He said it was his understanding that the money is going to “critical economic needs” in Iran.
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A Republican lawmaker is getting creative with his outrage over the Obama administration’s $1.7 billion payment to Iran that coincided with the release of American prisoners. “The payment “flowed in the same manner” as the original $400 million”. David? All right, Martha, my first time talking with you since it was announced you will moderate one of the debates, and we look forward to it. Thanks, David. Naghdi’s argument suggests that the Iranian-Americans arrested were actually agents of infiltration sent by the United States in order to influence Iranian society and decision-making centers in the country.
“Not only has the delivery of the millions of dollars been perceived as a ransom, provided as an incentive to seize more hostages … but because the money was delivered in cash the payment bolstered the strength of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and augmented its ability to finance and conduct terrorism”, he said.
State Department spokesman John Kirby revealed in August that the first $400 million payment would not have gone ahead had the four Americans not been released by Iran, but refused to call the deal a “ransom”. The State Department said it considered the $400 million payment to be “leverage” aimed at the prisoners’ release, but not an outright ransom payment.
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163-a-02-(Christopher Backemeyer, assistant secretary of state for Iranian Affairs, testifying before House Financial Services subcommittee)-“for cash deal”-Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Backemeyer says the USA did not pay ransom”.
The Jan. 17 agreement involved the return of the $400 million, plus the additional $1.3 billion in interest. “We now know it was ransom”. “The funds were under USA government control until their disbursement”. Iran supposedly bought airplane parts from the U.S.in the 1970s but the Pentagon failed to deliver them.
And what does Obama do? The Obama administration downplayed the significance of that move, but two weeks ago it was locked into Iran’s budget after Khamenei “approved the allocation”, according to translations and analysis from FDD [f]. “The worst-case scenario here is that Iran may have received as much as $33.6 billion in cash or in gold and other precious metals”. “There are a number of litigations and diplomatic sensitivities that could jeopardize USA interests if we were to go into too much detail”.
However, there are other problems with the US payments to Iran.
Officials from the departments of Treasury, State and Justice are testifying before an investigation subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee.
Congressional leaders and regional experts have warned that Iran routinely uses its national air carrier, Iran Air, to conduct terror operations and transport military forces into war zones in Syria and elsewhere.
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It’s a misdirection. And as Congress returns from its recess, it’s time to focus on two key questions the administration has been refusing to answer ever since the beginning of the year: How was the payment calculated, and was it really due? Remember when Obama was claiming that Congress had always known about it. since Tuesday.
