There have been political cartoons and breathless stories, including blatantly false ones by Donald Trump, the GOP nominee for President of the United States, about how President Obama paid ransom to get the Iran nuclear deal.
Now, along comes a corrective story in the form of a New York Times editorial:
The first thing to know about the latest controversy over the Iran nuclear deal is that the Obama administration did not pay $400 million in “ransom” to secure the release of three American detainees. Yet that’s the story critics are peddling in another attempt to discredit an agreement that has done something remarkable — halted a program that had put Iran within striking distance of producing a nuclear weapon.
The truth is that the administration withheld the payment to ensure Iran didn’t renege on its promise to free three detainees — a Washington Post journalist, a Marine veteran and a Christian pastor. That’s pragmatic diplomacy not capitulation.
“U.S. Sent Cash to Iran as Americans Were Freed” The Wall Street Journal first blared two and half weeks ago (the story is behind a pay wall), peddling a gotcha that the “Obama administration insists there was no quid pro quo, but critics charge payment amounted to ransom.”
A shame that Rupert Murdoch has turned a once-principled newspaper into another of his disreputable propaganda organs.
Please read rest of the Times editorial to get the background and full story of what happened in this case.
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