KB,may be there is a reason why the Gambia government is constantly harping on the issue of terrorism, it is probably to do with such sophisticated netw-workings that are being constantly unravelled. Who knows what role certain personalities played in this shaddy world. I am becoming very suspicious. >From: Dampha Kebba <[log in to unmask]> >Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list ><[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: The Company Baabaa Jobe Keeps >Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2002 09:03:20 -0500 > >Culled from the Washington Post. >KB >____________________________________________________________________ > > >By Douglas Farah >Washington Post Foreign Service >Tuesday, February 26, 2002; Page A01 > > >U.S. and European law enforcement officials say they have scored an >important advance in their efforts to disrupt what some officials describe >as the biggest weapons-trafficking network in the world, responsible for >supplying the Taliban and terrorist groups from al Qaeda in Afghanistan to >the Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines, as well as rebel forces in Africa. > >For the past three years, U.S. intelligence agencies have covertly been >trying to thwart the sprawling arms empire of Victor Bout, a >formerSovietmilitary officer whose operation is based in the United Arab >Emirates, according to U.S. and European officials. Bout's network is >unique, U.S., British and U.N. investigators said, because of its ability >to >deliver sophisticated weapon systems virtually anywhere in the world. > >A suspected top associate of Bout's is under arrest in Belgium, and >investigators say he is providing fresh, inside information on how the arms >network functions. > >While Bout has long been suspected of supplying weapons to the Taliban, >U.S. >and European officials said intelligence gathered in recent months in >Afghanistan and elsewhere has provided new details about his flights and >deliveries in the months before the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. >The intelligence suggests he was flying weapons into Afghanistan more >recently than had been believed, according to U.S. and U.N. officials >familiar with the material. > >Bout specialized in breaking arms embargoes around the world, according to >four separate U.N. Security Council reports on weapons trafficking that >were >issued between December 2000 and last month. His activities were also >described in interviews with U.S., British and U.N. investigators. He >traffics almost exclusively in weapons bought in the former Soviet bloc, >chiefly Bulgaria and Romania, according to these officials. > >"There are a lot of people who can deliver arms to Africa or Afghanistan, >but you can count on one hand those who can deliver major weapons systems >rapidly," said Lee S. Wolosky, a former National Security Council official >who led an interagency effort to shut down Bout's operations during the >last >two years of the Clinton administration. "Victor Bout is at the top of that >list." > >U.S. and European officials said the suspected top associate of Bout, >Sanjivan Ruprah, was arrested in Belgium earlier this month on charges of >criminal association and using a false passport. > >Before the arrest, Ruprah, a Kenyan, had secretly been in contact with U.S. >officials in recent months, providing them with information about Bout, >according to U.S. officials and Ruprah's attorney. The U.S. officials said >they were given no warning Ruprah was about to be arrested by the Belgians. > >U.S. officials also said they had made no deal with Ruprah. They said that >since the arrest, Ruprah has divulged more information about Bout's >suspected arms pipeline to the Taliban, which ruled Afghanistan until last >November, and al Qaeda, which the Taliban had sheltered there. > >"We are very, very interested in this case because we understand Ruprah is >talking about the supply of weapons to al Qaeda and the Taliban," said a >senior U.S. official. "His basic line with us was that, while he had done >some bad things, he didn't deal with al Qaeda and he understood that being >linked to that now would be very, very bad." > >Ruprah was especially valuable to Bout, U.S. and U.N. investigators said, >because he was tied to the illicit diamond trade in West Africa andarranged >for Bout to be paid for his weapons deliveries with diamonds from Sierra >Leone, Congo and Angola. > >Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations have used an underground network >that stretches across Africa to trade in diamonds, weapons and other >valuable commodities. > >Last year both Bout and Ruprah were placed on a U.N. list of individuals >banned from international travel because of their ties to Liberia and the >Sierra Leone rebel movement known as the Revolutionary United Front, or >RUF. > >Johan Peleman, a Belgian weapons expert who has investigated Bout for >several years on behalf of the United Nations and has spoken regularly to >Ruprah in recent months, said Ruprah was knowledgeable about Bout's >financial dealings, especially in the diamond trade. Belgium is interested >because Bout's financial network was based in Antwerp, the center of the >world diamond trade. > >Ruprah's attorney, Luc de Temmerman, said in a written statement that his >client engaged only in legal activities in Africa. While acknowledging that >Bout and Ruprah knew each other, he said they were not in business >together. > >De Temmerman said Ruprah had recently been in touch with the FBI, the CIA, >the United Nations and British intelligence officials to provide them with >information in an effort to have the U.N. travel ban on him lifted. He >denied Ruprah knew anything about arms shipments to al Qaeda or the >Taliban. > >The U.N. reports said Bout originally based his operations in Ostend, >Belgium, in 1995, and moved to the UAE in 1997 when Belgian officials began >investigating his air freight operations. > >The reports, compiled independently by separate groups of U.N. >investigators >monitoring U.N. embargoes, document Bout's shipments of hundreds of tons of >arms to UNITA rebels in Angola, the government of