Obama administration backed lifting sanctions on Iranian banks as part of hostage ransom

Another Day, Another Secret Obama Side Deal with Iran  "According to a September 30 Wall Street Journal article, the Obama administration signed a secret agreement with Iran to lift U.N. sanctions from two Iranian banks — Bank Sepah and Bank Sepah International — that helped finance Iran’s ballistic-missile program. U.S. and Iranian officials signed this deal on January 17, 2016, the same day Iran released four U.S. prisoners." . . .

"  . . .former hostage Saeed Abedeni’s recent statement concerning the actions of Iranians at the airfield is enough to question whether or not that is still our stance.

“I just remember the night at the airport sitting for hours and hours there, and I asked police, ‘Why are you not letting us go?’ ” Abedini said. “He said, ‘We are waiting for another plane so if that plane doesn’t come, we never let [you] go.’ ”  

Rick Moran  "The Wall Street Journal has a shocking report that adds fuel to the fire over the $1.7 billion in cash paid to the Iranians to get the hostages released.

On the same day the cash payment arrived in Tehran, the U.S. secretly agreed to back a U.N. effort to lift sanctions on two Iranian banks accused of assisting Iran's ballistic missile program. 

The Obama administration agreed to back the lifting of United Nations sanctions on two Iranian state banks blacklisted for financing Iran’s ballistic-missile program on the same day in January that Tehran released four American citizens from prison, according to U.S. officials and congressional staff briefed on the deliberations.

The U.N. sanctions on the two banks weren’t initially to be lifted until 2023, under a landmark nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers that went into effect on Jan. 16.

"Just how much of this nuclear agreement with Iran was real?  We learned after the deal went into effect that restrictions on Iran's centrifuge technology were a sham and that despite assurances from the White House, the deal did not prevent Iran from testing its ballistic missiles (separate U.N. resolutions were supposed to restrict the missile program)." . . .