War in Iraq 'Preventing Efforts to Stop Sudan Genocide'

[G_j]

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0728-03.htm

Published on Wednesday, July 28, 2004 by the lndependent/UK

War in Iraq 'Preventing Efforts to Stop Sudan Genocide'
by Ben Russell

Britain and America's preoccupation with Iraq has blocked international efforts to end genocide in the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan, according to a highly critical report published by a think-tank close to Tony Blair.

The study, to be published today, said that the war in Iraq had prevented effective planning for military intervention which could have bolstered diplomatic efforts to prevent the bloodshed, which has driven more than a million people from their homes.

It warned that discussion on Iraq had prevented the United Nations Security Council discussing the Darfur crisis in May and diverted attention from clear warning signs that started emerging more than a year ago.

The study, which was published by the Foreign Policy Center, a left-of-center think-tank which counts Mr Blair as its patron, said that there was a fatal lack of political resolve to take strong action against the Khartoum government, a key American ally in the war on international terrorism.


..more..

[madrchsod]

1. right

neither country could care less about this slaughter. they will sit back and wait till everyone is dead . it`s black africa, the people are to poor and uneducated to be exploited by the capitalists of the world. sad fact is no one cares

[wtmusic]

2. Another casualty of the war

have we gotten the really-really-obvious idea yet?

[TO Kid]

3. So what's their excuse...

For Rwanda?

[G_j]

5. good question n/t

[G_j]

6. kick

[struggle4progress]

9. kick

:kick:

[central scrutinizer]

4. not to mention

it sucked all of the resources out of Afghanistan before the Al Qaeda forces there were rounded up.

<>

[seemslikeadream]

7. Arms Dealer Wanted in Africa, Needed in Iraq

I posted this in another thread but it needs to be here also



MERCHANT OF DEATH
Viktor Bout standing near an airplane.

Published on Friday, May 21, 2004 by the Inter Press Service
Arms Dealer Wanted in Africa, Needed in Iraq
Coalition forces find new uses in Iraq for an arms dealer they had branded a villain in Africa.

by Julio Godoy

PARIS - Arms dealer Viktor Bout was the merchant of death wanted for feeding conflicts in Africa - until Iraq happened.

Today the United States and Britain are using his extensive mercenary services in Iraq. The condemnation of his role in the diamond wars and other conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa over the past ten years is being silently erased.

The Tajikstan-born Bout would be an embarrassing ally to acknowledge publicly. But the coalition partners are showing him exceptional favors as he does some of their job for them.

The UN Security Council drafted a resolution in March to freeze the assets of mercenaries and weapons dealers who backed ousted Liberian dictator Charles Taylor. Bout should top that list, French diplomatic sources say. But the diplomats and UN sources say the United States has been working to keep Bout off that list.

U.S. officials have indicated unofficially that the reason is that Bout is useful in Iraq, the sources told IPS.

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 deal was uncovered by the Russian foreign intelligence service SVR in Kabul, Der Spiegel reported.

more
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0521-12.htm

GALLERY OF INTERNATIONAL ARMS DEALERS

By Matthew Brunwasser

Victor Bout is the poster boy for a new generation of post Cold War international arms dealers who play a critical role in areas where the weapons trade has been embargoed by the United Nations.

Now, as FRONTLINE/World reports in "Gunrunners," unprecedented U.N. investigations have begun to unravel the mystery of these broken embargoes, many of them imposed on African countries involved in bloody civil wars. At the heart of this unfolding detective story is the identification of a group of East European arms merchants, with Victor Bout the first of them to be publicly and prominently identified. The U.N. investigative team pursued leads that a Mr. Bout was pouring small arms and ammunition into Angola, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and the Congo, making possible massacres on a scale that stunned the world.



Despite being pursued for years by a flinty group of private and government arms investigators, a positive visual ID of this United Arab Emirates-based arms merchant only became available when two Belgian journalists ran into him at an airstrip in remote rebel-held Congo. And it was only recently that his name became familiar in the United States, following press reports of his role in arming the Taliban regime in Afghanistan five years ago. If not for this link to Afghanistan, it is probable that Bout would still be a low-profile character in the clandestine world of illicit arms trading.
more
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sierraleone/bout.html

VICTOR BOUT
FACT SHEET
BORN:
1967, Dushanbe, U.S.S.R. (now Tajikistan); an ethnic Russian.

PASSPORTS:
At least five, two of which are Russian and one Ukrainian.

