Free Republic

The Biden administration has made a deal with Iran to release $6 billion in frozen funds in exchange for the release of five American prisoners. The agreement issuing a blanket waiver for international banks to transfer sanctioned Iranian money from South Korea to Qatar without fear of U.S. sanctions includes the release of five Iranian citizens held in the U.S. The Iranian-Americans include businessmen Siamak Namazi, 51, and Emad Shargi, 58, along with environmentalist Morad Tahbaz, 67. Secretary of State Antony Blinken signed off on the deal late last week, but Congress was not notified of the decision until Monday,...

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday on CNN International’s “Amanpour” that the Biden administration should not negotiate with Iran. Anchor Christiane Amanpour said, “So on Iran because clearly the whole world is watching the very brave women and girls there stand up for their rights. And we’ve also seen the crackdown. We also know that this is all sort of complicated for the United States with all sorts of other policy, trying to get Iran, you know, to come back into the nuclear accord, which, by the way, it was a US president who brought the world out...

‘Whistleblower’ calls out John Kerry, says he ‘knows for fact’ Obama admin sent multiple letters directly to Soleimani Middle East expert Michael Doran slammed former Secretary of State John Kerry in a series of tweets exposing the Obama administration’s dealings with Iran. “I must become a whistleblower,” Doran, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute specializing in Middle East security issues, tweeted Friday in response to a self-serving opinion piece by Kerry published by The New York Times. Doran called out Kerry for his op-ed and the “ludicrous and reckless contention” that “diplomacy” with Iran and the nuclear deal negotiated...

On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Last Word,” former Secretary of State John Kerry commented on President Donald Trump’s speech earlier in the day. Trump said the Obama administration’s “foolish Iran nuclear deal was signed in 2013, and they were given $150 billion, not to mention $1.8 billion in cash.”

Earlier this month, House Democrats sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, urging sanctions relief for Iran. Among other things, they criticized "the designation of Iran's Central Bank under terror authorities," arguing that "the efficacy of sanctions is questionable." An organization long described as a front group for the Iran regime sponsored the letter and has embedded staffers with many of the letter's supporters in Congress, including Reps. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.). “Is Iran’s regime quietly infiltrating Congress?” M. Hanif Jazayeri, news editor at Free Iran, asked on Twitter. He pointed out that...

Seeks emails, texts, instant chats between Kerry and State Department officials and/or Kerry meetings with Iranian officials (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of State for records of communications between former Secretary of State John Kerry and State Department officials regarding “the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (also known as JCPOA or ‘Iran nuclear deal’) and/or meetings between Kerry and Iranian officials to discuss the JCPOA.” (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:19-cv-00777)). On May 8, 2018, President Trump announced the United States...

Former Secretary of State John Kerry, asked about the possibility of a 2020 presidential run, said this week he was “not taking anything off the table” and was “going to think about it.” He added that while he was also prepared to endorse another candidate he had yet to find someone he’d be willing to back. […] Despite that remark, Kerry then praised former Vice President Joe Biden and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, describing the former as “clearly qualified, clearly great — he understands all these issues” and the latter as “terrific” on guns, climate change and inclusivity. Earlier...

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) told a protester at a town hall event in New York City on Wednesday that she would look into whether Special Counsel Robert Mueller was involved in covering up the role Saudi Arabia played in the 9/11 terrorist attacks while serving as FBI director. In a video posted from the town hall on YouTube, the protestor asked Gillibrand if she would support legislation proposed by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) calling for the “federal government to declassify thousands of remaining documents related to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.” The protestor accused Gillibrand of knowing that Mueller was involved...

Senator Markey has announced his support for the Iran deal that will let the terrorist regime inspect its own Parchin nuclear weapons research site, conduct uranium enrichment, build advanced centrifuges, buy ballistic missiles, fund terrorism and have a near zero breakout time to a nuclear bomb. There was no surprise there. Markey had topped the list of candidates supported by the Iran Lobby. And the Iranian American Political Action Committee (IAPAC) had maxed out its contributions to his campaign. After more fake suspense, Al Franken, another IAPAC backed politician who also benefited from Iran Lobby money, came out for the...

Ten days into his tenure as United States attorney in Manhattan, Preet Bharara saw his political and prosecutorial worlds collide. He convened a meeting to discuss a sensitive investigation of a Democratic donor with ties to Senator Chuck Schumer of New York. Mr. Bharara had been Mr. Schumer's chief counsel, and Mr. Schumer had recommended Mr. Bharara for the prosecutorial post. At the meeting, Mr. Bharara asked his prosecutors if there was enough evidence to make a case against the donor, Hassan Nemazee. One of the prosecutors, Daniel W. Levy, who is now in private practice, would recall years later...

