Ransom By Another Name

You’ve probably heard the very old riddle: When is a door not a door? When it’s ajar

An updated version might go like this: When is a ransom not a ransom? When the Obama administration says it isn’t.

President Obama and his State Department want us to believe that $400 million in foreign cash that was flown into Iran under cover of darkness on an unmarked cargo plane was merely money “owed” to the world’s No. 1 sponsor of terrorism from a failed arms deal negotiated with the Shah of Iran more than 35 years ago.

The president’s explanation is that the money was part of the nuclear deal reached with Iran and the first installment of a $1.7 billion settlement resolving claims at an international tribunal at The Hague. The president says settling the claim now is actually saving money, the full amount of which might have had to be paid if the case were fully litigated before the court.

We are to ignore a statement by one of the four Americans held hostage by the Iranian regime (one of them since 2011) before being released in January. Christian pastor Saeed Abedini told Fox Business Channel last week: “I just remember the night at the airport sitting for hours and hours there, and I asked police, ‘Why are you not letting us go?'” Abedini said the policeman answered, “We are waiting for another plane so if that plane doesn’t come, we never let [you] go.'”

What was the “other plane” carrying that was so important to the Iranian government that only its arrival would trigger the release of Abedini and the three other hostages, and its failure to land would keep them in captivity? Food? Toilet paper? Western movies? Or money?

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