Column: It's good Griner is home, but don't forget others detained overseas

Dec. 10—Where were you when you heard the news about Brittney Griner?

I was standing in my kitchen Thursday morning when my wife alerted me to the "breaking news" that came on the morning television program we watch each day. It wasn't remotely close to Pearl Harbor or 9/11, but an important moment nonetheless.

I was happy to hear that Griner, an American basketball star, was coming home.

Then, as Paul Harvey might say, I heard the rest of the story. Politics quickly entered the discussion.

Griner was swapped for Viktor Bout, a person the Associated Press described as a "notorious Russian arms dealer." He also goes by the moniker of "Merchant of Death."

And Paul Whelan, an American detained in Russia for nearly four years on espionage charges, was not released.

The reaction here in the U.S. was mixed, based on what I saw on social media. For the women's basketball community, it was huge news. University of South Carolina women's basketball coach Dawn Staley had kept Griner at the forefront for months, and regularly sought to bring attention to her situation through social media posts and clothing and accessories she wore.

Others were not happy that Whelan was not included in the deal, and pointed out that Griner was among the WNBA players who kneeled for the national anthem during the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020. Throw in the fact that Griner is an "openly gay Black woman," as described by the Associated Press, and you have a powder keg for social media.

While I knew much about Griner and her basketball exploits — an All-American at Baylor and a two-time Olympic gold medalist — I knew little about Whelan or Bout before Thursday.

According to reports, Whelan is a former Marine and had gone to Moscow in December 2018 for a friend's wedding. Now a corporate security executive, he was convicted of espionage charges and was sentenced to 16 years in prison. The U.S. says the charges are a "sham" and have no merit.

Bout is a former Soviet air force officer. He was convicted in 2011 on terrorism charges, including allegations that he wanted to sell surface-to-air missiles that could shoot down U.S. helicopters. His reputation as the "Merchant of Death," according to multiple stories, also includes reported affiliations with Libya's Moammar Gadhafi and Liberia's Charles Taylor.

Griner was detained in February at an airport in Moscow after vape canisters containing cannabis oil were found in her luggage. She received a nine-year sentence. It's a good reminder to be careful about what you carry in your luggage when going abroad.

If you weigh the charges pound for pound, Griner for Bout was not an equitable deal. In fairness, those types of deals are rarely even; the U.S. typically gives up more prisoners than it receives.

"This was not a choice of which American to bring home: The choice was one or none," Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said. "And I wholeheartedly wish that we could have brought (Whelan) home today on the same plane as Brittney."

The U.S. has negotiated many prisoner swaps through the years, including a few journalists who were detained by countries that don't embrace freedom of the press. In recent memory, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl comes to mind. He walked off his Army base in Afghanistan and was captured by the Taliban. He was later released in an exchange for five Taliban detainees.

Perhaps the most famous prisoner exchange between the U.S. and Russia occurred in the early 1960s at the peak of the Cold War. Francis Gary Powers was an American pilot who was shot down in Soviet airspace in his U-2 spy plane. He was swapped for Russian spy Rudolf Ivanovich Abel.

On Friday, we saw images of a smiling Griner aboard a plane bound for the U.S. Bout, meanwhile, had a happy reunion with his wife and mother in Moscow.

While Griner was the most famous American being held overseas, there are dozens of other Americans in addition to Whelan who are imprisoned from the Middle East to Russia to China. Let's pray that they all get to come home one day and, like Griner, have a joyous homecoming with loved ones.

Thanks for reading.