Carstens, the narco nephews of the EFRAns, as they were convicted in Venezuela, were released

The heads of the prisons ordered the men to wear civilian clothes after they put their yellow prison suits on.

The day would mark the end of the five year nightmare that began when the six oil executives were lured to Venezuela in order to have a business meeting.

The US has plans for recovery of detainees around the world, and Friday saw Carstens’ team quietly putting the plan for Venezuela into action. On Friday night, Carstens flew commercially from Washington, DC, to meet up with the US government aircraft, and on Saturday morning, he took off on a mission to carry out the prisoner swap, with Campo Flores and Flores de Freitas, the two Venezuelan “narco-nephews,” in tow.

The family of at least one of the Americans made a plea for their release just days before they were freed, as well as additional details about the extensive efforts that led up to the release of seven Americans.

The narco nephews, EFRAn Antonio Campo Flores and Francisco Flores de Freitas, had their prison sentences commuted by US President Joe Biden.

Toledo said he wanted to make sure that the definition of his home was Houston because he had been arrested three times there.

The first family moments of the Carstens-Blinken-Jackiw-Biden detainee swap in the United States

The men were put in an armored vehicle and taken to the airport where they had to fill out paperwork. They saw the other two inmates for the first time. The seven were loaded onto a small plane, Toledo recalled, and in addition to the handcuffs, their feet were tied.

On board Carstens’ plane, one of two aircraft dispatched for the mission, the team was nailing down final details, such as the choreography of the swap, and as is the case in every detainee swap situation, going through contingency plans – though Carstens told CNN that he trusted his Venezuelan interlocutor to deliver on the agreement.

A few minutes after the Venezuelan plane with the detainees landed – also one of two aircraft – the first US government plane with Carstens and the two nephews on board touched down.

“We did the planning thing and after that it was just going over the plan in my head, just trying to think if I missed anything, and then suddenly we’re landing,” Carstens recalled.

She was given a sense, he said, that she would be going home that day, and it felt real the moment he was able to board the other plane and tell her that “on behalf of the President of the United States, Joe Biden, and Secretary of State Tony Blinken, I’m here to take you home.”

“It was like in any movie where you know the prisoner exchange occurs. I saw the two individuals walking toward the jet with the Venezuelan identification and then we jumped into the” US plane, Toledo said. “I didn’t know if I was living a real-life situation, or I was part of a Netflix movie.”

The men were sent to Texas to take part in a Department of Defense program that was meant to prepare them for their return to normal life.

The adjustment has been difficult after being away for nearly five years. They have not had many family moments because of their physical, mental and financial toll.

A tribute to the 19-year-old Hernandez, whom Hernandez detained during the March 13 shooting incident in the Twin City Los Alamos, Texas,

Toledo told CNN that he met for the first time his two granddaughters. He used to run marathon and is trying to get into shape for the Houston half marathon in January.

Pereira said he is “scared to drive” because he has been away from the wheel so long, but is looking forward to making Thanksgiving – which once marked the grim milestone of their detention – a happy occasion again.

“This is something I would never want to happen, even to my worst enemy. Because it’s so complicated coming back to a world that has totally changed,” Pereira said. “This has been like a bomb in my life.”

The family and friends of Hernandez, who has been detained since late March, want to see him released faster. They gathered last week in Washington, DC, to meet with administration and congressional officials, fellow families of wrongful detainees – as well as Pereira and his wife – and to call for help.

He does not deserve to be there. We need to bring him home,” his father, Pedro Martinez, tearfully told CNN, adding that his son sounded “very weak” on a recent call.

“I’ve dedicated myself to public service for over 15 years. In regards to the poor and working class, I’m dedicated to helping them because no matter what mistake they make, they should always be treated with dignity and respect. No one should be abandoned at a time when they are most vulnerable.

The Bout Swap and the US/Brazil Interaction Between Whelan and the Russians: A Call from the Prison Colony in Russia

In a phone call with CNN from the prison colony in Russia where he is being held, Whelan said that he was surprised he was not included in the Bout swap but that he was disappointed by the fact that the Biden administration did not do more to secure his release.

