H/T Joe LaVeque

It was outrageous enough that Barack Hussein sent $400 million dollars cash, palletized and put on a cargo plane, to the Islamic nutjob terrorist regime in Iran in exchange for the release of American hostages (read: ransom), but what he did two days later and how he did it is mind-blowing in its arrogance.

Completely without the approval of Congress, which is supposed to be THE approving authority for federal expenditures, Barack Hussein not only flew the terrorist regime in Iran $400 million cash ransom, but then just two days later wired another $1.3 billion of taxpayer money to the Persian punks.

This raises several very serious questions….

  1. Where did this money come from? Was it taken directly from the US Treasury?
  2. Is Barack Hussein just willy-nilly stroking checks around the globe on his own, to hell with congressional approval?
  3. Is Barack Hussein giving money to known state sponsors of terror, despite existing sanctions?
  4. Is it likely that Iran is using their newfound windfall for purposes not exactly favorable to the United States?
  5. Should Congress demand an immediate return of the $1.7 billion?
  6. Should Congress demand an audit of the Treasury?
  7. Will Congress demand an audit of the Treasury?

If you answered yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, and no to the above questions, congratulations! Select any prize from the top row.

ABSOLUTELY an immediate audit of the US Treasury  should be done, accounting for every single dime the Treasury has spent in the past eight years.

In Powdered Wig’s article yesterday regarding the $400 million cash ransom, we found it unconscionable that our president is actually giving money to a known state sponsor of terror, one which has a nuclear weapons program maturing by the day, and has promised to remove Israel from the map, and to attack both Europe and the United States.

In addition, the apocalyptic nutjobs who run Iran are developing an ICBM program. They do not need ICBMs to attack Israel. They already have that capability and are apparently simply awaiting manufacture of a sufficient number of warheads. The ICBMs are for us! As in U.S. And also for our European allies.

Sure, why not give the Persian terrorists nearly two billion dollars? No doubt they will invest it in peaceful endeavors like schools, healthcare for the elderly, feeding the hungry, and childcare facilities, right?

No need to answer that last question. Thursday is “Sarcasm Day.”

From Fox News

WASHINGTON –  The Obama administration said Wednesday it paid $1.3 billion in interest to Iran in January to resolve a decades-old dispute over an undelivered military sale, two days after allowing $400 million in cash to fly to Tehran.

State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau says the U.S. couldn’t say more about the Jan. 19 payments because of diplomatic sensitivities. They involved 13 separate payments of $99,999,999.99 and final payment of about $10 million. There was no explanation for the Treasury Department keeping the individual transactions under $100 million.

The money settles a dispute over a $400 million payment made in the 1970s by the U.S.-backed shah’s government for military equipment. The equipment was never delivered because of the 1979 Islamic Revolution that overthrew the shah and ended diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Iran.

On Jan. 17, the administration paid Iran the account’s $400 million principal in pallets of euros, Swiss francs and other foreign currency, raising questions about the unusual payment. The $1.3 billion covers what Iran and the U.S. agreed would be the interest on the $400 million over the decades.

The deal has faced increased scrutiny since the administration’s acknowledgment this month that it used the money as leverage to ensure the release of four American prisoners.

Republican critics accuse the administration of paying a “ransom.”

President Barack Obama and other officials deny such claims, though they’ve struggled to explain why the U.S. paid in cash. Obama said it was because the United States and Iran didn’t have a banking relationship after years of nuclear-related sanctions, but that wouldn’t rule out using intermediary banks that maintain relationship with both.

Briefing reporters last week, a senior U.S. official involved in the negotiations said the interest payments were made to Iran in a “fairly above-board way,” using a foreign central bank. But the official, who wasn’t authorized to be quoted by name and demanded anonymity, wouldn’t say if the interest was delivered to Iran in physical cash, as with the $400 million principal, or via a more regular banking mechanism.

The money came from a little-known fund administered by the Treasury Department for settling litigation claims. The so-called Judgment Fund is taxpayer money Congress has permanently approved in the event it’s needed, allowing the president to bypass direct congressional approval to make a settlement. The U.S. previously paid out $278 million in Iran-related claims by using the fund in 1991.