The release of the Iranian businessman Siamak Namazi, a former U.N. ambassador, and the release of seven other convicted criminals

The timing of the announcements regarding Iran and Venezuela was coincidental, but it was one of the largest mass releases of Americans held abroad in recent memory. For Mr. Biden, freeing seven Americans, some of whom had been held for years in Venezuelan prison, was part of an aggressive push to accelerate such homecomings — an effort that has drawn some criticism for the president’s willingness to exchange convicted criminals.

At the same time, Iran on Saturday released Siamak Namazi, a 51-year-old dual-national Iranian American businessman who had been jailed since 2015, on a temporary furlough and lifted the travel ban on his father, Baquer Namazi, an 85-year-old former official for the United Nations, according to the family’s lawyer.

An emerging trend of hostile States holding Americans to gain has been underscored by the release of basketball player-turned-drug-conviction-eliminated Britney Griner, who was held in a Russian penal colony on minor drug possession charges, in exchange for the notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout

Whelan said he was happy that Griner was released, but told CNN, “I am greatly disappointed that more has not been done to secure my release, especially as the four year anniversary of my arrest is coming up.”

He said he was arrested for a crime that never happened and was being held in a remote part of Russia. “I don’t understand why I’m still sitting here.”

President Biden said Thursday that “sadly, for totally illegitimate reasons, Russia is treating Paul’s case differently than Brittney’s.” He told CNN that Russia’s accusation that he was a spy made him higher up than the other two men released in April.

“This was not a situation where we had a choice of which American to bring home,” one official said on the call. It was a choice of bringing home one American or not.

The United States is not back to square one in its negotiations for Paul’s release. The American Embassy in Moscow has not responded to the comments of Biden

He said that he was led to believe that things were moving in the right direction, that governments were negotiating and that something would happen soon.

There are a lot of concerns because it’s not true. He said that they were trying to get out of the United States because they couldn’t give what they wanted.

For whatever reason, I get treated differently than someone from a Western country who is also charged with espionage, and they have always considered me to be a higher level criminal. Even though we are both here for espionage, I am treated differently than he is and my treatment is different than other prisoners who have been accused of espionage.

“If a message could be sent to President Biden that this is a dangerous situation and needs to be quickly solved, I would say that,” he said. I have packed my bags. I’m ready to go home. I just need an airplane to come and get me.”

“Sadly, for totally illegitimate reasons, Russia is treating Paul’s case differently than Brittney’s,” Biden said. We are not giving up, despite the fact that we have yet to secure Paul’s release. We will never give up.”

National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby said Thursday that the US is “not back to square one” in its negotiations for Whelan’s release.

Paul Whelan – Towards a Better Way to Live in the Cold War: His CNN Interview with Bradney Griner

“I’m not trying to shine a negative light on Russia per se, I’m just trying to tell it how it is. I’m trying to get a message through to my governments that I need help,” he said.

“If it is a risk, then it’s a risk I am willing to take because I think the message needs to get out,” he added. I sat quietly for a long time, and at this point, I am frustrated that nothing is being done, and I don’t know what roadmap people are looking at to get me home.

Whelan is also worried that he himself might not make it out, telling CNN, “to be quite honest, in these conditions, who knows how I’ll come back or if I’ll come back.”

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/08/politics/paul-whelan-cnn-interview-brittney-griner/index.html

Inmates in Russian Penal Colonies are Tortured to Death: An Analysis of the Criminal Case Against Ghoul Griner

We only have cold water. Everywhere is dirty. There isn’t any maintenance. Things are less than 30 years old, and what isn’t broken doesn’t work. We don’t have cleaning supplies. The medical care is substandard at best. And we’re really on our own to take care of ourselves,” he said.

He tries to keep sane by reading a lot and writing letters. He said he likes to receive letters and cards, “sports scores and news articles and things like that,” because “that sort of thing coming in for our world makes me remember that our world still exists.”

