An Old & Reliable Foreign Cash Cow

[HARDCORE]

8-3-2016

(Opinion)

“Millions for defense – but not one cent for tribute (1797)” are still words to live by! And also worthy of our combined disdain is the age-old cash-cow of “Kidnapping Americans” and then holding them for massive foreign ransom! “Blood Money” that will probably be utilized in the future to cause us even more grief and pain?

As a matter of fact, this criminal action has been going on for centuries, but one case in point being - “The Barbary Pirates of over 216 years ago”, who amassed a tidy little fortune by kidnapping American Seamen, and then holding them until they were paid handsomely for their release, just as President Obama recently did again!

But then what the Hell - kissing the backsides of “Our Nation’s Enemies” these days is a lot more expedient than confronting the actual problem head on - is it not? A problem, I might add, that will continue (like The Barbary Pirates of old) to take a giant dump upon all of those “Patriotic American Men and Women” who lived, fought and even died, to insure that no international blackmailer would ever try (or dare) again to pull off?

And just what was it that our illustrious leader meant when he recently compared himself to “The Top Three Presidents of the United States Who Have Ever Lived?” Unlike him however, “The Genuine American Patriots” that he was personally comparing himself to were not delusional or deeply ensconced within their own little world of fantasy and wishful thinking, in my opinion!

And finally: “I am here to tell you that men like Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln, dealt in cold and hard reality - and not in ongoing fantasies or wishful thinking (in my opinion)
So tell me again: “Will his hand-selected heir apparent also continue to carry on, exacerbate, and even inflame, an already troubling situation?” (Just a non-partisan question?)

Rick [Hardcore]
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http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/bar.../02/id/741862/

WSJ: Obama Paid $400M in Cash to Iran as It Released Americans

By Greg Richter | Tuesday, 02 Aug 2016 10:23 PM

The Obama White House airlifted $400 million worth of foreign cash to Iran just as Iran released four Americans it had been holding in prison, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The money was flown in secretly on wooden pallets in an unmarked cargo plane, but none of the cash was U.S. dollars. Instead, euros, Swiss francs and other currencies were withdrawn from central banks in the Netherlands and Switzerland. The Journal quotes U.S. and European officials as well as congressional staffers who were later briefed on the operation.

American officials denied the payment was a quid pro quo for the release of the four Americans, though the plane loaded with cash reportedly landed on January 17, the same day the Americans were set free.

The cash was actually the first installment of a $1.7 billion settlement between the Obama administration and Iran over a failed arms deal signed just prior to the 1979 fall of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, administration officials say.

Special:

The Iranians reportedly insisted on cash because they said they had trouble making wire transfers. "As we've made clear, the negotiations over the settlement of an outstanding claim … were completely separate from the discussions about returning our American citizens home," State Department spokesman John Kirby told the Journal. "Not only were the two negotiations separate, they were conducted by different teams on each side, including, in the case of The Hague claims, by technical experts involved in these negotiations for many years."

But Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, accused the White House of paying "a $1.7 billion ransom to the ayatollahs for U.S. hostages. "This break with longstanding U.S. policy put a price on the head of Americans, and has led Iran to continue its illegal seizures" of American citizens, Cotton said.

Americans are still being held by Iran's government, and their friends and family believe Iran is keeping them in an effort to get another cash payment, the Journal reports.
Congress, meanwhile is attempting to prevent Obama from making any more such payments.
"President Obama's … payment to Iran in January, which we now know will fund Iran’s military expansion, is an appalling example of executive branch governance," Sen. James Lankford, a Oklahoma Republican who co-wrote a bill to prevent further payments, said.