cbs60 1121.docx

1、cbs60 1121Viktor Bout: Capturing The Merchant of Death60 Minutes: DEA Agents Who Caught Alleged Arms Dealer Talk About His CaptureRarely does the U.S. government want anyone more than it wanted Viktor Bout, known as the Merchant of Death. U.S. government officials say Bout became the worlds most not

2、orious arms dealer by fueling civil wars around the world. Courted by drug lords and dictators, the U.S. saw him as a threat because of his ability to arm terrorists targeting the United States. Viktor BoutA former Russian military officer, Bout has been protected by powerful friends, and long consi

3、dered simply untouchable by law enforcement. But three years ago the DEA devised a bold undercover operation to capture him. This past week they brought him to New York to face terrorism charges. Now, those at the heart of Operation Relentless - a sting 圈套that spanned three continents - tell the sto

4、ry behind it for the first time. Viktor Bout in my eyes is one of the most dangerous men on the face of the Earth, Michael Braun, the former chief of operations for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), told correspondent Armen Keteyian. Braun told 60 Minutes Bout first exploded on the sce

5、ne in war-torn West Africa in the late 1980s, elevating bloody conflicts from machetes and single shot rifles to military grade assault rifles. AK-47s not by the thousands but by the tens of thousands, Braun explained. So he weaponizes civil war in Africa, Keteyian remarked. He transformed these you

6、ng adolescent warriors into insidious, mindless, maniacally driven killing machines that operated with assembly line efficiencies, Braun said. Now 43, Bout, from Tajikistan (formerly a Soviet republic), is a mystery man who reportedly served in the Soviet Air Force and intelligence service. The U.S.

7、 has indicted him on four terror-related charges, including conspiracy to kill Americans. Asked what makes Bout a threat to the United States, Braun said, He is a shadow facilitator. Hes arming not only designated terrorist groups, insurgent groups, but hes also arming very powerful drug trafficking

8、 cartels around the globe. Taking advantage of Russian military contacts at the highest levels and the collapse of the Soviet Union(1989前苏联解体), federal prosecutors allege Bout essentially became a one-stop shop, offering an unlimited supply of stockpiled Cold War weapons to bad guys around the world

9、, including Charles Taylor of Liberia, whos now on trial for war crimes. According to the U.S. indictment, Bout had a unique selling point when it came to weapons trafficking: a fleet of cargo airplanes capable of transporting weapons and military equipment anytime, anywhere. With more than 60 plane

10、s in all, it was his own private air force. Those Russian aircraft were built like flying dump trucks. He could move this stuff and drop it with pinpoint (precise) accuracy to any desert, to any jungle, to any other remote place in the world. Right into the hands of what I refer to as the potpourri

11、of global scum, Braun told Keteyian. By the late 1990s, Bout was a legend in the shadowy world of illicit arms dealing - so illusive that the only two pictures that have surfaces of him back then were taken without Bouts knowledge by a Belgian photographer. Later, Bout became the inspiration behind

12、the Nicholas cage Character in the movie Lord of War战争之王. U.S. Treasury documents reveal a Bout empire so sophisticated, so complex - hidden behind a thick curtain of front companies幌子公司 - that even the U.S. government unwittingly contracted with two of his companies to deliver supplies to U.S. troo

13、ps in Iraq. Juan Zarate, deputy national security advisor in the second Bush White House, and a CBS News consultant, told 60 Minutes hiring Bout was a mistake. This was one of the grave complications for the United States. Viktor Bouts tentacles reached so far and so deep that he had access to plane

14、s that could provide services for the U.S. government, Zarate said. Zarate admitted the U.S. could do business with Bout, but it couldnt catch him. I had always thought of Viktor Bout as untouchable. And, I also, frankly, didnt think that anyone could get to him, he said. It was a challenge Zarate f

15、rom the White House threw out at a meeting with Mike Braun and his DEA team. The DEA had just pulled off a string of extraordinarily successful captures of high-value terrorism targets around the world, like Afghan drug lords. DEA Agents live for the hunt, Braun told Keteyian. But, Mike, no one had

16、even gotten a sniff on this guy, Keteyian pointed out. Let me tell ya something, Armen, when Im sitting there next to Juan, and my guys are sitting across the table from him, the very best that our governments got to offer, and he tosses this out on the table, and I look at him in the eyes, and they

