My articles on this topic and others 

Read my political and international commentary among other articles at Associated Content.

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The Deals 

Sometimes Private Correspondence isn't left Private

Diamond Deals

Selling the diamonds to finance acts of terror and human right atrocities in Africa.

Major Players in the International Arms Trade 

Raymond Clive Kramer

According to the Kramer Group: "In the mid-eighties security became an issue for South Africans. As the political situation in the country began to unravel, private security came into being. Once again, relationships played a large part in structuring and finding the necessary resources, but it took a huge amount of energy and commitment to get the opportunity up on its feet."

Diamonds for Guns.

Gunrunner convicted for violating UN embargo

Dutch arms broker Guus van Kouwenhoven was sentenced to eight years in prison on 7 June 2006 for arranging arms supplies to Charles Taylor's regime in Liberia. His conviction is a rare and welcome instance of an arms broker being held accountable for violating a UN arms embargo.

Charles Taylor - preacher, warlord and president

Former Liberian leader and war crimes suspect Charles Taylor is to be tried in The Hague - the culmination of a lengthy campaign for him to be brought before an international court. The former Liberian president has been accused of involvement in war crimes both in his own country and in neighbouring Sierra Leone.

Jean Bernard Lasnaud

In the fall of 2001, international arms broker Jean-Bernard Lasnaud was at ease, sounding more like a seasoned entrepreneur than a fugitive from justice.

"Business has been terrible since September 11," he laughed, during a telephone interview with FRONTLINE/World. "I'm going to give it up and buy a hot dog stand in New York City."

Victor Anatoliyevich Bout

Victor Bout is the poster boy for a new generation of post Cold War international arms dealers who play a critical role in areas where the weapons trade has been embargoed by the United Nations.

Leonid Efimovich Minin

The scene in Leonid Minin's hotel room on the night of August 4, 2000 could have been taken from a Quentin Tarrantino film: Minin, a pale Ukrainian, abundantly fleshy and naked, freebasing cocaine, flanked by a quartet of Russian, Albanian, Italian and Kenyan prostitutes. A pornographic film flickers in the background. Minin, the majority owner of the Europa Hotel in Cinisello Balsamo, a small town outside Milan, Italy, has transformed his two-room suite into a bedroom/office and den of debauchery.

Monzer Al Kassar

This case study details the expert machinations of Monzer Al Kassar in breaking the U.N. arms embargo on Yugoslavia. Distancing himself from his activities through intermediaries, he appears fully confident of avoiding any legal liability.

Sarkis Soghanalian

A veteran of many Cold War arms deals, Soghanalian has seen wars, rebel movements and ideological conflicts become U.S. priorities and then fade into history. He speaks frankly about his role in helping the United States pursue its interests. He is confident that every deal has been undertaken with the approval of the U.S. government.

Vladimiro Montesinos

The documents posted today were obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests made by journalist Jeremy Bigwood, who earlier this year donated them to the Archive. These documents shed some light on Montesinos' involvement in human rights violations and corruption scandals

Arkadi Gaydamak

Arkadi Gaydamak's story has been dubbed AngolaGate, and involves weapons, oil, blood diamonds, Marc Rich (pardoned by Bill Clinton), Pierre Falcone, alleged bribes to Jean-Christophe Mitterrand (the son of the former French president), Mossad, KGB,
DGSE, Elf, campaign donations to George Bush and John McCain, Mikhail Khodorkovsky's Menatep bank (the one linked to the money-laundering at Bank of New York), and ties to Dick Cheney/Halliburton. Gaydamak remains in Israel hiding from an international arrest warrant. He became an Israeli citizen in 1972 under the Law of Return.

Charles Taylor war crimes charges summary

Charles Ghankay Taylor, the former President of Liberia, was indicted on 7 March 2003 on a 17-count indictment for crimes against humanity, violations of Article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions and of Additional Protocol II (commonly known as war crimes), and other serious violations of international humanitarian law. The indictment was ordered kept under seal. The Prosecutor unsealed the indictment on 4 June 2003, during Taylor's first trip out of Liberia since the signing of the indictment.

Associated Industries/Actions 

Conflict Diamonds

Conflict diamonds are diamonds that originate from areas controlled by forces or factions opposed to legitimate and internationally recognized governments, and are used to fund military action in opposition to those governments, or in contravention of the decisions of the Security Council.

Child Soldiers

With new weapons that are lightweight and easy to fire, children are more easily armed, with less training than ever before. Worldwide, more than half a million children under-18 have been recruited into government armed forces, paramilitaries, civil militia and a wide variety of non-state armed groups in more than 85 countries. At any one time, more than 300,000 of these children are actively fighting as soldiers with government armed forces or armed political groups.

Air Transportation

Cargo aircraft play a vital and often illegal role in supplying arms to warring parties in the conflicts in the Horn of Africa, the interlinking conflicts in Central Africa, the Great Lakes and Angola, as well as in West Africa (Gambia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau and Senegal), many of which have been characterized by gross human rights abuses.

Modern Slavery

Millions of men, women and children around the world are forced to lead lives as slaves. Although this exploitation is often not called slavery, the conditions are the same. People are sold like objects, forced to work for little or no pay and are at the mercy of their 'employers'.

