After 294 days in Russian prison, Brittney Griner was freed yesterday, but the details of her release have many scratching their heads.
The WNBA star was arrested on February 17 for allegedly carrying drugs in her suitcase at an airport in Russia. A few months later, the United States government officially declared that Griner was “wrongfully detained.”
On August 4, she was sentenced to nine years in prison, after pleading guilty to drug charges. The Biden administration began bartering for her release, and President Joe Biden signed an executive order condemning the “wrongful detention of U.S. citizens abroad by authorizing government agencies to impose sanctions and other measures.” Eventually, the U.S. secured her release, and on December 8, Griner boarded a plane for America.
But freeing Brittney Griner came at a hefty price.
The American basketball player was traded in a prison swap for Viktor Bout, a convicted terrorist and Russian arms dealer. Bout was arrested in 2011 for selling missiles for the purpose of killing Americans. He has also been accused of providing weapons to Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
While it is justifiable to negotiate for the release of American citizens imprisoned in foreign countries, many are questioning whether the Griner/Bout trade was a fair deal. Griner has a criminal record in America and is openly anti-American. That does not mean she should not be allowed to return, but is the release of Bout, the so-called Merchant of Death, really in the best interest of the United States?
David Marcus noted in a Fox News opinion piece that “the U.S. paid a real price for Griner’s release, not just by putting Bout back in the killing game, but also by sending a message to other foreign dictators that absconding with American citizens can be a powerful bargaining chip.” Our foreign adversaries have learned that America’s Achilles heel when it comes to the release of terrorists is kidnapping our citizens. “That is a very real danger,” David Marcus added.
What makes the whole ordeal even worse is who the Biden administration did not free in its prisoner exchange with Russia.
Since 2018, Marine veteran Paul Whelan has been imprisoned in Russia. Unlike Griner, Whelan does not hate America. He also has been waiting for his release much longer than she had to wait for hers.
Also unlike Griner – and this is, arguably, the reason an anti-American WNBA star was freed and a U.S. Marine was not – Whelan is not a celebrity, and he does not mark off the same identity politics boxes that she does as a black lesbian.
Whelan told CNN he had hoped that he would be included in Biden’s prison swap: “I am greatly disappointed that more has not been done to secure my release, especially as the four-year anniversary of my arrest is coming up. I was arrested for a crime that never occurred. I don’t understand why I’m still sitting here,” the veteran said.
“[Whelan] has been there nearly 4 years on espionage charges … He was very disappointed that he was left behind, though he was very happy that Brittney Griner got out.”
— The Recount (@therecount) December 8, 2022
— CNN’s @jmhansler on Paul Whelan, who is still detained in Russia, reacting to Brittney Griner’s release pic.twitter.com/DkfzcPJL5z
Whatever the reason, it is unfortunate that Biden made the release of Britteny Griner a higher priority than Paul Whelan’s freedom.
“This should be a moment of deep reflection for the United States government to recognize we have a serious problem with hostage-taking of Americans,” Democrat Senator Bob Menendez said in a statement. “The Russians and other regimes that take American citizens hostage cannot pretend that there is equivalence between the Brittney Griners of the world and people like Viktor Bout, the so-called ‘Merchant of Death.’ Nothing could be further from the truth, and we cannot ignore that releasing Bout back into the world is a deeply disturbing decision.”
He later added that his heart “goes out to the families of other American citizens in Russian prisons and labor camps, including Paul Whelan,” vowing to use his power “to secure Mr. Whelan’s safe return and to continue fighting for the release of… all other unjustly detained Americans.”
There is nothing wrong with Griner’s return to America in and of itself. Even though she did plead guilty to drug charges, her sentence was unfair and unreasonable, after all. Nevertheless, the U.S. government must stop letting woke politics get in the way of doing what is right and best for the American people.
