Obama administration paid Iran $2billion 'ransom to free US prisoners' after years of secret talks - but claims it's settlement for arms deal scrapped

[superbeets]

[h=1]Obama administration paid Iran $2billion 'ransom to free US prisoners' after years of secret talks - but claims it's settlement for arms deal scrapped 37 years ago[/h]

• America paid Iran nearly $2bn on the day five U.S. prisoners were released
• It led critics to claim huge taxpayer-funded sum was a 'ransom payment'
• Deal followed two years of secret talks between Washington and Tehran
• State Dept claims money was settlement of a long-standing legal dispute
• $1.7bn 'was amends for scrapped arms deal after 1979 Iranian Revolution'
• Officials say there are more than 1,000 legal battles still to settle and says more payments to Iran are possible

By OLLIE GILLMAN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 04:03, 24 March 2016 | UPDATED: 04:21, 24 March 2016


The Obama administration paid Iran nearly $2billion in a 'ransom payment' to release U.S. prisoners after at least two years of secret talks between Washington and Tehran.
Five prisoners were freed by Iran in January this year, with a $1.7billion payment heading from the U.S. to the Islamic republic that day, according to official documents obtained by theWashington Free Beacon.
At least two years of secret talks led to the deal that officials claim is a settlement relating to one of more than 1,000 long-standing legal disputes that began after the 1979 Iranian Revolution.



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The Obama (left) administration paid Iran nearly $2billion in a 'ransom payment' to release U.S. prisoners after at least two years of secret talks between Washington and Tehran. Right, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani

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Five prisoners (including Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian) were released by Iran in January this year, with a $1.7billion payment heading from the U.S. to the Islamic republic that day

Five U.S. citizens imprisoned in Iran - Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, pastor Saeed Abedini, former U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati, Matthew Trevithick and Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari - were released in a landmark prisoner swap in January.
In return, seven Iranian detainees in American were freed, although none returned to Iran.
It later emerged that $1.7billion was sent to Tehran that day, with critics branding the money a 'ransom payment'.


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Republican Congresman Michael Pompeo asked the State Department to explain the payment, and has finally received a response.
The letter does not address allegations that the payment related to the release of the prisoners, but does say that the Obama administration first began talks with Iranian officials over outstanding legal claims leveled against the U.S. by Iran in 2014.
These date back to the Iranian Revolution in 1979, which led to the U.S. cancelling an arms deal and eventually ended with the Iranian hostage crisis at the U.S. embassy in Tehran.


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Five U.S. citizens imprisoned in Iran - Rezaian, pastor Saeed Abedini (left), former U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati (right), Matthew Trevithick and Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari - were released in a landmark prisoner swap

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Trevithick (right), the co-founder of a humanitarian crisis research center, had traveled to Iran in September for a four-month language program at an institute associated with Tehran University

The legal row over the scrapped arms deal led to more than 1,000 claims against the U.S., with American officials keen to settle as many of those out of court as possible.
Many of them are still in the process of being settled and it is just one of these disputes that the State Department claims led to the $1.7billion payment.
The response says that there could yet be more payments from Washington to Tehran as more legal tussles are brought to a close.
The secret talks between the two countries were underway in June 2014 at the latest, and continued through 2015 until the prisoner swap in 2016.
'We are confident that this was a good settlement for the American taxpayer,' the State Department said.
'The United States is continuing to vigorously litigate these claims at the (Hague's Iran-U.S. Claims) Tribunal, but is also open to discussing further settlements of claims with Iran, as we have done throughout the life of the Tribunal, with the aim of resolving them in furtherance of U.S. interests,' the letter states.
'It would not be in the interest of the United States to discuss further details of the settlement of these claims in an unclassified letter due to the ongoing litigation at the Tribunal.
'However, we would be prepared to provide a closed briefing on such issues if it would be useful to there.'
The settlement in January included a $400million payment plus $1.3billion in interest, all from the taxpayer's pocket.
'When Iran releases American hostages, and then, on that same day, President Obama announces he is paying Iran $1.7billion, Congress of course has to ask the hard questions,' a source told the Free Beacon.
'And when the Obama administration admits that over $1billion in taxpayer money is going to the Iranian regime, Congress is obligated to respond.
'The State Department has ducked and dodged–providing a history lesson on international tribunals, focused on actions decades ago, instead of addressing dangerous misdeeds that were potentially just committed. That is suspicious.'
The payments are not related to the controversial nuclear deal between Iran and the U.S., which saw the U.S. government release $150billion in frozen Iranian assets.

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Sheriff Joe

OBAMA WAS SECRETLY DEALING WITH IRANIANS AND HANDING OVER BILLIONS BEFORE IRAN DEAL!

Posted by soopermexican on Mar 23, 2016 at 9:30 PM in Politics | 25 Comments
By soopermexican

Apparently the Moron-in-Chief was wheeling and dealing with the Iranians behind our backs the entire time they made the Iran Deal. As part of these negotiations, we were handing over ancient artifacts and $2 billion.

From the great Free Beacon:

The Obama administration has been shipping historical artifacts to Iran since last year as part of a secret détente that also included a taxpayer-funded payment of nearly $2 billion, according to a letter written by the State Department and exclusively obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

Obama administration officials engaged in secret talks with Iran between June 2014 through at least January 2015 over a series of legal claims leveled against the United States by the Islamic Republic, the State Department disclosed in its letter.

“These discussions led to the settlement of claims for architectural drawings, which are now in the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, and for fossils, which are now in the possession of Iran’s Ministry of the Environment, and the parties also discussed the possibility of broader settlements,” the State Department wrote, in response to an inquiry launched in January by Rep. Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.).

The Obama administration is seeking further settlements with Tehran to transfer assets, according to the State Department.


Now do you think the media is going to press Obama on this? And if a Republican had done this, what do you think the response would have been?

Read more: http://therightscoop.com/obama-was-s...#ixzz43me77YpS




You had posted the story first, my bad.

 

[ScottL]

I thought the US doesn't negotiate with terrorists. Turns out under Obama not only do we negotiate with terrorists, we coddle and prop up the world's leading terror regime with the blood of Americans on its hands.

 

[Dave007inVegas]

I thought the US doesn't negotiate with terrorists. Turns out under Obama not only do we negotiate with terrorists, we coddle and prop up the world's leading terror regime with the blood of Americans on its hands.

But in Obama’s mind they’re not terrorists they’re his brothers.