Brittney Griner is free. That's the good news.
Paul Whelan is still incarcerated in a grim Russian keep. Not so good.
And arms dealer Viktor Bout, "The Merchant of Death," is heading back to Mother Russia.
Not good news at all.
Griner was flown to the United Arab Emirates today and later to San Antonio, Texas. The basketball star had been locked up in a Russian penal colony after being convicted of charges not worth much in the way of printer's ink.
The Biden administration had been hopeful that a prisoner trade might have been Bout for both Griner and Whelan. But it was one and done as far as the Russians were concerned.
So Paul Whelan faces another Christmas in Russian custody. Not a joyous prospect.
Whelan is a former U.S. marine with U.S., Irish, UK, and Canadian passports who was sentenced to 16 years in jail for spying.
Whelan denied the charges during a trial that was held behind closed doors in Moscow, and claimed he was framed when arrested in 2018 for allegedly taking possession of a computer memory stick that contained Russian state secrets.
Then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo described the treatment of Whelan as outrageous and appalling. The Biden administration continued the efforts to free Whelan.
But it no longer has Viktor Bout as a bargaining chip.
Bout is a convicted arms dealer who was serving a 25-year sentence in the United States.
Bout, dubbed the "The Merchant of Death," or alternately "Africa's Merchant of Death," was arrested in Thailand in 2008 and then extradited to the United States. He was convicted of conspiring to kill Americans in 2001.
The Echo reported on Bout some years ago while also reporting on the activities of former Scots Guards commander in Northern Ireland, Tim Spicer, whose company, Aegis Defense Systems, was the beneficiary of hundred of millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars during the war in Iraq.
Senator Russ Feingold, as the Echo reported at the time, was particularly concerned "over that portion of the national pie that has ended up in the lap of not just Spicer, but also another dodgy character from the world of big boys adventures, Viktor Bout."
As reported by the Echo: "Tajikistan-born Viktor might have been plucked from a Robert Ludlum novel. Reputedly the world’s biggest arms dealer, Bout has been dubbed 'Africa’s merchant of death.'
"Bout had been linked with arms sales all over that continent, and also to the Taliban, Al Qaeda’s babysitters in pre-9/11 Afghanistan. He has also more recently been doing a flying business in Iraq, apparently with money that has come by the way of subcontracts farmed out by, wait for it, private companies contracted to the Department of Defense.
"The U.S. Treasury Department moved in recent days to corral Bout, whose assets include an airline called Aerocom. The move pleased Feingold.
"'I’m glad that Treasury has finally taken this action to isolate Viktor Bout and his air trafficking network, but it has become increasingly clear that there is a vast gulf between Treasury’s actions and the State Department’s policies on the one hand, and what appears to be a passive, see-no-evil approach of the Department of Defense on the other,' Feingold said in a statement.
"'Multiple reports have surfaced, and continue to surface, indicating that DOD contractors in Iraq have subcontracted with Bout-affiliated firms. Most Americans would be appalled to learn that taxpayer dollars intended to help U.S. policy in Iraq succeed are actually finding their way into the coffers of the likes of Viktor Bout, a man associated with the Taliban and forces that committed unspeakable atrocities in West Africa,'" Feingold added.
Feingold issued a separate statement on the SIG criticism of Aegis. “Aegis was supposed to be providing security for government and reconstruction contractor personnel in Iraq. Not only does it appear that U.S. dollars were not well spent, but the consequence of the haphazard practices revealed in this report... could very well be deadly."
One who asked questions at the time was former Washington Post investigative reporter and author Douglas Farah. Farah mentioned, though not specifically linked, both Aegis and Bout in a report related to the Pentagon’s contracting business in Iraq.
Ultimately the Pentagon stated "case closed" with regard to complaints against the Aegis contract — lodged in part due to Spicer’s controversial defense of the shooting of Belfast teenager Peter McBride in 1992.
As for Viktor Bout? Case now closed in a different way. That's unless he doesn't confine himself to a Russian dacha and starts to eye, yet again, the opaque world of arms dealing.
As for Paul Whelan? He is counting the days in a bad place.
