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Obama paid ransom for U.S. sailors?

Logicman

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Did Obama pay a ransom for the release of the U.S. sailors held by Iran? Or was it just a first installment on the over $100 billion to be returned to Iran on the "Iran Deal"?

U.S. Sent Cash to Iran as Americans Were Freed - WSJ

Excerpt:

WASHINGTON—The Obama administration secretly organized an airlift of $400 million worth of cash to Iran that coincided with the January release of four Americans detained in Tehran, according to U.S. and European officials and congressional staff briefed on the operation afterward.
 
Did Obama pay a ransom for the release of the U.S. sailors held by Iran? Or was it just a first installment on the over $100 billion to be returned to Iran on the "Iran Deal"?

U.S. Sent Cash to Iran as Americans Were Freed - WSJ

Excerpt:

WASHINGTON—The Obama administration secretly organized an airlift of $400 million worth of cash to Iran that coincided with the January release of four Americans detained in Tehran, according to U.S. and European officials and congressional staff briefed on the operation afterward.

Did you tell the whole story? No. And it's hard to see the whole story when one is not a subscriber to the WSJ, and so one can only see the first few lines. So I dug around, and here's the rest of the story:


U.S. Sent Cash to Iran as Americans Were Freed

Source: WSJ

By JAY SOLOMON and CAROL E. LEE
Aug. 2, 2016 7:51 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON—The Obama administration secretly organized an airlift of $400 million worth of cash to Iran that coincided with the January release of four Americans detained in Tehran, according to U.S. and European officials and congressional staff briefed on the operation afterward.

Wooden pallets stacked with euros, Swiss francs and other currencies were flown into Iran on an unmarked cargo plane, according to these officials. The U.S. procured the money from the central banks of the Netherlands and Switzerland, they said.

The money represented the first installment of a $1.7 billion settlement the Obama administration reached with Iran to resolve a decades-old dispute over a failed arms deal signed just before the 1979 fall of Iran’s last monarch, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

The settlement, which resolved claims before an international tribunal in The Hague, also coincided with the formal implementation that same weekend of the landmark nuclear agreement reached between Tehran, the U.S. and other global powers the summer before.


Now, compare that to the fact that Iran less than two months ago finalized a deal to purchase ONE HUNDRED Boeing airliners for about $25 billion dollars (which, of course, would provide thousands of jobs here stateside). Compared to that, the $1.7B referred to above is small potatoes indeed.

In other words, correlation does NOT equal causation - the fact that the money transfer took place at about the same time as the sailors were returned to us does NOT mean that one was the reason for the other...as the WSJ article itself made clear.
 
We never should have given them the money, for any reason. How many people have to die from Iranian financed terrorism with that money before they are not worth the cost just to get a few US jobs extended and some Boeing planes sold? Boeing and their unions have blood on their hands, just as Obama does.
 
I'm sure the timing of the money to Iran when they were holding American sailors hostage was as innocent as the timing when Sen. Clinton received thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the family of Marc Rich while Bill Clinton was weighing an unprecedented presidential pardon form Marc Rich.

"What bothered so many was that Clinton’s clemency to Rich reeked of payoff. In the run-up to the presidential pardon, the financier’s ex-wife Denise had donated $450,000 to the fledgling Clinton Library and “over $1 million to Democratic campaigns in the Clinton era.”
Bill Clinton’s pardon of fugitive Marc Rich continues to pay big | New York Post
 
We never should have given them the money, for any reason. How many people have to die from Iranian financed terrorism with that money before they are not worth the cost just to get a few US jobs extended and some Boeing planes sold? Boeing and their unions have blood on their hands, just as Obama does.

Pretty much this.
 
It wasn't about the sailors. It was about the four Americans that were freed last year. There is no evidence that we paid for the sailors. There is evidence that we paid for the 4. The government wraps it up in a bunch Washington-speak but, if it walks like duck..........

You simply can't believe most of what the government says, I'm sad to say.
 
"It was two separate teams working on two separate issues. The fact that the timing of the prisoner release and the issuing of the money happened simultaneously is purely coincidental."

This is the official position and, goddamnit, it's good enough for me!;)
 
We never should have given them the money, for any reason. How many people have to die from Iranian financed terrorism with that money before they are not worth the cost just to get a few US jobs extended and some Boeing planes sold? Boeing and their unions have blood on their hands, just as Obama does.

