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[zelo-ca]

While there were still sanctions in place during the deal. The Obama administration was trying to get US banks to launder 5.7B in funds for the Iran regime. This deal gets worse and worse....


"After striking an elusive nuclear deal with Iran, the Obama administration found itself in a quandary in early 2016: Iran had been promised access to its long-frozen overseas reserves, including $5.7 billion stuck in an Omani bank.

To spend it, Iran wanted to convert the money into U.S. dollars and then euros, but top U.S. officials had repeatedly promised Congress that Iran would never gain access to America’s financial system.

Those assurances notwithstanding, the Obama administration secretly issued a license to let Iran sidestep U.S. sanctions for the brief moment required to convert the funds through an American bank, an investigation by Senate Republicans released Wednesday showed. The plan failed when two U.S. banks refused to participate."



Source: APnews

 

[CampbellzSoup]

But Obama made jokes and fluffy speeches so he’s still good.

 

[Panda1]

Sounds like a racist pro-Trump talk! It was a good thing since Obama did it.

 

[Alfadawg]

This is just bullshit.

It's their money that has been stolen by the US.

you need to wake up from your alt right Trump nightmare and stop reading and posting lies.

 

[zelo-ca]

This is just bullshit.

It's their money that has been stolen by the US.

you need to wake up from your alt right Trump nightmare and stop reading and posting lies.

Congress had issued sanctions on them. To get it lifted it has to go through congress but the administration lied and tried to subvert it. How about you wake up?

 

[Meh3D]

Congress had issued sanctions on them. To get it lifted it has to go through congress but the administration lied and tried to subvert it. How about you wake up?

I read the article to the end. I find it particularly interesting what you took, quoted, and ran with. Your post read just like the “Alt-Right” rhetoric.

 

[a multicultural team of v]

I need to make a Chrome plugin that replaces alt right with "something I don't agree with"

 

[Sakura Doritos]

Saw this yesterday. Pretty damning tbfh. Nothing the past administration says should be taken without a truckload of salt.

 

[Tumle]

Saw this yesterday. Pretty damning tbfh. Nothing the past administration says should be taken without a truckload of salt.

Yes only the last administration.. any other administration have done or does everything by the book..
GO RED TEAM!! Am I right?
/s
At least they tried to find a legal loop hole to transfer some money, not lie about wmd’s to start a war..
Both things are shitty.. one of them is more shitty though, I’ll let you guess which one it is..

 

[Bolivar687]

The Obama administration approached two U.S. banks to facilitate the conversion, the report said, but both refused, citing the reputational risk of doing business with or for Iran.

Issuing the license was not illegal. Still, it went above and beyond what the Obama administration was required to do under the terms of the nuclear agreement, in which the U.S. and world powers gave Iran billions of dollars in sanctions relief in exchange for curbing its nuclear program.

The license issued to Bank Muscat stood in stark contrast to repeated public statements from the Obama White House, the Treasury and the State Department, all of which denied that the administration was contemplating allowing Iran access to the U.S. financial system.

You know you've plummeted into the moral Bermuda Triangle when even the nihilists of the financial industry are too scared to go along with your subterfuge.

 

[Future]

Seems like it all comes down to if you believe this point

“The former Obama officials disputed that the momentary access to U.S. banks to convert funds through the dollar constituted “access to the U.S. financial system.”

 

[mercenar1e]

I'm totally OK with a country getting money back that belongs to them in the first place. Fuck anyone and everyone that thinks otherwise.

 

[Corrik]

Fuck anyone and everyone that thinks otherwise.

What? Why do people even talk in this manner? Your post was totally fine until this point. This last part is totally extraneous. Why did you feel the need to add it?

 

[cryptoadam]

Seems like it all comes down to if you believe this point

“The former Obama officials disputed that the momentary access to U.S. banks to convert funds through the dollar constituted “access to the U.S. financial system.”

Even if you agree or not, its very sneaky that Obama did this secretly and didn't tell anyone about it. So obviously there has to be a reason for that.

I am sure that 5.7 has been helping Assad/Hezbula out quite a bit in Syria and the Houties in Yemen.

 

[TrainedRage]

I don't believe this fake news. Obama would never lie to us. All he cares about was Ameri....... I can't even finish, it hurts.

