A Bout with Russia
This case -- captured Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout -- is interesting.
Among other things, he is tied into the delivery of Russian weapons to South American terrorists, an issue that I wrote about a while ago. The fellow seems to have been busy:"The direct accusation is that his planes brought in weapons for al-Shabab, which at the moment is pretty much top of the wanted list in terms of terrorist activity and Islamic militant activity in Somalia," says Alex Yearsley, an arms control expert, who is currently working as a consultant for the United Nations.
"There are also potentially allegations he was negotiating with Hezbollah to bring in missiles for them, and there is much talk within intelligence circles that Israel was so concerned it tried to take Viktor out several years ago."
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"When he was working in Iran in 2005 and when he appears in Beirut in 2006 with the Hezbollah-Israel war - when Russia was supplying a great deal of weapons through Iran, which ended up in Hezbollah hands - at that point he was very useful to them and he was working on behalf of the Russian state," Mr Farah says.
I would not be surprised if it's discovered that Bout sold the Russian GPS-jamming gear to Iraq that was used to deflect US missiles into civilian areas at the start of the Iraq War. We found not just the Russian jamming gear, but captured the Russians that were operating it.
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Among other things, he is tied into the delivery of Russian weapons to South American terrorists, an issue that I wrote about a while ago. The fellow seems to have been busy:"The direct accusation is that his planes brought in weapons for al-Shabab, which at the moment is pretty much top of the wanted list in terms of terrorist activity and Islamic militant activity in Somalia," says Alex Yearsley, an arms control expert, who is currently working as a consultant for the United Nations.
"There are also potentially allegations he was negotiating with Hezbollah to bring in missiles for them, and there is much talk within intelligence circles that Israel was so concerned it tried to take Viktor out several years ago."
* * *
"When he was working in Iran in 2005 and when he appears in Beirut in 2006 with the Hezbollah-Israel war - when Russia was supplying a great deal of weapons through Iran, which ended up in Hezbollah hands - at that point he was very useful to them and he was working on behalf of the Russian state," Mr Farah says.
I would not be surprised if it's discovered that Bout sold the Russian GPS-jamming gear to Iraq that was used to deflect US missiles into civilian areas at the start of the Iraq War. We found not just the Russian jamming gear, but captured the Russians that were operating it.
===|==============/ Level Head