Thread: Obama Secretly Paid Iran $1.7 BIL From Taxpayer Funds

Obama Secretly Paid Iran $1.7 BIL From Taxpayer Funds


by Team DML/ March 24, 2016/

In secret talks with Iran over massive arms dispute from 1979, Obama administration working “behind the scenes”
since 2014 to reach settlement agreements with Iran, to “avoid court decisions.”

The administration anticipates that more settlements will come, meaning that the United States will likely be forced to pay
Iran via a taxpayer legal fund operated by the Treasury Department.

Obama Admin Engaged in Secret Talks to Pay Iran Nearly $2 Billion

Officials admit delays in informing Congress, say more payments to come



BY: Adam Kredo
March 23, 2016 5:00 am

The Obama administration has spent three years engaged in secret talks with Iran that resulted in the payment of nearly $2 billion in taxpayer funds to the Islamic Republic, with more payouts likely to come in the future, according to a recent letter issued by the State Department and obtained exclusively by the Washington Free Beacon.

The administration’s disclosure came in response to an inquiry launched in January by Rep. Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.), who was seeking further information about the Obama administration’s payment of $1.7 billion in taxpayer funds to Iran, which many viewed as a “ransom payment” for Iran’s release that month of several U.S. hostages.

The administration’s official response to Pompeo was sent earlier this week, just days after a Free Beacon report detailing a months-long State Department effort to stall the lawmaker’s inquiry.
“We apologize for the delay in responding,” Julia Frifield, an assistant secretary for legislative affairs, states in the letter’s opening.

Obama administration officials first began talks to settle a number of outstanding legal claims leveled against the United States by Iran in 2014. The administration predicts that more taxpayer-funded payments are likely to be granted to the Islamic Republic in the future, according to the letter.

Frifield in her letter goes on to defend the $1.7 billion payment to Iran and discloses that the administration is open to providing Tehran with more money if it is willing to settle these decades-old legal disputes with the United States.

“We are confident that this was a good settlement for the American taxpayer,” the State Department said.

Iran’s legal row with the United States surrounds the breakdown of a massive arms deal that was nixed in the aftermath of Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution, which resulted in the capture of the U.S. embassy and American personnel stationed there.

Many of these claims remain unsettled and are still being litigated by the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal at the Hague.

The Obama administration has been working behind the scenes since at least 2014 to reach settlement agreements with Iran to avoid court decisions, according to the letter, which identifies at least two separate discussions held in June 2014 and January 2015.

The administration anticipates that more settlements will come, meaning that the United States will likely be forced to pay Iran via a taxpayer legal fund operated by the Treasury Department.

“The United States is continuing to vigorously litigate these claims at the Tribunal, but is also open to discussing further settlements of claims with Iran, as we have done throughout the life of the Tribunal, with the aim of resolving them in furtherance of U.S. interests,” the letter states.

Iran’s “fact-intensive claims involve over 1,000 separate contracts between Iran and the United States,” according to the letter, which explains that January’s $1.7 billion payment settled just one of many outstanding disputes.

The Obama administration fails to directly address Pompeo’s questions seeking to determine if the legal settlement was finalized as part of an incentive package meant to motivate Tehran to free imprisoned Americans.

“It would not be in the interest of the United States to discuss further details of the settlement of these claims in an unclassified letter due to the ongoing litigation at the Tribunal,” the State Department writes. “However, we would be prepared to provide a closed briefing on such issues if it would be useful to there.”

“When Iran releases American hostages, and then, on that same day, President Obama announces he is paying Iran $1.7 billion, Congress of course has to ask the hard questions,” said one source familiar with the investigation. “And when the Obama administration admits that over $1 billion in taxpayer money is going to the Iranian regime, Congress is obligated to respond. The State Department has ducked and dodged–providing a history lesson on international tribunals, focused on actions decades ago, instead of addressing dangerous misdeeds that were potentially just committed. That is suspicious.”

Under the specific terms of January’s settlement, Iran was to be paid a $400 million balance and an additional $1.3 billion in interest from a taxpayer fund maintained by the Treasury Department, a State Department official confirmed to the Free Beacon at the time.

That settlement—along with additional settlements—was reached outside of the recently implemented nuclear deal and is separate from the $150 billion in unfrozen cash assets the United States is obligated to give to Iran under that agreement, the official said.

