Obama Bribed Iran $400 Million to Release U.S. Prisoners
Rumors and accusations flew about a January 2016 payout to Iran, which coincided with a carefully negotiated prisoner exchange.
Brooke Binkowski
Updated: Aug 03, 2016
In January 2016, the Obama administration successfully negotiated the release of four Americans who had been imprisoned in Iran in exchange for the release of seven Iranians who had been imprisoned in the United States. (A fifth American prisoner was released separately.) At around the same time, the U.S. airlifted the equivalent of USD$400 million in various currencies to Tehran, sparking conspiracytheories about the timing:
Rumors and accusations flew about a January 2016 payout to Iran, which coincided with a carefully negotiated prisoner exchange.
Brooke Binkowski
Updated: Aug 03, 2016
In January 2016, the Obama administration successfully negotiated the release of four Americans who had been imprisoned in Iran in exchange for the release of seven Iranians who had been imprisoned in the United States. (A fifth American prisoner was released separately.) At around the same time, the U.S. airlifted the equivalent of USD$400 million in various currencies to Tehran, sparking conspiracytheories about the timing:
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) was among those who seized on the timing and cloak-and-dagger delivery method, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, saying it proved suspicions that the Obama administration had tried to hide a payment for the four Americans, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian. GOP candidate Donald Trump called it an example of the administration’s foreign policy failures.“Obama administration sent plane load of cash to #Iran as ransom as part of deal on hostages. Just unreal,” tweeted Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a long-standing critic of the Iran talks.
As with other issues that would normally fall by the wayside in a normal daily news cycle, the payout to Iran became prime fodder for yet another election-year debate:State Department spokesman John Kirby joined Bill Hemmer on "America's Newsroom" to defend a $400 million cash transfer to Iran during the release of four Iranian-held U.S. hostages.Kirby said the money had been frozen in a trust fund in the U.S. for decades and it was "their money."He asserted that the fact that the transaction occurred during the release of the detained Americans was "coincidental." Hemmer pressed Kirby, saying that it appears that this cash transfer was kept secret and was effectively a "ransom.""It looks bad," Hemmer said.
In reality, however, the money transfer was the result of a settlement of a long-standing claim at the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal in The Hague around the same time that the prisoners were released. The Tribunal was created specifically to deal with diplomatic relations between Iran and the United States:The Iran-United States Claims Tribunal (IUSCT) came into existence as one of the measures taken to resolve the crisis in relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America arising out of the detention of 52 United States nationals at the United States Embassy in Tehran which commenced in November 1979, and the subsequent freeze of Iranian assets by the United States of America.
The money transfer was heavily covered at the time, complete with comments from the White House itself. The 19 January 2016 White House daily briefing from Josh Earnest includes information about the money:Q. Thank you very much. Appreciate it, Josh. On Sunday, we learned that the United States made a payment to the government of Iran of $1.7 billion. Was this tied to the deal that led to the freedom of the Americans that were being held in Iran?A. Jon, this is actually the result of a long-running claims process that had been at The Hague. In 1979, there was obviously an Iranian revolution that abruptly severed relations between our two countries. And prior to that revolution, the U.S. government had entered into an agreement with the then-Iranian government to transfer about $400 million in military equipment to the Iranian government. Once the revolution took place, obviously that equipment was not transferred, but we also didn't return Iran's money either. So that money essentially was held in what could, I think -- essentially in an escrow account.And for more than 30 years now, the Iranians have been using this claims process at The Hague to try to recover that $400 million.This resolution that we agreed to was to return the $400 million and also to pay about $1 billion in interest. Now, the reason that this ends up being a very good deal for taxpayers is that our exposure, when it came to paying interest, could have been much higher. The Iranians were actually seeking $7 billion to $8 billion in interest payments. And I think that's an indication of how the interests of taxpayers were very well served by reaching this settlement.
The process leading up to the extensively and delicately negotiated settlement was also covered in detail by major news organizations at the time:The United States is to repay Iran a $400 million debt and $1.3 billion in interest dating to the Islamic revolution, Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday.The repayment, which settles a suit brought under an international legal tribunal, is separate from the tens of billions of dollars in frozen foreign accounts that Iran can now access after the end of nuclear sanctions.But the timing of the announcement, one day after the implementation of the Iran nuclear accord, will be seen as pointing to a broader clearing of the decks between the old foes.
