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It was to relief and jubilation coast to coast when Brittney Griner landed on the morning of Dec. 9 at Kelly Field in San Antonio. As the whole world knows, this was the end of a nine-month ordeal behind bars in the increasingly draconian Russia of Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n
In what proved to be disastrous timing, WNBA superstar and Olympic gold-medalist Griner\u2014who had been playing for Russian team UMMC Ekaterinburg\u2014was\u00a0popped at the Moscow airport<\/a>\u00a0with a couple of cannabis-oil vape-pens in early March\u2014just days into Putin\u2019s Ukraine invasion, with superpower tensions suddenly soaring.\u00a0<\/p>\n In August, a Moscow court sentenced her to nine years despite her guilty plea. On Oct. 18, she\u00a0passed her 32nd birthday<\/a>\u00a0in a Moscow jail, awaiting an appeal of her sentence.\u00a0<\/p>\n The sentence was\u00a0upheld<\/a>\u00a0by the higher court, and in mid-November, Griner was\u00a0transferred<\/a>\u00a0to IK-2 penal colony in Mordovia region\u2014where she voluntarily shaved off her signature long dreadlocks, because washing them in the cold was too challenging as she struggled to stay warm.\u00a0<\/p>\n The US State Department was meanwhile assiduously working for her release\u2014and it was all too clear that Putin was\u00a0driving a hard bargain<\/a>. In the end, Griner was freed in a one-for-one prisoner swap with notorious international arms dealer Viktor Bout\u2014dubbed by the media the \u201cMerchant of Death.\u201d The pair even did the\u00a0ritual walk-by<\/a>\u00a0on the tarmac as their respective planes touched down at the Abu Dhabi airport.<\/p>\n As the plane carrying Griner\u00a0landed in San Antonio<\/a>, Roger Carstens, the US special presidential envoy for hostage negotiations who had accompanied her on the flight,\u00a0tweeted<\/a>:\u00a0\u201cSo happy to have Brittney back on US soil. Welcome home BG!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n So happy to have Brittney back on U.S. soil. Welcome home BG!<\/p>\n \u2014 U.S. Special Presidential Envoy Roger D. Carstens (@StateSPEHA) December 9, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n President Joe Biden made his own\u00a0statement<\/a>: \u201cAfter months of being unjustly detained in Russia, held under intolerable circumstances, Brittney will soon be back in the arms of her loved ones and she should have been there all along. This is a day we\u2019ve worked toward for a long time. We never stopped pushing for her release.\u201d<\/p>\n However, Georgia\u2019s far-right extremist Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene immediately responded to Griner\u2019s release by threatening to launch impeachment proceedings against Biden. She\u00a0tweeted<\/a>: \u201cAnother reason to impeach Biden. The President of the United States traded Russian terrorist arms dealer, Viktor Bout, left a US Marine in Russian jail, and brought home a professional basketball player. How many people will Viktor Bout now kill bc [sic] Biden set him free?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Another reason to impeach Biden.<\/p>\n The President of the United States traded Russian terrorist arms dealer, Viktor Bout, left a U.S. Marine in Russian jail, and brought home a professional basketball player.<\/p>\n How many people will Viktor Bout now kill bc Biden set him free?<\/p>\n \u2014 Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene The ex-Marine in question is Paul Whelan, a private security firm director who was sentenced by a Russian court in 2020 to 16 years for espionage\u2014a charge Washington\u00a0rejects as a frame-up<\/a>. There had been speculation that he\u2019d be paired with Griner in a deal with Moscow, but this proved not to be. Griner and Bout were swapped one-for-one, and Whelan\u00a0continues to be held<\/a>\u00a0at Russia\u2019s top-security IK-17 penal compound, also in Mordovia. The White House officially lists him as \u201cwrongfully detained,\u201d a designation he shared with Griner before her release.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s former secretary of state and CIA director Mike Pompeo likewise told\u00a0NBC News<\/a>: \u201cThe Trump administration was always clear, we weren\u2019t going to trade bad guys for celebrities, because it creates the wrong incentive for the bad guys.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n And Donald Trump himself wasted no time,\u00a0writing<\/a>\u00a0on his fledgling Truth Social platform: \u201cWhy wasn\u2019t former Marine Paul Whelan included in this totally one-sided transaction? He would have been let out for the asking. What a \u2018stupid\u2019 and unpatriotic embarrassment for the USA!!!