Category Archives: State
Obama No Ransom Iran Nuclear Deal Narrative
Earlier this month he WSJ reported that the Obama administration shipped Iran a pallet of foreign cash worth $400 million. President Obama scolded the press for asking if the delivery of the unmarked bills, in an unmarked plane, in the middle of the night was ransom.
You’ve probably seen his four step reply:
1) The payment was old news.
2) It was Iran’s money.
3) It’s illegal to trade dollars with Iran.
4) We don’t pay ransom.
Then he mocked reporters by saying, it “defies logic” that we would pay ransom. He also said the story “reads like a spy novel.”
So it does.
For good measure State Department spokesman John Kirby tweeted:
“Reports of link between prisoner release & payment to Iran are completely false.”
So the WSJ reporters, Jay Solomon and Carol E. Lee, dug a little deeper and learned that the payment was “specifically timed to the release of several American prisoners held in Iran.” The money was loaded onto an Iranian cargo plane in Geneva, Switzerland. And it wasn’t released until a plane departing Tehran with the prisoners was “wheels up.”
It’s Not Ransom. It’s Leverage. Or Not.
Based on the new information Kirby was asked by a reporter:
Q: “In basic English, you are saying you wouldn’t give [Iran] the 400 million in cash until the prisoners were released, correct?”
A: “That’s correct,” Kirby responded.
Iranians call it “ransom” (they’re already collecting more ransom chips). Kirby calls it “leverage.”
Obama spokesman Josh Earnest said, “I never used the world leverage” – leaving Kirby hanging out to dry.
Obama Launders Iran Ransom Money
Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert was busted for paying hush money by making cash withdrawals that would be difficult to trace. Never mind that he was a perv trying to hide the fact that he had molested a high school wrestler. It was violating the $10,000 cash withdrawal limit that got him busted.
Well, the WSJ reported yesterday that the Obama administration tried to hide a $400 million cash payment to Iran. And it tried to hide the purpose of the payment – ransom of five hostages.
The Justice Department opposed the deal.
Michelle Kosinski of CNN asked White House spokesman Josh Earnest if the hostages would have been released without the payment. He refused to answer. Actually, Earnest’s drawn out unrelated responses were kind of amusing. You can see the exchange at the -41:11 mark of this C-SPAN video.
Ransom Laundry
The ransom was paid in Swiss Francs and Euros delivered by unmarked plane in the middle of the night. Since it’s against the law to trade dollars with Iran Dr. Krauthammer says the administration is guilty of money laundering.
Obviously, it wasn’t a coincidence. The reason that it was objected to by Justice, there is a statute that prohibits us from engaging in Iran dealing with dollars. So, they had to print the money here, ship it over to Switzerland, turn it into Swiss francs and euros and ship it over to Iran. If a private company had done this, this is called money laundering. The CEO would be in jail right now.”
He added, “The reason it was concealed is because it’s illegal. That’s why Congress wasn’t notified, because it’s scandalous for the administration to explicitly defy a law that says you can’t deal in American currency. And the second thing is, it isn’t only that it encourages terrorism in the future, it’s that the money is in cash. Why in cash? Because that you can’t trace it. It’s going to go straight to Hezbollah, straight to Hamas, straight to terrorists in Iraq.”
Update:
Andrew McCarthy in National Review maintains Obama committed a felony. He says the law restricts the transfer of value to Iran in any way.
By his own account, President Obama engaged in the complex cash transfer in order to end-run sanctions that prohibit the U.S. from having “a banking relationship with Iran.” The point of the sanctions is not to prevent banking with Iran; it is to prevent Iran from getting value from or through our financial system — the banking prohibition is a corollary. And the point of sanctions, if you happen to be the president of the United States sworn to execute the laws faithfully, is to follow them — not pat yourself on the back for keeping them in place while you willfully evade them. The president’s press conference is better understood as a confession than an explanation.
Hillary’s Lies
The State Department Inspector General’s Report says Hillary broke the rules by using her home brew email server for official business. Hillary has insisted that her email setup was “allowed by the Stat Department”. It wasn’t. She lied.
Hillary’s Lies
Jonah Goldberg says Hillary’s lies are different than The Donald’s lies. His are spontaneous. Hers are premeditated.
Unlike Donald Trump’s lies, which he usually vomits up spontaneously like a vesuvian geyser, Clinton’s were carefully prepared, typed up, and repeated for all the world to hear over and over again…
Meanwhile, Clinton — who lives many time zones away from the word “entertaining” — is marketing herself as the mature and upstanding grown-up. She does nothing spontaneously. And that means all of her lies are premeditated.
Guccifer
An unemployed Romanian taxi driver named Marcel Lehel Lazar goes by the handle Guccifer. In his spare time he hacks the email of famous people. In 2013 he read email sent by Sidney Blumenthal to Hillary’s home brew account. For his troubles Lazar has been arrested and extradited to the U.S.
In a recent prison interview he told Catherine Herridge, of Fox News, that he hacked Hillary’s server. “It was easy,” said Guccifer.
The thinking is if a Romanian cab driver can do it, maybe the Chinese, Russians, and others can do it too.
So, while “Lucifer in the Flesh” is out of the presidential race, Guccifer is still a factor.
Update 07/07/16:
FBI Director Comey testified to Congress today that Guccifer admitted to the FBI that he lied about hacking Hillary’s server.
Siri Spy
Apple doesn’t want to let Siri spy on you.
The Guardian reports, “When Apple announced in 2014 that it would no longer be able to break into its iPhones even under a court order, law enforcement agencies reacted with rage.”
The government is citing the All Writs Act of 1789 to force Apple to write code to open the iPhone of a dead San Bernardino terrorist.
Wired quotes Nate Cardozo of the Electronic Frontiers Foundation saying,”The FBI “chose this case very carefully”. The feds want backdoors built into devices so they can access information. He thinks this is the “perfect case” to push for “backdoor” legislation.
Siri Spy
Apple says that courts recognize computer code as a form of speech. Compelling the company to make speech against its will could be a first amendment violation.
Apple asks, “what’s to prevent the government from forcing a computer company to write code to turn on the microphone, or the camera to spy on a suspect?”
Nilay Patel explains the legal case in The Verge. He thinks it will go to the Supreme Court.
