Tis so sad Tom can’t quit lying about the Iranian money. Tom, have you considered a 12-steps program?
However, the $400 million dollar transfer was actually an openly announced one, paid in settlement of a nearly 40-year dispute between Iran and the United States — a settlement that likely saved the United States several billion dollars.
Back in late 1979, after Iranian revolutionaries took 52 Americans hostage at the US Embassy in Tehran, the United States severed diplomatic relations with Iran and froze Iranian assets in America. Among those frozen assets was a $400 million delivery of fighter jets from the U.S. that Iran’s previous government had already paid for.
Although the American hostages were finally released a year later, issues such as the frozen Iranian assets (including that $400 million) were not settled at that time. Instead, an international court based in the Hague, the Iran–United States Claims Tribunal was established to deal with such legal claims. The tribunal process dragged on for years and years without a ruling on the $400 million being issued, and finally, when arbitration process was apparently about to wind up (quite possibly not in American’s favor), the U.S. agreed to pay Iran back the $400 million principal along with $1.3 billion in interest. If the issue had gone to the tribunal for a decision, as was expected, the U.S. could have been on the hook for the full $10 billion in compensation Iran was seeking.
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What never ceases to amaze me is the total lack of self-honesty most Republicans have. PJ and I were never afraid to be critical of Obama in the past. I frequently lamented his poor negotiating skills right here at the LVA. After seeing this North Korean deal, I am beginning to see Obama in a new light. Compared to Trump, Obama has a Ph.D. in Negotiating while Trump is repeating Kindergarten for the third time.
