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Cash On Delivery: The preferred method of payment in Iran

September 21, 2016

WASHINGTON, DC –House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) today at a House Leadership press conference discussed home-grown terrorism and the consequences of the Obama Administration’s cash payments to Iran, the world’s largest state-sponsor of terrorism:

Remarks:

“This weekend, we continued to see more terrorism coming to American soil -- in this case, more home-grown terrorism, which is an increasing problem. The House has taken action over the last few months to address home-grown terrorism. The Senate needs to take action on that. The president needs to step up his actions.

“But one thing we're going to do this week, and I want to thank Chairman Royce and his committee for their leadership on confronting this ransom payment that the president made to Iran. When the initial word came out that $400 million was sent in unmarked bills on an unmarked plane to, in essence, exchange that money for American hostages, it sent a chilling signal. But what we heard from the White House was denials, actually calling us out saying it wasn't about ransom payments. And then, of course, we found out that the president misled the American people and continues to refuse to confront this problem and how it actually makes America less safe. And we've seen that play out. We've seen more Americans and other Westerners taken hostage.

“When you put a price tag on the head of Americans, all it's going to do is encourage Iran to continue this behavior of capturing our men and women and then holding them out for cash payments from this president.

“Where is that money ending up? I think a very important question that ought to be asked of President Obama is how much of that $1.7 billion in unmarked cash bills are going to go to Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations. We already know that Iran is the largest state sponsor of terrorism. So the question is not if, but how much of that money is going to end up in the hands of terrorist organizations who go after our allies like Israel and Americans.

“So these are serious questions. At least the House is continuing to confront this and take more action to prevent it from happening again. But what's already happened deserves serious answers from the White House, and this time, candor; no longer misleading the American people like they have in the past.”

Click here to watch Scalise's remarks