Griner’s lawyers told Russian judges during a hearing in July that the cannabis oil was medically prescribed for “severe chronic pain,” and not for recreational use. She was sentenced to nine years in jail after she was convicted one month after she pleaded guilty. Her attorneys appealed the conviction in October and asked for a more lenient sentence but a Russian judge upheld her conviction while modifying her sentence to count the time she spent in pretrial detention after her February 17 arrest.

There was concern over the health and well being of Griner, who is Black and a lesbian, while in Russia. In 1993 Russia decriminalized homosexuality. On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law a bill that expanded anti-LGBTQ laws.

According to a recent human rights report from the US State Department, prisoners in Russian Penal colonies are often put in dangerous conditions, where they can be put involuntarily into a mental hospital. Russian law also allows forced labor in penal colonies, and in some cases, inmates have been tortured to death, the report says. There also are reports of prison authorities recruiting inmates to abuse other inmates, the report also says.

The Russia-U.S. Prisoner Exchange Case: Detecting a Criminal Associated with a Relatively Innocent Russian Man

The prisoner exchange at Abu Dhabi Airport on Thursday was successful, according to Russian state media. In a joint statement, Saudi Arabia and the United States stated that they were involved in mediation efforts leading to the prisoner swap.

The US officials had grown more confident that a solution to the case would be possible by the beginning of this week. The parameters of the deal were given final approval by Biden.

Russian officials were clear in conversations that they would release the only one of them, and only one, if American officials would trade a convicted Russian arms dealer for him.

The Biden administration conducted a security assessment in the lead-up to Biden giving the final green light to accept the deal to trade Griner for Bout. Ultimately, the assessment’s conclusion was that “Bout was not a security threat to the US,” a US official told CNN.

Though White House officials have said Griner is in “good spirits” she is likely to undergo a thorough medical evaluation. National Security Council strategic communications coordinator John Kirby told CNN on Thursday the first priority right now is “to make sure that she gets the adequate care she needs” after being detained and under “intolerable conditions.”

She may need to have access to health care here before she can get back to her home. I don’t think that that will take a very long time,” Kirby told CNN’s Kate Bolduan. “But again, that is going to be up to the doctors to work with the family on. Making sure that we look after her long term, before she is able to get onto her way, is the main focus right now.

Paul Whelan, the former Marine, who was detained in a penal colony to Russia for espionage, tells Detroit News

Take the case of a former US Marine, who was held by the Russians, on espionage charges that he has always denied. Reed was swapped for Yaroshenko, a convicted Russian drug smuggler who had been in the US since 2011. Yaroshenko has denied the charges against him.

At the end of November, 52-year-old Whelan was briefly transferred from a penal colony to a prison hospital. He called his family last Friday after a week of silence that had caused concern in the White House.

His twin brother David claimed that he could be in a Russian labor camp. “They don’t provide nutrition to the prisoners, and they don’t really take care of them.” There’s a lot of abuse. So I think he does his best to stay out of people’s way.”

Biden stressed that efforts to secure Whelan’s release are ongoing, and said his administration is in close touch with Whelan’s family (the U.S. official said Biden intends to speak with them too).

They stated in their statement that the U.S. officials had told them weeks in advance that a POW would be left behind in the swap.

“That early warning meant that our family has been able to mentally prepare for what is now a public disappointment for us,” David Whelan told the Detroit News. “And a catastrophe for Paul. I don’t know if he knows yet, but he will learn from Russian media. Our parents have been calling him every day for about a month now since he came home, and they will speak to him soon.

Despite the disappointment, Whelan’s brother said he is happy for Griner and her loved ones, adding that “there is no greater success than for a wrongful detainee to be freed and for them to go home.”

The president spoke from the Roosevelt room, where he was joined by a wife of a basketball player. “This is a day we’ve worked toward for a long time.”

“Paul Whelan has been let down and left behind at least three times by 2 Presidents,” he added. “He deserves better from his government, and our Campaign implores President Biden to urgently secure Paul’s immediate return using all tools available.”

Editor’s Note: Peter Bergen is CNN’s national security analyst, a vice president at New America and a professor of practice at Arizona State University. Bergen is the author of The Cost of Chaos. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. CNN has more opinions on it.

