CNN OutFront (April 5, 2012) - Erin Burnett interviews Kathi Lynn Austin: Reaction and critical analysis as notorious arms trafficker Viktor Bout receives minimum sentence in US Federal Court…
Minimum Sentence for “Merchant of Death”
Defense Dept Linked to “Lord of War”
DEMOCRACY NOW!
Friday, April 6, 2012
“Democracy Now!”‘s Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzales interview Conflict Awareness Project Executive Director Kathi Lynn Austin. Amid calls for Congressional inquiry, serious questions emerge surrounding Viktor Bout trial prosecution strategy as well as US Department of Defense, VP Dick Cheney and US security contractors’ alleged past use of Viktor Bout’s services in violation of US laws and UN sanctions…
WATCH FULL INTERVIEW
El Paìs
“En Colombia las armas están en manos equivocadas”
Kathi Lynn Austin, experta en tráfico de armas, habla de los retos de los gobiernos para fortalecer leyes contra el armamento ilegal.
by Daniel Suárez Pérez, El Paìs, January 23, 2012
Cuando apenas se estaba graduando de la universidad, Kathi Lynn Austin sólo quería entender porqué en el mundo muchos conflictos terminaban en guerra. Después de varios viajes a África descubrió que uno de los combustibles de la violencia eran los traficantes de armas. read more
“2011 Arms Control Person of the Year”
(Washington, D.C.) Kathi Lynn Austin garnered the highest number of votes in an online poll to determine the “2011 Arms Control Persons of the Year.” Nine other individuals and institutions were nominated by the staff of the Arms Control Association for their achievements and contributions. “It is an honor to be voted the ’2011 Arms Control Person of the Year.’ I hope this award will help galvanize the action needed to achieve a powerful Arms Trade Treaty in 2012 that will save innocent lives,” said Ms. Austin. “This is the best opportunity we have to once and for all establish an international regulatory regime for arms dealers and ensure greater law enforcement for violators of international law.” Arms Control Association official announcement and complete list of nominees: read more
Stopping the Trade in Death
New York Times op-ed, December 6, 2011
by Kathi Lynn Austin
On a dark November morning in 2004, I woke up in my bungalow overlooking Lake Kivu, tense with anticipation. Our small United Nations team was about to undertake a surprise inspection of three airfields in eastern Congo, notorious for smuggling operations.
With the backing of U.N. peacekeeping forces and a U.N. Security Council mandate, we searched almost every incoming and outgoing aircraft that day. By evening, we had the evidence…
TO A NEW ARMS TRADE TREATY
SPECIAL TO PBS “WOMEN WAR AND PEACE”
Unchecked merchants of death are about to face a new reality… Read more
CNN OutFront: The next Viktor Bout
November 4, 2011 (CNN) – One of the world’s most notorious–and hunted–arms dealers was convicted in New York. Viktor Bout, the Russian dubbed “the Merchant of Death,” has been studied for fifteen years by Kathi Lynn Austin, who joined Erin Burnett on CNN’s OutFront.
Austin recounts the early discovery of Bout’s illicit activities in the world’s worst conflict zones, how he built an arms trafficking empire, and how similar criminal war profiteering continues apace due to the lack of international law to monitor and regulate arms transfers…
WATCH THE CNN INTERVIEW
BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT
By Kathi Lynn Austin – SPECIAL TO CNN
Beyond a reasonable doubt: That Viktor Bout was one of the most prolific arms traffickers in the post-Cold War area…Read full CNN blog
VIKTOR BOUT: GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS
At courthouse as jury returns verdict on “Merchant of Death” arms trafficker Viktor Bout: GUILTY ON ALL CHARGES. End of era for one of the world’s most prolific traffickers, a billion-dollar profiteer on human misery. All 4 counts guilty.
Trial documents and updates
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Viktor Bout & arms-smuggling planes
By Kathi Lynn Austin – Special to CNN
There were three chilling moments for me during the final week of Viktor Bout’s trial — and they all had something to do with airplanes…
READ FULL BLOG ON CNN.COM
Viktor Bout’s Formula for War
By Kathi Lynn Austin
Amid the clanking of teacups, sitting on a blue couch in the Mezzanine area of the swank Hotel Sofitel in Bangkok, Viktor Bout shares a recipe.
The concoction appeals to Carlos Sagastume, seated next to Bout on the couch. As a DEA confidential source, he continuously prompts Bout to reveal all the secret ingredients.
If Carlos can get Bout to describe the preparation in full, he stands to earn over $7 million dollars. This is the amount Carlos, a former Guatemala military officer involved in cocaine trafficking, earned for his role in a previous DEA sting operation in which he acted as a confidential informant.
Within several hours, Carlos gets what he is after. It is Bout’s special recipe for disaster—a formula that packs a lot of punch for enabling and fueling war… READ MORE
Cold War Redux: The trial of the alleged “Merchant of Death”
By Kathi Lynn Austin – SPECIAL TO CNN
A former KGB official residing in Moscow who says he has “friends” in high places in Russia?
Who is the real Viktor Bout?
The ultimate capitalist, who once had the world’s largest arms transport fleet and was contracted by the U.S. Pentagon during the Iraq War?
Or a puppet on the international stage in a show trial reenacting the Cold War?
There is no denying the tug of war between the Russia and the U.S. during the extradition battle in the Thai courts. The process was prolonged as both countries flexed their muscle and weighed in heavily. Hence, Bout was not extradited to the U.S. until November 2010, despite his arrest in a Thai hotel in March 2008.
But the back story is far more complicated… Click here to read more
Arms and The Investigator
By Kathi Lynn Austin
The long awaited trial for the world’s most notorious weapons smuggler, Viktor Bout, will begin this morning at 10:00 am in the Federal Courthouse for the U.S. Southern District of New York. I’ll arrive early, before the TV journalists set up their cameras and the court reporters bound up the courthouse stairs to take their seats in the gallery. Today is a milestone in the battle against war profiteers, and I want to be there from the start to catch every moment unfolding before me.
Two decades ago, I chose to become an investigator in the public interest. Working for human rights groups and the United Nations as an arms trafficking expert, I’ve documented Viktor Bout’s smuggling activities for fifteen years, beginning with his activities in Rwanda, the Congo (then Zaire) and Angola…
Read the complete blog at http://trackingbout.posterous.com
VIKTOR BOUT TRIAL BEGINS
On the opening day of the Viktor Bout trial in New York, Executive Director Kathi Lynn Austin appears on CNN talking about unregulated arms traffickers.
MEDIA CONFERENCE
Executive Director Kathi Lynn Austin joined a group of experts in an Oxfam-hosted Teleconference calling for stronger global regulations on arms brokers ahead of the Viktor Bout trial in New York.
INVESTIGATORS ROUNDTABLE IN BRUSSELS
Executive Director Kathi Lynn Austin in Brussels for a roundtable sponsored by the Open Society Fund on What Hurts: Does Investigative Reporting Really Deter Corruption.
HUMAN RIGHTS CONFERENCE
Executive Director Kathi Lynn Austin participates in keynote talk on Philanthropy, New Media and Human Rights at the International Human Rights Funders Group Semi-Annual Conference in San Francisco.
CORPORATE WAR CRIMES/PILLAGE CONFERENCE
Executive Director Kathi Lynn Austin and Director of Communications and Strategic Development Greg Hittelman participate in Conference on Corporate War Crimes: Prosecuting Pillage of Natural Resources in The Hague, Netherlands. http://www.pillageconference.org
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