The Obama Administration has faced criticism recently over
their releasing of an individual who has allegedly played a role in Iran’s development
of nuclear weapons without securing the release of one of at least three
Americans who are believed of being detained. They are also taking criticism
for not securing the release as part of the nuclear deal—to which they
responded with “The P5+1 talks
focused exclusively on nuclear issues.” This, however, is contradictory to some
allegations that the Iranian’s release was tied to the talks: “the reported
release of Atarodi [the Iranian supposedly released] came after those
exchanges, and seems more closely aligned to the nuclear talks.”
This instance reminds me a lot of the individuals who said
with regard to the Soviet Union “better red than dead.” This is exactly what is
being done by the Obama administration—they are simply appeasing Iran without
seeking to cripple their nuclear weapons capacity. As Ronald Reagan says, this
strategy “gives no choice between peace and war, only between fight or
surrender.”
Well, I wasn't surprised to see that Andrew's article came from Fox News. Call me trusting, but I don't think the Obama administration is ignoring the lives of the three American citizens said to be imprisoned in Iran. Additionally, I don't think anyone, including the lawyer for Abedini's family who, "said it should have been easy for the U.S. to insist on the release of the three Americans," knows much of anything about the events that led up to the POSSIBLE (and to be honest unlikely) release of Atarodi. If the State Department of the United States says that the talks in Geneva left no room for the discussion of a prisoner release, then I believe them. The United States is not one to abandon its citizens.
ReplyDeleteThis article reminds very much of the last one. It seems like a whole lot of overspeculation. If current talks are about nuclear programs, then they are. I hardly think that the government is treating prisoners as a superfluous side matter. The key to resolving international affairs is to take things one step at a time. Not all the countries problems can be solved in one seal, let alone in one set of meetings. Also, a sidenote, I don't mean to suggest that it's okay to leave those prisoners in Iran, but at the same time you have to ask yourself, how many Iranian prisoners do we have hostage? Anyway, Im hoping the issue will be resolved with some time. All we can do now is try to negoiate.
ReplyDeleteSekulow is awfully sure that the Obama administration made no attempt to negotiate the release of the three American prisoners. If these meetings are so clandestine, then how can he possibly know enough information about the negotiations to conclude that "our government is not taking the real human rights issues here seriously"? These meetings, however, do sound very suspicious, and I think more transparency would be good. Then again this article was written with bias since it comes from FoxNews which isn't known for being the biggest supporters of the Obama administration.
ReplyDeleteSince everyone wants to complain about the fact this is Fox News how about we take into account that NONE of the other major news channels have reported anything about Atarodi's release. If you would like a different news organizations take on the issue here is a link to the Times of Israel article regarding this: http://www.timesofisrael.com/us-freed-top-iranian-scientist-as-part-of-secret-talks-ahead-of-geneva-deal/ . Now back to the issue at hand, the State Department saying that the talks left no time for prisoner release discussions creates, for me, a strong suspicion that they were covering their ass since the prisoner release talks weren't part of their talking points. If they cared they could have included it but they don't. If the Iranians were able to get one of their Nuclear Scientists released who was arrested for a legitimate reason then the US should have had more then enough of an opportunity to mention that the Iranians need to release our prisoners. This administration seems to want to jump on the resolution bus as it pulls up no matter what the terms are. The sanctions placed on Iran were hurting them and it put us in a position of advantage. We gave that up for small consolations.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Olivia and the Emily's. I'm sure the Obama administration is doing as much as they can given that they have other things to do as well. I also think it's fair to say that this situation has been blown out of proportion, like Emily Evenden said. Honestly though, it is absurd to think that the administration has done nothing to save the American prisoners. It is interesting to note Olivia's point, how would Sekulow know this much about the meetings if they're so secret? I feel like there is a big piece missing from this story since it's from Fox News.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like another way to discredit the Obama administration, and it's getting old. I have faith that when there is an opening to talk about these three prisoners, they will be discussed. This idea that the US is going to sit back and allow them to be held in a foreign country and negotiate nuclear weapons instead is absolutely absurd.
ReplyDeleteThis situation must be so hard on the families of these three men. They see the Iranian Nuclear
ReplyDeletescientist get out, but their loved ones are not. The other point I want to make is although the
government insists that the nogocitations were strictly on nuclear weapons, why did they then
say they kept bringing up the issue with the representatives from Iran? Why else would they
bring up the issue other than to negotiate the release of the three men.
Perhaps other news sources have not reported the release of Atarodi because they care more about making sure it actually happened than editorializing it. The source (singular) cited by the article isn't one I would trust absolutely. Another problem with the article is that it doesn't go into any detail about the nuclear talks in Geneva that supposedly should have involved the release of Americans held by Iran. It doesn't mention any gains that may have been made as a result of the talks. Maybe advances were made that would be seen as more effective than the immediate release of three Americans not involved in any way with nuclear issues; we don't know, since the article doesn't seem to care. I would challenge the author to write a more "fair and balanced" report about the issue, maybe even with multiple sources, if it comes up again.
ReplyDeleteThe source posted might not have total credibility, so it's not hard to imagine that some of what is written might be hyperbole. The Obama administration would not purposely abandon any captured American citizens, and of course it should only be a matter of time before the prisoners are released.
ReplyDelete