Quote (Plaguefear @ 21 Aug 2016 03:22)
You ever think that getting the prisoners out was a lucky side effect of obama giving that money as a good faith gesture towards NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT?
I think the $400 million dollar payment and the release of the three prisoners are more highly correlated than the Obama administration is leading on about. In fact, we now this now.
Additionally, the State Deparment has said that the $400 million payment was a part of repayment for a deal with Iran in the 1970s in which the US never sent weapons to the Iranians after the collapse of their government in 1979.
The Obama administration argues that Iran was getting their money regardless, which is fair, but now they are admitting that the US prisoners were more involved in all of this than they originally led on. They were withholding the payment as leverage.
There's a lot of moving parts here, and foreign relations are delicate and complicated, but I don't think the Obama administration has been very honest or transparent about this. That's not to say I think the deal with Iran was a bad one (including the nuclear deal with the added interest of this payment), I'm just pointing out that Obama promised to lead the most transparent administration ever, and I do not think he has done that.