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October 05, 2010
Associated Press
BANGKOK -- A Thai court ruled Tuesday to dismiss a new trial against alleged Russian arms smuggler Viktor Bout, removing a key legal obstacle to his long-awaited extradition to the United States.
The Bangkok Criminal Court's decision was the latest phase in a long-running legal battle that has put Thailand in the middle of a tug-of-war between Washington and Moscow, both of which are demanding Bout's hand-over.
Originally posted by Maxmars
I find it a trifle amusing that we fail to recognize, from time to time, that by being the largest arms producer in the world, the most active arms traders in all the world, the largest military-industrial complex in the world (and frankly, due to the transnational corporate nature of commerce, likely the ONLY true arms dealers in the world) we will, of necessity trade with the vilest and most evil organizations, even selling to our own enemies, that they may kill our own soldiers.
That means that the requisite 'plausible deniability' will be engineered into the mix, and people like Bout, while facilitating the trade, will become wealthy beyond measure, simply as a result of being the middleman. His associates, being not limited to the affairs of state, are taking advantage of a black market that OUR OWN governments subsidize by their 'ideological imperatives.'
Frankly, they could vaporize Mr. Bout in an atomic oven, and within HOURS another will be taking his place. In fact, one probably already has.
The ELECTED leaders of the world drive this trade - not criminals. Criminals simply take advantage of its insulated and unaccountable nature.
n a January 2005 letter to Congress, then-Assistant Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz admitted the Defense Department "did conduct business with companies that, in turn, subcontracted work to second-tier providers who leased aircraft owned by companies associated with Mr. Bout."
. . . paying Bout-controlled firms roughly $60 million to fly supplies into Iraq in support of the U.S. war effort, according to a book released last year by two reporters who investigated Bout. And it didn't prevent the U.S. military from giving Bout's pilots millions of dollars in free airplane fuel while they were flying U.S. supply flights.