“I am greatly disappointed that more has not been done to secure my release, especially as the four-year anniversary of my arrest is coming up. He said he was arrested for a crime that never happened. “I don’t understand why I’m still sitting here.”

The interview happened after President Joe Biden said that the US had not been able to get Whelan out. Biden pledged the US would never give up on him. US officials said the Russians would not negotiate his release.

We did not have a choice of which American to bring home. It was a choice between bringing home one particular American, Brittney Griner, or bringing home none,” a senior administration official told reporters on Thursday.

“I was led to believe that things were moving in the right direction, and that the governments were negotiating and that something would happen fairly soon,” he said.

“That raises a lot of concerns because none of it is true. And they’re trying to get out of United States, what the United States may not be able to provide, but this is basically political extortion,” he said.

Her case also served to amplify the plight of Whelan, whose arrest on espionage charges led to a conviction in 2020 and a 16-year prison sentence. US officials have called the trial unfair and say the charges are manufactured.

Whelan and the United States are not Back to Square One in the Negotiations for Paul’s Free Run from Russia, according to Kirby

Whelan said he hopes that Biden and his administration “would do everything they could to get me home, regardless of the price they might have to pay at this point.”

“My thoughts are with them today and I hope they’re OK,” Biden said. “And we’ll keep negotiating in good faith for Paul’s release, I guarantee that … I would like Russia to do the same so that Paul’s health and treatment is maintained until we can bring him home.

The US is not back to square one in the talks for the release of Whelan, according to John Kirby.

“I’m not trying to shine a negative light on Russia per se, I’m just trying to tell it how it is. I’m trying to get a message through to my governments that I need help,” he said.

If it is a risk, I am willing to take it because I want the message to get out. Whelan said that he wasn’t happy that nothing was being done to get him home.

In these circumstances, who knows how I will come back or if I will come back, to be quite honest, Whelan said in an interview with CNN.

The Case of the Black Star Axel Griner, Released in Moscow, on Dec. 16, 1993: Criminal Evidence in the U.S.

“We only have cold water. There is dirty everywhere. There really isn’t any maintenance. Things are extremely old, you know, 30-40-50 years old, and you know, what isn’t broken doesn’t work. We don’t have cleaning supplies. The medical care is substandard at best. He said that they were on their own to take care of themselves.

He writes letters and reads a lot of books to keep sane. He likes to receive letters and cards and other mail because it makes him remember that our world still exists.

A star athlete with a outspoken wife and a dedicated base of supporters, including several fellow celebrities, led to public scrutiny of the case and led to the release of her. The White House described her suffering “intolerable circumstances” during her detention. There had been some concern about the health and well being of Griner while she was in Russia.

There had been concern about the health and well being of Griner, who is Black and a lesbian, while detained in Russia. Russia legalized homosexuality in 1993, but homophobia and discrimination persist. On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law a bill that expanded anti-LGBTQ laws.

According to a recent human rights report by the US State Department, political prisoners are often placed in harsh conditions where they can be subjected to solitary confinement or stays in psychiatric units. Russian law also allows forced labor in penal colonies, and in some cases, inmates have been tortured to death, the report says. The report also says prison authorities recruit inmates to abuse other inmates.

The Abu Dhabi Airport Prisoner Exchange: A Memorino with a High-Energy US President and a Friend of the President

Russian state media said Thursday that the prisoner exchange at Abu Dhabi Airport was finished successfully. Saudi Arabia and the UAE said in a joint statement that the two countries were involved in joint mediation efforts leading to the prisoner swap.

President Joe Biden gave final approval for the prisoner swap freeing Griner over the past week, an official familiar with the matter has told CNN, adding that the president was updated on the swap as it took place.

