Viktor Bout Captured on March 6th - Finally!

BaggedLancer

Not sure if anyone else follows this guy, but I always found the story behind him amazing and what he is able to accomplish under the radar with over a dozen countries looking for him and him being banned in probably twice as many.

For those that don't know the name, Viktor Bout is an ex-russian military man who is responsible for selling ak-47's most notably, but also cannons, vehicles, assault helicopters that were responsible for conflicts in places such as the Congo, Somalia, Liberia, and he even armed the Taliban before they were known as the Taliban. Those AK-47's you see kids carrying, they were probably sold by him at some point.


Anyway, on March 6th he was captured by US DEA agents in conjunction with Thai police to prevent a huge arms deal in Colombia and the US is going to try to extradite him here to punish him for war crimes, etc. This man is responsible for killing far more people than any terrorist organization has ever dreamed of.

For those that want to know more you can look at his wikipedia page here.

There is also a book written about him called Merchant of Death. I have read this book and it is an amazing book about what this man is capable of and what he was doing to make it happen. It can be purchased at Amazon at this link

obieone

IF memory serves me correctly, the movie "Lord of War"(w/ Nicolas Cage) was about this guy, and Hollywood made him an American.
Typical!

BaggedLancer

Egg Zachery.

NotaSuv

aaaahhhhh yes the real merchant of death....this man is probably responsible for more deaths than any other single person on this planet......BUT he did control the flow of illegal weapons worldwide...operated the worlds largest heavy lift airforce, and did so pretty much in the open.......a very very interesting read...he is one man that did benefit from the Wall coming down ..those who havent heard of him might have seen Lord of War...which some say is very loosely based upon his exploits around the world....it will be worth watching where his arrest goes, if given bail they know he will never be seen again...next hearing should be end of this week or early next week....now this is man with MANY connections all over the world....even if sentanced in Thailand its only a 10 yr term...and if here 15 years.....very little time for a true merchant of death...

Demiurge

NotaSuv wrote: »

....this man is probably responsible for more deaths than any other single person on this planet......

Ultimately, beyond the criminal actions of this man, the human beings doing the deeds are responsible for their actions.


It all boils down to personal responsibility, whether you're dealing with fried chicken, cigarettes, cocaine, beer, sex, or guns.

engtaz

Good to hear BaggedLancer.

engtaz

WilliamM2

obieone wrote: »

IF memory serves me correctly, the movie "Lord of War"(w/ Nicolas Cage) was about this guy, and Hollywood made him an American.
Typical!

Although the movie starts out in America, he is portrayed as being russian. In the film his name is Yuri Orlov.

Early B.

In the "Lord of War" movie it shows how he was able to do his dirty work out in the open. He was simply working as a broker on behalf of governments world-wide, including the USA.

BaggedLancer

Early B. wrote: »

In the "Lord of War" movie it shows how he was able to do his dirty work out in the open. He was simply working as a broker on behalf of governments world-wide, including the USA.

Yep, when the US first entered Afganistan, the US actually hired him without realizing it was him to fly in our troops and equipment in the first months of that conflict. He was the only one with planes capable of landing on the terrible air strips. He had so many front businesses it wasn't even funny.

If any of you like to read and this might sound interesting, definitely pick up the book.

CAvolleyballguy

NotaSuv wrote: »

aaaahhhhh yes the real merchant of death....this man is probably responsible for more deaths than any other single person on this planet.......

I recall a great line in the movie... And while the biggest arms dealer in the world is your boss - the President of the United States, who ships more merchandise in a day than I do in a year...

also the 5 largest arms dealers in the world are also the 5 permanent members of the U.N. security council (usa, china, france, england, germany??? maybe)... or something like that..

whatever, you get the point... govts trade far more weapons.. than this guy ever did... my father always had a great line, the winners write the history book, if the usa lost WWII, the president would have been tried, convicted and killed for war crimes (for dropping the bomb) The Committee for the Compilation of Materials on Damage Caused by the Atomic Bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki estimated in 1978 that 346,000-356,000 people were present in Hiroshima at the time of the bombings, with fatalities of "some 200,000".