Guest Post by Joe Hoft

The $400 million payment made to Iran for hostages in January was not owed to Iran as Obama stated. It was a ransom.

According to a report from the Canada Free Press the Obama Administration argued that the payment made to Iran in January was not a ransom paid to release Iranian hostages but instead was money owed to Iran as a result of a court case settled in 2009. But this was not true. The money was a ransom because no money was owed to Iran. The Iran – US Claims Tribunal actually dismissed Iran’s claim for compensation in July of 2009!

On October 22, 2009 the Washington Post published an article that stated that former negotiator at the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal John B. Bellinger III reported that the claim, which was paid to Iran with bundled euros in an unmarked airliner on January 17, 2016, had actually been dismissed:

“In July [2009], the tribunal dismissed, 5 to 4, Iran’s claim for $2.2 billion in compensation for military equipment that had been ordered by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi but that the U.S. government had refused to allow U.S. companies to deliver after the hostage crisis.”

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Despite this, on January 17, 2016 President Obama announced that the claim was reinstated, and that the US was now paying this money to Iran.

“The United States and Iran are now settling a long-standing Iranian claim against the United States government. Iran will be returned its own funds, including appropriate interest, but much less than the amount Iran sought.”

U.S. Senator from Arkansas, Tom Cotton, was upset when the transfer was reported because he believed that the ransom money, which was paid for with bills that could be easily laundered and would be used for terrorism. Cotton believed that the money would go to the Quds Force which is Iran’s branch of Revolutionary Guards Corps focused on conducting terrorism.

The Quds are the same forces that are now fighting ISIS and slowly taking Iraq. After the city of Fallujah was taken from ISIS, a FOX News article reported that, “The Fallujah operation was carried out by Iraq’s elite counterterrorism troops, Iraqi federal police, Anbar provincial police and an umbrella group of government- sanctioned militia fighters — mostly Shiites — who are known as the Popular Mobilization Forces.”

However, as previously reported , what was not noted by the media was that the ‘Popular Mobilization Forces’ based in Iraq are assisted by Iran’s Quds Forces , the paramilitary wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC-QF). The Quds are taking over Iraq for Iran.

Obama gave Iran more than $150 billion in the Iran nuclear agreement, paid another $400 million in cold cash to the Iranian regime as a ransom payment for hostages the regime was illegally holding. As a result of Obama’s actions, Iran will likely capture and hold more Americans for ransom. They already have.

Hat tip to Alexandra on Canada report