OBAMA ADMINISTRATION SKIRTED SANCTIONS TO GIVE IRAN BILLIONS WHILE ASSURING PUBLIC IT WASN'T DOING SO
BY ROBERT SPENCER
SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2018/06/obama-administration-skirted-sanctions-to-give-iran-billions-while-assuring-public-it-wasnt-doing-so; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Obama paid billions to a regime that requires its citizens to chant “Death to America.” That regime has used the money to finance jihad terrorists who want to see America’s destruction and are actively working against American interests. Treason is defined as giving aid and comfort to the enemy.
Obama ought to be charged with treason.
“Obama Administration Skirted U.S. Sanctions to Grant Iran Billions in Cash,” by Adam Kredo, Washington Free Beacon, June 6, 2018:
The Obama administration skirted key U.S. sanctions to grant Iran access to billions in hard currency despite public assurances the administration was engaged in no such action, according to a new congressional investigation.The investigation, published Wednesday by the House Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, further discloses secret efforts by top Obama administration officials to assure European countries they would receive a pass from U.S. sanctions if they engaged in business with Iran.The findings confirm earlier reports by the Washington Free Beacon surrounding efforts by the Obama administration to go above and beyond the terms of the landmark nuclear deal to appease Iran and grant it billions in hard currency, as well as access to the U.S financial system, despite multiple assurances to Congress this was not the case.Congressional investigators have now confirmed that the Obama administration ordered the Treasury Department to issue a secret license granting Iran access to the U.S. financial system and American dollar, a process that played out at the same time these senior administration officials were testifying to Congress that they were not engaged in such activities.The investigation confirms allegations by many in Congress that the Obama administration was engaged in covert diplomacy with senior Iranian officials beyond the nuclear agreement to help Tehran obtain billions in hard currency, cash that was later used by the Islamic Republic to fund its ballistic missile program and fighting forces operating in Syria and across the region.“The Obama administration misled the American people and Congress because they were desperate to get a deal with Iran,” said Sen. Rob Portman (R., Ohio), chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. “Despite claims both before and after the Iran deal was completed that the U.S. financial system would remain off limits, the Obama administration issued a specific license allowing Iran to convert billions of dollars in assets using the U.S. financial system.”Several days after the Obama administration announced the implementation of the nuclear agreement, U.S. officials were contacted by Bank Muscat in Oman, which was seeking to convert nearly six billion dollars on Iran’s behalf.Bank Muscat petitioned the Obama administration to allow it to access the U.S. dollar in order to conduct the transition, which was to be carried out from Omani rials, into U.S. dollars, and then into Euros. That money would then be transferred into the Central Bank of Iran, or CBI, which was long designated for sanctions by the United States as a result of its efforts to fund Iran’s terror operations and nuclear program.“The inability to convert the funds held at Bank Muscat through the U.S. financial system frustrated key Iranian officials,” according to the congressional investigation. “On January 24, 2016, a lead Iranian negotiator, wrote to his U.S. State Department counterpart, complaining that Iran could not convert its assets as it requested.”While such transactions remained prohibited under the nuclear agreement, also known as the JCPOA, senior Obama administration officials in the State and Treasury Departments scrambled to find back-door methods to appease Iran.In one email obtained by congressional investigators, a Treasury Department official says that the United States committed much more to Iran than was publicly disclosed at the time by the Obama administration.“Yikes. It looks like we committed to a whole lot beyond just allowing the immobilized funds to settle out,” the official wrote.While the administration was not obligated to conduct any such transactions on Iran’s behalf, Obama administration officials decided to pressure the Treasury Department to issue a secret license permitting Iran to access the $5.7 billion from Oman’s Bank Muscat using the U.S. financial system, according to the investigation.“Treasury Department officials began working on a specific license authorizing Bank Muscat’s transaction,” the report finds. “A specific license allows specified transactions to occur that would otherwise violate U.S. sanctions.”The license did not have to be publicly disclosed and it was ultimately issued during a time when top Obama administration officials were testifying to Congress that they had no intention of permitting Iran access to the U.S. financial system….
