The U.S. State Department Contradicts Obama And Admits That The $400 Million Paid To Iran Was A Ransom Payment

In January of 2009, shortly after taking office, President Obama made the following statement as he welcomed staffers and other personnel to the White House:

"The way to make government responsible is to hold it accountable. And the way to make government accountable is make it transparent so that the American people can know exactly what decisions are being made, how they're being made, and whether their interests are being well served... Let me say it as simply as I can: Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency."

Obama talked the talk. History has proven that he has not walked the walk. From the day he took office, he instituted a deeply rooted, systematic plan to operate in unparalleled secrecy with a good dose of deceit whenever necessary.

Ask anyone in the media and they will tell you that the Obama administration has been the most secretive administration in history.  This is the very media that was so enamored by Obama when he ran for office and did everything it could to ensure his election. Now one of the members of that same media (the Associated Press) complains that the Obama administration has censored more documents and delayed or denied access to more government files than any other administration in history.

Be careful what you ask for, media. You wanted him, you got him. And if you think Hillary is going to operate with transparency and honesty you are kidding yourselves.

In 2013 alone, the AP reports that Obama's peeps used "national security" a record 8,496 times as the basis for not releasing information to the public . That was almost a 60% increase over 2012 and more than double the number in Obama’s first term. Some agencies took secrecy to soaring heights. During the same year, the National Security Agency (NSA) denied or heavily redacted records requested by the media 98% of the time.

The absolute lack of transparency is bad enough. But what troubles me more is the outright lies spun by the Obama administration every time its hand has been caught in the cookie jar.

The Obama administration has made lying its standard operating procedure to keep the public in the dark any time it has undertaken an unpopular initiative or when embarrassing events have reared their ugly heads. In those instances, rather than tell us the truth, Obama and his crew have made up whatever story they believe they can peddle no matter how ridiculous or how disingenuous.

Benghazi? It was all caused by a video. Obamacare? It's not a tax, your premiums will go down, and you can keep you health insurance policy if you want. The ITS going after Tea Party groups? Why it would never do that.....

Then there's Executive Orders. During a May 19, 2008 campaign speech, Obama said, "We're not going to use signing statements as a way to do an end run around Congress." Michael Munger, a professor of politics at Duke University has said that Obama's use of executive orders mocks the separation of powers among the branches of government.

"I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone - and I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions and administrative actions that move the ball forward," Obama recently said. And he has. Man oh man has he ever. Fortunately, the Supreme Court has slapped our one-time supposed Constitutional professor around when he's gone too far.

And now comes the latest incident in a lengthy pattern of deceit - the ransom payment to Iran. The Obama administration secretly organized an airlift of $400 million in foreign currency to Iran that went way beyond coinciding with the January release of Americans hostages held by Tehran. Despite telling us for weeks that there was no ransom payment, that the prisoner release was completely unrelated to the $400 Million payment, and despite repeated assurances that the U.S. would never pay ransoms, it turns out that's exactly what Obama did.

When the media discovered that wooden pallets stacked with euros, Swiss francs and other currencies were flown into Iran, in an unmarked cargo plane and under dead of night, the Obama administration scrambled to keep the public from discovering that the money was nothing but a ransom payment negotiated by none other than John Kerry. Administration officials stumbled all over themselves to tell us that the money represented the first installment of a $1.7 billion settlement with Iran to resolve a dispute over military aircraft that were bought in 1979 by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's government but never delivered because of the Iranian revolution.

But with a suspiciously coincidental hostage release, the shipment of cash sure looked like a ransom duck, it walked like a ransom duck, and it sure as heck quacked like a ransom duck. Administration officials insisted that it was one of those nothing-to-see-here move-along-folks moments. What was so unusual about hostages being released at the same time that a plane loaded with pallets of cash arrived?

“We do not pay ransom. We didn’t here, and we won’t in the future,” Obama told reporters when grilled afterward about the payment and the hostage release. Obama added that families had to know, "...we don’t pay ransom. And the notion that we would somehow start now, in this high-profile way, and announce it to the world, even as we’re looking in the faces of other hostage families whose loved ones are being held hostage, and saying to them ‘We don’t pay ransom,’ defies logic.”

No, what defies logic is the story you were peddling, Mr. President.

John Kerry stepped up to the plate to lend his stature to the yarn and add to his woefully inadequate legacy as Secretary of State. In barely intelligible mumblings through his Botox laden mouth, Kerry said:

"But let me speak to this transfer, because I know a lot about it. Because I
was, obviously, negotiating the fundamental nuclear agreement with Iran, I’m aware of what was going on - more than aware." 

"First of all, the United States of America does not pay ransom and does not negotiate ransoms with any country. We never have and we’re not doing that now. It is not our policy. That’s number one. 

