Outside View: Lord of war -- Part 1

MOSCOW, March 20 (UPI) -- The sensational arrest of Russian businessman and international arms dealer Viktor Bout may trigger one of the most outrageous spying and political scandals of the recent decade.

The man is accused of supplying arms to terrorist organizations and making arms deliveries to countries under U.N. embargoes. Some even claim Bout acted with the approval, and under the control of, the Russian secret services.

On Aug. 16, 1996, an Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft took off from Kandahar airfield in Afghanistan. This plane, manned by a Russian crew, had been grounded by a Taliban MiG-21on the same runway a year previously. It had been taking a shipment of arms to the Northern Alliance that was fighting the Islamist Taliban who ruled Afghanistan.

The escape from Kandahar, which later provided the basis for a film, was one of the notable events in Russia's history in the 1990s. But the incident, in which the Taliban forced an Il-76 to land in a city they controlled, was noted in the West, too.

It was at this time that the name of Viktor Bout gained international notoriety -- according to the United Nations and the U.S. State Department it was he who chartered the Aerostan transport plane to carry weapons for the Northern Alliance.

Later, Bout gained notoriety as one of the world's leading arms smugglers. Following the terrorist attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, that destroyed the World Trade Center, badly damaged the Pentagon and killed more than 2,800 Americans, Bout was accused of selling arms to Osama bin Laden, the leader of the al-Qaida terrorist group and the mastermind behind the Sept. 11 attacks.

Some media went so far as to spread tales that he had supplied chemical weapons to the "planet's most dangerous terrorist."

Bout has also been charged with supplying arms to Liberia, Congo, Angola, Iraq, Colombia and many other Third World countries engulfed in military conflicts of different kinds. The sources are being traced to stockpiles of weapons and ammunition abandoned in Eastern Europe following the collapse of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact military alliance.

Many compare the business of Bout, who controls several air carriers, equipped mainly with Soviet-made military transport planes, with "Air America" -- the airline the Central Intelligence Agency used to make clandestine deliveries of weapons to Southeast Asian countries during the Vietnam War.

According to that story, the Russian businessman supplied arms to movements and governments around the world that enjoyed the support of the Russian secret services.

--

Next: Bout's alleged links with FARC in Colombia

--

(Ilya Kramnik is a military commentator for RIA Novosti. This article is reprinted by permission of RIA Novosti. The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.)

--

(United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)