No surprise here. The multiply-failed foreign policy “experts,” enraged at having been shown up by the “amateur” Trump, are determined to reimplement their old policy of appeasement of the Islamic Republic, and prove they were right all along. They will, of course, fail yet again, and then be promoted and lauded and given some more awards.
“Lawmakers Investigate State Department Over $1 Billion Ransom Payment to Iran,” by Adam Kredo, Washington Free Beacon, March 25, 2021:
Republican foreign policy leaders in Congress are pressing Secretary of State Antony Blinken to fully disclose the contents of secret talks with South Korea that are believed to have paved the way for that country to hand Iran $1 billion as part of a ransom payment.
Reps. Bryan Steil (R., Wis.), Jim Banks (R., Ind.), and Greg Steube (R., Fla.) say the State Department is withholding from Congress key details about the Biden administration’s reported efforts to help South Korea skirt economic sanctions and pay Iran the billion-dollar ransom, which came after Tehran seized a South Korean tanker and its crew in January. Blinken dodged several questions on the matter when testifying earlier this month before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, prompting the lawmakers to launch a formal probe seeking answers.
In a letter sent Thursday to Blinken and obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, the lawmakers demand the State Department answer questions about whether it waived sanctions to enable the payment and took part in negotiations aimed at securing the cash for Iran. The lawmakers suspect the administration helped free the money—frozen abroad as a result of U.S. sanctions—as part of its efforts to coax Iran into negotiating a revamped nuclear deal.
The probe signals mounting GOP frustration with the Biden State Department as it makes a series of concessions to Iran aimed at enticing it back to the bargaining table. The administration has already waived United Nations sanctions on Iran and removed a key terror designation on the Tehran-armed Houthi militia groups in Yemen, which continue to attack U.S. allies in the region.
As U.S.-Iran envoy Robert Malley seeks direct talks with Iran, Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services Committees have been mostly left in the dark. Malley and other senior officials have not briefed them on their diplomatic efforts and have repeatedly dodged questions about the ransom payment, as well as other reported concessions, such as easing travel restrictions on Iranian officials. Republicans and many of their Democratic colleagues remain concerned the Biden administration will move forward with sanctions relief, despite public promises that this would not occur before Iran demonstrates a willingness to roll back its nuclear program.
Steil petitioned the Treasury Department in early March to come clean about its suspected role in facilitating South Korea’s ransom payment. Iran is using the tanker as leverage to pressure South Korea into freeing some $7 billion in oil revenues that are tied up in the country. South Korean officials said they consulted with the United States before releasing the money, which likely could not have been moved without the administration’s consent.
The Treasury Department, in response to Steil’s initial letter, would not provide the lawmaker with the information he requested, directing him instead to contact the State Department, according to a copy of that response letter viewed by the Free Beacon.
“The Biden administration appears to be using loopholes when dealing with the Iranian regime,” Steil told the Free Beacon. “I am again asking direct, yes or no questions on the United States’ involvement in facilitating a South Korean ransom payment to Iran. If the Biden administration is involved in transferring funds to Iran, Congress and the American people must be informed.”
Now, Steil, Banks, and Steube are pressing Blinken for concrete answers about whether the United States permitted Iran to access the billion dollars through a financial mechanism known as the Swiss Humanitarian Trade Arrangement. The SHTA was created to enable certain humanitarian-related transactions with Iran that would otherwise be considered sanctionable.
Banks, an Armed Services Committee member and chairman of the Republican Study Committee, Congress’s largest conservative caucus, told the Free Beacon he and his colleagues will not stop leading investigations into the matter until the administration “comes clean.”
“The Biden administration has to come clean: Did you or did you not facilitate sanctions relief for the thugs in Tehran? Because it sure looks like you did,” Banks said. “Let me be very clear: The RSC will be getting to the bottom of this.”…
Infidel says
People used to mock President Trump’s press conferences, but the one that Biden just had was a spectacle in its own right. Major ones I got out:
– He ended is speech saying: ‘Help is here: hope is on the way’. Shouldn’t it be the other way?
– He said that the reason that people are now coming to the US, risking everything is that he’s a nicer guy. Funnily enough, ABC itself talked to someone who said that they came b’cos of Biden, and wouldn’t have made that journey as long as Trump was there, and Biden turned it on its head, as though them coming in big numbers is a good thing
– The piece de resistance: he’s running for re-election in 2024. I’m praying that he’s still alive in 2024, given how he’s stumbling
And of course, all the questions he got were from journalists who were simply appalled that there wasn’t a welcome mat ready for these ‘migrants’.
Wellington says
I would argue the point, Infidel, that as much as the Biden Administration is a huge problem in many areas—as it surely is—a sycophantic and highly Leftist Main Stream Media (MSM) is an even larger problem.
All other matters remaining the same, including a POTUS with early dementia and surrounded by woke advisers (controllers?) aplenty, if a truly free and ruthlessly honest MSM existed, which it surely does not, America would still be OK.
