Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Who Is More Likely To Sell Guns To Dictators?

In constant 1990 U.S. dollars. Source: 2012 SIPRI Arms Transfers Database

Gun Runner No. 1 -- Joshua Keating, War & Ideas

One of the most infamous moments of the bloody uprising that followed Zimbabwe's disputed 2008 election was the so-called "ship of shame" -- a Chinese freighter discovered carrying small arms, rocket-propelled grenades, and mortars to Robert Mugabe's landlocked regime. Zimbabwe's neighbors denied the ship docking rights, but the incident only reinforced the perception that China has become the arms dealer of choice for Africa's most brutal thugs, whether aged tyrants like Mugabe or the genocidal dictatorship in Sudan.

But this image may not be entirely fair: When it comes to selling guns to shady regimes, the United States is still firmly No. 1.

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My Comment: And they put Viktor Bout in jail for doing far less.

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