WAR: Global Arms - Trafficking Network Designated by US (Update: Viktor Bout Extradited)

News conference in New York.


RussiaToday: "Declared Evil: Full NY presser over Viktor Bout arms trafficking case"

I'm personally wondering why the Russians want him back so badly. Were he a simple fish and flower deliverer, I don't think there would be this much hullabaloo about him.

I think his weapons deals went higher than him, and there are going to be some people VERY high in the Russian government that don't want to hear what he has to say...

According to Viktor Bout's wife Alla, DEA agents have told Viktor Bout that Russia had sent assassins to kill him.


RIA Novosti: Bout told Moscow 'tried to assassinate him' - spouse (update 1)

U.S. officials told suspected Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout that Moscow had sent assassins to Thailand and the United States to kill him, his wife said on Thursday.

AFP: US captors of alleged arms dealer Bout detail Thailand sting

At their next meeting, in Copenhagen, Smulian used the real name of his employer and even used his nickname, "The Merchant of Death."

At that point the undercover agents asked to see Bout in person in a risky bid to get him to leave Moscow.

"Comandante is not going to release these millions of dollars... until he at least shakes hands, talks, looks Bout in the eye, and then we can move on," Milione says. "And Bout went for it."

At one point the undercover agents said they wanted sniper rifle scopes so they can "start blowing the heads off of American pilots," Milione said, adding that Bout responded "Yes."

The agents said after two hours they had heard enough. They gave the signal and Thai police and DEA agents swept into the room. As Bout put his hands up, according to Milione, he muttered: "The game is over."

He muttered... Did we have mutter back in 2008?

Viktor Bout does not expect a fair trial. An interview from his New York prison was published today.


Russia's 'Merchant of Death' lashes U.S. courts

January 2, 2011


Russia's suspected arms dealer Viktor Bout, dubbed the "Merchant of Death," said he did not expect justice in the United States, in a rare interview from his New York prison published on Sunday.

"I think that the court will definitely be biased and not objective," he told RIA Novosti in comments relayed to the state news agency by Russia's deputy consul in New York.

"I say this based on the fact that the U.S. government intentionally distorted facts about my life and work in its charge sheet," he said.

Military analysts in Moscow said the arrest was a particularly sensitive blow for Russia because it threatened to expose potential links between government officials and the illicit arms trade.

RIA Novosti: Extradited Russian 'arms dealer' Bout says U.S. court trial to be 'biased'

"I was offered a more lenient sentence, a shorter prison term and the possibility to move my family to the U.S., if I told them all I knew about my connections in Russia and other countries. But I said I had nothing to tell them as I did not know anything they were interested in," Bout said.

The next hearing will be held on January 10.


RIA Novosti: Viktor Bout tells RIA Novosti of his life in American jail

03/01/2011


The next hearing in the case of the former Russian officer, dubbed the Merchant of Death by global media, will be held on January 10

Q: Viktor, when did you realize that you would be extradited to the United States from Thailand and the extradition is irreversible?

A: This occurred on November 16, 17:30 local time. I was taken out of my cell on the pretext of being transferred to a new cell. I saw many police cars in the jail's yard, though cars never drove in there earlier. I saw many DEA [U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration] officers in jackets with badges. That's when I got it that my extradition will happen now.

The Thais brought me to the airport and changed my clothes in a separate room. Then I was handed over to U.S. agents.

Q: Have you heard of publications in the American press suggesting that a certain "Bout-for-Khodorkovsky" swap deal is being considered? What do you think of such rumors?

A: I think these rumors are ungrounded.

Bout for Khodorkovsky? That's ridiculous!

Viktor Bout's family has arrived in New York.


RIA Novosti: Family of alleged Russian arms dealer Bout arrives in New York (Update 1)

07/01/2011


Bout's wife Alla, daughter Liza and mother Raisa arrived onboard a plane from Moscow, which landed in New York's JFK international airport several hours ago. They are set to support Bout during court hearings to begin later this year.

reply to post by Hellmutt

"I was offered a more lenient sentence, a shorter prison term and the possibility to move my family to the U.S., if I told them all I knew about my connections in Russia and other countries.

Could his family be moving to the US permanently, by any chance? Of course, VB says that he has told the Americans "nothing". And his family is now in New York in order to "support Bout during court hearings". Could be...

The hearing has been delayed to January 21.


RIA Novosti: N.Y. court delays hearing in Bout arms smuggling case

Pre-trial hearings in the case of Russian businessman Viktor Bout have been moved from January 10 to January 21, the court announced on Friday.

A spokesperson for Federal Judge Shira Scheindlin said the pre-trial hearing would now start at 16:30 EST (21:30 GMT) on January 21.

Alla Bout says she will seek for Viktor Bout's release on bail, and they'll ask Russia to pay for it. She also said that Viktor Bout had been infected with tuberculosis while in jail.