Obama Sees an Iran Deal That Could Avoid Congress By DAVID E. SANGER OCT. 19, 2014 WASHINGTON — No one knows if the Obama administration will manage in the next five weeks to strike what many in the White House consider the most important foreign policy deal of his presidency: an accord with Iran that would forestall its ability to make a nuclear weapon. But the White House has made one significant decision: If agreement is reached, President Obama will do everything in his power to avoid letting Congress vote on it. Even while negotiators argue over the number of...

Twenty-five years after its revolution of 1979, Iran has yet again become too big of a problem for Washington to play politics with. Fortunately, commencing his second-term, President George W. Bush is in a unique position of strength. On the one hand, he is less vulnerable to special interests in Washington seeking confrontation with Iran. On the other hand, his strong record on national security grants him enough political maneuverability to solve America's Persian puzzle once and for all by easing the increasingly costly and unsustainable policy of isolating Iran in return for an end to Iran's objectionable policies. President...

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., believes the United States should get out of the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya as soon as possible. ...Rockefeller also criticized the way military appropriations are often approved as part of "supplementary" budget legislation, hiding them from the public. "The military budget needs to come under new scrutiny. When I voted for the Iraq War, it was one of the worst votes in my life," Rockefeller said. "Today, I have grave misgivings about being in Iraq for another week. We should be out of Iraq this year altogether," he said. "We are not going to...

Hassan Nemazee, an Iranian-American businessman who raised money for the political campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for defrauding Bank of America Corp, Citigroup Inc and HSBC Holdings Plc out of $292 million. U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein imposed the sentence on Thursday following Nemazee's March 18 guilty plea in Manhattan federal court to charges of bank fraud and wire fraud over loan transactions with the three major banks. Nemazee said he needed the money to pay debts arising from his dealings in hedge funds and properties.

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- New York businessman and prominent Democratic fund- raiser Hassan Nemazee was indicted Monday for allegedly defrauding three banks out of $292 million in loans. Nemazee, 59 years old, was charged with aggravated identity theft and three counts of bank fraud in the indictment. Each bank fraud count carries a term of up to 30 years in prison. A lawyer for Nemazee didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Nemazee, who was involved in various presidential campaigns and once served as finance chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, was initially charged criminally in August related...

Amy Goodman of the Marxist Democracy Now! network reported yesterday on the arrest of a “leading Democratic donor” named Hassan Nemazee. Here is the story, in its entirety: Back in the United States, a leading Democratic donor has been arrested and charged with seeking to defraud the financial giant Citibank. Hassan Nemazee is accused of submitting forged documents to secure a $74 million loan. Nemazee has given at least $150,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee since 2006 and supported several other leading Democratic politicians. Not much to sink your teeth into there. Could it be that Goodman is downplaying...

A prominent Democratic party fund-raiser for Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton was arrested in Manhattan on Tuesday and accused of trying to defraud Citibank of a $74 million loan, the United States Attorney’s office said. The fund-raiser, Hassan Nemazee, 59, had been a national finance chairman for Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign before raising more than $500,000 for Mr. Obama’s campaign after the Democratic National Convention last August. F.B.I. investigators found that Mr. Nemazee, a Park

Many of the fake documents used by a leading Democratic Party fund-raiser to defraud HSBC and Citigroup Inc were made by his brother-in-law, U.S. prosecutors said on Friday. Authorities arrested and charged Shahin Kashanchi, brother-in-law of indicted fund-raiser Hassan Nemazee, who donated to the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and other leading Democrats over the years. Nemazee pleaded not guilty on Wednesday in Manhattan federal court to defrauding a total of three banks -- Bank of America was the other -- out of $292 million in loan proceeds. "Based on e-mail traffic between Kashanchi and Nemazee, Kashanchi was...

The shady Iranian fundraiser who for years donated lucrative sums to top Democrats—including the president, vice president and secretary of state—has pleaded guilty to a major bank-fraud scheme that could land him in jail for nearly two decades.Disgraced Democratic money man Hassan Nemazee admitted this week that he defrauded three financial institutions out of nearly $300 million in loan proceeds by falsifying documents and signatures to show he had hundreds of millions of dollars worth of collateral. The Ivy League-educated crook then used the proceeds to donate big bucks to the campaigns of federal, state and local candidates. Among them...

-excerpt- (Hassan) Nemazee, a New York businessman and one-time prominent Democratic fundraiser admitted Thursday that he bilked three banks out of $ 292 million in loans. He pleaded guilty to wire fraud and three counts of bank fraud at a hearing before U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein in Manhattan. Click here for Chad Bray’s story on Dow Jones Newswires; here for the NYT story; here, here and here for previous LB posts on Nemazee. Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan had alleged that Nemazee obtained hundreds of millions of loans from Bank of America, Citigroup and HSBC Holdings...