Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes, and the Man Who Makes War Possible
A Washington Post Best Book Of The Year\ "A riveting investigation of the world's most notorious weapons dealer, Viktor Bout, whose postCold War arms network has stoked violence worldwide."\ —THE WASHINGTON POST\ "A page-turner that digs deep into the amazing, murky story of Viktor Bout. Farah and Braun have exposed the inner workings of one of the world's most secretive businesses—the international arms trade."\ —Peter Bergen, author of The Osama bin Laden I Know\ "Braun and Farah have...
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What do the Taliban, indicted Liberian war criminal Charles Taylor, and the United States government have in common? They have all done business with the man who put the "blood" in blood diamonds—a little-known but immensely wealthy and powerful arms dealer who has flooded Africa and Southwest Asia with weapons of war. In Merchant of Death, two respected journalists tell the incredible story of Viktor Bout, the Russian weapons supplier whose global network has changed the way modern warfare is fought. Bout's vast enterprise of guns, planes, and money has fueled internecine slaughter in Africa and aided both militant Islamic fanatics in Afghanistan and the American military in Iraq. This fast-paced and terrifying true story reveals that, as the world celebrated the end of the Cold War, Bout emerged from a murky post-Soviet intelligence background and quietly amassed a huge fleet of aging Russian cargo planes. His intelligence contacts, aircraft, and access to sophisticated weapons helped him forge lethal alliances across the Third World. Before long, he sat atop an immense and complex empire: a relentless international war machine able to deliver anything from AK-47s and missile launchers to artillery and attack helicopters, along with millions of rounds of ammunition, to anyone willing to pay. And pay they did, in Rwanda and the Congo, in Liberia and Sierra Leone, in Sudan and Afghanistan, and many stops in between. Merchant of Death also reveals that, despite the efforts of a small circle of U.S. officials and international investigators who worked doggedly to shut down Bout's arms pipelines, the West has done little to dismantle this incredibletransnational empire. In fact, far from attacking this provider of essential support to despots, insurgents, and terrorists around the world, the United States paid him millions of dollars to fly weapons and supplies to the U.S. military and private contractors in Iraq. Authors Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun detail how, through his own ingenuity and a staggering lack of resolve in the international community, Bout has successfully skirted every attempt to undo his enterprise and flourishes, while the world's premier intelligence services have largely given up the chase. The only question that remains is how will his unparalleled career end? With his arrest, or his retirement to a lavish, guarded estate in some remote African nation? Compelling and timely, Merchant of Death combines the technical precision of a Tom Clancy epic with the insights and ironies of a John LeCarré novel to tell a thrilling and appalling real-life tale of relentless greed, devastating warfare, and breathtaking international intrigue. The Washington Post - Fawaz A. Gerges …a riveting investigation of the world's most notorious weapons dealer, Viktor Bout, whose post-Cold War arms network has stoked violence worldwide. Although U.S. intelligence officers have tried for years to shut down Bout's operation, Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun reveal that the United States paid firms linked to him as much as $60 million to ferry weapons to the U.S. military and private contractors in Iraq in 2003 and 2004.
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Acknowledgments ixPrologue 1The Delivery Man 13Planes, Guns, and Money 29A Dangerous Business 45Continental Collapse 65At a Crossroads 85The Chase Begins 92The Taliban Connection 117Black Charters 137Gunships and Titanium 149"Get Me a Warrant" 170Now or Never 186"We Are Very Limited in What We Can Do" 204Welcome to Baghdad 214Blacklisted and Still Flying 231Epilogue 252Notes 262Index 296
\ Fawaz A. Gerges…a riveting investigation of the world's most notorious weapons dealer, Viktor Bout, whose post-Cold War arms network has stoked violence worldwide. Although U.S. intelligence officers have tried for years to shut down Bout's operation, Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun reveal that the United States paid firms linked to him as much as $60 million to ferry weapons to the U.S. military and private contractors in Iraq in 2003 and 2004.\ —The Washington Post\ \ \ \ \ Publishers WeeklyWhile there's no shortage of books on international terrorism, drug cartels and genocide, the international weapons trade has received less attention. Journalists Farah and Braun center their absorbing exposé of this source of global misery on its most successful practitioner, the Russian dealer Victor Bout. Throughout the Cold War, they show, the Kremlin supplied arms to oppressive regimes and insurgent groups, keeping close tabs on customers; after the U.S.S.R. collapsed, the floodgates opened in the 1990s. With weapons factories starved for customers, Soviet-era air transports lying idle and rusting, and dictators, warlords and insurgents throughout the world clamoring for arms, entrepreneurs and organized criminals saw fortunes to be made. The authors paint a depressing picture of an avalanche of war-making material pouring into poor, violence-wracked nations despite well-publicized U.N. embargoes. America denounces this trade, but turns a blind eye if recipients proclaim they are fighting terrorism, they say. Ruthless people who shun publicity make poor biographical subjects, and Bout is no exception. The authors' energetic research reveals that rivals dislike him, colleagues admire him, enemies condemn him, and Bout describes himself as a much-maligned but honest businessman. Although an unsatisfactory portrait, the book surrounds it with an engrossing, detailed description of this wildly destructive traffic. (Aug.)\ Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information\ \ \ From the PublisherWhile there’s no shortage of books on international terrorism, drug cartels and genocide, the international weapons trade has received less attention. Journalists Farah and Braun center their absorbing exposé of this source of global misery on its most successful practitioner, the Russian dealer Victor Bout. Throughout the Cold War, they show, the Kremlin supplied arms to oppressive regimes and insurgent groups, keeping close tabs on customers; after the U.S.S.R. collapsed, the floodgates opened in the 1990s. With weapons factories starved for customers, Soviet-era air transports lying idle and rusting, and dictators, warlords and insurgents throughout the world clamoring for arms, entrepreneurs and organized criminals saw fortunes to be made. The authors paint a depressing picture of an avalanche of war-making material pouring into poor, violence-wracked nations despite well-publicized U.N. embargoes. America denounces this trade, but turns a blind eye if recipients proclaim they are fighting terrorism, they say. Ruthless people who shun publicity make poor biographical subjects, and Bout is no exception. The authors’ energetic research reveals that rivals dislike him, colleagues admire him, enemies condemn him, and Bout describes himself as a much-maligned but honest businessman. Although an unsatisfactory portrait, the book surrounds it with an engrossing, detailed description of this wildly destructive traffic. (Aug.) (Publishers Weekly, June 11, 2007)\ \
