Arms and the Man

[Fridays Child]

Long but well worth the read.

-snip-

By PETER LANDESMAN

Victor Bout, by most accounts the world's largest arms trafficker, had agreed to meet me in the lounge of the Renaissance Hotel in Moscow, a monolithic post-Soviet structure populated by third-tier prostitutes and men in dark suits. Bout's older brother, Sergei, waited with me, as did Richard Chichakli, a Syrian-born naturalized American citizen who lives in Dallas. Sergei helps run Bout's many air-cargo companies. Chichakli, an accountant, calls himself a former business associate of Bout and his ''friend and brother.''

-snip-

According to Clinton administration N.S.C. officials, from its first days the Bush administration didn't see transnational crime as a national-security issue, and it didn't share their fixation on Victor Bout. Condoleezza Rice instructed the N.S.C. to work the Bout problem diplomatically. ''Look but don't touch'' is how one former White House official put it to me.

After Sept. 11, Rice called off the Bout operation altogether. Moscow was not to be pressured on arms trafficking in general and Victor Bout in particular. The reasoning, according to a source who talked to Rice, was that they had ''bigger fish to fry.'' (Rice refused to comment for this article.)

-more at http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/17/magazine/17BOUT.html?pagewanted=print&position=

[Fridays Child]

1. Kicking this before it sinks into oblivion.

:kick:

[Octafish]

2. NIGHTLINE mentioned this turd this week.

The issue was arms proliferation. The two experts told Koppel this guy is more likely to export STINGERS and shoulder-fired SAMs to terrorists than the guy the administration set-up for the cameras. Viktor Bout's also likely to sell tactical nukes to anyone with sufficient cash.

Thanks for a link to an important story about a major player. Now that I think about it, Bout's probably on the BFEE payroll.

EDIT: added nuke bit.

[Fridays Child]

3. What's most frightening is that, as big a player as Bout is...

...the inference is that he's barely the tip of the iceberg. Or, as the author was told, Bout sits on the cap of the mushroom where he's at the top, but the stalk of that mushroom remains well hidden below.

And consider that, while Clinton officials wanted Bout prosecuted, Condi Rice, et al, will only "work the Bout problem diplomatically," if at all.

Why are Republican administrations so eager to deal with the devil? I'm not so naive as to think that all Democrats are squeaky clean but, when Republicans are in the White House, the rot always seems to creep all the way to the top.

[Octafish]

4. It's another reason why I support John Kerry.

Kerry will cut out the crapola and return some sanity before the Reich can run the whole world into the nuclear ditch. I believe the guy knows Bushco is interested only in dominating the world, enslaving its people, and looting their property. Seriously. It's not an Ian Fleming 007 thriller, although it reads like one.

Kerrys seen Poppy Bush do all he could to maintain the Cold War as a stooge of the MI-complex for decades. First it was "The Russians are coming!" Whenever anyone wanted to make nice with the commies, they were labeled a "pinko." And when the USSR was collapsing, Bush Sr made sure the intel read that they were building new stockpiles of nukes. All in the name of maintaining the nuclear arms race so profitable for the ruling elites of both empires.

The game worked well for decades, but then the Soviets collapsed. Instead of using the opportunity to transform the old enemies into a friend, Bush Sr did all he could to further penure and anger the Russian people. Dim Son the Unelected Sock Puppet, of course, follows in his father's crooked footsteps.

Kerry's been aware of the danger posed by nuclear proliferation since he was old enough to go sailing with the guy at the bottom of the page. The following is from johnkerry.com:

Supporting Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Measures

"The central challenge for the United States is to undertake to lead the most global, comprehensive effort in history to deal with proliferation and nuclear weapons lost or loose in a dangerous world."

Senator Kerry has been an outspoken proponent of arms control and non-proliferation measures in the Senate. He fought against withdrawal from the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which he viewed as a step backwards in our efforts to promote an international non-proliferation regime.  “U.S. rejection of the Treaty would undermine the credibility of U.S. leadership on non-proliferation,” he said in a floor statement, “which will jeopardize U.S. work to prevent North Korea from developing nuclear weapons…and to block the sale of sensitive technologies that could contribute to proliferation.” When the Administration sought ratification of a nuclear arms reduction agreement with Russia that lacked verification procedures, Kerry proposed an amendment requiring annual monitoring reports. “The Treaty runs the risk of increasing the danger of nuclear theft by stockpiling thousands of warheads,” he said, “if we are to make America safer, and we must, it will take more than cosmetic treaties that leave Russia's nuclear arsenal in place.”
 
In order to address the threat to our national security posed by unsecured weapons of mass destruction, Senator Kerry supported legislation providing American expertise and funding to the nations of the former Soviet Union to help secure nuclear stockpiles, a program that he now supports extending to other countries, and he has recently called for a major new international initiative to confront this problem.  “It is time for the most determined, all-out effort ever initiated to secure the world’s nuclear materials and weapons of mass destruction” he said, “the only answer the clear imperative is a multi-lateral framework implementing global consensus that weapons of mass destruction under the control of terrorists represents the most serious threat to international security today, and warrants an urgent and global response.”

Source:

http://www.johnkerry.com/issues/security_arms_control.html

Kerry grew up idolizing the guy who worked on the first Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, John F. Kennedy. So...