\u201d (Sic)\u00a0<\/p>\n It requires little sophistication to read the barely coded cultural politics here. \u201cCelebrity\u201d Griner was favored by the liberal elite, while patriotic Leatherneck Whelan was betrayed. This propaganda is obviously lubricated by the fact that Griner is an openly gay African American woman who wore dreadlocks and showed up at her court dates in a\u00a0Jimi Hendrix t-shirt<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0\u201cBlack Lives Matter\u201d hoodie<\/a>. And, it goes without saying, by the fact that she was busted for cannabis.<\/p>\n Before the Bout-Griner swap was approved, a White House-ordered \u201cnational security assessment\u201d\u00a0supposedly found<\/a>\u00a0that any risk posed by a free Bout would be \u201cmanageable.\u201d He had less than seven years remaining on a 25-year term he was serving at the federal penitentiary in Marion, IL.<\/p>\n Bout didn\u2019t make anything easier for Biden. He was barely back on Russian soil before he was put on Kremlin state propaganda outlet RT for a\u00a0high-profile interview<\/a>\u00a0in which he dutifully declared his support for Putin\u2019s Ukraine war and offered to put his skills to use on its behalf.\u00a0<\/p>\n The interview was conducted by none other than Maria Butina, the far right-wing political operative who in 2018 was charged by US authorities with\u00a0running an illegal Russian influence campaign<\/a>\u00a0within the US. Butina, who reportedly tried to broker a secret meeting between Trump and Putin during the 2016 presidential campaign, was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison after copping a plea. After her release, she returned to Russia,\u00a0became a member of parliament<\/a>\u00a0with Putin\u2019s ruling party and also serves as a mouthpiece for his regime on RT.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cA Russian man like me, I never understood why we didn\u2019t do this earlier,\u201d Bout told Butina, speaking of the Ukraine war. \u201cI fully support the special military operation,\u201d he added, using Putin\u2019s official Orwellian euphemism for the unprovoked, outrageous invasion of a sovereign nation. The comments were quickly\u00a0tweeted out<\/a>\u00a0by Russian media outlets.\u00a0<\/p>\n And Bout was\u00a0sure to make clear: \u201cIf I had the opportunity and the necessary skills, I would, of course, volunteer.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n This would appear to be an ironic understatement, as Bout has certainly demonstrated his special \u201cskills\u201d across several continents.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no getting around the fact that Bout is a baddie.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Accused by both the UN and Amnesty International of flouting multiple arms embargos, Bout was\u00a0arrested<\/a>\u00a0at a five-star hotel in Bangkok in March 2008. Thai authorities issued the warrant based on information from the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). A former KGB officer, Bout allegedly sold arms to the Taliban, al-Qaeda, Colombia\u2019s FARC guerillas and warring sides in several African conflicts. According to the US Treasury Department, Bout built up his arms empire after the collapse of the USSR, acquiring a fleet of surplus military planes.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cToday, Bout has the capacity to transport tanks, helicopters and weapons by the tons to virtually any point in the world,\u201d the Treasury Department said in 2005\u00a0statement<\/a>. \u201cThe arms he has sold or brokered has helped fuel conflicts and support UN sanctioned regimes in Afghanistan, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Sudan.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The US government claims Bout made a $50 million profit supplying military equipment to the Taliban in Afghanistan during their first stint in power, back in the 1990s. In 2002, Bout went on Russian media to\u00a0deny the charges<\/a>, saying the accusations against him \u201cresemble more a script for a Hollywood thriller.\u201d<\/p>\n And indeed Bout was clearly the inspiration for the 2005 Hollywood thriller\u00a0Lord of War<\/em><\/a>, in which he was played by Nicholas Cage. He was also the subject of a nonfiction book,\u00a0Merchant of Death<\/em><\/a>\u00a0by Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun, the source of his long-standing nickname in Western media.