Paul Whelan, the only American still being held by the Russians: “I didn’t know he was going to come home”

Griner’s release has brought attention to another American still being held by the Russians: Paul Whelan, who has been detained since 2018 on what the US government says are spurious espionage changes. The allegations have been denied by Whelan. He was reportedly transferred to a prison hospital at the end of November.

He said that he has been held in a remote area of Russia for a crime he didn’t commit. “I don’t understand why I’m still sitting here.”

Despite their grief that their brother didn’t come home, the family reacted with great dignity to the news that a man was free. Elizabeth Whelan, Paul’s sister, called for political unity over the fate of hostages abroad, saying that hostile foreign countries are trying to use such cases to stir dissent in the US.

This wasn’t a situation in which we had a choice of who to bring home, that’s for sure. An administration official told reporters on Thursday that the choice was between bringing home a specific American or none.

The U.S. is not back to square one in its negotiations for Paul’s release from the Russian prisoner’s office, as stated by Kirby

“I was led to believe that things were moving in the right direction, and that the governments were negotiating and that something would happen fairly soon,” he said.

None of that is true, that raises a lot of concerns. He said that they were trying to get out of the United States because they couldn’t provide what they wanted.

Her case also served to amplify the plight of Whelan, whose arrest on espionage charges led to a conviction in 2020 and a 16-year prison sentence. The trial is unfair and the charges are manufactured according to US officials.

Whelan said he hopes that Biden and his administration “would do everything they could to get me home, regardless of the price they might have to pay at this point.”

Biden said that Russia was treating Paul’s case differently than other cases. While we haven’t been able to get Paul released, we are not giving up. We will never give up.

National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby said Thursday that the US is “not back to square one” in its negotiations for Whelan’s release.

Paul Whelan: “I know I can do it” but I don’t know what I’m doing in terms of the end of the Cold War

“I’m not trying to shine a negative light on Russia per se, I’m just trying to tell it how it is. I’m trying to get a message through to my governments that I need help,” he said.

He said that he would be willing to take the risk if he thought the message needed to be communicated. “And I’ve kind of sat quietly by for a long time, and at this point I’m frustrated that nothing’s being done, and I just don’t know what roadmap people are looking at to get me home,” Whelan said.

In these conditions who knows how I will come back or if I will come back at all, that is what he is worried about, telling CNN.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/08/politics/paul-whelan-cnn-interview-brittney-griner/index.html

The fate of a black star athlete in Russia: the case of an inmate who is black and lesbian imprisoned in 1994-95

We only have cold water. The place is dirty. There really isn’t any maintenance. Things are extremely old, you know, 30-40-50 years old, and you know, what isn’t broken doesn’t work. We do not have cleaning supplies. The medical care is subpar. He said we were on our own to take care of ourselves.

Whelan said he tries to keep sane by reading “a lot of books” and writing letters. He likes to receive letters and cards because they remind him that our world still exists.

The case of a star athlete with an outspoken wife and dedicated base of supporters who was sentenced to serve her time in prison captured the public’s attention and heaped pressure on Biden to bring her release. The White House described her as being in intolerable circumstances. Concerns about the health and wellbeing of Griner, who was a Black and a Lesbian, while she was in Russia had been raised.

Concerns had been raised about the health and well being of a person who is both black and lesbian, while imprisoned in Russia. Though Russia decriminalized homosexuality in 1993, homophobia and discrimination still persists. On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law a bill that expanded anti-LGBTQ laws.

Conditions vary among Russian penal colonies, but political prisoners are often placed in harsh conditions where they can be subjected to “solitary confinement or punitive stays in psychiatric units,” according to a recent human rights report from the US State Department. Russian law also allows forced labor in penal colonies, and in some cases, inmates have been tortured to death, the report says. The report says there are reports of prison authorities recruiting inmates to abuse other inmates.

The foreign ministry said that they achieved an agreement with the American side about an exchange of Bout for other people. The Russian citizen has been returned to his homeland.

President Joe Biden gave final approval for the prisoner swap freeing Griner over the past week, an official familiar with the matter has told CNN, adding that the president was updated on the swap as it took place.

The decision was shared with only a tight knit group of US officials to prevent the news from breaking before Griner was in US custody, one US official explained. Russian officials were warned multiple times that they shouldn’t talk about the matter in public. They were aware of the war going on in Ukraine, and worried that any major escalation could derail the plan. So concerned were White House officials that the fragile deal could collapse that Biden didn’t sign the commutation papers for Bout until Griner was on the ground in Abu Dhabi and in the sight of a US greeting party.

