By Congressman Tom Cole
It has been a longstanding policy of the United States that we will not negotiate with terrorists and we will not pay ransom money to free hostages. The reasons for this policy are obvious; paying ransoms incentivizes the taking of more hostages. U.S. presidents for decades have recognized this policy and adhered to it – until this president.
As we have learned over the last several weeks, the Obama administration paid Iran $400 million in pallets of foreign currency – supposedly to pay them back for an arms deal in the late 1970’s that the United States had negotiated with the Shah of Iran when they were considered a friendly ally. Not surprisingly, when the Shah was overthrown and the Islamic Revolutionaries took over the country and seized 52 American hostages, that arms deal was negated and diplomatic relations between our two countries were severed.
Unbelievably, we have since learned that the Obama administration has also paid Iran $1.3 billion dollars in 13 separate payments of $99,999,999.99. This, they explained, was the interest we owed Iran for keeping the $400 million over the past few decades. This defies common sense by any definition. A country that held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days and has been a sworn enemy of the west and which is widely recognized as one of the leading state sponsors of terrorism should not be rewarded with a refund on an arms deal along with nearly 4 decades of interest.
These payments coincided with a prisoner swap in January of this year where four Americans detained by the Iranian government were released contingent upon the release of four Iranian prisoners here in the United States. Prisoner exchanges themselves are a violation of our policy of not negotiating with terrorists, but the coinciding transfer of nearly $1.7 billion to Iran should make it abundantly clear that this administration very clearly paid a ransom of dollars and lawfully detained enemies of the United States.
When Members of Congress demanded answers, the Obama administration slipped into their all too familiar practice of denial, deception and blame shifting to their political opponents. They claim these payments were a part of the Iranian Nuclear deal they negotiated last year and had nothing to do with the release of four Americans. This despite the known fact that the four Americans were delayed on the runway in Iran until the $400 million had arrived, despite the fact that the Iranians themselves have referred to it as a ransom, and despite the State Department now warning Americans not to travel to Iran because of the risk of arrest and detention. Indeed, when the going price for an American hostage is apparently $100 million, we would be wise to stay away.
The foreign policy of this President has been inept and ham handed from the beginning. But perhaps nowhere has it been more inept, and placed the security of the United States and our allies more in jeopardy, than in Iran. The Iran nuclear deal this administration negotiated paves the way for Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. Our payment of billions of dollars has increased their ability to spread terrorism throughout the Middle East, Africa and Europe. And their obvious payment of a ransom for hostages makes every American who travels abroad less safe.
Even the President’s own Justice Department advised against making these payments because they were concerned it could be seen as ransom money. The State Department either can’t or won’t explain who authorized these payments and why they were shipped to Iran in such a shady and deceptive fashion. Every day it seems that another bit of information emerges that casts doubt on the honesty and competence of this administration. When the timeline, the facts and the first-hand accounts from the prisoners and government officials – both here and in Iran – are considered, the Administration’s explanations are less and less truthful, and reek of a cover up.
America deserves better from our leaders. We need leaders who do not cower in the face of our enemies. We need leaders who recognize the very real threats to our national security that we face. And we need leaders who know that rewarding terrorists for taking our citizens hostage by paying them hundreds of millions of dollars will never make us safe.
