# So, the hostages in Iran weren't allowed to leave until the plane showed up with the 400mil... **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 7, 2016, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-hostages-in-iran-werent-allowed-to-leave-until-the-plane-showed-up-with-the-400mil/762057 "2016-08-07T17:44:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2016, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-hostages-in-iran-werent-allowed-to-leave-until-the-plane-showed-up-with-the-400mil/762057/41 "2016-08-08T21:16:11Z")
We could’ve paid them in bitcoins and then hacked their computers to steal them back. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2016, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-hostages-in-iran-werent-allowed-to-leave-until-the-plane-showed-up-with-the-400mil/762057/42 "2016-08-08T21:23:17Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > This wasn’t ransom, but it was bad timing from a PR perspective. The Obama administration should have insisted on spacing the two events apart. That would just prove, in the eyes of the critics, that the two events were linked, and that Obama was deliberately manipulating the time-table to produce the illusion that they weren’t. We’re dealing with conspiracy theorists. There is NEVER a right answer. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2016, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-hostages-in-iran-werent-allowed-to-leave-until-the-plane-showed-up-with-the-400mil/762057/43 "2016-08-08T21:46:28Z")
> [@leftfield6](#): > > Jeezus Christ, who gives a shit if it was dollars, francs, or pieces of eight? By the way it wasn’t dollars, it was mostly Euros and Swiss Francs. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2016, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-hostages-in-iran-werent-allowed-to-leave-until-the-plane-showed-up-with-the-400mil/762057/44 "2016-08-08T21:51:53Z")
> [@leftfield6](#): > > This is exactly what I was going to post. Who gives a shit what form it was in. The facts are we owed them money. They had people we wanted back, and we wanted a nuclear treaty. We did something for them (pallets of cash), they did something for us (signed treaty, gave us our people). Sounds like a bad deal. Iran should not be allowed to take hostages or build nuclear weapons in any event. We should not have to pay them for the privilege. As far as it being their money. If I invest money in your business and then decide to take your entire family hostage and parade them through the streets and on television, I think the correct moral judgment of any person would be that I don’t get my money back. Iran is not reasonable. This is my biggest bitch with Obama. He treats these third world thugs like major players on the international scene. We expect that there will be no nuclear weapons or hostage taking or else cruise missiles will be forthcoming. That is our payment: no cruise missiles. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2016, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-hostages-in-iran-werent-allowed-to-leave-until-the-plane-showed-up-with-the-400mil/762057/45 "2016-08-08T21:56:35Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Obama didn’t give them shit, he refunded their own money. So we could get our hostages back. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2016, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-hostages-in-iran-werent-allowed-to-leave-until-the-plane-showed-up-with-the-400mil/762057/46 "2016-08-08T22:06:57Z")
Trump is vilifying Obama for this transaction. But isn’t this the kind of deal making that Trump claims will be the centerpiece of his administration? ---
**Author:** ![leftfield6](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leftfield6/32/18780_2.png) [@leftfield6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leftfield6)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2016, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-hostages-in-iran-werent-allowed-to-leave-until-the-plane-showed-up-with-the-400mil/762057/47 "2016-08-08T22:07:45Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > Sounds like a bad deal. Iran should not be allowed to take hostages or build nuclear weapons in any event. We should not have to pay them for the privilege. > > As far as it being their money. If I invest money in your business and then decide to take your entire family hostage and parade them through the streets and on television, I think the correct moral judgment of any person would be that I don’t get my money back. > > Iran is not reasonable. This is my biggest bitch with Obama. He treats these third world thugs like major players on the international scene. We expect that there will be no nuclear weapons or hostage taking or else cruise missiles will be forthcoming. That is our payment: no cruise missiles. Great plan. Seems like we have been bombing the shit out of various parts of the Middle East for most of my lifetime. How’s that working out for us? ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2016, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-hostages-in-iran-werent-allowed-to-leave-until-the-plane-showed-up-with-the-400mil/762057/48 "2016-08-08T22:33:30Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Very possibly, but I don’t see how it matters. All of this was known, except that part of the payment was in the form of cash, months ago. Why does it matter that it was known months ago? Does that make it a clean deal? ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2016, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-hostages-in-iran-werent-allowed-to-leave-until-the-plane-showed-up-with-the-400mil/762057/49 "2016-08-08T22:54:18Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > So we could get our hostages back. No, because the Iranians won their court case. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2016, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-hostages-in-iran-werent-allowed-to-leave-until-the-plane-showed-up-with-the-400mil/762057/50 "2016-08-08T22:57:06Z")
> [@drewder](#): > > Why does it matter that it was known months ago? Does that make it a clean deal? It means that this wasn’t hidden or kept secret. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2016, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-hostages-in-iran-werent-allowed-to-leave-until-the-plane-showed-up-with-the-400mil/762057/51 "2016-08-08T23:00:38Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > We expect that there will be no nuclear weapons or hostage taking or else cruise missiles will be forthcoming. That is our payment: no cruise missiles. Yeah, that worked out _really_ well with Iraq. If we could have given them a $1 billion bribe to show they aren’t developing WMDs instead of going to war with them, it would have saved us $2 **trillion** dollars. And also saved the lives of almost 4500 American soldiers. (Not to mention, we probably wouldn’t be dealing with ISIS right now.) ---
