Milo Minderbinder Meet Victor Bout

Remember Milo Minderbinder the uber-capitalist in Joseph Heller's bitterly satirical historical fiction of WWII, Catch-22 ? Milo would buy and sell anything; at one point he even arranges for his own fleet of bombers to attack his own army base.

Milo has met his match and then some in the real-life persona of Victor Bout, an international arms dealer who buys and sells weapons, ammunition, logistics services, and anything else you need to run a war. Bout's companies sell weapons to both sides and has even been known to provide airlift services to the relief agencies called in to do deal with the resulting refugee problems the war creates.

Now it turns out that Bout has been working for the US military during the Iraq war even while he was on the US Treasury's Department's "Special Designated National and Blocked Persons". Ironic in that Bout has previously allegedly supplied the Taliban and possibly al Qaida. As reported on Global Policy Forum: A Belgian investigator, speaking on condition of anonymity, summed up Bout perfectly, noting, "The problem with Viktor is always the same one. He is a useful man, and can therefore count on important support." http://www.globalpolicy.org/

NPR's Fresh Air ran this story with an interview of the authors of a brand new book Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes, and the Man Who Makes War Possible

Here's a Frontline story about Bout.
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sierraleone/bout.html

And another one from MotherJones:
http://www.motherjones.com/news/update/2004/09/09_413.html