This video grab taken from a footage shown by Russian state media that AFP could not independently authentify shows US basketball star Brittney Griner (L) during a swap of prisoners with Viktor Bout (2ndR), a Russian notorious arms dealer on December 8, 2022 on the tarmac of Abu Dhabi airport. (Photo by Russian State Media / AFP)

 

By Kavi Chongkittavorn

The US government has previously acknowledged the part Thailand played in getting arms dealer Viktor Bout before a US court, thus making him available for the latest swap between the US and Russia, involving basketball star and double Olympian Brittney Griner.

 

Since Griner was arrested earlier this year and charged with possession of cannabis oil, there has been pressure from the American public, ethnic groups and the LGBTQ community to arrange for her release. The longer she stayed in a Russian jail, the uglier the situation became for Biden.

 

The exchange deal between the US and Russia took nearly 10-months to complete, because Bout is a very a high-profile criminal wanted by the US government and others. It is an open secret that the Biden administration wanted to exchange Bout for two Americans. Apart from Griner, Washington wanted to include one more person, Paul Whelan, who has been detained in Russia on an espionage charge for almost four years.

 

Judging from the past exchanges between these two superpowers, any diplomatic swap must be weighed up carefully and more usually involves prisoners from the same profession, i.e. spy for spy. So the usual formula did not work in this case. In the end, due to the extraordinary pressure on the home front, the Biden administration agreed on a one-to-one deal. Washington has Bangkok to thank, among others, if the American institutional memory really values the Thai contribution.

 

Full story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/biden-should-acknowledge-thailands-roll-in-capturing-viktor-bout/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2022-12-10

 

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"Without you, there's no way we could have done it, Thailand, Thanks!" Joe Biden. ????

Amazing Thailand can "help" capture Bout, but can't figure out how to fill out a red notice to get "The Boss" even on Interpol's list.

Yea, and when she plays the next game in the US and starts talking again. We will see her true colors. It will be back to business as usual. How she is mistreated and hates the US.

9 minutes ago, HaoleBoy said:

Amazing Thailand can "help" capture Bout, but can't figure out how to fill out a red notice to get "The Boss" even on Interpol's list.

Most of Thailand's influential elite should clearly be on that list.

I think Thailand would be most grateful if Joe would shut-up about the whole thing and not remind the Russians about Thailand's role in the Bout sting.

Russia was very unhappy, especially after the first courts acquittal of Bout was overturned by the Supreme Court.  Several very lucrative trade deals were scrapped in retaliation.

Thailand would prefer everybody just forget about the whole thing.

I hate to be Captain Obvious here, but had Griner come to Thailand last year with hash oil vape cartridges in her possession (as well as a lot of other countries who have even stricter drug laws), she may have met a fate worse than a few year of hard labor.  As a matter of fact, can you fly into Dulles Air Port in Washington DC carrying hash oil vape cartridges like it's nothing?

I don't have any sympathy for anyone carrying drugs across international borders who get caught <period>.

It would have seem to me that Bout should have been swapped for some US citizens sitting in a Russian prison on spy charges.  This is sort of an insane world nowadays. 

Why does Thailand need continuing thankyous over an old case? They were acknowledged with gratitude at the time.

Bout, an arms dealer, has spent about a dozen years in a US prison. He would have been out by now almost anywhere else. Why the big deal?

No sympathies for the idiot drug smuggler except for the way she was used for political purposes.

The Marine was detained under Trump's watch and despite his close Russian ties that President never mentioned his name nor sought his release.  Perhaps because he was a loser who got captured! 

The Thai Examiner & Kavi Chongkittavorn, might review recent history. China wanted to be thanked by Thailand for its Sino vac shipments to Thailand, which Thailand did. Yet when the US sent a gift of the far more effective mRNA vaccines free, not only was there no thank you, but there was a 'pass the Baht' Kerfuffle about even accepting it. Who knows if they did accept what Thai American congresswomen Tammy Duckworth had worked so hard to facilitate. 

 

 What goes around comes around. 

1 hour ago, connda said:

I don't have any sympathy for anyone carrying drugs across international borders who get caught

Yes the point that she is extremely stupid seems to have been forgotten. Likely a more worthy prisoner in Russia could have been released.

Of course thailand had to be involved:

Croocked person and croocked government.

Any involvment with people like that is not good publicity for any country.

Strange then they can't bring red bull boy to justice. One of their own, but no US involvement. Why bother?

