Republicans criticize Biden for favoring celebrities over veterans in Griner swap – Republicans accused Joe Biden of favoring celebrities over veterans on Thursday, with news the basketball star Brittney Griner had been released from Russian prison in a prisoner swap — while former Marine Paul Whelan continues to languish at a penal colony.
Republicans criticize Biden for favoring celebrities over veterans in Griner swap
Republican Rep. Mike Waltz, a former Green Beret, asked: ‘Where is U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who has been unjustly held by Russia for far longer? Celebrities over veterans?’
On Thursday morning, Griner, the WNBA star imprisoned on marijuana-related drug charges in Russia, is on her way back to the US in exchange for arms dealer Viktor Bout.
Meanwhile, Whelan, a corporate security executive jailed in Russia since December 2018 on espionage charges that his family and the U.S. government has said are baseless, remains imprisoned.
Brittney Griner is on her way home from Russia, while Paul Whelan remains imprisoned. Republicans said the deal to free Griner showed the Biden administration favoured celebrities over veterans such as Whelan, a former Marine imprisoned on espionage charges
President Joe Biden celebrated her release, but said there was simply no option to bring back Whelan as well.
‘We’ve not forgotten about Paul Whelan, who has been unjustly detained in Russia for years,’ Biden said.
‘Sadly, for totally illegitimate reasons Russia is treating Paul’s case differently than Brittney’s.’
A senior administration official said Moscow viewed Whelan as a different case because of the spying charge.
‘I think we have every reason to expect that the channel will remain open to continue to negotiate for Paul Whelan’s release,’ the official said
But Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a former pilot in the U.S. Air Force, cried foul.
‘So a basketball star is released, we can celebrate, but what about Paul Whelan? An American unjustly detained for years,’ he tweeted.
‘May not be high profile but he is innocent. This is a dangerous road.’
Republicans – including veterans – were quick to condemn the decision to bring home Griner without the release of Whelan, which they said set a dangerous precedent
Griner was in IK-2 in Yavas, one of several penal colonies in the region, according to Reuters÷
Suspected Russian arms smuggler Viktor Bout, center, is led by armed Thai police commandos as he arrives at the criminal court in Bangkok, Thailand in Oct. 5, 2010. Russia has freed WNBA star Brittney Griner on Thursday in a dramatic high-level prisoner exchange, with the U.S. releasing notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout
Who is Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, dubbed ‘The Merchant of Death’?
Viktor Bout was dubbed the ‘Merchant of Death’ because of his rise to the top of international arms trafficking.
Born in Tajikistan, he is a former Soviet military officer who spent time in Mozambique during its civil war, going on to work for the KGB in Angola.
He turned to the arms trade after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Attorney General Eric Holder called Bout ‘one of the world’s most prolific arms dealers’.
Bout has armed human rights abusers in Angola, Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to Amnesty International.
Conflicts linked to Bout include the First Liberian Civil War, the Angolan Civil War, the Yugoslav Wars, the 2006 Lebanon War, the Second Libyan Civil War and the Second Congo War.
The New York Times alleged that Bout was linked to arms shipments to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
Between 1992 and 1998, it has been reported he helped strip out $32 billion worth of Ukrainian weaponry after it broke with the Soviet Union.
In an interview with the Times, he said he had been known to fly African heads of state in and out of countries.
Bout was close friends with Mobutu Sese Seko, the Congolese dictator.
As well as an arms trafficker, he was a keen photographer and wildlife enthusiast, often spending time with Pygmy tribes in the African jungles.
‘What I really want to do now is to take one of my helicopters to the Russian Arctic north and make wildlife films for National Geographic and the Discovery channel,’ he told the Times.
He began his business transporting South African gladiolas.
Serving his sentence in the United States Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois, and has five years left in prison.
Whelan, a 52-year-old US, Irish, British and Canadian citizen, was arrested in December 2018 at a Moscow hotel. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison on espionage charges.
He has always denied the charges, and the U.S. government says he has been unjustly detained.
Rep. Scott Perry, a retired Army National Guard Brigadier General, also questioned Biden’s decision to release a convicted arms smuggler.
‘So @POTUS just traded an enemy who smuggles guns and helps shoot Americans for an American who smuggles drugs and shoots basketballs, all while a former US Marine, Paul Whelan, rots in a Russian prison,’ he tweeted.
‘Let that sink in.’
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis of New York took a similar line.
‘If @Potus is going to release a guy convicted of providing aid to a terrorist organization & conspiring to kill American citizens, he should have at least gotten BOTH Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan in return,’ her office tweeted.
‘A U.S. Marine is left behind in another bad deal made by Biden.’
Russian and US officials had conveyed cautious optimism in recent weeks after months of strained negotiations, with Biden saying in November that he was hopeful that Russia would engage in a deal now that the midterm elections were completed. A top Russian official said last week that a deal was possible before year’s end.
Whelan’s brother said he could not imagine how Paul was surviving, knowing that a deal was in the works … only to be excluded.
‘I can’t even fathom how Paul will feel when he learns. Paul has worked so hard to survive nearly four years of this injustice,’ he said in comments emailed to news outlets.
‘His hopes had soared with the knowledge that the US government was taking concrete steps for once towards his release.
‘He’d been worrying about where he’d live when he got back to the US.’
Biden spoke with Griner on the phone Thursday while her wife, Cherelle, was in the Oval Office.
In releasing Bout, the US freed a a former Soviet Army lieutenant colonel whom the Justice Department once described as one of the world’s most prolific arms dealers.
Bout, whose exploits inspired a Hollywood movie, was serving a 25-year sentence on charges that he conspired to sell tens of millions of dollars in weapons that U.S officials said were to be used against Americans.
