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
Joe Biden has again thoroughly embarrassed the United States over the last 24 hours, visiting a "memorial" to John McCain in Hanoi that was really a celebration of his capture, thanking the Vietnamese "for their sentiments" about the Americans murdered on 9/11.
And now the Biden administration has completely embarrassed the country on the world stage again, and worse, insulted the memory of 9/11 victims with the offensive act of telling Congress on Monday that they've reached a deal with Iran in which the United States is essentially going to pay $6 billion in order for the release of five American citizens being held prisoner in Iran.
The deal had been in the works for months and the basic parameters were known, but it was finalized late last week. However, there's one part that was not known ahead of time that makes it an even worse deal - the United States will also "release five Iranian nationals currently held in the United States."
What the hell?
According to the Associated Press, three of those who are to be released either have dual citizenship (which Iran does not recognize) or are of Iranian descent.
The American prisoners include Siamak Namazi, who was detained in 2015 and was later sentenced to 10 years in prison on internationally criticized spying charges; Emad Sharghi, a venture capitalist sentenced to 10 years; and Morad Tahbaz, a British-American conservationist of Iranian descent who was arrested in 2018 and also received a 10-year sentence. The fourth and fifth prisoners were not identified.
Although they're American citizens, in my opinion, if they're dumb enough to go to Iran when they know they will be targeted by the government, that's a risk they should assume on their own and not expect the government to negotiate for them. But now, in addition to the pallets of cash sent by Barack Obama, Tehran will have another $6 billion with which to fund their terrorism plans. The money is supposed to be used for humanitarian purposes, but nobody really believes that line. And even if those dollars are technically spent on humanitarian needs, that just frees up other money for the regime to use on terror.
Former State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus was one of the many calling out both the deal and the shameful timing of its announcement.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said:
“it’s ridiculous for US to be blackmailed into paying $6B for hostages which will help indirectly finance the number 1 foreign policy of Iran: terrorism.”
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) said:
First Joe Biden used 9/11 as an excuse to flee Afghanistan. Now he desecrates this day by paying ransom to the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism. Shameful.
Former President Donald Trump, who had a much harder line against Iran, railed against the deal.
And Gov. Ron DeSantis pointed out that it's Iran that "provide[s] safe harbor to the current head of al-Qaeda."
Blinken hasn't announced who the five Iranians are that the United States will be sending back home so they can rejoin their country's fight against America, the Great Satan.