but in reference to the payment made to Iran under the Obama presidency,
money owed since 1979, you might want to be better informed about what you're saying:
According to the Wall Street Journal, the $400 million cash payment was the first installment of
a $1.7 billion settlement that the Obama administration agreed to pay Iran. The settlement was
designed to resolve a dispute in the United Nations International Court of Justice over a failed
arms deal that took place before the 1979 Iranian Revolution, when Iran’s current Islamic radical
regime overthrew the regime of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.
Iran had paid $400 million for U.S. arms, but America did not supply them because of the revolution.
It also did not return the $400 million. The Obama administration says the $1.7 billion includes this
$400 million and [$1.3 billion in interest.] It claims Iran initially demanded substantially more, but
eventually settled for $1.3 billion, thus making it a “good deal” for taxpayers.
President Obama also said in that January 17 speech, “Whereas Iran was steadily expanding its
nuclear program, we have now cut off every single path that Iran could have used to build a bomb.”
That is absolutely false. Since “Implementation Day,” Iran has accelerated its nuclear activities.
The deal allows Iran to build a bomb openly within 15 years, and a secret provision actually opens
the door even earlier than that.
The Obama administration reached out to what it called a “moderate” government in Iran,
even though chants of “Death to America” still ring out from government buildings in Tehran.
The Obama administration worked to lift all sanctions against Iran—releasing roughly $50 billion.
The Obama administration did not consider Iran to be an enemy—it’s trying to make a friend.
Iran took 10 U.S. sailors captive after they drifted into Iranian waters. Iranians filmed the sailors
with their hands behind their heads; one woman was forced to wear a headscarf; another soldier
was forced to give a recorded apology. After embarrassing the American captives, Iran released
them the next day to the showering praises of figures like Secretary of State John Kerry and
Vice President Joe Biden. Biden said it was just “standard nautical practice.”
Despite that episode, the administration still went ahead with the January 16 nuclear deal,
and also tacked on [a prisoner swap]. Iran is the largest state-sponsor of terrorism in the world.
It is clear that Iran is not interested in having peace with the nation it calls “the great Satan.”
For some reason, even though Iran is a sworn terrorist-sponsoring enemy, the Obama administration
aggressively wanted this deal. To ensure nobody interfered with it, Mr. Obama and his administration
used the National Security Agency to find out what members of Congress were thinking and saying
and trying to do. They also spied on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
They wanted to make certain nobody stopped them from removing the crippling sanctions
that were causing Iran such trouble and slowing down its nuclear activities. Ben Rhodes,
one of the president’s speech writers, bragged about how he had deceived journalists
and policy wonks, whom he called “the Blob” in an interview with the New York Times.
The White House was determined to ram the nuclear deal through without Senate approval or even
public support, and it devised and executed an elaborate propaganda campaign to do so. This all came
to light months later, but people don’t seem to care just how deceitful and lawless his administration was!
On January 17, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called the deal a “golden page” and “turning point”
for his nation. How true that is! Iran was hemorrhaging financially because of Western sanctions. But
the nuclear agreement gave Iran access to $150 billion as the U.S. released its frozen assets.
This, without giving up or even promising to change its policy of subversion and aggression.
This, without having fortified its status as the world’s greatest purveyor of terrorism”
(Washington Post, January 21).
“The real story of Saturday, Jan. 16, 2016—‘Implementation Day’ of the Iran deal—was that it
marked a historic inflection point in the geopolitics in the Middle East,” wrote Charles Krauthammer.
“In a stroke, Iran shed almost four decades of rogue state status, and was declared a citizen of good
standing of the international community, open to trade, investment and diplomacy.
But that’s not all this administration did around January 16. On August 3, the Wall Street Journal
reported more shocking news about what the Obama administration did the very next day after
implementing this disastrous deal.
Hostages
On January 17, the Obama administration airlifted $400 million in cash to pay Iran for the release
of four innocent American hostages. On top of paying Iran cash, the U.S. returned to Iran seven
criminals who were imprisoned or facing charges, and also stopped seeking 14 Iranians who are
on Interpol’s watch list.
The Wall Street Journal reported U.S. officials saying that “most of these cases were tied to violations
of U.S. export laws and the sales of dual-use equipment that could be used in Iran’s military or nuclear
program …. ‘This is a one-time arrangement,’ said a second U.S. official, describing the prisoner swap.
‘It’s not a precedent for the future’” (January 16).
Ransom? What Ransom?
The Obama administration denied that the cash was a payment for the release of the four prisoners.
One of the hostages, Pastor Saeed Abedini, revealed in an interview that the hostage plane was not
allowed to leave until another aircraft carrying the money landed. No cash, no release.
“We slept at the airport,” he said. “And when I asked them why [they] don’t let us go because the
plane was there, [the] pilot was there, everyone was ready [to] leave the country, they said,
‘We are waiting for another plane, and [if that] plane doesn’t come, we [will] never let you go.’”
The plane they were waiting for was the one full of cash—
The pallet-load payment consisted of Swiss francs, euros and a few other foreign currencies.
The U.S. is not allowed to deal with Iran in U.S. dollars. If a corporation were to launder money
this way, the ceo of that company would be put behind bars.
Now, the Iranians are boasting about how the airlifted $400 million was the ransom money for four
Americans. “U.S. officials … acknowledge that Iranian negotiators on the prisoner exchange said
they wanted the cash to show they had gained something tangible,” the Wall Street Journal reported.
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President Obama wasn’t the first to offer Iran money in exchange for hostages.
Carter’s deal seems similar to the recent hostage deal former Barack Obama
tried to shield under the implementation of the nuclear agreement with Iran.
"The Iranians made a good proposition to us yesterday based on transferring $8.1 billion to the
Bank of England. They would then refund all except about $3 billion of it, release the hostages
immediately, and solve the rest of the disputes over interest rates and claims through normal
processes in the future."
Both administrations were adamant they would not pay ransom, even though the release
of the hostages in both instances was conditional upon Iran receiving money.