The decision was shared with only a tight knit group of US officials to prevent the news from breaking before Griner was in US custody, one US official explained. US officials were concerned about Russia pulling back after they were warned that the matter should not be discussed in public. They were also cognizant of the ongoing war in Ukraine, wary that any major escalations had the potential to derail the plan. So concerned were White House officials that the fragile deal could collapse that Biden didn’t sign the commutation papers for Bout until Griner was on the ground in Abu Dhabi and in the sight of a US greeting party.

The Biden administration conducted a security assessment in order to give the final go-ahead for the trade. Ultimately, the assessment’s conclusion was that “Bout was not a security threat to the US,” a US official told CNN.

White House officials have said she is in good spirits but she is most likely to undergo a medical evaluation. John Kirby told CNN that his priority right now is to make sure she gets the necessary care after being mistreated, and that she was put in a location that was intolerable.

“We suspect that there will be a need here for her to have access to proper health care before she’s ready and fit to get back home. I don’t think that that will take a very long time,” Kirby told CNN’s Kate Bolduan. “But again, that is going to be up to the doctors to work with the family on. The focus now is making sure we look after her well being before she can get on her way.

Nearly ten months after Brittney Griner was arrested at a Moscow airport, the jubilant moment in the Oval Office on Thursday amounted to the culmination of prolonged, frustrating negotiations and one painful decision that left another detained American disappointed and wondering what his fate may be.

The official explained that Russia treats him in a different category as they view him as a spy. The offer of a Russian spy in US custody to Russia was not counted out by the official.

At the end of November, he was removed from the penitentiary and placed in a prison hospital. He spoke to his family last Friday, after a week of silence that had prompted concern in the White House over his whereabouts and condition.

“He is probably as well as you could be in a Russian labor camp,” his twin brother David told NPR in April. “They don’t provide nutritional meals, and they don’t really take too much care of the prisoners. There’s a lot of corruption and other abuse. So I think he does his best to stay out of people’s way.”

Biden stressed that efforts to secure Whelan’s release are ongoing, and said his administration is in close touch with Whelan’s family (the U.S. official said Biden intends to speak with them too).

They said that the US had given them advance knowledge of the prisoner swap, and that this was not the case in April, when a former US marine was released in exchange for Whelan.

“That early warning meant that our family has been able to mentally prepare for what is now a public disappointment for us,” David Whelan told the Detroit News. “And a catastrophe for Paul. I do not know if he is aware yet, although he will surely learn from Russian media. Our parents have had calls with him every day since his return to IK-17 on December 2d, and they will surely speak to him soon.”

While he was disappointed, the brother said that “there is no better way to commemorate the holiday than for a wrongful prisoner to be released and returned to his family.”

Jonathan Franks, a spokesperson for the Bring Our Families Home Campaign, said in a statement that while “we celebrate Brittney’s homecoming, our hearts break for the Whelan family.”

He added that Paul was let down by 2 Presidents. Our campaign wishes to implore President Biden to secure Paul’s immediate return using all tools that are available.

Biden and Whelan — the First American Women to Leave the Legacy of a Damned Warped Crime-Death Servant

Because of the matter’s exceedingly high profile, it was certain those conditions had been set by Russian President Vladimir Putin himself, one US official said.

Biden had a decision to make when winter was on the way at the penal colony. Welcoming Griner home would fulfill a promise and end the nightmare endured by her and her family.

But any victory would be tempered by the inability to secure Whelan’s freedom and inevitable blowback over the release of one the most prolific arms dealers of the past decades.

One official said law enforcement officials raised strenuous objections but were told the decision had been made. For law enforcement officials from the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration, which spent years and elaborate efforts to try to capture Bout, the release of Bout raised additional concerns about the precedent the deal could set.

Moments earlier in Abu Dhabi, Griner had stepped from her transport plane into the Middle East air – fifty degrees warmer than Moscow – and smiled, a US official said.

Griner’s wife, who arrived in Washington on Wednesday, was invited to an early morning meeting at the White House set for Thursday. She was initially scheduled to meet with national security adviser Jake Sullivan, who had briefed her several times over the course of the negotiations.