ALIASES:
Often referred to in law enforcement circles as "Victor B.," as he is thought to have at least five aliases: Butt, Butov, Badd, Bulakin and others.

EDUCATION:
Graduated from the Military Institute of Foreign Languages, Moscow.

PREVIOUS CAREER:
Until 1991, served as an interpreter in a now-disbanded military transport aviation regiment in Vitsebsk (now Belarus). Translated for U.N. peacekeeping force in Angola, 1987. Left the military as a lieutenant.

LANGUAGES:
Russian (native), Farsi (Persian, also the language of Tajikistan), English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Xhosa, Zulu.

MOST RECENTLY:
Last seen at liberty in Moscow in March, 2002.

CRIMINAL RECORD:
June 2000: Charged with forging documents in the Central African Republic and convicted in absentia. Charges were later dropped; no explanation was given.
February 2002: Belgium issued an arrest warrant for Bout on money laundering charges.
more
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sierraleone/bout.html

Jean Bernard Lasnaud



By Julia Reynolds, Center for Investigative Reporting
with William Kistner and Omar Lavieri in Buenos Aires

UPDATE: Just days after the publication of this Web-exclusive report on May 23, Jean Bernard Lasnaud was arrested in Switzerland in response to an Interpol request. Swiss authorities contacted the Argentina courts, where the current judge on the case quickly requested Lasnaud's extradition. If sent to Argentina, Lasnaud will face 22 years in prison on charges of arms smuggling and "abuse of authority."

As this FRONTLINE/World report pointed out, the U.S. had broken from standard practice and never took even basic steps toward detaining Lasnaud. If he finally faces the Buenos Aires courts, it is hoped Lasnaud's testimony will help shed light on how a wanted international arms smuggler was able to spend a decade living openly in the U.S.

Note: After Lasnaud's arrest, his Web site was taken off the Internet.

In the fall of 2001, international arms broker Jean-Bernard Lasnaud was at ease, sounding more like a seasoned entrepreneur than a fugitive from justice.

"Business has been terrible since September 11," he laughed, during a telephone interview with FRONTLINE/World. "I'm going to give it up and buy a hot dog stand in New York City."



Personable and easy-going, he was in the business of selling tanks, rocket launchers and SCUD missiles from a luxury condo in a gated South Florida community.


JEAN BERNARD LASNAUD FACT SHEET

FACT SHEET
BORN:
March 12, 1942, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France.

ALIASES:
Bernard Lasnosky, Jean-Fran�ois Bernard, Fran�ois Laroche.

BIGGEST KNOWN ARMS DEAL:
Illicit sales of Argentinean weapons in the 1990s estimated to have totaled $100 million, including government bribes and payoffs.

SUSPECTED CLIENT COUNTRIES:
Croatia, Ecuador, China, United States, and Somalia.

CLAIM TO FAME:
Accused of brokering sales of 6,500 tons of Argentinean weapons to Croatia and Ecuador in the mid-90s, in violation of U.N. and international embargoes. Faxes signed by Lasnaud document his involvement in and intimate knowledge of the deals. Lasnaud's Argentine partner, Capt. Horacio Estrada, was found shot dead in his Buenos Aires apartment soon after speaking to an investigating judge in the case. Some Florida law enforcement officials suspect that Lasnaud is a protected asset of the CIA or some other U.S. agency.

PURSUED BY:
Argentina.
Interpol has an active warrant for Lasnaud's arrest and extradition to Argentina. The U.S. Department of Justice has refused to pick him up, citing "insufficient evidence" that Lasnaud knew his shipments contained arms.

CONNECTION TO UNITED STATES:
Until recently, lived in Fort Lauderdale. His son Alexandre, a south Florida attorney, recently served a six-month sentence in federal prison on obstruction of justice charges.

MOST RECENTLY:
In spring 2002, Lasnaud suddenly left his Florida residence and said he was "traveling outside the U.S." An Interpol source says his ability to travel freely is "highly unusual."
more
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sierraleone/lasnaud.html

Leonid Minin


By Matthew Brunwasser


The scene in Leonid Minin's hotel room on the night of August 4, 2000 could have been taken from a Quentin Tarrantino film: Minin, a pale Ukrainian, abundantly fleshy and naked, freebasing cocaine, flanked by a quartet of Russian, Albanian, Italian and Kenyan prostitutes. A pornographic film flickers in the background. Minin, the majority owner of the Europa Hotel in Cinisello Balsamo, a small town outside Milan, Italy, has transformed his two-room suite into a bedroom/office and den of debauchery.