Just a rhetorical question here please, how many people must die from US financed or delivered terrorism before the American conscience, if there is one, is awakened?

The monies returned were not taxpayer dollars, they were Iranian assets confiscated by US authorities decades ago.
 
If it was an honest deal, as the administration would have us believe, the money would have been wired to an Iranian bank and not delivered in other than US currency.

Now you have to ask yourself, what can Iran do with cash, other then US dollars, that they can't do with a bank wire?

The answer is that with untraceable cash, they can do untold bad things with it.
 
Just a rhetorical question here please, how many people must die from US financed or delivered terrorism before the American conscience, if there is one, is awakened?

The monies returned were not taxpayer dollars, they were Iranian assets confiscated by US authorities decades ago.

This money was in an account which means it was not sitting on a table waiting for the return of same.

Please explain what the motivation was to return unmarked cash.
 
If it was an honest deal, as the administration would have us believe, the money would have been wired to an Iranian bank and not delivered in other than US currency.

Now you have to ask yourself, what can Iran do with cash, other then US dollars, that they can't do with a bank wire?

The answer is that with untraceable cash, they can do untold bad things with it.

US government had no banking account with Iran, they couldn't because of the sanctions, so, no bank wire.
 
US government had no banking account with Iran, they couldn't because of the sanctions, so, no bank wire.

Weren't the sanctions lifted according to the deal?

If money was to be returned, which would also fall under the sanctions, why couldn't a wire be used?
 
Just a rhetorical question here please, how many people must die from US financed or delivered terrorism before the American conscience, if there is one, is awakened?

The monies returned were not taxpayer dollars, they were Iranian assets confiscated by US authorities decades ago.

Beyond these words - bull **** - the above post deserves no further recognition due to concerns that any further comment may give undue, untrue, and unwarranted validity to the ridiculous implication that the US is a terrorist state.
 
Beyond these words - bull **** - the above post deserves no further recognition due to concerns that any further comment may give undue, untrue, and unwarranted validity to the ridiculous implication that the US is a terrorist state.

Well he's a conspiracy theorist, so what do you expect?
 
This money was in an account which means it was not sitting on a table waiting for the return of same.

Please explain what the motivation was to return unmarked cash.

I was not privy to the negotiations with Iran, and I assume you were not either. Thus we can only speculate. I suspect the Iranians wanted it that way for some reason.

Thank you for telling me, but I rather expected it to be in an account somewhere, NOT on a table.

The curious part for me is why different currencies from different countries was involved.
 
Beyond these words - bull **** - the above post deserves no further recognition due to concerns that any further comment may give undue, untrue, and unwarranted validity to the ridiculous implication that the US is a terrorist state.

Well that depends upon how one defines "terrorist state", doesn't it?

I would define it as a state that practices terrorism. How about you?

Next in order, should we proceed with the discussion, is a definition of terror and terrorism? Shall we play? ;)
 
Did you tell the whole story? No. And it's hard to see the whole story when one is not a subscriber to the WSJ, and so one can only see the first few lines. So I dug around, and here's the rest of the story:


U.S. Sent Cash to Iran as Americans Were Freed

Source: WSJ

By JAY SOLOMON and CAROL E. LEE
Aug. 2, 2016 7:51 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON—The Obama administration secretly organized an airlift of $400 million worth of cash to Iran that coincided with the January release of four Americans detained in Tehran, according to U.S. and European officials and congressional staff briefed on the operation afterward.

Wooden pallets stacked with euros, Swiss francs and other currencies were flown into Iran on an unmarked cargo plane, according to these officials. The U.S. procured the money from the central banks of the Netherlands and Switzerland, they said.

The money represented the first installment of a $1.7 billion settlement the Obama administration reached with Iran to resolve a decades-old dispute over a failed arms deal signed just before the 1979 fall of Iran’s last monarch, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

The settlement, which resolved claims before an international tribunal in The Hague, also coincided with the formal implementation that same weekend of the landmark nuclear agreement reached between Tehran, the U.S. and other global powers the summer before.


Now, compare that to the fact that Iran less than two months ago finalized a deal to purchase ONE HUNDRED Boeing airliners for about $25 billion dollars (which, of course, would provide thousands of jobs here stateside). Compared to that, the $1.7B referred to above is small potatoes indeed.

In other words, correlation does NOT equal causation - the fact that the money transfer took place at about the same time as the sailors were returned to us does NOT mean that one was the reason for the other...as the WSJ article itself made clear.