 

[Sakura Doritos]

Yes only the last administration.. any other administration have done or does everything by the book..
GO RED TEAM!! Am I right?
/s
At least they tried to find a legal loop hole to transfer some money, not lie about wmd’s to start a war..
Both things are shitty.. one of them is more shitty though, I’ll let you guess which one it is..

You are making leaps of faith that you know my political ideals or you are just attacking my point with a whataboutism.

I disliked Bush for the most part. As much as I think Obama was a terrible policy maker I think Bush allowed one of the single most anti-constitutional laws in 45 years: The Patriot Act.

Don’t tie your emotions to politics and you won’t come off as a fanatical.

 

[Sakura Doritos]

I'm totally OK with a country getting money back that belongs to them in the first place. Fuck anyone and everyone that thinks otherwise.

Well then. I am certainly glad you made an airtight case and prove your point. If Education of our youth could only be so concise and cor

Seems like it all comes down to if you believe this point

“The former Obama officials disputed that the momentary access to U.S. banks to convert funds through the dollar constituted “access to the U.S. financial system.”

So you are establishing that Alt-Facts existed prior to Trump?

 

[TrainedRage]

This is just bullshit.

It's their money that has been stolen by the US.

you need to wake up from your alt right Trump nightmare and stop reading and posting lies.

You gonna back that up? Or is this your alt left Trump nightmare spewing into waking life?
I trust the AP more than you, sorry bud.

 

[Tumle]

You are making leaps of faith that you know my political ideals or you are just attacking my point with a whataboutism.

I disliked Bush for the most part. As much as I think Obama was a terrible policy maker I think Bush allowed one of the single most anti-constitutional laws in 45 years: The Patriot Act.

Don’t tie your emotions to politics and you won’t come off as a fanatical.

Just thought you where singeling out one administration.. mostly because of the tone of the previous post before yours.. my bad.

 

[CampbellzSoup]

You gonna back that up? Or is this your alt left Trump nightmare spewing into waking life?
I trust the AP more than you, sorry bud.

The US is responsible for everything haven’t you realized that haha

 

[bucyou]

So Obama is an Iranian puppet confirmed

 

[Deleted member 738645]

So Obama is an Iranian puppet confirmed

No. He's a Kenyan Atheist Muslim Communist who controls the deep stape which is funded by Soros where he plans to take all americans guns away, impose Sharia laws and Martial law. Any day now...

 

[nani17]

An American president that lied say it isn't so. Wow, he must have been the first ever to lie to his own people.

 

[RokkanStoned]

But Obama made jokes and fluffy speeches so he’s still good.

I dislike this kind of sarcastic comment, just as much as complete dismissals or idolization of politicians. It doesn't really contribute to the topic.

On topic, I guess the problem can be viewed in many ways. One is an issue of legality, the other is an issue of morality and lastly an issue of politics and the decision-making (especially foreign policy of the executive and benefits by helping Iran).

 

[Future]

Well then. I am certainly glad you made an airtight case and prove your point. If Education of our youth could only be so concise and cor


So you are establishing that Alt-Facts existed prior to Trump?

Trying to parse through snark, but I’m guessing this means you don’t agree with that statement? I personally don’t know

 

[bucyou]

No. He's a Kenyan Atheist Muslim Communist who controls the deep stape which is funded by Soros where he plans to take all americans guns away, impose Sharia laws and Martial law. Any day now...

more proof obama is an iranian puppet than there is trump is a russian puppet, you cannot refute this so i expect more snarky comments that dont relate to the issue at hand.

 

[LordPezix]

It's all a money game baby,

Gotta keep yo money on mind and yo mind on yo money, ya dig.

 

[Ridcully]

Next we'll be hearing about how he sold them guns to fund rebels in Nicaragua.

 

[Sakura Doritos]

Just thought you where singeling out one administration.. mostly because of the tone of the previous post before yours.. my bad.

No worries.

 

[Gander]

There are legit reasons to question Obama's actions, like why he was so hellbent on closing Guantanamo Bay. Certainly no one here in the states was asking for that.
However with the Iran deal I think he was just trying to do the best deal he could to slow Iran's nuclear progress.

