[Biden screwups...] DEA agent who helped put Viktor Bout behind bars slams Brittney Griner swap: 'We couldn't even get two people for the world's most notorious weapons trafficker'

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

https://news.yahoo.com/dea-agent-who-helped-put-viktor-bout-behind-bars-
slams-brittney-griner-swap-we-couldnt-even-get-two-people-for-the-worlds-
most-notorious-weapons-trafficker-220232108.html

Tom Pasquarello’s phone started buzzing around 7 a.m. on Thursday.

“Did you hear the news?” a friend asked.

“What news?” Pasquarello responded.

The news turned out to be the undoing of one of Pasquarello’s proudest
achievements from his tenure as a regional director with the Drug
Enforcement Administration. The U.S. had released the notorious Russian
arms trafficker who Pasquarello helped take down 14 years ago with an
audacious sting operation.

Viktor Bout, the so-called “Merchant of Death” and the inspiration for the
2005 Nicolas Cage film, “Lord of War,” is who Russia received back from
the U.S. on Thursday in a prisoner swap for American basketball star
Brittney Griner. Bout, 55, was serving a 25-year sentence in an Illinois
federal prison on charges of providing weapons to terrorists and
conspiring to kill Americans.

To Pasquarello, freeing Bout early was a troubling decision with potential
“huge repercussions.” The former DEA agent argues that the U.S. State
Department has a responsibility to figure out how to bring Griner and
other wrongfully detained Americans home without offering a prisoner
exchange or making other major concessions.

“I’m kind of in disbelief that someone with the potential to orchestrate
arms deals that can kill Americans anywhere in the world would be traded
for a prisoner,” Pasquarello told Yahoo Sports on Thursday. “I think this
sends a terrible message that the U.S. will negotiate, that the U.S. will
make concessions and that, if an American is held overseas, there’s always
the potential that the U.S. will acquiesce to the demands of people like
[Russian President Vladimir] Putin and bail them out.”

Pasquarello’s personal connection to Bout may color how he views
Thursday’s prisoner swap, but he is hardly alone in his assessment that
the Biden administration gave up too much to get Griner home. Other
foreign policy experts also wince at the obvious imbalance between Bout’s
crimes and Griner’s.

The U.S. alleges Bout smuggled military-grade weapons to rogue leaders and
insurgent groups across Africa and beyond, elevating conflicts from
machetes and one-shot rifles to grenade launchers and AK-47s. Russia
alleges Griner flew into Moscow on Feb. 17 with vape cartridges containing
less than one ounce of cannabis oil in her luggage.

Yuval Weber, an expert on Russian military and political strategy, told
Yahoo Sports that Bout’s release may “incentivize rogue state and non-
state actors to kidnap or imprison on trumped-up charges more Americans.”
Weber also expressed concern that Bout might reprise his former role as an
operative who exported arms to Russian allies at the Kremlin’s bidding.

“In sports terms,” said Weber, a distinguished fellow at Marine Corps
University's Brute Krulak Center for Innovation and Future Warfare, "we
just traded a GOAT first-ballot Hall of Famer who still has many years of
productivity left for a hometown Division III star."


How Viktor Bout became an arms trafficker
Exactly how big a threat is Viktor Bout? The answer depends on who you
ask. Russian state media calls him a “businessman” and an “entrepreneur.”
His former website said he’s a “born salesman with undying love for
aviation.” A longtime DEA agent once described him as “one of the most
dangerous men on the face of the Earth.”

Bout’s rise to prominence began during the early 1990s when he astutely
saw opportunity amid the chaos of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Piles
of weapons and ammunition lay discarded in dusty warehouses. Military
planes sat abandoned on Soviet runways because there was no money for
maintenance or fuel, and no one to fly them.

Relying on military and intelligence connections he had previously made,
Bout acquired several Antonov cargo planes known for their heavy airlift
capacity and ability to land in treacherous terrain. Those became the
starting point for a private fleet of more than 50 Soviet cargo planes and
a network of air-freight companies that hauled goods to and from far-flung
conflict zones.

Bout’s planes reportedly carried anything from fresh-cut flowers, to
frozen food, to U.N. peacekeepers, but authorities say he raked in most of
his profit delivering arms and ammunition from old Soviet stockpiles. At
Bout’s peak, according to the U.S Department of Treasury, he had “the
capacity to transport tanks, helicopters and weapons by the tons to
virtually any point in the world.”

The ability to supply that sort of firepower rapidly and with pinpoint
accuracy helped Bout build a client list that included some of the world’s
most notorious leaders. He made $50 million supplying the Taliban with
military equipment, according to the U.S. Department of Treasury. He also
allegedly inflamed conflicts in Liberia, Congo, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and
Sudan.

Angola was one country where Bout allegedly defied United Nations
sanctions prohibiting arms trafficking and U.S. peace-making efforts. A
former high-ranking U.S. State Department official told Yahoo Sports in
May that in the mid-to-late 1990s, Bout sold Soviet-era arms to both sides
of the Angolan Civil War — the Marxist government and the UNITA rebels
seeking to overthrow it.

“He was undermining our efforts to create peace in Angola,” the former
State Department source said. “He didn't care what side of the issue he
was on. He was in it for profit.”

Bout consistently stayed one step ahead of international investigators by
repeatedly registering and re-registering his planes in far-flung
countries, enabling him to avoid inspections and oversight. It also helped
that Bout had the protection of the Russian government, enabling him to
retreat to Moscow after global law enforcement agencies shined a spotlight
on the work he had long been doing in the shadows.

