Bringing the Merchant of Death to Justice

Posted by BooMan | Aug 20, 2010 | 7 |

Here is something I am 99.9% certain would never happen if the Bush Crime Family was still running this country. In fact, I am 99.9% percent sure that the only way he will escape justice is if he can use crimes he committed at the behest of the Bush Crime Family to blackmail the U.S. government into dropping the charges. If I were elected president, the very first thing I would tell my Attorney General to do is to get Victor Bout and put him behind bars for life. I’m just back from my vacation and I can’t do a piece on this right now, but suffice to say that there are a limited number of people who can do what Victor Bout has done, and neutralizing them does more to counter the demon of constant strife than almost anything I can think of. Obama won’t get nearly the credit he deserves for this one.

About The Author

BooMan

Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.

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beltanevt

14 years ago

I wonder if this has anything to do with Erik Prince’s decision to flee to Dubai because he “needs a break from America”.

Oui

14 years ago

Reply to beltanevt

Secret Erik Prince Tape Exposed

(The Nation) – Erik Prince, the reclusive owner of the Blackwater empire, rarely gives public speeches and when he does he attempts to ban journalists from attending and forbids recording or videotaping of his remarks. On May 5, that is exactly what Prince is trying to do when he speaks at DeVos Fieldhouse as the keynote speaker for the “Tulip Time Festival” in his hometown of Holland, Michigan.

Blackwater, the Geneva Convention and the Barbarians

Prince scornfully dismissed the debate on whether armed individuals working for Blackwater could be classified as “unlawful combatants” who are ineligible for protection under the Geneva Convention. “You know, people ask me that all the time, ‘Aren’t you concerned that you folks aren’t covered under the Geneva Convention in [operating] in the likes of Iraq or Afghanistan or Pakistan? And I say, ‘Absolutely not,’ because these people, they crawled out of the sewer and they have a 1200 AD mentality. They’re barbarians. They don’t know where Geneva is, let alone that there was a convention there.”

It is significant that Prince mentioned his company operating in Pakistan given that Blackwater, the US government and the Pakistan government have all denied Blackwater works in Pakistan.

Blackwater’s Forward Operating Bases

The company protects US Ambassador Karl Eikenberry and other senior US officials, guards CIA personnel and trains the Afghan border police. “We built four bases and we staffed them and we run them,” Prince said, referring to them as Forward Operating Bases (FOBs). He described them as being in the north, south, east and west of Afghanistan. “Spin Boldak in the south, which is the major drug trans-shipment area, in the east at a place called FOB Lonestar, which is right at the foothills of Tora Bora mountain.

Outing Erik Prince

Prince also addressed what he described as his outing as a CIA asset working on sensitive US government programs. He has previously blamed Congressional Democrats and the news media for naming him as working on the US assassination program.

FOB Lonestar in Spin Boldak [pdf]

Vanity Fair – Tycoon, Contractor, Soldier, Spy

"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

Errol

14 years ago

Reply to Oui

speaking of barbarians “don’t know where Geneva is, let alone that there was a convention there”

Lodus

14 years ago

In addition to the moral merits of this case, the DOJ officials bringing suit against Bout are quite physically courageous too. Those people are scary and ruthless.

MNPundit

14 years ago

It is much harder to run an insurgency without guns, true enough.

less is more

14 years ago

Wow, next thing someone will suggest indicting GE for their premier position of the world’s biggest Merchant of Death in human history.

What happened to the little punk in Florida that was wheeling and dealing large amounts of ammunition and weapons to whomever wanted to buy. It was a blip on the webs for a while and then disappeared. I always wanted to know who in the CI lying A or DE thieving A set him up in business.