mastermind
Rest In Power Kobe
I don't know what your point is, tbf.
Brittney Griner pleaded guilty in a Russian court to drugs charges that could see her face 10 years in prison; Update: SHE IS FREE
- Thread starter Skooby
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My point is that Bout isn’t as useless as posters and other people keep insisting that he is or else they would have picked someone else instead of him in the exchange.
mastermind
Rest In Power Kobe
So you think Bout will go out and start wheeling and dealing again?
I think Bout's value is he was a high-profile prisoner in the US. I don't think it was more than that, just like Griner in Russia.
There are several explanations, though the US government likely doesn't even know the full answer themselves.
One major theory is that Bout's release is just a personal favor to several Putin allies who Bout has close relationships with.
A similar, but slightly different theory is that Bout is close to powerful Russians who Putin needs to continue to curry the favor of in order to keep his network of power intact.
And a very different but just as plausible theory is that Bout has collaborated with Russian government figures before and knows shyt that would be damaging to the Russians, but has kept quiet so far, and them working hard to get him out was a signal they were sending to him to keep it that way.
Related to that theory, it was also a signal to other such figures that keep their mouths shut, that if you are loyal to mother Russia, they'll be loyal to you.
I've heard literally zero speculation that they want Bout released because he is going to "do" anything. Russia can move arms regardless of whether Bout is free or not and he is so highly exposed and so out of the loop now that there are certainly other gunrunners who would be more useful to them than he is.
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He was apparently held in an ultra-restrictive special unit nicknamed "Little Guantánamo"
Ironman
#Knickstape
Who is he Tony Stark? If he was that dangerous why was he getting out in six years.
Only one me
HARLEM AL
Your broad loves me.....
Trump turned down Viktor Bout-for-Paul Whelan prisoner swap, John Bolton says
Trump turned down Viktor Bout-for-Paul Whelan prisoner swap, John Bolton says
Caitlin DoornbosWASHINGTON — President Donald Trump shot down Russian attempts to trade former Marine Paul Whelan for “Merchant of Death” arms dealer Viktor Bout, former national security adviser John Bolton said Thursday — as Trump ripped his successor for agreeing to send Bout home in exchange for the return of WNBA star Brittney Griner.
Bolton recalled in an interview with CBS that he was in the midst of his 17-month tenure at the White House when Whelan was detained on concocted espionage charges in December 2018.
“The possibility of a Bout-for-Whelan trade existed back then,” said Bolton, 74, “and it wasn’t made, for very good reasons having to deal with Viktor Bout.”
Whelan was sentenced in June 2020 to 16 years in prison. US officials claimed Thursday that the Biden administration tried to secure the release of both Whelan and Griner, but Moscow refused to budge — insisting on a one-for-one swap of Griner for Bout.
“Obviously, there’s a lot of very understandable human emotion here in getting Griner released, but this is a very bad mistake by the Biden administration,” Bolton told CBS of the decision to swap Bout — convicted in 2011 of conspiracy to kill Americans by supplying a Colombian terrorist group with weapons — in exchange for a basketball player jailed for bringing less than a gram of cannabis oil into Russia.
Viktor Bout was convicted in 2011 of conspiracy to kill Americans by supplying a terrorist group with weapons.ZUMAPRESS.com“This is not a deal. This is not a swap. This is a surrender,” Bolton added. “And terrorists and rogue states all around the world will take note of this, and it endangers other Americans in the future who can be grabbed and used as bargaining chips by people who don’t have the same morals and scruples that we do.
“There are occasions when you swap spies. Obviously, there are legitimate exchanges of prisoners of war,” he continued. “But this doesn’t even approximate that. The idea that somehow what Brittney Griner did — very foolishly, in my estimate — but that whatever she did compares to Viktor Bout is something that shows just how desperate the administration was to make this deal. And I’m just very worried about the effect it has and the danger that it can put many other Americans in, all around the world.”
Brittney Griner while at Women’s Penal Colony No. 2. She has been freed from her prison sentence. Fsb/TASS via ZUMA PressTrump, 76, also questioned President Biden’s decision to free “one of the biggest arms dealers anywhere in the world” in a Truth Social post Thursday, claiming Bout was “responsible for tens of thousands of deaths and horrific injuries.”