By 2007, the U.S. deemed Bout such a threat that it tasked the DEA with
setting up a sting operation to catch him. The DEA crafted a plan to have
agents pose as members of a violent Colombian rebel faction seeking
missiles that could shoot down American aircrafts and arms that could kill
American forces.

The sting operation culminated in March 2008 when the DEA successfully
baited Bout into leaving his Russian safe haven and flying to Bangkok to
finalize the deal. After Bout's meeting with undercover operatives ended
with him shoved up against a wall with his hands in the air, Pasquarello
entered the room.

"Do you have anything to say?" Pasquarello asked Bout.

"The game’s over," the arms trafficker coolly responded.

Russia plays hardball
Bout might have served the entirety of his 25-year sentence in federal
prison were it not for what Griner has called an “honest mistake.” The
U.S. had repeatedly rejected the Kremlin’s prisoner exchange proposals
involving Bout until one of America’s most well-known women’s basketball
players went on trial in Russia for drug possession and drug smuggling.

In July, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the U.S. had
offered Russia a “substantial proposal.” The offer was believed to be a
two-for-one trade exchanging Bout for Griner and Paul Whelan, a retired
Marine detained in Russia for the past four years on espionage charges
that both he and the State Department say are bogus.

While Blinken spoke directly to Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov and
urged him to agree to the proposed exchange, Russia refused to include
Whelan in a deal then or in subsequent negotiations. President Joe Biden
said Thursday that the U.S. either had to agree to trade Griner for Bout
or there would be no deal at all.

“Sadly, for totally illegitimate reasons, Russia is treating Paul’s case
different than Brittney’s,” Biden said. “And while we have not yet
succeeded in securing Paul’s release, we are not giving up. We will never
give up.”

The Bout-for-Griner trade is the second high-profile prisoner exchange the
U.S. and Russia have negotiated this year despite mounting tensions
between the two former Cold War enemies. In April, the U.S. secured the
release of Marine veteran Trevor Reed in exchange for a Russian pilot
serving a 20-year federal prison sentence for conspiracy to smuggle
cocaine into America.

How problematic these prisoner swaps are is a subject of debate. Some
foreign policy experts insist that high-profile prisoner exchanges like
this one incentivize Russia and other countries to seize more Americans,
but former State Department foreign services officer David Salvo told
Yahoo Sports he’s unconvinced that’s the case.

“Maybe I’m being naive or overly optimistic, but I don’t think you’re
going to see an exponential rise in cases of Americans being jailed to
extract leverage over us,” said Salvo, the deputy director of the Alliance
for Securing Democracy and an expert on Russian foreign policy.

“These cases are still exceedingly rare. This happens so infrequently that
incentivizing it shouldn’t factor into the calculus. We had to do what we
had to do to bring our people home. We got one of the two back so far.
It’s a bittersweet victory in that regard, but that has to be the ultimate
goal.”

Experts say that securing Bout’s release was a point of pride for Putin
because the arms trafficker is a former intelligence agent who displayed
loyalty to Russia. Bout operated with state protection throughout his arms
trafficking career and often served the government’s foreign policy
interests once Putin rose to power.

Whether Bout is still as dangerous today as he was at the peak of his
power isn’t fully clear.

Salvo admits that Bout “didn’t get his ‘Merchant of Death’ nickname for no
reason,” but he points out that Bout has been on the sideline for 15
years.

“While I still think it’s possible he can be used again by Russian
authorities to activate his network and wreak havoc,” Salvo said, “I’m
skeptical he’s going to reemerge as the biggest arms dealer on the planet
as soon as he lands in Russia.”

Pasquarello warns not to underestimate an adversary as crafty and
experienced as Bout.

“I think it’s very easy for him to get back into business,” Pasquarello
said. “I’ve heard that Viktor’s not a threat, that he can’t travel
anymore, that he’s going to be isolated. He was like that for 10 years
before we arrested him. He knew he couldn’t go anywhere and he still
operated from his safe spots.”

It frustrates Pasquarello that the efforts of the DEA and its allies
couldn’t keep Bout behind bars for longer. He doesn’t understand why the
U.S. couldn’t get more detained Americans back in exchange for Bout, if
the State Department had to include him in a deal at all.

“We couldn’t even get two people for the world’s most notorious weapons
trafficker,” Pasquarello said, “for a man who has been responsible for
more carnage and blood diamonds and insurrections and threats to democracy
than anyone else in the world. How is that a negotiation? That’s like a
free deal.”

Comments:

Hi
1 day ago

They've just made Americans overseas and especially higher profile
Americans over seas, less safe because of the implications mentioned in
the article. And, the world less safe because of the drastically early
release of the most prolific arms dealer in the world. It's rough and
difficult that she was detained and nobody would wish it on anyone, but we
got her out at what will be the expense of many because of the poor deal
we got.

Andrew
1 day ago

"The former DEA agent argues that the U.S. State Department has a
responsibility to figure out how to bring Griner and other wrongfully
detained Americans home." Someone please explain why Griner is being
classified as "wrongfully detained"? She has admitted to breaking Russian
law by smuggling vaping cartridges into the country. Her arrest was
entirely her own doing. Contrast that with Whelan who was arrested without
a legitimate reason, is a former marine, and has been stuck over there for
4 times as long as Griner.

If all the above doesn't make this travesty clear, the US government also
just set a precedent that if you detain one of our citizens for basically
any reason, we're willing to trade international arms dealers and
terrorists to secure their release. Wonderful!


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