As Obama Pays Ransom, Iran Jails More Americans

[bripat9643]

AS always, Americans are paying the price for Obama's douche bag foreign policy. If it wasn't a ransom, they why does Iran think they can use American hostages to get more concessions?:

As Obama Pays Ransom, Iran Jails More Americans

As Obama Pays Ransom, Iran Jails More Americans Why the Mullahs are taking more Americans as hostages. August 9, 2016 Dr. Majid Rafizadeh Iran is quietly arresting American citizens and taking them as hostages in order to utilize them as pawns for extracting economic concessions or receiving political and financial gains. President Obama and his administration have played a crucial role in encouraging Iran to conduct such nefarious actions. In the most egregious example, a recent report revealed that, according to U.S. and European officials and congressional staff who were briefed, “The Obama administration secretly organized an airlift of $400 million...​

 

[B. Kidd]

An American and Aussie were kidnapped in Kabul a few days ago. Our Admin. will proclaim, feigning surprise, "We didn't see that coming, did we?". Stupid MF'ers..........ain't they?

 

[waltky]

More like the 'leverage' was made by Iran to obtain the money...

US says payment to Iran used as leverage for prisoners' release
Friday 19th August, 2016 - WASHINGTON: The U.S. State Department said on Thursday it released US$400 million (£303.8 million) in cash to Iran under a tribunal settlement only once it was assured that American prisoners had been freed and had boarded a plane.

"The payment of the US$400 million was not done until after the prisoners were released," State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters. "We took advantage of that to make sure we had the maximum leverage possible to get our people out and get them out safely," Kirby added. It was the first time the administration has said publicly that it used the payment as leverage to ensure the prisoners were released by Iran. Three of the five prisoners, including Jason Rezaian, the Washington Posts's Tehran bureau chief; Saeed Abedini, a pastor from Idaho and Amir Hekmati, a former U.S. Marine from Flint, Michigan, as well as some family members, were part of a prisoner exchange that followed the lifting of most international sanctions against Iran following a nuclear deal in 2015.

One more prisoner, Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, chose to remain in Iran, while a fifth prisoner, American student Matthew Trevithick, was released separately. Both U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have denied that the payment was ransom for the release of the prisoners or tied to the Iran nuclear deal. The White House announced on Jan. 17 it was releasing US$400 million in funds frozen since 1981, plus US$1.3 billion in interest owed to Iran, as part of a settlement of a long-standing Iranian claim at the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal in The Hague. The funds were part of a trust fund Iran used before its 1979 Islamic Revolution to buy U.S. military equipment that was tied up for decades in litigation at the tribunal.

The payment was made by the United States in cash due to international sanctions against Iran. The administration has maintained that negotiations over the funds and the prisoners were conducted on separate tracks and were in no way linked. Representative Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has asked Kerry to appear at a future committee hearing to discuss the payment.

US says payment to Iran used as leverage for prisoners' release

See also:

Foreign Affairs Chairman: ‘It Was Ransom’
August 18, 2016 | House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce said in an interview with Fox News today that the $400 million payment that the Obama administration made to Iran as it was releasing a group of Americans it had imprisoned was in fact ransom.

“It was ransom,” said Royce. Royce’s statement came after State Department Spokesman John Kirby conceded at the department’s press briefing today that the final hand over of the $400 million—which was flown to Iran in cash—was not made until the prisoners were released. “When you are inside that 24-hour period, and you already now have concerns about the endgame in terms of getting your Americans out, it would have been foolish, imprudent, irresponsible for us not to try to maintain maximum leverage,” Kirby said at today’s briefing. “So, if you are asking me if there was a connection in that regard at the endgame, I’m not going to say that.”

A reporter asked Kirby: “So, getting away from the word leverage, which--in basic English, you’re saying you wouldn’t give them $400 million in cash until the prisoners were released? Correct?” Kirby replied: “That’s correct.” “It was ransom,” Chairman Royce said in an interview with reporter James Rosen of Fox News. “We now know it was ransom. And on top of that it put more American lives at risk, and we’ve emboldened Iran. We’ve encouraged them, frankly, to take more hostages and put more American lives at risk of being taken hostage.”

At an Aug. 4 press conference, President Barack Obama was asked to respond to criticisms that the $400 million payment to Iran was a “ransom payment.” In part of his response, Obama said: “We do not pay ransom. We didn’t here. And…we won’t in the future—precisely because if we did, then we would start encouraging Americans to be targeted…”

Here is part of Obama’s response as transcribed by the White House:

Related:

Judicial Watch Sues State Dept. Over Edited Press Video About Iranian Nuke Deal
August 18, 2016 – Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against the State Department Thursday for the release of records related to an edited video of a press briefing regarding the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran.

