The Obama Report

During the annual National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, President Obama offered a perfunctory and token prayer for Saeed Abedini, the abandoned American pastor who's been languishing in an Iranian jail cell for the last 18 months.

"We pray for Pastor Saeed Abedini," Obama said. "He's been held in Iran for more than 18 months."

Over the last several years, a number of American citizens have been thrown into various prisons in Iran and elsewhere. And sadly, those heads of states [ahem...] who have the power to obtain the release of these detainees have made very little effort to do so [ahem...], which has compelled a handful of valiant US lawmakers, and others, to speak out, and to take action, on their behalf.

In January of this year, it was reported that Saeed Abedini had been "throwing up on a regular basis and... experiencing significant pain in his abdomen. The prison doctor recommended that he receive surgery... Pastor Saeed sustained internal injuries from beatings he endured in [the notorious] Evin prison early in his imprisonment. Those injuries have gone largely untreated."

However, although Abedini - as well as a number of other American prisoners - have been heartlessly and callously abandoned by their government, President Obama, nevertheless, offered a token and perfunctory prayer on the pastor's behalf.

But ultimately, in light of the huge and perilous concessions that Iran has received from the White House, it's hard to imagine that Mr. Abedini will remain in prison much longer - unless the White House intervenes with the Iranian authorities and requests more prison time for Mr. Abedini. No doubt, that request would be warmly received by the Iranian government, and would serve as a small, but friendly gesture toward a benevolent regime that was, and always will be, a beacon for human rights.......