Auburn's Bruce Pearl rips Biden administration over 'weak US foreign policy decision' in Iran deal

Auburn men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl ripped the Biden administration’s decision to strike a deal with Iran to swap prisoners and release $6 billion in frozen funds.

Pearl commented in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. He was responding to commentary from Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark. The senator wrote that President Biden "desecrates this day by paying ransom to the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism. Shameful."

"The world just got even more dangerous by another pathetic, weak US foreign policy decision," Pearl wrote. "Rather than giving Iran 6 Billion, I would give em a 6 days. Take another hostage and you get 6 hours. We just made Iran's terrorist regime stronger! Free their people! Know your opponent!"

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Pearl has not shied away from getting into the political discussion.

In May, he took issue with ABC News’ Robert Kennedy Jr.’s vaccine claims after the Democrat presidential candidate talked about his beliefs.

As far as the Biden administration’s deal with Iran goes, Iran will release five American citizens detained in Iran, and the U.S. will release five Iranian citizens being held in the U.S.

The deal creates a blanket waiver to transfer $6 billion in frozen Iranian money from South Korea to Qatar without fear of violating U.S. sanctions. No money is going directly to Iran, and no U.S. taxpayer funds are being used. 

The United States classifies Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken signed off on the deal late last week, but Congress was not notified of the decision until Monday, the 22nd anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, according to the notification, which was obtained by The Associated Press.

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The transfer of the $6 billion was the critical element in the prisoner release deal, which saw four of the five American detainees transferred from Iranian jails into house arrest last month. The fifth detainee had already been under house arrest.

Due to numerous U.S. sanctions on foreign banks that engage in transactions aimed at benefiting Iran, several European countries had balked at participating in the transfer. Blinken's waiver is aimed at easing their concerns about any risk of U.S. sanctions.

National Security Council Spokesperson Adrienne Watson said Secretary Blinken undertook a procedural step last week "to ensure Iranian funds could move from one restricted account to another and remain restricted to humanitarian trade." 

"As we have said from the outset, what is being pursued here is an arrangement wherein we secure the release of 5 wrongfully held Americans. This remains a sensitive and ongoing process," Watson said. 

"While this is a step in the process, no individuals have been or will be released into U.S. custody this week. We have kept Congress extensively informed from the outset of this process – long before today – and we will continue to do so, including with additional already scheduled briefings this week."

Fox News’ Bradford Betz contributed to this report.

American climber Mark Dickey rescued from Turkish cave more than a week after becoming ill

An American climber who spent more than a week trapped in one of the world's deepest caves has been rescued, officials said. 

Mark Dickey, a 40-year-old experienced caver, became seriously ill with stomach bleeding more than 3,000 feet below the Morca cave in southern Turkey's Taurus Mountains on September 2. Hundreds of people from the climbing community, including cavers and rescue personnel from several countries rallied to save him.

Early Tuesday, the Speleological Federation of Turkey released a statement confirming Dickey was safely above the surface.

"Mark Dickey is out of the Morca cave," the federation said in a statement. Dickey was removed from the last exit of the cave at 12:37 a.m. local time.

TRAPPED AMERICAN CAVER MARK DICKEY COULD BE BROUGHT TO SURFACE TODAY OR TOMORROW, TURKISH OFFICIALS SAY

"He is fine and is being tended to by emergency medical workers in the encampment above," the statement said.

Dickey, of New York, was conducting an expedition to map the Morca cave, the country's third-deepest cave, when he suffered the health emergency, leaving him unable to leave the cave on his own.

Rescue teams from across Europe and the U.S. rushed to get him out but the natural dangers of the cave and Dickey's own health made a rescue tricky.

An emergency team as able to initially treat him, but he was ultimately too weak to climb out of the cave, so rescuers carried him with a stretcher. 

They made several stops at temporary camps set up along the way before finally reaching the surface early Tuesday.

Dickey told reporters as he was lying on the stretcher that the situation was a "crazy, crazy adventure."

"It is amazing to be above ground again," he said, thanking the Turkish government for rescuing him. He also thanked others, including the international caving community, Turkish cavers and Hungarian Cave Rescue.

A Hungarian doctor first treated Dockey after going down the cave on September 3. Doctors and rescuers then took turns caring for him, although the cause of his illness was unclear.

Dickey said Tuesday that he had started to throw up large quantities of blood while in the cave.

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"My consciousness started to get harder to hold on to, and I reached the point where I thought 'I'm not going to live,'" he said.

The biggest hurdles the rescuers faced in removing him from the cave were the steep vertical sections and navigating through mud and water at low temperatures in the horizontal sections.

Around 190 people from Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Poland and Turkey aided the rescue, including doctors, paramedics and experienced cavers. Teams comprised of a doctor and three to four other rescuers took turns staying by his side at all times.

The rescue began on Saturday after doctors administered IV fluids and blood, and determined that Dickey could make the trip to the surface.

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Rescuers had to widen some of the cave's narrow passages, install ropes to pull him up vertical shafts on a stretcher and set up temporary camps before the attempt to exit the cave could begin.

Dickey is a cave researcher and a cave rescuer himself who has participated in many international expeditions. He and several other people on the expedition were mapping the 4,186-foot-deep Morca cave system for the Anatolian Speleology Group Association when he became ill on September 2, but it took until the next morning to alert people above ground.

The head of Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency, Okay Memis, said at a news conference after the rescue mission that Dickey's health was "very good."

The European Cave Rescue Association said many cave rescuers stayed in the cave afterward to remove rope and rescue equipment used during the evacuation effort. The association expressed its "huge gratitude to the many cave rescuers from seven different countries who contributed to the success of this cave rescue operation."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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