Arresting The Merchants Of Death -- Part 2

Monzer al-Kassar

Yesterday I had a post that details the arrests of two international arms merchants, Victor Bout and Monzer al-Kassar.

Today, the Belmont Club expands on the history and lifestyle of Monzar al-Kassar.

The Guardian featured an atmospheric piece on how the Prince of Marbella, Monzer al-Kassar, a man on the "Most Wanted" list of Iraq, lived. You could do worse.

The Observer tracked him down to his lavish, 15-suite residence, designed like a Renaissance palazzo overlooking Puerto Banus. Guards swing the gates open to allow guests into the estate, where there is a swimming pool built like a four-leaf clover. Three Spanish mastiffs prowl during the night to deter uninvited guests.

Inside the palace, a grand piano is showcased at the bottom of a marble staircase under a domed skylight. In the grand salon, silk flowers are arranged in a giant Chinese vase in front of a marble fireplace. Statues of servants holding lamps stand before the massive drapes, and on the wall are murals of African servants in turbans, carrying platters of fruit.

Read more ....

My Comment: My fear has always been that nuclear material will one day be sold by the likes of Monzer al-Kassar or Victor Bout to terror organizations who will have no moral qualms on using it against a city or other innocents.

The extreme danger will arise if .... someone in Russia decides to sell 10 pounds or more of plutonium to Victor Bout. Victor Bout in turn sells this material to an Islamic extremist organization, who in turn then sells it to an al Qaeda group that then smuggles it into New York City and explodes as a radioactive dirty bomb.

In the eyes of the U.S., they will trace this material back to the Russian reactor that manufactured it .... and the assumption will then be made that Russia has attacked the U.S. What will happen then? Most likely the worst case scenario.

Arresting The Merchants Of Death

Victor Bout

From The Belmont Club:

Victor Bout and Monzer al-Kassar: household names, if not in the land of the living, then among the houses of the soon to be dead: the victims of the world's Merchants of Death. Victor Bout was a notorious Russian arms dealer, doing business all over the world, who was arrested in a DEA sting operation in Thailand, where he remains. The Americans want him tried in New York. The Russians don't. The Sydney Morning Herald reports:

Bout was arrested in a sting operation initiated by the US Drug Enforcement Administration a few hours after he arrived in Bangkok. The agency says he came to Thailand to negotiate the sale of Igla surface-to-air missiles to two undercover agents posing as officers from the Colombian narco-rebel movement known as FARC.

Read more ....

My Comment: Arms merchants have been with us for so long, they are considered a part of the international community. Adnan Khashoggi is probably the one that has been the most successful, but like the drug trade, when you get rid of one gang there will always be another one to replace them.