{"id":2011574,"date":"2023-08-25T01:21:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-25T05:21:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-heartbreaking-rationale-for-not-paying-ransom-to-free-us-hostages\/"},"modified":"2023-08-25T01:25:31","modified_gmt":"2023-08-25T05:25:31","slug":"the-heartbreaking-rationale-for-not-paying-ransom-to-free-us-hostages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-heartbreaking-rationale-for-not-paying-ransom-to-free-us-hostages\/","title":{"rendered":"Reasons for not paying ransom to free US hostages are heart-wrenching."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-heartbreaking-rationale-for-not-paying-ransom-to-free-us-hostages%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2011574&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Republicans Condemn Biden Administration&#8217;s\u2062 Hostage Deal with Iran<\/h2>\n<p>To a person, Republicans welcomed the\u2062 news this month\u200d that five Americans had\u2063 been released from a notorious \u2064Iranian prison and transferred to\u2062 a hotel in Tehran as the first step in a U.S. negotiation aimed at eventually bringing \u200dthem \u200dhome.<\/p>\n<p>But when officials in the Biden administration confirmed that the hostage deal included not\u2063 only the release of five Iranians from\u2063 U.S. prisons but \u2062also the\u200b transfer of\u2063 $6 billion in Korean won frozen under U.S. sanctions in two South Korean banks, Republicans were in lockstep in their condemnation.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cBiden has authorized the largest ransom \u200bpayment in American\u2063 history to the Mullahs \u200din Tehran,\u201d former Vice\u200d President and presidential\u2064 candidate Mike Pence posted on X, formerly \u2064known as Twitter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnfreezing $6\u200d billion dollars in Iranian assets dangerously further incentivizes <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/former-iranian-hostage-says-obama-payments-to-iran-led-to-his-arrest\/\" title=\"Former Iranian Hostage Says Obama Payments to Iran Led to His Arrest\">hostage-taking<\/a>\u200d and provides a windfall for regime \u200daggression,\u201d posted Sen.\u200d Jim Risch (R-ID), ranking member of the Senate Foreign\u2062 Relations Committee. \u201cThe Biden Admin \u200dmust punish those who use Americans as political pawns and work to end \u200bthis practice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor decades, standing U.S.\u2062 policy was\u200d to\u2062 refuse ransom payments, a legacy\u200c continued by President\u2063 Trump, who secured the release of two American hostages\u200d from Iran without offering\u2062 a \u200bcent of financial relief,&#8221; Rep. Elise \u200dStefanik (R-NY), a member of\u200b the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a press release.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h3>White House and State \u2064Department Defend \u200dthe Deal<\/h3>\n<p>When the outlines of \u2062the yet-to-be-completed \u2064deal leaked, the White House and\u2062 State Department immediately went \u2064into spin mode.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIran will \u2062not be receiving any sanctions\u200d relief,\u201d said \u200bSecretary \u2062of \u2063State Antony Blinken. \u201cIran\u2019s own funds would be used and transferred to restricted accounts such\u2062 that the\u2063 monies \u2064can only be used\u2064 for humanitarian purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is not\u2064 a\u200c ransom,\u201d White House National Security Council\u200c spokesman John Kirby said on \u2062CNN. \u201cThe account from \u2063which money could be accessed by the Iranians is an account set up in\u200b the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/white-house-releases-list-of-president-trumps-accomplishments-and-it-is-historic\/\" title=\"White House Releases List of President Trump\u2019s Accomplishments \u2013  And It Is Historic!\">previous administration<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The funds in\u2063 question were from money due\u2064 Tehran for Iranian oil imported \u2064by South Korea in 2018 and 2019, but placed in escrow \u2062subject to U.S. approval, under an exemption to\u200c U.S. sanctions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo U.S. taxpayer dollars involved here,\u201d Kirby said. \u201cWhat \u2062we&#8217;re \u200btalking about is the possibility of \u2063making that one account that has been in \u200dexistence\u2063 for several\u2062 years more accessible to the Iranians \u2026 and there is an oversight mechanism that&#8217;s \u200dalready built into that process, so it&#8217;s not ransom.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere \u200dis no chance this \u200cmoney is\u200d ultimately going\u2064 to be used for humanitarian purposes,\u201d former\u200c Secretary of State \u200dMike Pompeo scoffed in an\u200d essay posted on the \u200dAmerican\u2062 Center for\u2064 Law and\u2062 Justice \u200dwebsite. \u201cTeam Biden \u200bknows \u2063this because money is\u200b fungible. That means that even if \u200cevery cent released to the regime\u200c is in\u200c fact used for humanitarian purposes \u2014 an improbable outcome in itself \u2014 the regime will still\u200b be free to allocate more \u2063resources to fund \u200bterror and \u2063mayhem on America\u2019s partners and allies.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>The Consequences of Hostage\u200c Deals<\/h3>\n<p>The undeniable reality\u200b of hostage deals is that, whether they involve the payment of cash ransom or \u2064are \u200da straight prisoner-for-prisoner swap, they inevitably beget more hostage-taking.<\/p>\n<p>Three \u200dmonths\u200b after the Biden administration traded notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout, known as the \u201cMerchant of Death,\u201d for WNBA star Brittney \u2063Griner,\u200d Russia took Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich hostage.<\/p>\n<p>Families, \u2063and\u2064 even the hostages themselves, know that paying ransom \u200bis a counterproductive strategy,\u200b but they fear the alternative is indefinite \u200dconfinement, usually \u200cin brutally\u200c harsh conditions.<\/p>\n<p>Among the five hostages now under \u200chouse arrest in Tehran is Siamak Namazi, \u2064an Iranian\u200d American \u200bwho\u2019s been held the longest, almost eight years, \u200band whose \u2063father was also imprisoned when he traveled to see his son.