3 hours ago, HaoleBoy said:

Amazing Thailand can "help" capture Bout, but can't figure out how to fill out a red notice to get "The Boss" even on Interpol's list.

I dont thing that is true. In order to catch someone you have to have the will and determination to do so.

Looks to me like the US has made Thailand look foolish in extraditing an arms dealer who was working for the US itself. The GW Bush administration, again. Bush was the worst president in US history. No one else even close. 

Quote

From 2003 through at least 2005, Pentagon contractors used air cargo companies known to be connected to Bout to fly an estimated 1,000 supply trips into and out of Iraq, according to "Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Plans, and the Man Who Makes War Possible" by Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun. A Pentagon spokesman confirmed to the authors that the military gave 500,000 gallons of fuel to Bout's pilots.

https://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4400141&page=1

Biden is the kid you wanted to trade baseball cards with when you were young.

You could talk him into giving you his Mickey Mantle rookie card for 3 sticks of gum and he'd brag to his young siblings how he totally won the deal even though he's too stupid to realize he got fleeced.

1 hour ago, Bim Smith said:

Brittney Griner is a he. 

He him she her they them or what-freaking-ever. You’re either born with one or the other and very rarely sometimes both. Genetically plain and simple. 

1 hour ago, Bim Smith said:

Brittney Griner is a he. 

Griner is a female and born that way, I bet she's got a good right hand to if you called her that  lol

Biden woke government thinking is abysmal 

 

Female druggie Basket ball player for an arms dealer. Biden is a flaming joke

 

Biden should acknowledge Thailand’s roll in capturing Viktor Bout

 

and thailand should acknowledge bidens role ( or rolling of the dice if you prefer) in letting him go.

 

im off to eat a fruit roll up now. 

Entrapment, an American specialty, can hardly be called ‘capture’. The big boys don’t like competition. Viktor Bout was a street vendor compared to the McDonalds of the US, Israel, Russia and other arms dealers.

 

As with the black torture site, Thailand was shamefully playing toady with the USA.

 

Bout’s time has passed, in any case. I’m glad he’s back to his family.

6 hours ago, Gknrd said:

Yea, and when she plays the next game in the US and starts talking again. We will see her true colors. It will be back to business as usual. How she is mistreated and hates the US.

why they went that far for such a d.... hd

The scientific theory of why some Americans didn't want Brittney Griner to come home from a Russian prison

"The fact that the American public might be really focused on the alleged drug possession and the outlandish accusation of drug smuggling might make the American public less willing to pay attention to this case,"

 

And then there are other demographic characteristics, including the fact that she is openly gay, that she is gender nonconforming, not traditionally feminine — all of these work against public sympathy for someone in her position,"

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/scientific-reason-why-americans-dont-145431580.html

What's the point of this? It is widely publicized in media that Bout was captured in Thailand, which naturally means thai officials were involved. 

 

Asking for some special thanks looks pathetic. Like a narc begging for attention on matters old. 

37 minutes ago, Bkk Brian said:

Griner is a female and born that way, I bet she's got a good right hand to if you called her that  lol

I would like to see some proof. ie birth certificate.

3 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

I would like to see some proof. ie birth certificate.

I would love to see you ask her that to her face...............

Biden is very poorly advised. He is completely at the whim

of a far-left agenda which bodes no good for both the USA

and the world in the long term.

2 hours ago, Bim Smith said:

Brittney Griner is a he. 

And judging by the whiny b1tches here there's a few 'she's masquerading as males ...

 

Brittney Griner featured in YouTube videos while at junior school, viewed by several million.

 

Bit early to have had 'your op'

 

She has won two Olympic gold medals, two World Championship gold medals, four European league titles, three Russian league titles, numerous US awards/titles, plus a long list of awards from high school onwards.

 

I think it would take quite a moron to think no one had pointed out by now she was male.

 

Over to you.

 

 

18 minutes ago, Bkk Brian said:

I would love to see you ask her that to her face...............

He would need to be a giraffe to do that.

Thailand helped the U.S. and U.S. should show gratitude and hopefully discussed with Thailand before the swap.  Will Bout have any hate towards Thailand? ….

Well to be fair, it was a arms dealer for a drug dealer (pusher/user/other) in the view of the Russians.

7 hours ago, Gknrd said:

Yea, and when she plays the next game in the US and starts talking again. We will see her true colors. It will be back to business as usual. How she is mistreated and hates the US.

America, where everyone brags about how much freedom we have but complain if you exercise it. Don't offer your opinion on politics and don't even think about exercising your freedom to not stand up for songs.