For the past several days, the Republican presidential nominee had been claiming that he had seen a top secret video of the unmarked plane that carried $400 million worth of cash to Tehran.
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Republicans who had been against the Iran nuclear deal cried foul and quickly mixed all three things into one big ransom-and-appeasement cocktail. The failed arms deal left $400 million Iran already paid to the USA deposited in a Pentagon trust fund in 1979 without the purchased arms ever delivered to Tehran. “It doesn’t exist”, referring to the video of Iran receiving $400 million.
However, they had to wait for a long time until a second plane came, where Abedini suspected may have contained the ransom for their release. They just told us about the – they told me about the plane.
“T$3 hey told us you’re going to be there for 20 minutes”.
“I look, and I’ll never forget the scene this morning”.
Under those circumstances, Regan asked Abedini if he thought the USA government paid a ransom for his freedom.
“When I asked them why you don’t let us go- because the plane was there, pilot was there, everybody was ready to leave the country- they said, “We are waiting until another plane, and if that plane doesn’t come, we [will] never let you go, ‘” he reiterated”.
“As to the timing, I simply don’t – I can’t answer conclusively that these hostage – or these detainees, Americans, were on a plane before that money arrived”, said the spokesperson, Mark C. Toner.
“The Obama Administration is now engaged in a cover-up of their fly-by-night untraceable cash airlift to Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism”, Stephen Miller, senior policy adviser from the Trump campaign alleged. President Obama says that the payment, made in January, was actually part of a deal to resolve a decades-old arms dispute.
This week, Trump, in a rare moment of agreement with the rest of the GOP, has repeatedly made claims that the US paid Iran $400 million in exchange for hostages, violating this country’s longstanding policy of not paying ransoms. Officials say the payment was strictly connected with a legal settlement in an unrelated case, and President Obama insisted Thursday it was not “ransom”. “It wasn’t a secret. We were completely open about it”.
“That’s why he so prefers TV as his first news source-information comes in easily digestible sound bites”, he added. It was a coincidence the money was sent at the same time. “The reason that we had to give cash is precisely because we are so strict in maintaining sanctions and we do not have a banking relationship with Iran”.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Friday asking about the Justice Department’s involvement in the cash payment.
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The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that senior Justice Department officials had objected to the cash payment, anxious it would be seen as a ransom.
