Paul Whelan Speaks Out After Brittney Griner Released from Russian Prison

 

The former Marine still detained in Russia begged the Biden Administration to secure his release Thursday, saying not enough has been done to free him while speaking on CNN.

Whelan spoke exclusively to CNN following news that WNBA star Brittney Griner had been released from a Russian penal colony in exchange for notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout.

“I have to say I’m greatly disappointed that more has not been done to secure my release,” Whelan told CNN. “Especially as the four-year-anniversary of my arrest is coming up. I was arrested for a crime that never occurred.”

“I would say that if a message could go to President Biden, that, you know, this is a precarious situation that needs to be resolved quickly. And I would hope that he and his administration would do everything they could to get me home regardless of the price they may have to pay at this point.”

Whelan also said he was shocked to learn he was not being freed.

“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.”

Whelan was detained in December of 2018 by Russian authorities who alleged he was part of an intelligence operation. Whelan was convicted and sentenced in June of 2020 to 16 years in prison.

https://conservativefighters.co/news/paul-whelan-speaks-out-after-brittney-griner-released-from-russian-prison/

Video Emerges of Brittany Griner Being Swapped for Russian Terrorist; Critics Instantly Notice Problem

Video emerged Thursday afternoon of Brittney Griner being swapped on a runway for convicted Russian terrorist Viktor Bout after Democrat President Joe Biden agreed to the trade.

The video showed Griner, who is wearing a red jacket, walking across the tarmac with three men while Bout walked toward her with a man standing next to him.

Bout shook the hands of a couple of people in the video before an obvious cut appeared in the film. The footage then resumes just moments later showing Griner walking away from Bout.

Critics online instantly noted the cut and that it appeared as though Griner was posturing herself to shake Bout’s hand right when the footage was cut.

“There’s a jump cut here at :13 as everyone is shaking hands and hugging and right before it looks like Griner maybe going in to shake hands with Bout?” political commentator Stephen L. Miller tweeted. “Probably not great optics there to have your star prisoner swap shaking hands with the most notorious arms dealer on the planet.”

Bout was convicted on terrorism charges back in 2011 for trying to sell tens of millions of dollars worth of missiles to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) for the purpose of shooting down U.S. Military helicopters.

Newsmax host Rob Schmitt agreed, writing: “You can tell Griner went in for a handshake with Viktor Bout and it was completely edited out.”

“Watch her body language just before the edit,” he added.

The prisoner swap generated widespread backlash, including among Democrats, who noted that Bout was a very dangerous man and that by agreeing to the swap, President Joe Biden was effectively incentivizing rogue regimes to detain Americans overseas.

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, slammed Biden, saying, “This should be a moment of deep reflection for the United States government to recognize we have a serious problem with hostage-taking of Americans.”

“The Russians and other regimes that take American citizens hostage cannot pretend that there is equivalence between the Brittney Griners of the world and people like Viktor Bout, the so-called ‘Merchant of Death,’” Menendez continued. “Nothing could be further from the truth, and we cannot ignore that releasing Bout back into the world is a deeply disturbing decision.”

“We must stop inviting dictatorial and rogue regimes to use Americans overseas as bargaining chips, and we must try to do better at encouraging American citizens against traveling to places like Russia where they are primary targets for this type of unlawful detention,” he continued.

https://conservativefighters.co/news/video-emerges-of-brittney-griner-being-swapped-for-russian-terrorist-critics-instantly-notice-problem/