RIA Novosti: Viktor Bout's wife to seek his release on bail

10/01/2011


The wife of the alleged Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, extradited to the United States from Thailand late last year, said on Monday she would petition to the U.S. Federal Court for his release on bail

Jailed businessman's relatives said they considered Russian government to give money for the bail and denied the claims, spread by Western media, that Bout's assets and bank accounts were of $6 billion cost.

"These accounts do not exist. We will ask Russia [about the bail]. We have nobody to ask for help anymore," Bout's wife said.

Alla Bout also said her husband had been infected with the tuberculosis bacillus that he could have caught in Thai overcrowded prison where many people suffered from the tuberculosis active form.

No Viktor Bout swap deals. Viktor Bout's wife received a U.S. single entry permit instead of a visa.


RIA Novosti: Russia's Lavrov says no swap deals with U.S. on alleged arms dealer Bout

13/01/2011


Russia is not discussing with the United States any possible swap deals concerning the alleged Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, extradited to the United States from Thailand late last year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday.

The Americans expressed their regret for not warning Bout's wife that she had received a U.S. single entry permit instead of a visa, Lavrov said.

An interesting article about Viktor Bout.


Viktor Bout and the Russian Terror Network

‎20 hours ago‎


Bout is also suspected of playing a key role in the clandestine deliveries of Russian arms to Syria and Iran by way of Belarus, which Ivan Safronov, a Russian journalist and military correspondent for the newspaper Kommersant, was investigating before he was mysteriously killed in 2007, when he apparently fell three stories from the window of his apartment building.

Despite his present refusal to cooperate with U.S. officials, the upcoming trial is bound to shed more light on Bout and Russia’s secret terror network.

The pre-trial hearing for the Bout case will commence at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, January 21, at the Southern District Court of New York, in the Daniel Patrick Moynihan U.S. Courthouse in lower Manhattan

Viktor Bout is in court today...


BBC: 'Kremlin links' of alleged arms dealer Viktor Bout

21 January 2011


The former Russian air force officer Viktor Bout, who is due to make a second appearance in a New York court today, had close relations with officials in the Kremlin, according to a well-placed source in Moscow.

For Russia it could be extremely embarrassing.

But it could be equally embarrassing for the United States and other Western countries, which are also alleged to have taken advantage of Mr Bout's services to fight their wars in different parts of the world.

Viktor Bout's trial is set to begin on September 12.


RIA Novosti: U.S. court sets Viktor Bout trial for September

22/01/2011


A federal court in New York has set the beginning of a trial against alleged Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout for September 12, a U.S. judge said.

Voice of America: September Trial Date Set for Russian Arms Dealer Suspect

Alla Bout said U.S. authorities have granted her a three-hour visit with her husband on Monday. Usually such visits are limited to one hour.

Reuters: Russian Bout set for U.S. trial on arms charges

Bout made a brief court appearance, with his mother Raisa, daughter Liza and wife Alla there as support, to hear that his trial would begin on September 12.

I noticed that September 12 is one day after the 911 anniversary, but I didn't realize that it's also the 10th anniversary. Of course it is.


RIA Novosti: Bout's wife says trial against her husband 'political show'

25/01/2011


The wife of alleged Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout described on Tuesday as a "political show" the U.S. authorities' decision to begin a trial against her husband on September 12, a day after the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

She said the trial was set on this date to flaunt the results of U.S. efforts against terror and the costly anti-terrorism campaign pursued by the United States in the past decade.

"I support a fight against terror, but will not let it be carried out at the expense of my family," Alla Bout told RIA Novosti in a video linkup from New York.

Viktor Bout's trial has been rescheduled to October 1.


NYC arms-sale trial shot back a month

March 4, 2011


The Manhattan trial of an ex-Soviet military officer charged with conspiring to sell weapons to terrorists has been rescheduled so that his new lawyers can have more time to prepare.

Viktor Bout, 43, will be tried starting Oct. 1[---]

reply to post by twitchy


What scares the crap out of me is that obviously the person spreading this disinformation has so much contempt for the stupidity of most humans that he made the guy's name General Butt Naked just to show in fact how stupid most people are and was obviously right. I am personally stunned and I don't know why.

reply to post by JerryB08


You don't believe there was a General called Butt Naked? Disinformation? Did you read the links? Here are two more:


Wikipedia: General Butt Naked

Joshua Milton Blahyi (born September 30, 1971), better known by his nom de guerre General Butt Naked

Telegraph: Gen Butt Naked confesses to nude killings

The feared rebel commander earned his nom de guerre for charging into battle dressed only in his boots, at the head of a gang of fighters known as the Butt Naked Battalion.

Related article on Bout's extradition..

Ex-Soviet officer's lawyers in US blame politics

Lawyers for an ex-Soviet officer extradited to the United States to face conspiracy charges in federal court say the case should be thrown out.
They say that's because the U.S. used extreme political pressure to get Thailand to release him.

Papers filed Tuesday say the case against Viktor Bout was brought for "purely political reasons."