Obama’s Cash for Iran’s Hostages

Obama’s Cash for Iran’s Hostages - WSJ:
"When is a payment for hostages not a ransom?
When the Obama Administration says so.
That’s how the State Department has tried to spin a $1.7 billion settlement the U.S. reached with Tehran in January, when the nuclear deal was finalized and Tehran released five American hostages, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian.
The Administration insists the payment merely settled a separate dispute related to the aborted sale of military equipment to the Shah of Iran in 1979.
New reporting by the Journal’s Jay Solomon and Carol Lee blows apart this story. 
On the day the U.S. hostages came home from Iran, an unmarked cargo plane landed in Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport with cash amounting to $400 million of euros, Swiss francs and other currencies. 
U.S. law forbids direct dollar transactions with Iran, and the $400 million in cash wasn’t disclosed to Congress.
Justice Department officials objected but were overruled.
One reason the Administration is keen to deny that the cash was ransom is because it had already paid a high price by freeing seven Iranians charged or convicted of U.S. crimes and dropping extradition requests for 14 others.
But the Iranians weren’t satisfied..."
Read on!