We used to think primarily of American hostages being taken by terrorist groups like ISIS or al Qaeda, but in the past few years we have seen an increase in governments taking Americans as de facto hostages, according to a recent report by the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation, which advocates for Americans who are held hostage and “wrongful detainees.”

There have been several other prisoner swaps just this year in which the Biden administration has had to make some tough decisions about who to release in order to get Americans safely home.

Or consider the case of Mark Frerichs, an American contractor working in Afghanistan, who was held for more than two years by the Taliban (now the de facto Afghan government). Clemency for Haji Bashir Noorzai, who had been imprisoned in the US on drug charges for 17 years, was granted in exchange for the release of Frerichs. The Bush administration described Noorzai as one of the most-wanted drug dealers the year before his arrest. The Taliban viewed his release as a way of showing their respect for him.

Seven Americans who were jailed in Venezuela for many years and two of their friends who were in prison in the US for conspiring to bring cocaine into the country were exchanged for each other two months ago. The nephew of Venezuela’s first lady is a convicted drug dealer.

Biden, Bout, and the Pain of Freedom: The Case of Biger Griner and the High-Measurement Courtship Case

How much will the price of releasing Whelan be? Surely it won’t be nothing. And, again, the Biden administration will have to make a tough call about what price it is willing to pay.

One US official stated that the conditions had been set by Putin himself.

With winter approaching at the penal colony where Griner was being held, Biden faced a singularly presidential decision. The nightmare that she and her family have been stuck in would be alleviated if she was welcomed home.

There would inevitably be blowback over the release of one of the most prolific arms dealers in the past decades, and this would be an important part of any victory.

One official said law enforcement officials raised strenuous objections but were told the decision had been made. For law enforcement officials from the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration, which spent years and elaborate efforts to try to capture Bout, the release of Bout raised additional concerns about the precedent the deal could set.

Moments earlier in Abu Dhabi, Griner had stepped from her transport plane into the Middle East air – fifty degrees warmer than Moscow – and smiled, a US official said.

An early morning meeting at the White House will be held on Thursday, which is when the wife of the golfer arrived in Washington. Jake Sullivan, her national security adviser, had briefed her several times over the course of the negotiations.

Griner’s flight to freedom marked a moment officials acknowledged was only the first step of what will likely be a difficult and emotionally jarring process for the professional athlete in the weeks and months ahead. A range of support programs, developed across the US government over years to address the needs of detainees and hostages returning to US, have been prepared for Griner to utilize.

“The fact remains that she’s lost months of her life, experienced a needless trauma, and she deserves space, privacy, and time with her loved ones to recover and heal from her time being wrongfully detained,” he said.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/08/politics/biden-griner-whelan-decision/index.html

Bout’s release, the securing of the Americans, and the consequences for the Russian public opinion of the Brussels-London-Berger deal

A senior administration official said the US had “tried to articulate other options, other categories of options, to create the space to really have the haggling that we want to have,” describing the other categories as involving individuals in US custody.

“If you’re haggling, you’re getting closer,” the official said. We have not had a change or softer response because it’s not something in our control.

One reality the assessment took into account, the official said, is the fact that Bout has been in prison for over a decade and has not been actively engaged in any recent criminal activity.

The security assessment done on Bout was done thoroughly, and the official would not elaborate on how the US was able to make certain that the Russian arms dealer wouldn’t endanger the country in the future.

The publicity surrounding Griner, including celebrities posting criticism of the Biden White House on social media for not moving more quickly to secure her release, appeared to raise the Russian price for Griner’s release, law enforcement officials said.

That added to concerns that the deal increases the likelihood that Russia, Iran and other countries could use the arrest of Americans to try to use the publicity to gain concessions the US otherwise wouldn’t give.

Speaking Thursday, an administration official rejected the notion that Bout’s release set a new precedent for securing the release of Americans and said hostile governments would be mistaken if they interpreted Thursday’s swap that way.

Governments wouldn’t be wise to draw any inference that somehow this has become norm, the official said. When there is an imperative to Americans home, which is a real priority for this president, there are sometimes no alternatives left and a heavy price has to be paid.