IRAN RELEASES AMERICAN HOSTAGES – AT 11:25 A.M. ET:  It is a happy event, but we should also be revolted.  We are being played like a violin by the Iranian regime.  But Obama will take the credit, and be given the credit by an obedient press.  From the Washington Examiner:

Iran released four prisoners Saturday, including jailed Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian.

All four of those released are Iranian-American dual nationals, including Rezaian. He has had been in Iranian custody since July 2014.

The release was apparently part of a prisoner swap with the United States, according to several reports.

Rezaian was convicted of espionage against the Iranian state and "propaganda against the establishment" in October 2015. In November 2015 he was sentenced to a prison term of undisclosed length.

The prisoner release caps a harrowing week for U.S.-Iran relations. Iran temporarily captured of 10 U.S. sailors Tuesday. The Iranian nuclear deal set to be formally put into place in the coming days.

Iran's Fars News Agency reported that in addition to Rezaian, the freed prisoners are former U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati, Christian pastor Saeed Abedini and a fourth American-Iranian national.

Robert Levenson, an American who reportedly went missing in Iran, was not part of the exchange, and his whereabouts remain unknown.

The Washington Post's David Ignatius stated regarding Rezaian's release, "Relief...and anger he was ever held."

COMMENT:  How we are played.  These prisoners should have been released as a condition for holding nuclear talks with Iran in the first place.  Instead, they're being released now, on the weekend when the Iran nuclear deal will be implemented, to show "good will" by Iran.  Earlier this week Iran showed its "good will" by taking American sailors prisoner, humiliating them, then releasing them, showing "good will."

Just a few weeks earlier, Tehran tested two ICBM's.  ICBM's exist only to carry nuclear warheads, the very warheads Iran pledges it will not develop under the nuclear agreement.  Our response to the tests has been almost nothing.

They must be laughing in Tehran.  They've been laughing in North Korea for years.

Sanctions on the country are about to be lifted.  The mullah regime will have an estimated $150-billion to put into their military and terror programs. 

Meanwhile, Republicans in the US will be made to look small as they try to warn Americans that the nuclear agreement about to be implemented is a very bad deal.   The Iranians work on the Leninist model – two steps forward, one step back.  The children running the U.S. Government, and the European Union, only notice the step back, calling it "good will." 

Trade will now flow between Iran and Europe, and even between Iran and the United States.  When money flows, politicians listen.  There will be increasing reluctance to hold Iran to the terms of the nuclear deal, weak as they are.  Profits matter.

We await Iran's next humiliation of the United States.  They can learn the steps from their North Korean friends.

January 16,  2015