I watched the movie Blood Diamond last night and it made me all the more incensed at that activities of arms dealer Viktor Bout.
Former Soviet military officer Viktor Bout, the inspiration for Nicholas Cage’s character in the Lord of War, remade himself as an international arms dealer and blood diamonds trafficker following the break-up of the USSR. Using his air charter business to smuggle weapons into the world’s conflict zones (circumventing U.N. embargoes), Bout traveled the world with a precious gems expert and accountant in tow, supplying arms to a notorious clientele: Liberia’s Charles Taylor, a cast of Congolese warlords, and the Taliban, among others.
Check out the interview Mother Jones did with Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun, authors of a new book about Bout, Merchant of Death. Just because they are shiny doesn’t mean you need a diamond on your finger.
If you go back a couple of decades you have Monzer al-Kassar, the angel of death related by marriage to the Assad family. He was in the middle of Iran-contra. He was the first among many arms dealers. Like many in the trade (like Bout) his airplanes flew illegal weapons in one direction and flew illegal drugs the other direction, all under the watchful eye of our intelligence agencies. I guess that Bout is one up on al-Kassar in that he deals in illegal drugs, illegal arms AND illegal diamonds. There’s always something to strive for.
I wonder if al-Kassar is in retirement now.
And he was a U.S. employee for most of this war.