So the trumpers trust our intelligence people now
- Thread starter Veer2Eternity
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So Bush did nothing and Obama flew him in millions in cash. I like Trumps solution better.
Quick Take
A viral meme distorts the facts about the Iran nuclear agreement. The deal, approved by six countries and the European Union, gave Iran access to its own frozen assets.
Full Story
As a candidate during the 2016 campaign, President Donald Trump criticized the international agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear weapons’ program — formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — that had been adopted the year before. He suggested that the U.S. had returned $150 billion to Iran as part of the deal.
That’s not true. We’ve written about this issue before. PolitiFact and the Washington Post have, too.
But Trump has repeated the claim as recently as December, when he tweeted: “The Democrats and President Obama gave Iran 150 Billion Dollars and got nothing, but they can’t give 5 Billion Dollars for National Security and a Wall?”
Trump’s bogus claim now has been repeated in a meme that references the president’s declaration of a national emergency to redirect federal funds for a proposed wall on the southern border.
The meme, which has been shared 149,000 times on Facebook, mentions the recent lawsuit brought against the Trump administration by 16 states to block the national emergency. The meme says: “So, when Obama bypassed the Congress while giving Iran 150 billion in cash, how many States had sued him?”
First of all, former President Barack Obama didn’t give “150 billion in cash” to Iran.
The nuclear agreement included China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union, so Obama didn’t carry out any part of it on his own. The deal did lift some sanctions, which lifted a freeze on Iran’s assets that were held largely in foreign, not U.S., banks. And, to be clear, the money that was unfrozen belonged to Iran. It had only been made inaccessible by sanctions aimed at crippling the country’s nuclear program.
Secondly, $150 billion is a high-end estimate of the total that was freed up after some sanctions were lifted. U.S. Treasury Department estimates put the number at about $50 billion in “usable liquid assets,” according to 2015 testimony from Adam Szubin, acting under secretary of treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence.
The part that the meme gets right, though, is that the deal didn’t get congressional approval. The Obama administration had maintained that the agreement wasn’t a treaty, which would have required approval by the Senate. Republicans did try to block the deal, but they weren’t able to get enough support to pass the legislation in the Senate.
However, the U.S. is now no longer part of the deal. Trump pulled out in May 2018.
Editor’s note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Facebook to debunk misinformation shared on the social media network.
Sources
Trump, Donald. Ceasing U.S. Participation in the JCPOA and Taking Additional Action to Counter Iran’s Malign Influence and Deny Iran All Paths to a Nuclear Weapon. Presidential memorandum. 8 May 2018.
Farley, Robert. “Trump’s Fanciful Iran Negotiation.” FactCheck.org. 8 Jul 2016.
Szubin, Adam. Acting secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, U.S. Department of the Treasury. Written testimony for the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. 5 Aug 2015.
Trump, Donald (@realDonaldTrump). “The Democrats and President Obama gave Iran 150 Billion Dollars and got nothing, but they can’t give 5 Billion Dollars for National Security and a Wall?” Twitter. 12 Dec 2018.
Farley, Robert. “Trump Misleads on Corker.” FactCheck.org. 9 Oct 2017.
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As much as jihadists boast about their lust for death, few genuinely want to be killed.
Factcheck.org has fabricated so many fact checks it's hard to take them seriously. But thanks for the opinion.
This is what John Bolton has been pushing for for the last 20 years. Trump is an idiot for giving Bolton a seat at the table.
An idiot in that it will cost him his re-election? Or an idiot because Bolton is a warmonger and the Bush administration fubared Iraq? Let's not forget this jihadi terrorist thing in the middle east is a mess. Proxies back by these countries terrorist guys, killing and maiming. Why don't we just come home? It will go away, right?
Bill Kristol may not be a Trump lover now, but give it time.
The Middle East has been a backward quagmire literally since Genghis Khan burned it down after one of his envoys was beheaded. Us being involved in the region won't change that.
Yes, giving Bolton access and influence in the administration was stupid and now Americans are going to die, for what exactly?
I've done my tours in another pointless war and have no desire for anyone to have to deal with another mess of our choosing.
Trump chooses to go to war with Iran and I will actively campaign against him.
Trump's selections of staff are clearly his worst weakness. I have not toured. I had my opportunity to sign up and chose a different profession. No argument from me about pointless wars. Washington has literally been wrong about everything.
But again, I will reiterate what I have posted on the thread I started. They attacked our Embassy. I would agree the consensus is nobody wants a war. This is not the start of WWIII. This is not the time Eulogize terrorists as the NYT's and WaPO has done today. I'm bracing for what Iran will do in retaliation. I am guessing they'll pick on civilians and groups that can't defend themselves. The worry and angst the media has created over this are cynical politics at it's worst. They didn't act this way when Obama killed US citizens on foreign soil. I hate our press.
When Trump rejected Bolton, BigMo applauded him. Now Trump jumps on the Bolton train and BigMo is a huge fan. Jesus H. This boy is whack. There was nothing wrong with Obama’s agreement other than Obama did it. Pulling out of that agreement is the cause of much turmoil. Now Iran will never give up pursuit of nukes.