The whole story involves Obama paying 400 Million dollars to the leading state sponsor of terror for 4 hostages and then coming up with some ridiculous narrative about a 30 year old debt being owed.

Thats for the uninformed voters of course.
 
US government had no banking account with Iran, they couldn't because of the sanctions, so, no bank wire.

Then why didn't we send US dollars?
 
US currency originating in the USA would be easily traceable. The "money" could be nearly anything in any form (gold, debt, write down of debt, write up of aid?). There are all kinds of covert ways of move money, but in this case I don't see the need for secrecy.

I wonder if it were laundered through the Clinton Foundation? Wouldn't that be a hoot?

EDIT:if it were truly cash, it could off Iran's books, too. It's probably going into the honcho's personal bank account.
 
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The whole story involves Obama paying 400 Million dollars to the leading state sponsor of terror for 4 hostages and then coming up with some ridiculous narrative about a 30 year old debt being owed.

Thats for the uninformed voters of course.

Speaking of being uninformed, perhaps it would do you good to RESEARCH before ASSUMING...because that $1.7B debt very much WAS part of the negotiation even back in January:

Washington (AFP) - The United States is to repay Iran a $400 million debt and $1.3 billion in interest dating to the Islamic revolution, Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday.

The repayment, which settles a suit brought under an international legal tribunal, is separate from the tens of billions of dollars in frozen foreign accounts that Iran can now access after the end of nuclear sanctions.

But the timing of the announcement, one day after the implementation of the Iran nuclear accord, will be seen as pointing to a broader clearing of the decks between the old foes.

US President Barack Obama defended the settlement in a televised statement from the White House, saying it was for "much less than the amount Iran sought."

"For the United States, the settlement could save us billions of dollars that could have been pursued by Iran. There was no benefit to the United States in dragging this out," he said.


Of course, I'm sure you can still come up with some kind of conspiracy theory to 'splain your conspiracy theory, since you're simply unable to believe that Obama ever tells the simple truth....
 
Speaking of being uninformed, perhaps it would do you good to RESEARCH before ASSUMING...because that $1.7B debt very much WAS part of the negotiation even back in January:

Washington (AFP) - The United States is to repay Iran a $400 million debt and $1.3 billion in interest dating to the Islamic revolution, Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday.

The repayment, which settles a suit brought under an international legal tribunal, is separate from the tens of billions of dollars in frozen foreign accounts that Iran can now access after the end of nuclear sanctions.

But the timing of the announcement, one day after the implementation of the Iran nuclear accord, will be seen as pointing to a broader clearing of the decks between the old foes.

US President Barack Obama defended the settlement in a televised statement from the White House, saying it was for "much less than the amount Iran sought."

"For the United States, the settlement could save us billions of dollars that could have been pursued by Iran. There was no benefit to the United States in dragging this out," he said.


Of course, I'm sure you can still come up with some kind of conspiracy theory to 'splain your conspiracy theory, since you're simply unable to believe that Obama ever tells the simple truth....



Obama paid $400M ‘ransom’ to Iran | New York Post

" US officials ADMIT that Tehran wanted the cash in exchange for the hostages....."

Yea thats some " conspiracy theory "Glenn
 
Obama paid $400M ‘ransom’ to Iran | New York Post

" US officials ADMIT that Tehran wanted the cash in exchange for the hostages....."

Yea thats some " conspiracy theory "Glenn

WHAT "US officials"? The article - published by the conservative and not-exactly-a-paragon-of-journalistic-ethics New York Post - never says who the officials were.

This is called "yellow journalism".

Guy, you really should try to be even half as cynical of your own side as you are of mine. I showed you where the SAME amount was PLAINLY agreed-to as a key part of the nuclear negotiations LONG before the sailors were captured...

...but the best you have in return is yellow journalism.

Sad!
 
I was not privy to the negotiations with Iran, and I assume you were not either. Thus we can only speculate. I suspect the Iranians wanted it that way for some reason.

Thank you for telling me, but I rather expected it to be in an account somewhere, NOT on a table.

The curious part for me is why different currencies from different countries was involved.

The administration told us it had been in an account since 1979, so no it was not sitting on a table somewhere.

Why would the American government comply with such an odd request.

There is no American citizen that would be allowed to have that much cash laying around because the assumption is that they will do something bad and untraceable with it.

It is the same in this case.
 
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