Russian "Merchant of Death" still held in Thailand.(Inside Track)(Viktor Bout)

For more than a decade and a half, Viktor Bout has been fueling the most savage wars and terrorist operations in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East with guns, bombs, tanks, missiles, and munitions. Notorious as the "Merchant of Death," his scores of Russian cargo planes have ferried untold tons of armaments from Russia and Ukraine to bloody conflicts in Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Congo, Rwanda, Sudan, the Philippines, Afghanistan, and the Balkans. Sometimes Bout has armed both sides (or multiple sides) in these frequently genocidal rampages, operating through a constantly changing array of shell companies based in Russia and the United Arab Emirates. He is said to be the "inspiration" for the arms dealer portrayed by Nicolas Cage in the 2005 film Lord of War.

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On March 6, Viktor Bout was arrested by Thai police in Bangkok, in a sting operation set up by U.S. DEA agents. An indictment announced by the U.S. Justice Department on May 6 charges Bout with conspiring to kill Americans and conspiring to sell missiles, arms, and munitions to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a communist narco-terror group.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who for years provided ...