The decision to swap Griner for the merchant of death is unpopular. The United States sentenced Bout to 25 years in prison for conspiring to kill Americans, providing material support to a terrorist organization and acquiring and exporting anti-aircraft missiles. He has maintained that he’s not guilty.

Though White House officials have said Griner is in “good spirits” she is likely to undergo a thorough medical evaluation. National Security Council strategic communications director John Kirby told CNN on Thursday that the first priority is to make sure that she gets adequate care after she’s under intolerable conditions.

There will be a need for her to have access to health care before she is ready to return to her hometown. I don’t think that that will take a very long time,” Kirby told CNN’s Kate Bolduan. “But again, that is going to be up to the doctors to work with the family on. That is going to be the main focus now, is just making sure that we look after her well being before she’s able to, you know, to get on her way.”

She’s fine. She is on a plane. She’s on her way home after months of being unjustly detained in Russia, held under intolerable conditions,” Biden said from the Roosevelt Room.

It is clear that the possible implications of the steps that Biden took followed earlier prisoner swaps with US adversaries, including for an American and a former US marine held in Russia, and those of Barack Obama and Donald Trump. There is now a considerable risk that other rogue nations or groups see Washington as open for business and may therefore see Americans abroad as increasingly valuable targets in a vicious cycle of more detentions.

The official said the administration had a “moral obligation” to bring people home, as well as a policy obligation.

What is it that a person like Brittany Griner should have to go through in order to be released from a Russian Penal Colony? And we regard that as unacceptable,” the official said.

Cherelle Griner said she was overwhelmed by emotions, expressing gratitude to Biden, Vice President Harris and other members of the administration involved in securing her wife’s release. She thanked both the NBA and the agent.

David Whelan, the U.S. Marine, and the G-league basketball player Brittney Griner, left behind after being released in Russia

She was sentenced last August by a Russian court to nine years in prison for carrying less than a gram of hash oil into Russia when she arrived in February of this year for play in the Russian women’s professional basketball league. She was sentenced in December and was transferred to Mordovia to begin serving her sentence last month.

In court, Griner admitted to mistakenly packing two vape cartridges in her rush to pack her luggage — but provided documents that showed the hash oil was legally prescribed by her U.S. doctor for pain management.

As the Biden administration celebrates the homecoming of one prominent American detained in Russia — basketball star Brittney Griner — it’s pledging to continue working to secure the release of another who’s been there even longer.

Russia views Whelan as a spy, the official explained, which means they treat him in a different category. The official didn’t count out the US offering a Russian spy in US custody as a potential offer to Russia.

During the month of November, Whelan was transferred from a prison colony to a hospital. He spoke to his family last Friday, after a week of silence that had prompted concern in the White House over his whereabouts and condition.

In April, his twin brother David toldNPR that he was as good as you could be in a Russian labor camp. The prisoners aren’t provided with proper nutrition and they don’t take enough care of them. There’s a lot of corruption and other abuse. So I think he does his best to stay out of people’s way.”

Biden stressed that efforts to secure Whelan’s release are ongoing, and said his administration is in close touch with Whelan’s family (the U.S. official said Biden intends to speak with them too).

They said in a statement that U.S. officials had let them know a day in advance that Whelan would be “left behind” in the prisoner swap, adding that was not the case in April, when 30-year-old former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed was released in exchange for jailed pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko.

“That early warning meant that our family has been able to mentally prepare for what is now a public disappointment for us,” David Whelan told the Detroit News. It was a catastrophe for Paul. I do not know if he is aware yet, although he will surely learn from Russian media. Our parents have had calls with him every day since his return to IK-17 on December 2d, and they will surely speak to him soon.”

The brother said that there is no greater success for a wrongful detainee to be freed than for them to go home.

The president said from the Roosevelt Room that Britney would be in the arms of her loved ones and she should have been there all along. “This is a day we’ve worked toward for a long time.”

He said that Paul Whelan has been let down by 2 Presidents. He deserves a better deal from his government, and our campaign implores President Biden to quickly get him back.

Peter Bergen is the national security analyst for CNN, a vice president of New America and a professor of practice at Arizona State University. Bergen is the author of “The Cost of Chaos: The Trump Administration and the World.” The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion on CNN.

