{"id":38638,"date":"2013-11-27T08:17:11","date_gmt":"2013-11-27T13:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=38638"},"modified":"2013-11-27T08:17:11","modified_gmt":"2013-11-27T13:17:11","slug":"hostage-as-an-after-thought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=38638","title":{"rendered":"Hostage as an after thought"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iran set pre-conditions before they entered into the much-ballyhooed negotiations which gave them much of what they want. Apparently, the US negotiators set none. Now, the President has asked Iran politely to release American, Robert Levinson, held in prison by Iran since 2007. According to the Washington Times<\/a>;<\/p>\n

The White House asked Iran \u201crespectfully\u201d Tuesday to return American Robert Levinson, the longest-held U.S. hostage in history.<\/p>\n

Just days after reaching an accord with Iran to lift economic sanctions in return for tighter nuclear inspections, the White House reiterated its commitment \u201cto locate Mr. Levinson and bring him home safely to his family, friends and loved ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe respectfully ask the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to assist us in securing Mr. Levinson\u2019s health, welfare and safe return,\u201d the White House said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yeah, I would have asked for his release “respectfully” before giving Iran the farm, but, you know, that’s just me. Come to think of it, I probably wouldn’t have been respectful at all. I’m pretty sure that Iran is holding Levinson so they can get more stuff either from our government or a nice fat ransom from the family. Either way, the president missed his opportunity to secure Levinson’s release before the holidays. <\/p>\n

By the way, some of the former hostages taken in Iran and released in 1981 after 444 days in captivity have weighed in on the deal with Iran says Associated Press<\/a>;<\/p>\n

“It’s kind of like Jimmy Carter all over again,” said Clair Cortland Barnes, now retired and living in Leland, N.C., after a career at the CIA and elsewhere. He sees the negotiations now as no more effective than they were for the Carter administration, when he and others languished.<\/p>\n

Retired Air Force Col. Thomas E. Schaefer, 83, called the deal “foolishness.”<\/p>\n

“My personal view is, I never found an Iranian leader I can trust,” he said. “I don’t think today it’s any different from when I was there. None of them, I think, can be trusted. Why make an agreement with people you can’t trust?”<\/p>\n

Schaefer was a military attache in Iran who was among those held hostage. He now lives in Scottsdale, Ariz., with his wife of more than 60 years, Anita, who also takes a dim view of the agreement: “We are probably not very Christian-like when it comes to all this,” she said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Iran set pre-conditions before they entered into the much-ballyhooed negotiations which gave them much of what … Hostage as an after thought<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-terror-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38638\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}