LIBS Lose the PLOT on Biden Prisoner Swap 

The cluelessness that mainstream media is showing about Joe Biden’s questionable prisoner exchange deal with Russia is characteristic of overall cluelessness on the left that led to Sleepy Joe’s election in the first place, a commentary on the case suggests.

Not a Very Smart Trade at All

The administration of Empty Shelves Joe celebrated his exchange of WNBA player Brittney Griner, who was imprisoned in Russia for “drug trafficking,” for Viktor Bout, probably the world’s most famous and most notorious illegal arms dealer.

In giving up Bout to the regime of Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin, the Biden administration failed to also include in the deal Paul Whelan, a former US Marine who Russia imprisoned for “espionage,” most likely on false charges.

A commentary by HotAir argues the Biden administration made a highly unequal exchange by swapping Griner for Bout, that she enjoyed special attention because of her status as a black, female, lesbian celebrity.

The article makes a point that the importance of Viktor Bout, known as the “merchant of death,” cannot be exaggerated. Back in 2012, when he was sentenced in the United States to 25 years for illegal arms trafficking, the Obama administration “made a big deal” of that.

Ukrainian and Russian opposition sources claimed Bout has been a collaborator of the GRU, the Russian military intelligence.

He was supplying giant amounts of Soviet and Russian-made weapons to the Taliban in Afghanistan, communist FARC rebels in Colombia, and a dozen third world dictatorships and terrorist organizations.

The commentary notes that Viktor Bout, a former officer of the Soviet military, was a “very, very bad guy,” to put it mildly, as his sins also feature arranging the assassinations of western citizens and troops.

 

Special Treatment Based on Politics, Color, Sexuality

Against that backdrop, HotAir emphasizes Griner’s arrest, sentencing, and imprisonment in Russia were her fault because she was carrying 0.7 grams of hashish oil at a Moscow airport.

After she was nabbed, the WNBA player relied on her “semi-celebrity” status to plead with the US government for her release.

The article notes that the basketball player got “special treatment” from Sleepy Joe, which wouldn’t have been extended to “any other US citizen.”

The commentary fumes that Biden ended up swapping the man the Obama administration called the “most dangerous” in the world to free a “drug-smuggling, black lesbian basketball player,” who, on top of everything else, has been “hating America.”

According to HotAir, that wouldn’t have been a “smart trade” even if Griner had been innocent. However, she got special treatment from the US government, due to her “color, sexuality, and politics.”

The commentary goes so far as to suggest Griner would’ve been stuck in a Russian prison, had she not been a “black, lesbian anti-American” person.

This article appeared in Mainstpress and has been published here with permission.

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