The flight to freedom of Griner was the first phase of what will be a difficult and emotional process for the professional athlete. Over many years, a variety of programs have been developed by the US government to address the needs of prisoners and hostages.

She has lost a lot of time, been traumatized, and deserves a lot of privacy and time with her loved ones as she recovers from her time being wrongly held.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/08/politics/biden-griner-whelan-decision/index.html

The Implications of the Trade-Off Between Ukraine and the USA for the Security Service and the U.S. During the Cold War

There are other options, other categories of options, which the US has tried to articulate, to create the space to really have the haggling that we want to have, said a senior administration official.

“If you’re haggling, you’re getting closer,” the official said. “And instead we have had no change or softening of a response that is simply a demand for something we just can’t provide because it’s not something in our control.”

The official said that the assessment looked at Bout’s lengthy imprisonment and his not being involved in any recent criminal activity.

The security assessment conducted on Bout was thorough, but the official would not say how the US was able to be certain that Bout wouldn’t pose a future risk to the country.

The Russian price for the release of a woman who was caught up in a White House scandal rose because of the publicity surrounding her, according to law enforcement officials.

Concerns were raised that the deal raises the likelihood that Russia, Iran, and other countries would try to use the arrest of Americans to get concessions from the US.

The administration official said that if hostile governments interpreted Thursday’s swap that way they would be mistaken.

“Any inference that somehow this has become the norm would be mistaken, and I don’t think governments around the world would be wise to draw that inference,” the official said. Sometimes there are no alternatives left when there is an imperative to Americans home, which is a priority for the president, and a heavy price has to be paid.

Putin got a propaganda coup at a time of rising domestic pressure, due to his ties to the Russian security services. It enabled him to demonstrate to intelligence operatives engaged in nefarious activity abroad that they will not be forgotten by the Kremlin. As the war in Ukraine continues, the Russian leader must rely on his intelligence services to stay in power. Still, Biden’s strategy also hinted at intriguing diplomatic possibilities, three days after he refused to rule out future talks with Putin, if Ukraine’s agrees, aimed at ending the vicious war. He showed it was possible to deal with Russia, even amid an effective proxy war between the two old Cold War foes in Ukraine amid the worst relations between Moscow and Washington since the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The moral dilemma Biden faced, despite the diplomatic triumph, was underscored by his failure to obtain the release of Paul Whelan, an American prisoner in Russia. Republicans said that he prioritized a basketball star over a ex-Marine who benefited from a political campaign against Biden.

Another notable cog in this deal was Saudi Arabia, which helped facilitate the exchange alongside the United Arab Emirates – and also helped secure the release of US citizens captured fighting in Ukraine earlier this year. The kingdom, which has diplomatic relations with both Washington and Moscow, might be able to act as a bridge between Russia and the U.S. over the conflict in Ukraine. But its recent smoothing of US-Russia exchanges might put Biden’s decision to travel to the country earlier this year and greet its ruthless Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with a fist bump, in a slightly different light.

Ultimately, it’s impossible for there not to be a sour aftertaste when dealing with an adversary as inhumane as Putin. But it is the job of a president to weigh these competing dynamics within the context of America’s national goals and duty to its citizens.

It adds another layer of challenge for Biden, as he seeks to get the man he wants to free, since he would need the consent of the German Chancellor to take over his country’s legal system. Whether the new German leader has the political capacity to do so is unclear, as is the kind of Russian concession Berlin might require.

A senior administration official said on Thursday that the US needs to offer more than what the Russians have been given, CNN reported.

administration officials insisted that Biden got the best deal possible when he did the bad deal.

Bout swapping and the problem of war: a conversation with a senior adviser to Russia, and the case of the Russian president Vladimir Putin

Evelyn Farkas, who was a deputy assistant secretary of defense, told CNN she thought Putin was going to swap only Griner for Bout, even though she thought he wouldn’t hand over Whelan.

