I Guess It Depends On What The Definition of “Ransom” Is

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8/3/2016

I Guess It Depends On What The Definition of “Ransom” Is

Filed under: General — Dana @ 5:54 pm

[guest post by Dana]

 

It looks like it was a $400 million ransom payment, but Josh Earnest is saying Hell no!

First this:

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.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVi1fUUj_pI

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8/4/2016

I Guess It Depends On What The Definition Of “Coincidence” Is

Filed under: General — Dana @ 5:55 pm

[guest post by Dana]

 

Today, at a press conference, President Obama was a bit testy when asked about that pesky issue of the non-ransom payment to Iran and the happy coincidence of it all:

 

REPORTER: What is your response to critics who say that $400 million in cash that you sent to Iran was a ransom payment? Was it really simply a pure coincidence …that a payment that was held up for almost four decades was suddenly sent at the exact same time that the American prisoners were released…?

http://patterico.com/2016/08/04/i-guess-it-depends-on-what-the-definition-of-coincidence-is/

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Dem Rep. Meeks: ‘I Doubt’ Iran Hostages Held Till Money Arrived

 

Posted by Mark Finkelstein August 6, 2016

Got to give Gregory Meeks credit. The Dem congressman managed to keep a straight face on MSNBC this morning while telling a string of whoppers about the Iran hostage deal. Among Meeks’ laugh lines: 1. the Obama administration did not http://legalinsurrection.com/2016/08/dem-rep-meeks-i-doubt-iran-hostages-held-till-money-arrived/

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8/23/2016

Did Obama Lie About Not Being Able to Wire the Ransom Money to Iran?

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:35 am

The lie is relevant to why they paid cash — a mechanism that looks like ransom, but which Obama hastened to explain was necessary for other reasons.

 

On August 4, Obama said we couldn’t wire money to Iran to settle a longrunning legal dispute:

 

“This wasn’t some nefarious deal,” Obama told reporters at the Pentagon. He pointed out that the payment, along with an additional $1.3 billion in interest to be paid later, was announced by the administration publicly when it was concluded in January, a day after the implementation of a landmark nuclear agreement with Iran. “It wasn’t a secret. We were completely open about it.”

 

Obama allowed that the one piece of new information, first reported this week by The Wall Street Journal, was that the $400 million was paid in cash. It was delivered to Iran on palettes aboard an unmarked plane.

 

“The only bit of news is that we paid cash,” he said. “The reason is because we couldn’t send them a check and we couldn’t wire the money.

http://patterico.com/2016/08/23/did-obama-lie-about-not-being-able-to-wire-the-ransom-money-to-iran/