Lord of War: Viktor Bout
Village Voice - Busting the Merchant of War
Interesting article on arm's dealing and how the fedeal government was able to pull off the arrest a well known dealer in Spain.On February 6, two representatives from the infamous Colombian left-wing paramilitary and drug-trafficking group FARC arrived at a palatial Renaissance estate in Marbella, Spain. While their compadres squatted in the jungle, the two soaked up the Mediterranean opulence of the place, noticing the pool shaped like a four-leaf clover and the mastiffs that patrolled the grounds each night. Their host, a 62-year-old Syrian named Monzer al-Kassar, a/k/a the "Prince of Marbella," has been known to entertain visitors with lamb and dolmas beneath murals of turbaned African servants. But they hadn't come for the cuisine. They were there to talk about killing Americans.
For 30 years, Monzer al-Kassar has been linked to some of history's most notorious international arms deals and terrorist atrocities. He has been accused of aiding in the attempted assassination of an Israeli spy; supplying the weapons used in the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro luxury liner; and seeding the Somali and Bosnian civil wars with countless AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades. Swiss and Spanish officials have repeatedly tried to prosecute him for murder and money laundering, and a small group of private investigators, in conjunction with the United Nations and such groups as Human Rights Watch, have worked to expose his international network of offshore companies, crooked port officials, and Eastern European arms manufacturers. Each time, Kassar beat the rap and returned to his hacienda on the Spanish coast.
One statement from the article did stick out though: "...but the U.S. government only created an elaborate trap to capture him after he meddled in the president's adventure in Iraq." I read that line and thought to myself how completely unnecessary that phrasing was, especially labeling OIF as "the president's adventure." However, I understand that this is the Village Voice so I'm sure that even the movie listings and restuarant reviews have some negative political statements about President Bush. Additionally, statements of that nature are few and far between in the article and therefore do not degrade the overall quality of the piece.
Since he is also mentioned in the Village Voice article, I tried to link to the peice on Viktor Bout from Foreign Policy a couple months ago but you have to be a subscriber to get to it from their website. If you have access to an archive or a database that carries Foreign Policy the article was titled "The Merchant of Death" and was also a good read.
Originally Posted by jonSlack
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