  VICTOR BOUT I just saw an interesting Ted Koppel urlLink Nightline interview with two experts on arms dealing, in light of the recent urlLink FBI missile sting .
They both talked about urlLink Victor Bout , a urlLink former Soviet Air Force and KGB Officer who has sold and urlLink ferried arms urlLink all over the world (both legally and in violation of sanctions, apparently) Bout has sold arms to both the Northern Alliance and Al Qaeda.
He has remained unpunished because he has been protected by political connections, at first urlLink in the United Arab Emirates , recently in urlLink Russia , and now in Ukraine. By comparison, who did we pick up in this recent sting? This guy sounds like a small fry who was helped in this sale by the FBI, he doesn't seem like somebody who'd be otherwise able to buy and sell weapons.
Forget this guy. Lock him up, of course, but go after the big guys like Victor Bout whose arms sales actually matter in the war on terrorism. UPDATE : The latest New York Times Magazine apparently has a profile of Victor Bout, though it urlLink isn't online yet . There's also a Financial Times article saying the latest arrest indicates greater Russian cooperation on arms dealing. I wonder if that new cooperation could reach out and get Victor Bout. The speakers on Nightline didn't trust Leonid Kuchma to cooperate on arms trading issues, and that's a big moneymaker in Ukraine. So I doubt even greater cooperation with Russia will lead to the arrest of the most notorious Russian arms dealer.
UPDATE II : The urlLink New York Times Magazine article , Arms and the Man is now up. It's a great story. Shady arms dealings that seem impossible without government support, mafia enclaves, friendships with dictators, and Victor Bout is just the tip of the iceberg. Reading this, I actually felt afraid for Peter Landesman, the reporter who wrote this story. 
