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dancingtongue · 80-89, M
As with all trades, you have to dig a little deeper into the terms of contract than just the surface optics of basketball player for merchant of death.
The merchant of death has been incarcerated for 14 years and was due for release from prison in less than 7 years. While he was convicted of attempting to sell arms to kill Americans (because that is the DEA drug cartel sting they caught him in), he was an equal opportunity merchant who started out selling weapons to the Russians to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan. If being an international arms seller is criminal per se, there are a lot of American multi-national corporate CEOs who should be in prison. But the more relevant piece is he has served the majority of his sentence and how many contacts he has left in a very volatile arms marketplace is questionable at best after 14 years in prison.
OTOH the basketball star was arrested for having some cannabis oil in her luggage, for which she had a medical prescription and which is legal in a majority of the U.S. And she had her full sentence still in front of her, having just lost her appeal.
Now for the third piece in the puzzle: Paul Whelan, the ex-Marine who is in his 5th year of captivity and whom the Russians refused to include in the trade. Again the optics: he always is referred to as the former Marine, which conjures up this squeaky clean image. Facts: he is a former Marine because he got a bad conduct discharge after being court-martialed for multiple acts of larceny and other charges; none of his self-proclaimed past employment history in law-enforcement nor college education fully checks out.
But he has worked in cyber security for a couple of multi-nationals, lived and worked in Russia for years; and was arrested with a USB drive with Russian secrets on it that had just been handed to him by a Russian secret service officer after mysteriously leaving a wedding a ceremony that he had organized. Wonder why the Russians consider him a spy, despite the CIA's denial? He also is Canadian-born, and holds passports from 4 countries (Britain & Ireland in addition to the U.S. & Canada) , all of which say they are working for his release. For his sake, I hope someone finds the key for his release, but if it is so easy to get the Russians to give up someone they see -- rightly or wrongly -- as a spy caught in a sting operation, let's at least spread the blame for failure to all four countries whose flag he was traveling under.
The merchant of death has been incarcerated for 14 years and was due for release from prison in less than 7 years. While he was convicted of attempting to sell arms to kill Americans (because that is the DEA drug cartel sting they caught him in), he was an equal opportunity merchant who started out selling weapons to the Russians to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan. If being an international arms seller is criminal per se, there are a lot of American multi-national corporate CEOs who should be in prison. But the more relevant piece is he has served the majority of his sentence and how many contacts he has left in a very volatile arms marketplace is questionable at best after 14 years in prison.
OTOH the basketball star was arrested for having some cannabis oil in her luggage, for which she had a medical prescription and which is legal in a majority of the U.S. And she had her full sentence still in front of her, having just lost her appeal.
Now for the third piece in the puzzle: Paul Whelan, the ex-Marine who is in his 5th year of captivity and whom the Russians refused to include in the trade. Again the optics: he always is referred to as the former Marine, which conjures up this squeaky clean image. Facts: he is a former Marine because he got a bad conduct discharge after being court-martialed for multiple acts of larceny and other charges; none of his self-proclaimed past employment history in law-enforcement nor college education fully checks out.
But he has worked in cyber security for a couple of multi-nationals, lived and worked in Russia for years; and was arrested with a USB drive with Russian secrets on it that had just been handed to him by a Russian secret service officer after mysteriously leaving a wedding a ceremony that he had organized. Wonder why the Russians consider him a spy, despite the CIA's denial? He also is Canadian-born, and holds passports from 4 countries (Britain & Ireland in addition to the U.S. & Canada) , all of which say they are working for his release. For his sake, I hope someone finds the key for his release, but if it is so easy to get the Russians to give up someone they see -- rightly or wrongly -- as a spy caught in a sting operation, let's at least spread the blame for failure to all four countries whose flag he was traveling under.
samueltyler2 · 80-89, M
@dancingtongue but, the far-right will attack anything Biden and his administration has done. Anyone see the cost of gas today, less than it was a year ago?