By: Benjamin He
What do we think of when we hear the idea of using prisoners as bargaining chips in movies or books? Dragons seeking vengeance use the great Icewing warrior Hailstorm to attempt to lure in other dragons in Wings of Fire (by Tui T. Sutherland). Movies feature prisoners of war being traded in for huge piles of money. Heck, there are tons of history books out there that explain the concept front to back. And yet, the U.S. is offering a man known as “The Merchant of Death” for a basketball player who got caught with some hashish in her bag.
Viktor Bout, perhaps the most infamous arms dealer of all time, was known for selling weapons to terrorists, rebels, and militants in Russia, before being caught and locked up in America.
The other end of the trade? A basketball player who got caught with hashish oil in vape cartridges at an airport and a 52-year-old former marine named Paul Whelan.
Not exactly the prettiest deal, but sometimes you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do.
The response from Russia’s end remains unclear. The families of Griner and Whelan have been reassured that the Biden administration has been working as hard as possible to get them both back into America.
Russian officials have long sought the release of the Russian arms dealer. The officials confirmed the bargaining discussion on Thursday.
This has raised many eyebrows about whether or not there should be standards when the U.S. trades hostages. This incident has raised debates as well.
The topic gets more complicated considering that it may be possible to not only trade soldiers or spies but also criminals for civilians whose crime was that they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“The fact that Bout is a big fish isn’t really part of the calculus,” said Jeremy Bash, who was chief of staff at the C.I.A when the U.S. and Russia swapped spies in 2010. “We value our own citizens a thousand times more than we value the foreign criminal. Israel takes the same approach. They’d trade a thousand Hamas fighters for one I.D.F. soldier. We in the U.S. take the same attitude. We will do almost anything to save an American life.”
But people from past administrations have made it clear that they thought it was worrying to trade a notorious arms dealer for an American athlete, making points that it might make Russia more encouraged to capture Americans.
Griner’s capture has drawn attention not just because she is a basketball player, however. She was arrested a week before the war, seemingly as one of Moscow’s desperate attempts to gain leverage.
This has put huge pressure on President Joe Biden to try to free her. So much so that he has accepted the offer from Bout.
Bout, an ex-soviet military officer, was once one of the most wanted men in the world. He was accused of selling weapons to Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and various governments and militants in Rwanda, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Algeria. The movie “Lord of War,” featuring Nicolas Cage as Viktor Bout, was released in 2005.
The administration's attempts to retrieve Griner may rile up some of America’s allies, who’ve had their fair share of hostage swap situations, such as in 2018, when Canada arrested a Chinese executive of Huawei at the request of the United States. Nine days later, China nabbed two Canadian businessmen.
For about three years, Canada refused to put two and two together with the cases despite a huge public response, when finally they relented with the word of the United States. Canada freed the executive and China released the businessmen.
“In essence, since ’79, we are over and over and over again trying the same failed approach to recover our hostages,” said Jared Genser, a longtime human rights lawyer who represents Americans held by foreign governments and has advocated some of the changes. “We do this on a case-by-case basis, country by country, with blinders on as we do these negotiations. If a case gets a lot of public profile, it gets more resources and attention. But if you can’t get higher profile, you get no or little help at all.”
It was time, he said, to try to “end hostage taking once and for all.”
The New York Times
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