The $400 Million Non-Ransom

Washington - Squandering Our Trust Faster Than Our Money

The View from the Middle

Does anyone really trust the government any more?  We’ve been lied to so often that we have become desensitized to it.  Even our news commentators respond to the deception by saying, “what do you expect, it’s politics” as if duplicity is standard practice in that profession and we just have to accept it. 

Harry Reid lied in front of the Senate when he said that Mitt Romney hadn’t paid any taxes for 10 years.  He then laughed about it when caught and rationalized, “well he didn’t get elected did he”.  Barack Obama was declared the liar of the year in 2013 by Politifact for his, “If you like your plan you can keep it” whopper.  Hillary Clinton just received four Pinocchio’s from the Washington Post and a “Pants on Fire” from Politifact for the tangled web she continues to weave about the handling of her emails.

We have Lois Lerner from the IRS and Bryan Pagliano who set up Hillary’s private server plead the fifth in front of Congress.  This allowed them not to tell any more lies, but it still deprived the American people of the truth.  And then we had Loretta Lynch basically do the same thing at her hearing to discuss her decision not to prosecute Ms. Clinton.  She refused to answer legitimate questions 74 times during that hearing.  Is any of this likely to instill confidence in the honesty and integrity of our government?

And now we have the President’s feeble explanation of the $400 million in untraceable cash sent on an unmarked jet in the dead of night to Iran.  Let me run through his strained argument as to why this couldn’t be a ransom payment.

First, he said that he told the American people way back in January.  And when were the hostages released?  January.  So, back in January, the President told the American people about the resolution of some innocuous 37-year-old claim that Iran held against us.  I’m sure the average American didn’t even hear it, and if we had I’m sure we would have all thought, “So what”.  Of course in this announcement the President failed to tell us that the money would be delivered in pallets of cash, in the dead of night, on an unmarked aircraft, minutes before the hostages were to be released.  If he had given us all these details, even the average American would have said, “That’s crazy!”

The President’s second “proof” that this was not a ransom was, “The American government doesn’t pay ransom for hostages.”  What the hell kind of proof is that?  In fact, that is the reason why people are so upset.  Even if it just appears to be ransom, it puts a price on the head of every American that works abroad or even vacations in Europe or the Middle East.

The President’s third point is that the timing is just a coincidence.  There were two separate teams working on these two deals (hostages and nuclear).  I’m not even sure what that is supposed to mean.  Were they forbidden to talk to each other?  Did they not answer to a common person like Secretary Kerry or the President of the United States?  And, are we to believe that this 37-year-old claim just happened, by coincidence to be paid to Iran within minutes of the hostages being released?  Are you kidding?  Even if that were true, wouldn’t it have been prudent on our President’s part to separate the two transactions so that this payment could not even be perceived to be ransom.  They have been waiting for 37 years!!  Another six months to a year was going to kill them? 

Finally, the President said it had to be paid in cash because we don’t have any financial arrangements with Iran.  I have to just call BS on this.  We have some pretty smart people in America.  I’m confident that someone could find a way to send the money to a friend of both sides so that country could get it to Iran for a small fee.  Besides, how do we plan to get the $150 billion to them later this year?  A fleet of planes filled with pallets of cash?

People who support the President ask, “What would you do?”  My answer is diplomacy, sanctions, covert military action and any other means at my disposal.  The President was right about one thing.  Even the appearance of paying a ransom puts a bounty on every American traveling abroad.  We should not have done this in this way.

And it’s not the money that bothers me.  It’s not even paying ransom, if that’s what this President wanted to do on a one-time basis.  Then he could warn everyone in America not to go to the Middle East for sure or even Europe.  Travel at you own risk.  It’s the lying that bothers me!

The President was, in effect, caught on camera handing bags of money to kidnappers just as the hostages were released, and has the audacity to look us right in the eye and suggest that one act had nothing to do with the other.  How gullible does he think we are?  All politicians need to have the guts to tell us the truth and then live with the consequences of their decisions.  The real solution to all of this is “term limits”.  Force these guys out before they have a chance to convert.