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HUMBLE & PATRIOTIC: Hostage negotiator who brought Brittney Griner home tells about their first meeting

HUMBLE & PATRIOTIC: Hostage negotiator who brought Brittney Griner home tells about their first meeting

HUMBLE & PATRIOTIC: Hostage negotiator who brought Brittney Griner home tells about their first meeting

Two-time Olympic gold medalist and WNBA champion Brittney Griner was grateful for the company when being escorted back to the United States. According to Roger Carstens, the Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, Griner was happy to simply speak in English with those charged with transporting her.

“When she finally got on to the US plane, I said, ‘Brittany, you must have been through a lot over the last 10 months, Carstens told CNN‘s State of the Union host, Dana Bash. “Here’s your seat. Please feel free to decompress. We’ll give you your space.”

But time alone was the last thing Griner wanted, saying, “I have been in prison for 10 months now, listening to Russian. I want to talk,” according to Carstens.

The newly-free Phoenix Mercury star spent the majority of the 18-hour flight sharing her experience in Russia over the past 10 months, including her brief time at the women’s penal colony in Mordovia, Russia, but that’s as much as Carstens would say.

Griner seemed eager to get to know those who were a part of the delegation, and whose job was to see her safe return.

“And she moved right past me and went to every member on that crew, looked them in the eyes, shook their hands and asked about them, got their names, making a personal connection with them,”  he told Bash.

Carstens has the difficult job of not only attempting to negotiate prisoner swaps like the one that brought Griner home but being the one to break the news to those left behind like former Marine Paul Whelan, who the hostage affairs official maintains is still a priority for the Biden administration.

“I said, ‘Paul, you have the commitment of this President. The President’s focused, the secretary of state’s focused. I’m certainly focused, and we’re gonna bring you home,” Carstens told Whelan in what was nearly a half-hour phone call.

“We weren’t able to get you out of this go-round. We could not get the deal with the Russians. But had we not made the deal, then Brittany would not have come home. There was no opportunity to bring you home at this time,” according to CNN.

Carstens did admit to the SOTU host that his mind was already thinking of how the U.S. government was going to secure Mr. Whelan’s release, even though he was still transporting Griner.

There had been talks earlier in the year about an exchange for both of the unjustly detained Americans. Carstens asked himself what the American government could do to get Whelan released, but it just wasn’t possible at the current time.

While Griner was charged and convicted of “drug smuggling” by the Russian government after two vape cartridges with cannabis residue were found in her belongings. Whelan on the other hand faces a more serious set of allegations – including espionage — making his case both complicated and difficult.

However,  is optimistic and promises the administration is continuing to work behind the scenes to come to a deal that will bring the discharged marine back to the United States.

The federal official seemed impressed with Griner during their time on the plane, describing the 32-year-old as “humble” and “patriotic.”

“I was left with the impression this is an intelligent, passionate, compassionate, humble, interesting person, a patriotic person,” Carstens said. “But above all, authentic. I hate the fact that I had to meet her in this manner, but I actually felt blessed having had a chance to get to know her,” Carstens said, according to the Associated Press.

As far as his job goes, Carstens expressed gratitude at being in a position to see American citizens freed, telling Bash:

“It is humbling. I’m very grateful that President (Joe) Biden allows me the chance to do this job. It’s also a painful job. So when you get the chance to shake someone’s hand, it’s one of the rare moments that you get to celebrate a victory,”

Original reporting by Jennifer Hansler at CNN.

Follow Ty Ross on Twitter @cooltxchick

Ty Ross
News journalist for Occupy Democrats.

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