The US reportedly airlifted $400 million in cash to Iran amid a high-stakes prisoner swap

Barack Obama(President Barack Obama reacting to questions asked by members of the media during a joint news conference with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Tuesday.AP)
Washington secretly airlifted $400 million to Tehran amid a prisoner swap in January in which seven Iranians detained in the US were exchanged for Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian and three other Iranian-American prisoners, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

Administration officials denied that the $400 million cash transfer was tantamount to critics' assertion of a ransom payment, insisting that the funds were part of a $1.7 billion financial settlement the US had reached with Iran as part of the nuclear deal.

"As we've made clear, the negotiations over the settlement of an outstanding claim … were completely separate from the discussions about returning our American citizens home," State Department spokesman John Kirby told The Journal.

"Not only were the two negotiations separate — they were conducted by different teams on each side, including, in the case of the Hague claims, by technical experts involved in these negotiations for many years," he added.

But the fact that President Barack Obama failed to disclose the transfer of foreign hard currency to Iran via an unmarked cargo plane has once again raised questions about the administration's transparency in its dealings with Iran.

http://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/us-reportedly-airlifted-400-million-135210579.html

So Oblowme once again shows us how unfit he is/was for the office by paying extortion to terrorists!

Who's next? The BLM who are demanding reparation for the slavery of their ancestors?

Yeah, this happened in 1979. Get your facts straight, so you don't look like a complete idiot. Leave some room for doubt.

Dude, can't read the date on a headline?

Holy Moly,do some reading in Current Events on YAHOO,or anything!

'79 was the takeover of the US-Embassy in Tehran!

But the Mullahs are holding other Western Hostages presently!

Seems Elvis has left the Building!

I love the way State paints it as a simple co-incidence!

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/400-million-sent-to-iran-as-us-prisoners-released-raising-questions-2016-08-02

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.

“With the nuclear deal done, prisoners released, the time was right to resolve this dispute as well,” President Barack Obama said at the White House on Jan. 17 — without disclosing the $400 million cash payment.

Senior U.S. officials denied any link between the payment and the prisoner exchange. They say the way the various strands came together simultaneously was coincidental, not the result of any quid pro quo.

“As we’ve made clear, the negotiations over the settlement of an outstanding claim…were completely separate from the discussions about returning our American citizens home,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said. “Not only were the two negotiations separate, they were conducted by different teams on each side, including, in the case of The Hague claims, by technical experts involved in these negotiations for many years.”

But U.S. officials also acknowledge that Iranian negotiators on the prisoner exchange said they wanted the cash to show they had gained something tangible.

Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas and a fierce foe of the Iran nuclear deal, accused President Barack Obama of paying “a $1.7 billion ransom to the ayatollahs for U.S. hostages.”

“This break with longstanding U.S. policy [not to] put a price on the head of Americans, and has led Iran to continue its illegal seizures” of Americans, he said.

Since the cash shipment, the intelligence arm of the Revolutionary Guard has arrested two more Iranian-Americans. Tehran has also detained dual-nationals from France, Canada and the U.K. in recent months.
(HoodahThunkit?)

Can the US plz airlift another $400 million & drop it off in my backyard.

Thanks

Probably too full from all the Kool-Aid he's been drinking

So the Iran agreement specified that we would ship $400 million dollars in other counties' paper currency on the exact same day as the hostages were released?!
What an amazing co-incidence!

A DC police officer gets arrested for abetting a terrorist organization for sending a gift card to an undercover agent.

Yet Obama can send 400 million to a terrorist country and that's not illegal?

Also since it is illegal to use U.S. dollars in commerce with Iran, the Obama administration exchanged the U.S. dollars in Switzerland to Euro's and Francs. Anyone else who would do this would be arrested for money laundering.

Yea you can't make this stuff up

But but but Trump said something mean!.....says the dems and MSM....

Its would be hilarious if it weren't so sad

It is sad. Clinton is directly responsible for the death of a U.S. Ambassador and three other Americans, Recklessly using and transmitting highly classified secrets on a personal server, lying to Congress and the American people, shady dealings with cattle futures,
Influence peddling in the Clinton foundation, the uranium deal with Russia for money in her coffers among a host of other scandals and all the press cares about is a mean spirited comment Trump makes.

That's totally normal. I don't see what the big deal is.
Prisoners exchange happen often, we don't hear about them all and why should we? We're just lowly voters whose opinions count for nothing and whose votes are reduced to a politician's joke or a punch-line on the dancing-dike show.
Obama can, does and will do anything he likes... Hillary will, too, and who are we to say any different?
That's how things work internationally between our chosen overlords, it's the best kind of diplomacy Cash for stuff, that's Democracy, babey!!

Transplanting Bruce Jenner's balls on the POTUS didn't help that pu$$y at all! Still can't man-up enough to negotiate any kind of deal, trade or otherwise, without an apology and a payment of some kind that does nothing for the USA but make us look weak and shameful.

Other countries laugh as we cut our military to afford putting more people on food stamps, bankrupt our citizens and small business with a high cost socialist healthcare system that is unsustainable, and penalize and rob the wealthy for being successful to pay for it while they are being told "you didn't build that".

What Oblowme hasn't been able to destroy of our nation in 8 years, Hitlery would finish in under 4!

The Justice Department throws Kerry and Obama under the bus

As a follow-up to its bombshell that the Obama administration airlifted $400 million in cold, hard cash to Iran — a fancy workaround of Iran’s barriers to using the dollar and other international currencies — comes this from the Wall Street Journal:

Senior Justice Department officials objected to sending a plane loaded with cash to Tehran at the same time that Iran released four imprisoned Americans, but their objections were overruled by the State Department, according to people familiar with the discussions. . . .

The timing and manner of the payment raised alarms at the Justice Department, according to those familiar with the discussions. “People knew what it was going to look like, and there was concern the Iranians probably did consider it a ransom payment,’’ said one of the people.

This is in accord with critics of the deal who asserted this was a ransom arrangement that will induce more hostage-taking. (“[Justice officials’] concerns show that even within the Obama administration there were worries that the pallets of cash could send the wrong signal to Iran—and potentially to others—about U.S. policy when it came to hostages.”) It is even more galling considering the administration provided “intelligence assistance to a U.S. family as it tried to buy the freedom of an American aid worker in Pakistan.” Our policy of not paying ransom to terrorists is now in tatters.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2016/08/04/the-justice-department-throws-kerry-and-obama-under-the-bus/

So Gaddafi had that winning Powerball ticket?

Tellin it like it is baby!

Ya got that right, babey!!