"Number two, this story is not a new story. This was announced by the President of the United States himself at the very time that this transaction and the nuclear deal was being put together, and he made it clear that there was a separate negotiation track--a separate negotiation - that happened to come to be settled at the time which represents a restoration to Iran of its own money."

"So we believe this agreement for the $400 million that was paid in interest in settlement of the case actually saved the American taxpayer potentially billions of dollars, because if that case kept going and came to fruition in the court system, the adjudication could have been for significantly more money - and probably would have been - rather than have a settlement for an immediate cash payout. So there was no benefit to the United States of America to drag this out. It would have worked against the interests of our taxpayers. And with the nuclear deal done, the prisoners released, the time was right to take advantage of that and resolve the dispute in the way that it was resolved."

Blah, blah, blah. Yadda, yadda, yadda. Gobbledygook, gobbledygook, and more gobbledygook.

It didn't take long for the story to unravel. Not wanting to pass up on the opportunity to poke a finger in the eye of the United States, Tehran's Revolutionary Guard commanders laughed at Kerry and said that both he and the U.S. had folded like a bad hand during the Iran nuclear negotiations and had given in to their many demands, including a $400 Million payment for the release of the hostages. "Taking this much money back was in return for the release of the American spies,” Gen. Mohammad Reza Naghdi announced to Iranian state media.

Kirby's August 3, 2016 statement on the $400 Million payment to Iran

Next up, one of the hostages spoke up. Pastor Saeed Abedini told the media that the hostages were forced to wait for an extended period of time so that a second aircraft could land in Tehran. Abedini was not told why the arriving aircraft was so important.

"They told us you’re going to be there for 20 minutes. But it took like hours and hours. We slept at the airport, and when I asked them why you don’t let us go, because the plane was there, pilot was there, everyone was ready that we leave the country, they said we are waiting for another plane, and until that plane doesn’t come, we never let you go.”

Kirby admits yesterday that the payment to Iran was
to secure the release of U.S. hostages held by Iran

The story continued to blow up in the administration's face as the media continued to dig into the story. Finally, faced with mounting pressure and additional skepticism about the ridiculous story that had been peddled, State Department spokesman John Kirby did a 180 degree about-face from his August 3 talking points statement when he said that the cash was not a ransom payment. Yesterday, while wearing egg all over his face, Kirby came clean and admitted that the $400 Million was in fact a ransom payment for the release of the hostages.  Kirby directly contradicting Obama's and Kerry's lies and admitted publicly that the U.S. would not have paid Iran the money unless and until the hostages were released.

So what's the big deal? Obama has made it clear that the reason the U.S. has a policy of not paying ransoms is to remove the primary motive for kidnapping and preventing terrorists from acquiring large sums of money. Further, the Obama administration has gone so far as to say that it would be illegal for the families to pay ransom to terrorists. Obama administration officials have even threatened family members with prosecution if they were to try to pay a ransom.

David Cohen, the Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence at the Treasury Department, explains the policy further:

"Ransom payments lead to future kidnappings, and future kidnappings lead to additional ransom payments. And it all builds the capacity of terrorist organizations to conduct attacks. We must find a way to break the cycle. Refusing to pay ransoms or to make other concessions to terrorists is, clearly, the surest way to break the cycle, because if kidnappers consistently fail to get what they want, they will have a strong incentive to stop taking hostages in the first place."

Word to your mother, David. Shortly after the $400 Million ransom payment to Iran, Tehran's Revolutionary Guard arrested two more Iranian-Americans. Iran has also detained others including dual-nationals from France, Canada and the U.K.

Are you surprised?

Obama and Kerry have got to be the most naive, clueless people we have ever had in charge of foreign policy. They have handed the biggest state sponsor of international terrorism $400 Million in cash to spread among Hamas, Hezbollah, the Taliban, and insurgent terrorists in Iraq. The regime will be even more flush with cash with the lifting of sanctions that Kerry so ineptly handed Tehran on a silver platter.

Our dynamic duo went  into the Iranian nuclear negotiations having convinced themselves that they could negotiate with people who have no intention of living up to any terms agreed upon. They gave in and made every concession that Iran demanded and walked out with an agreement that will guarantee that Iran will be a nuclear power in the immediate future.

Once Iran reaches nuclear capability, and it will, the balance of power in the Middle East will be drastically and permanently altered - and not for the better.

We are at a crossroads. A lot of what Kerry and Obama have done can be undone but only with an immediate about face in our posture with Iran. This will never happen if Hillary Clinton is our next President.

Hillary has fully endorsed the Kerry-Obama Iran deal and will be as much of pushover in dealing with Iran as Obama has been. We need someone in office who is not afraid to forcibly deal with Iran. Four years of Hillary will ensure that Iran will have nuclear capabilities and export the technology to terrorists it supports. We cannot allow that to happen. Yet another reason to keep Hillary from taking office, folks.