Bush saw Bout only as a dependable contractor who was flying American troops and equipment

[seemslikeadream]

George W. Bush saw Bout only as a dependable contractor who was flying American troops and equipment in and out of Baghdad




http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5j9Klxqbp6m5LG5_NM69D-1fFrXHA
Co-defendant of Russian arms trafficker appears in US court
3 hours ago
NEW YORK (AFP) — The co-defendant of alleged Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, dubbed the "Merchant of Death" for supplying weapons to war zones around the world, has been detained after a court appearance in New York.
Andrew Smulian appeared in Manhattan district court late Monday on charges of conspiracy to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization and was detained without bail.
Prosecutors did not say where or when Smulian was arrested.
His alleged accomplice Bout was arrested in Bangkok last week and was detained after a Thai court hearing earlier on Tuesday. He also faces US charges of conspiring to provide arms to Colombian rebels.
Over the years, Bout, 41, is said to have supplied arms to Afghanistan's hardline Taliban militia, Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network, Marxist rebels in South America and former Liberian leader Charles Taylor.


http://www.bangkokpost.com/100308_News/10Mar2008_news17.php

Monday March 10, 2008
It is time for authorities to ask why the terrorists, traffickers, gangsters, thieves and paedophiles pick Thailand as their refuge. It is not enough to shrug off this question with the facile claims that our open borders and robust tourism industry means Thai society must play host to repellent criminals as well. Thailand has both the right and the duty to protect its own people from foreigners who wish to do harm here or hide here while planning to harm others.
Mr Bout is credibly charged with trying to sell advanced war weapons _ anti-aircraft missiles included _ to one of the world's leading terrorist gangs. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc, was in the middle of an international dispute last week that came within a hairsbreadth of a major South American war. In 2000, al-Qaeda members and two of the eventual hijackers chose Bangkok as their meeting place to help plan the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. In 2003, using a fake Spanish passport, the top Jemaah Islamiyah planner Hambali felt _ wrongly, thank goodness _ that he could find dependable shelter from an international manhunt in Thailand.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/columnists/story.html?id=18177e34-c913-4d91-818b-a793c2952836
Published: Friday, March 07, 2008
Bout's extraordinary career appears to have come to an end with his arrest in a hotel room in Thailand's capital, Bangkok, on Thursday.
He has apparently been handed over to American interrogators. It was U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency officials who told the Thais where to find Bout on the basis of information discovered in a laptop computer captured by the Colombian army when they raided a rebel camp in neighbouring Ecuador on Saturday.
The irony is that Washington has usually protected Bout, even though there are several international warrants out for his arrest over his supplying of arms to almost every war in Africa for the past 17 years and even though his clients have included the Taliban and al-Qaida.
Washington managed for a while to delay the imposition of UN sanction against Bout stemming from his fuelling of wars in Africa. The administration of President George W. Bush saw Bout only as a dependable contractor who was flying American troops and equipment in and out of Baghdad.
There are several versions of Bouts heritage. He is Russian, or perhaps Ukrainian, and was born around 1967 in Tajikistan or Turkmenistan or the Ukraine.
He certainly became a prize language student at Moscow's Military Institute and speaks at least six languages.