Iran Collects Billions in Ransom Payments From Kidnapping Westerners

It's not just the $6 billion Biden just gave his Iranian Palz.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has generated a massive windfall of up to $15.7 billion for illegally seizing American hostages as part of a ruthless hostage policy that has been fine-tuned since its 1979 revolution, according to new a think tank report.

The publication of the report by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) coincides with the Biden administration's Monday announcement that it released at least $6 billion in sanctions relief to the theocratic state as part of a prisoner swap.

The U.S.-based MEMRI report cited an Iranian security official who declared in August, "This exchange operation is in fact one of the most successful and effective negotiation [efforts] ever to happen to the Islamic Republic of Iran. In essence, we released a few Iranian prisoners in exchange for some prisoners whose sentences were about to end, and, on the other hand, we succeeded in releasing billions of dollars of our blocked resources without committing to anything else."

Fox News Digital sent several press queries to the State Department for reaction to the MEMRI report, specifically the $15.7 billion figure said to be the amount of money paid to the Iranian regime by the U.S. government since 1981.

Previously, the State Department vigorously defended its $6 billion payment to Iran in the latest prisoner swap.

In a statement to Fox News Digital last week, it noted, "These funds will be moved to restricted accounts in Qatar, and the United States will have oversight as to how and when these funds are used," a state department spokesperson said. "It is longstanding U.S. policy to ensure our sanctions do not prevent food, medicine, and other humanitarian goods and services from flowing to ordinary people, no matter how objectionable their governments."

That's a lie, as Tony Blinken admits in a video below the fold.

The U.S.-sanctioned Iranian regime President Ebrahim Raisi disputed the State Department's assertion, stating his regime will spend the $6 billion "where we need it."

The Iranian tyrant is telling the truth, and American gangster-government officials are lying. What a lovely third-world shithole the former America is now.

...

Just last week, an Iranian security official boasted to the Fars news agency that "this sum of money that was released to Iran this time is four or five times greater than [the amount released] the last time" with respect to 2016 when President Obama transferred $1.7 billion in cash to Tehran's rulers.

...

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and MEMRI have noted that Iran received billions in other unlocked sanctions relief that are believed to part of this week's prisoner swap announcement.

The U.S. previously unfroze $10 billion to Iran in escrowed funds held in Iraq. Iran International recently reported, in July, that an Iranian official said Iraq released the $10 billion to Tehran. MEMRI's report said, "according to Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, negotiations on the release of billions of dollars more, in Japan, are underway."

Iran analysts and observers have noted that the clerical regime in Tehran feels emboldened about the efficacy of its reported hostage-taking strategy targeting Americans and other Western countries.

The former Iranian Expediency Council secretary Mohsen Rezaee told Iran's Channel 2 in 2021 that he would capture 1,000 Americans as hostages in the event of a U.S. attack on Iran and to demand a $1 billion ransom from the U.S. for each of them.

A majority of the American public opposes the Democrat play to give Iran a nuclear bomb with one jackpot billion dollar installment payment after another.

A majority of Americans oppose the Biden administration's decision to award Iran with $6 billion in exchange for several prisoners wrongfully detained in the country, according to a poll.

Fifty-five percent of likely voters said last week they do not approve of the prisoner swap, according to a poll commissioned by the Senate Opportunity Fund, a conservative nonprofit.

Just 28 percent of the 800 national voters polled said they support the prisoner deal, with 17 percent saying they have no opinion. Of those who opposed the deal, 33 percent strongly opposed it, while 22 percent said they "somewhat disapprove."

...

White House officials declined to comment on the latest move during a press call Sunday but said it would be meeting with European allies about Iran's nuclear program during the U.N. conference this week. A senior White House official also hailed the prisoner swap and a "historic moment" and said it sets the stage for further negotiations with Tehran's hardline regime.

Oh perfect, we paid $6 billion to Iran's Department of Terrorism, Kidnapping, and Extortion so that we can have "further negotiations" with Iran.

Below, Blinken admits there is no way to control what Iran spends the $6 billion on.

They will, of course, first finance additional hostage-taking missions. A business always takes care of its revenue-producing divisions first.

posted by Disinformation Expert Ace at 03:57 PM

| Access Comments