Ransom or what?

comicallyincorrect

Jonah Goldberg: When Is a Ransom Not a Ransom? When It’s Inconvenient to Call It That  
. . . "Now, because of this pas-de-deux of asininity, not only have we given the Iranians untraceable walking-around money to give to its terrorist proxies, we’ve also given them every incentive to kidnap more Americans — which is exactly what they’ve been doing. But at least the folks at the State Department can sleep soundly knowing that they didn’t really pay a ransom — it just looks that way."

Rich Lowry: The Ransom that Dare Not Speak Its Name . . . "At the most basic level, if the U.S. government were paying ransom to Iran, this is what it would look like: A cargo plane stuffed with wooden pallets of $400 million in foreign currency, obtained by the U.S. government from the central banks of the Netherlands and Switzerland, landing in an airport in Tehran reportedly the same day the hostages were released. The director Michael Bay couldn’t ask for better material." . . .

Weekly Standard: Kerry Says $400 Million Iran Story Is Not New  " 'This story is not a new story," Kerry told reporters in Argentina. "It doesn't represent anything the American people weren't told by the president and by the administration. What it does represent is a policy of common sense.' "

Well, yes, it was. If your enemy holds hostages you desperately want back and asks money for them, you could say it is "common sense" to pay the money, just as it is "common sense" to give the schoolyard bully your lunch money. How will that all work out for you?

UK Mail:Could Trump have been right? Propaganda film suggests Iran DID videotape cash-drop plane and photograph shipment of cash during January prisoner swap

Salon: Congress was right: The Iran deal is a travesty — and Obama is to blame

. . . "These latest developments undoubtedly confirm what conservatives and other pro-Israel activists have been arguing throughout this entire episode. They’re yet another reason why people who don’t like flawed GOP nominee Donald Trump will still have a hard time voting for Hillary Clinton, given her prominent role in helping usher in this flawed deal. They also tarnish President Obama’s legacy, despite his brag last week at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia that he’d “shut down Iran’s nuclear weapons program' ” . . .

The Wall Street Journal has a story on it but you have to register to read it.