MERCHANT OF DEATH VIKTOR BOUT TRIAL BEGINS

MERCHANT OF DEATH?

THE alleged arms dealer dubbed the 'Merchant of Death' was described as 'maniacal' on the opening day of his trial yesterday. 
Viktor Bout stands accused of providing a massive arsenal of weapons to “kill Americans,” as part of his alleged global network of illegal arms trafficking.
Prosecutors are also claiming that he made $50 million alone from supplying weapons to the Taliban after decades of providing weapons to countries like Lybia and the Congo.   
Kathi Lynn Austin, director of the Conflict Awareness Project, who has followed Bout for 15 years called the Russian born Bout, who describes himself as a businessman, as "maniacal" as the trial started.   
She told Fox News: “Viktor Bout is one of the most maniacal individuals who has no concern for the many places in the world where he has trafficked weapons.
“We are talking about countries devastated by war, countries where American troops have been at risk, countries where terrorists are operating."
“We are talking about massive loss of human life. We are talking in the millions. These are the kind if wars that Mr. Bout has not only supplied, but has actually facilitated and initiated war.”
Bout who was busted in a 2008 during a U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency sting in Thailand is denying the charges.
On his website he says: “Victor may have violated some laws somewhere, just like we all have done sometime; however he was not that arms trafficking man presented to the public by the propaganda jockeys through the media.”
But agents claim that before the raid he agreed to sell undercover agents posing as terrorists from the FARC group in Colombia: “more than 700 surface-to-air missiles, 5,000 AK-47 assault rifles, anti-personnel landmines, C-4 explosives and literally millions of rounds of ammunition.”
The trial continues