Yesterday Tucker Carlson just revealed a crucial detail from the Brittney Griner/Viktor Bout prisoner swap, revealing the true reason it happened. However, Carlson missed a few things which I feel the need to point out here. First, let’s start with what he said:
Well known journalist Andrea Mitchell, who has been in DC covering news for over 50 years, and who is deeply supportive of the Biden administration, yesterday morning, contributed to a story at NBC that said “The Kremlin gave the White House the choice of either Griner or Whelan — or none.” The quote was attributed to a “senior U.S. official”. Then, as with the forthright story on Paul Pelosi last month, that account was scrubbed and “sanitized” and the new version of the story lines up with the W.H. narrative that “The Kremlin ultimately gave the White House the choice of either Griner or no one.”
So basically, Moscow specifically wanted Bout, and were completely indifferent about who they swapped him for. That’s the true story originally announced by the press, but unfortunately contradicted God Emperor Biden’s account of what happened, so the initial reports had to be changed 1984-style.
Why did Biden choose Griner and not Whelan, who has been in prison longer than her and has a significantly longer sentence? The reason of course is obvious. Griner is is LGBT and black, so her release scores far more Facebook likes and Reddit karma than generic white guy Whelan ever could. Let’s also not discount plain old corruption either. Griner is rich and well connected, and Whelan is not.
Those things said, I have to wonder if Uncle Sam even wants Whelan to come back. Remember, last April Trevor Reed was exchanged and brought back to the USA. Like Griner, he had a much shorter prison sentence than Whelan. That has been at least two opportunities this year to get Whelan back, but the God Emperor chose other people instead.
I have a theory, and time might prove me right. For whatever reasons or combination of reasons, the US government does not want Whelan.
Consider that today, Putin himself made it clear that Russia is open to negotiating further prisoner exchanges. Why would Putin feel the need to emphasise that? I think it’s because there are still numerous Russian citizens in American prisons that he would like to get back home, but it’s unlikely to happen now because Griner was the last American prisoner God Emperor Biden gives a shit about and all such negotiations will cease now.
Incidentally, consider that US citizen Sarah Krivanek was just deported from Russia today. From NBC:
A court in the city of Ryazan, southeast of Moscow, ruled on Nov. 10 that Krivanek was to be deported.
Krivanek, a former English teacher from Fresno, California, was charged with assault last year for attacking her partner with a knife during a domestic dispute in which he received light facial injuries.
A human rights activist involved with the case said she acted in self-defence.
She was then detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport last December while about to board a flight to Atlanta in violation of an order that barred her from leaving Russia because of the assault case.
By the way, a Fresno woman attacking her boyfriend with a knife is extremely stereotypical. Fresno is, uhm, an interesting place. Unfortunately for Krivanek, she wasn’t in Fresno anymore, and it appears that playing the woman card to Russian cops didn’t work as well as it might have with California cops. Still, this seems to be proof that if there is some temptation in Moscow to detain Americans in hopes of using them to exchange Russians incarcerated in the USA, it won’t work. Washington is only interested in releasing Americans imprisoned overseas if they are rich and influential enough to matter, like Griner. And apparently for reasons unknown to me, Reed. But not Whelan.
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good theories but i have to wonder if it’s the gaping chasm between the charges; a small bottle of CBD or whatever vs espionage. not saying the russians are 100% trustworthy on his guilt but it’s not too crazy to suggest he’s been “left out in the cold”. i will say griner’s wife was doing quite the media junket recently so PR is obviously an issue with the compulsively virtue signalling boomer twats in DC.
I have 1 question which neither side answers. Ian if you could answer it I and many other people could make sense of this.
Why does the Russian government want Victor Bout?
What do they want to do with him?
Here is a good explanation:
https://sonar21.com/there-is-more-to-the-viktor-bout-trade-than-meets-the-eye/
Funny how white, male, heterosexual Marc Fogel is never mentioned. He was an American school teacher in Russia who received 14 year sentence for marijuana possession in Russia
Some people suspect that he is a Russian Intelligence Agent and that the arms dealing was his cover.
He is Russian.
It is to an extent the universal case of Tragedy of Commons. It is, hopefully to a lesser yet extent, same here.
————
Another case virtually identical to Brittney Griner’s is Marc Fogel’s. He faces 14 years for having less than an ounce of medical marijuana.
….
American patriotism means you matter less to “your” own government. A patriot doesn’t ask “what your country can do for you;” he sacrifices for it. Loyalty to a united American identity surpasses racial identities. That’s a political liability because you can’t accuse the government of discrimination.
https://www.unz.com/ghood/president-bidens-insulting-prisoner-exchange/
I must say I am appalled by Russia’s harsh punishment of those who break Russia’s draconian marihuana/hemp laws. Of course, in this way Russia may be playing an effective political game by forcing the US to release valuable Russian citizens from prison for whatever offenses in exchange for, for example, somebody as harmless as Griner. Still, as a matter of principle, it is outrageous to send somebody, anybody, to jail and prison for “possession of hemp oil.”
Hemp oil!
The US, regardless of its imperial, disastrous international policy, has recently begun to use common sense and to decriminalize domestic marijuana use. Where I live, medical marijuana was legalized in 2007 (thank you, Sen. Bill Richardson!), while a year ago recreational marijuana also became legal.
I am not saying that legalizing marihuana doesn’t involve certain risks and dangers. But what I am saying is that the decision to use a drug (which is less dangerous than alcohol) should be regulated by the medical, not political, establishment. People should be helped, not punished. Even a recreational user needs, if anything, non-threatening, medical support, never a jail sentence or any punishment.
Gore Vidal, one of my unforgettable intellectual heroes, once wrote a superb editorial about the horror of the war on drugs. It’s simply called “Drugs” and it was published, if you believe it, in the NYT.
Were there other victims of the said heavy-handed aporoach but Americans and their vassals?
I come to think that Russia just gave up and started scavenging bargaining chips.
Awful development for those happenned being the chips, but did Russia had many other options?