If there was a pool for “things that are inevitable,” I would have bet my house on the “Merchant of Death” getting back in the merchant of death business. According to the Wall Street Journal, Viktor Bout, the guy who Joe Biden traded for the America-hating, admitted felon WNBA player Brittney Griner, is back in his trade of choice. He’s selling arms to terrorists.
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Viktor Bout, the Russian arms dealer known as the “Merchant of Death,” walked out of a U.S. jail almost two years ago in a trade with Moscow for U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner. Now he is back in business, trying to broker the sale of small arms to Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militants.
The 57-year-old, whose life reportedly inspired the 2005 Hollywood movie, “Lord of War,” starring Nicolas Cage, spent decades selling Soviet-made weapons in Africa, South America and the Middle East before being arrested in 2008 in a U.S. law enforcement sting operation.
America used to be circumspect about trading prisoners with Russia (a/k/a USSR). America would only trade high-value spies for high-value Americans. That usually happened without much fanfare. “Checkpoint Charlie” was a “usual” exchange point. Usually, men would be exchanged across a “bridge.” We would get someone back who added value to America, and we would (reluctantly) give up a spy.
Times have changed.
Ten years ago, Barack Obama offered up five terrorists to get an Army deserter back. Bowe Bergdahl was returned to great fanfare. His parents were at the Rose Garden as Obama announced Bergdahl’s return. Those five were back in the business of Taliban terror within a few years.
Biden seems to have won top spot in the “Incompetent Prisoner Exchange” category because exchanging Griner for an international arms-dealing terror merchant isn’t just a terrible choice; it will undoubtedly end in the deaths of innocent people.
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When Biden made the Griner for Bout exchange, he said:
She’s safe, she’s on a plane, she’s on her way home. After months of being unjustly detained in Russia, held under untolerable (sic) circumstances, Brittney will soon be back in the arms of her loved ones, and she should have been there all along.
Griner wasn’t “unjustly detained.” We might not like Russia or the thug who runs the country, but Griner violated Russian criminal statutes. Griner admitted that she brought drugs into Russia. Griner is an admitted criminal. Griner pled guilty in the hope of getting a reduced sentence.
Griner was exchanged because she checked the boxes. She’s gay. She’s black. And she refused to stand for the national anthem, saying:
“I personally don’t think it belongs in sports. … Black people didn’t have rights at that point,” Griner said of the creation of the Star-Spangled Banner. “It’s hard disrespecting [sic] a song that didn’t even represent all Americans when it was first made.”
The Journal is reporting that Bout is directly negotiating with Houthi terrorists for weapons. The first shipment is for small arms – like AK47s automatic rifles, but the Houthis are awaiting approval and shipment of anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons. Bout’s American attorney sees no problem with Bout’s new “job”:
“Viktor Bout has not been in the transportation business for over twenty years,” Zissou said. “But if the Russian government authorized him to facilitate the transfer of arms to one of America’s adversaries, it would be no different than the U.S. government sending arms and weapons of mass destruction to one of Russia’s adversaries as it has sent to Ukraine.”
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National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said of the Griner-for-Bout exchange:
“We believe we can manage those challenges, but we will remain constantly vigilant against any threat that Viktor Bout may pose to Americans, to the United States going forward. I would just point out that there is no shortage of arms traffickers and mercenaries in Russia.”
Yeah, that didn’t work out, Jake.
The sooner this administration is out of office, the better.