Human Trafficking

Human traffickers prey on the most vulnerable and turn a commercial profit at the expense of innocent lives.

Kidnap & Ransom

With the ending of the Cold War and corporations expanding into foreign markets, kidnapping has become a big international business. Rebel groups who no longer can rely on financial help from the former Communist countries must fund their causes using other means. They're discovering that kidnapping and demanding huge ransoms can not only cover their costs, but also finance the expansion of their power base.

Maritime Piracy

The oceans are vast, wild and almost impossible to police -- just the right cover for modern-day pirates and their political cousins, international terrorists. Join NPR's Neal Conan for a conversation with journalist William Langewische on the lawlessness of the sea.

Blood Timber

There is overwhelming evidence that the Liberian backed RUF are still operational, nurtured by Taylor and his primary funders - Liberia's logging companies and shipping register. While the logging industry poses a threat to the future of the Liberian forests, both pose a critical risk to national and regional security."

Special Reports 

Democratic Republic of Congo: Illegal arms exports fuelling killings, mass rape and torture

Large quantities of weapons and ammunition from the Balkans and eastern Europe are flowing into Africa's conflict-ridden Great Lakes region, despite evidence of their use in gross human rights violations, according to a July 2005 report.

South Africa's War Vultures

Where did the elephants get their tusks - or, more to the point, their AK47s, their mortars and bombs, their uniforms, their rations, their trucks and their choppers?

The traders, the arms dealers and the foreign armies that supplied the combatants - that is one answer. But how were they compensated? Through the wholesale appropriation of the country's natural resources.

Children, Conflicts and the Military

"In the past decade, an estimated two million children have been killed in armed conflict. Three times as many have been permanently disabled or seriously injured."

Weapons and War Crimes

The Complicity of Arms Suppliers

Liberia

Guinea Flouts Arms Embargo

Liberia

Where the Arms Come From

Small Ars and Conflict in West Africa

Testimony of Lisa Misol, Human Rights Watch Researcher, Before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus

No Questions Asked: The Eastern Europe Arms Pipeline to Liberia

Human Rights Watch Briefing Paper

A Question of Principle

Arms Trade and Human Rights

Shattered Lives

The Shattered Lives report gives you the facts and arguments about the Arms Trade. It is a large and comprehensive report that is available for download in full color.

The Toll of Small Arms

DESPITE the presence of the world's largest peacekeeping mission, the Democratic Republic of Congo remains in the grip of civil war. The reason is clear. A flood of small arms and light weapons undermines the 17,000 United Nations troops' mandate to protect civilians.

UN Small Arms Conference Collapses; U.S. Key Resister to Compromise

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The two-week UN Review Conference on Small Arms concluded Friday with no agreement. Participants in the Small Arms Working Group (SAWG) expressed disappointment at the Conference's failure to reach a conclusion. SAWG was dismayed by the actions and attitude of the United States. "The failure of the conference to agree on any document squandered an opportunity to establish critical agreements to combat small arms trafficking," said Rachel Stohl, a senior analyst with the Center for Defense Information who chairs the Small Arms Working Group. "U.S. intransigence significantly contributed to the collapse of this conference" she added.

Evolution of U.S. Policy on Small Arms

The following is a compilation of speeches, official documents, and policy notes by U.S.
government officials on small arms from 1995-2006. This summary is intended to be a survey of the evolution of U.S. governmental policy, in order to give a broad history of, as well as insight into, the U.S. position on the small arms issue in future international forums.

Arms Dealers 

The Victor Bout File

News articles and reports about the infamous former KGB agent and arms dealer.

The Arms Fixers

A research report from BASIC, NISAT and PRIO on black market arms trade.

5 Things You Didn't Know About Arms Dealers

Great article at askmen.com by Jim Bauer.

Israel: The Arms Dealer

An older article but very interesting information.

Embargo-Breaking Arms Dealers `Getting Away With Murder'

Every one of 13 UN bans in place over the past decade has been repeatedly violated but only a handful of people prosecuted despite hundreds of embargo breakers being named in UN reports, it says.

The Arms Trade is Big Business

Global military expenditure and arms trade form the largest spending in the world at over $950 billion in annual expenditure, as noted by the prestigious Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SPIRI), for 2003.

Conflicts in Africa

Africa has become an attractive and profitable dumping ground for nations and arm manufacturers eager to get rid of weapon stocks made superfluous by the end of the Cold War or by technological developments.

Books on the International Arms Trade at Amazon 

The Arms Trade (Face the Facts)

by Richard Bingley

Amazon Price: $32.86 (as of 10/12/2008)
List Price: $32.86
Used Price: $0.01

Arm in Arm: The Political Economy of the Global Arms Trade

by William W. Keller

Amazon Price: (as of 10/12/2008)
List Price: $25.00
Used Price: $0.01

Running Guns: The Global Black Market in Small Arms

Amazon Price: $32.40 (as of 10/12/2008)
List Price: $36.00
Used Price: $22.70

Death on Delivery

by Helen Collinson

Amazon Price: (as of 10/12/2008)
List Price:
Used Price: $6.00

Lord of War (2-Disc Special Edition)

Release Date: 01/17/2006

Amazon Price: $10.49 (as of 10/12/2008)
List Price: $14.98
Used Price: $1.98