{"id":1776419,"date":"2022-12-15T12:34:54","date_gmt":"2022-12-15T17:34:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1776419"},"modified":"2022-12-15T13:21:20","modified_gmt":"2022-12-15T18:21:20","slug":"report-bidens-release-of-merchant-of-death-viktor-bout-didnt-go-over-too-well-in-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/report-bidens-release-of-merchant-of-death-viktor-bout-didnt-go-over-too-well-in-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Biden\u2019s Release of \u2018Merchant of Death\u2019 Viktor Bout Didn\u2019t Go Over Too Well in Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Freport-bidens-release-of-merchant-of-death-viktor-bout-didnt-go-over-too-well-in-africa%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1776419&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p><a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/biden-administration\/\">Biden Administration<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"article-excerpt\">&#8216;This guy&#8217;s responsible for the murder, indirectly, of thousands of persons&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Viktor Bout (Getty Images) <a class=\"author url fn text-red-700\" title=\"Posts by Ben Wilson\" href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/author\/benjamin-wilson\/\" rel=\"author\">Ben Wilson<\/a> \u2022 December 15, 2022 12:30 pm<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Victims of Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout&#8217;s war crimes in Africa told the <em>New York Times<\/em> that the Biden administration&#8217;s decision to release the &#8220;Merchant of Death&#8221; for WNBA player Brittney Griner has been &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/12\/14\/world\/africa\/viktor-bout-arms-liberia.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/12\/14\/world\/africa\/viktor-bout-arms-liberia.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1671202066947000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0h3_6WUo4aSD4vMUvPR8bp\">difficult<\/a>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;This guy&#8217;s responsible for the murder, indirectly, of thousands of persons,&#8221; said Hassan Bility, director of the Global Justice and Research Project, which documents war crimes in Liberia, including Bout&#8217;s supplying of weapons to the country&#8217;s civil war in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">One woman who lived through the conflict said it was &#8220;just hardship,&#8221; noting that her family had no food to eat. Joshua Kulah, a 28-year-old lawyer who survived the civil war as a child, recalled &#8220;rockets falling everywhere \u2026 falling on houses and killing everyone in the house.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;I remember running home from the field and rockets were dropping,&#8221; Kulah said. &#8220;I saw dead bodies.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The Biden administration released Bout on Dec. 8 to secure the release of Griner, whom Russia arrested earlier this year for bringing vapes with marijuana concentrate hashish oil into the country.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Russian state media have <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/national-security\/very-amused-russian-state-media-mock-bidens-woke-diplomacy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/national-security\/very-amused-russian-state-media-mock-bidens-woke-diplomacy\/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1671202066947000&amp;usg=AOvVaw04f3i2SG6anXFx_nhJETGU\">mocked<\/a> President Joe Biden over the exchange. RT editor in chief Margarita Simonyan said she was &#8220;very amused but not surprised&#8221; that the United States pressed for the release of Griner over former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who remains imprisoned in Russia. Whelan <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/biden-administration\/report-former-marine-whelan-greatly-disappointed-biden-failed-to-secure-his-release\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/biden-administration\/report-former-marine-whelan-greatly-disappointed-biden-failed-to-secure-his-release\/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1671202066947000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1WRlVCX07SzI1CKNab64S8\">said<\/a> last week that he was &#8220;greatly disappointed&#8221; the White House failed to secure his release.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Bout had a network of dozens of planes, which he used to ship weapons, missiles, and helicopters into African war zones. Bout was never charged for his action in the continent. The Bush administration, however, charged Bout with plotting to kill American citizens in 2008 after a sting operation in Bangkok, Thailand.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The Pentagon is <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/biden-administration\/report-pentagon-worries-russian-released-in-prisoner-swap-may-return-to-arms-trafficking\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/?s%3Dviktor%2Bbout&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1671202066947000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3IG4NoxY1Q2Sln_J_0k5tL\">reportedly concerned<\/a> Bout will return to arms trafficking.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Bout\u2019s actions in Liberia helped arm a brutal civil war, the <em>New York Times<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/12\/14\/world\/africa\/viktor-bout-arms-liberia.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/12\/14\/world\/africa\/viktor-bout-arms-liberia.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1671202066947000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0h3_6WUo4aSD4vMUvPR8bp\">reported<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><em>One of the war zones where the United Nations flagged arms shipments was Liberia. Mr. Bout supplied weapons to Charles Taylor, a former president of Liberia, said Stephen J. Rapp, who as prosecutor of the United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone led the prosecution of Mr. Taylor, which ultimately ended in his war<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Victims of Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout&#8217;s war crimes in Africa told the New York Times that the Biden administration&#8217;s decision to release the &#8220;Merchant of Death&#8221; for WNBA player Brittney Griner has been &#8220;difficult.&#8221;<br \/>\nThe post Report: Biden\u2019s Release of \u2018Merchant of Death\u2019 Viktor Bout Didn\u2019t Go Over Too Well in Africa appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1613,"featured_media":1897520,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Report: Biden\u2019s Release of \u2018Merchant of Death\u2019 Viktor Bout Didn\u2019t Go Over Too Well in Africa","footnotes":""},"categories":[544],"tags":[7187,5716,4092,3706,6222,6499,4352,3684,3819,6224],"class_list":["post-1776419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-free-beacon","tag-merchant","tag-africa","tag-beacon","tag-bidens","tag-bout","tag-death","tag-didnt","tag-release","tag-report","tag-viktor"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Report: Biden\u2019s Release of \u2018Merchant of Death\u2019 Viktor Bout Didn\u2019t Go Over Too Well in Africa","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1776419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1613"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1776419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1776419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1897520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1776419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1776419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1776419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}