Obama's ransom payment to Iran puts all Americans abroad in danger

...Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a critic of the deal, called the State Department’s admission “the very definition of ransom.”

“They can continue holding Americans against their will until the next White House cash payment,” he said. “It is a dangerous precedent, and one that puts all Americans abroad in danger.”

The $400 million flown to Iran that day was the first installment in a $1.7 billion settlement, part of a long-standing dispute over an arms deal that fell through when the shah was overthrown in 1979...