What's one more criminal in the mix, anyway? So what if a government contractor supplied weapons to Liberia's Charles Taylor and the Taliban (italics mine):
Viktor Bout, was paid tens of millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars while illegally flying transport missions for the United States in Iraq. Bout is the notorious Russian weapons merchant whose fleet of aging Soviet aircraft rivals that of some NATO countries in its size and capacity. By marrying his access to Soviet bloc weapons with his airlift capacity, Bout established himself as the world's premiere purveyor of illicit weapons to the world's tyrants-- a one-stop shopping source for everyone from Charles Taylor and his armies of child soldiers of Sierra Leone and Liberia to the Taliban in Afghanistan, from Jonas Savimbi in Angola to the FARC rebels in Colombia.
As shown in the new book Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes and the Man Who Makes War Possible by former Washington Post correspondent Douglas Farah and the Los Angeles Times' Stephen Braun, Bout flew hundreds of flights for the Pentagon and its contractors in Iraq. He did so despite having been: 1) identified by U.S. and British intelligence as a supplier of weapons, ammunition and aircraft to the Taliban and, indirectly, to al Qaeda; 2) the subject of an Interpol arrest warrant at the request of the Belgian government; 3) named in almost a dozen U.N. public reports as the chief illegal provider of weapons to Africa's rogue regimes, and; 4) the subject of an executive order signed by George W. Bush in July 2004 making it illegal to do any business with Bout. The executive order was followed by an order from the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in May 2005, freezing the assets of Bout, his senior partners and main companies, again making it illegal for U.S citizens or their government to do business with any of the named entities.
Yet the flights in Iraq went on, at the request of Halliburton, KBR and others, on behalf of the U.S. Army, Air Force and Marine Corps, until early 2006. Farah and Braun, based on flight and refueling records from Iraq, estimate Bout's companies may have flown up to 1,000 flights as a secondary contractor for the U.S. government. Each flight cost about $60,000 -- not a bad chunk of taxpayer dollars. Bout managed to up his profit margin considerably by having his pilots apply for and receive special refueling cards that allowed them to gas up for free when they landed in Iraq.
Oh, here's some extra BONUS corruption: Bout is thought to be involved in stealing 200,000 AK-47s and ammunition that was supposed to support our allies in Iraq. That happened two years before his contracts were cancelled.
Heckuva job.
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thanks for all
thanks for all
1. The Stolen Guns of Military Illegal Look alike copies of the Regerial Military Assult weapon has a Legal pattern on too! It should stop other copanies copping other Gun Military Products made by other indusrtial Nations too! i agreed Lets put a stop on illegal Assult Weapons Coppies too! They are Made Cheaper Quality Products which is a Criminals Affance to Copping Assuilt Weapons are regonial Weapons made for the Military Or Polic Departments only too!Subject is Assuilt Weapons Coppies is Criminal Affence to U.S.A Mfgs Copanies & Eurpean Gun Mfgs Co.s made in industrial Nations too! Assiult Weapons Coppies is illegal to put on the retailer Market of Selling to Retailer Gun Dealers too! of Semiversions Should be not Mfg the Any of the Military Regonials Fullo"firearms in U.S.A. or Eurpean Assiult Weapons Orgenials With a Pattern Right says Not SemiAutio"sRifles Coppies Look alikes is stopped production immeadlt now too! I agreed to Protected The Orginial Assiult Weapons With a pattern on it for Protection right not to be coppied by other Copanies Assuilt Weapons Mfgs too! is a criminal affence is Subsatuted Copies of the Same Assiult Weapons Snold not be coppied no more too! By any means U.S. Or Eurpean Nations of Assiult Weapons not to Coppied By any Gun M.F.C. at all! too! Warning to Notice too! Licence is type-07 Licence & State Licence Is issued by Country Sheriffis Dept. in the State you live in too! Or Foreign Nation Foreign Licence to Mfg Assiult Military Weapons too! is Type.07 too State Licence too! Sane in Eurpean.Counties too! Warning: If Gun M.F.C. does Copping of other Assiult Weapons Products illegally in the U.S.A. or Eurpean Location in foreign nations too! The Co, M.F.G. will be out of Busineses for good too! You are history too! Gone for good too! Buy United Labatories Testing Co. for U.S.A. Or Eurpean Nations of Induistral Nations of Manifacture Guns of Orginional Assiult Weapons are Quality Products is protected by a pattern on it too! It by U.L. Test Co in the U.S.A Agreed Before they put it on market too! sell it to Class-03 Dealers of type-09 too! sellon marked too! agreed!! Thank,you