The Associated Press now says that Barack Obama did not pay a $400 million dollar ransom for four hostages in Iran. This seems rather curious because a reporter got a member of the Obama team to admit it was a ransom.
What makes it even more curious is the fact that it was an AP reporter who got the confession.
From The New York Post
The State Department admitted Thursday that the United States handed over $400 million in cash to Iran only after Tehran released four American hostages — two weeks after President Obama insisted the payment was not a “ransom.”
State Department spokesman John Kirby was asked at a press briefing: “In basic English, you’re saying you wouldn’t give them $400 million in cash until the prisoners were released, correct?”
“That’s correct,” he replied.
In an Aug. 4 press conference, Obama said the opposite.
“We do not pay ransom. We didn’t here, and we won’t in the future,” the president told reporters, speaking of the January payment and hostage release.
Families “know we have a policy that we don’t pay ransom. And the notion that we would somehow start now, in this high-profile way, and announce it to the world, even as we’re looking in the faces of other hostage families whose loved ones are being held hostage, and saying to them we don’t pay ransom, defies logic,” Obama added at the time.
He even lectured the press for daring to raise the issue.
“It’s been interesting to watch this story surface. Some of you may recall, we announced these payments in January. Many months ago. There wasn’t a secret. We announced them to all of you. [Press secretary Josh Earnest] did a briefing on them.
“This wasn’t some nefarious deal,” the president said.
“It wasn’t a secret. We were completely open with everybody about it and it is interesting to me how suddenly this became a story again.”