We used to think primarily of American hostages being taken by terrorist groups like ISIS or al Qaeda, but in the past few years we have seen an increase in governments taking Americans as de facto hostages, according to a recent report by the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation, which advocates for Americans who are held hostage and “wrongful detainees.”

It has been brought to the attention of many who would not have heard of the dangers faced by Americans who travel to countries like Russia, China, Iran and Venezuela, which are notorious for detaining Americans to gain leverage.

Or consider the case of Mark Frerichs, an American contractor working in Afghanistan, who was held for more than two years by the Taliban (now the de facto Afghan government). A man who had been in prison for 17 years on drug charges was freed in exchange for his pardon. Noorzai was one of the most wanted drug dealers by the Bush administration before he was arrested. The release of Noorzai has been sought by the Taliban, who regard him as an ally.

It was the case of seven Americans who were jailed in Venezuela for many years for trying to smuggle cocaine into the US when they were exchanged for two people who had been imprisoned in the US. The first lady of Venezuela is related to the convicted drug dealers.

Biden and Griner: What Will We Do When Whelan’s Freedom Comes Out? A Brief Brief Letter to Biden in the Aftermath of Bout

How much will it cost to let Whelan go? Surely it won’t be nothing. And, again, the Biden administration will have to make a tough call about what price it is willing to pay.

One US official said that it was certain that the conditions had been set by Putin himself.

In July, Griner wrote a letter to Biden saying she was “terrified I might be here forever.” She asked him to do all he could to bring her home. At the White House, Biden met with Griner’s wife for the first time to show her the letter he was sending in response.

But any victory would be tempered by the inability to secure Whelan’s freedom and inevitable blowback over the release of one the most prolific arms dealers of the past decades.

The situation was complicated further when senior law enforcement officials, angry at the prospect of releasing a notorious figure it had taken years to capture and alarmed by the precedent Bout’s release would set, raised strong objections.

The Middle East air is 50 degrees warmer than Moscow and Griner smiled as she stepped from her plane in Abu Dhabi.

Griner’s wife, who arrived in Washington on Wednesday, was invited to an early morning meeting at the White House set for Thursday. She was initially scheduled to meet with national security adviser Jake Sullivan, who had briefed her several times over the course of the negotiations.

Griner’s flight to freedom marked a moment officials acknowledged was only the first step of what will likely be a difficult and emotionally jarring process for the professional athlete in the weeks and months ahead. A number of support programs developed across the US government have been prepared for Griner to use.

She has lost months of her life, experienced a needless trauma, and she deserves some privacy and time with her family to recover from her time being wrongly held.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/08/politics/biden-griner-whelan-decision/index.html

The moral dilemma of Biden and Putin’s decision to trade Griner for Viktor Bout: the WNBA star is a different story

A senior administration official said the US had “tried to articulate other options, other categories of options, to create the space to really have the haggling that we want to have,” describing the other categories as involving individuals in US custody.

“If you’re haggling, you’re getting closer,” the official said. We have not had a response that has changed because it was simply a demand for something that we can’t provide, because it is not something in our control.

One reality the assessment took into account, the official said, is the fact that Bout has been in prison for over a decade and has not been actively engaged in any recent criminal activity.

An official wouldn’t say how the US was certain that the Russian arms dealer would not endanger the country in the future, but said that the security assessment on Bout was thorough.

The publicity surrounding Griner, including celebrities posting criticism of the Biden White House on social media for not moving more quickly to secure her release, appeared to raise the Russian price for Griner’s release, law enforcement officials said.

That added to concerns that the deal increases the likelihood that Russia, Iran and other countries could use the arrest of Americans to try to use the publicity to gain concessions the US otherwise wouldn’t give.

Speaking Thursday, an administration official rejected the notion that Bout’s release set a new precedent for securing the release of Americans and said hostile governments would be mistaken if they interpreted Thursday’s swap that way.

An inference that somehow this has become the norm would be incorrect and governments around the world would be wise not to draw that inference, said the official. “But in the rare case when there is an imperative to Americans home, which is a real priority for this president, there sometimes are no alternatives left, and a heavy price has to be paid.”

But President Joe Biden’s decision to exchange WNBA star Brittney Griner for Viktor Bout goes beyond the exchange’s bottom line. It represented a way out of a difficult dilemma that arose after talks with the Russian regime, which treated people as pawns. In that sense, the Biden administration demonstrated the gulf between its moral grounding and that of Russian President Vladimir Putin who is currently demonstrating his inhumanity on another front, with a fearsome assault on Ukrainian civilians.

