HAMID AOUTALEBI, a nominee for Iran’s ambassador to the U.N., is believed to have assisted in the holding of 52 Americans hostage for 444 days during the 1979 revolution. TED Cruz has proposed a bill in the Senate that would change the wording of the statute so that the U.S. government would have broader discretion in denying a visa request. Currently, to be excluded one must ‘be a national security threat and have committed espionage.’ The bill would change the ‘and’ to an ‘or,’ giving much more latitude to U.S. officials. TED CRUZ made this point as a way to emphasize the problems with the current law: I would note, that under the existing statute, if the Taliban in Afghanistan had sent Osama bin Laden as their ambassador to the U.N., the argument would be that we’d have to accept him into New York City. Now that’s crazy. It’s not just Republicans who are upset about Iran’s request; Chuck Schumer and Bob Menendez are also supportive of the effort. We agree with Cruz: this should get a 100-0 vote.
Posted on: Sat, 05 Apr 2014 22:09:32 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015