Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes, and the Man Who Makes War Possible.

[seemslikeadream]

Victor Bout


Halliburton and the CIA have employed this Merchant of Death


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11870855

Fresh Air from WHYY, July 11, 2007 · Russian arms dealer Victor Bout has armed Islamic extremists and sold weapons to some of the Third World's most abusive and murderous dictators and warlords — and he's known for fueling both sides of conflicts.

His success is rooted in the legacy of the Cold War, whose messy unraveling left him with easy access to massive inventories of weapons and ammunition built up by the Soviets. We talk about Bout with journalists Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun, who've co-written a book about him: Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes, and the Man Who Makes War Possible.

[Vincardog]

1. Another REpigLICKIN success story

[seemslikeadream]

2. BOUT'S EXPLOITS

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sierraleone/bout.html

Victor Bout is the poster boy for a new generation of post Cold War international arms dealers who play a critical role in areas where the weapons trade has been embargoed by the United Nations.

Now, as FRONTLINE/World reports in "Gunrunners," unprecedented U.N. investigations have begun to unravel the mystery of these broken embargoes, many of them imposed on African countries involved in bloody civil wars. At the heart of this unfolding detective story is the identification of a group of East European arms merchants, with Victor Bout the first of them to be publicly and prominently identified. The U.N. investigative team pursued leads that a Mr. Bout was pouring small arms and ammunition into Angola, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and the Congo, making possible massacres on a scale that stunned the world.



Despite being pursued for years by a flinty group of private and government arms investigators, a positive visual ID of this United Arab Emirates-based arms merchant only became available when two Belgian journalists ran into him at an airstrip in remote rebel-held Congo. And it was only recently that his name became familiar in the United States, following press reports of his role in arming the Taliban regime in Afghanistan five years ago. If not for this link to Afghanistan, it is probable that Bout would still be a low-profile character in the clandestine world of illicit arms trading.

That accusation and the heat it generated in the media eventually flushed Bout into the open. From the apparent safe haven of Moscow, he gave CNN and the Associated Press, among others, on-the-record, on-camera interviews rebutting the allegations against him.

The case of Victor Bout personifies the exceedingly difficult task of keeping small arms out of the world's bloodiest and most destabilizing conflicts. Perhaps most striking is the fact that while Bout has been accused by U.N. investigators, the press and intelligence sources, no government has yet charged him with gun-smuggling.

Since the U.N. has no law enforcement powers - its investigators cannot subpoena, detain or arrest - the work of the expert panels investigating the illegal arms trade depends on "naming and shaming" individuals and governments to change their activities. Using the diplomatic prestige of the United Nations, they publicize the results of their international detective work, hoping the bad publicity will prod governments into action.

Media coverage has been vital to that effort, and coverage has increased with the release of each new U.N. report. The story is huge. It spans several continents and involves a large network of shady individuals, front companies and government officials; clunky old Soviet cargo planes; corrupt African bureaucrats and thieving East European military officials.

An in-depth examination of the media's coverage of one of these arms dealers --Victor Bout -- from an obscure aviation company owner, known only to arms control activists, to a "businessman" helping Angolan UNITA rebels rearm, and finally into the leader of what some officials are now calling "the world's largest arms-smuggling network" -- shows how international priorities are changing following September 11. In fact, intelligence sources close to the hunt for Osama Bin Laden and his Al Qaeda associates say they are beginning to turn their attention to clandestine arms traffic as a way to learn what the terrorist network and its allies are up to.

[Up2Late]

5. How old is this FRONTLINE/World? I need to check that one out.

I'm just re-listening to this Fresh Air right now, this guy is a real piece of work. I think I heard about him years ago, I just have to try to remeber where.

Here's the link to the book at Amazon, check out the reviews it gets and who the reviewers are, very impressive: <http://www.amazon.com/Merchant-Death-Money-Planes-Possible/dp/0470048662/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-0029438-3151312?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1184205006&sr=8-1>

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51I5GNMGXFL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg

[seemslikeadream]

6. maybe here I posted about him years ago

:hi:

yea that Frontline was in 2002

[Grey]

3. Lord of War, movie n/t

[seemslikeadream]

4. There's a man with a gun over there

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4jMzKxYB74

There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware
I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind
I think it's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side
It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away
We better stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, now, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKkcNYtG06A

[Up2Late]

7. Anyone know about this Nick Cage movie (about this guy)...

Did it ever play in the U.S., I sure don't remember seeing it.

It's called "Lord of War."

There are a few more listed at this website too, but I don't remember any of them.
<http://www.ruudleeuw.com/vbout18.htm>

:shrug:

[Grey]

8. really disturbing movie....

It got raves in Canada, you should rent it.

[Javaman]

9. The very first 10 minutes are amazing.

it's based on bout and the ruthless African dictator is supposed to be Taylor of Liberia.