He's been in an Illinois prison for 14 years. Do you believe in some hollywood version of the world where diabolical SPECTRE supervillains direct shadow organizations via secret communications while held in prison?
Why do you think anyone who used to work with him when Bill Clinton was president would be lining up to resume their activities now that he's basically the real life version of Phil Leotardo shouting 'I did 20 years'

I'm from Illinois. He's made news plenty of times....

For example he helped arm a Ukrainian gang in Chicago so they would be prepared for turf wars with the hundred other gangs that plague our city.

OUR MEDIA DIDN'T MAKE A PEEP yet if you knew people with gang associations(GD's, LK's, MS13, etc.) they would tell you that the Russian mob became strapped with heavy weapons and other devices that gave them an advantage "out of nowhere".

I'm sure your city was directly affected by this scumbag thought right?

edit: Black gangs, Latino gangs, Asian gangs have notoriously ran Chicago for decades but all of a sudden Ukrianian/Russian gangs are strapped to the teeth dealing high grade cocaine lmfao what a shill you are rotfl

This post was edited by SwamiVivekananda on Dec 8 2022 10:26am

It's like you completely ignored the post directly above this one.

Namaste, indeed.

Celebrity status matters for optics, so Britney Griner is more important than the others. As a Trump supporter you should understand that propaganda matters.

This post was edited by IceMage on Dec 8 2022 10:32am

Sorry I was engaged with another person posting who thinks someone who most Chicagoans know is responsible for an uptick in crime in Ukrainian Village(Ukrainian part of Chicago) says, "Oh he has no assets/ Oh he has no affiliations/ Oh wikepedia says..."

What a fuckin moron seriously dude people have died because of this guy while he was sitting in Southern Illinois and yet Wikipedia and MSM say it didn't happen.

Chicago ranks #1 in violent shootings but I'm sure all the guns came from one source......

edit: Chicago hides its actual crime rate because if it was properly documented we wouldn't have a single tourist EVER. So they LIE and say come to our city we made it safer(it's the least safe it's ever been)

and yet this Goomshill guy is trying to tell people who've been directly affected by this mobster what you experienced wasn't him it was a fassad.

Hey Lori Lightfoot is that you? Hey J.B Pritzker is that you?

This post was edited by SwamiVivekananda on Dec 8 2022 10:37am

I agree that on the surface, the crimes don't come close to matching up. But at this point, Viktor Bout is damaged goods in the arms trade underground.

When a mobster gets pinched do those guns just disappear into the ether?

Do you think the current gangs still using his weapons and his connections care where he is?

Let's do some simple math.

Mobster acquires 1000 weapons(conservative number there) and front/sells them all around Chicago over the course of 10-15 years.

950 guns are still on the street

10 were broken in shipping

40 were ditched at the crime scene

What are the optics? Its going to rub on Biden's legacy and perception of his statemanship, not US reputation in general. And I don't see how Biden could be seen weaker than he already is, so no loss there.
If Biden was going to be the guy to stand up to Putin and refuse to let him bully the west, he would have done it a year ago when Russia massed troops on Ukraine's border

I mean, if we're being honest, if an arms dealer goes to jail and their operation does shutter to a stop, the market share is just captured by the next arms dealer.

Is there other American prisoners that deserved to be traded for first, probably, is it bad to trade this guy whos been in jail and most certainly lost all his market share for Americans, nah.

This post was edited by SBD on Dec 8 2022 10:51am

to be quite frank i think this was a good deal. the biden admin can show they applied the logic of "leave no man(or woman) behind" and "we protect our own, regardless of what crime was committed abroad". in this regard this exchange conforms to american values.

are there more americans held abroad? yes. is the deal perfect? no. but i would not go so far as to say what a load of you are saying here. ultimately they got her home and she's safe. if you were in her shoes you would be (should be) forever grateful to your country (even if your countries actions caused your incarceration in the first place).