It will be a long time before the United States learns the true price for the prisoner swap that freed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and fellow American Paul Whelan from Russian custody, retired U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt said on Newsmax Sunday.
"We're very happy that they're home with their families," Holt told Newsmax's "Sunday Agenda." "This is wonderful, but in terms of the damage that's been caused by whatever was negotiated, let's go back to when we paid $1.2 billion per hostage and gave up five terrorists back to Iran. When you do things like that, you're imperiling more Americans around the world."
Holt also warned Americans about traveling to "controversial" countries.
"You think everything's going to be fine and that if you get into trouble, you can call your embassy up," he said. "You can't. Don't even think about it. And be very careful, because right now, taking an American for leverage's sake geopolitically, that's very valuable. We have to all be very careful."
Foreign policy analyst Walid Phares, also on Sunday's program, discussed last week's assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, saying not only did it come as a result of strong intelligence work, but it sent a message to the Iranian regime that there is nobody in Iran that Israel can't reach.
"The rulers of Tehran have addressed Israel with their militias, saying there is not one inch of Israeli soil that we cannot reach," said Phares. "Israel responds, 'Yeah, every piece of our land is exposed to you; but every leader that is in Iran, Syria, Iraq, or elsewhere is exposed, you know, exposed to our methods.'"
Israel has not officially claimed responsibility for Haniyeh's death, but has responded to Hamas' methods strategically.
And now the question remains whether the Iranian regime will send strikes against Israel, but "they are very concerned" about what Israel's counterstrike will involve.
Meanwhile, Holt said he is concerned about threats coming out of Iran that involve the United States.
"Let me remind everybody that they have terror cells all across our country now because the border czar wasn't keeping guard on that border," Holt said. "We may find that the war does not find itself encapsulated in the Middle East. We may find we've got problems here."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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