No matter what you think about that deal it was done with deception in mind. Deception of the American citizens. Forget about us "owing them the money" from back when the Shah of Iran fell...and "it saved us money in the long run because of the future interest". Forget the "maybe it was a hostage exchange situation" (which at the very least Iran exploited the situation to make it look like a hostages-for-cash exchange...and at worst it actually was a negotiated exchange).
Instead, just focus on this part for a minute...
At the time the pallets of cash were delivered there were US sanctions and a separate set of international sanctions that didn't allow ANY US dollars to flow to Iran from ANY country. That's why the pallets had euros, francs and other non-US currency on them and why they were delivered in an unmarked cargo plane.
From the CNN article linked below...
US officials said cash had to be flown in because existing US sanctions ban American dollars from being used in a transaction with Iran and because Iran could not access the global financial system due to international sanctions it was under at the time...
The money was procured from central banks in Switzerland and the Netherlands, official said, and an unmarked cargo plane loaded with Swiss francs, euros and other currencies were flown to Iran.
"They were totally cut off from global banks and there was no other way to get them the money," one senior official with knowledge of the transaction said.
Does that sound like transparency to you? What do you think that deal did for future diplomatic solutions when dealing with Iran? Strengthen them or weaken them? Did it eliminate the "threat" of sanctions altogether? Probably not...but it sure didn't strengthen them.
Not to mention this part of the deal that came to light after the fact (from the same CNN article)...
Legal claims are one of the reasons the payment to Iran was controversial when Obama first announced it. The Clinton administration had agreed in 2000 to pay that $400 million to Americans who had won lawsuits against Iran in US courts.
These families and individuals had sued the Islamic Republic for damages after the deaths of loved ones or for being the victims themselves of Iran-backed kidnappings or terrorist attacks. At the time, US officials told those families the money would come from Iran.
With Obama's announcement, it became apparent that the payments had come from US taxpayers and not from Iran at all.
So the money for those settlements was supposed to come from Iran via the seized Iranian money...and that's what the American people were told. When in fact...it merely came from US taxpayer dollars under the guise that it was being paid by Iran via the seized assets. So US taxpayers paid $400 million to US citizens for atrocities committed by Iran. Unbelievable.
And we wonder why we are trillions in debt and can't fund programs properly. smh
So you can go ahead and shut up about "republican talking points" on the Iran pallets of cash.
https://www-m.cnn.com/2016/08/03/politics/us-sends-plane-iran-400-million-cash/index.html?r=https://www.google.com/
![[laughing]](http://l.yimg.com/j/assets/img/emoticons/classic/laugh.r191677.gif "Laughing [laughing]")