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe \u2063spent first two years being detained in the \u200dtoughest part of Evin \u2062Prison by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, subjected to very, very terrible conditions of detention,\u201d Jared Genser, a lawyer \u200dfor the family, told CNN International.\u200d \u201cSiamak himself has been left behind three times, once by \u200cPresident Obama in \u2063the 2016 nuclear deal and two more times by President Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Frustrated,\u2064 Namazi gave a \u2064prison phone interview to CNN, risking retaliation from his tormentors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI spent\u200c months\u200c caged\u200d in a solitary \u200dcell that was\u2063 the size of a closet, sleeping \u200don the floor, being fed like a dog from under the door,\u201d \u2064he said. \u201cHonestly, the other hostages and I\u200c desperately\u2063 need President\u2062 Biden to finally \u2064hear us out, to finally hear our cry \u200bfor \u200bhelp\u200d and bring us home. And I <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-heartbreaking-rationale-for-not-paying-ransom-to-free-us-hostages\/\" title=\"Reasons for not paying ransom to free US hostages are heart-wrenching.\">suppose desperate times call<\/a>\u200d for\u200d desperate measures. So,\u200c this is a desperate\u2063 measure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Left\u200b behind in the\u2063 deal that\u2063 freed Griner after 10 months was Paul Whelan, a former Marine, \u200csentenced \u200dto 16 years in prison for spying after a \u2063Russian agent allegedly framed him by passing him an incriminating flash \u2062drive that was supposed to contain innocuous wedding photos.<\/p>\n<p>Russia wants another high-value prisoner \u2064for him.<\/p>\n<p>Jason Rezaian, a journalist jailed by Iran for 544\u200d days between 2014 and 2016 and now a columnist for the Washington Post, said he understands \u200dthe \u2062debate over the \u201cmerits and the wisdom of \u2064doing these kinds of deals,\u201d but he told CNN,\u2064 \u201cThe reality is that if \u2062you don&#8217;t do a \u200ddeal, \u200byou&#8217;re leaving Americans behind.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe question is, \u2064then, what \u200cdo you\u200b do? Do you let\u200d an innocent American citizen who&#8217;s a father, a brother\u2062 just die \u2063in a foreign prison? Do you do nothing to\u200c bring them home?\u201d said Neda Sharghi, whose brother \u200cEmad is one of \u200dthe\u2062 five \u200cAmericans Iran \u200dis \u200busing as \u200ba \u200dbargaining chip.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat do \u2062we answer to this?&#8221; Sharghi continued. \u200c&#8221;How\u200d can we let an innocent \u2063American man perish in a foreign prison? Especially one who has been taken because he&#8217;s an American.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is never wrong to bring an American home,\u201d said Tara Tahbaz, whose father, Morad, like \u2063Emad, has\u2062 been wrongfully detained since\u200d his arrest in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey need to come home first, and then we need to figure out how \u200dwe deter this in the future,\u201d\u200b Tahbaz said in an interview along with Sharghi on\u2064 CNN. \u201cI mean, they have a blue \u2063passport, \u200dand they \u200dshould be\u2062 afforded the protection of their\u200d country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In an opinion piece in the New York\u2062 Times titled \u201cHow Much Is an American Hostage Worth?\u201d conservative journalist Bret Stephens says\u200d there\u2019s a better way \u200cto deter ransom demands\u200b than making \u200drepeated \u200bconcessions to terrorists or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/why-this-average-american-is-voting-for-donald-trump\/\" title=\"Why This Average American Is Voting for Donald Trump\">terrorist states<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery time Iran takes \u2064another hostage, the administration\u200d imposes another sanction. Every time Iran\u200c or its proxies attack a\u200d single U.S. military installation, the \u200dUnited States retaliates against multiple Iranian \u2064targets. Every time Iran supplies offensive weapons to \u2063Russia\u200b or other outlaw states, the United \u200bStates\u2064 supplies \u2064long-range fire and other advanced munitions to\u200d Ukraine,\u201d Stephens\u2062 argues. \u200c\u201cHe \u200cpulls a knife, you pull a gun.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf course we welcome home Americans who are wrongfully detained anywhere\u200c in\u200d the\u200d world, but we should be clear-eyed about what&#8217;s going to happen here. This is\u200d going to encourage Iran\u2062 and\u2062 other \u2064enemies to take more American hostages because\u200c they see\u2062 that it pays,\u201d\u2062 Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) said in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity. \u201cThey \u200bmay release the current hostages, but they can easily \u2064reverse their promises and just\u2062 take another set of hostages.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat $6 billion is not going\u200d to go to support widows and orphans in Iran,&#8221; Cotton added. &#8220;It&#8217;s going to go to support attacks on our troops, to fund \u200cterrorism to support \u200dattacks on Israel, to arm Russia. That&#8217;s \u200bwhat that money is going to go for, so this \u200bis \u200ba shameful and craven\u2064 act of \u200bappeasement.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>the release of the American prisoners but also the lifting of sanctions on Iran, Republicans expressed concern. They questioned the wisdom of giving concessions to a country known for its hostile behavior and support of terrorism. The news sparked a debate on whether the negotiation was a step towards peace or a dangerous compromise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2011575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2011574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2011574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2011574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2011574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2011575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2011574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2011574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2011574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}