Then, without warning, the police arrive at Room 341, putting an end to the party and derailing the career of a prominent international gun smuggler and high-level leader of the so-called "Odessa Mafia."

Although local police supposedly raided Minin's hotel on a tip from an unpaid prostitute, FRONTLINE/World has acquired a report that shows the Milan customs police had had Minin under surveillance since 1992 while investigating an international criminal organization involved in laundering international drug money through the foreign bank accounts of Italian businessmen. The report also says that in 1997 Italian intelligence services conducted a "complex investigation on a criminal group of Ukrainian origins associated with the so-called 'Russian Mafia' and involved in international arms and drug trafficking, money laundering, extortion and other offenses. This group is headed by the Ukrainian businessman Leonid Minin."

Incriminating Evidence

That hot August evening in Cinisello Balsamo, police found $500,000 worth of uncut diamonds. Later analysis found most came from Russia -- no African origins could be confirmed despite the diamond scales later found in Minin's Liberian office. They found a duffel bag filled with more than $35,000 in American, Italian, Hungarian and Mauritian currency. From a briefcase and piles scattered around the rooms, police collected 1,500 documents -- in Russian, Ukrainian, French, German, Dutch, English and Italian -- relating to Minin's wide variety of business operations. Specific findings included documents on his dealings in oil, timber and consumer goods; an inquiry by Minin into providing Nigeria's mobile phone network; a follow-up by a colleague on Minin's proposal to sell a Ukrainian aircraft carrier to Turkey; an offer from Minin's Beijing representative asking him to ascertain whether Liberian President Charles Taylor would be interested in establishing diplomatic relations with mainland China; correspondence between Minin and President Charles Taylor's son "Chuckie"; and a record of a $10,263.02 payment to Marc Rich, best known for his 11th-hour pardon from President Clinton on charges of fraud and extortion. Rich's oil company, Glencore, once shared a London phone number with one of Minin's companies Galaxy Management.
more
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sierraleone/m...


LEONID MININ FACT SHEET


LEONID MININ
FACT SHEET
BORN:
December 14, 1947, Odessa, U.S.S.R. (Ukraine).

PASSPORTS ISSUED:
U.S.S.R.
Russia (2/2/95)
Germany (1/14/90; Igor Limar, 2/8/90)
Bolivia (2/9/89)
Israel (3/6/75; 11/6/94)

ALIASES:
Leon Minin, Wulf Breslav (DOB: 7/10/44), Leonid Bluvshtein, Leonid Bluvstein, Igor Osols, Vladimir Abramovich Kerler, Igor Limar.

KNOWN BUSINESS ACTIVITIES:
Oil, electricity, timber, small arms, Russian icons, diamonds and gems (Russian and possibly African), consumer goods, prefabricated homes. Investigated in several European countries for money laundering and cocaine trafficking.

LANGUAGES:
Russian (native), Ukrainian (native), English, German, French, Italian.

PASTIMES:
Cocaine, $500-a-night prostitutes.

MOST RECENTLY:
Presently in Vigevano prison outside Milan, Italy. Faces possible 12 years. Still no decision on trial date.

more
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sierraleone/m...


A Lendu child soldier waits in a camp for news of his next deployment. Battles are raging 13 miles to the north of his position.


Sarkis Soghanalian

In an interview with FRONTLINE/World co-producer William Kistner in March 2001, Sarkis Soghanalian, one of the world's most accomplished arms salesmen, gave his unapologetic and seasoned views on the international arms trade and U.S. policy. A veteran of many Cold War arms deals, Soghanalian has seen wars, rebel movements and ideological conflicts become U.S. priorities and then fade into history. He speaks frankly about his role in helping the United States pursue its interests. He is confident that every deal has been undertaken with the approval of the U.S. government.

STARTING OUT IN THE LEBANESE CIVIL WAR

What brought you into this business?

I'm from Lebanon, and my family came to Lebanon from what is now called Turkey in 1939 or 1940, but at the time it was Syria. And the education was not at a very high level. But we had to find work. I went to work with the French army. I skipped school in 1944 and worked with a tank division. So I grew up with it, adapted to it from childhood and kept going.

It's been in your blood since you were young.

Being an Armenian, you are raised fighting to survive. Since we survived the Turkish massacres, a genocide like that of the Jews and others, we were the first generation with such a background. So you can say it was in my blood and in my dreams. As a young man you like nothing more than weapons. Women were secondary, as at that age we didn't know anything about that.

more
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sierraleone/s...


