Saturday, May 13, 2006
(UN-11)007: Licence to Kill
Friday, April 08, 2005
(UN-11)007: Licence to Kill
Remember (Wave of Boutery) that Antonov 12 full of "fish" that crashed in al-Riyan, Yemen, flying for an airline that didn't exist? I was pretty sure it was one of Viktor Bout's, but I couldn't be certain. Now, I am. The Aviation Safety Network reports that the aircraft involved was none other than UN-11007, serial no. 9346509 not a stranger to these pages and a veteran of Air Bas, Irbis Air, Air Cess and GST Aerocompany. See (below) this post from May 2004 and also this one from December 2004 (See below) . It also appears in a photo taken in Sharjah in January 2004 in a lineup between two other exactly identical Antonov 12s all belonging to different and supposedly independent, as well as suspicious, companies.
At the other end of the pipe, AllAfrica gives some background on those "fish" and the flow of arms through Mwanza, Tanzania (where the last Boutjet crashed) to the DRC. As Bob Dylan put it, who will revoke his licence to kill? At this rate, it looks like carelessness is candidate no.1...
Original: http://yorkshire-ranter.blogspot.com/2005/04/un-11007-licence-to-kill.html
____________________________________________________________________________________
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
And what about Air Bas?
Another of those fuel contracts was signed with Air Bas Transportation, UAE. The only address given is a Sharjah PO box number (8299), and the billing details are the same. Oddly enough, the DODAAC contract is number TBTC02. The British Gulf one is TBTC03! Now, the best known Bout airline, Air Cess, was made to disappear during 2001, no doubt in order to conceal the ownership of its assets. Many of its activities continued under the new title Air Bas. In fact, most of its fleet were stripped of their (minimal) markings and re-registered to get them off the Kazakh registry, before they re-appeared in Air Bas titles and new regs. Especially interesting is the history of an An-12, serial no. 9346509 that worked for Cess under the Kazakh registration UN-11007, and was also registered to "GST AeroCompany" under the same reg. It then re-appeared as an Air Bas-er registered 3C-00Z. The significance is that, although BGIA is a recent development, Bas has never been anything other than "Stadtbekannt" or "known to the city" as a sheister outfit. This defeats any claim of ignorance.
It will come as no surprise that they are also connected with British Gulf. And - as a starter for 10 - I wonder who Sky Traffic Facilitators of Sharjah, contract no. TBTC01, are? They appear to be a charter broker based in Sharjah. And the contact given for them by Air Cargo World is one Kirill Pilgorov. Strange, given that Kirill is better known as a Russian movie star.
Original: http://yorkshire-ranter.blogspot.com/2004/05/and-what-about-air-bas.html
___________________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Bout: The Story Blows Wide Open
Newsweek has blasted the Viktor Bout scandal wide open, at long last. Key message:
"In an effort to crack down on one of the world's most notorious international criminals, President George W. Bush last summer signed an order barring U.S. citizens from doing business with Russian arms trafficker Victor Bout. But not long afterward, U.S. officials discovered Bout's tentacles were wider than anticipated: for much of this year, NEWSWEEK has learned, a Texas charter firm allegedly controlled by Bout was making repeated flights to Iraq—courtesy of a Pentagon contract allowing it to refuel at U.S. military bases. One reason for the flights, sources say, was that the firm was flying on behalf of Kellogg Brown & Root, the division of Halliburton hired to rebuild Iraq's oilfields."
Halliburton and Bout both, eh? That's something like a Bush administration perfect storm. I certainly didn't think it would be anything that obvious when I published details of the fuel purchase agreement that the Newsweek article is built on, back in May. (If you want a quick rundown, this post contains a summary and links to all the Bout content pre-28th September. Since then, we've also published picture of one of his planes in Baghdad,this report on suspicious aircraft, and this slab of speculation on his activities in Rwanda.) Apparently Air Bas have been landing some five times a week at various points in Iraq, running ammunition. It's just what we've been saying all along. The Newsweek guy seems to have looked up Richard Chichakli, Viktor's accountant and financial manager, who is known to read this weblog occasionally (Hi!), who confirms a past story that the UAE-based company Falcon Express had passed a contract on to Bas.
