The Real Lord of War
On Sunday the U.S. military presented photographs intended to link the Iranian government to weapons used by insurgents to kill American troops. The weapons profiled in the report are said to be bombs capable of piercing heavily armored vehicles and are designated as EFP’s (explosively formed penetrators). According to the report this particular type of roadside bomb has been used to kill 172 U.S. troops and can be traced to Iranian manufacturers.
The U.S. military officials said EFPs are manufactured in such a specific way that they can be traced to Iran.
Also, the U.S. military says 81 mm mortar shells used in deadly attacks in Iraq can also be directly traced to Iran.
As expected Iran declared that the evidence was fabricated against them.
Immediately following the presentation of evidence by U.S. officials, General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made several public statements refuting the evidence as not being a clear indicator of Irans involvement in supplying weapons to Iraqi Shi’ites.
“That does not translate that the Iranian government per se, for sure, is directly involved in doing this,” Pace said.
However General Pace was willing to say the bombs do appear to be assembled in Iran with Iranian materials which begs the question, if the Iranian government did not directly send bombs to Iraq to be used against U.S. troops and allies, then who did? Some research turned up some very interesting results.
The night before the U.S. military presented its evidence I watched the movie Lord of War with Nicholas Cage. Cage plays an international gun trafficker based on a few real life gun runners, one of those gun runners who is still at large and believed to be at work in Iraq is former KGB officer, Viktor Bout. Bout’s customers have included…
* Northern Alliance (Afghanistan)
* Taliban (Afghanistan)
* Abu Sayyaf (Philippines)
* UNITA (Angola)
* RUF (Sierra Leone)
* Charles Taylor (Liberia)
I found that in addition to these customers Bout has found new ones in Iraq. Bout has transported weapons to Iraq using his own air freight company, Cargo Airlifts (Airline Transport, Air West, Aerocom and TransAvia Export). In fact in May 2006, when 200,000 AK-47 assault rifles went missing in transit from Bosnia to Iraq, one of Bout’s airlines was the carrier.
The most shocking information was reported on by the Los Angeles Times in 2004. They noted that,
Bout aircraft were in constant motion into Iraq after the invasion. A single Bout company, Irbis, flew more than 140 flights into Iraq for the U.S. military and its contractors by the end of 2004.
In the mid 90′s when Bout supplied weapons to African countries like Liberia and Sierra Leone he mostly sold old Cold War weapons from Russia but 16 years after the end of the Cold War Russian weapon stockpiles are thin, having long since been distributed all over the world. With shortening supplies, how does a weapons dealer purchase weapons to be sold in other parts of the world? By purchasing from economically poor countries that produce their own weapons for cheap. Countries like China, Russia and especially Iran. I suspect individuals like General Pace, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Administration are fully aware of Bouts business ventures including those with Iran. So is Bout purchasing from Iran and selling to Iraqi insurgents? Most probably and its likely he is selling to both Shi’ites and Sunni’s. Weapon dealers commonly sell to both sides of a conflict in order to maximize their customer base and prolong a conflict.
Bout continues to work with international governments, like the U.S., U.K., France and others, despite being wanted by Interpol and despite supplying enemies of the U.S. and coalition forces.
This picture from a scene in Lord of War features over 50 Cold War stockpile tanks. The tanks were actually owned by an actual weapons trafficker who offered his expertise in the making of the movie. 6 months later the tanks were shipped to Libiya.
Sources
answers.com Viktor Bout
Viktor Bout and the Pentegon
Trivia for Lord of War
Cross posted from Whisper of Madness
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Hidden Words by Baha’u'llah founder of the Bahai Faith
D.B.
I am leading with this quote, because a faith in God is the ultimate appeal mankind has for the establishment of Justice among people. You have posted a reasonable discussion on the source or sources of death and destruction in one area of the world. And of course there are many other areas. The problem is that the HUGE percent of people who are not affected directly are not concerned enough, we are usually spectators. The cries of the people being killed right now, regardless of the source of the weapons, are not being heard. It will probably continue to be this way until we are able to unite beyond national borders, and put our trust in something beyond political fashion. This has occured in History. There is evidence for uniting of various cultures and peoples.
so, speaking as an English teacher, non-tenured, living in Japan, I find your information interesting. Not surprising, though I didn’t know of Mr. Bout. This can be part of the mass of evidence that once the dogs of our greed are released, only the scavengers profit. Funny thing. I remember saying much the same thing about “the dogs of war” during the Vietnam protest years. I was student journalist.