The moral dilemma Biden faced when trying to get the release of Paul Whelan was highlighted by the tragic counterpoint to this diplomatic triumph. And it prompted top Republicans to charge that he had prioritized a basketball superstar over an ex-marine who benefited from a vocal political pressure campaign on Biden.

The exchange with the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia helped to secure the release of US citizens from fighting in Ukraine, as well as facilitate the exchange with other countries. Whether the kingdom, which has relations with both Moscow and Washington and is seeking to increase its global leadership role, might emerge as a mediator over Ukraine remains to be seen. Biden traveled to the country earlier this year to greet its ruthless crown prince with a fistbump, but it could be that the recent smoothing of US-Russia exchanges puts this decision in a slightly different light.

Ultimately, it’s impossible for there not to be a sour aftertaste when dealing with an adversary as inhumane as Putin. It is the president’s job to consider competing dynamics in relation to America’s national goals and duty to its citizens.

This adds another layer of complication for Biden as he seeks to get Whelan free, since it involves another government and would require German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to potentially agree to supersede his country’s own legal system. The ability of the new German leader to do so is not certain, as is the kind of Russian concession Berlin might require.

A senior administration official said on Thursday night that the US needs to give more to the Russians and that they need to give something different than what has been offered so far.

While Biden is being castigated by some political opponents in Washington for doing a bad deal, administration officials insisted that he got the best one on offer.

The Farkas War: Why Do We Want to Win? Comment on the Case of Whelan, Putin, and the Kremlin

Evelyn Farkas, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense, told CNN she thought Putin was never going to hand over Whelan and all along wanted to swap only Griner for Bout.

“It’s happening now because Vladimir Putin wants this to happen now, he needs a win, he needs a victory in Russia because he is having trouble convincing the Russia people that it’s a good idea to be at war with Ukraine,” Farkas said.

There are fierce political divides that challenge every US Foreign policy decision and they didn’t take long to bubble over after the release of Griner.

A Republican from Florida, Rep. Mike Waltz accused the administration of giving priority to a celebrity over a veteran after he called the deal to free Griner “shameful”.

“I think the challenge this points to is these regimes know this. The five Citgo executives were lured by Venezuela to be arrested, in exchange for their nephews who are convicted drug traffickers.

The Iranian regime, the Taliban, and Putin themselves, are all taking Americans hostage because of the concessions we’ve made. When do we start dictating the terms to these regimes?”

“We tend to always look at what is Russia getting out of this? … An American who was wrongly detained is going to be back home. It is something to celebrate.

“We have shown an openness to talk about that which is actually available to us and gotten only in response a demand for something not available to us,” the official said, reiterating that the Russians refused what had been offered to secure the release of Whelan.

There is a willingness to pay a very big price on the part of the President, according to the official. “We have made clear to the Russians that we at least are open to talking about that which is at our disposal, that which we could actually deliver. It would be somebody in our custody.”

US officials made quiet inquiries to the Germans about whether they might be willing to include Krasikov in the trade, a senior German government source told CNN earlier this year. But ultimately, the US was not able to secure Krasikov’s release. The German government was not willing to include Krasikov in a trade for the sake of it.

Demands related to the war in Ukraine did not come up in the negotiations to secure Griner’s release and attempt to secure Whelan’s, the official said, adding that the US would not make concessions on that front.

“We’ve obviously thought about why that might be the case” that the Russians didn’t float it, the official said, “and I think we credit it to the fact that we’ve been so crystal clear, so consistent, that it is not for us to negotiate how that horrific situation gets resolved.”

The official said it was not for bargaining if it were raised. Another country’s future is not for bargaining and the defense of democracy against autocracy is not for bargaining.”

The Russian Embassy to the United States is refusing to comment on Vinnik’s espionage charges against Whelan and Krasiov

Whelan told CNN on Thursday that “the President and his team are going to have to look at what they have that is valuable that these people want, and hopefully give it to them, or I’ll be here for a long time.”

In order to swap Whelan, who was convicted on espionage charges in the middle of the year, for Krasiov, the Russians said they would only do it if he were a spy.

Vinnik was handed over to the US in August and since Bélot has appealed to the Russian Foreign Minister, he has been able to get Vinnik out of US custody.

The National Security Council didn’t want to say anything. A senior Biden administration official acknowledged to CNN that the Russian side had demanded someone not even in US custody even though the United States had made several different proposals. The official said that the Russians kept asking for the same thing the US could not do.