A New York Prosecutor With Worldwide Reach (Obama-appointed Preet Bharara, Southern Dist NY)

[alp227]

"A New York Prosecutor With Worldwide Reach":

It was as classic a sting operation as any that have unfolded on Manhattan’s streets: a government cooperator offered a fictitious deal, and baited a suspect into agreeing to participate in illegal activity.

But in this instance, the target was Viktor Bout, a reputed arms trafficker who lived in Moscow; the purported deal involved selling arms to Colombian terrorists; and the sting involved meetings in the Netherlands Antilles, Romania, Denmark and, finally, Thailand, where Mr. Bout was lured, arrested and eventually extradited to the United States.

The case of Mr. Bout, who is now awaiting trial in Manhattan, illustrates the expanded global reach of the office of the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York. Since 2004, the office has sent prosecutors into more than 25 countries as part of investigations that have brought back dozens of suspected arms and narcotics traffickers and terrorists to Manhattan to face charges. And some of them have involved stings like the one that snared Mr. Bout.

(...)

Preet Bharara, who currently has that role, said the aggressive approach had become necessary in the post-9/11 era. “As crime has gone global and national security threats are global,” he said, “in my view the long arm of the law has to get even longer.”

“We can’t wait until bombs are going off,” he added.

The international cases have not been without complications. Defense lawyers have criticized the stings, arguing in court that they “manufacture jurisdiction” in cases in which it would not otherwise exist and pursue people unfairly. Countries have not always rushed to cooperate, as in the 2010 extradition of the reputed Jamaican drug lord Christopher Coke, a review of secret State Department cables released by WikiLeaks shows.

Full story: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/28/nyregion/28prosecutor.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

[midnight]

1. Manufactured Jurisdiction....Is that we are practicing with Julian Assange?

[orwell]

2. Nice for us...

...not so nice for Viktor Bout.

The 3 largest elements to the global black economy - arms sales, money laundering, and drug trafficking.

The big money center banks are more than happy to turn the other way and move the filthy profits.