Over the last eight years, there has been an estimated 580 percent increase in Americans being taken hostage around the world, according to a report in the New York Times.
Currently, over 50 Americans are being wrongfully detained, as published in a September report by the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation. (Foley was a journalist detained by ISIS in Syria and eventually executed in 2014.)
American citizens are being held in China, Russia, Venezuela, Belarus, Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cuba, Egypt, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
These 50 Americans do not include those held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
Five Americans were released on Sept. 18 by Iran after President Joe Biden’s administration negotiated their release. Five Iranians imprisoned in U.S. jails were set free. But that is not what Iran wanted, as only two of the five returned to Iran. Iran was after $6 billion that had been frozen in South Korean banks after President Donald Trump placed a ban on Iran’s oil exports in 2019.
Even though the ransom payment was made to the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism on the 22nd anniversary of 9/11, Biden’s deal led to good publicity for him. That changed when Hamas — which is funded and backed by Iran — attacked Israel on Oct. 7.
The $1.2 billion per hostage is a significant increase over the $1.7 billion Barrack Obama paid for four hostages in 2015, or $435 million each.
Note: According to Biden, Iran has not accessed any of the $6 billion.
Senator Tom Cotton said, “When Democrats are in office, it pays to have American hostages.”
Russia must now feel duped, realizing they should have received money in the exchange of basketball player Brittney Griner for Viktor Bout — known as the “Merchant of Death.” Bet they won’t make that mistake again having taken two American journalists hostage since the Griner exchange — Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (detained on Oct. 19).
The official policy of the U.S. government — since President Richard Nixon in 1973 — has been to refuse to negotiate for hostages.
The reasons for this are logical: paying a ransom encourages more hostage-taking and gives the terrorists money to buy more weapons to kill others.
President Ronald Reagan broke that policy with his infamous deal selling weapons to Iran to help free U.S. hostages held by Hezbollah in Lebanon.
In 2001, the U.S. Patriot Act banned ransom payments by the government and any payments made by private parties (corporations or families) to designated terror groups. Joining us with this policy was the United Kingdom.
Meanwhile, France, Spain and Italy paid multimillion-dollar ransoms to Al Qaeda, and later to ISIS.
After ISIS murdered Foley and Steven Sotloff, Obama ordered a review of U.S. hostage policy. His new policy allowed us to “communicate” with hostage-takers instead of negotiating, and Obama related that no one would prosecute Americans for paying a ransom.
During Donald Trump’s presidency, 38 Americans held captive abroad were brought home. Some of these would not be considered hostages.
Robert O’Brien, who served as the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs under Trump said, “The President has had unparalleled success in bringing Americans home.”
Four of these included prisoner swaps with Iran. For example, in December 2019, Iran, freed Xiyue Wang, a graduate student at Princeton University who was serving a 10-year sentence in Iran on espionage charges for Masoud Soleimani, an Iranian scientist convicted of export violations. No money was paid or frozen assets released.
Jason Rezaian of the Washington Post, who was held hostage by Iran for 544 days, noted Trump’s success in bringing detainees home. “No government has found a way to prevent hostage-taking, and the practice is getting more widespread,” Rezaian wrote. “But this is one area where the Trump administration has had some success.
In 2008, Michael Rubin said in the Washington Post, “Biden’s political games have made him Tehran’s favorite senator.” If Iran ever gets their hands on the $6 billion, he will be their favorite U.S. President.
