Saturday Politics : Linkage, President Obama?? Don't Jive Us -- It Was a Ransom

Saturday Politics is sometimes about telling a half-truth...after all possible outright lies have been tried and rejected. ~~~~~~ The Associated Press reported late Thursday night that the Obama administration said Thursday that a $400 million cash payment to Iran in January was contingent on the release of a group of American prisoners. AP describes it as "the first time the US has so clearly linked the two events, which critics have painted as a hostage-ransom arrangement." State Department spokesman John Kirby repeated the administration's line that the negotiations to return the Iranian money -- from a military-equipment deal with the US-backed Shah in the 1970s -- were conducted separately from the talks to free four US citizens in Iran. But he said the US withheld the delivery of the cash as leverage until Iran permitted the Americans to leave the country : "We had concerns that Iran may renege on the prisoner release." Kirby said delays and mutual mistrust between countries that severed diplomatic relations 36 years ago made the US "of course [seek] to retain maximum leverage until after the American citizens were released. That was our top priority." The UK Telegraph published an article Friday to the effect that because both events occurred January 17, it fueled "suspicions from Republican lawmakers and accusations from GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump of a quid pro quo that undermined America's longstanding opposition to ransom payments." Kirby spoke one day after The Wall Street Journal report we covered in Thursday's blog, giving new details of the crisscrossing planes on that day. US officials wouldn't let Iran bring the cash home from a Geneva airport until a Swiss Air Force plane carrying three of the freed Americans departed from Teheran, the WSJ reported. The Telegraph reiterated that : "Earlier this month, after the revelation the US delivered the money in pallets of cash, the administration flatly denied any connection between the payment and the prisoners." At that time, Kirby tweeted : "Reports of link between prisoner release & payment to Iran are completely false." ~~~~~~ The $400 million comes from an account used by the Iranian government to buy American military equipment when the Shah was head of the Iranian government. The equipment was never delivered after the Shah's government was overthrown in 1979 and revolutionaries took American hostages at the US Embassy in Teheran. The two sides have argued over that account and numerous other financial claims ever since. But, President Obama and other officials have consistently denied any linkages to the hostage release : "We actually had diplomatic negotiations and conversations with Iran for the first time in several decades," Obama said on August 5, meaning "our ability to clear accounts on a number of different issues at the same time converged. This wasn't some nefarious deal." The agreement was the return of the $400 million, plus an additional $1.3 billion in interest, terms that Obama described as favorable compared to what might have been expected from a tribunal set up in The Hague to rule on pending deals between the two countries. US officials have said they expected an imminent ruling on the claim and settled with Teheran instead. ~~~~~~ But, some Iranian officials immediately linked the payment to the release of four Americans. The Telegraph reported that those claiming a linkage included Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, who had been held in Iranian prisons. Another of the prisoners, pastor Saeed Abedini, also had linked the two events. He said that as the prisoners waited for hours at an airport to leave Iran, a senior Iranian intelligence official informed them their departure depended on the plane with the cash. US officials had pinned the delays on difficulties in finding Rezaian's wife and mother, and ensuring they could depart Iran with him. ~~~~~~ House and Senate Republicans have bombarded the aministration for more details about the transaction. Senator Ben Sasse said Thursday : "If it quacks like a duck, it's a duck. If a cash payment is contingent on a hostage release, it's a ransom. The truth matters and the President owes the American people an explanation." Senator Mark Kirk, the Republican chairman of the Senate Banking national security subcommittee, said he believes congressional hearings are necessary to get answers to questions. The House Financial Services Committee hasn't decided whether to hold hearings. Sean Duffy, the Republican congressman who chairs the Financial Services oversight and investigations subcommittee, asked the Treasury and Justice Departments and the Federal Reserve last week to provide all records related to the $400 million payment, as well as the names of government officials who authorized the payment and those who objected to the cash transfer. Duffy wants responses by August 24. ~~~~~~ Dear readers, there is little we can say, except to conclude that Barack Obama and his White House advisors hold the American people -- and the world -- in such contempt that they think they can lie into the teeth of an obvious truth and get away with it. "Linkage" may sound good to Obama and his advisors, but "Ransom" is the operative word. Wake up, America, you are being jived. The perversions and lawlessness of the Obama administration are so great that they should all be impeached or imprisoned. Will the Washington establishment step up to its constitutional duty?? There can be no better proof that Barack Obama and/or his senior advisors insisted on 'cooked' intelligence and that CENTCOM military and its intelligence analysts were for a long period afraid to call the Obama White House out on its "high crimes and misdemeanors."