 

[Sakura Doritos]

Trying to parse through snark, but I’m guessing this means you don’t agree with that statement? I personally don’t know

The snark was definitely for the banned user.

I should have responded the second quote individually in hind sight. However, I actually disagree with the view point. I don’t think we need to have lawyer mentality washing through our executive branch where they are interpreting laws and acting on them. They can seek guidance from the department of justice openly. So much for the change ushering in transparency that was pushed during the administration change.

 

[rokkerkory]

I wonder if Trump lies?

 

[gohepcat]

There are legit reasons to question Obama's actions, like why he was so hellbent on closing Guantanamo Bay.

Hahaha wait...what? You really want an extra judicial dungeon where we throw people without due process? You essentially want to live 500 years ago?

 

[Gander]

Hahaha wait...what? You really want an extra judicial dungeon where we throw people without due process? You essentially want to live 500 years ago?

Not saying it's not the right thing to do. It more a question of priorities. The housing market was causing people to commit suicide, we were hemorrhaging jobs everyday and we were mired down in 2 wars. We could give a rat's ass about what was happening with captured terrorists.

 

[llien]

How is access to Iran's money, frozen under sanctions, "money laundering"?
5.7 billion is not even pocket money for the America's financial system.

 

[Happy1996]

Breaking news dude.

 

[TarNaru33]

Congress had issued sanctions on them. To get it lifted it has to go through congress but the administration lied and tried to subvert it. How about you wake up?

I see nothing wrong with him doing this, are you really going to keep forgetting that getting Congress approval with Republicans stonewalling everything was impossible? Unfortunately the Nuclear Deal had to be done this way because U.S legislative branch was a full on lame duck.

Context helps when you want to discuss something. Nuclear Deal is better than no deal, always try to keep that in your mind.

 

[138]

Fact Checker: Trump’s claim that an Obama administration effort on Iran was ‘totally illegal’

The report shows that administration officials in February arranged for Bank Muscat to receive a special license from Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which enforces sanctions, to authorize the conversion of the rials to euros through “any United States depository institution … involved as a correspondent bank … where such foreign exchange conversion provides an indirect benefit to persons subject to the jurisdiction of the Government of Iran.” The license outlined precisely how the conversion was to occur.

OFAC issues licenses to companies all of the time so they can do business with sanctioned countries; in 2011, according to OFAC records, nearly 3,000 licenses were issued.

This is where Trump gets the story wrong – the license made the transaction perfectly legal.

“U.S. sanctions regimes generally grant broad authority to the executive branch to license activities it deems as beneficial to U.S. foreign policy objectives,” said John Hughes, a former deputy director in the Office of Sanctions Policy and Implementation in the State Department’s Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. “By definition, the granting of a license gives specific legal authorization for an activity that would otherwise not be allowed under the sanctions. Whether the President agrees with the policy or not does not change the fact that this was perfectly justified from a legal perspective.”

The Pinocchio Test
Trump claims the Obama administration tried to grant Iran “secret access” to the U.S. financial system. With their carefully parsed statements, U.S. policymakers certainly were not forthright to lawmakers at the time about the effort to let an Omani bank, in a one-time transaction, convert Iranian bank holdings into euros. But the granting of the license was not illegal; that statement is simply false. Indeed, the president may find OFAC licenses useful if he pursues a deal with North Korea.
Four Pinocchios

 

[MisterFalcon]

Hahaha wait...what? You really want an extra judicial dungeon where we throw people without due process? You essentially want to live 500 years ago?

It beats the current way of dealing with people coming back from ISIS territory in Europe.

"You went to join IS"
"Only to help people"
"Here is a video of you with an AK"
"That was just to seem tough"
"Here is a video of you executing a prisoner"
"That's not me, just someone who looks like me, you have no proof"

One year in jail, gets out even more radical and dies in a terror attack.

 

[Trojita]

138 kind of beat me to it.

