WaPo’s Rezaian: Currently, ‘There’s No Cost’ for Countries Who Imprison Americans

On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Katy Tur Reports,” Washington Post columnist Jason Rezaian, who was wrongfully detained by Iran for over a year before being freed in a prisoner swap in 2016, argued that while we shouldn’t avoid doing deals to free wrongfully detained Americans, countries take Americans prisoner “because they can get away with it. They’ve seen time and again, that they’re able to take an American and extract something of value in return.” And “we have to raise the cost of doing this in the first place. At the moment, there’s no cost to doing it.”

Rezaian said that it’s easy to tell people not to go to certain countries, but “In some cases, like Iran, Russia, China, you have hundreds of thousands of Americans with loved ones and connections back to those countries. I, for one, agree that you shouldn’t travel to a country that has a track record of taking American citizens hostage. But the other thing that we have to look at is that countries do this, not because there’s some great incentive to do it, but because they can get away with it. They’ve seen time and again, that they’re able to take an American and extract something of value in return. And I don’t think the response is to not do deals or not give concessions, but concurrent with trying to recover and free people who are currently being held, we have to raise the cost of doing this in the first place. At the moment, there’s no cost to doing it.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett