美国国家公共电台 NPR--Jailed arms dealer Bout, 'the Merchant of Death,' may be swapped for 2 Americans

Jailed arms dealer¹ Bout², 'the Merchant of Death,' may be swapped³ for 2 Americans

Transcript⁴

Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer imprisoned⁵ in Illinois, could be key to securing the freedom of Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan, two Americans who are being held in Russia.

A MARTINEZ, HOST:

WNBA star Brittney Griner went back to court today in Moscow. It's been a month since her trial began on drug charges that could carry a penalty as high as 10 years in prison. U.S. government, meanwhile, is negotiating for Griner's freedom and that of another American, former U.S. Marine⁶ Paul Whelan. The Biden administration insists both Griner and Whelan are wrongfully held, but officials have offered to trade a notorious arms dealer for their release. Viktor Bout was arrested in a sting operation in Bangkok by DEA agents posing as weapons buyers, and he's serving 25 years for conspiring⁷ to kill Americans and providing aid to terrorists. NPR's Michael Sullivan takes a closer look.

MICHAEL SULLIVAN, BYLINE⁸: Viktor Bout has now spent more than a decade in a federal prison in Marion, Ill. But for nearly two decades before his arrest, Bout was perhaps the most successful arms dealer in the world.

DOUGLAS FARAH: He came out of the Russian intelligence services after having spent time in Africa and as the Soviet⁹ Union sort of disintegrated¹⁰. He had a vision that no one else really did.

SULLIVAN: Douglas Farah is co-author of a 2007 book about Bout called "Merchant Of Death." That vision, he says, was realizing there were lots of idled planes all over the former Soviet Union and huge stocks of weapons no longer being guarded because the guards weren't getting paid.

FARAH: And he saw the possibility of marrying those two things to feed the wars around Africa and elsewhere that were still raging. And there were clients lining¹¹ up to buy these weapons. And he simply realized he could make a lot of money marrying those two products together and providing a service that people wanted.

SULLIVAN: His exploits became the stuff of fiction - the 2005 Nicolas Cage movie "Lord Of War" based loosely on Bout's life.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "LORD OF WAR")

NICOLAS CAGE: (As Yuri Orlov) Selling guns is like selling vacuum cleaners. You make calls, pound the pavement, take orders. I was an equal-opportunity merchant of death. I supplied every army but the Salvation¹² Army.

SULLIVAN: The real-life Viktor Bout, Farah says, armed Charles Taylor in Liberia, Mobutu in Zaire and Savimbi in Angola. He armed the Taliban and Hezbollah, as well. And here's the thing, says Farah, Bout often supplied arms to both sides in a conflict at the same time.

FARAH: He was essentially¹³ a one-stop shop for them. They could come. He would deliver them. He would take care of the paperwork. And the reason - when I asked people for the book, why didn't one side or the other in the same conflict kill him? And why - you know, why would you allow the man to arm your enemy? And the one guy said, you know, you don't ever shoot the mailman. You know, he was the postman. You don't shoot him. So his ability to arm both sides was not clandestine¹⁴. It was fairly overt¹⁵.

SULLIVAN: And, Farah told me, in 2009, Bout counted among his clients the U.S. Department of Defense¹⁶, which used his planes in the war in Iraq.

FARAH: One of the problems U.S. contractors¹⁷ were having is that no one would sell them insurance to fly into Baghdad in the middle of a war. And Viktor Bout had no concerns about insurance. He kept flying, even as the Treasury¹⁸ Department in the United States was ratcheting up a series of sanctions on him and his companies. He would simply switch the names of his companies and keep flying into Iraq, where the military was happy to use him. And we calculated in our book that he flew well over a thousand missions for the United States.

SULLIVAN: But that relationship ended in 2007, and the U.S. DEA saw an opportunity - luring¹⁹ Bout to Bangkok, using agents posing as Colombian guerrillas looking to buy weapons. They'd used a similar trick with another arms dealer just a few years before.

Then-DEA Operations Chief Michael Braun.

MICHAEL BRAUN: The more we looked at it, the more we thought about it, we just felt strongly that Viktor Bout would not, in his wildest imagination, believe we would use the same scenario²⁰ twice. So we rolled the dice²¹, and it worked out in our favor.

SULLIVAN: But they had to get Bout back to the U.S. first, and that took time because Russia was lobbying Bangkok hard to get Bout home. There was even a Free Viktor icon²² on a Russian military website at the time. In our 2009 interview, former DEA Ops Chief Braun was clear about what he believed would happen if bout went home to Russia.

BRAUN: There's no doubt in my mind he'll be back doing what, you know, he does best and that is arm the potpourri²³ of global scum with weapons that they need to keep their criminal enterprises and insurgent²⁴ and terrorist movements operational.

SULLIVAN: The Thais extradited Bout to the U.S. instead, where he was convicted in 2011 and sentenced to 25 years, even as Russia kept trying to win his release.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (Speaking Russian).

SULLIVAN: Russian state-run media continues to insist that the case against Bout was politically motivated. He's now almost 12 years into his sentence.

SHIRA SCHEINDLIN: I believe he's already served sufficient time for the crime for which he was sentenced.

SULLIVAN: That's Shira Scheindlin, the former U.S. district judge who sentenced Bout. She's now in private practice doing international and domestic arbitration²⁵. She told me last week she saw Bout as a businessman, not a terrorist, and probably would have given him a lighter²⁶ sentence if not bound by mandatory²⁷ minimum sentencing guidelines less than a decade after the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

SCHEINDLIN: A lot of folks sell arms. A lot of Americans sell arms. So in that sense, I saw him as a businessman in the business of international arms trafficking, but not really, himself, a ideological²⁸ terrorist. He had no ideology²⁹.

SULLIVAN: Bout's supporters say his confession³⁰ was coerced³¹. Former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who's already served more than three years in a Russian prison, says he was set up by Russian secret police, sentenced to 16 years for espionage³² for a crime he didn't commit. Brittney Griner has pleaded guilty to having a small amount of hash oil in her suitcase, but says packing it was a mistake. Former Judge Scheindlin says swapping³³ both for Bout would be a good deal.

SCHEINDLIN: I would not have felt that way if it was just a one-on-one for Ms. Griner because she almost did nothing. What she did wouldn't even be a prosecutable³⁴ offense³⁵ here. It wouldn't even warrant an hour in jail. So it would be very disproportionate. But if we get the two back, I think that's proportionate.

SULLIVAN: But, she says, there's a caveat³⁶.

SCHEINDLIN: All of that said, these trades are always problematic because there's a risk that it encourages a foreign country to grab Americans wrongly in order to make a trade. So that's always a risk. But nonetheless, countries do it to get back their own citizens, and they should.

SULLIVAN: It's a risk the Biden administration has apparently³⁷ decided³⁸ it's willing to take if Russia really wants Bout back.

Michael Sullivan, NPR News, Chiang Rai, Thailand.

(SOUNDBITE OF AMON TOBIN'S "EASY MUFFIN")

1 dealer   

n.商人，贩子

参考例句：

• The dealer spent hours bargaining for the painting.那个商人为购买那幅画花了几个小时讨价还价。
• The dealer reduced the price for cash down.这家商店对付现金的人减价优惠。

2 bout   

n.侵袭，发作；一次(阵，回)；拳击等比赛

参考例句：

• I was suffering with a bout of nerves.我感到一阵紧张。
• That bout of pneumonia enfeebled her.那次肺炎的发作使她虚弱了。

3 swapped   

交换（工作）( swap的过去式和过去分词 )； 用…替换，把…换成，掉换（过来）

参考例句：

• I liked her coat and she liked mine, so we swapped. 我喜欢她的外套，她喜欢我的外套，于是我们就交换了。
• At half-time the manager swapped some of the players around. 经理在半场时把几名队员换下了场。

4 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

5 imprisoned   

下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was imprisoned for two concurrent terms of 30 months and 18 months. 他被判处30个月和18个月的监禁，合并执行。
• They were imprisoned for possession of drugs. 他们因拥有毒品而被监禁。

6 marine   

adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵

参考例句：

• Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

7 conspiring   

密谋( conspire的现在分词 )； 搞阴谋； （事件等）巧合； 共同导致

参考例句：

• They were accused of conspiring against the king. 他们被指控阴谋反对国王。
• John Brown and his associates were tried for conspiring to overthrow the slave states. 约翰·布朗和他的合伙者们由于密谋推翻实行奴隶制度的美国各州而被审讯。

8 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

9 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

10 disintegrated   

v.（使）破裂[分裂，粉碎]，（使）崩溃( disintegrate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The plane disintegrated as it fell into the sea. 飞机坠入大海时解体了。
• The box was so old;it just disintegrated when I picked it up. 那箱子太破旧了，我刚一提就散了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 lining   

n.衬里，衬料

参考例句：

• The lining of my coat is torn.我的外套衬里破了。
• Moss makes an attractive lining to wire baskets.用苔藓垫在铁丝篮里很漂亮。

12 salvation   

n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困

参考例句：

• Salvation lay in political reform.解救办法在于政治改革。
• Christians hope and pray for salvation.基督教徒希望并祈祷灵魂得救。

13 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

14 clandestine   

adj.秘密的，暗中从事的

参考例句：

• She is the director of clandestine operations of the CIA.她是中央情报局秘密行动的负责人。
• The early Christians held clandestine meetings in caves.早期的基督徒在洞穴中秘密聚会。

15 overt   

adj.公开的，明显的，公然的

参考例句：

• His opponent's intention is quite overt.他的对手的意图很明显。
• We should learn to fight with enemy in an overt and covert way.我们应学会同敌人做公开和隐蔽的斗争。

16 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

17 contractors   

n.（建筑、监造中的）承包人( contractor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We got estimates from three different contractors before accepting the lowest. 我们得到3个承包商的报价后，接受了最低的报价。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Contractors winning construction jobs had to kick back 2 per cent of the contract price to the mafia. 赢得建筑工作的承包商得抽出合同价格的百分之二的回扣给黑手党。 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

19 luring   

吸引，引诱（lure的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

• Cheese is very good for luring a mouse into a trap. 奶酪是引诱老鼠上钩的极好的东西。
• Her training warned her of peril and of the wrong, subtle, mysterious, luring. 她的教养警告她：有危险，要出错儿，这是微妙、神秘而又诱人的。

20 scenario   

n.剧本，脚本；概要

参考例句：

• But the birth scenario is not completely accurate.然而分娩脚本并非完全准确的。
• This is a totally different scenario.这是完全不同的剧本。

21 dice   

n.骰子；vt.把（食物）切成小方块，冒险

参考例句：

• They were playing dice.他们在玩掷骰子游戏。
• A dice is a cube.骰子是立方体。

22 icon   

n.偶像，崇拜的对象，画像

参考例句：

• They found an icon in the monastery.他们在修道院中发现了一个圣像。
• Click on this icon to align or justify text.点击这个图标使文本排齐。

23 potpourri   

n.混合之事物；百花香

参考例句：

• As tobacco cigarette burns,a potpourri of 4000 chemicals is released,including carbon monoxide and hydrocyanic acid.当烟被点燃时，融合了四千种化学品的气体被释放出来，其中包括一氧化碳和氢氰酸。
• Even so,there is a slight odour of potpourri emanating from Longfellow.纵然如此，也还是可以闻到来自朗费罗的一种轻微的杂烩的味道。

24 insurgent   

adj.叛乱的，起事的；n.叛乱分子

参考例句：

• Faruk says they are threatened both by insurgent and government forces.法鲁克说，他们受到暴乱分子和政府军队的双重威胁。
• The insurgent mob assembled at the gate of the city park.叛变的暴徒聚在市立公园的门口。

25 arbitration   

n.调停，仲裁

参考例句：

• The wage disagreement is under arbitration.工资纠纷正在仲裁中。
• Both sides have agreed that the arbitration will be binding.双方都赞同仲裁具有约束力。

26 lighter   

n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级

参考例句：

• The portrait was touched up so as to make it lighter.这张画经过润色，色调明朗了一些。
• The lighter works off the car battery.引燃器利用汽车蓄电池打火。

27 mandatory   

adj.命令的；强制的；义务的；n.受托者

参考例句：

• It's mandatory to pay taxes.缴税是义务性的。
• There is no mandatory paid annual leave in the U.S.美国没有强制带薪年假。

28 ideological   

a.意识形态的

参考例句：

• He always tries to link his study with his ideological problems. 他总是把学习和自己的思想问题联系起来。
• He helped me enormously with advice on how to do ideological work. 他告诉我怎样做思想工作，对我有很大帮助。

29 ideology   

n.意识形态，(政治或社会的)思想意识

参考例句：

• The ideology has great influence in the world.这种思想体系在世界上有很大的影响。
• The ideal is to strike a medium between ideology and inspiration.我的理想是在意识思想和灵感鼓动之间找到一个折衷。

30 confession   

n.自白，供认，承认

参考例句：

• Her confession was simply tantamount to a casual explanation.她的自白简直等于一篇即席说明。
• The police used torture to extort a confession from him.警察对他用刑逼供。

31 coerced   

v.迫使做( coerce的过去式和过去分词 )；强迫；（以武力、惩罚、威胁等手段）控制；支配

参考例句：

• They were coerced into negotiating a settlement. 他们被迫通过谈判解决。
• He was coerced into making a confession. 他被迫招供。 来自《简明英汉词典》

32 espionage   

n.间谍行为，谍报活动

参考例句：

• The authorities have arrested several people suspected of espionage.官方已经逮捕了几个涉嫌从事间谍活动的人。
• Neither was there any hint of espionage in Hanley's early life.汉利的早期生活也毫无进行间谍活动的迹象。

33 swapping   

交换，交换技术

参考例句：

• The slow swapping and buying of horses went on. 马匹的买卖和交换就是这样慢慢地进行着。
• He was quite keen on swapping books with friends. 他非常热衷于和朋友们交换书籍。

34 prosecutable   

[法] 可提起公诉的

参考例句：

35 offense   

n.犯规，违法行为；冒犯，得罪

参考例句：

• I hope you will not take any offense at my words. 对我讲的话请别见怪。
• His words gave great offense to everybody present.他的发言冲犯了在场的所有人。

36 caveat   

n.警告； 防止误解的说明

参考例句：

• I would offer a caveat for those who want to join me in the dual calling.为防止发生误解，我想对那些想要步我后尘的人提出警告。
• As I have written before,that's quite a caveat.正如我以前所写，那确实是个警告。

37 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

38 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。