Rewarding Hostage-Taking Endangers Every American

Team Biden reportedly is poised to have $7 billion in frozen Iranian funds released in exchange for the freeing of two Americans the mullahs have held hostage for years. This astounding ransom is just the latest indication of the exorbitant price the administration is paying for another “deal” that will not prevent Tehran from getting the Bomb.

Unfortunately, President Biden has also been rewarding other hostile governments in Russia, Venezuela and Afghanistan for seizing U.S. citizens. In each case, these regimes got back dangerous individuals convicted of serious crimes in the United States.

While one sympathizes with the American victims of such hostage-taking, the trouble with paying either financial or human ransoms is that it incentivizes the world’s bad actors to regard every one of us as potential leverage to extract U.S. concessions. Do you like having a target on your back?

 

This is Frank Gaffney.