MOD uses banned company run by wanted arms dealer.

Viktor Bout was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan (or maybe on January 13, 1967 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan ),he studied at the the Institute for Military Interpreters in Moscow where he became expert in English, French, and Portuguese, as well as his native Russian and Uzbek,

In 1993 he started a business as arms dealer / facilitator using ex Soviet planes , staff, pilots and weapons stocks.

He is said to have supplied weapons to Bin Laden in Afghanistan using an Ostend based Trans Nationa Aviation Company and to he US according to the Belgian secret services, from entrusting him with arms shipments to the Northern Alliance, then at war against the Taliban – it now appears that he also supplied the Taliban with $50Mn worth of arms. Germany's Der Spiegel reported in 2002 that Vadim Rabinovich, an Israeli of Ukrainian origin along with the former director of the Ukrainian secret service (chum of Kuchma) had sold a consignment of 150 to 200 T-55 and T-62 tanks to the Taliban – many of which ended up with gangster Dostum – now Minister of Defence in Kabul.

The tanks were believed to have been transported by one of Bout's air freight companies in a deal conducted through Pakistan's secret service. The arms he has sold or brokered has helped fuel conflicts and support U.N. sanctioned regimes not only in Afghanistan, but Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Sudan.

Last year his planes, flying under the name of an airline company, British Gulf International Airlines but confusingly registered in Kyrgistan, (which will disappear as fast as it was created) , are assuring "transport of materiel" for the American army in Iraq. But see pic taken at Sharjah March 15th 2005 of Antonov An. 12 BP Freighter in British Gulf colours cn 5353305, a fleet operate from Dubai and Sharjah.

British Gulf International Airlines, TC,SAIF Zone, A3-24,PO BOX 26078 Sharjah, UAE (Tel 06-5570316 ) has an agreement with the US Defence Energy Support Centre (who move fuel around for the US armed forces) dated 5th April 20th 2004.

His time of juggling favours has caught up with him. In April The U.S. Department of the Treasury today identified 30 companies and four individuals linked to Viktor Bout.Executive Order 13348, targets family members and associates of former Liberian President Charles Ghankay Taylor. Bout himself was designated under the same authority in July 2004 because of his association with Taylor.

"Our targeted sanctions are exposing and isolating the core elements of the Bout financial empire and illicit arms pipeline," Juan Zarate, the Treasury's Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes. "Our targeted sanctions are exposing and isolating the core elements of the Bout financial empire and illicit arms pipeline,"

Individuals named Bout's brother Sergei, managers -- Serguei Denissenko and Valeriy Naydo -- and Bout's U.S.-based chief financial officer, Syrian born accountant Richard Chichakli who was operating from the town of Richardson in East texas as Chichakli associates, DHH Enterprises Inc. and Daytona Pools Ltd..He was also a friend of the bin Laden family and ended up at one time (1993 to 1996 )as commercial manager of the free zone in Sharjah.

One of the companies so named in April was Trans Avia – curiously Andrew Gilligan in the Evening Standard On Line on Friday 13th May reported that,,, “between 6 and 9 March this year, according to official Civil Aviation Authority records, two Victor Bout charter flights took off from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire. The cargo was armoured vehicles and a few British troops. The client was the Ministry of Defence.”

That is not all…”Another two flights were made in the same three days of March by an airline called Jet Line International, also from RAF Brize Norton. A further three flights were made at the same time from another base, RAF Lyneham. The destination was Kosovo. The client, once again, was the Ministry of Defence.”

Yes you guessed it, Jet Line is another Bout company, curiously based in Chisinau, Moldova where GUUAM were to meet and Uzbek president Karimov decided to take a rain check a coupl of weks ago (see recent post).

The then Foreign Office Minister” the man with the tan “,Peter Hain said of Bout when he was supplying Liberian rebels with weapons to shoot UK soldiers "The murder and mayhem of Unita in Angola, the RUF in Sierra Leone, and groups in Congo would not have been as terrible without Bout's operations." He was truly "a merchant of death".

This article which appeared on The Evening Standard On Line site has disappeared into the cyber-bin just like Duncan Cambell’s “ricin” story. The full article is available at the Yorkshire Ranter Blog

There is no truth that the weapons used to release prisoners from Andizhan jail were supplied courtesy of one of Mr Bout's air service companies is a total fabrication. No currency should suggest that the Ferghana Valley have seen any Antonov air freighters that may be connected in any way to Mr Bout - who is, anyway persona non grata with the folks in the White House.