SARKIS SOGHANALIAN FACT SHEET


SARKIS SOGHANALIAN
FACT SHEET
BORN:
1929 or 1930 in Syria, in a region that is now part of Turkey; raised in Lebanon.

PROFILE:
An ethnic Armenian, Lebanese citizen, has lived for more than 20 years in the United States as a permanent resident; last reported in Los Angeles. Has or has had offices in Paris, Athens, Amman (Jordan) and Miami. Weighs about 300 pounds. Walks with a limp and suffers from heart disease.

CLIENTS:
Has armed Saddam Hussein of Iraq (about $1.6 billion), Gen. Anastasio Somoza and the Contras in Nicaragua, Gen. Leopoldo Galtieri (Argentine junta leader), Mobutu Sese Seko (former dictator of Zaire, now Congo), Christian Fallange Militias in Lebanon, and many others. As owner of the air transport company Pan Aviation, he leased a plane to Ferdinand Marcos for his planned return to the Philippines during the unsuccessful 1987 military coup; sold an American C-130 cargo plane to Libyan leader Col. Muammar Qaddafi; and rented planes to the CIA, allegedly for Contra operations involving drug trafficking. In the 1980s, he sold the Iraqi army $280 million worth of uniforms, in partnership with former U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew, former Attorney General John Mitchell and Nixon's former chief of staff, Jack Brennan. When the U.S. manufacturer was found to be too expensive, Mitchell had former President Nixon write a letter, successfully urging Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu to manufacture the uniforms.

HAS COLLABORATED WITH:
The CIA, the FBI, the State Department and the Defense Intelligence Agency. Helped break a counterfeit $100-bill printing operation in Lebanon and tried, unsuccessfully, to negotiate the release of U.S. hostage Terry Anderson in Lebanon.

MOST RECENTLY:
In 1999, air-dropped 10,000 Kalashnikov rifles to Colombia's FARC (Fuerzos Armandas Revolucionarias de Colombia) guerillas -- leftist insurgents aligned with cocaine traffickers. (The United States recently sent $1 billion in aid to help the Colombian government defeat them.) Soghanalian says the deal was meant for Peru. It later emerged that the CIA had approved the deal and that it was organized by the disgraced former Peruvian intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos, who was on the CIA payroll for years and is now in jail on arms and drug-trafficking charges.

CRIMINAL RECORD:
1977: Bilked $1.1 million from British competitor Boca Investments by reneging on a transfer of machine guns to Mauritania.: Was convicted in 1982 of wire fraud in connection with the case; sentenced to five years' probation and forced to pay restitution.
1986: Arrested for possession of five unregistered machine guns and two unregistered rocket launchers in 1984 at Miami International Airport. Also charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. A federal judge dismissed all charges in 1988.
1991: Convicted on six counts of conspiring to export arms to Iraq without the required federal licenses, a violation of the U.S. Arms Control Export Act. The case, which included two former officials of Hughes Helicopter Corp., involved the sale of 103 combat helicopters and two rocket launchers in 1983 during the Iran-Iraq War. In 1992 he was sentenced to six years in prison and a $20,000 fine. The U.S. attorney had asked for maximum of 24 years and a $240,000 fine.
1993: A federal judge reduced the conviction for sales to Iraq from six and a half years to two years; prosecutor would not explain. Soghanalian's attorney later said it concerned intelligence Soghanalian gave to U.S. law-enforcement officials to break up a $100-bill counterfeiting operation in the Bekaa valley in Lebanon.
2001: Sentenced to time served (10 months) of a possible five-year sentence for wire fraud involving stolen cashier's checks. Released on recommendation from U.S. attorney's office in exchange for "substantial assistance to law enforcement" in an unspecified investigation.

MORE
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sierraleone/s...


Monzer Al Kassar



By Matthew Brunwasser

This case study details the expert machinations of Monzer Al Kassar in breaking the U.N. arms embargo on Yugoslavia. Distancing himself from his activities through intermediaries, he appears fully confident of avoiding any legal liability.
The case illustrates how Al Kassar and his associates tried to obscure the money trail of an illegal arms sale through various bank transfers, and it clearly establishes Al Kassar's role as the broker arranging the sale of Polish arms to Croatia and Bosnia during the wartime arms embargo on Yugoslavia. The information presented here is drawn from the report of a Swiss judicial investigation into Al Kassar's financial activities.


