Posted on 08/15/2016 10:46:49 AM PDT by Kaslin
The $400 million cash payment to the Iranians that coincided with the release of four detained Americans in January was met with objections by the Department of Justice. Why? Well, because it'll look like a ransom payment (via WSJ):
John Carlin, a Senate-confirmed administration appointee, raised concerns when the State Department notified Justice officials of its plan to deliver to Iran a planeful of cash, saying it would be viewed as a ransom payment, these people said. A number of other high-ranking Justice officials voiced similar concerns as the negotiations proceeded, they said.
The U.S. paid Iran $400 million in cash on Jan. 17 as part of a larger $1.7 billion settlement of a failed 1979 arms deal between the U.S. and Iran that was announced that day. Also on that day, Iran released four detained Americans in exchange for the U.S.’s releasing from prison—or dropping charges against—Iranians charged with violating sanctions laws. U.S. officials have said the swap was agreed upon in separate talks.
The objection of senior Justice Department officials was that Iranian officials were likely to view the $400 million payment as ransom, thereby undercutting a longstanding U.S. policy that the government doesn’t pay ransom for American hostages, these people said. The policy is based on a concern that paying ransom could encourage more Americans to become targets for hostage-takers.
But the president said that this isn’t a ransom, so we can just move on from this, right?
Wrong. GOP senators are already asking questions about the internal dynamics of the transfer, asking Secretary of State John Kerry to offer more details. But Obama said that it was good that the U.S. and Iran had a dialogue over these prisoner exchanges while discussing the nuclear deal, the latter of which has been fraught with reports of the terror sponsor repeatedly skirting the provisions of the agreement. What do you expect from a state sponsor of terrorism that still props up Hezbollah and Syria’s Assad.
Over at Hot Air, Ed mentioned that perception is everything—and the DOJ knew how this would look to the public. He also said that the article undercut the whole notion that everyone was unified in this decision. Liberals, it’s okay to never engage your enemies. If Obama has shown anything with this strategy, it’s only ended in disaster on the big-ticket items: Syria, Libya, Yemen, and Iran.
and a Surrender
Why did it need to be converted to foreign currency if it was part of a payment in accordance with the agreement? Looks fishy because it is fishy.
DoJ won’t do sh!t
What did Miss Loretta say?
Who knows how accurate, but keep hearing the intelligence community is beyond fed up with Hillary...have to wonder how much rank and file in the FBI and DOJ feel the same way.
Don’t know what they could do, other than leak and/or warn Trump about certain things.
so Obama can unfreeze and send back the money ON HIS OWN ?
The most basic rules are dismissed by democrats. You don’t negotiate with terrorists, Lynch-Clinton meeting, etc.
And how did congress appropriate the funds? What account did it get charged too? The president can't write checks.
Trump for President.
No No, per the Just Us department we view it not as a ransom and never INTENDED to pay a ransom so no prosecution.
Full circle: under Hussein we’re back to paying tribute to mozlim pirates.
Having lost the protection of the British navy, we went from Articles of Confederation to a Constitution in order to build a navy to protect our merchant fleet.
Today, thanks to our federal gov. (doing everything but what it was intended to do) our navy can’t even protect itself.
Uh huh, sure.
By that logic, maybe we should just ship over some unsuspecting Americans, and we can have some more nifty 'dialog' with Iran.
fishy?
Hussein Obama, America’s FIRST Muslim President, worked hard to give Iran the resources to make Nuc Weapons. As a Muslim, Hussein feels confident that Iran will first use nuc weapons to kill Jews.
And there is hardly a Muslim on Earth that won’t rejoice when masses of Jews die in Israel.
By the time Iran bombs the US, Hussein won’t care. He will safely be living in a Muslim country of his choice.
Might as well have flown the pallet into Milwaukee.
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