60 Minutes tonight: Viktor Bout: Capturing "The Merchant of Death"

[babylonsister]

Viktor Bout: Capturing "The Merchant of Death"
60 Minutes: DEA Agents Who Caught Alleged Arms Dealer Talk About His Capture



(CBS) The Drug Enforcement Administration agents who caught the alleged arms dealer Viktor Bout explain how they lured and then captured the suspect one of them calls one of the most dangerous men on the face of the Earth."

DEA Agents Michael Braun and Louis Milione tell their story for the first time to Armen Keteyian for a "60 Minutes" story to be broadcast this Sunday, Nov. 21, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

Bout, a former Russian military officer, was extradited from Thailand Tuesday (Nov. 16) to the U.S. to face weapons trafficking charges. Known as "The Merchant of Death," his life was the inspiration for "The Lord of War," a 2005 Nicholas Cage film.

Braun, the former chief of operations for the DEA, says Bout was a threat to the U.S. "He's arming not only designated terrorist groups, insurgent groups, but he's also arming very powerful drug trafficking cartels around the world," he tells Keteyian.

He also allegedly put weapons in the hands of child soldiers in Africa by supplying arms to civil wars. "Viktor Bout, in my eyes is one of the most dangerous men on the face of the Earth," says Braun.

more...

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/11/18/60minutes/main7067797.shtml

[DCKit]

1. The real story is sure to be far more interesting.

Which U.S. arms merchants/powerful families (BushCo* comes to mind) was he selling for and ended up pissing off?

[Octafish]

2. Bout is a small-time player compared to four generations of the Bush family.

The real "Potpouri of Human Scum," where Bout learned to play both sides of the street:

Know your BFEE: Merchants of Death

And the drugs?

DEA Agents Agree: CIA means Cocaine Importation Agency

BTW: 60 Minutes forgot to mention Charles Taylor's business partner:

Know your BFEE: Pat Robertson Incorporated a Gold Mine with a Terrorist

[Canuckistanian]

3. He just sold to the wrong people

If he had just stuck to the "approved" list, we never would have heard of him.

Killing brown people is fine, just fine.

But he was getting too close to selling weapons to groups who wanted to target Americans.

[Arctic Dave]

4. Shouldn't corporations manufacturing the weapons be called the Merchants of Death?

He should just be called the Middleman of Death.

[seafan]

5. More info on Viktor Bout, when arrested in Thailand in 2008

Now extradited to New York this week.


March 6, 2008: Russian arms dealer arrested in Thailand


His planes ferried all kinds of cargo to parts unknown, while he often claimed ignorance of what his planes were carrying.



I've never been able to forget these stories from 2007, either:


Update: Jet loaded with cocaine/heroin that crashed in Yucatan September 24 linked to CIA, October 5, 2007

Sir Allen Stanford owns 2 small Caribbean airlines

Kucinich on Stanford Group Fraud: Who Told SEC to "Stand Down?", February 21, 2009

May 5, 2006: "Intelligence Czar Negroponte Can Waive SEC Rules"

Lawyer who represented Oliver North in Iran-Contra reported to be representing Sir Allen Stanford


Sorry for the digression, but it's not too much of a leap to suspect some connections here.


Drug trafficking, weapons trafficking, money laundering, financial heists--- where is Sibel Edmonds these days?



The Asia Times reported on the extradition of Bout this past week:


November 18, 2010

BANGKOK - Moscow denounced Thailand's extradition of suspected Russian weapons smuggler Viktor Bout to New York on Tuesday, after entrapping him in a US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) 2008 sting operation in Bangkok for allegedly selling surface-to-air missiles and other weapons to a Colombian rebel group the US considers terrorists.

In a surprise move, the Thai government plucked Bout from a Bangkok prison and discreetly handed him over to waiting US officials, who bundled him onto a plane. He arrived in New York on Tuesday and according to US officials faces potential terrorism charges.

Worried about a possible assassination or ambush, Thai security forces armed with assault rifles surrounded Bout while hurriedly escorting him to the airport without informing the Russian Embassy in Bangkok that their citizen was being extradited.

"Undoubtedly, the illegal extradition of Bout is a result of the unprecedented political pressure on the Thai government and the judicial authorities by the United States," a Russian Foreign Ministry statement said, according to RIA Novosti news agency. There was no "rational explanation or justification" for the extradition, the Russian Foreign Ministry statement said.

Bout faces trial in New York's Southern District court for conspiring to kill Americans when he allegedly agreed to smuggle weapons worth millions of dollars to DEA agents posing as Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas. Those terrorism-related crimes are punishable by life in prison in the US. He was also charged with committing financial fraud and money laundering.

.....

Bout has insisted that he broke no US laws, never visited America, and had been operating a legal air cargo business in Asia, Africa and elsewhere for more than a decade without knowing what items his planes were transporting to war zones and other mysterious destinations.

.....

It will be interesting to see how this trial transpires. Just how much does Bout know that might prove highly embarrassing for *our government*, ya know?