{"id":12018,"date":"2019-10-15T10:00:04","date_gmt":"2019-10-15T17:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=12018"},"modified":"2019-10-14T11:55:20","modified_gmt":"2019-10-14T18:55:20","slug":"on-the-whistleblower-kerfuffle-imagine-a-different-scenario","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/on-the-whistleblower-kerfuffle-imagine-a-different-scenario\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Whistleblower Kerfuffle, Imagine a Different Scenario"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Imagine . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If in early 2015, some White House staffers transcribing confidential presidential calls were disturbed about one conversation that President Obama had with Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif. The two allegedly had confidentially discussed the staggered release of some $1.7 billion in withheld U.S. dollars to Iran \u2014 as an understood exchange for the release of 4 American hostages, $400 million of which was to be delivered, in an unmarked cargo plane at night, and in various currencies to Tehran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The payments were allegedly to take place in the general context of the ongoing \u201cIran Deal\u201d nuclear nonproliferation negotiations, and a time when Iranian-funded Hezbollah was staging terrorist operations in Syria and from Lebanon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Imagine further that a few of the insider staffers\/transcribers talked about their worries over such a quid pro quo and the disconnect between what their president was saying to the Iranians and what the administration was denying to the press. And they were further outraged because such payments were hidden from the public and in apparent violation of US policy prohibiting cash payments for hostage releases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/corner\/on-the-whistleblower-kerfuffle-imagine-a-different-scenario\/\">Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Imagine . . . If in early 2015, some White House staffers transcribing confidential presidential calls were disturbed about one conversation that President Obama had with Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif. The two allegedly had confidentially discussed the staggered release of some $1.7 billion in withheld U.S. dollars to Iran [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-37Q","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11881,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/america-can-afford-to-stay-calm-with-iran\/","url_meta":{"origin":12018,"position":0},"title":"America Can Afford to Stay Calm with Iran","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 28, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness President Trump recently ordered and then called off a retaliatory strike against Iran for destroying a U.S. surveillance drone. The U.S. asserts that the drone was operating in international space. Iran claims it was in Iranian airspace. Antiwar critics of Trump\u2019s Jacksonian rhetoric turned\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Donald Trump&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Donald Trump","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/donald-trump\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9325,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-year-after-the-iranian-deal\/","url_meta":{"origin":12018,"position":1},"title":"A Year After the Iranian Deal","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 27, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"By Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Strategika \u00a0 Image credit: Poster Collection, IR 180, Hoover Institution Archives. The July 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action to limit Iranian nuclear proliferation is now nearly a year old. Until recently, the urgency to complete the \u201cIran deal\u201d had been explained by the Obama\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Strategika&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Strategika","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/strategika\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2240,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-troubling-policy-on-iran\/","url_meta":{"origin":12018,"position":2},"title":"A Troubling Policy on Iran","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner Chickens Roosting Where to begin with the \u201csurprise\u201d announcement of a second, previously undisclosed \u201cnuclear facility\u201d? Some thoughts: (1) This is Iran\u2019s answer to the Obama\u00a0video peace offensive. This summer we kept quiet while thousands went into the streets of Tehran to protest brutality\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;October 2009&quot;","block_context":{"text":"October 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/october-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1085,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-case-for-military-action-against-iran\/","url_meta":{"origin":12018,"position":3},"title":"The Case for Military Action Against Iran","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine Iran\u2019s 30-year war against the United States may be reaching its decisive moment. Signs of the worsening crisis abound. Iran just announced it has begun enriching uranium at the Fordo underground nuclear site, a key step to producing more quickly fissile material for a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Iran&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Iran","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/iran\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":949,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/iranian-threat-heats-up\/","url_meta":{"origin":12018,"position":4},"title":"Iranian Threat Heats Up","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 26, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine Iran announced Sunday that it was cutting off crude oil sales to France and England, a mostly symbolic act given that Iran provides England less than 1% of its crude, and France claims that it \u201cpractically stopped importing Iranian oil,\u201d according to the head\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Iran&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Iran","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/iran\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3686,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/tapping-ahmadinejads-egg\/","url_meta":{"origin":12018,"position":5},"title":"Tapping Ahmadinejad&#8217;s Egg","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 19, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services We all know the Iranian M.O. \u2014 nuclear proliferation, Holocaust denial, threats to wipe out Israel, vicious anti-Western rhetoric, lavish sponsorship of terrorists at work attacking Israel and destabilizing Lebanon. If that were not enough, we now learn that Iran has been sending\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;February 2007&quot;","block_context":{"text":"February 2007","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2007\/february-2007\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12018"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12018"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12019,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12018\/revisions\/12019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}