GordonGekko
Footballguy
Direct Headline: Reports: Russia wants 'Merchant of Death' in exchange for Brittney Griner
Russia is looking to exchange the WNBA star in a prisoner swap for notorious convicted arms trafficker Viktor Bout, several state-owned Russian news outlets reported Friday, citing unnamed government sources.....Bout, whose exploits earned him the nickname the “Merchant of Death,” flooded fierce conflicts in Africa and the Middle East with weapons....He was arrested during a sting operation in Thailand in 2008, extradited to the U.S. and sentenced to 25 years for conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens, delivery of anti-aircraft missiles and providing aid to a terrorist organization.....
After Bout’s arrest, the U.S. alleged that his Russian allies tried to block his extradition from Thailand to America by bribing key witnesses to give false testimony. Since his 2012 conviction, Bout has been at the top of Russia’s prisoner exchange wish list and has been linked repeatedly in the Russian state media with potential swaps involving jailed Americans that haven’t come to fruition.....
While one Russian state media report quoted an unnamed source who described a potential Griner-for-Bout exchange as “likely,” experts in Russian diplomacy viewed that skeptically..... “Russia really wants to make that trade” but cautioned that they give no indication of the U.S.’s willingness...."This is Russia saying, ‘Wouldn’t this be a great idea?’.....This isn’t the U.S. saying they’re interested. We’ve had other opportunities to get rid of Viktor Bout in the past and we haven’t done it.”
Griner has been behind bars since Feb. 17 when she flew into a Moscow airport and Russian customs officials allegedly found vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage. She is under investigation for the large-scale transportation of drugs and faces up to 10 years in a Russian prison if convicted.....
Jeff Eisenberg Fri, May 13, 2022, 5:44 PM
https://sports.yahoo.com/russias-as...y-be-notorious-arms-trafficker-004449470.html
https://tass.com/society/1450359
https://www.gazeta.ru/army/news/2022/05/12/17729300.shtml?updated
VIDEO: Viktor Bout: "The Merchant of Death" Nov 21, 2010 60 Minutes
The DEA agents who caught alleged arms dealer Viktor Bout explain how they lured and then captured the suspect one of them calls "one of the most dangerous men on the face of the Earth." Armen Keteyian reports.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvPGIcVRKco
Direct Headline: Brittney Griner: National anthem has no place in WNBA, sports
The Mercury center and 2019 league MVP runner-up told reporters on a video call Monday that the WNBA should stop playing the anthem this season....“I honestly feel we should not play the national anthem during our season....I think we should take that much of a stand....I’m going to protest regardless.....I'm not going to be out there for the national anthem. If the league continues to want to play it, that's fine. It will be all season long, I'll not be out there. I feel like more are going to probably do the same thing. I can only speak for myself......”
Jason Owens July 27, 2020
https://www.yahoo.com/video/wnb-as-...em-has-no-place-in-wnba-sports-222810318.html
Direct Headline:U.S. reclassifies WNBA star Brittney Griner as 'wrongfully detained' by Russia
The U.S. government now considers WNBA star Brittney Griner to be "wrongfully detained" by the Russian government, signaling a significant shift in how officials will try to get her home....."The welfare and safety of U.S. citizens abroad is among the highest priorities of the U.S government....The Department of State has determined that the Russian Federation has wrongfully detained U.S. citizen Brittney Griner...."
The official said that does not mean that Griner is considered a hostage, which is a different legal classification than wrongful detainee....
T.J. Quinn May 3, 2022
https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/_/i...griner-wrongfully-detained-russia-sources-say
*********
I consider this Griner/Bout/Russia story to be the most interesting in all of current politics right now. It has so many complex layers to it. It's just that no one is really talking about it in the MSM ( For actual strategic and tactical political reasons)
Some basic thoughts
1) The current establishment Democrats ( really Obama's Shadow Third Term force feeding a cooked intersectional agenda) and the radical left want to push identity politics at all costs. Your value is assessed in your "identity", not your character and not your merit. ( Which violates everything that Martin Luther King Jr taught about building a better world with more racial harmony. ) Since Griner is a woman, black and LGBT, that means she is inherently seen as more valuable to Team Blue based on said "identity" Is she then valuable enough to trade for the most notorious arms dealer in modern human history?
2) If Viktor Bout is released, that's going to cost millions of people around the world their lives. If you are on an airplane traveling to see family during the holidays or going somewhere for work, or your children have to travel some distance somewhere, do you want to get shot down or have your loved ones incinerated with an anti-aircraft missile that Bout will sell to terrorists looking to kill all Americans?