“Why wasn’t former Marine Paul Whelan included in this totally one-sided transaction? He would have been let out for the asking,” the former president said. “What a ‘stupid’ and unpatriotic embarrassment for the USA!!!”
Bolton agreed, calling the deal “a huge victory for Moscow over Washington.”
John Bolton believes the prisoner swap is a “huge victory for Moscow.”Getty Images“It’s the kind of thing that says to terrorists and rogue states and other malign actors who would consider kidnapping or seizing Americans, that we’re willing to trade almost anything to get Americans back,” he said. “There are other ways to deal with hostage-takers through sanctions and other things, not swaps like this one.”
Trump turned down Viktor Bout-for-Paul Whelan prisoner swap, John Bolton says
Trump turned down Viktor Bout-for-Paul Whelan prisoner swap, John Bolton says
Caitlin Doornbos
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump shot down Russian attempts to trade former Marine Paul Whelan for “Merchant of Death” arms dealer Viktor Bout, former national security adviser John Bolton said Thursday — as Trump ripped his successor for agreeing to send Bout home in exchange for the return of WNBA star Brittney Griner.
Bolton recalled in an interview with CBS that he was in the midst of his 17-month tenure at the White House when Whelan was detained on concocted espionage charges in December 2018.
“The possibility of a Bout-for-Whelan trade existed back then,” said Bolton, 74, “and it wasn’t made, for very good reasons having to deal with Viktor Bout.”
Whelan was sentenced in June 2020 to 16 years in prison. US officials claimed Thursday that the Biden administration tried to secure the release of both Whelan and Griner, but Moscow refused to budge — insisting on a one-for-one swap of Griner for Bout.
“Obviously, there’s a lot of very understandable human emotion here in getting Griner released, but this is a very bad mistake by the Biden administration,” Bolton told CBS of the decision to swap Bout — convicted in 2011 of conspiracy to kill Americans by supplying a Colombian terrorist group with weapons — in exchange for a basketball player jailed for bringing less than a gram of cannabis oil into Russia.
Viktor Bout was convicted in 2011 of conspiracy to kill Americans by supplying a terrorist group with weapons.ZUMAPRESS.com
“This is not a deal. This is not a swap. This is a surrender,” Bolton added. “And terrorists and rogue states all around the world will take note of this, and it endangers other Americans in the future who can be grabbed and used as bargaining chips by people who don’t have the same morals and scruples that we do.
“There are occasions when you swap spies. Obviously, there are legitimate exchanges of prisoners of war,” he continued. “But this doesn’t even approximate that. The idea that somehow what Brittney Griner did — very foolishly, in my estimate — but that whatever she did compares to Viktor Bout is something that shows just how desperate the administration was to make this deal. And I’m just very worried about the effect it has and the danger that it can put many other Americans in, all around the world.”
Brittney Griner while at Women’s Penal Colony No. 2. She has been freed from her prison sentence. Fsb/TASS via ZUMA Press
Trump, 76, also questioned President Biden’s decision to free “one of the biggest arms dealers anywhere in the world” in a Truth Social post Thursday, claiming Bout was “responsible for tens of thousands of deaths and horrific injuries.”
“Why wasn’t former Marine Paul Whelan included in this totally one-sided transaction? He would have been let out for the asking,” the former president said. “What a ‘stupid’ and unpatriotic embarrassment for the USA!!!”
Bolton agreed, calling the deal “a huge victory for Moscow over Washington.”
John Bolton believes the prisoner swap is a “huge victory for Moscow.”Getty Images
“It’s the kind of thing that says to terrorists and rogue states and other malign actors who would consider kidnapping or seizing Americans, that we’re willing to trade almost anything to get Americans back,” he said. “There are other ways to deal with hostage-takers through sanctions and other things, not swaps like this one.”
gop lookin like clowns once again
Haven’t they?
Definitely not qualified to be a spy, definitely a fool for going over there
I was dying at some chick on Fox News saying if she was Griner, she would have told the US Gov't to find a better deal