WashingtonThe U.S. government’s top hostage negotiator defended prisoner swaps that have freed Americans unjustly detained by foreign countries in exchange for convicted criminals, rejecting Thursday that such deals are an incentive for the arrest of more. citizens of the United States.
“The figures don’t add up. In fact, it’s going down, in the opposite direction,” Roger Carstens, the presidential special envoy for hostage affairs, said of the number of Americans wrongfully detained.
The list has been narrowed even as President Joe Biden’s administration has shown a willingness to make deals with rival powers, something Carstens said shows it does not encourage other countries to detain more Americans under false pretenses.
“According to my numbers,” he added, “they are going down.”
The agreements “are always complicated decisions,” with the federal government often spending years trying to determine what the other country wants in exchange for the release of an American prisoner. The answer is usually a convicted criminal imprisoned in the United States.
To bring back WNBA star Brittney Griner from Russia, for example, the United States released arms dealer Viktor Bout in 2022. And last December, the Biden administration traded a close ally of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro who was imprisoned on money laundering charges in exchange for the release of 10 Americans from behind bars in the South American nation, as well as the return of Leonard Glenn Francis, a businessman who was on the run.
“To some extent, it is unacceptable because the decisions are difficult. But, the alternative is that those Americans don’t come home,” Carstens said.
Carstens denied that federal authorities take into account a detainee’s notoriety, rejecting the idea that the United States focused more on Griner’s case because of her popularity as a professional basketball player.
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