United States
US Supreme Court Gun Case - Extracts from Various Friends-of-court Briefs
US News & World Report
7 Mar 2008
Dozens of organizations have weighed in on both sides of District of Columbia. V. Heller, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that will consider whether the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to bear arms. Not surprisingly, the case has drawn a great number and variety of voices. The amicus, or friend-of-court, briefs have exposed some odd bedfellows, along with internal divisions among government branches. Some former U.S. Justice Department officials -- including Republican Attorneys General Edwin Meese and William Barr -- support Heller, while another group of former Justice Department officials -- among them Clinton-era Attorney General Janet... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
US Gun Control Campaigner Paul Helmke Pushes Solutions to Gun Violence
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette (Indiana)
7 Mar 2008
Paul Helmke's mind is filled with stories about gun violence. The former Fort Wayne mayor can talk about the first time he struggled with the idea of guns, when as a North Side High School student he turned on the news to find a friend from grade school had been accidentally shot in the back. The current president of the non-profit Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence talks about a Fort Wayne police recruit killed in 1987 by a training officer because he didn't know the gun was loaded. That happened one month before Helmke took office in 1988, but Helmke remembers that after he became mayor, a minister's son was shot in the head in a drive-by while... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States, Russia, Thailand, Colombia, World
US Charges Notorious Russian Arms Dealer With Gun Running to Colombia
New York Times
7 Mar 2008
WASHINGTON -- A Russian businessman regarded by the United States as one of the world's most notorious arms dealers was arrested in Thailand on Thursday as part of an American-led sting operation. He was promptly charged in the United States with conspiracy for trying to smuggle missiles and rocket launchers to rebels in Colombia. The businessman, Viktor Bout, 41, is suspected of supplying weapons to the Taliban and Al Qaeda and of pouring huge arms shipments into Africa's civil wars with his own private air fleet. He was arrested by the Thai authorities at a hotel in Bangkok in an operation in which undercover investigators posing as rebels from the Revolutionary... ( gunpolicy.org )
Thailand, United States, Russia, World
Russian Arms Dealer's Arrest Reflects Global Web of Gun Runners
Agence France Presse
7 Mar 2008
MOSCOW -- From factories in a breakaway zone of Moldova to underwater test sites in Kyrgyzstan, the ex-Soviet Union has provided rich pickings for arms dealers like the legendary Viktor Bout. Bout, who was arrested March 6 in a joint U.S.-Thai operation in Bangkok, is alleged to have been at the heart of a new kind of weapons trading that emerged from the ashes of the Cold War in 1991. Various reports have linked Bout to sanctions-busting deals with West African nations, sales to conflict-riven Afghanistan in the 1990s, supplies to the U.S.-led reconstruction effort in Iraq and, most recently, with sales to Colombia's FARC rebels. "This is a... ( gunpolicy.org )
Thailand, United States, Colombia, World
Russian Arms Dealer Arrested, Accused of Gun Running in Africa, Mideast
Washington Post
7 Mar 2008
Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout was usually a careful man, dealing with customers through intermediaries and ordering subordinates to throw away cellphones, receipts and anything else that could be traced. After two buyers claiming to be Colombian guerrillas approached him last November, Bout tried to double-check their identities using photographs of known leaders of the group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, court documents say. "Our man has been made persona non-G- for the world," an associate wrote to one of the purported militants in an e-mail, explaining the need for Bout's security precautions. Yet the prospect of... ( gunpolicy.org )
Israel, Palestine
Killer Shoots 8 in Jewish Seminary Before Armed Targets Can Respond
Reuters
7 Mar 2008
JERUSALEM -- A Palestinian gunman shot dead at least eight people at a Jewish religious school in Jerusalem, but Israel said the killings would not derail U.S.-sponsored peace talks. "It was a slaughterhouse," Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, head of the Zaka emergency service, said of the scene on Thursday night at the Merkaz Harav seminary, one of the city's most prominent Jewish educational centers. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The attack was greeted with celebrations in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip after a recent Israeli offensive there that killed more than 120 Palestinians, about half of them civilians. "Tonight's massacre in... ( gunpolicy.org )
Thailand, United States, Colombia, World
If Viktor Bout Did Not Exist, a Thriller Writer Would Have Invented Him
Guardian (UK)
7 Mar 2008
BANGKOK -- If Viktor Bout did not exist, a thriller writer would have invented him. A former Russian lieutenant, he became one of the world's biggest arms dealers, flying his ancient Soviet planes into battlefields from Liberia to Afghanistan. His clients have included the Taliban and the US government, African warlords and the UN. He has as many aliases as an AK-47 has rounds, and has acquired the nicknames Merchant of Death and Lord of War. Pursued for years by the intelligence services of the world, and tracked for months by Thai detectives, yesterday the elusive 41-year-old was finally arrested in a five star hotel in Bangkok. This time Bout is accused... ( gunpolicy.org )
Thailand, United States, World
How the Lord of War Was Nabbed - Thais May Try Gun Runner Viktor Bout
Time (USA)
7 Mar 2008
WASHINGTON -- Viktor Bout may have started to believe the hype. While negotiating his most recent arms deal, Bout had his associate give the potential buyers a copy of a recent magazine article about him titled "The Merchant of Death" -- just so they'd know who they were dealing with. After almost two decades of outfoxing authorities while supplying weapons to the most deadly conflicts around the globe, the former Soviet Air Force pilot let his guard down just as a complex web of international police agencies were closing in on him. The potential buyers said they represented the leftist Colombian rebel group FARC -- but they turned out to be part of a U.S.-led sting operation... ( gunpolicy.org )
Thailand, United States, Colombia, World
Gun Runner Viktor Bout Aided US in Iraq, Plus African Warlords, Taliban et al
Los Angeles Times
7 Mar 2008
WASHINGTON -- The long hunt for a man regarded as one of the world's most notorious arms dealers climaxed Thursday in Bangkok, Thailand, where an eight-month sting operation by a team of U.S. agents led to the capture and arrest of Russian businessman Viktor Bout during an alleged attempt to supply Colombian rebels with weapons and explosives. Bout was taken into custody by Thai police at a luxury hotel in Bangkok, where, U.S. officials said, he was waiting to complete a weapons deal in which he expected to earn as much as $15 million for delivering surface-to-air missiles, attack helicopters and other weaponry. U.S. authorities said they would move... ( gunpolicy.org )
Thailand, United States, Russia, World
Coalition of Forces, US Sting Toppled Global Gun Runner Bout in Thailand
Globe & Mail (Toronto)
7 Mar 2008
The elusive global gunrunner dubbed the Merchant of Death has finally been captured. Viktor Bout, originally from Russia, was arrested yesterday at a five-star hotel in Bangkok. Thought to be a former Russian spy, something he denies, he is said to speak six languages and hold as many passports. He has long been known to global intelligence services for dispatching transport aircraft brimming with weaponry to anyone willing to pay, from Afghanistan to the former Zaire. Mr. Bout's legendary network is said to have once incorporated hundreds of employees as his Rolodex grew fat with the names of some of the world's best-known dictators, warlords, and terrorists.... ( gunpolicy.org )
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