**Author:** ![ganthet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de0a6/32.png) [@ganthet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ganthet)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2016, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-hostages-in-iran-werent-allowed-to-leave-until-the-plane-showed-up-with-the-400mil/762057/52 "2016-08-09T07:19:26Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > As far as it being their money. If I invest money in your business and then decide to take your entire family hostage and parade them through the streets and on television, I think the correct moral judgment of any person would be that I don’t get my money back. The U.S. has [other](https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-court-rules-beirut-bombing-victims-iran-funds-163920869--finance.html?ref=gs) [assets](http://finance.yahoo.com/news/iran-frozen-assets-where-exactly-181500582.html;_ylt=A0SO8yysgKlXAbYAhUNXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEydmgzaXB0BGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwM5BHZ0aWQDQjIxNjZfMQRzZWMDc3I-) that once belonged to the Iranian government, including funds and properties such as the former Iranian embassy in D.C. Returning the $400 million does not prevent others such as the families that have already sued Iran from collecting on other seized or frozen Iranian assets held by the U.S. > [@](#): > > Iran is not reasonable. This is my biggest bitch with Obama. He treats these third world thugs like major players on the international scene. We expect that there will be no nuclear weapons or hostage taking or else cruise missiles will be forthcoming. That is our payment: no cruise missiles. This is a self-defeating argument. If Iran is not reasonable, then we cannot reason with Iran by threatening them to comply with our demands. Threats only work with people who are, by and large, reasonable. If Iran is not reasonable (or to put it more precisely based on what you seem to be saying - that Iran only understands brute force), then war is the only other alternative. I could respect any of the Congressional Republicans if they would actually follow their criticisms of Obama and the nuclear deal to their logical conclusion, but all they seemed to do was mumble about keeping all of the existing sanctions in place. Despite the loosening resolve of some European and Asian governments to keep their sanctions in place because they wanted to try to expand their economies by re-opening Iranian trade deals. Despite the fact that Iran before the deal continued to enrich uranium and build more and more efficient centrifuges for this enrichment. Despite the fact that the Iranian government, despite the recession and plunge in oil prices, seemed determined not to capitulate to U.S. pressure and international sanctions outside of any negotiated deal. ---
**Author:** ![Nema98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d2c977/32.png) [@Nema98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nema98)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2016, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-hostages-in-iran-werent-allowed-to-leave-until-the-plane-showed-up-with-the-400mil/762057/53 "2016-08-14T23:59:40Z")
The money was not ransom because it was owed to Iran, it was their frozen asset. However it was paid at the same time as the hostages, so it does look back nonetheless. It’s like me wanting my property back that was stolen from me by some guy, but I break into their home he’s away on vacation, trespass and take my property back. It looked bad. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2016, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-hostages-in-iran-werent-allowed-to-leave-until-the-plane-showed-up-with-the-400mil/762057/54 "2016-08-15T00:11:12Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Trump is vilifying Obama for this transaction. But isn’t this the kind of deal making that Trump claims will be the centerpiece of his administration? He’d never pay retail like that. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2016, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-hostages-in-iran-werent-allowed-to-leave-until-the-plane-showed-up-with-the-400mil/762057/55 "2016-08-15T01:23:55Z")
> [@Nema98](#): > > . . . It’s like me wanting my property back that was stolen from me by some guy, but I break into their home he’s away on vacation, trespass and take my property back. . . . I had to do that once, in real life. (Okay, I didn’t “break in” exactly – the guy’s roommate let me into his room while he was away, and I took back my property.) Sometimes, that’s what it takes. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2016, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-hostages-in-iran-werent-allowed-to-leave-until-the-plane-showed-up-with-the-400mil/762057/56 "2016-08-15T01:29:10Z")
It’s like coming home and finding your wife bent over the kitchen counter with her skirt hiked up over her waist and the plumber standing behind her buckling his belt and being told by my fellow liberals “how dare you think something untoward is going on, the appointment was made in January! We’ll have a good laugh about it later.” ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-hostages-in-iran-werent-allowed-to-leave-until-the-plane-showed-up-with-the-400mil/762057/57 "2016-08-18T23:57:37Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > It was not ransom, it was the Iranians’ own money. They won their case in court and they were owed it for arms purchased and never delivered. It had to be done in cash because there are no banking ties between the US and Iran and the money could not be wired. This is just another feeble attempt by the radical right to make Obama, and by extension Hillary, look bad. So… how do you feel now that the state department has confirmed that giving them the money was contingent on releasing the hostages? Looks like Obama did a good job making himself look bad. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-hostages-in-iran-werent-allowed-to-leave-until-the-plane-showed-up-with-the-400mil/762057/58 "2016-08-19T00:08:04Z")
They should have been honest from the beginning. Avoidable blunder. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-hostages-in-iran-werent-allowed-to-leave-until-the-plane-showed-up-with-the-400mil/762057.md?page=2)