Around when this was happening a lot of unfounded rumors were being put forward by Republicans that Obama's White House was going to let Iran have untethered access to US Banking systems. When going through all of the frozen assets that Iran had affected by sanctions, and what could be done about them within the rules of law, accounts in The Bank of Oman were identified. The problem is that the Rial currency is notoriously hard to convert. The first steps before this was formally agreed upon would be to issue a license to The Bank of Oman. After that they reached out to two banks, which gave their opinion on the matter, the proposal was eventually dropped as a no go. They could have kept going on to as many banks as necessary until one was okay with doing it. Now the government forcing a bank to do this, that would be shady. Since this proposal never made it out of its beginning stages, it wasn't mentioned again.

The bank of Oman is in Oman. If people didn't realize, Oman is a country. This isn't like they were giving an Iranian bank access to our banking industry. The US government was simply giving a license to The Bank of Oman to allow them to do a one time currency conversion.

 

[zelo-ca]

I see nothing wrong with him doing this, are you really going to keep forgetting that getting Congress approval with Republicans stonewalling everything was impossible? Unfortunately the Nuclear Deal had to be done this way because U.S legislative branch was a full on lame duck.

Context helps when you want to discuss something. Nuclear Deal is better than no deal, always try to keep that in your mind.

So I guess Trump should use his pen and paper and sign the wall into law? That would be ok with this logic

 

[TarNaru33]

So I guess Trump should use his pen and paper and sign the wall into law? That would be ok with this logic

You should try reading what I said again... Trump has no reason to do what you are suggesting nor is it necessary. He has control of both legislative branches and the US Supreme Court. Also the wall is not necessary for U.S interest, whereas the Iran Nuclear Deal was 100% necessary at avoiding future conflict and them going the nuclear bomb route. Instead of trying to get a "gotcha", use that brain of yours. See this is the downside with having to skirt around things to do what is necessary/right, you then have idiots try to use it as a reason to push bad policy, but they will try to do it anyways so its not like it matters.

When he gets a lame duck Congress that stops him from enacting laws and foreign policy decisions that are beneficial to U.S citizens as a whole, get back to me.

 

[cryptoadam]

There are legit reasons to question Obama's actions, like why he was so hellbent on closing Guantanamo Bay. Certainly no one here in the states was asking for that.
However with the Iran deal I think he was just trying to do the best deal he could to slow Iran's nuclear progress.

Or more likely he wanted to shift the power dynamics to Iran and the muslim brotherhood offshoots. Don't forget Obama backed the MB takeover of Egypt as well. By lifting sanctions on Iran, which was opposed by USA's biggest allies in the region, it gave Iran a huge cash infusion and the ability to extend its tentacles to Yemen and Syria and to reinforce Hamas and Hezbulla which acts a counter to Israel/Saudi/Egypt.

 

[Spheyr]

It'd be quicker to list the things the Obama administration was honest about.

 

[Trojita]

Or more likely he wanted to shift the power dynamics to Iran and the muslim brotherhood offshoots. Don't forget Obama backed the MB takeover of Egypt as well. By lifting sanctions on Iran, which was opposed by USA's biggest allies in the region, it gave Iran a huge cash infusion and the ability to extend its tentacles to Yemen and Syria and to reinforce Hamas and Hezbulla which acts a counter to Israel/Saudi/Egypt.

He wanted to empower Iran by making it so they got rid of the literal trump card that is nuclear armament? Is that your argument?

 

[rokkerkory]

It'd be quicker to list the things the Obama administration was honest about.

Please go for it. Will be fun.

 

[cryptoadam]

He wanted to empower Iran by making it so they got rid of the literal trump card that is nuclear armament? Is that your argument?

Yup.

He gave them a boat load of money and sanction releive and a crappy deal that didn't stop them from producing IBCM's and in which they could go back to producing nukes after a period of time. Since only 1 country in the region has nukes, a cash infusion for their conventional weapons was a bigger boon to Iran than cointinueing to enrich uranium.

Maybe their desire to destroy Israel and bring about the Madhi was delayed, but they sure as heck have been able to sow discord in Yemen and Syria and fund the so called "Great Return March".

 

[octiny]

LOL @ the thread title. You're trying too hard dude.

 

[Sakura Doritos]

Please go for it. Will be fun.

He already did. Missed it? That was the point.

/s

 

[5secondrulesucks]

LOL @ the thread title. You're trying too hard dude.

the obama administration told a white lie