But America is not OK, not even close, and I would point the finger at the highly compromised and pathetic MSM as reason #1 for this extremely disturbing malaise. Coming in at reason #2 is the debacle which has happened to the Democratic Party which is now, effectively, an enemy of America and the Constitution. Reason #3 would be a whole host of RINOs like Murkowski, Collins, Toomey, Romney et al.
OK, enough reasons but still reasons enough. Surely.
curious george says
Good points.
Overwhelming evidence’ of fraud: Michele Bachmann hosts conference on 2020 election
https://www.wnd.com/2021/03/overwhelming-evidence-fraud-michele-bachmann-hosts-conference-2020-election/
gravenimage says
Grimly true.
Rob Porter says
Wellington – You are spot on regarding the MSM and “a whole host of RINOs like Murkowski, Collins, Toomey, Romney et al.” The latter tipped the scale against Trump. He couldn’t rely on even his own luke warm, blundering, party with Mitch McConnell a total dead loss. But then, Mike Pence should have told Congress that he fully understood the traditional role of a vice-President at the acceptance of ballots, yet then said he could not ‘in all good conscience’ accept ballots when serious allegations of election fraud remained un-investigated. In my estimation he, too, flopped.
James Lincoln says
Wellington,
The media are supposed to be watchdogs of our public officials – and hold them accountable.
Except for small percent of conservative news sites, they are failing badly…
Infidel says
At this point, Wellington, I just wonder why Collins and Murkowski even bother caucusing w/ the Republicans? They should just openly switch parties, and do what everyone knows they’d do, just like others before them – Jim Jeffords, Lincoln Chafee, Arlen Specter and so on. Right now, they’re even to the left of Manchin and Sinema
James Lincoln says
Infidel,
To your point, Sen. Collins joined the Democrats and supported Dr. “Rachel” Levine, a transgender, as Assistant Health Secretary in a 52-48 vote.
Levine is a total nut case…
Infidel says
James, last year, during election season, I was arguing on Breitbart w/ a republican who insisted on turning out the vote for Collins on the grounds that the Senate Majority Leader is an important post. I kept arguing that her voting record is such that one might as well either have voted for her Leftist opponent, or sat it out.
She won, and has 6 more years to do whatever damage she feels like. Hopefully, Comrade Murkowski (too bad she can’t be deported to 70’s Poland!) can be hunted down next year in Alaska
Rob Porter says
Infidel – We can thank not just a rigged election for this fraud, dimwit, sham president, and his horrible, lying Administration, but also a weak , unprincipled and backstabbing-of-Trump Republican Party. What a mess America now is!
Trump never stood a chance when his own party members allied with the liberal enemy or was ‘luke warm’. Now you have even a military that looks as if led by pansy, castrated males who talk utter rubbish about ‘tough female soldiers and marines’. Females should not be even capable of qualifying for the now pussy U.S. marines, but if you lower standards and make obstacle courses less tough, like Canada’s army did, then females can qualify. I hope America’s enemies are considerate of these American soldiers and marines and don’t fight too hard. The FBI is now rubbish, the CIA subverted. This foreigner just marvels
Infidel says
Rob
W/ an army like this, I do hope we get complete peaceniks and an absolute refusal to fight any war. Biden wants to delay our withdrawal from Afghanistan: that’s just begging for our troops to get raped ??
Jerry says
Biden’s and Harris’ commit treason through their dealings with Iran but, unfortunately will never be impeached.
gravenimage says
Impeachement is only used to harass Republicans.
gravenimage says
Biden’s handlers appear to be ‘using loopholes when dealing with Iranian regime’ in $1,000,000,000 ransom payment
………………..
Just disgusting–why would any American president *want* to fork over millions to the vicious Mullahs?
Walter Sieruk says
Joe Biden has again proven that he is just and traitorous to America as he is also a a useful idiot for those in power in by that tyrannical “mullah regime” of Iran . Not only by his international polities and politics but also by the people he has chosen as his “handlers.”
Rob Porter says
I marvel at how conservative Americans have no answer to how they should deal with a stolen election, a fraud president, a border crisis, Muslim barbarism, Islam’s advances in the U.S., an Administration that is anti-American, and think that the country can be restored through peaceful, democratic processes. It is not going to happen.. The next election will also be stolen, the FBI and DOJ won’t care, and still conservatives will wring their hands – while their country disappears.
Ade Fegan says
How much enriched uranium can you buy with a billion dollars ?
Ade Fegan says
Best give the bully your lunch money Biden … every day
Anne Smith says
It is becoming clear that Obama is running Biden and most of Obama’s advisers and officials have all been re-employed.
This is now becoming Obama’s third term of office, and when he was POTUS it became clear that he identified with Islamic beliefs and was kindly disposed towards Islamic countries.
No doubt Biden will be following in his footsteps..