TRIGGER WARNING: I’ve got bad news for any readers who get fuzzy feelings when they post those “Eight scandal- free years” Obama memes on social media. If you haven’t been paying attention and you still believe that the Obama administration was indeed “scandal free,” you’re probably going to want to stop reading before the facts hurt your feelings.
In 2015, the Obama White House had finally secured what they hoped would be the crown jewel of the Obama Legacy: the Iran nuclear deal. The deal was extremely controversial, but was something that the Obama administration was willing to make happen at any cost. Since leaving office, it has been revealed that by dismantling the DEA operation “Project Cassandra,” the Obama administration allowed Hezbollah terrorists to freely traffic drugs and launder money in order to ensure that the deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran happened. Now, it is coming to light that this wasn’t the only secret arrangement that President Obama was willing to make in order to make Iran happy
The Obama administration misled the American people about their dealings with Iran. Thankfully, @POTUS is working with Congress and following through on his promises — like pulling out of this disastrous Iran deal. https://t.co/HCBIWuLAPw
— Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise) June 6, 2018
As part of the deal, Iran had been promised access to funds that they had been denied access to for years. Almost six billion dollars of this money was frozen in a bank in Oman. Notwithstanding officials in the Obama White House promising Congress that Iran would never gain access to the United States’ financial system, Iran wanted to be able to convert the money into American dollars. Despite U.S. lawmakers hesitantly agreeing to the deal, partly due to these assurances from President Obama’s administration, the White House quickly agreed to secretly allow Iran to sidestep U.S. sanctions in order to convert the funds through an American bank. However, the plan failed when two U.S. banks refused to participate in the covert conversion.
The only reason the #Iran did not get access to the U.S. financial system was because two U.S. banks refused, even though the Obama administration asked them to help convert the money. https://t.co/FAfqlBGTU0
— Rob Portman (@senrobportman) June 6, 2018
“The Obama Administration misled the American people and Congress, because they were desperate to get a deal with Iran,” said Senator Rob Portman.
Two years after the failed secret plan, an investigation by the Senate has revealed the plot to allow the self-professed enemy of the United States access to the American financial system in order to bypass U.S. sanctions. According to former White House officials, the objections to this secret project have more to do with justifying President Trump’s withdrawal from the deal than with any wrongdoing on behalf of the Obama White House. These officials also deny that “momentary access” to U.S. banks equaled access to the U.S. financial system. However, if the plan had gone through, the transactions would have clearly violated U.S. sanctions that prohibit Iran from utilizing the American financial system in any way at all. While the authorization and issuance of the Treasury Department license was not illegal, it highlights the extent in which the Obama White House was willing to compromise its integrity in order to build a legacy through a controversial deal that was already leaving the world in a much less secure state.
President Obama has not issued a statement on the revelation, leading this author to wonder if he may be waiting to discuss these sorts of moral compromise on his upcoming Netflix series.
