They don't like Santa in the Islamic Republic of Iran, but they let Obama play Secret Santa anyway with planeloads and planeloads of cash. Foreign cash, of course. Shipping US money to Iran would be illegal. But then again so is funding terrorism and that didn't seem to stop Obama.
It never does.
The Obama administration followed up a planeload of $400 million in cash sent to Iran in January with two more such shipments in the next 19 days, totaling another $1.3 billion, according to congressional officials briefed by the U.S. State, Treasury and Justice departments.
And yes, it appears to have involved foreign money and unmarked cargo planes as Obama was getting his best cartel style on.
The Obama administration briefed lawmakers on Tuesday, telling them that two further portions of the $1.3 billion were transferred though Europe on Jan. 22 and Feb. 5. The payment “flowed in the same manner” as the original $400 million that an Iranian cargo plane picked up in Geneva, Switzerland, according to a congressional aide who took part in the briefing.
Tuesday. Now that's a timely briefing. Remember when Obama was claiming that Congress had always known about it... since Tuesday.
The Obama administration previously had refused to disclose the mechanics of the $1.7 billion settlement, despite repeated calls from U.S. lawmakers. The State Department announced the settlement on Jan. 17 but didn’t brief Congress that the entire amount had been paid in cash.
But there were good reasons.
"They said the payments needed to be viewed in the political context. First the Iranian nuclear deal was going through, second the Iranian economy was in a difficult state and third the Iranians were in need of foreign currency," one source said.
When pressed to say who requested the cash, the briefers could not remember, the source said.
Of course not.