Paying Ransom to Iran

A day after the deal with Iran over its nuclear program was implemented in January, the Obama administration paid $1.7 billion to Iran to settle an old Iranian claim (unfinished business from the 1970s). At the same time, the Islamic Republic released four Americans it held in prison. The timing was striking: It looked an awful lot like a ransom payment. But the White House denied it. Last week, the Wall Street Journalpublished further details, which make it all but impossible for any reasonable observer to deny that the White House paid off the regime in Tehran in exchange for the liberty of U.S. citizens: The first installment of $400 million, we now learn, came in cash.

According to the Journal report, “Wooden pallets stacked with euros, Swiss francs and other currencies were flown into Iran on an unmarked cargo plane." Foreign currencies were used because transactions with Iran using U.S. dollars are illegal under American law. As Charles Krauthammer remarked, if a company was caught laundering money like this, the CEO would go to jail. Even worse, the massive cash transfer would be especially helpful in funding the clandestine activities of a state sponsor of terrorism. A cargo plane full of currency sounds like the opening scene in a great spy thriller. Except it's not. It's the Obama administration paying off a regime that has been kidnapping and killing Americans for all 37 years of its existence.

The White House is pushing back against the Journal report. It's a story "for those who are flailing in an attempt to justify their continued opposition to the deal to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. "The United States," he continued, "does not pay ransoms."

Except when it does. And the Obama administration obviously did. Hostage-taking is a key instrument of Iranian statecraft. Tehran has found it useful for its adversaries to understand that it is willing to violate international political and diplomatic norms to have its way. Attacking embassies, as the Iranians trashed two Saudi diplomatic facilities this winter, even predates the habits of the revolutionary regime: In 1829, Tehran mobs surrounded the Russian embassy and killed the ambassador. One hundred and fifty years later, revolutionary gangs overran the U.S. embassy and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

It's simply how the Iranians do things. Hezbollah, Iran's praetorian guard in Lebanon, took plenty of Americans and other nationals hostage in Beirut in the 1980s. In order to free them, the Reagan administration gave weapons to Iran, Hezbollah's patron. Everyone knows it's a bad idea to pay for the release of hostages, since it creates a market in taking more. And, indeed, the Iranians have "jailed" two more Americans since the January exchange.