As part of its oversight role of the executive branch and its evaluation of the P5+1 deal with Iran, Congress has repeatedly asked the Administration for the number of American citizens and troops killed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its terror proxies - only to be rebuffed in each instance.
The IRGC is Iran’s most powerful security and military organization and presently under U.S. and international sanctions due to its participation in international terror, abuse of Iranian citizens, and its dominating role in the Iranian economy. The IRGC and its terrorist puppets have also fought with America's enemies in the Middle East, killing hundreds of American heroes fighting in the war on terror.
Per a document provided to Congress and obtained by the Washington Free Beacon:
The administration was repeatedly asked by Congress to release figures describing how many Americans and Israelis have been killed by Iran’s military and terror activities since the country’s 1979 revolution.
In a series of on-the-record responses obtained exclusively by the Free Beacon, and provided in written form to Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.), Kerry sidestepped the questions on all of the three separate occasions he was asked to provide the figures.
The questions come as the United States prepares to unfreeze more than $100 billion in Iranian assets under the terms of the recently inked nuclear deal. Experts fear the Islamic Republic will funnel the cash windfall into its rogue terror operations and proxy groups.
Most problematic is that the P5+1 deal lifts the sanctions on the IRGC, as well as on Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s massive financial empire.
In the document obtained by the Free Beacon, Rubio asks Kerry: “How many U.S. citizens have been killed by Iran, including by Iran’s terrorist proxies, since 1979?”
Rather than answering the question, Kerry said the administration takes the murder of American citizens “very seriously.”
“The death of any U.S. citizen due to acts of terrorism is a tragedy that we take very seriously,” Kerry writes. “As the President said in his Aug. 5 speech, a nuclear-armed Iran is a danger to Israel, America and the world.”
“The central goal of the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] is to eliminate the imminent threat of a nuclear-armed Iran,” Kerry continued.
Rubio asked again, this time being more specific, “How many U.S. troops and soldiers were killed by Iranian-provided weapons or by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Afghanistan?"
Again Kerry took out his tap dance shoes:
“We are extraordinarily grateful for the service of the men and women of the United States Armed Forces, and we mourn the loss of every service member,” Kerry writes. “The JCPOA is not about a change in the broader U.S. relationship with Iran. It is about eliminating the biggest and most imminent threat—a nuclear-armed Iran.”
When separately asked to detail “how many Israelis have been killed by Iran, including by Iran’s terrorist proxies since 1979,” Kerry again declined to respond.
“The central goal of the JCPOA is to eliminate the imminent threat that Iran will acquire a nuclear weapon,” Kerry said. “But the JCPOA cannot erase decades of Iranian anti-American and anti-Israeli rhetoric and actions.”
When asked by the paper about the administration's obfuscation, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) said the administration’s reluctance to provide information about Iran’s efforts to kill Americans was “unconscionable.”
“It is a fact that Iran is the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism and that they have killed and maimed thousands of upstanding military men and women at the hands of sheer hate,” said Gohmert, who has been a vocal critic of the Iran deal"
“It is unconscionable that the Obama administration is refusing to answer questions on just how many Americans have been killed or maimed by Iran,” the lawmaker said. “One thing we know— Iran says they will continue their efforts to destroy the United States and its people so one hundred billion dollars will allow Iran to kill and maim multiples of the numbers of Americans they already have killed and maimed, making the Obama administration knowing accessories.”
As you can see in the video below, early in his presidency Barack Obama promised over and over that his would be the most transparent administration in history. It seems as if there was a silent part of that promise, "except when Congress asks for information I don't want them to know."