Tag Archives: Wall Street Journal

Before We Freak Out Over the Iran Deal “Ransom”

Because it is Wednesday, or well any day of the week, Donald Trump is on the attack.  But at least today, he’s distracted from his previous mission of belittling a brave American Gold Star family.

After this SHOCKING Wall Street Journal article, Republican Party Leader (now known on this blog as the ReTRUMPlican Party) Donald Trump, Senator Marco Rubio,  and other ReTRUMPlicans are outraged over what some call a “ransom payment” of $400 million to Iran for American hostages released at the close of the Obama Administrations historic Iran Nuclear Deal. But a quick search of information should reveal that this simply not the case.  When the deal was implemented, President Obama may not have revealed exact numbers, but he did disclose the nature of the payment and why the United States government chose to settle it at the same time as the deal.  But hey, don’t take my word for it. Let’s hear directly from the President (check the 8:30 min mark)…

The third piece of [the Iran Deal] involved the United States and Iran resolving a financial dispute that dated back more than three decades.  Since 1981, after our nations severed diplomatic relations, we’ve worked through an international tribunal to resolve various claims between our countries.  The United States and Iran are now settling a long-standing Iranian government claim against the U.S. government.  Iran will be returned its own funds, including appropriate interest, but much less than the amount sought.  For the United States, this settlement could save us billions of dollars that could have been pursued by Iran so there was no sense in dragging [this claim] out.  With the nuclear deal done, and prisoners released, the time was right to resolve this dispute as well.

So yeah… no exact numbers given at the time, but there were no secrets regarding this cash payment.  And to the Wall Street Journal’s credit, they do represent the Administration’s facts regarding the deal.  But of course, we can count on ReTRUMPlican Senator Tom Cotton to ignore the facts at hand, and accuse the Obama Administration of yet another thing they simply didn’t do.

Before freaking out about some ransom, can we try looking at the FACTS first??

Obama Iran Deal