The fact that the money was physically sent to Iran in various currencies rather than simply transferred by wire may seem odd in the context of the United States' increasingly cashless society, but that was done in order to avoid existing Treasury Department sanctions that banned the use of American currency in transactions with Iran, and international sanctions which at that time kept Iran from accessing the global financial markets (and which were lifted in January 2016).While the timing could appear to have been a suspiciously coordinated quid pro quo, the evidence points to a paper trail of years of exhaustive hearings and highly sensitive negotiations that were completely separate from the January 2016 prisoner exchange. 
Not only did Obama destroy the Wingnuts on this, but The Idiot Drumpf was again caught fabricating something that absolutely did not happen, much like the Letter he made up from the NFL, or the Video he saw on TV of Thousands of Muslims celebrating 911 in NJ. I used to think Hillary was the biggest liar I had ever seen in Politics, but the Idiot Drumpf doesn't just lie as easily as he breathes. He makes up things that never happened, out of thin air. And the clapping seals at his Lynch mobs/rallies and in wingnut sites like this one just buy it. Could you imagine this idiot given classified information???
Trump's Fictitious 'Top Secret' Iran Tape Is Really Fox News 'B Roll' Footage
9 hours ago by John Amato
I'm at my wits end here, because every day I have to write up a crazy story about the Republican presidential nominee for the 2016 general election.
It's been quite taxing, I understand that, but it still part of my job. And I'll do it!
It goes something like this.
On Tuesday, the WSJ reported that the Obama administration secretly paid the Iranians$400 million dollars that suspiciously coincided with the release of four Americans being held in Tehran.
But the money was part of a not so secret deal that had been struck back in 1979.
Now comes the really crazy part of this story.
For some inexplicable reason, Donald Trump told his rallygoers on Wednesday, that he actually witnessed a video made by the Iranians showing this secret pay off.
Trump said, “I’ll never forget the scene this morning and remember this, Iran—I don’t think you’ve heard this anywhere but here—Iran provided all of that footage, the tape, of taking that money off that airplane, right? $400 million dollars in cash! This is in cash!”
That's a lot of cash.
He continued, "Over there, where that plane landed, top secret, they don’t have a lot of paparazzi, you know, the paparazzi doesn’t do so well over there. And they have a perfect tape, obviously done by a government camera, and the tape is of the people taking the money off the plane. That means that in order to embarrass us further, Iran sent us the tape. It’s a military tape. It’s a tape that was a perfect angle, nice and steady.”
That must be some tape, right? Well, it's not. It a lie! A complete lie. I saw this unfold on twitter last night.
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Sopan Deb
✔@SopanDeb
If you missed the whole tweetstorm on Trump's "top secret" tape references that weren't top secret - here it is:
1:29 AM - 4 Aug 2016
I understand if he's running out of material to entertain his supporters with during his vaudevillian rallies, but to make up such an out and out lie is incomprehensible.
We know he's a serial exaggerator and is a liar, but this is just crazy.
The Daily Beast writes:
Trump's Fictitious 'Top Secret' Iran Tape Is Really Fox News 'B Roll' Footage
8/04/16 4:47pm
9 hours ago by John Amato
I'm at my wits end here, because every day I have to write up a crazy story about the Republican presidential nominee for the 2016 general election.
It's been quite taxing, I understand that, but it still part of my job. And I'll do it!
It goes something like this.
On Tuesday, the WSJ reported that the Obama administration secretly paid the Iranians$400 million dollars that suspiciously coincided with the release of four Americans being held in Tehran.
But the money was part of a not so secret deal that had been struck back in 1979.
- When the U.S. Embassy was taken over in 1979, the Carter Administration declined to deliver weapons the Shah had ordered and paid $400 million for.
- When the Iran deal was struck, it was agreed that the United States would refund the $400 million with interest accrued over the years, for a total of $1.7 billion.
