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Trump Mulls Releasing 'Hidden' Details of Iranian Nuclear Deal

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JERUSALEM, Israel – President-elect Donald Trump may release details of the Iranian nuclear deal the Obama administration kept hidden from the public, The Daily Beast reported on Monday.

"The hidden Iran nuclear deal agreements the Obama admin doesn't want you to see? Trump's team wants to release them," tweeted Tim Mak, senior correspondent with The Daily Beast. "Unclassified documents have been kept in ultra-secure facilities usually used for top secret matters. They could come out in January."

Though not classified, the documents were stored with top-secret information in the Sensitive Compartmentalized Information Facilities (SCIFs) complex on Capitol Hill.

The documents include communications by outgoing Secretary of State John Kerry with other foreign ministers and details on "secret" exemptions given to Iran by a commission appointed to oversee implementation of the nuclear deal.

Also stored in the SCIF's complex is information detailing the terms of the $1.7 billion U.S. Treasury payment given to Iran in exchange for four American hostages, signed by senior State Department official Brett McGurk. Anyone wishing to view those non-classified documents was required to have a "confidential clearance."

"In the case of the Iran nuclear deal, there are many unclassified documents that have been held by the Obama administration in tightly controlled security environments that effectively make it impossible for the public to see them," wrote Mak.

"The American people know the Iran deal is bad," Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., told The Daily Beast. "I can tell you it's even worse than most people think. The Obama administration has long known its position is indefensible so they've chosen to hide unclassified documents from the public." That information should be available to the public, he said.

The report also quotes a senior Republican congressional aide who said, "The Obama administration didn't want wide readership and wanted to create hurdles for congressional staff to see it."

"I hope when President Trump comes to office, he makes the Obama administration the most transparent in history because they have not been transparent," he added.

 

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About The Author

Tzippe
Barrow

From her perch high atop the mountains surrounding Jerusalem, Tzippe Barrow tries to provide a bird’s eye view of events unfolding in her country. Tzippe’s parents were born to Russian Jewish immigrants, who fled the czar’s pogroms to make a new life in America. As a teenager, Tzippe wanted to spend a summer in Israel, but her parents, sensing the very real possibility that she might want to live there, sent her and her sister to Switzerland instead. Twenty years later, the Lord opened the door to visit the ancient homeland of her people.