Prisoner Exchanges

Critics of the Obama administration's prisoner exchanges (with Cuba and the Taliban) should read the following paragraphs from the obituary of Richard C. Hottelet, who reported from Germany for CBS in the days before the U.S. entered WWII:

On the morning of March 15, 1941, the Gestapo arrested Mr. Hottelet at his Berlin home on “suspicion of espionage.” He was accused of sending German military information to his girlfriend, Ann Delafield, an Englishwoman who had worked in the British Embassy in Berlin and was then in a British diplomatic office in Spain.

Mr. Hottelet was held in the Alexanderplatz and Moabit jails in Berlin for the next four months. He and Jay Allen, an American journalist for the North American Newspaper Alliance, who had been imprisoned by the pro-Nazi Vichy government in France, were released on July 8, 1941, in exchange for three Germans held in the United States for illegal actions.

As one of the "Murrow boys," Hottelet later reported from London during the Nazi air attacks, and he accompanied Allied troops on D-Day.  Does anyone today think it was wrong for FDR to negotiate for his release?

Comments

[anon]

What a bizarre analogy!

According to CBS News, Hottelet was exchanged for "a Nazi reporter held in the US."

To compare this to the Berdahl exchange is simply more than just sloppy. It is so nakedly politically motivated!

It is perfectly fine, it seems to me, to post stories based on reliance that the truth goes down the memory hole and everything can be spun with impunity for political reasons. That is the nature of an open forum.

However, is it not fair to ask that in an academic setting, the political nature of an inquiry or reference to historical facts be revealed/disclosed? What is the point of this post other than to defend actions today based on a inaccurate claim to supposedly apposite precedent?

[PaulB]

A more appropriate comparison might be the trade of Gary Powers, the U-2 pilot shot down over the USSR, for Colonel Rudolf Abel, a Soviet spy in 1962.

[anon]

Paul

Comparison to the Bergdahl exchange?

[PaulB]

Anon, I was thinking of the Cuban spy trade, not Bergdahl.

[anon]

Paul

Fair enough. The post above seeks to rebute "critics of the Obama administration's prisoner exchange [with] ... the Taliban" by reference to the Hottelet precedent. It seems that you recognize that comparison is obviously ludicrous.

[Barry]

"Critics of the Obama administration's prisoner exchanges (with Cuba and the Taliban)..."

Frankly should STFU; these people are hawks and neocons, and have a record which is amazing in it's deliberate wrongness and damage.

[anon]

"hawks and necons should STFU"

Like any good junior high school argument, profanity laced with name calling is always quite convincing on the merits.

Well done!

[Barry]

Coming from 'anon', that's rich.

More and more I've come to believe that the proper response is mockery and refusal to engage, when the other side is being evil.

You[1] are opposing prisoner exchanges - note, you're only opposing them when the President is on the other side. I never heard you or any of your ilk have a problem with that beforehand, and numerous politicians on your side were supporting an exchange for Bergdahl right up until it happened.

Similarly, nobody had a problem with prisoner exchanges from communist countries, until President Obama did them.

Frankly, Steve Lubet is doing what The Faculty Lounge does best, which is to act as a 'transmission belt'[2] for insane right-wing ideas.

[1] Hey, if you don't want to set up a pseudonum, and go by 'anon', I'll judge you.

[2] Coined by Dave Nieward - look it up.

[Barry]

Steve, I apologize; I accidently accused you of working with the right here.

However, even seeking justification is playing into these guys hands; if there's one thing that I've learned since 2001, it's that treating evil as subject to debate cedes it half the battle.

[anon]

Barry

Niagara Falls.