Why Jason Rezaian is scared for Brittney Griner
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 17 March 2022
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today on Post Reports, we talk to our colleague Jason Rezaian about WNBA star Brittney Griner’s detention in Russia. Rezaian, who was unjustly held in Iran for 544 days, fears that Griner is being held as a geopolitical bargaining chip.
Read more:
Post opinions writer Jason Rezaian is very concerned about Brittney Griner.
When he heard of her arrest, he says, his first thought was, “This sounds a lot like what happened to me.”
Rezaian was arrested in 2014, and his case became a bargaining chip in nuclear negotiations between the United States and Iran.
Given the timing of Griner’s arrest, Rezaian says it could be tied to sanctions from the United States in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. His opinions, he says, are informed by a new reality: More Americans are being wrongfully detained abroad, especially in moments of tension or conflict.
Watch The Post’s short documentary “Bring Them Home,” an intimate look at one family in this situation.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I just want to say growing up always new I wanted to do something big in the world. |
| 0:08.8 | Brittany Griner is one of the greatest basketball players of all time. |
| 0:13.8 | And I never knew sports was going to be my outlet but with sports I have a lot of media |
| 0:21.5 | attention and a lot of spotlight on me and I'm able to use that. |
| 0:26.3 | I'm really acknowledged as one of the top 10 or 20 players in the history of the WNBA |
| 0:33.5 | and one of the three or four best players right now. |
| 0:36.9 | That is Jason Resyan. |
| 0:38.4 | He is a global opinions writer at the post and he has been closely following the case |
| 0:43.3 | of Brittany Griner whose life has suddenly ended up at the center of a massive geopolitical |
| 0:48.2 | conflict. |
| 0:50.7 | She plays for a Russian team during the WNBA off season. |
| 0:56.6 | She was going back to Russia to begin that season last month in February and was apparently |
| 1:03.2 | arrested at the airport and charged with possession of drugs. |
| 1:10.2 | Jason says that there's reason to be skeptical of those charges, especially given the timing. |
| 1:15.8 | I think a lot of people will look at it and say, oh wow, wrong place, wrong time. |
| 1:20.2 | But I think that there's another way to look at this, that it was potentially premeditated. |
| 1:24.5 | This is a high profile American athlete internationally known and admired with a large fan base. |
| 1:34.2 | Taken prisoner just as the arresting government was invading another sovereign nation that |
| 1:41.6 | happens to be allied in the United States. |
| 1:47.0 | From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post Reports. |
| 1:50.3 | I'm Martine Powers. |
| 1:52.0 | It's Thursday, March 17th. |
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