The Conservative Cave
Current Events => Breaking News => Topic started by: Ralph Wiggum on December 08, 2022, 07:53:56 AM
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Russia has freed Brittney Griner in a dramatic high-level prisoner exchange that is bringing the WNBA star back to the United States after almost 10 months' detention.
The swap, made at a time of heightened tensions over the invasion of Ukraine, achieved a top goal for President Joe Biden but carried a heavy price and left behind an American jailed for nearly four years in Russia.
The deal, the second such exchange in eight months with Russia, procured the release of the most prominent American detained abroad. Griner is a two-time Olympic gold medalist whose monthslong imprisonment on drug charges brought unprecedented attention to the population of wrongful detainees.
Biden's authorization to release notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, once nicknamed the "Merchant of Death," underscored the escalating pressure that his administration faced to get Griner home, particularly after the recent resolution of her criminal case and her subsequent transfer to a penal colony.
In releasing Bout, the U.S. freed 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.
The Biden administration was ultimately willing to exchange Bout if it meant Griner's freedom. The detention of one of the greatest players in WNBA history contributed to a swirl of unprecedented public attention for an individual detainee -- not to mention intense pressure on the White House.
Griner's arrest in February made her the most high-profile American jailed abroad. Her status as an openly gay Black woman, locked up in a country where authorities have been hostile to the LGBTQ community, infused racial, gender and social dynamics into her legal saga and made each development a matter of international importance.
https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/_/id/35210403/brittney-griner-being-freed-us-russia-prisoner-exchange
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Well, it is a criminal-for-criminal swap, though Bout is probably a worse criminal.
In my fantasies, the Russians would have taught Griner the difference between true, ugly, racism and her own ugly, entitled, paranoia. In the real world, I doubt her willingness or capacity to learn that lesson.
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Well, it is a criminal-for-criminal swap, though Bout is probably a worse criminal.
In my fantasies, the Russians would have taught Griner the difference between true, ugly, racism and her own ugly, entitled, paranoia. In the real world, I doubt her willingness or capacity to learn that lesson.
It wouldn't surprise me if she is even more hateful of the U.S. for leaving her there for this long.
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Yet Trump was Putin's puppet. :censored: :argh: Just more weakness from Biden, showing the world that the US's backside is bent over and open for business.
Can we send Bout back to Russia the way North Korea sent that kid who stole a poster back to us, in a coma and days from death?
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Reminds me of when Biden's former boss traded the GITMO 5 for that traitor Bowe Bergdahl.
This is the worst trade since the Cowboys sent Herschel Walker to the Vikings.
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Reminds me of when Biden's former current boss, who is still yanking SharterJoe's stringS, traded the GITMO 5 for that traitor Bowe Bergdahl.
This is the worst trade since the Cowboys sent Herschel Walker to the Vikings.
FIFY
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FIFY
Perfect and accurate correction. :cheersmate: