The Griner-Bout trade. It could have been worse.

The Griner-Bout trade could have been much, much worse. Put another way and  relatively speaking, the trade for Griner for the Merchant of Death was not bad. Democrats have done worse.

I for one am not complaining

Last February I heard Women’s NBA player Britney Griner was arrested in Moscow for carrying hashish oil in her luggage, and like millions my reaction was, “Who?” Apparently she is a well know WNBA player and was playing off season in Russia to make some extra cash. Can’t knock her for wanting to make some side money, I do it myself.

Last Thursday, Ms. Griner was traded by Moscow for a convicted Russian arms dealer, Viktor Bout. By all accounts he is a piece of human waste, selling arms to both sides of the Angolan civil war and other conflicts. Bout was caught when he was lured to Taiwan in a sting operation set up by the US Drug Enforcement Agency:

By 2007, the Drug Enforcement Administration devised a plan to lure Bout out of Russia with an arms deal that would be hard to refuse. The agency hired an undercover agent to contact a trusted associate of Bout’s about a big business deal. That exchange led to the first meeting between the DEA’s fake arms buyers, who were posing as officials of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, also known as the FARC, and Bout’s associate on the island of Curacao, a few hundred miles off the coast of Colombia…

…Weeks later, Bout was on his way to Thailand, thinking he would be meeting with FARC officials to discuss shipping what prosecutors said was “an arsenal of military grade weapons” to attack American helicopters in Colombia.

During a March 2008 meeting in a Bangkok hotel conference room, Bout told the DEA informants posing as FARC officials that he could airdrop the arms in Colombia and acknowledged that the weapons could be used to kill Americans…

After Bout was sentenced to 25 years (scheduled to be released in 2029), Russia wanted him back. And whom did we get back in return?

Let’s just say Ms. Griner is not Miss America. Not sure if she knelt during the National Anthem or just waited in the locker room until after honors to America were completed, but she did say it should not be played during WNBA games. Ms. Griner, there are reasons your league doesn’t command the audience the NBA does. Offending your clientele doesn’t help you grow it.

For the moment, let us assume the worse about Ms. Griner. Is this the worst possible trade? Not really.

In 2014, then President Obama traded five Taliban prisoners, men who could only be described as high officials in the organization, in exchange for one Army deserter, Bowe Bergdahl. After Bergdahl deserted his unit in 2009, six soldiers were killed looking for him and a seventh died from his wounds later. What’s happened since then? Well, the five served for a time in the Taliban’s political office in Qatar. Latest is four are now officials of the new Afghanistan government that Joe Biden installed (don’t doubt number five is still working for the Taliban).

I remember a very heated Facebook dispute with a high school friend, who said the trade for Bergdahl was something “Americans do,” and “we don’t leave soldiers on the battlefield.” I pointed out to the Obama worshiper (likely has a 10ft by 15ft picture of The One on his wall to worship 5 times daily…slight exaggeration) that Bergdahl was a deserter in a time of war, men died trying to get him back, and if anything he should be facing a court martial and execution upon return. At best Bergdahl is a deserter and at worst he is a traitor, both capitol offenses. Also, prisoner exchanges are one for one, and generally at the same Geneva Convention Level, i.e., Bergdahl would be traded for one Taliban fighter, not five Taliban “generals.”

I explained to my friend, “In the chess game that is war, your idol gave the enemy back their queen, both rooks, both knights, and in return we didn’t get back a checker.”

Now, back to Ms. Griner. Latest I heard was Biden’s State Department was trying to arrange a two for one trade, Bout for Griner and former Marine and civilian contractor Paul Whelan. Reportedly Biden said he made an “agonizing” decision to leave Whelan there because he could bring one home or none home. Reportedly Putin was willing to exchange two for two last summer, but that fell apart.

Actually, it’s looking like another lie. According to NBC News last Thursday, the Russians were willing to trade Bout for Griner or Whelan: 

A senior U.S. official told NBC News that the U.S. government had sought to have both Griner and Whelan released as part of a swap with the Kremlin, which wanted the return of Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer who has served 11 years of a 25-year sentence in the U.S. But the official said Russia has treated Whelan differently because he is an accused spy, and that the Kremlin gave the White House the choice of either Griner or Whelan — or none.

At some point that report was stealth edited to note that “the official said that Russia has treated Whelan differently because he is accused of spying and that the Kremlin ultimately gave the White House the choice of Griner or no one after different options were proposed.”

The Russians, Biden, or NBC, which do you believe the least? To borrow the words of Mike Ford, “Oooooh….tough call!”

One of the Russians possibly in that deal was Vadim Krasifov, sentenced to life for murder by the Germans. Reportedly he conducted a Kremlin ordered killing of Zelimkhan Knangoshvill, a Georgian citizen, for his involvement in the second Chechen war. He may be high on the Kremlin’s list, but Bout was on the top of it, and now Putin has him back.

Mr. Biden, in case you missed it, you have lost your best leverage with Putin. Good luck in future negotiations with him. Damn I would love to play poker with you Joe, but it be unsporting to wipe the floor with a mental defective.

In summary, a bad deal, but with our Biden/Blinken “negotiation” team, it could have been much worse.

Michael A. Thiac is a retired Army intelligence officer, with over 23 years experience, including serving in the Republic of Korea, Japan, and the Middle East. He is also a retired police patrol sergeant, with over 22 years’ service, and over ten year’s experience in field training of newly assigned officers. He has been published at The American Thinker, PoliceOne.com, and on his personal blog, A Cop’s Watch.

Opinions expressed are his alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of current or former employers

If you enjoyed this article, then please REPOST or SHARE with others; encourage them to follow AFNN

Truth Social: @AFNN_USA
Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/afnnusa
Telegram: https://t.me/joinchat/2_-GAzcXmIRjODNh
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AfnnUsa
GETTR: https://gettr.com/user/AFNN_USA
Parler: https://parler.com/AFNNUSA
CloutHub: @AFNN_USA