Quote (Surfpunk @ May 8 2018 02:22pm)
Judgment fund or not, the money was paid to the US originally by the pre-Revolution Iranian government for arms which were never delivered, due to the Revolution and fall of the Shah. We've technically owed Iran this money since 1979.
we technically paid them back in 1990 with a partial settlement. We owed money to an entity that no longer existed, and those $400m assets were left in permanent limbo, and remaining $1300 million came from taxpayers by twisting the judgment fund to the breaking point
Obama was under no obligation to ever repay back this money and his 'settlement' was a voluntary concession, nothing more than an excuse to wrap his payout around. If he hadn't decided to concede that money in a 'settlement', it never would have gone anywhere. Lets not pretend the tail is wagging the dog- Obama had a diplomatic goal and searched for some baloney legal precedent to wrap it around. This was very much right up the alley of his second term of rather desperate pragmatism to circumvent the law at all costs to accomplish the goals he wanted without going through the proper channels when they wouldn't give him the results he wanted. Same shit with DACA, Obamacare, oodles of regulations, etc. He built it on unstable footing and it collapsed.
This post was edited by Goomshill on May 8 2018 02:32pm