Did Viktor Bout's Network Really Stop Supplying U.S. Contactors?

[Minstrel Boy]

From Douglas Farah's blog, Monday, January 31, 2005:

Did Viktor Bout's Network Really Stop Supplying U.S. Contactors?

Seems, from new documents I have had recent access to, that KBR continues to use several Viktor Bout-related companies to fly personnel and cargo into Iraq, despite efforts earlier this year to cut off all such contracts. Seems Viktor has simply been able to activate several shelf companies, shift his planes around, and carry on while missing very few beats. One of them is Aerocom, named in U.N. reports and a DEA report on flying drugs into Belize. Aerocom lost its Moldovan Air Operator's Certificate in June 2004, but continues to operate. In Moldova, Aerocom shares and address and phone number with Jet Line International, a publicly identified Bout company. Other companies seem to be operating out of Sudan and elsewhere. it also appears that some do not carry the requisite insurance to allow them to fly for U.S. companies.

What is particularly disturbing is that no one seems to really care. British and French diplomats at the UN still appear to be keen on trying to make Bout's enterprises at least a little less profitable and easy to run. However, the U.S. has consistantly been less than interested in making a sustained effort to put Bout out of business.

It is also simply not true that Bout is a necessary evil because there are no other companies out there who would do the flying. In fact, several large, reputable companies with the requisite aircraft and skill, have lost contracts to Bout and his associates. Seems that some of the contracts that were rejected would have cost the U.S. tax payer considerably less than the Bout companies do, but they can't crack the system. Really a mystery. Or perhaps not. Someone high up in the contracting world for Iraq seems to want to use Bout companies. That is what I find most disturbing. You would have to want to use his folks to still be dealing with him after all that has been written, officially and in in the press to still let things slide. I am all for free markets. But not when it comes to dealing with those whose main market has been death.

http://www.douglasfarah.com/2005/01/did-viktor-bouts-network-really-stop.html

More on Bout:

http://www.ruudleeuw.com/vbout00.htm
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sierraleone/bout.html
http://www.motherjones.com/news/update/2004/09/09_413.html
http://gangstersinc.tripod.com/VictorBout.html

[Minstrel Boy]

1. kick for a good question n/t