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Post by YankeeFan on Dec 8, 2022 15:13:42 GMT
Link? What I saw expressed most often was that the former Marine, who’s been held for four years is at least as deserving as she is of the Biden administration’s efforts. This is obviously great news for Griner and her loved ones. Im happy she is free. She was a hostage and a political pawn. But this will further encourage Moscow, Tehran and others to continue to take hostages. And, Bout has been described by folks like Eric Holder as being a unique and singular threat. You’d think we might get more that a WNBA player back in return for him. That’s one thing I’ve never fully understood: for better or worse, the US government’s general policy is that it won’t pay ransom to terrorists for fear that it only encourages them to take hostages.* Why are prisoner exchanges treated differently? One explanation I’ve seen is that we don’t want to “finance terrorism” but that seems secondary to the primary reason we don’t pay ransoms (see above) and, in any event, you could just as easily say we don’t want to “facilitate (whatever the prisoner we’re exchanging might do once released).” *Let’s set aside for now that situation in which the government returned $400 million to Iran once it released the hostages. I'll admit that there is no easy solution. You either pay (in one way or another) a ransom, that only encourages such activity, or you let someone like Griner languish in a foreign prison. A third option, of mounting a rescue operation, is possible in some scenarios, but probably not a clear option when the hostage is in Russia. So, in the end, we're left negotiating the release of prisoners like Griner, whose families and supporters are able to mount sufficient political pressure on an administration to act. That doesn't sound like a good policy either.
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Post by YankeeFan on Dec 8, 2022 15:16:15 GMT
The trade was always going to be lopsided because the U.S. doesn't lock up harmless, famous foreign nationals to use as bargaining chips. Right. We were going to have to trade an actual bad guy to get her back. But, the thought was that we would demand to get Griner and Whelan back. A one-for-one deal for just Griner has been available to the Biden administration for months. They caved, leaving Whelan behind, and they did it the day after the GA Senate run off. That looks incredibly political, and expedient to me. Do you see it differently?
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Post by Deleted on Dec 8, 2022 15:25:19 GMT
The trade was always going to be lopsided because the U.S. doesn't lock up harmless, famous foreign nationals to use as bargaining chips. Right. We were going to have to trade an actual bad guy to get her back. But, the thought was that we would demand to get Griner and Whelan back. A one-for-one deal for just Griner has been available to the Biden administration for months. They caved, leaving Whelan behind, and they did it the day after the GA Senate run off. That looks incredibly political, and expedient to me. Do you see it differently? I agree that it was done when it was done for political reasons, but I strongly disagree that we left Whelan behind. A sovereign nation (that we happen to be in a proxy war with at the moment) is refusing to release a prisoner who was convicted of a crime in their courts. As much as we may think it's a sham, we don't control Russia. Biden isn't the only player here. We also don't know what we're currently doing to bring Whelan home. After all, I doubt Russia was only asking for Bout.
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Post by Whitman on Dec 8, 2022 15:36:42 GMT
The Britney Griner trade was very mean to Herschel Walker.
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Post by YankeeFan on Dec 8, 2022 15:46:33 GMT
The Britney Griner trade was very mean to Herschel Walker. Don’t put words in my mouth. Do you think the timing was a coincidence? Biden accepted an offer, on the table for months, the day after the end of the political season, and that was not connected? C’mon man!
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Post by Whitman on Dec 8, 2022 15:48:03 GMT
The Britney Griner trade was very mean to Herschel Walker. Don’t put words in my mouth. Do you think the timing was a coincidence? Biden accepted an offer, on the table for months, the day after the end of the political season, and that was not connected? C’mon man! Sucks when the other side is cutthroat, too, doesn't it? At least respect the game.
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Post by stoney on Dec 8, 2022 16:04:48 GMT
This is the same deal Putin offered and we rejected months ago, right? Did something change to make it more acceptable …or did we simply cave?
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Post by Whitman on Dec 8, 2022 16:09:40 GMT
This is the same deal Putin offered and we rejected months ago, right? Did something change to make it more acceptable …or did we simply cave? I presume it's what YankeeFan speculates - the mid-terms are over.
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Post by doctorquant on Dec 8, 2022 16:21:01 GMT
So Griner was the political hostage of two countries, huh? [/ducking]
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Post by gordonbombay on Dec 8, 2022 16:21:22 GMT
NY Times is on strike too!!
I dont think this deal would’ve swung any of the midterms. Certainly not Georgia. That ship sailed long ago
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Post by YankeeFan on Dec 8, 2022 16:33:12 GMT
The media would have gone crazy if Trump had done this deal in 2020.
Vladimir Zherebenkov, Whelan’s lawyer, said on Thursday that Russia had proposed in 2020 to exchange his client for Bout, an offer he said the US rejected.
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Post by YankeeFan on Dec 8, 2022 16:37:26 GMT
The assumption — even from Bout’s lawyer — was that we would get them both out in return for Bout.
The lawyer for notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout said Monday he was “confident” the US and Russia will work out a deal to swap his client for WNBA star Brittney Griner and former Marine Paul Whelan — and took umbrage at the “Merchant of Death” moniker bestowed on Bout.
“I’m confident that this is going to get done,” Steve Zissou, Bout’s New York-based lawyer, told CNN, later adding of Moscow: “Look, it’s no secret, they’ve been wanting him back for several years now. They’ve been trying to get him back for decades. That’s not something they’ve ever kept secret.”
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Post by YankeeFan on Dec 8, 2022 16:43:53 GMT
WTF?
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Post by ecwyanks on Dec 8, 2022 17:05:12 GMT
The trade was always going to be lopsided because the U.S. doesn't lock up harmless, famous foreign nationals to use as bargaining chips. Maybe the US should alter the policy a bit. Are there any Russian lesbian tennis players?
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Post by Ridiculously Dull Bobby on Dec 8, 2022 17:06:41 GMT
The Britney Griner trade was very mean to Herschel Walker. If anyone knows lopsided trades, it’s Herschel Walker.
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