At least, you'll grant me that I've been right on the key countries involved, that is, RUSSIA, ISRAEL, FRANCE (and her Belgian gofer)... Bit by bit, I'm patiently reconstructing the whole picture --I guess I'm progressing faster than the CIA and the FBI combined <g> Hey, I'm not hampered by Jesus freaks! That's my edge.
Didn't know that guy Victor Bout was a Tajik like Massoud... the more you learn about that whole scheme, the more it confirms my Judeofascist theory....
public-i.org
Excerpt:
Bout's empire today is a maze of individuals and companies, which employ some 300 people and own and operate 40 to 60 aircraft, including the largest private fleet of Antonov cargo planes in the world, according to the ICIJ investigation. Bout has long-standing ties to Afghanistan, but his links to the Taliban have been a closely guarded secret.
The 35-year old native of Tajikistan, who uses several aliases, started out in the trade in Afghanistan when his air force regiment was disbanded during the breakup of the former Soviet Union. A 1991 graduate of Moscow's Military Institute of Foreign Languages, Bout is reportedly fluent in six languages.
In March 1995, Bout and Frenchman Michel-Victor Thomas founded Trans Aviation Network Group (TAN), according to U.N. and intelligence reports. Between 1995 and 1997, the company's operating base was Ostend in Belgium, an airport frequently cited by human rights groups for hosting companies and individuals involved in arms trafficking. TAN also opened offices in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.
At first, most of the shipments from Ostend were intended for Afghanistan, according to local monitors' reports. Many went to groups opposing the Taliban. One Boeing 707, with a crew from Switzerland and registered in the Democratic Republic of Congo, was "partially financed by Afghan generals," the Belgian intelligence report said.
Bout's company delivered at least 40 tons of weapons from Ostend to Afghanistan, but Bout left Belgium after details of the shipments were reported in the local media, including that he paid $10,000 to the pilots for each trip. The Belgian intelligence document noted that pilots got an extra $1,000 "per landing."
Bout's contacts with the Taliban extend to August 1995, when the Taliban was in opposition to President Burhanuddin Rabbani's government in Kabul. One of Bout's planes flying from Albania via Sharjah and transporting small arms and military equipment to Rabbani was intercepted by a MiG-21 and forced to land in Taliban-controlled territory, according to the ICIJ investigation.
The Ilyushin-76 belonged to Aerostan, a company based in Tatarstan, but was leased by Transavia, one of Bout's companies operating out of the United Arab Emirates. Transavia had started flying cargo flights to Kabul, Kandahar and Jalalabad in May 1995 at the behest of Afghani traders in the emirates, according to the French news agency Agence France Presse.
Bout, together with Russian diplomats, tried to negotiate the release of the detained crew in Kandahar, but was not successful. A year later, on Aug. 16, 1996, the seven Russian crewmembers disarmed their guards and took off in the Il-76 for Sharjah, according to press reports. A source later told the Washington Monthly he believed even though this deal went sour Bout took advantage of the situation by establishing contacts with the Taliban.
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