National
Review Online
Friday,
December 09, 2022
The good
news first. An American, previously detained in Russia on drug charges patently
hyped up for malign political purposes, has returned home. Brittney
Griner’s ten-month-long ordeal at the hands of a mafia state ended Thursday in
a prisoner swap on a tarmac in Abu Dhabi.
Yet to
celebrate Griner’s return one does not need to overlook the unintended
consequences that follow from the way in which the White House secured her
release. The swap that led to her release is liable to result in the wrongful
detention of more Americans around the world and even, potentially, to aid the
Kremlin’s war effort in Ukraine. Paul Whelan, an American former Marine held
for four years in Russia on espionage charges, meanwhile, remains in prison.
The
exchange was not one between remotely similar prisoners. Griner was ludicrously
sentenced to nine years in prison over possessing two vape pens, filled with
hashish oil, while Viktor Bout, whom Washington released in the trade, was
one of the world’s biggest dealers in illegal arms. His customers are a rogue’s
gallery of terrorists, rapists, and other assorted murderers. He had unsavory
friends all over the world, ranging from al-Qaeda to FARC, and some suspect him
of having ties to Russian military intelligence. It’s not a stretch to say that
his sales enabled the murder of Americans. And these activities continued until
his arrest in 2008 in Bangkok. Now, some Biden officials say, Bout may well
return to arms smuggling in Africa, and it’s not beyond the realm of
imagination that he will help the arms-starved Russian war effort in Ukraine.
The
administration describes the decision to opt for the swap as a tough one, which
is undoubtedly true. Months of negotiations apparently led to a binary choice.
As one senior official described it to reporters today: “It was a choice to
bring Brittney Griner home right now or bring no one home right now,” even
though the negotiating team had fought for months to secure the release of
Whelan as well. The talks surrounding Whelan’s release will continue, officials
pledged.
It’s
understandable that U.S. officials, presented with the opportunity to bring
home one stranded American, were willing to move forward with a flawed deal.
It’s just that Bout, given the nature of his crimes and the likelihood he’ll
continue them, should have been a nonstarter.
Trading
hard-core criminals, like Bout, for regular civilians will signal to foreign
adversaries that Washington will reward their hostage-taking with releases of
higher-level prisoners, or a greater number of them. It would appear that
Russia has raised its price. When Trevor Reed, an imprisoned U.S. Marine, was
freed in April, Washington traded him for a Russian pilot convicted of
trafficking $100 million worth of cocaine in the U.S. Bout’s release is an
escalation.
As of
this summer, there were dozens of American hostages held by various governments
around the world. Now the world’s rogue prison wardens and malignant actors of
all stripes have every reason to increase their demands. In addition to Whelan,
another American, Marc Fogel, languishes in a Russian prison — and, like
Griner, on charges related to possession of medical marijuana. One can only
imagine what the Russians think they can get for them.
The
Biden administration didn’t have great options. But make no mistake — the White
House has jacked up the price to buy the freedom of an American hostage in one
of the world’s most outrageous black markets.
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