In journalism you know you’re doing a good job covering an issue when both sides agree you’re being fair, or both sides hate your guts.
I fear one of those times is upon me for what I’m about to say about ransoming WNBA star Brittney Griner in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
That sounds you hear on the right are howls of outrage that they got a major player in the international arms trade and we got a player in a sport nobody watches, whose claim to notoriety is publicly stating she doesn’t think the national anthem should be played at sporting events and refuses to come onto the court while it is.
Furthermore there are two American ex-Marines, who have been held in durance vile since 2021 and 2018 respectively. And as Ms Griner could tell you, in Russia durance can be pretty vile.
It’s probably no secret I don’t think highly of Biden. I don’t trust his competence, nor his truthfulness, and I sometimes suspect he’s just the public face of whoever is really running things.
Nevertheless I have to say, this time the outrage is misplaced. Biden got the best possible deal he could.
The administration proposed a swap for Griner and Paul Whelan, imprisoned on espionage charges since 2018.
At this time it is not known why he didn’t ask for Marc Fogel, a former Marine who has been imprisoned since 2021 after being arrested for possession of 17 grams of cannabis extract he used for pain management.
Putin flat refused to consider a package deal, and Putin holds all the cards. He loses nothing by keeping them.
In Whelan’s case, things are murky. It turns out he was booted out of the Corps for embezzlement and using fraudulent social security accounts. And he also holds British, Irish, and Canadian citizenship.
Fogel appears to be an exemplary citizen and inactive Marine in good standing. He was a history teacher for years at the Anglo-American
School in Moscow. Which makes you wonder how the heck he could have been so damn dumb as to cross the Russian border with illegal drugs.
(If one is going to bring contraband across a border, which I strongly advise against, one should travel by train and stash it under the towel waste in the bathroom before going through customs. Theoretically speaking.)
Putin probably held on to Whelan because he can get concessions from the UK, Ireland, and/or Canada. I don’t know why Fogel seems to have been forgotten. Perhaps they’re holding out for a really big score.
But Biden had only two choices, take what he could get or let Griner rot.
Some have expressed the opinion that’s exactly what he should have done. So how’d you like to be on the receiving end of that philosophy? For your opinions.
A rational policy would be to declare we will take Americans back by force when possible but never buy them back.
We can’t do that. As a people we don’t have it in us. So sometimes we do buy our citizens back and accept the fact that puts more Americans at risk.
Remember when the Obama administration ransomed former Miss North Dakota Roxana Saberi from Iran in exchange for terrorists with American blood on their hands?
Griner’s an American, possibly a bad one but American nonetheless. And we look after our own – no matter what. If she were to be hanged on arrival I’d still want it done on American soil by American hands.
I hope she’s learned to appreciate this extraordinary country of ours, but we’ll see.
The Swap
In journalism you know you’re doing a good job covering an issue when both sides agree you’re being fair, or both sides hate your guts.
I fear one of those times is upon me for what I’m about to say about ransoming WNBA star Brittney Griner in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
That sounds you hear on the right are howls of outrage that they got a major player in the international arms trade and we got a player in a sport nobody watches, whose claim to notoriety is publicly stating she doesn’t think the national anthem should be played at sporting events and refuses to come onto the court while it is.
Furthermore there are two American ex-Marines, who have been held in durance vile since 2021 and 2018 respectively. And as Ms Griner could tell you, in Russia durance can be pretty vile.
It’s probably no secret I don’t think highly of Biden. I don’t trust his competence, nor his truthfulness, and I sometimes suspect he’s just the public face of whoever is really running things.
Nevertheless I have to say, this time the outrage is misplaced. Biden got the best possible deal he could.
The administration proposed a swap for Griner and Paul Whelan, imprisoned on espionage charges since 2018.
At this time it is not known why he didn’t ask for Marc Fogel, a former Marine who has been imprisoned since 2021 after being arrested for possession of 17 grams of cannabis extract he used for pain management.
Putin flat refused to consider a package deal, and Putin holds all the cards. He loses nothing by keeping them.
In Whelan’s case, things are murky. It turns out he was booted out of the Corps for embezzlement and using fraudulent social security accounts. And he also holds British, Irish, and Canadian citizenship.
Fogel appears to be an exemplary citizen and inactive Marine in good standing. He was a history teacher for years at the Anglo-American
School in Moscow. Which makes you wonder how the heck he could have been so damn dumb as to cross the Russian border with illegal drugs.
(If one is going to bring contraband across a border, which I strongly advise against, one should travel by train and stash it under the towel waste in the bathroom before going through customs. Theoretically speaking.)
Putin probably held on to Whelan because he can get concessions from the UK, Ireland, and/or Canada. I don’t know why Fogel seems to have been forgotten. Perhaps they’re holding out for a really big score.
But Biden had only two choices, take what he could get or let Griner rot.
Some have expressed the opinion that’s exactly what he should have done. So how’d you like to be on the receiving end of that philosophy? For your opinions.
A rational policy would be to declare we will take Americans back by force when possible but never buy them back.
We can’t do that. As a people we don’t have it in us. So sometimes we do buy our citizens back and accept the fact that puts more Americans at risk.
Remember when the Obama administration ransomed former Miss North Dakota Roxana Saberi from Iran in exchange for terrorists with American blood on their hands?
Griner’s an American, possibly a bad one but American nonetheless. And we look after our own – no matter what. If she were to be hanged on arrival I’d still want it done on American soil by American hands.
I hope she’s learned to appreciate this extraordinary country of ours, but we’ll see.