If you trade Griner for Bout, you are effectively trading innocent American lives for Griner
3) No one knows if Griner was idiotic enough to try to move personal illegal drugs through a foreign country or not. Or if she was set up. Or if Griner was allowed to just pass by for years because she was a celebrity athlete ( i.e. the infamous "Do You Know Who I Am" syndrome) and no one said much or were bribed and looked the other way until it was politically viable for Putin and Russia to stop looking the other way. ( Point to note, what's legal in some places in America doesn't have to apply to the rest of the entire world. Just because the Russia/Ukraine War is disgusting, tragic and inhumane doesn't mean Russia is removed from the right to have it's own laws and enforce them. Sadly I have to point that out before the endless gaggle of lefty leaning lawyers start in on their hen pecking routine.)
4) Griner has stated before she would protest the National Anthem. Would she stand for it now? Because make no mistake, the perceived might and power of the country she protested against and what it represents is her only chance at freedom ever again.
My take?
I've always considered Griner to be a gigantic idiot. Loud mouth, woke, high conflict personality type, rude, selfish, diva, and entitled. I also think people should stand by America if they want the protection that being an American provides. Don't say the National Anthem sucks and then decide you love America later because you were insane enough to try to bring illegal drugs into and out of a place like Russia. If you have values and convictions, stand by them, even if it costs you later. Values only matter if you are willing to sacrifice for them.
That being said, Griner is still an American citizen. And, under the condition she was set up and framed, any attack on a single American is an attack on all Americans. Actually standing in defense of our great Republic also means standing in defense of people who exercise their free speech/free expression, even if you disagree with it and even if you find it ungrateful and toxic. I don't believe the radical left extends that courtesy to anyone else, but no one says the rest of us have to sink to the depths of that kind of woke zealot filled insanity.
If Griner actually did the crime though, then she has to face the possibility of just doing the time. The "Do You Know Who I Am" routine only goes so far when you consider the entire world. Not just how America works and consider the United States is far far far far far more tolerant in so many ways for some many different things compared to the 2nd and 3rd World Order.
Questions To Discuss:
Would you trade Griner for Bout? Why or why not?
Do you think the Biden Administration and the US government will eventually be called racists and bigots if they don't trade Bout for Griner? Because this is the price of non stop identity politics.
What do you think about Griner and her and the WNBA's National Anthem stance in the back drop of this entire controversy?
Russia is looking to exchange the WNBA star in a prisoner swap for notorious convicted arms trafficker Viktor Bout, several state-owned Russian news outlets reported Friday, citing unnamed government sources.....Bout, whose exploits earned him the nickname the “Merchant of Death,” flooded fierce conflicts in Africa and the Middle East with weapons....He was arrested during a sting operation in Thailand in 2008, extradited to the U.S. and sentenced to 25 years for conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens, delivery of anti-aircraft missiles and providing aid to a terrorist organization.....
After Bout’s arrest, the U.S. alleged that his Russian allies tried to block his extradition from Thailand to America by bribing key witnesses to give false testimony. Since his 2012 conviction, Bout has been at the top of Russia’s prisoner exchange wish list and has been linked repeatedly in the Russian state media with potential swaps involving jailed Americans that haven’t come to fruition.....
While one Russian state media report quoted an unnamed source who described a potential Griner-for-Bout exchange as “likely,” experts in Russian diplomacy viewed that skeptically..... “Russia really wants to make that trade” but cautioned that they give no indication of the U.S.’s willingness...."This is Russia saying, ‘Wouldn’t this be a great idea?’.....This isn’t the U.S. saying they’re interested. We’ve had other opportunities to get rid of Viktor Bout in the past and we haven’t done it.”
Griner has been behind bars since Feb. 17 when she flew into a Moscow airport and Russian customs officials allegedly found vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage. She is under investigation for the large-scale transportation of drugs and faces up to 10 years in a Russian prison if convicted.....
Jeff Eisenberg Fri, May 13, 2022, 5:44 PM
https://sports.yahoo.com/russias-as...y-be-notorious-arms-trafficker-004449470.html
https://tass.com/society/1450359
https://www.gazeta.ru/army/news/2022/05/12/17729300.shtml?updated
VIDEO: Viktor Bout: "The Merchant of Death" Nov 21, 2010 60 Minutes
The DEA agents who caught alleged arms dealer Viktor Bout explain how they lured and then captured the suspect one of them calls "one of the most dangerous men on the face of the Earth." Armen Keteyian reports.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvPGIcVRKco
Direct Headline: Brittney Griner: National anthem has no place in WNBA, sports
The Mercury center and 2019 league MVP runner-up told reporters on a video call Monday that the WNBA should stop playing the anthem this season....“I honestly feel we should not play the national anthem during our season....I think we should take that much of a stand....I’m going to protest regardless.....I'm not going to be out there for the national anthem. If the league continues to want to play it, that's fine. It will be all season long, I'll not be out there. I feel like more are going to probably do the same thing. I can only speak for myself......”
