Marine Reserves in 1994, about six years after he had reportedly begun work as a police officer in Michigan at the age of 18. Military records show Paul Whelan joined the U.S. citizenship due to immigration, British citizenship through his parents, and Irish because it was the birthplace of his grandparents.
#Whelan russian spy free#
The twins graduated from Huron High School in 1988.Īccording to the Detroit Free Press, this heritage and chain of events explains his four passports-his native-born Canadian citizenship, U.S. His parents, twin brother David, sister Elizabeth, and other brother Andrew, all moved to Ann Arbor, Mich., when Paul and David were young. He was reportedly born in March 1970 in Ottawa, Canada’s capital, to British immigrants. The only thing most Americans who know his name know about him is his alleged role as “an American wrongly imprisoned in Russia.” news media-at least not by consumers of the main daily news outlets. This information is not widely known by consumers of the U.S.
We know about Whelan’s multiple passports and citizenships from a variety of reports in Canada, Ireland, and Britain. journalists when they talk about Paul Whelan. These are only a few of the many “five W’s” of journalism (Who, What, When, Where and Why) not addressed by the overwhelming majority of U.S. Petersburg? How is it that he has four identities, one as an American, another as an Irishman, a third as a Canadian, and a fourth as a citizen of the U.K.? How is that he is a citizen of these four different countries, all at the same time? How is it that he holds passports that look like they were issued by each of these countries? Who is he? What does he do? What was his line of work before he ended up in Russia? Why did he go to Russia more than once? What was he doing in Russia during those trips? How does a U.S Marine stationed in Iraq go from there direct to Russia and end up snapping travelogue photos in Moscow and St. media have failed to share any significant information about him with the American public. The overwhelming majority of journalists in U.S.
The first striking thing about the Whelan case is how it exposes the failure of much of the U.S. There is no mass movement for Whelan’s freedom, as there was in Griner’s case, and that is probably for good reason. media, we would know almost nothing about Paul Whelan, especially when compared to how much we know about the details of Griner’s life which the press aired during her captivity. If there were only the coverage we get from the major U.S. Leaving Whelan out of the swap, according to Whelan’s brother David, was “a catastrophe for Paul.” when he was young-was left out of the prisoner swap which involved exchange of Griner for the Russian arms dealer Victor Bout. Whelan-born in Canada in 1970 and a resident of Michigan since moving to the U.S. Whelan, whom the Biden administration claims it has been trying to get released, received a 16-year jail sentence in Moscow in 2020 after being arrested two years earlier on suspicion of spying.
The concern for Whelan is amplified by belief that he, like Griner, was an innocent victim. Republicans and right-wingers, but also many Democrats and progressives, are worried now, after the release of Brittney Griner from prison in Russia, about the fate of Paul Whelan.
With a background in information technology, Whelan holds citizenship in four different countries. Marine, who was arrested for alleged spying in Russia at the end of 2018, stands in a cage while waiting for a hearing in a courtroom in Moscow Aug. Man of many passports: Paul Whelan, a former U.S.
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