Other People’s Money

There was a clever movie with this title and it said a lot about the use of money that someone else was putting up.  Always a big risk for both parties, and the movie played out that theme.  We get the same thing with the Iran Nuclear Deal and the Obama Administration making concessions and exceptions to the banking restrictions it put on Iran, so it could look good in the deal it was making for Iran to get cash in exchange for making an agreement nobody wanted.  Today, that story is a little different now that it involves not just Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Iran and the US, but Oman too.

It seems that Iran had $5.7 Billion worth of Omani rials that it wanted to convert to Euros, a decidedly more fluid currency than the one they had.  The Obama Administration said that Iran would not have access to the US banking system in any of the transfers, which explained the US putting cash on an airplane and flying it to Iran. So too did it seem like a great idea to allow a one-time access to the US to get that conversion done, adding billions more to the bank account of Iran.  Why, I don’t know, since Iran had its money and didn’t need help converting it.  Iran has its own banks.

When the Administration approached two US banks about doing this for the Iranians, both said No.  That should have given some pause.  Not for these guys.  They plowed ahead, in spite of knowing that the Oman government was actively helping Iran transfer missiles, UAVs, and small arms through their country to the rebels in Yemen.  We have to remember that the Saudis were not best friends with Obama’s White House, so they must have thought Iran was a better friend.  That level of naive thinking was everywhere in that Administration.  Above all else, they wanted that Iran nuclear deal, even if it meant doing damage to other countries in the process.  John F. Kerry was out stumping to keep that agreement this year in what was certainly a violation of the Logan Act, if not just foolhardy.  That is singleness of purpose - at least.  

Iran ended up with their money conversion so it had at least the $1.7 Billion the US flew over on that famous midnight run, and another $5.7 Billion in this deal.  The Iranians did well on that deal and use it to finance terror all over the Middle East.