Colombia: U.S. Accuses Russian of Arms Smuggling

[struggle4progress]

Source: NY Times

By ALAN FEUER
Published: May 7, 2008

Viktor Bout, a Russian businessman described by the United States as one of the world’s most prolific arms traffickers, has been accused in New York of conspiring to smuggle missiles and rocket launchers to rebels in Colombia, the Justice Department said. His indictment on federal terrorism charges was unsealed on Tuesday. Mr. Bout, above, was arrested in Bangkok in March following an international sting operation in which undercover investigators posed as rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia seeking to purchase millions of dollars in arms, according to the Justice Department, which says the weapons would have been used to kill Americans in Colombia. Mr. Bout, 41, is opposing extradition.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/07/world/americas/07wbriefs-USACCUSESRUS_BRF.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin

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October 1996-Late 2001: Arms Dealer Aligns with Taliban and ISI

Russian arms merchant Victor Bout, who has been selling weapons to Afghanistan’s Northern Alliance since 1992, switches sides, and begins selling weapons to the Taliban and al-Qaeda instead. The deal comes immediately after the Taliban captures Kabul in late October 1996 and gains the upper hand in Afghanistan’s civil war. In one trade in 1996, Bout’s company delivers at least 40 tons of Russian weapons to the Taliban, earning about $50 million. Two intelligence agencies later confirm that Bout trades with the Taliban “on behalf of the Pakistan government.” ...

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?entity=victor_bout

The Trafficker Viktor Bout Lands
US Aid for Services Rendered in Iraq
By Jean-Philippe Rémy
Le Monde
May 18, 2004

Here is a man about to be rendered an undreamed of benefit by virtue of the American army's problems in Iraq. Viktor Bout, former Russian military man converted into arms trafficker specialized in the sale of former Soviet block military stocks to warring countries under embargo, was to escape punishment from international justice no longer.

Following a series of investigations conducted by the United Nations and a number of countries, including Belgium, one of the planet's biggest "merchants of death", who holds passports from five countries and shelters his identity, like that of his companies, under a stream of pseudonyms, had ended up becoming the target of UN sanctions, being all the while the subject of an international arrest warrant. Since 2001, he was forced to put his activities to sleep to get "on the right side" in Moscow, where, according to one of the Belgian investigators who have tried to arrest him several times, he has access to "powerful support".

Now, Viktor Bout seems to be back at work in Iraq. According to several sources, his planes, flying under the name of an airline company, British Gulf, likely to disappear as fast as it was created, are assuring "transport of materiel" for the American army. The company's advantage, one specialist in arms trafficking reveals, relates to the nature of the Russian merchant's crews and planes: "They're accustomed to land in any kind of war zone without having a fit. And if one of their planes is shot down, there's no risk of American pilots' bodies being dragged through the streets" ...

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/contract/2004/0518bout.htm

SPECIAL REPORT: Wanted in Africa, Needed in Iraq
By Julio Godoy
PARIS, May 20 <2004> (IPS)

... The UN Security Council drafted a resolution in March to freeze the assets of mercenaries and weapons dealers who backed ousted Liberian dictator Charles Taylor. Bout should top that list, French diplomatic sources say. But the diplomats and UN sources say the United States has been working to keep Bout off that list.

U.S. officials have indicated unofficially that the reason is that Bout is useful in Iraq, the sources told IPS ..

In recognition of these services both the U.S. and the British governments have been opposing French efforts to include Bout in the UN mercenaries list, the diplomatic sources revealed ...

The British government had at first included Bout in its list of mercenaries, French diplomats say. But he was taken off under U.S. pressure ...

http://ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=23828

Viktor Bout and the Pentagon
By Douglas Farah & Kathi Austin*
New Republic
January 12, 2006

... After years of prompting by the United Nations, President Bush issued an executive order in July 2004 making it illegal for any American person or institution to do business "directly or indirectly" with Charles Taylor's associates, including Bout. Nine months later, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ordered the freezing of the U.S. assets of 30 Bout-related companies, along with those of his U.S.-based partner, his brother, and two other associates. The United Nations had already taken similar action against Bout, who has been wanted by Interpol since 2002 on an outstanding warrant for laundering the proceeds of illicit weapons sales ...

While Congress has oversight responsibility for implementation of the OFAC list, its enforcement efforts have been sparse. Wisconsin Democratic Senator Russell Feingold first raised the issue of Bout's coalition military contracts on May 18, 2004, in a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. Feingold asked then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage about reports of U.S. military links to Bout's companies. It took Wolfowitz eight months to respond.

In a January 31, 2005, letter to Feingold, Wolfowitz acknowledged that "both the U.S. Army and the Coalition Provisional Authority (in Iraq) did conduct business with companies that, in turn, subcontracted work to second tier suppliers who leased aircraft owned by companies associated with Mr. Bout.... Although we are aware of a few companies that are connected to Mr. Bout, most notably Air Bas and Jetline, we suspect Mr. Bout has other companies or enterprises unknown to the Government."

