Drip. Drip. Drip. More facts emerged [yesterday] in the Obama administration’s payoff of $400 million in hard cold cash to the Mullahs of Iran for the release of U.S. prisoners being held in that radical Islamist country. Now we have learned top officials at the Justice Department reportedly objected to the deal, warning Obama and Kerry that the “optics” were terrible and would appear to the public to be a violation of long standing U.S. policy not to pay ransoms.

Just as important, we also know that Iran believed the payment was in fact a ransom. When you think about it, what they believed is all that matters — not the Obama administration’s “spin” on the story. If Iran thought seizing innocent U.S. citizens would result in Iran receiving $400 million from the U.S. then they will be encouraged to take additional “hostages,” which is exactly what they have done in recent months.

London Terror

A Somali man went on a knife attack rampage in London [Wednesday] night. An American woman in her 60s was stabbed to death. Five other people suffered wounds. The newly elected Muslim mayor of London urged citizens to remain calm. British authorities [yesterday] said they believe the attack was due to mental illness. But radical Islam is a form of mental derangement. They also point out that he did not scream the jihadist “signature” slogan “Allah Akbar” (Allah is the greatest). Okay. But when attackers do shout it out while killing us, the same “authorities” caution that “the motive for the attack isn’t clear.”

Finally, police add that they can’t find any evidence that the man was “recently radicalized.” I am just a layman, but wouldn’t it be fair to suggest that his stabbing spree is the evidence of his recent radicalization? It looks like spontaneous jihadism.

By the way, knives have been the jihadist weapon of choice in Israel over the last year along with ice picks and axes. In addition, [Wednesday] night’s attack took place in Russell Square, one of the sites in 2005 where jihadists killed 52 people. Coincidence? I doubt it.

My advice to Londoners: Ignore your mayor and don’t remain calm.

Memorial Service For French Priest

“Be gone, Satan.” Those were the words Jacques Hamel uttered moments before his throat was slit by two jihadists at his church in northern France last week. Father Hamel’s final words were revealed at a memorial service for him Tuesday.

During his homily for Hamel, Archbishop Dominique Lebrun told the thousands of people who had gathered to mourn the priest, including some Muslims, “You who are tormented by diabolical violence, you who are drawn to kill by a demonic, murderous madness, pray to God to free you from the devil’s grip. We pray for you, we pray to Jesus who healed all those who were under the power of evil.”

At a separate memorial for Father Hamel, another priest compared the god worshipped by Islamic terrorists to Moloch, an ancient pagan god of death.

“Those who wrap themselves in the trappings of religion to mask their deadly project,” he said, “Those who want to announce to us a God of death, a Moloch that would rejoice at the death of a man and promise paradise to those who kill while invoking him, these cannot expect humanity to yield to their delusion.”

In our report yesterday, we expressed concern that Pope Francis does not seem to comprehend the true nature of Islamic terrorism. Here we should be reassured that there are still priests and bishops who understand the Satanic nature of the enemy we face.