Editorial: Some prisoner 'swap'

By Boston Herald editorial staff|Yesterday

It is of course thrilling news that today five Americans are free from the hell of Iranian captivity.

Jason Rezaian, a Washington Post reporter, was arrested in July 2014 on trumped-up charges. Released with him last weekend were Amir Hekmati, an ex-Marine arrested in August 2011 while visiting family; Saeed Abedini, an Idaho pastor held since 2012; Nosratollah Khosravi, a businessman whose case had not previously been made public (and who opted to stay behind in Tehran) and Matthew Trevithick, a Boston University grad student studying Farsi in Tehran until he was picked up and imprisoned recently. Technically Trevithick was not part of the swap.

The seven Iranians - six of them Iranian-Americans - freed in exchange were all involved in acquiring or providing forbidden technology to the Iranian government. The sole Iranian national, Nima Golestaneh, pleaded guilty to hacking a defense contractor to steal software. Another was charged with buying and exporting military electronics to Iran. At least one has opted to resume his life in suburban Maryland.

So, no this wasn't your usual spy swap by any means. This was a release from prison or a decision not to prosecute people who had betrayed their adopted country in exchange for wrongly imprisoned Americans. In fact there is still no word on the fate of the only American who may actually have been on a mission for the CIA in Iran - Robert Levinson.

News of the swap came on the heels of the lifting of sanctions against the Iranian government, giving it at least $100 million in previously frozen assets and the right to legally sell its oil on the open market.

The Obama administration did, however, impose incredibly modest new sanctions on Iran for two cruise missile tests that violated United Nations resolutions. The new sanctions are largely directed at individuals and a few small companies believed involved in supplying some of those missile parts.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani - the great moderate, remember? - greeted the news with characteristic insights into how very moderate he is, noting, "Everybody is happy [at the lifting of sanctions] except the Zionists, the warmongers who are fueling sectarian war among Islamic nations, and the hard-liners in the U.S. Congress."

Well, we're happy to be counted in the "nothing good can come from this" camp.