January 16, 2016

Great news, but of course the right is immediately trying to figure out a way to spin this as a negative, as you can tell from the clip above where the crew on Fox & Friends look like they all just sucked on a lemon as they make the announcement on our prisoners being freed.

Here's more from The Washington Post: Post reporter Jason Rezaian and others to be freed in prisoner swap, according to Iranian media:

Iran has released four imprisoned U.S. citizens, including Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, as part of a swap, the office of Tehran’s prosecutor announced Saturday, according to Iranian news media.

The other released prisoners include Amir Hekmat, a former U.S. Marine, and Saeed Abedni, a pastor--both imprisoned since 2012--and a fourth unnamed American. All four are dual U.S.-Iranian citizens. Rezaian has been held since 2014.

According to Iran’s Fars News Agency, the four were ordered released in exchange for six Iranian-Americans held in the United States on sanctions-related charges.

A statement by the prosecutor said that “based on an approval of the Supreme National Security Council and the general interests of the Islamic Republic, four Iranian prisoners with dual-nationality were freed today within the framework of a prisoner swap deal,” Fars reported. Read on...

Update: Huffington Post has much more on the swap here, including an explanation for why they held the story.

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