And the blood will be on Trumps hands. We had an agreement. It wasn’t perfect but it was keeping Iran reasonable. They have been anything but since Trump reneged. And why did he do it, because Obama humiliated him at a damn dinner.
You do not pay my bills when you do, I will care. You sound unhinged and triggered. Go to the children's table and throw a fit. The Democrat parties are un American and a much greater threat than nuclear war from Iran.
Yeah the media sucks, I know.
Trump has a choice to make, he can start another 20+ year war in the region in an attempt to ensure his re-election (playing politics) while also ensuring a generation of young people's lives are ended or destroyed.
Or cooler heads can prevail, he can run on a strong economy, actually attempt to spend some money on rebuilding the infrastructure, and staying out of unnecessary conflicts.
Again, if he engages in a military campaign with Iran I will campaign hard for Bill Weld or vote third party.
Trump just killed what is reported as one of the most dangerous terrorists in the world and Democrats are labeling it as an assassination. Assassination is murder. Nothing Trump does is short of apocalyptically awful.
Bernie, Liz, Omar, Cortez and half the Democrat party are propagandizing on behalf of the Iranian government. It's disgusting!
Yet another reason I'll never again vote Democrat.
Trump just killed what is reported as one of the most dangerous terrorists in the world and Democrats are labeling it as an assassination. Assassination is murder. Nothing Trump does is short of apocalyptically awful.
Bernie, Liz, Omar, Cortez and half the Democrat party are propagandizing on behalf of the Iranian government. It's disgusting!
Criticism of his lack of strategic planning is hardly unAmerican. You are a sad person.
The Democrats are refusing to acknowledge that there is a moral justification for killing this guy, or strategic benefit in, killing the world’s most dangerous terrorist.
The loud Democrats are totally beholden to their sacred doctrine of Orange Man Bad. And they are willing to say anything, and take any position, for the sake of advancing it. They do not care about Americans. You have been fooled.
Ok I have to return for this post and I'll go away again but I can't take this ignorance. You guys have told me how uniformed I am about almost everything yet you say you had no idea who this general was before we took him out. The Iraqi general we just killed is not, and has never been a good guy, but he was NOT some towel head running around in the mountains blowing up stuff when the opportunity arose. This guy was a high level 'government official' in Iran. He has been their top general for 20 years! Did we just set a precedent that it's ok to kill a general, a high level official in government, not just some terrorist that has no state but just kills people because he doesn't like the country they come from? What do you think we, or any European country would do, if a foreign country unleashed an air strike on one or two of our commanders driving down a road in a foreign country? We just made it ok to take out a top military commander NOT on the field of battle. Carry on.
This is why, for the only time in the history of the world, the USA designated an entire government (Iran) as a terrorist organization.
This allows Our president to kill people over there at will without needing approval of congress.
Hold on a second
Why would you say there was a lack of strategic planning???
How can you possibly know unless you are a member of the Joint Chiefs??
He is not a government official he is a terrorist. You can't assassinate terrorists. Thanks for returning.
If there was long term strategy developed it would have been shared with the gang of 8.
This was a fly by the seat of his pants effort by an impeached, desperate president who spent years accusing Obama of planning to do this to help himself be re-elected.
This is why I left in the first place. YOU and a few others just don't believe ANYTHING that doesn't fit your narrative. The world, especially that part of it is NOT a safer place tonight. The man we killed was a general in a REAL government! Do you think General Petraeus wasn't involved in the planning of thousands of casualties when he was sent to Iraq to clean up the mess it was at the time? Do you think it would have been ok for someone to take him out in an air strike on his car? Now we're not just sending 750 troops to protect our embassy, we've just bombed some more folks in Iraq and we're sending 3000 kids back to this very unstable region! TRUMP is the guy that has been bitching about our cotinual involvement in the Middle East and he just got us back in there heard over heels! They say every president finds out the job is not so easy once you get it.
Back to my happy new year.We have a decisive President. Democrats want to negotiate surrender.
The Iran treaty didn't have the approval of a single senator and thus it was unconstitutional. Who needs Congress when lives are at stake?
This was a well planned strike of pinpoint precision that hit one Iranian official who was highly involved in terroristic activity and it accomplished its goal of sending the message "don't mess with us".
This is not starting a war because Iran isn't suicidal.
If Trump would have notified the Dems prior, he would have been proven a fool.
This is not starting a war because Iran isn't suicidal.
If Trump would have notified the Dems prior, he would have been proven a fool.
I see, you think trump is a fool, and that would just prove it. Well put millie.
We are not at war with Iran. This was a surprise attack targeting one lranian leader. It’s called an assassination.
"Why don't you enlist" is the laziest and dumbest response to an argument about foreign policy. It's on the same intellectual level as "no uterus no opinion" in the abortion debate. An assertion is either correct or incorrect, regardless of the resume of the person asserting it.
Well when the shoot down our aircraft and burn our embassy you don’t need great intel
