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The Obama administration quietly shipped $400 million stacked on wooden pallets in an unmarked plane to Iran in January — just as Tehran was releasing four Americans who had been detained there, according to a report.
The huge cash load represented the first payment of a $1.7 billion debt that Iran, at an international tribunal in The Hague, claimed it was owed over a failed 1979 arms deal signed before the fall of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal Tuesday night.
The Obama administration was accused Tuesday night of making the cash-for-hostages deal by timing the payout to the release — but US officials said the money was simply part of settling the nearly 40-year-old debt under the terms of the historic nuclear agreement hammered out in 2015.
"As we've made clear, the negotiations over the settlement of an outstanding claim . . . were completely separate from the discussions about returning our American citizens home," State Department spokesman John Kirby told the Journal.
Source: New York Post
the Obama administration transferred the equivalent of $400 million to their central banks. It was then converted into other currencies, stacked onto the wooden pallets and sent to Iran on board a cargo plane.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 04 2016, @12:50PM
Don't underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon filled with hard drives (or flash drives). Is this the equivalent--don't underestimate the money transfer capability of a plane full of $100 bills?
I don't get it--why wasn't the $400 million sent by electronic/wire transfers?
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Thursday August 04 2016, @12:59PM
That's easy. There is no banking relationship between the U.S. and Iran. Iran is largely cut off from the world banking system.
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(Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday August 04 2016, @06:39PM
But this cut off is not total nor beyond the control of the US government. They could have let a few billion through if they wanted to.
I suspect Iran didn't want a digital deposit, because they learned how easily such could disappear.
Instead they accepted marked and number-recorded currency. Maybe a Win-Win situation. They gotta spend it somewhere.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday August 04 2016, @08:24PM
They'll take it, as long as it's not in British pounds. :-)
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(Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday August 04 2016, @09:36PM
Oh those cunning bastards. So this is what Brexit was all about!
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 04 2016, @08:29PM
That's easy. There is no banking relationship between the U.S. and Iran. Iran is largely cut off from the world banking system.
I bet they take PayPal.