreid, Former Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs; Former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Policy; Former Deputy National Counterintelligence Executive

Oliver “Buck” Revell, Former Associate Deputy Director – Investigations, Federal Bureau of Investigation; Chairman, Board of Directors, Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI)

Gary Bauer, Christians United for Israel

Michael Ledeen, Freedom Scholar, Foundation for Defense of Democracies

Matthew Brooks, Executive Director, Republican Jewish Coalition

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., President & CEO of the Center for Security Policy and a signatory to the letter, stated:

“Today, as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee considers whether the Senate must perform its constitutional duty as a check-and-balance on international agreements that can have far-reaching national security implications, it is to be hoped that the panel’s members will by guided by the open letter to the Iranian leadership signed by Senator Tom Cotton and forty-six of his colleagues. The appreciation expressed for that letter by over 150 Americans, who share a commitment to the common defense and concern about the defects of President Obama’s so-called ‘framework agreement,’ is a reminder that millions of our countrymen are counting on their elected representatives in Congress to perform quality-control on the executive branch’s deeply problematic conduct of the negotiations with Iran.”

The full text of the letter, with signatures, can be found below.

Cotton Letter 4-14-15