Obama Blocks Congressional Oversight Investigation of Iran Ransom Payment

[my2¢]

Let them appoint a committee. While at it have Obama appoint some czars, it has been awhile. Nothing ever gets done in Washington anyways, it's not like they have a country to run. Or perhaps "to ruin"?

 

[alang1216]

Truthful people usually don't find themselves being investigated about many things over many years.

Unless the investigators have enough incentive and don't care about the fallout.

 

[Iceweasel]

Truthful people don't block investigations into what they are doing.

Unless the investigations are purely political and, as in the case of Benghazi, endless.

Purely political? That's all their lives meant to you?

That's what their lives meant to Congress.

Liar. Is that all you have?

Sorry you don't like my opinions. I'll let history judge if 11 hearings were all necessary or political theater.

Your opinions are shit. Sorry if you don't like me pointing it out. The facts are that help was not sent, hundreds of pleas went unanswered, they lies were told to cover up the Benghazi mess because it was near election time, Hillary participated in the coverup and even lied to their families.

The people investigating it are in the wrong apparently because they are Republicans. The hearings led to Hillary's email/server problems so I won't let some smug little asshole on the internet tell me what's important.

 

[320 Years of History]

....

Obama Admin Won’t Tell Congress How It Paid Iran $1.3 Billion in Taxpayer Funds

From your linked article:

"The Departments of State, Treasury, and Justice have all rebuffed a congressional probe into the circumstances surrounding the $1.3 billion payment to Iran, which is part of an additional $400 million cash payout."​

I got news for you. $1.3B is no part of $400M.

I Googled your so-called story's headline and found that not one reputable news organization has picked up this "story," but it shows up in a bevy of partisan blogs. That's no surprise seeing as Ted Cruz is the source of most of the content in your linked article. It's not that I think Mr. Cruz fabricated information; it's that I know he will withhold pieces of relevant information so as to cast the matter in a politically expeditious (to him/to the GOP) manner.

Also from your article:

"“It is even more confounding that the State Department spokesman claimed Monday not to know how or to whom the residual $1.3 billion was transferred, although he does know the transaction happened,” Cruz said. “That kind of money doesn’t just transfer itself to a rogue regime still under heavy U.S. sanctions for its sponsorship of terrorism. Someone in our government must have the answers the American people deserve.”​

The White House stated that the transaction happened via bank transfer.

​

The White House has not stated (AFAIK) just what banks were involved in the transfer transactions. Do you really care through which banks the EFT/wire took place? Do you really need to know? Once you find out, then what? Where's the "there" there in yours, my or anyone else's finding out? Odds are it was one of these banks seeing as there aren't any yet in the U.S. that can conduct electronic bank transactions with Iran. Of course, it could have happened via a series of other transactions too....

• International Money Transfers
  
• Tehran transfers some of its frozen assets overseas as ordinary Iranians await benefits from nuclear deal

Here's the thing to keep in mind. In the ongoing effort to track, discover, and or understand a variety of, "national security related events," one of the key tactics is to follow the money. If we can follow the money, it stands to reason that if we had to, we could also move money through the same channels. Now some people, some organizations may know that we know about certain channels and others may not know that we are aware of them. Now I don't know if any "national security related" channels were involved, but I'm not supposed to either.

 

[easyt65]

HOW COME THE us CAN MAKE A BANK TRANSFER OF THAT MAGNITUDE BUT THEN DECLARE THEY COULD NOT MAKE A BANK TRANSFER FOR THE $400 MILLION, WHICH IRAN DEMANDED IN CASH FOR THE RELEASE OF THE HOSTAGES?!

One of the arguments libs made about the $400 million in cash to Iran in non-exchange (according to them) for the hostages was that no such transfer is allowed. YOUR article clearly proved it COULD. Again, this only leads to the conclusion that the $400 million was most certainly a ransom, paid in cash as the hostage takers demanded.

 

[rdean]

Not taxpayer money, never was.

Yeah! It was from Obama's personal stash!

That's stupid. Why would you say something so ignorant?

Oh, that's right. Sometimes I forget.

 

[NYcarbineer]

Truthful people don't block investigations into what they are doing.

Unless the investigations are purely political and, as in the case of Benghazi, endless.

Purely political? That's all their lives meant to you?

That's what their lives meant to Congress.

Liar. Is that all you have?

Ransom wasn't paid. You lied.

 

[easyt65]

Not taxpayer money, never was.

Yeah! It was from Obama's personal stash!

That's stupid. Why would you say something so ignorant?

Oh, that's right. Sometimes I forget.

It's called 'sarcasm' / 'humor' - things liberals, by your demonstration, know nothing about.

 

[easyt65]

Ransom wasn't paid. You lied.

$400 million in foreign denominations (CASH, instead of a wire transfer we now KNOW could have been made - as per the hostage-holders' demand) was secretly loaded onto an unmarked airplane, flown to a remote Iranian airport where hostages were waiting on another plane, not to be released until the US govt made the drop...

Barry bypassed Congress to make this happen...

Barry kept this completely secret from the world...until it was exposed...

The Iranians declared it was a ransom....

The Iranians produced a video of the ransom drop...

...and this was NOT a ransom?!



Oh yeah, I can TOTALLY see it now. Why didn't you just say so before?

 

[Iceweasel]

Truthful people don't block investigations into what they are doing.

Unless the investigations are purely political and, as in the case of Benghazi, endless.

Purely political? That's all their lives meant to you?

