US ambassador meets detained American in Russia

Source: Washington Examiner | January 2, 2019 | Joel Gehrke

U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman met Wednesday with an American detained while traveling in Russia, the State Department announced Wednesday.

Huntsman met in person with Paul Whelan, accompanied by a head of the U.S. Embassy’s American Citizen Service, and spoke by phone with the Michigan native’s family. Whelan was arrested Monday on charges of espionage, and his family insists he is innocent.

“Ambassador Huntsman expressed his support for Mr. Whelan and offered the embassy’s assistance,” the State Department spokesperson told the Washington Examiner. “Due to privacy considerations for Mr. Whelan and his family, we have nothing further at this time.”

Whelan is a former Marine who worked in a county sheriff department in southeast Michigan before taking position as director of global security at BorgWarner, an auto parts supplier.

“He is responsible for overseeing security at our facilities in Auburn Hills, Mich., and at other company locations around the world,” his employer confirmed Tuesday. “BorgWarner has been in contact with the relevant U.S. government authorities in order to help our employee and the U.S. government.”

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Cordesman allowed that the truth is difficult to establish in these kinds of cases. “The background would easily fit an intelligence officer,” he said. But it’s also true that other countries, such as Turkey and China, have seized westerners on trumped-up charges as part of an exercise in hostage diplomacy.

“So when you talk about this, practically every arrest or detention of some kind involves some kind of conspiracy theory,” Cordesman told the Washington Examiner. “It is not clear that something similar is happening with Russia as yet, but there [would have] to be a first case.”

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