I'm a traditionalist in that way, too, gratuitous. I believe the law should apply to all, even Halliburton. Perhaps these interesting times are becoming something from the "What have you done for me lately?" school. For instance, Mr. Bout once helped the United States make war on Iraq.
Viktor Bout - Africa's Lord of War - Sentenced to 25 Years
BY ANDREW FEINSTEIN, 10 APRIL 2012
AllAfrica.com
EXCERPT...
His clients included, among others, the Liberian dictator Charles Taylor, the Northern Alliance and then the Taliban in Afghanistan, a number of the protagonists in the Balkans, the Angolan government and its mortal enemy the Unita rebel movement led by Jonas Savimbi, and all sides in the complex conflict that continues to rage in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
SNIP...
Irbis Air landed in Baghdad 92 times between January and May 2004, while also conducting deliveries elsewhere in Iraq. Bout's client list in Iraq made for intriguing and damning reading: The United States Air Mobility Command, Federal Express, Fluor and KBR - which was then part of the Halliburton group of which Dick Cheney had been CEO. At the time Bout was the subject of an Interpol arrest warrant, which the Americans were legally bound to enforce. There is also speculation that US intelligence helped the Russian evade capture by the Belgian authorities who had issued the warrant.
SNIP...
But as his cell door clanks shut, it is crucial to remember that there are literally hundreds of Viktor Bouts out there, some protected by their own governments, or the governments and intelligence agencies to whom they are useful. Most of them are never apprehended, let alone snared in an elaborate sting operation.
If this hypocrisy is to end, the arms trade, both formal and illicit, needs to be meaningfully regulated and actively policed, regardless of who benefits from it. Stringent criteria must not only be agreed but also actively and impartially enforced for where and when weapons can and can't be sold. Governments must impose greater transparency on the use of middlemen, agents and brokers, including public disclosure of what they are paid and the details of the specific work they have undertaken. Much of this could be addressed by passing a robust International Arms Trade Treaty currently being negotiated at the United Nations.
CONTINUED...
http://allafrica.com/stories/201204100685.html
So, the state now re-writes history as needed and erases the parts that don't go with the "official" version. Won't be long, at this rate of transforming once-friends into new-enemies, before "non-believers" in the official version get classified as "enemies of the state" and put on the secret list for erasure. Thank heavens Halliburton's
built the camps on spec.
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