What's a Roxana Worth?

We may not find out for a while.  But if it’s true that she’s going to be released, you can be quite sure that somebody paid something to ransom her out.  The only question is how high the price was.

There will be those who say that it was simply a friendly gesture by the mullahs, a sort of humanitarian response to our calls for “dialogue.”  But that is not the way the Islamic Republic of Iran does business.  They are of the “no tickee, no shirtee” school.

Just remember that back in the eighties, many American and Iranian officials and a variety of intermediaries held secret negotiations and made secret deals.  The world at large did not know anything about it for more than two years.