Iran Man

Rick Santorum says he's been studying Iran for a decade. But does he know what he's talking about?

BY URI FRIEDMAN 

Rick Santorum, who wrested some momentum from Mitt Romney this week by winning primary contests in Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri, likes to cast himself as something of an expert on Iran, which has arguably become the top foreign-policy issue in the campaign. From making clear that he'd take care of Iran's nuclear problem if Tehran refuses to do so to warning of jihadists lurking in the Gulf of Mexico -- he's not shy about his obsession with the Iranian threat, or his hawkish stance.

In a November radio ad, for example, the Republican presidential contender asserted that he was the only GOP candidate discussing the Iranian threat. "Even Newt Gingrich said 'no one has done more than Santorum to alert America to the dangers posed by Iran,'" the narrator crowed. Santorum's campaign website boasts that he "has recognized the looming threat of Iran's nuclear ambitions for nearly a decade -- standing tall against both Republicans and Democrats who have discounted and dismissed the reality that this radical theocracy is intent on destroying Israel and Western civilization." Forget "nearly a decade" -- in Iowa, he told voters, "I spent ten years focused like a laser beam when I was in the Senate on the country of Iran."
There may be no better window into Santorum's views on Iran than his writings as a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) -- a position he held between losing his Pennsylvania Senate seat in 2006 and entering the presidential race in June 2011. He joined the Washington, D.C.-based think tank, which aims to apply the "Judeo-Christian moral tradition to critical issues of public policy," back in 2007 to establish and direct the "America's Enemies" program -- an initiative that, unlike America's adversaries, folded after Santorum's departure, according to the EPPC. And, for Santorum, Iran was Public Enemy No. 1. "I know that I'm not the foremost scholar in the world, but I can offer a lot of ideas," he told National Review as he settled in at the think tank.
So, just what were those ideas, and how do they compare to Santorum's rhetoric on the campaign trail today? Under the disquieting rubric "The Gathering Storm," Santorum penned roughly 40 articles on Iran during his EPPC stint, scrupulously aggregating news and commentary to paint a picture of the multidimensional Iranian threat facing the United States. Here's a look at some of what Santorum had to say on the subject, in between posts on Latin American Regression, Extradition, and Alligators and Religious Freedom: A Pluralist Street with No Address in Saudi Arabia.

THE NUCLEAR THREAT

Expressing no doubts about Iran's determination to build nuclear weapons, Santorum described Iran as an existential threat to America's ally, Israel -- an enemy "well on its way to achieving nuclear capability as it also straddles a long track record of supporting Hamas and Hezbollah."
But early last year, Santorum warned that the United States itself could be vulnerable to an Iranian electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack -- a scenario in which a nuclear weapon is detonated above the United States, knocking out electricity and communication technologies across the country (the New York Times has noted, however, that many nuclear experts dismiss the threat). "An EMP attack would require only one nuclear missile detonation to bring our nation to its knees," Santorum warned, citing similar concerns voiced by former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ). "Whether by using EMP or other [weapons of mass destruction], Americans are still constantly under the threat of terrorism."
If anything, Santorum has adopted even more of a doomsday approach on the campaign trail, telling voters in Florida, Missouri, and South Carolina that they would not be safe in their states if Iran obtained a nuclear weapon. He says a Santorum administration would authorize more research on EMP threats and develop a plan to prevent "severe terrestrial and space emergencies that would take down our information systems or electrical grids" (Newt Gingrich has issued dire warnings about an EMP attack as well).
During his time at the EPPC, Santorum also worried that an emboldened Iran could tamper with the global energy supply in the Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, or Suez Canal. "It is becoming increasingly clear that Iran's nuclear program is not merely a bargaining chip but a core component of the regime's stability," he observed in 2007 when discussing a threat by Iranian leaders to use oil as a weapon. Iran, he added, wants to "dominate the region and to challenge the West without fear of retribution."

Whitney Curtis/Getty Images 

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