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Wednesday, August 24, 2016

The Latest on Iran -- Ransom, Lies, Harassment

There's so much news out today on Iran, and none of it is good.

First, in the Straits of Hormuz, Iranian small fast boats harassed a US Navy destroyer yesterday.  Four Iranian boats sped towards the destroyed and then crisscrossed in front of the navy ship.  It was like a high seas version of playing chicken.  Of course, had the American destroyer shot at or sunk any of the Iranian boats, there would, no doubt, have been some sort of attack by Iran on the destroyer.  Since president Obama doesn't want to do anything to upset Iran, our navy just backed off.  America looked impotent and silly.  It was a victory for Iran.

Second, we learned that the story told by Obama and the White House about the ransom payment for the American hostages was just another lie.  (Is it still news when Obama and his staff tell a lie, or should we just expect it to happen.)  Remember that the $400 million that went to Iran in exchange for the release of our hostages was paid in cash and in secret.  Obama's answer for why cash was used was that it would violate the sanctions to wire the money to Iran.  That explanation was repeated over and over again in the last week.  Well, it's a lie.  Two days after delivering the cash, the USA wired another 1.3 billion dollars to Iran.  The sanctions were still in place.  Nothing had changed in the two days between payments.  If wiring the $400 million would have violated the sanctions, then wiring $1.3billion violated sanctions.  The wiring of this cash to Iran proves that Obama was dishonest when he said the $400 million could not have legally been sent by wire.

it gets worse, however.  The $1.3 billion was not sent in one payment.  The US government used 13 payments of $99,999,999.99 to transfer the funds.  Apparently transfers of one hundred million or more are reported in a way that might have called attention to the transfer, so the total was broken down this way.  It was much like a drug dealer structuring his deposits and withdrawals so as to avoid discovery of the transaction by the police.

So we have the following.  1. A payment of $400 million in cash to Iran as ransom for American hostages.  The payment was made in total secrecy in the hopes that the American people never learn that we were paying ransom for our people.  2.  An ongoing attempt to conceal the true nature of the payment through the use of lies.  3.  When the transfer was discovered, Obama and his people used a lie that was so obvious, that this new information easily reveals it to be false.  4.  There is no apology to the American people for the lies coming from the White House.  Indeed, the media doesn't even seem interested in the never-ending string of lies coming from Obama. 

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