International Herald Tribune Staff editorial on Viktor Bout.
“The fall of the lord of war”:
When DEA agents and Thai police nabbed Bout, at the conclusion of a four-month sting operation to lure him from the safety of his luxury apartment in Moscow, the only thing he would say to his captors was, “Game is over.”
This was [...]
Arms trafficker Viktor Bout was arrested on Thursday in Thailand.
Form the New York Times:
A Russian businessman regarded by the United States as one of the world’s most notorious arms dealers was arrested in Thailand on Thursday as part of an American-led sting operation. He was promptly charged in the United States with conspiracy for trying [...]
The Economist has an article on the continued growth of the tunnels in the Gaza strip.
Once a secretive and dangerous industry, smuggling has become open, even respectable. As recently as last year, Israeli jets would destroy any sites suspected of housing tunnels, but now the smugglers are working in clear view of Egyptian border [...]
From the Christian Science Monitor:
The deadline for Lebanon’s presidential election is less than three weeks away and with no signs of consensus over a candidate among feuding political factions, many Lebanese fear a violent outcome.
The rising tensions come amid heightened speculation that Lebanon’s political factions are arming themselves, resuscitating old militias from the 1975-90 civil [...]
The Washington Post is reporting that Mexican Police are estimating that 100 percent of guns used in drug-related killings in Mexico are smuggled in from the Untied States.
The guns pass into Mexico through the “ant trail,” the nickname for the steady stream of people who each slip two or three weapons across the border every day. [...]
From the Associated Press:
Missile technology, fighter jet parts, night vision goggles and other U.S. wartime equipment increasingly are being illegally smuggled into hostile nations, including China and Iran, the federal government said Thursday.
From the International Herald Tribune:
Tomislav Damnjanovic boasts that he has flown just about every possible cargo, from food and construction materials to cigarettes and weapons - hundreds of thousands of tons of weapons. Over the past 15 years this former airline employee turned airline owner has been a central figure in an arms smuggling [...]
Author Douglas Farah on the Daily Show discussing the methods of global arms trafficker Victor Bout.
Purchase the book:
Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes, and the Man Who Makes War Possible by Douglas Farah
The construction of underground tunnels has become a growth industry for people living in the Gaza Strip:
Gazans are finding an antidote to their growing isolation: digging tunnels under their border with Egypt to smuggle everything from weapons to cigarettes to people.
The tunnels are being created in response to crackdowns by Israel to limit the movement [...]
The investigative arms of the U.S. congress has released a report claiming that small arms given to Iraqi forces have been lost and may be ending up in the hands of insurgents.
The Pentagon has lost track of about 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols given to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005, according to [...]