\u00a0<\/p>\n The book claimed that planes from Bout\u2019s fleet made several airdrops of weapons to the FARC between December 1998 and April 1999, and this was the angle used by the US Justice Department to snare him.\u00a0<\/p>\n The US charges against Bout stemmed from a sting operation in which undercover DEA agents posing as FARC representatives secured a deal from him to supply millions of dollars worth of weapons, including surface-to-air missile systems and armor-piercing rocket launchers. The agents let slip that the arms could be used in attacks on US citizens, and the seemingly gullible Bout gave his tacit approval. He would be\u00a0convicted<\/a>\u00a0by a New York City federal court in 2011 of conspiring to kill Americans.\u00a0<\/p>\n Whither Whelan?<\/strong><\/p>\n Paul Whelan\u2019s twin brother David has had some sharp words for the former president now presuming to speak on his sibling\u2019s behalf. After Trump\u2019s grandstanding, Paul\u00a0tweeted<\/a>: \u201cFormer President Trump appears to have mentioned my brother #PaulWhelan\u2019s wrongful detention more in the last 24 hours than he did in the 2 years of his presidency in which Paul was held hostage by #Russia (zero). I don\u2019t suggest he cares now any more than he did then (zero).\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Former President Trump appears to have mentioned my brother #PaulWhelan<\/a>‘s wrongful detention more in the last 24 hours than he did in the 2 years of his presidency in which Paul was held hostage by #Russia<\/a> (zero). I don’t suggest he cares now any more than he did then (zero) https:\/\/t.co\/7lnSF0zJxL<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 David Whelan (@davidpwhelan) December 9, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n And Fiona Hill, who served as an advisor on Russian affairs to Trump\u2019s National Security Council, was similarly skeptical. She told\u00a0Face the Nation<\/a><\/em>\u00a0on CBS: \u201cAt the particular time, I also have to say here that President Trump wasn\u2019t especially interested in engaging in that swap for\u2026Paul Whelan. He was not particularly interested in Paul\u2019s case in the way that one would have thought he would be.\u201d<\/p>\n This is a reference to Trump\u2019s\u00a0boast<\/a>\u00a0on Truth Social that he \u201cturned down\u201d a deal to swap Whelan for Bout. In that same post, he asserted that the Griner-Bout swap was \u201ccrazy and bad,\u201d and that he \u201cwould have gotten Paul out.\u201d<\/p>\n As Peter Baker of\u00a0The New York Times<\/em>\u00a0responded<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter, this raises the obvious and serious question of \u201cwhy Trump didn\u2019t free Whelan, who was imprisoned in 2018 during Trump\u2019s presidency.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n All this is rendered even more ironic by the long-standing flirtation between the MAGA Republicans and the Putin regime\u2014which persists even as the despot\u2019s rockets rain death down on Ukraine. Viktor Bout would be heartened by Marjorie Taylor Greene\u2019s efforts to rein in US aid to Kyiv.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Nov.17, the notorious MTG joined with controversial far-right poster boy Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida and other House Republicans at a\u00a0press conference<\/a>\u00a0announcing plans to introduce a resolution calling for an audit of US assistance to embattled Ukraine. This, despite recent battlefield successes, amply demonstrates how the aid is being used effectively.<\/p>\n In late February, exactly as Putin was launching his Ukraine invasion, MTG\u00a0attended<\/a>\u00a0the far-right America First Political Action Conference in Orlando, where the organizer and master of ceremonies was the flagrant and unrepentant white nationalist Nick Fuentes. Minutes before Fuentes brought MTG to the stage, he grotesquely called for a \u201ca round of applause for Russia\u201d\u2014and led the assemblage in a chant of \u201cPutin! Putin!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Fuentes would\u00a0re-emerge in the headlines<\/a>\u00a0in November, when he joined Trump and Ye, the rap artist formerly known as Kanye West, for dinner at the ex-president\u2019s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.\u00a0<\/p>\n MTG has been keeping up the anti-Ukraine invective even as Russian atrocities mount\u2014absurdly portraying the conflict as a sequel to the Iraq war and creation of the US military-industrial complex. On June 30, she\u00a0tweeted<\/a>: \u201cUkraine is the MIC\u2019s new Iraq wrapped up with a pretty little NATO bow, with a nuclear present inside.