EXCLUSIVE Top State Department Nuclear Expert Announces Resignation After Trump Iran Deal Exit

[DonViejo]

Source: Foreign Policy



Officials warn of brain drain across government offices.

BY COLUM LYNCH, ROBBIE GRAMER | MAY 11, 2018, 3:07 PM

One of the State Department’s top experts on nuclear proliferation resigned this week after President Donald Trump announced the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, in what officials and analysts say is part of a worrying brain drain from public service generally over the past 18 months.

Richard Johnson, a career civil servant who served as acting assistant coordinator in State’s Office of Iran Nuclear Implementation, had been involved in talks with countries that sought to salvage the deal in recent weeks, including Britain, France, and Germany — an effort that ultimately failed.

He did not give a specific reason for his departure. But in a farewell email to colleagues and staff, Johnson stressed that the 2015 agreement Trump was ditching had successfully curbed Iran’s nuclear program.

“I am proud to have played a small part in this work, particularly the extraordinary achievement of implementing the [deal] with Iran, which has clearly been successful in preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon,” he wrote.



Read more: http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/05/11/top-state-department-nuclear-expert-announces-resignation-in-wake-of-trump-iran-deal-exit/

[Ilsa]

1. And the dept will be left with idiots like Rick Perry. nt

[karynnj]

4. This is the state department - they have Mike Pompeo

He is not stupid, but he is ideologically terrible and he is implementing what a very stupid man, the President wants done.

[truthisfreedom]

6. Rick Perry, who believes the department of energy deals with coffee.

[Keefer]

7. Isn't Rick Perry in the

Energy Department?

[procon]

2. The bartender at my fave steakhouse makes a Nuclear Daiquiri, he's got mad skills.

Trump would look at someone like him and put him at a desk in charge of Nuclear Implementation.

[sdfernando]

3. Your bartender is probably smarter and wiser than Spanky McStumpy

[Scurrilous]

5. Who needs experts!

[riversedge]

8. oh crap. Not good for anyone to see these experienced people leave. Can't blame

them at all.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

9. Another name to add to Rachel's Big Board of People Who Have Left the Trump Administration.

Eventually, she's going to be boxed in on all four sides.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

10. Best Headline today: Trump approaches geopolitics like The Apprentice

Trump approaches geopolitics like The Apprentice – but this is not his show

The US president thinks he will call the shots at his meeting with Kim Jong-un in Singapore, but might find Kim is the one in control

Link: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/may/11/trumps-approaches-geopolitics-like-the-apprentice-but-this-is-not-his-show

(snip)

The praise Trump showered on the “excellent” Kim, who has conducted six nuclear tests, contrasted with the vitriol he poured on Iran which by all accounts (including those of US administration officials) had been sticking to the deal it struck with major powers in 2015 to keep its nuclear activities peaceful and small-scale.

Trump deliberately violated that deal on Tuesday in the most comprehensive manner possible, restoring all US sanctions on Iran and threatening European and other foreign companies with crippling punitive measures if they continue to do business in Iran.

It was like the finale of The Apprentice, Trump’s former reality show, where only the Donald had the power to decide who would be a winner and who would end up a loser, and then to laud them or denigrate them accordingly.

The backdrop has changed from a TV studio to the Oval Office but the formula remains the same: confected distractions about who’s up and who’s down, with Trump at centre stage at all times and at all costs.

At least this deranged asshole is predictable in that regard.....