Jason Owens July 27, 2020
https://www.yahoo.com/video/wnb-as-...em-has-no-place-in-wnba-sports-222810318.html
Direct Headline:U.S. reclassifies WNBA star Brittney Griner as 'wrongfully detained' by Russia
The U.S. government now considers WNBA star Brittney Griner to be "wrongfully detained" by the Russian government, signaling a significant shift in how officials will try to get her home....."The welfare and safety of U.S. citizens abroad is among the highest priorities of the U.S government....The Department of State has determined that the Russian Federation has wrongfully detained U.S. citizen Brittney Griner...."
The official said that does not mean that Griner is considered a hostage, which is a different legal classification than wrongful detainee....
T.J. Quinn May 3, 2022
https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/_/i...griner-wrongfully-detained-russia-sources-say
*********
I consider this Griner/Bout/Russia story to be the most interesting in all of current politics right now. It has so many complex layers to it. It's just that no one is really talking about it in the MSM ( For actual strategic and tactical political reasons)
Some basic thoughts
1) The current establishment Democrats ( really Obama's Shadow Third Term force feeding a cooked intersectional agenda) and the radical left want to push identity politics at all costs. Your value is assessed in your "identity", not your character and not your merit. ( Which violates everything that Martin Luther King Jr taught about building a better world with more racial harmony. ) Since Griner is a woman, black and LGBT, that means she is inherently seen as more valuable to Team Blue based on said "identity" Is she then valuable enough to trade for the most notorious arms dealer in modern human history?
2) If Viktor Bout is released, that's going to cost millions of people around the world their lives. If you are on an airplane traveling to see family during the holidays or going somewhere for work, or your children have to travel some distance somewhere, do you want to get shot down or have your loved ones incinerated with an anti-aircraft missile that Bout will sell to terrorists looking to kill all Americans?
If you trade Griner for Bout, you are effectively trading innocent American lives for Griner
3) No one knows if Griner was idiotic enough to try to move personal illegal drugs through a foreign country or not. Or if she was set up. Or if Griner was allowed to just pass by for years because she was a celebrity athlete ( i.e. the infamous "Do You Know Who I Am" syndrome) and no one said much or were bribed and looked the other way until it was politically viable for Putin and Russia to stop looking the other way. ( Point to note, what's legal in some places in America doesn't have to apply to the rest of the entire world. Just because the Russia/Ukraine War is disgusting, tragic and inhumane doesn't mean Russia is removed from the right to have it's own laws and enforce them. Sadly I have to point that out before the endless gaggle of lefty leaning lawyers start in on their hen pecking routine.)
4) Griner has stated before she would protest the National Anthem. Would she stand for it now? Because make no mistake, the perceived might and power of the country she protested against and what it represents is her only chance at freedom ever again.
My take?
I've always considered Griner to be a gigantic idiot. Loud mouth, woke, high conflict personality type, rude, selfish, diva, and entitled. I also think people should stand by America if they want the protection that being an American provides. Don't say the National Anthem sucks and then decide you love America later because you were insane enough to try to bring illegal drugs into and out of a place like Russia. If you have values and convictions, stand by them, even if it costs you later. Values only matter if you are willing to sacrifice for them.
That being said, Griner is still an American citizen. And, under the condition she was set up and framed, any attack on a single American is an attack on all Americans. Actually standing in defense of our great Republic also means standing in defense of people who exercise their free speech/free expression, even if you disagree with it and even if you find it ungrateful and toxic. I don't believe the radical left extends that courtesy to anyone else, but no one says the rest of us have to sink to the depths of that kind of woke zealot filled insanity.
If Griner actually did the crime though, then she has to face the possibility of just doing the time. The "Do You Know Who I Am" routine only goes so far when you consider the entire world. Not just how America works and consider the United States is far far far far far more tolerant in so many ways for some many different things compared to the 2nd and 3rd World Order.
Questions To Discuss:
Would you trade Griner for Bout? Why or why not?
Do you think the Biden Administration and the US government will eventually be called racists and bigots if they don't trade Bout for Griner? Because this is the price of non stop identity politics.
What do you think about Griner and her and the WNBA's National Anthem stance in the back drop of this entire controversy?
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