Thread by @The_War_Economy

"Fourteen months ago, President Obama authorised a top-secret, second diplomatic channel with Tehran to negotiate freedom for Americans who had disappeared or been imprisoned in Iran."

newyorker.com/news/news-desk…

"Brett McGurk, a senior State Department official, headed the small American team, which also included officials from the Department of Justice, the F.B.I., and the intelligence community."

newyorker.com/news/news-desk…

"They recommended late that night that we execute the arrangement without Jason's mother and wife, and of course I said, 'No, the entire thing's off unless they're on the airplane.'"

"But McGurk and others worked one part of the Iranian Government..."

edition.cnn.com/2016/01/19/pol…

"Robert Levinson, the former FBI agent who vanished in Iran in 2007, was not included in the weekend's prisoner swap because he is not believed to be in Iran, said Brett McGurk, the administration's point person on the swap."

pbs.org/newshour/world…

"Key documents relating to the Obama administration's secret negotiations with Iran, including a $1.7 billion cash payment, are being stored at a highly secure site on Capitol Hill, preventing the public and many in Congress from accessing them."

freebeacon.com/national-secur…

"Sources further disclosed that joint U.S.-Iranian signatures across the three documents add up to a package deal between Washington and Iran's Intelligence Ministry, the country's internal spy agency."

freebeacon.com/national-secur…

"The terms of the arrangement - which was signed by Special Presidential Envoy Brett McGurk - had Iran releasing several U.S. hostages and obligated Washington to pay Tehran $1.7 billion in cash..."

"... removed international sanctions on a key financial node of Iran's ballistic missile program, and dropped charges against 21 Iranian operatives linked to terrorism."

freebeacon.com/national-secur…

"Mr. McGurk, a top State Department official who had just brokered the departure of Iraq's problematic prime minister, was tapped in October 2014 to lead the new talks with Iran."

nytimes.com/2016/01/18/us/…

"So I want to thank my national security team -- especially Secretary Kerry; Susan Rice, my National Security Advisor; Brett McGurk; Avril Haines; Ben Rhodes -- our whole team worked tirelessly to bring our Americans home."

obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-offi…

"The Obama administration agreed to back the lifting of United Nations sanctions on two Iranian state banks blacklisted for financing Iran's ballistic missile program on the same day in January that Tehran released four American citizens from prison."

wsj.com/articles/u-s-s…

"The U.N. Security Council's delisting of the two banks, Bank Sepah and Bank Sepah International, was part of a package of tightly scripted agreements that were finalised between the U.S. and Iran on Jan. 17, the day the Americans were freed."

wsj.com/articles/u-s-s…

"According to senior U.S. officials, a senior State Department official, Brett McGurk, and a representative of the Iranian government signed three documents in Geneva on the morning of Jan. 17."

wsj.com/articles/u-s-s…