HOSTAGES RELEASED WHEN REAGAN INAUGURATED

Sen.John McCain stated,

"Yes, there have been appeasers in the past, and the president is exactly right, and one of them is Neville Chamberlain. I believe that it’s not an accident that our hostages came home from Iran when President Reagan was president of the United States. He didn’t sit down in a negotiation with the religious extremists in Iran, he made it very clear that those hostages were coming home."

Think Progress responded,

McCain’s praise of Ronald Reagan is wholly misplaced. To recap, during the Iran-Contra affair in the 1980s, hostages were not released because of Iran’s fear of Reagan, as McCain suggested. In reality, Iran released them after Reagan administration officials infamously sold arms to the country, which were transfered to Ayatollah Khomeini. As a result, 11 Reagan officials were convicted of crimes.

I will assume that the staff of Think Progress is filled with 20somethings and 30 somethings. They appear young, so they might not have been born, or they were very young when the hostages were released from Iran. They probably had to rely on what other people told them. But if you are going to publish information, you should fact check it from reliable sources.

For the Democrat pundits over at Think Progress . From the BBC

January 21, 1981: Tehran frees US hostages after 444 daysThe 52 American hostages held at the US embassy in Tehran for more than 14 months have arrived in West Germany on their way home to the United States.
The former diplomats and embassy staff stepped from the plane onto the tarmac at Wiesbaden airport looking tired but elated after their 4,000-mile (6,437km) flight from Iran.
Some waved to the crowd of well-wishers who had gathered, others gave the V-for-victory sign.
Iran finally agreed to release the hostages after the US said it would release assets frozen in American and other banks, including the Bank of England, since the embassy was seized.
Presidential presence
Former president Jimmy Carter, appointed as President Ronald Reagan's special envoy, has flown in to welcome home the embassy staff he had hoped would be freed while he was still in charge at the White House.
Stories of the "abominable treatment" the men and women suffered at the hands of their Iranian captors are beginning to emerge.
Letters from home were burned in front of the hostages, there were regular beatings and some talked of games of Russian roulette.
The Americans were flown via Algiers to Wiesbaden, where they will now be cared for at a military hospital while their conditions are assessed.
The US government has tried to dissuade families from flying out to Germany for reunions with their loved ones until they have been confirmed fit.
Reporters were able to shout a few questions to hostages who appeared briefly on the hospital balcony. One man said they had had no idea they were about to be released.
Captive in US embassy

HOSTAGES RELEASED WHEN REAGAN INAUGURATED

January 21,1981