Informant38

Dealing with the Merchant of Death_

In 2000, aware of the lack of international and national instruments to prosecute Bout, the United States embarked on a campaign to disrupt his enterprise. In the same year, Bout was charged with forging documents in Bangui, when his aircraft used the markings of the state­owned airline on a flight to Gabon, and convicted in abstention to 2 years. He was absolved of the charges on 28 June 2000 without explanation. The Director of Civil Aviation in Bangui was, however, sentenced to a year in prison for fraud and forgery. When it was reported that Bout had armed the Taliban, and possibly also Al Qaeda, prior to the 11 September attack on the World Trade Centre, interest in his activities grew. The US and Britain tracked his shipments and tried to prevent him from buying weapons in Eastern Europe. South Africa was requested to charge Bout under its anti-mercenary legislation but there was insufficient evidence to make a case. After pressure from the United States, Bout and his brother were barred from the centre of their operations in the United Arab Emirates. Previously, the Emirates had agreed to freeze his assets if given details of his money trail, but US officials allegedly refused to do so for fear of compromising their sources._
"U.S. officials have indicated unofficially that the reason is that Bout is useful in Iraq, the sources told IPS. One of Bout's many companies is providing logistical support to U.S. forces in Iraq, well-placed French diplomatic sources say. His private airline British Gulf is supplying goods to the occupation forces, they say.

"In recognition of these services both the U.S. and the British governments have been opposing French efforts to include Bout in the UN mercenaries list, the diplomatic sources revealed."_
Richard Ammar Chichakli is the nephew of a former president of Syria and a veteran of the U.S. Army, a family friend of the bin Ladens who hung out with a youthful Osama and ran a free-trade zone in the United Arab Emirates. According to the United Nations, Chichakli also served as the financial overseer of arms trader Victor Bout's far-flung network of air cargo operations._
After being a blip on the radar screen of the international community since the mid-1990s and operating with impunity for years in Africa's conflict zones, Bout's profile rose markedly after he was linked to supplying the Taliban, which gave military support to al Qaeda. The United Arab Emirates, the main base for his operation, told the United Nations in early 2002 that his companies were prohibited from operating there and banned him from entering. In February 2002, Belgian authorities issued an international arrest warrant through Interpol for him on "money laundering practices and criminal conspiracy." The case is still pending.

Chichakli, who lives in Texas and was named by the United Nations as being Bout's chief financial manager, said U.S. authorities had not contacted him about Bout, even though Bout listed the Texas corporate address for San Air General Trading, a United Arab Emirates-based company owned by former Bout employee Serguei Denissenko, as his destination when he applied for a visa to come to the United States in summer 2000. Chichakli "clearly has connections to Bout," Lee S. Wolosky, a former National Security Council official told ICIJ. Wolosky, who closely followed the international arms trade, said the connection "concerned me and others at the National Security Council," but that there was a limit to what the White House could do, aside from referring the case to law enforcement. "U.S. authorities know everything about Bout," Chichakli said. _
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Mother Jones
Center For Public Integrity
AntiWar.com