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| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| US wants Viktor Bout |
| 2010-08-20 |
| [Straits Times] THE United States pressed Thailand on Thursday to hand over alleged Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, ahead of a final Thai ruling on the US extradition request for the so-called 'Merchant of Death'. The US State Department called in Thai Ambassador Don Pramudwinai this week 'to emphasise that this is of the highest priority of the United States', department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters. 'We believe that we've presented significant evidence to justify his extradition to the United States,' said Mr Crowley, adding: 'We think we've made our case, and we'll see what the judgment of the court is.' US lawmakers, meanwhile, urged the ambassador to let authorities in Bangkok know that rejecting the request would harm ties with Washington and said the kingdom's judiciary handling of the case had not been 'fair and transparent.' The lawmakers complained that they had only learned through Bout's lawyer and the media that a Thai appeals court would decide on Friday whether to send the accused arms trafficker to the United States to face terrorism charges. 'We find the potential release of a man responsible for countless deaths of innocents in Africa and elsewhere simply astounding,' said the group, led by House Foreign Affairs Committee Howard Berman, a Democrat. 'More so as there is little doubt that he would return to his deadly trade, arming those targeting US and Thai interests around the globe,' they said in a letter delivered to the Thai embassy on Wednesday. Republican Representative Ed Royce's office released the letter, which was also signed by Democratic Senator Russell Feingold and Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the top Republican on Berman's committee. Bout, said to have inspired the Hollywood film Lord Of War starring Nicolas Cage, has been fighting extradition since his March 2008 arrest in Bangkok on charges of peddling weapons around the world, including to Al-Qaeda. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #9 Now that Packland has become a public swimming pool, maybe State needs Victor to run logistics into Afstan. |
| Posted by: Skunky Glins**** 2010-08-20 18:55 |
| #8 Puttie is waiting at Domodedova with patriotic songs and vodka. Re. Putin and Bout, the relationship is probably a commercial one, not a military or strategic one. Bout represents the criminal side of the current Russian security ("siloviki") establishment. Putin and his crew probably take 10%. Also, I thought Bout was Ukrainian? He's not a patriot, he's a common vor (thief) like most of those ex-KGB and -military figures who operate in the vast gray areas within the interstices of the Russian and Ukrainian governments. |
| Posted by: lex 2010-08-20 12:55 |
| #7 With Hillary and Holder pulling the strings it might be best to keep a lower profile. You know...people might...talk. From AOL news: Bout hasn't done himself any favors by boasting about palling around with bloodthirsty tyrants. Speaking from his Thai prison in 2008, Bout admitted working for his "very close friend" Jean-Pierre Bemba -- a warlord who became vice president of the Congo and is now facing trial in The Hague for orchestrating mass rape and murder and enlisting child soldiers. "I know Bemba very well, and I am telling you from any point of view he would never give any orders, especially to rape women in the Central African Republic," he told British journalist Nick Paton Walsh. But not all of Bout's clients were on the world's most wanted list. His ability to get goods delivered to the most dangerous places on earth meant that his companies were sometimes called on by the U.S. Department of Defense to deliver supplies to Iraq, and by the U.N. to land peacekeepers in East Timor. Do tell....... |
| Posted by: Lumpy Elmoluck5091 2010-08-20 11:24 |
| #6 No worries Viktor, Puttie is waiting at DomodedovaÂ… With Hillary and Holder pulling the strings it might be best to keep a lower profile. You know...people might...talk. ThereÂ’s a nice long runway in Minsk with an embassy close by. And rumor has it the food is not too bad at Westphalia. (Better then Bangkok prison chow anyway.) |
| Posted by: DepotGuy 2010-08-20 10:23 |
| #5 He's better trade bait for people we want in Russia than that red-haired babe ... |
| Posted by: Steve White 2010-08-20 09:13 |
| #4 'We believe that we've presented significant evidence to justify his extradition to the United States....' .....followed up by his immediate release by DoJ for lack of proper evidence and repatriation to our good friend Mother Russia aboard the same leased aircraft that recently whisked the dozen or so Russian spy moles back to Moscow. No worries Viktor, Puttie is waiting at Domodedova with patriotic songs and vodka. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2010-08-20 06:06 |
| #3 Damn. A nice clean jail cell in a well-run federal prison will be a big step up for Viktor. |
| Posted by: gromky 2010-08-20 02:55 |
| #2 Bout's extradition was approved this morning, here in Bangkok: |
| Posted by: Lone Ranger 2010-08-20 01:18 |
| #1 No, no, no...best let him rot in a Thai jail. He sleeps head to toe in a cell with 60 other men. I remember reading some Thai prison story and a guy said he saw Viktor Bout there, just like all the other prisoners. What it's like in Thai prisons, along with a magazine self-published by the inmates. |
| Posted by: gromky 2010-08-20 00:19 |