Under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the conservative watchdog group asked for documents relating to “the decision by State Department officials to delete from the State Department website and YouTube channel a December 3, 2015 exchange between Fox News reporter James Rosen and State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki regarding Iranian nuclear negotiations.” In the Dec. 2, 2013 State Department press briefing, Rosen pressed Psaki on the department's earlier denial that secret talks between Washington and Tehran were held. “Is it the policy of the State Department where the preservation of the secrecy of secret negotiations are concerned to lie in order to achieve that goal?” Rosen asked at one point during the briefing.

“James, there are times when diplomacy needs privacy in order to progress. This is a good example of that,” Psaki replied. However, eight minutes of the video, including that exchange, were deleted from the State Department's video archive and YouTube channel, where it was replaced with a white flash. The State Department’s official transcript of the press briefing did contain the full exchange either. Judicial Watch’s lawsuit follows up on the group's June FOIA request for records of all communications related to the deletion of Rosen's question and Psaki's answer. It also requests records regarding the State Department’s subsequent investigation into the deletion. The lawsuit notes that the State Department has failed to respond to the June FOIA request by either producing the requested records or demonstrating that they are lawfully exempt from production.

State Department spokesman John Kirby admitted in June that the deletion of the exchange between Rosen and Psaki was deliberate, saying a "specific request was made to excise that portion of the briefing. We do not know who made the request to edit the video or why it was made." Kirby also claimed that the video editor no longer remembered the name of the person who called to request the deletion. Kirby announced at a press briefing on Thursday that the State Department had questioned 30 of its employees and completed an internal review of the incident. But “there is no evidence to suggest that it was made to conceal evidence from the public,” he said. “There is no evidence to suggest who might have placed that call or why,” Kirby added. “It is possible that the white flash was inserted because the video had lost footage due to technical or electrical problems that were affecting our control room servers around that time,” he suggested.

Judicial Watch Sues State Dept. Over Edited Press Video About Iranian Nuke Deal

 

[NYcarbineer]

It wasn't ransom.

 

[easyt65]

There is a reason the US never paid ransoms - because, like this, it will put Americans in jeoparfy, and they will be taken hostage.

Libs can declare this was not a ransom until the cows come home., but the facts remain...

Barry tried to keep this SECRET

Barry followed instructions - deliver cash only at 'this' time at 'this' location

Money exchanged hands and hostages were released...and the world saw this.

Obama lied...

Iran called it a ransom...

Iran released a video...

'RANSOM'

Now Barry is trying to re-spin his lie.

 

[waltky]

As well they should...

Congress Demands Answers Regarding Obama’s $1.7B Cash Payment to Iran
September 21, 2016 – Amid ongoing questions about the administration’s decision to send Iran $1.7 billion – in cash – in settlement of a legal claim early this year, lawmakers on Wednesday will continue to press for answers about a payment many still view as a “ransom” for the release of American prisoners.

Among other things, congressional critics are focusing on concerns that sending Iran the large sum in cash has made it easier for the money to be used to finance terrorism. A hearing Wednesday morning of the Senate Banking subcommittee on national security and international trade and finance is entitled, “Terror Financing Risks of America’s $1.7 Billion Cash Payments to Iran.” Witnesses include former Attorney General Michael Mukasey; former undersecretary of defense for policy Eric Edelman, who is counselor at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments; and Suzanne Maloney, an Iran expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington. Terror financing is in the purview of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an international body set up in 1989 to combat money laundering but tasked after 9/11 to counter terrorist financing.

The FATF has warned that transactions in cash can facilitate terrorism. “[T]he physical cross-border transportation of currency … is one of the main methods used to move illicit funds, launder money, and finance terrorism,” the FATF said in a 2010 best practices guide, quoted this week by Eric Lorber, a senior advisor at Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Center for Sanctions and Illicit Finance. The money in question was $400 million in formerly frozen Iranian funds, whose handover coincided with the release of imprisoned Americans and the implementation day of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal. An additional $1.3 billion in interest was paid over the ensuing weeks. It was reported earlier that Iran directed the money to its military budget. Last week an analyst said it was possible that more than $1 billion of the $1.7 billion total could go towards sponsoring terrorism via the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The administration – which continues to deny that the money amounted to a ransom – has said it had no choice but to pay it in cash, because sanctions had cut Iran off from the international finance system. “The reason that we had to give them cash is precisely because we are so strict in maintaining sanctions and we do not have a banking relationship with Iran that we couldn’t send them a check and we could not wire the money,” President Obama said on August 4.

But that explanation has been called into question by new revelations that it had in fact wired another sum of money to Iran, around six months earlier. “So was this gross incompetence, or was it purposeful deception?” the House Foreign Affairs Committee asked in a blog post on Monday. “The American people deserve honest answers.” “The United States has a longstanding policy not to pay ransom, because it puts bigger targets on the backs of Americans overseas,” the committee said. “In the months since the White House forked over pallets of untraceable cash, Iran has accelerated its illicit ballistic missile program and seized at least three more Americans.”

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