In fact, as the Los Angeles Times first reported in 2004, Bout aircraft were in constant motion into Iraq after the invasion. A single Bout company, Irbis, flew more than 140 flights into Iraq for the U.S. military and its contractors by the end of 2004 ...

http://www.globalpolicy.org/intljustice/wanted/2006/0112pentagon.htm

Meet Viktor Bout, the Real-Life 'Lord of War'
By Laura Rozen
September 13, 2007

... MJ: Your reporting indicates that Bout has supplied not only the Taliban, Liberia's Charles Taylor, and Congolese warlords, but the U.S. Army and its contractors as well. Can you describe how the U.S. government and U.S. contractors have responded to revelations about who they are doing business with?

DF: The U.S. government response to revelations of the use of Viktor Bout to fly for government contractors in Iraq (not just a few flights, but hundreds, and perhaps a thousand) has been mixed. Bear in mind most of these flights occurred after President Bush had signed an executive order making it illegal to do business with Bout, because he represented a security threat to the United States. The State Department, under a congressional inquiry initiated by Senator Russell Feingold, found it had used Bout companies, acknowledged it, and stopped. Paul Wolfowitz, while at DOD, did not respond to queries for nine months, then acknowledged that DOD contractors had subcontracted to Bout companies. Despite the public revelation, the congressional inquiry, the executive order, and a subsequent Treasury Department order freezing the assets of Bout and his closest associates, the flights continued for many months, at least until the end of 2005. The Air Force cut him off immediately, but other branches of the military continued to use him.

MJ: Any evidence that Bout is authorized by governments to play this murky role because he is as useful as he is dangerous?

DF: Bout, through an intermediary, approached the CIA and FBI immediately after 9/11, and offered his services in helping to oust the Taliban if he were paid tens of millions of dollars for his efforts. Negotiations were serious and lasted several months, but we do not know what, if any, parts of the deal he offered were accepted. There is no doubt he has benefited from the schizophrenic policies of the U.S. government (the Treasury and State departments going after him, while DOD pays him money to fly), but it is difficult to say whether that is the result of calculation or just sloppiness ...

http://www.motherjones.com/interview/2007/09/viktor-bout.html

Sunday, 16 September 2007, 12:45 GMT 13:45 UK
The mysterious 'Merchant of Death'
By Mark Doyle
BBC World Affairs Correspondent

... But the most extraordinary thing about Mr Bout is that he is still at large despite

* having been sought by senior officials in the former Clinton administration (the Bush administration appears to have taken its eye off the ball)
* having an arrest warrant issued against him in Belgium
* being named frequently by the UN in connection with illegal arms deals
* being publicly condemned as a "Merchant of Death" by the British MP Peter Hain while he was a Foreign Office minister ...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6991487.stm

Blackwater Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg
Susan Rice
Posted October 5, 2007

... Yet the flights in Iraq went on, at the request of Halliburton, KBR and others, on behalf of the U.S. Army, Air Force and Marine Corps, until early 2006. Farah and Braun, based on flight and refueling records from Iraq, estimate Bout's companies may have flown up to 1,000 flights as a secondary contractor for the U.S. government. Each flight cost about $60,000 -- not a bad chunk of taxpayer dollars. Bout managed to up his profit margin considerably by having his pilots apply for and receive special refueling cards that allowed them to gas up for free when they landed in Iraq.

Using an Amnesty International report as a starting point, the authors trace a deeply troubling incident that, based on a July GAO report, was not unique. The GAO report found that tens of thousands of weapons purchased by the U.S. military and destined for delivery in Iraq remain unaccounted for.

Some of weapons--200,000 AK-47 assault rifles--were transported by Bout's aircraft before going AWOL. One of his airlines, Aerocom, registered in Moldova, obtained a contract from the Pentagon in August 2004 to fly the weapons from Bosnia to Iraq, along with millions of rounds of ammunition.

But, according to Amnesty International and the authors, there were several problems with the deal. Aerocom was already named in U.N. reports to illicit weapons trafficking in Africa, and Bout was on UN and U.S. sanctions lists. The day before the first flight, the Moldovan government canceled the Aerocom aircraft's air-operations certificate, making taking off illegal. Still, the flights went on, although there is no record of them ever landing in Iraq or of the weapons being delivered to their declared destination ...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-rice/blackwater-is-just-the-ti_b_67379.html

[Selatius]

1. Yet the US is considered the world's largest arms dealer. Pot...meet kettle.

The irony is astounding. You are only accused of arms smuggling if you are selling to the enemy, but you're called a patriot if you're selling arms to guys America wants to support but can't be seen associating with publicly.

[Peace Patriot]

3. That was my hit on it as well. WHO is the 'world's most prolific arms trafficker'?!

The Bush-U.S.

Bout is just one of their operatives.

[NM Independent]

2. Seems like a real nice guy. n/t