When it comes to what a nuclear-armed Iran would mean, we take a back seat to no one in our conviction that Tehran must not be allowed to acquire this capability. But the focus on Iran’s future nukes — and new signs that it might be willing to give them up — shouldn’t blind us to the outrageous way the regime has been kidnapping and jailing US citizens with near impunity.
Take the case of Amir Hekmati, a decorated former Marine who’s been held by Iran for more than two years on what looks to be bogus charges. At great risk to himself, Hekmati succeeded in getting a letter he wrote to Secretary of State John Kerry smuggled out of prison. In the letter, Hekmati says a confession he gave in 2011 was made under duress and that he’s been subjected to threats and “miserable” conditions, including “prolonged periods of solitary confinement.” He says Iran is holding him in the hopes of a prisoner exchange.
“For over two years I have been held on false charges based solely on confessions obtained by force, threats, miserable prison conditions, and prolonged periods of solitary confinement,” Hekmati writes. “This is part of a propaganda and hostage-taking effort by Iranian intelligence to secure the release of Iranians abroad being held on security-related charges.”
A true hero, Hekmati urges Washington not to buckle to Iran’s “ridiculous” demand for a prisoner swap, lest it set a precedent. He says despite his suffering and his family’s, he’ll accept nothing less than his “unconditional release.”
Hekmati is not the first American to be held by the thuggish regime. In the past few years alone, it’s detained numerous Americans on trumped-up charges, including:
- Saeed Abedini, a pastor from Idaho nabbed in 2012 and sentenced to eight years in prison. He’s accused of trying to undermine state security by creating Christian churches in private homes.
- Hikers Sarah Shroud, Joshua Fattal and Shane Bauer, who were caught wandering along Iran’s border with Iraq in 2009.
- California businessman Reza Taghavi, who was arrested in 2008 after he unwittingly conveyed $200 to someone Iran links to a rebel group.
- Haleh Esfandiari, a director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, detained in 2007.
- Ex-FBI agent Bob Levinson, who went missing in 2007 on Iran’s Kish Island and is believed to have been in the hands of Iranian intelligence.
Tehran has also used its terrorist proxy Hezbollah to kidnap Americans and even murder them, as it did with the Marines in Lebanon in 1983.
The point is, how can we take seriously Iran’s new hints that it’s ready to make a good-faith deal on nukes even as it continues to hold some of these Americans? Likewise, how can we expect it to take seriously our threats about the consequences of acquiring nukes when it’s paid no price for kidnapping, jailing and killing of our fellow citizens?