- As a good-faith gesture, Iran released hostages at the same time the agreement went into effect.
For some inexplicable reason, Donald Trump told his rallygoers on Wednesday, that he actually witnessed a video made by the Iranians showing this secret pay off.
Trump said, “I’ll never forget the scene this morning and remember this, Iran—I don’t think you’ve heard this anywhere but here—Iran provided all of that footage, the tape, of taking that money off that airplane, right? $400 million dollars in cash! This is in cash!”
That's a lot of cash.
He continued, "Over there, where that plane landed, top secret, they don’t have a lot of paparazzi, you know, the paparazzi doesn’t do so well over there. And they have a perfect tape, obviously done by a government camera, and the tape is of the people taking the money off the plane. That means that in order to embarrass us further, Iran sent us the tape. It’s a military tape. It’s a tape that was a perfect angle, nice and steady.”
That must be some tape, right? Well, it's not. It a lie! A complete lie. I saw this unfold on twitter last night.
Follow
Sopan Deb ✔@SopanDeb
If you missed the whole tweetstorm on Trump's "top secret" tape references that weren't top secret - here it is:
1:29 AM - 4 Aug 2016
I understand if he's running out of material to entertain his supporters with during his vaudevillian rallies, but to make up such an out and out lie is incomprehensible.
We know he's a serial exaggerator and is a liar, but this is just crazy.
The Daily Beast writes:
U.S. national security officials are literally laughing at Donald Trump’s claim that hewatched a “top secret” Iranian military-produced video showing its government scurrying to grab pallets filled with hundreds of millions of dollars.
“It didn’t happen,” one U.S. official said. “That was not part of any briefing.”
The other just chuckled at the proposition.
When his campaign was asked to explain how Trump saw a secret Iranian tape of this huge amount of cash being delivered to embarrass us, they replied that it was really b-roll footage from Fox News.“It didn’t happen,” one U.S. official said. “That was not part of any briefing.”
The other just chuckled at the proposition.
Well, it turns out he saw it on TV. Trump spokesperson Hope Hicks admitted toTheWashington Post that footage Trump was referring to was not, in fact, top secret.It was b-roll from a Fox News segment.
Any other candidate in any type of election, no matter how far down ticket, would be finished if they made up a lie like that.
There is more than enough to "Finish" both of then. CNN just ran a story with Factcheck that concluded, "Hillary Clinton, you are entitled to her own opinion. You are not entitled to your own facts," after Hillary doubled down on the lie when she told Chris Wallace that she only deleted personal emails.
Where is the actual "line in the sand" for Iran anyway? What is the point where we stop sending them money and begin the eventual necessity of destroying their fanatical regime? It's common knowledge they're the world's leading exporter of terrorism and global chaos. How far does Hillary plan to let them go?
[h=2]Could Trump have been right? Propaganda film suggests Iran DID videotape cash-drop plane and photograph shipment of cash during January prisoner swap[/h]
Iranian state-run media in Tehran did indeed videotape the arrival of a January 17 flight carrying $400 million in cash from the United States - and the money itself - judging from a documentary that aired the following month in the Islamic republic. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has been in a firestorm of controversy since first claiming on Wednesday to have seen 'secret' footage of money being offloaded from an aircraft. He admitted Friday morning on Twitter what his campaign had said more than a day earlier, that he had seen ordinary archival footage of a different plane, carrying American hostages freed from Iran arriving in Geneva Switzerland after the money changed hands. But it turns out he may have been right without knowing it.
+10
Iranian state television broadcast this image of a shipping pallet stacked with cash in February as part of a propaganda film framing a January U.S. prisoner swap as a victory for Tehran
+10
The documentary described this plane as arriving in the dead of night with the money, exactly the scenario that Donald Trump was criticized for describing three times this week
The Iranian video was aired February 15 on the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting television network, as part of a documentary called 'Rules of the Game.'
A narrator, speaking in Persian, describes a money-for-hostages transaction over video clips of a plane on an airport tarmac in the dead of night and a photo of a giant shipping pallet stacked with what appear to be banknotes.
The federal government shipped what many are calling a ransom payment in Euros and other non-U.S. currencies.
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