17、re looking back at me, like, Well do this, we can do this, Braun said. But it was about a five percent chance in the back of my mind. And so, you know, I wished them well and I went back to the White House, Zarate recalled. Mike Brauns thinking 95 percent, okay. Five and 95 make a hundred. He was go

18、ing down, he was in our crosshairs, Braun added. The DEA supervisor put in charge of the hunt for Bout was Louis Milione. We felt that we could create a scenario that would pull him in, he said. The plan was to pull Bout out of Moscow with a huge arms deal he couldnt refuse. To do that, the DEA hire

19、d an undercover agent to contact a trusted associate of Bouts named Andrew Smulian. The DEA operative said he had a big business deal for Bout. Im thinking in terms of fishing here. Its almost like youve thrown the line in the water. Theres a little bit of bait. This is a business proposition. And y

20、oure waiting to see if anything comes back with a nibble, Keteyian remarked. We were really waiting to see, yeah, exactly what Smulian says and what he says about Bout, Milione replied. And as it comes back, Spoke to Boris, anything possible with farming equipment,? Keteyian asked. Thats correct, Mi

21、lione said. Boris stood for Bout, farming equipment for weapons. That exchange led to the island of Curacao库拉索岛, a few hundred miles off the coast of Colombia. It was there that Bouts buddy, Andrew Smulian, would first meet the DEAs phony arms buyers, posing as officials in the Colombian terrorist g

22、roup known as the FARC哥伦比亚革命武装力量. The two fake rebels, Eduardo and el Comandante, would say they wanted to buy millions of dollars worth of weapons to fight the Colombian army and the U.S. military pilots protecting them. Smulian has to believe that Eduardo and El Comandante are real, Keteyian remar

23、ked. Right, if Smulian doesnt believe it were done. And we go home, Milione replied. The meeting is about to take place. Whats your temperature like? Keteyian asked. Your heart rate goes is up a little bit. And your adrenalines going a little bit. You have butterflies, Milione said. Emotions that on

24、ly escalated when, at a hotel in Curacao, the fake rebels told Smulian, Bouts buddy, they want to spend $12 million on everything from sniper rifles to surface-to-air missiles. He bites off on it. In fact, he eats the whole thing. So it was, it was very successful, Milione remembered. So successful,

25、 Smulian immediately flew to Moscow to present the deal to Boris, the man the DEA believes is Bout.Two weeks later, in another meeting, this time in Copenhagen, Smulian told the DEAs two undercover operatives that his Russian business partner really liked the deal and then he revealed who that man i

26、n Moscow really is. You know who this man is that were getting the weapons from? This is Bout. B-O-U-T. Hes wanted by the world. They call him the Merchant of Death, Milione quoted Smulian. He spelled it out for him. We marveled that Smulian would do that. But it was just great evidence. The DEA was

27、 in the game, but Bout was still safe and secure in Russia and reluctant to leave. The DEA undercovers insisted they couldnt go to Moscow but had to meet Bout to seal the deal. And Bouts gonna know that thats how these deals are gonna work. Comandante is not going to release these millions of dollar

28、s for these weapons to anybody until he at least shakes hands, talks, looks Bout in the eye and then we can move on. Thats how we countered. And Bout went for it, Milione explained. The next stop was Romania, just three days later. The play was to entice Bout to Bucharest, claiming thats where the m

29、oney was stashed to pay for the weapons. Bout said hed come, but then he had trouble getting a visa. The case stalled. After ten days of waiting for Bout, the top DEA agent made a gutsy call: to walk away. So, youve been chasing this guy hard for two months. You almost got him. And you gotta make th

30、e decision to step away from the table? Keteyian asked. If we were real, we wouldnt stay there forever, Milione explained. Were gonna now step away and say, Look we need to take care of some other things. But its time for us to leave. Over the next two weeks, Milione came up with a new plan to reel

31、Bout in. The phony rebels told Bout they would be in Bangkok soon. Asked if he could get there, Bout agreed. The morning Bout arrived in Bangkok, the DEA and Thai police had gathered downtown, waiting for word from cops at the airport that the Merchant of Death had landed. They call us in the room a

32、nd they tell us that hes here, Milione remembered. Asked what that moment was like, Milione said, It was just unbelievable. Because we knew at that point, you know youre kind of like holding on as you climb up the mountain at different points in the investigation. This was one where at that point I believed, and the other investigators believed, not only are we in the game, he shows up at this meeting, weve got him. Hes gonna