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State Dept. confirms $400 million Iran payment conditioned on hostage release


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2016 Aug 18, 3:58pm   3,112 views  5 comments

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Republicans are claiming vindication after the State Department confirmed on Thursday that the United States conditioned the release of a $400 million cash payment to Iran on the departure of American prisoners from Tehran.

At a Thursday press briefing, State Department spokesman John Kirby addressed questions about a Wall Street Journal report by explaining that the U.S. held on to the $400 million cash payment until American prisoners were on a plane and safely away from Iran to “retain maximum leverage.” Kirby said the arrangement did not in any way constitute a ransom payment, as President Barack Obama's Republican critics have alleged.

“We deliberately leveraged that moment to finalize these outstanding issues nearly simultaneously,” he said. “With concerns that Iran may renege on the prisoner release, given unnecessary delays regarding persons in Iran who could not be located as well as, to be quite honest, mutual mistrust between Iran and the United States, we of course sought to retain maximum leverage until after American citizens were released. That was our top priority.”

The $400 million in question was meant to settle a dispute over payment for military equipment that predated Iran’s Islamic revolution, money the U.S. had been ordered to pay by a Hague tribunal.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/iran-payment-hostage-release-227170#ixzz4HjAhUHPR
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#iransom

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1   OneTwo   2016 Aug 18, 4:15pm  

As with the previous posting of this, that isn't vindication for Trump supporters. They claim a ransom payment when it is as stated a common sense use of the required payment to expedite the release of Americans. I'm curious what those people would say if the payment had been made without securing the release of the citizens in advance. Presumably from the way this story is being peddled, they would have been happy with that approach.

2   FNWGMOBDVZXDNW   2016 Aug 18, 4:22pm  

Or did we hold their money ransom until they released the hostages?

3   OneTwo   2016 Aug 18, 4:24pm  

Ironman says

Rashomon says

I'm curious

I am too, who's paying you to shill for the Obama administration?

Not shilling for anyone, but from what I've seen on here, I could well ask you who's paying you to shill for Trump as that is all you seem to do when not trolling.

4   lostand confused   2016 Aug 18, 5:39pm  

What can you say about a man who said, "if you like your plan/doctor, you cna keep it." or some such. This man is a disgrace to our nation and on top of that the Iranians held our sailors hostage and humiliated them. This man and his stooge Hillary are utter disgraces.

5   marcus   2016 Aug 18, 5:42pm  

From the OPs linked article:

The $400 million in question was meant to settle a dispute over payment for military equipment that predated Iran’s Islamic revolution, a sum the U.S. agreed to in a settlement with Iran ahead of a decision from a Hague tribunal that was expected to order the U.S. to pay.

YesYNot says

Or did we hold their money ransom until they released the hostages?

Yep, sounds like it.

Trump:

"He denied it was for the hostages, but it was," Trump said. "He said we don’t pay ransom, but he did. He lied about the hostages — openly and blatantly — just like he lied about Obamacare."

I love it. The only politician I've ever known or even heard of in history that literally lies way more than half the time (more lies come out of his mouth than truth) , wants to bust OBama for lying.

Sounds smart, "we're holding the payment of this money we owe you until you release those hostages."

Seems like something Trump would respect. He withholds payment of money he owes to people all the time.

Also, what does this say about Trump ?

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump seized on the announcement during a campaign rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, saying it proved that Obama had "lied" about the payment and said it had "put every American traveling overseas, including our military personnel, at greater risk of being kidnapped."

Think about it, the official story is that it was not a payment of ransom. But Trump wants the world to believe that it was a payment of ransom.

He's the one that is knowingly and intentionally trying to spread the word and cause people to believe that we will pay ransom for hostages. Are any republicans even capable of seeing what a scumbag this makes him ?

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