That's what their lives meant to Congress.

Liar. Is that all you have?

Ransom wasn't paid. You lied.

Ransom for Benghazi victims? You need to seriously sober up.

 

[rdean]

You only pay if it's your money. If I grab your wallet and then demand you do something if you want your wallet back, then I'm actually the one holding something hostage.

 

[NYcarbineer]

Unless the investigations are purely political and, as in the case of Benghazi, endless.

Purely political? That's all their lives meant to you?

That's what their lives meant to Congress.

Liar. Is that all you have?

Ransom wasn't paid. You lied.

Ransom for Benghazi victims? You need to seriously sober up.

So you

Ransom wasn't paid. You lied.

$400 million in foreign denominations (CASH, instead of a wire transfer we now KNOW could have been made - as per the hostage-holders' demand) was secretly loaded onto an unmarked airplane, flown to a remote Iranian airport where hostages were waiting on another plane, not to be released until the US govt made the drop...

Barry bypassed Congress to make this happen...

Barry kept this completely secret from the world...until it was exposed...

The Iranians declared it was a ransom....

The Iranians produced a video of the ransom drop...

...and this was NOT a ransom?!



Oh yeah, I can TOTALLY see it now. Why didn't you just say so before?

Giving someone their own money cannot be ransom. Are you really that retarded?

 

[rdean]

Ransom wasn't paid. You lied.

$400 million in foreign denominations (CASH, instead of a wire transfer we now KNOW could have been made - as per the hostage-holders' demand) was secretly loaded onto an unmarked airplane, flown to a remote Iranian airport where hostages were waiting on another plane, not to be released until the US govt made the drop...

Barry bypassed Congress to make this happen...

Barry kept this completely secret from the world...until it was exposed...

The Iranians declared it was a ransom....

The Iranians produced a video of the ransom drop...

...and this was NOT a ransom?!



Oh yeah, I can TOTALLY see it now. Why didn't you just say so before?

It was publicly announced six months before. Not the way to keep a secret.

Iran, because of sanctions, has no way to wire in money. The only way was cash.

This was Iran's money to begin with. International court said it wasn't ours. So Obama was basically holding their money hostage. He was just making sure they kept to the deal. Seems kinda smart to me.

 

[NYcarbineer]

You only pay if it's your money. If I grab your wallet and then demand you do something if you want your wallet back, then I'm actually the one holding something hostage.

If the bank puts a hold on your account, or a deposit,

is it paying ransom when they release it? Of course not.

These people are just trolling because they jumped on the ransom bandwagon before they had all the facts and now they're stuck in that classic RWnut trap of being wrong but not being able to violate their code of never admitting when they're wrong.

 

[easyt65]

This was Iran's money to begin with. International court said it wasn't ours.

Courts have also said Iran must pay money to victims of Iranian terrorism and previous hostage taking, which they still refuse to do.. so technically you are wrong. Iran owes US money...so you think Hillary and Barry can arrange for an unmarked Iranian flight filled with cash in the middle of the night to pay us?

Good luck with that.

 

[easyt65]

Again, one of the main arguments from libs on this board was that the non-ransom had to be paid in cash because a wire-transfer was NOT possible. Now we have evidence that this was complete and utter BULLSHIT!

Iran demanded cash for waiting hostages. Barry was a good boy and did exactly what he as told.

This was a ransom.

The world saw this as a ransom.

'Perception is reality' - this was a ransom.

 

[jknowgood]

Ransom wasn't paid. You lied.

$400 million in foreign denominations (CASH, instead of a wire transfer we now KNOW could have been made - as per the hostage-holders' demand) was secretly loaded onto an unmarked airplane, flown to a remote Iranian airport where hostages were waiting on another plane, not to be released until the US govt made the drop...

Barry bypassed Congress to make this happen...

Barry kept this completely secret from the world...until it was exposed...

The Iranians declared it was a ransom....

The Iranians produced a video of the ransom drop...

...and this was NOT a ransom?!



Oh yeah, I can TOTALLY see it now. Why didn't you just say so before?

It was publicly announced six months before. Not the way to keep a secret.

Iran, because of sanctions, has no way to wire in money. The only way was cash.

This was Iran's money to begin with. International court said it wasn't ours. So Obama was basically holding their money hostage. He was just making sure they kept to the deal. Seems kinda smart to me.

You wouldn't know smart if it smacked you upside your head.

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

Not taxpayer money, never was.

So whose money was it?

 

[NYcarbineer]

Not taxpayer money, never was.

So whose money was it?

"In very simple terms, this payment is the first installment of a refund for US weapons that Iran purchased but that America never delivered. It starts in 1979, the year of the Iranian Revolution.

In November 1979, a group loyal to the revolutionary regime took 52 Americans hostage at the US Embassy in Tehran. In response, the United States severed diplomatic relations with Iran and froze Iranian assets in America.

Crucially, the United States halted a delivery of fighter jets that Iran’s pre-revolution government had already paid $400 million for. Normally the US would have returned the money if it wasn’t going to deliver the planes, since countries don’t just break formal agreements like that. But the US government had already frozen Iranian assets in the United States as punishment for the hostage-taking — and that included the $400 million."


The US did not pay a $400 million "ransom" to Iran. Here’s what actually happened.

Think of it this way. You buy some pants on Amazon. You pay for them. Amazon never sends you the pants. After some legal wrangling, Amazon gives you your money back.

 

[TexM3]

The mental gymnastics from the looney left here is quite amazing!!