Michael Ramirez Essay: Hostage Market
From America's Premier Editorial Cartoonist
THE LAW OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
By Michael P. Ramirez, September 24, 2023
A popular phrase in sociology and economics is “the law of unintended consequences.”
When you Google the phrase, one of the results you get is:
“The law of unintended consequences, often cited but rarely defined, is that actions of people, and especially of governments, always have effects that are unanticipated or ‘unintended.’”
It is not to be confused with Murphy’s law, which is:
“Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.”
With the addendum:
“Anything that can go wrong will go wrong… at the worst possible time.
HOSTAGE RELEASE
Recently, five American hostages who were unjustly held in captivity by the Iranian regime were released. One had been held in Iran’s notorious Evin prison for 2,898 days or almost eight years. By comparison, the American embassy hostages were held for 444 days during the Carter administration. It is heartwarming to see Iran’s prisoners reunited with their families in America. It is a good day whenever any wrongfully detained American comes home.
The hostages were released through a complex financial arrangement and prisoner swap, five Americans for five Iranians. The price was un-freezing 6 billion dollars in oil payments held by South Korea after U.S. sanctions were imposed. In addition to that, clemency was granted to the five Iranians charged with various crimes.
While the emotional sentiment attached to any American prisoner release is important, part of the hard decision on how these deals are orchestrated and the long-term repercussions of these actions have to be considered to avoid the law of unintended consequences.
The Biden administration claims these funds will be carefully released for only humanitarian purposes. However, the reality and unintended consequences of this deal are that billions of dollars in Iran can now be freed up to continue to oppress the people and suppress the growing resistance to the authoritarian regime, fund terrorism and the export of chaos throughout the region, and revive Iran’s economy at a time when theological dictatorship is most vulnerable.
The administration is downplaying the role of these Iranian prisoners, simply characterizing them as being charged with or convicted of “non-violent” crimes. A closer examination shows the threat that each one posed to our nation. Four of them were involved in a myriad of schemes to access sensitive tech, nuclear weaponization components, dual-use military tech, top secret data, and funding that threaten America and the world. The last one was pitching Iranian propaganda while being paid by the government of Iran as an unregistered foreign agent advocating for retaliation for the death of the terrorist head of the Republican Guards and Quds Force, Qasem Soleimani.
Mehrdad Ansari was charged with evading international sanctions to purchase sensitive material and dual-use technology that could be used in nuclear weapons, missiles, electronic countermeasures, and radar, surveillance, and warning systems. According to the DOJ report, Ansari was “convicted by a federal jury in May 2021 for his role in a scheme to obtain military sensitive parts for Iran in violation of the Iranian Trade Embargo. In coordination with his co-conspirators, Ansari obtained and attempted to obtain parts that had dual-use military and civilian capability and could be used in such systems as nuclear weapons, missile guidance and development, secure tactical radio communications, offensive electronic warfare, military electronic countermeasures (radio jamming) and radar warning and surveillance systems.”
Reza Sarhangpour Kafrani was charged with exporting equipment that could be used for the uranium enrichment processes and nuclear weaponization. The DOJ charged Kafrani “with the unlawful export of laboratory equipment from the United States to Iran, through Canada and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).”
Amin Hasanzadeh is an engineer connected to projects involving aerospace applications. The FBI Counterintelligence Division arrested him for sending trade secrets to Iran discovered on three computers at his home. Hasanzadeh is accused of sharing sensitive technical data with his brother in Iran, who has connections to the Iranian military.
Kambiz Attar Kashani was convicted and “sentenced to 30 months in prison for conspiring to illegally export U.S. goods and technology to end users in Iran, including the Central Bank of Iran, in violation of the International Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The Central Bank of Iran is an Iranian government agency that, according to the U.S. government, has materially supported Lebanese Hizballah and the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, both designated terrorist organizations,” according to the DOJ report released on February 9th.
Kaveh Lotfolah Afrasiabi was criminally charged by the DOJ “with acting and conspiring to act as an unregistered agent of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.” He advocated the termination of nuclear inspections and access to Iranian nuclear activities after Soleimani was killed
Putting aside how difficult it is to identify these shadow networks and the greater difficulty of capturing and prosecuting these types of criminals, releasing them restores these networks and increases the threat to the United States and the world.
Simply put, making bad deals with rogue countries is not a solution but is an incentive for bad actors to increase capturing, holding hostage, and ransoming more Americans.
When the Biden administration traded Brittney Griner, casual hashish user and WNBA star, for Victor Bout, a notorious international arms dealer wanted by Interpol, it released a criminal who was arrested selling surface-to-air, anti-aircraft missiles and armor-piercing rocket launchers to terrorists who could use them to shoot down airliners.
Three months later, Russia wrongfully detained American Evan Gerrshkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter.
America has to do better.
If your solution creates more problems than your solution, you need to rethink your solution.
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Links of Interest:
Biden Paying Iran Ransom For Hostages “Makes Your Blue Passport Worth $1 Billion” —Tim Hains, Real Clear Politics
How Much To Ransom the Next American Taken Hostage by Iran, After Biden Sets Going Rate of $1.3 Billion per Detainee? —David Harsanyi, New York Sun
Previous Essays:
Hostage Market
Guest Essay: Poisoning America…more essays at michaelpramirez.com
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Another well penned article by Mr. Ramirez. It is always great to see Americans taken hostage freed. It is another to see the financing of peoples who wish to see America destroyed as payment.