This morning, The Wall Street Journal dropped a bombshell and reported that under a thick blanket of secrecy, the Obama administration organized a transfer of $400 million worth of cash to Iran, according to U.S. and European officials. This cash transfer is nothing less than a ransom as it suspiciously coincided with the release of four Americans detained by Iran and was only months after the dangerous Nuclear Deal was solidified. The details of the ransom exchange sounds like something straight from a Hollywood script:
Wooden pallets stacked with euros, Swiss francs and other currencies were flown into Iran on an unmarked cargo plane, according to these officials. The U.S. procured the money from the central banks of the Netherlands and Switzerland, they said.
As we know, the United States Government has a very clear and longstanding policy on not paying ransoms or making any concessions to those holding American hostages. American University summarized the strict policy:
The U.S. Government will make no concessions to terrorists holding official or private U.S. citizens hostage. It will not pay ransom, release prisoners, change its policies, or agree to other acts that might encourage additional terrorism. At the same time, the United States will use every appropriate resource to gain the safe return of American citizens who are held hostage by terrorists.
The primary reasons behind the Government’s “no concession” policy to not pay ransom, release prisoners, or change its policies is to discourage further acts of terrorism and reduce the threat on Americans citizens in the future. President Barack Obama once clearly knew and understood the repercussions of the “no concession” policy, as he outlined the policy in a February 2016 Interview with BuzzFeed News:
“The one thing that we have held to is a policy of not paying ransoms with an organization like ISIL, and the reason is once we start doing that not only are we financing their slaughter of innocent people and strengthening their organization, but we’re actually making Americans even greater targets for future kidnappings.”
In the 7 months since the $400 million was forked over to Iran, the Iran Revolutionary Guard has arrested two more American citizensand have detained dual-nationals from allied countries such as, France, Canada, and the U.K. So if even President Obama knew that by giving the state-sponsor of terrorism in Iran $400 million would make Americans “greater targets for future kidnappings,” by further incentifying the hostage taking, why would the administration pay this dangerous and secretive ransom?
The reasons behind the cash exchange seem to be fairly simple. The administration needed a political victory on the world stage, so they skated around U.S. law by sending hundreds of millions to bad actors in Iran, essentially bribing them to follow the destined-to-fail Nuclear Deal. Contrary to Secretary of State John Kerry’s claim that diplomacy was victorious, it was cash at the expense of every American’s security that proved to be victorious for the Iranians. Once again, this administration has placed politics over security, making our country less safe at home and more unstable abroad, setting a dangerous precedent for the future. How much will we have to pay to release the next hostage?