Dave Patterson
Some behaviors are predictable, and experience confirms certain actors on the world’s stage will perform unsurprisingly. For example, Iranian authorities will lie, and many world leaders will believe them. You can take it to the bank. Remember last fall when Biden wanted to release six billion dollars in frozen Iranian cash to use to care for the people of Iran in exchange for US citizens held prisoner by Tehran? The State Department and the National Security Council spokesman assured everyone that the money had iron-clad oversight protection and could only be used for humanitarian purposes. Turns out that was false.
Iran Reels Biden in With Scam
Oversight protection was a figment of the president’s and his staff’s imagination. Andrew Moran, writing for Liberty Nation, was not fooled. When news of the cash-for-prisoners deal broke, Moran explained: “Here is how it works: Iran takes foreign hostages, uses them as leverage for future negotiations with Western governments, and receives cash for prisoner swaps. President Joe Biden has seemingly fallen victim to this scam hook, line, and sinker as Tehran will now swim in billions of dollars while promising to be good.”
The Associated Press reported the details of Biden’s buying Iranian-held hostages with billions of dollars, revealing:
“The Biden administration has cleared the way for the release of five American citizens detained in Iran by issuing a blanket waiver for international banks to transfer $6 billion in frozen Iranian money from South Korea to Qatar without fear of US sanctions. In addition, as part of the deal, the administration has agreed to release five Iranian citizens held in the United States.”
Others began to question the obvious problem – that Iran would use the billions of dollars to support its worldwide terrorist organization. What? Say it isn’t so, Joe. Surely Iran would use the money for humanitarian aid for its people and not to buy weapons for its anti-West proxies or, worse, fund terrorist cells. That’s what the Biden administration asserted, anyway. During a White House briefing, National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby pushed the president’s talking points. When it was clear the proposal had encountered insurmountable congressional headwinds on the cash-for-people transaction, Kirby steadfastly maintained: “And even if they had accessed it [the frozen funds], it wouldn’t go to the regime, it would go to approved vendors – that we approved – to go buy food, medicine, and medical equipment, and agricultural products and ship it into Iran directly to the benefit of the Iranian people.”
Nonetheless, the administration had to back down, albeit reluctantly, still holding fast to the fiction that the US government had strong enough oversight and financial controls to prevent Iran from using the unfrozen funds for anything but humanitarian purposes. “It took almost a week after the October 7 surprise attack by Hamas, but US officials said on Thursday, October 12, that the world’s number-one sponsor of terrorism would not be able to access the money,” Liberty Nation reported. The news “assuaged fears that the already controversial payment would simply be used to continue funding Hamas in its war against Israel.”
Treasury Deputy Secretary lets Cat Out of the Bag
Those fears were not unfounded. Fast forward to the April 9 Senate Banking Committee hearing and testimony from Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo. When asked about the ease of money going to Iran for funding terrorists and violent proxies, Adeyemo told the committee members:
“But what we’ve seen time and time from the Iranian regime is they failed to feed their people and they put the [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] first. Any dollar they have will go towards their violent activity before they deal with their people. That’s partially why almost none of the humanitarian money has been used for humanitarian purposes…[A]ny dollar they get that they have direct access to in the country will be used for the IRGC before it’s ever used for their people.”
Though not obvious to Biden’s closest advisors, what was painfully apparent to the American people and Deputy Secretary Adeyemo is that Iran puts funding terrorists and fomenting disruption in the Middle East before feeding its people. The White House cannot buy Tehran’s willingness to behave less violently and menacingly in the Middle East. Believing Iran will keep its word in providing for its people or on any other issues is a bankrupt foreign policy.
The views expressed are those of the author and not of any other affiliate.