\u201d<\/p>\n The role played by then President George W. Bush in Iraq in 2003 (launching an unprovoked war of aggression) is this time being played by Vladimir Putin in Ukraine.\u00a0<\/p>\n Brittney Griner spent her first week restored to freedom in a\u00a0reintegration program<\/a>\u00a0at\u00a0Brooke Army Medical Center<\/a>\u00a0in San Antonio. In her limited initial statements to the press, said she\u2019ll use her expanded platform to\u00a0fight for the release<\/a>\u00a0of Paul Whelan and some 50 other Americans officially designated as wrongfully detained overseas.<\/p>\n Griner\u2019s agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas,\u00a0told CNN<\/a>: \u201cIt was one of the first things she asked me about. She\u2019s very, very concerned about that. And will be sending a message to Paul.\u201d<\/p>\n Upon her\u00a0discharge<\/a>\u00a0from the Brooke Medical Center on Dec. 16, she posted on her\u00a0Instagram page<\/a>\u00a0to thank her supporters around the country, and announce that she\u2019ll definitely return to playing for the Phoenix Mercury next season. She pledged publicly to fight for the release of Whelan: \u201cI also encourage everyone that played a part in bringing me home to continue their efforts to bring all Americans home. Every family deserves to be whole.\u201d<\/p>\n The attention focused on the cannabis question by the Griner case could give greater impetus to addressing what remains a real human rights crisis here in the US. In a commentary after Griner\u2019s release, Ari Melber of MSNBC welcomed the global star athlete home, but also\u00a0decried the selective outrage<\/a>\u00a0revealed by her case. \u201cIf you\u2019re outraged about it over there,\u201d he asked, meaning Russia, \u201cwhy aren\u2019t you outraged about it over here?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Melber pointed, by way of example, to the case of Allen Russell, a man who was sentenced by a Mississippi court three years ago to a life sentence for possession of 43.71 grams of cannabis\u2014about an ounce and a half. This June, the Mississippi Supreme Court\u00a0upheld the sentence<\/a>, finding that it wasn\u2019t a violation of the Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment.\u00a0<\/p>\n By the count of the\u00a0Last Prisoner Project<\/a>\u00a0advocacy group, there are (even after the progress toward state-level legalization over the past years) some 40,000 people behind bars for cannabis in the US on any given day.<\/p>\n Clearly, work remains to be done on several fronts.<\/p>\n The post Even Free, Brittney Griner Remains a Political Pawn<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
It was to relief and jubilation coast to coast when Brittney Griner landed on the morning of Dec. 9 at Kelly Field in San Antonio. As the whole world knows, this was the end of a nine-month ordeal behind bars in the increasingly draconian Russia of Vladimir Putin. Home ForContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":59562,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16061,50,95,11199,16699,81,16700,130,16057,16701],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59561"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59561"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59563,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59561\/revisions\/59563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n\n
Angry Republicans<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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(@RepMTG) December 8, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\nBout Pawns Biden<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Death Merchant Has Earned His Sobriquet<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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<\/a>![\"Merchant](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/MerchantofDeathBook.jpg\")
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MAGA Republicans Betray Ukraine<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"Ukraine](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/PeaceSignUkraineWar.jpg\")
<\/a>Griner Pledges To Help Whelan\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"Brittney](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Brook-Army-Medical-Center.jpg\")
<\/a>\u2026and America\u2019s Own \u2018Wrongfully Detained\u2019?\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"Cannabis](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Prisoners.jpg\")
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\nRead More: Even Free, Brittney Griner Remains a Political Pawn<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"