“It’s happening now because Vladimir Putin wants this to happen now, he needs a win, he needs a victory in Russia because he is having trouble convincing the Russia people that it’s a good idea to be at war with Ukraine,” Farkas said.

The fierce political divides that now challenge every US foreign policy decision did not take long to bubble over after Griner was freed – alongside a more vicious reaction on social media as some conservatives questioned her patriotism.

There is a Republican in Florida and he described the deal to liberate Griner as “shameful.” He also accused the administration of giving priority to a celebrity over a veteran.

“I think the challenge this points to is these regimes know this. This is what prompted the President of Venezuela to trade five Citgo executives for his nephews who are convicted drug traffickers.

We continued to make concessions so the Iranian regime, Taliban, and Putin continued to take Americans hostage. When will we start dictating the terms to these regimes?

What is Russia getting out of this? We are going to get the wrongly held American back home. It’s something to celebrate.”

The official said they had shown openness and gotten only response to a demand for something that wasn’t available to them.

On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said there were more prisoner swaps with the United States. The result of negotiations is the swap for imprisoned Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, according to Putin.

An official did not rule out that Vadim Krasikov’s release has still been requested by Moscow, even though he is in German custody.

A CNN interview with Griner during his prisoner exchange and the trip home with the secretary of state to the U.S. for hostage affairs

Demands related to the war in Ukraine did not come up in the negotiations to secure Griner’s release and attempt to secure Whelan’s, the official said, adding that the US would not make concessions on that front.

“We’ve obviously thought about why that might be the case” that the Russians didn’t float it, the official said, “and I think we credit it to the fact that we’ve been so crystal clear, so consistent, that it is not for us to negotiate how that horrific situation gets resolved.”

The official added: “If it were raised, of course, it is not for bargaining. Another country’s future is not for bargaining and the defense of democracy against autocracy is not for bargaining.”

Whelan told CNN on Thursday that “the President and his team are going to have to look at what they have that is valuable that these people want, and hopefully give it to them, or I’ll be here for a long time.”

The top US hostage affairs official on Sunday reflected on conducting the prisoner swap that led to Brittney Griner’s release, saying the WNBA star immediately thanked the crew returning her to the United States.

I told Brittany that she would have to endure a lot over the last 10 months. Here’s your seat. Feel free to release your stress. Special presidential envoy for hostage affairs Roger Carstens told Dana Bash on CNN that they would give him his space.

“And she said, ‘Oh no. I’ve been in prison for 10 months now listening to Russian, I want to talk. But first of all, who are these guys?’ She moved past me and went over to every member of the crew and asked them their names and then she made a personal connection with them. It was incredible, said Carstens. “And then later on, on an 18 hour flight, she probably spent 12 hours just talking and we talked about everything under the sun.”

CNN was provided with new details about Griner’s trip home by the leader of the mission. During the trip, Griner seemed healthy and full of energy as he was described as an intelligent, passionate and compassionate person.

Shaking Paul’s hand: What can we do to get him back? How can we continue to talk with the Russians, and how will we bring them home?

It is hard to explain. I’m very grateful that President (Joe) Biden gives me the chance to do this job. It’s also a painful job. So when you get the chance to shake someone’s hand, it’s one of the rare moments that you get to celebrate a victory,” Carstens told Bash.

Even though we are welcoming someone back, we still have work to do. My mind is already thinking about Paul Whelan as I shake Brittany’s hand and we are going to the plane. What can we do to get him back? What’s the next move? What is the strategy? How can we adapt?

“I said, ‘Paul, you have the commitment of this President. The President’s focused, the secretary of state’s focused. We are going to bring you home. And I reminded him, I said, ‘Paul, when you were in the Marines, and I was in the Army, they always reminded you to keep the faith’ and I said, ‘Keep the faith. We’re coming to get you,’” Carstens recounted.

He said that they have to adapt to the times. I would like to leave you with the fact that we have an ongoing, open dialogue with the Russians. And we have the commitment of this President and my office, certainly, to bring Paul Whelan home.”