War profiteer

last updated 8 January 2015

Moscow

U.S. contractors in Iraq have paid millions in federal funds to air cargo companies owned by a Russian businessman on a U.S. blacklist, the Los Angeles Times reported this week. The U.S. froze the assets of notorious arms trafficker Victor Bout last summer, after determining that he had illegally sold weapons to countries and groups covered by an arms embargo, including the Taliban. But the Air Force, the Army Corps of Engineers, and other agencies continued to allow their private contractors to deal with Bout, including renting his airplanes to fly into and out of Iraq. “U.S. taxpayer dollars are going to fatten the wallet of someone associated with the Taliban and with atrocities in places like Liberia and Sierra Leone,” said Sen. Russ Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat. Feingold has been leading an investigation into Bout’s activities.