ANATOMY OF AN ILLEGAL ARMS DEAL

On June 5, 1990, Monzer Al Kassar and his wife opened an account, number 1964, at the Audi Bank in Switzerland. Al Kassar and his wife used their real names and both signed the documents, highly unusual for a bank account that would later be used in an illegal arms deal. The initial purpose of the account is unknown. The bank records from this account and others would later become evidence used by a Swiss prosecutor to freeze Al Kassar's proceeds from the illegal sale of Polish arms to Croatia and Bosnia.

Subsequent events provided the necessary ingredients for an embargo-breaking arms deal: a war, an attempt by the international community to stop it, and a broker able to work around it. Croatia and Slovenia declared themselves independent from Yugoslavia in June 1991. A bloody civil war ensued. The United Nations Security Council voted on September 25, 1991, to impose an arms embargo on Yugoslavia, whose constituent republics were not yet recognized by the international community as independent countries. Bosnia declared its independence in March 1992, which was followed by an even more bloody and complicated civil war.

more
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sierraleone/alkassar.html


MONZAR AL KASSAR
BORN:
Nabek, Syria, 1945.

LANGUAGES:
Arabic, English, Spanish.

KNOWN PASSPORTS:
Syrian, Argentine, Brazilian, Algerian and British; Spanish permanent residency.

INVOLVED IN KNOWN ARMS SALES WITH:
Argentina, Austria, Bosnia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chad, Croatia, Guatemala, Iran, Lebanon, Nicaragua, Panama, Poland, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Syria, the United States and Yemen.

ADDITIONAL KNOWN OR SUSPECTED ACTIVITIES:
Large-scale trafficking in cocaine, hashish and stolen cars. Widely investigated for arming various Palestinian terrorist groups and involvement in terrorist attacks in the 1980s. Offered French anti-ship cruise missile technology to Iran in 1997. Was offered the opportunity to broker the sale of $1.11 billion worth of submarines by the Argentine Defense Ministry. Falsely accused of many things (such as the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland) by conspiracy theorists in books and on the Internet.

CONNECTIONS:
Has had dealings or involvement with Oliver North and Gen. Richard Secord (Iran-Contra); the International Bank for Credit and Commerce (BCCI); former Argentine President Carlos Menem; Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) and its leader, Ahmad Jibril; Abu Abbas, leader of another PLO extremist splinter group, the Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF), who orchestrated the Achille Lauro hijacking; the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-Special Command (PFLP-SC) headed by Georges Habash; the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) headed by Naif Hawatmeh; and Abu Nidal, leader of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, a.k.a. Black September or Arab Revolutionary Brigades.

MOST RECENTLY:
Travels freely and lives comfortably in his hilltop mansion in Marbella, Spain, on the Costa del Sol. Known to have huge real estate and construction holdings; has gold mines and other interests in Argentina. Says he has not sold weapons for 12 years.

ALLEGED CRIMINAL ACTIVITY:
First arrested in Yabroud, Syria, for stealing cars.
1972: Arrested in Copenhagen for trafficking in hashish.
1974: Sentenced to 18 months in prison for selling hashish in the United Kingdom.
1977: According to a Swiss judicial investigation, his criminal career began to develop quickly at this point, as he established links with mafia groups, the PFLP-GC (extreme anti-Israel PLO wing) and the PLO, which helped him traffic arms, drugs and stolen cars, arm various terrorist movements, and get rich.
1984: Expelled from United Kingdom for drug and arms trafficking.
1985: In France, sentenced to eight years in absentia for operating a "criminal terrorist organization."
mid-80s: In Germany, fined $150,000 for possessing illegal passports.
1992: Swiss bank accounts frozen at Spain's request. Investigations begun for money laundering, lack of vigilance in financial operations, false documents and false foreign certificates. Arrested in Spain on charges of piracy and providing weapons for the hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship by PLF terrorists, in which American Leon Klinghoffer was murdered.
1993: Released after serving nine months, on $15.5 million bail.
1995: Acquitted of all charges in Achille Lauro case.
2000: Indicted in Argentina for obtaining documents under false pretenses in the course of his 1992 acquisition of an Argentine passport with the help of high-level Menem administration officials.
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sierraleone/alkassar.html

[leesa]

8. So our genocide in Iraq is preventing us from stopping their genocide

in Sudan??? What's wrong with this picture?

[reorg]

10. Blair and his press

"the crisis is far more complex than some claim - and cannot be resolved by a quick fix"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sudan/story/0,14658,1268773,00.html


Oil will be the driving factor for military intervention in Sudan:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1273982,00.html


Steve Bell: Blairism and Thatcherism

http://www.guardian.co.uk/cartoons/stevebell/0,7371,1267868,00.html