President Charles Taylor >in Liberia and several factions involved in the civil war in Congo. All are >under U.N. weapons bans. > >Ruprah was identified in U.N. reports as a key intermediary between Bout >and >Taylor. A December 2000 report said Ruprah was issued a Liberian diplomatic >passport in the name of Samir M. Nasr, and was identified as Liberia's >deputy commissioner for maritime affairs. > >Ruprah helped arrange for three flights to Liberia in July and one in >August >2000, the report said, delivering two combat-capable helicopters, >surface-to-air missiles, armored vehicles, machine guns and almost a >million >rounds of ammunition. The weapons originated in Bulgaria. > >U.S. and U.N. investigators say they believe Bout has also run guns for the >radical Muslim Abu Sayyaf guerrilla movement in the Philippines and has >flown weapons for Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi. > >"Victor Bout, as the largest player in the world in the illicit air >logistics business, is a critical aider and abettor to criminal and >terrorist organizations, rogue heads of state and insurgencies -- whoever >is >able to pay," Wolosky said. > >According to a U.N. Security Council report issued in April 2001, Bout is >35 >years old. Born in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, he is a graduate of Moscow's >Military Institute of Foreign Languages and speaks six languages fluently, >according to the report. > >The report also describes Bout as a former air forceofficer who holds at >least five passports. Investigators said Bout was known as the "Lone Wolf" >because he operates by himself. They describe him as short, stocky and >usually sporting a bushy mustache. > >Telephone calls and faxes to Bout's offices in the UAE went unanswered. An >associate of Bout's there said all of Bout's employees in the Emirates had >left. The associate said he no longer knew where they were. Bout's brother >Sergei, based in Islamabad, Pakistan, also did not return phone calls. > >Bout has refused to talk to U.N. investigators or reporters. > >He has a fleet of about 60 aircraft, including large Russian cargo planes, >according to investigators. His operation is tied together by a complex web >of overlapping airlines, charter companies and freight-forwarding >operations >that give him a global reach. His main company is registered as Air Cess. > >In an effort to confound investigators, Bout continually changed the >registration of his aircraft from one African country to another, all the >while basing his air operations in Sharjah, one of seven emirates that make >up the UAE. > >Bout's alleged dealings with the Taliban and al Qaeda are the subject of an >ongoing, classified U.S. operation that began in early 2000. "There was a >concerted effort at the tail end of the Clinton administration, continued >into the Bush administration, to put him out of business," said one former >U.S. official. > >U.N. and U.S. officials said Bout cut a deal with the Taliban in 1996 in >UAE, one of only three countries in the world that recognized the regime. > >The deal called for Bout's Air Cess to supply and service Afghanistan's >Ariana Airways and the Afghan air force, both of which used Soviet-era >aircraft. Another company that Bout had an interest in, Flying Dolphin, >provided charter flights from Dubai to Afghanistan, the sources said, and >soon there were several flights a week from Dubai to the Taliban stronghold >of Kandahar. > >U.N. investigators say they now believe many of those flights were loaded >with weapons. When U.N. sanctions shut down Ariana in November 2000, Flying >Dolphin obtained a U.N. waiver, for reasons that are not clear, and >continued flying the Dubai-Kandahar route until being shut down by the >United Nations in January 2001. > >"Bout undoubtedly did supply al Qaeda and the Taliban with arms," Peter >Hain, Britain's minister of European affairs and lead investigator into >Bout's global arms trade, told the Associated Press on Feb. 19. > >A 1998 Belgian intelligence report on Bout's activities, obtained by The >Washington Post, says he made $50 million in Afghanistan, selling heavy >weapons to the Taliban. However, Peleman and other investigators said they >had doubts that Bout had earned that much money from the Taliban and al >Qaeda, in part because Bout also supplied weapons to anti-Taliban leaders, >some of whom were his close friends. > >Nonetheless, the United States launched an effort to disrupt Bout's arms >trading, trying to freeze his assets and pressuring other nations, >especially the UAE, to expel him. U.S. officials said they were limited in >what they could do because they believed Bout had violated no U.S. laws. >One >of Bout's companies, Air Cess Inc., based in Miami, was dissolved on Sept. >19, according to public records, and its telephone number no longer works. > >In late 2000 the Clinton administration asked the UAE at an "extremely high >level" to shut down Bout's operation, a former U.S. official said. UAE >officials reponded that they had no evidence of criminal wrongdoing by >Bout. > >"We would have preferred they shut him down completely but they took >helpful >incremental steps that disrupted his operation," the source said, including >imposing new and costly equipment requirements on his air fleet. > >When President Bush took office, the Bout project received less attention, >U.S. officials said. Then came the Sept. 11 attacks. "Suddenly, he was back >on our radar screen in a very significant way," a senior U.S. official >said. >"His importance suddenly loomed very large." > > >_________________________________________________________________ >Join the world’s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. >http://www.hotmail.com > ><<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>> > >To view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface >at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html >To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: >[log in to unmask] > ><<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>> _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>> To view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>