The $1.7 billion payment was announced just prior to the release of five U.S. prisoners who had been held in Iran, sparking accusations that the deal is tantamount to a ransom payment

http://freebeacon.com/national-secur...ran-2-billion/

Obama Admin Delivered Property to Iran as Part of Secret Détente

Iran demanded return of precious artifacts, billions in U.S. funds
Secretary of State John Kerry
BY: Adam Kredo March 23, 2016 1:50 pm

The Obama administration has been shipping historical artifacts to Iran since last year as part of a secret détente that also included a taxpayer-funded payment of nearly $2 billion, according to a letter written by the State Department and exclusively obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

Obama administration officials engaged in secret talks with Iran between June 2014 through at least January 2015 over a series of legal claims leveled against the United States by the Islamic Republic, the State Department disclosed in its letter.

“These discussions led to the settlement of claims for architectural drawings, which are now in the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, and for fossils, which are now in the possession of Iran’s Ministry of the Environment, and the parties also discussed the possibility of broader settlements,” the State Department wrote, in response to an inquiry launched in January by Rep. Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.).

The Obama administration is seeking further settlements with Tehran to transfer assets, according to the State Department.

The administration’s latest admission about the backroom dealings with Iran were offered in response to a broader inquiry launched by Pompeo, who is seeking further information about the Obama administration’s payment of $1.7 billion in taxpayer funds to Iran, which many viewed as a “ransom payment” for Iran’s release of several U.S. hostages in January.

The administration’s official response to Pompeo was sent earlier this week, just days after a Free Beacon report detailing a months-long State Department effort to stall the lawmaker’s inquiry.

“After nearly two months of stalling, the State Department confirmed what I feared was true: the Obama administration is negotiating behind closed doors with the Islamic Republic of Iran and using taxpayer dollars to pay the regime,” Pompeo said in a statement on the letter. “Worse yet, more of these payments are likely coming.”
“Secretary Kerry still refuses to answer whether the $1.7 billion U.S. payment to Iran was related to the release of American hostages held by Iran,” Pompeo continued.

“While we celebrate the return of these hostages, this administration could be setting a dangerous precedent, as innocent Americans continue to be held in Iran. I will not stop until we have all of the answers and will do all in my power to stop the Obama administration’s dangerous Iran policy.”

Iran recently renewed its desire to settle a series of longstanding legal disputes with the United States, according to the letter, which outlines at least two occasions in 2014 and early 2015 when talks took place.

This agreement paved the way for the United States and Iran to reach the $1.7 billion settlement over the breakdown on a decades-old arms pact known as the U.S.-Iran Foreign Military Sales Program.

“With the settlements over the artworks and fossils concluded in December, and with hearings in the FMS claims involving the disposition of the Iranian Trust Fund of the horizon, we were able to achieve this most recent settlement, which finally resolves Iran’s claims for funds in the FMS Trust Fund, as well as its claims for interest on the funds for more than 35 years,” the State Department wrote, using an acronym for the foreign military sales program.

However, many other claims remain unsettled and are being litigated by the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal at the Hague.

The Obama administration is pursuing further settlement agreements with Iran. It is likely that at least part of these agreements will be paid using a taxpayer fund operated by the Treasury Department.

“The United States is continuing to vigorously litigate these claims at the Tribunal, but is also open to discussing further settlements of claims with Iran, as we have done throughout the life of the Tribunal, with the aim of resolving them in furtherance of U.S. interests,” the letter states.

These settlements could arise from a large number of outstanding legal disputes that the United States would rather settle in private with Iran than see litigated by the Hague.

“There remain some large claims pending before the Tribunal, many of which are against the United States,” the State Department wrote. “They include Iran’s contract claims arising under the former FMS program. These fact-indecisive claims involve over 1,000 separate contracts between Iran and the United States. The partial settlement we achieved in January … was part of that case.”

In addition to outstanding claims about the failed military deal, “Iran also has claims for the alleged U.S. failure to transfer property that was blocked following the 1979 hostage crisis, the return of the former Shah’s assets, and the return of Iran’s diplomatic property,” according to the letter.

When asked Wednesday to provide further information on the recent transfer of the artwork and fossils to Iran, a State Department official who was not authorized to speak on record told the Free Beacon that the claims date back to the 1970s, before Iran’s Islamic revolution ushered in its current hardline government.

“A claim was brought before the Tribunal related to various pieces of artwork Iran contracted to purchase prior to 1979 but which were never delivered to Iran,” the official said. “That claim has now been resolved and the specific pieces of artwork have been transferred to Iran. The same goes for a set of fossils which had been sent to the United States prior to 1979 for studies and were returned to Iran.”

http://freebeacon.com/national-secur...ecret-detente/

Disgusting.