Falcon Express, a small operation with four Beech 1900s based in Dubai, has been said for some time to be operating an Antonov 12 and an Ilyushin 76 for bigger loads. TO clarify a little, we will have to go through the names. Here goes. During the summer, a new set of names in the scandal appeared. As well as British Gulf International and Air Bas, we now began to hear of "Jetline" and "Skylink". I initially thought that the Jetline was Jetline International, a former charter broking company now supposedly operating VIP flights for Sin-Sad community governments. Several of the aircraft on its books have a history with Bout, especially the Il-62 5A-DKT which has been reported under the registration 3C-QQR with Jetline, two other regs with Air Bas and now its current registration back at Jetline. Further, a BAC111 registered 3C-QRF is said to be operated for none other than Chichakli's San Air General Trading.
Other investigators, especially the excellent Douglas Farah, concentrated on SkyLink Air & Logistics, a large Canadian firm that operates airports in war-zone reconstruction. It has a subsidiary called Jet Line, that operates Ilyushin 76 aircraft out of Moldova (a previous Bout base). SkyLink operate Baghdad Airport. Surely these were they? But there is also another Skylink, Skylink Express, based in Russia. One of its aircraft, An-12BP serial number 1347909, is currently operating for GST Aero, a dubious Kazakh-registry outfit based (where else?) in Sharjah. It previously worked for a string of more or less dodgy companies in Angola and the DRC. (Oh, and the UN, who seem to hire aircraft from the Bout empire more often than suggests due care and attention.) Throughout its wanderings, though, two things have been constant - a lack of identifying titles, and an Aeroflot callsign, although it hasn't been part of the Russian flag carrier for years. One Il-76 photographed in Baghdad and Mosul is registered to a "private operator" in Sao Tome and Principe but based in Sharjah - where, on the 17th of February, 2004, shortly after being seen in Mosul in December 2003 and Baghdad on the 24th of January, 2004, all traces of "Skylink" were removed. 9L-LEC was in town on the same day, as was UN-11007, a veteran of Boutcos Irbis Air and - Air Bas!
You could rapidly lose track of these things. Of course, that's exactly the reason for this intrigue and complexity. None of the aircraft above appear directly on Air Bas's official roster, but we know from the fuel records that it's them. Perhaps the fact that Bas has a US corporate registration in Texas made it a favourable figurehead for operations in Iraq - it's more reassuring than - say - Kyrgyzstan or Sao Tome and Principe, even if the planes are registered in either Equatorial Guinea or Kazakhstan and based in the UAE. It's going to be very interesting to see what gets shaken out of the story now Big Media are on the case. Still, they had their chance back in May. Both the Financial Times and Le Monde had at least bits of the story - the French were even the first to put a name to the suspects - but it seems that neither of them Googled "British Gulf International Airlines" when Le Monde printed it, which would have given them the fuel contracts and a king-hell scoop.
Original: http://yorkshire-ranter.blogspot.com/2004/12/bout-story-blows-wide-open.html
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, September 28, 2004
Viktor Bout aircraft in Kabul - 16th July 2003
One of British Gulf's Antonov 12s, registration EX-161, serial number 5343305 was photographed in Kabul on the 16th of July, 2003. Close examination of the photo gives the impression that the registration and titles were newly added. What significance the aircraft's name, "Fatima" (signwritten on the nose) has is currently unknown.
Click Here to view the photo
The image itself will be visible once arranged with the photographer.
LINK and alternate comments posted by Alex : 10:18 AM
1 comment
Finally, print media discover the Viktor Bout story
Back, back, way back when, I did some research following up reports in the Financial Times and Le Monde that the US Government had been putting pressure on the UK to help keep gun-runner Viktor Bout off a UN asset freeze list, apparently because he had done the state some service in Iraq. It only took a little Googling and thought to discover a list of fuel supply contracts issued by the US Department of Defence's Defence Energy Support Centre that demonstrated conclusively that at least two (Air Bas and British Gulf International Airlines) and possibly a third Bout-related airlines were indeed working for the US Government. Applying the rules contained in the DOD instruction manual for these contracts, I was able to interpret the contract identification numbers (DODAACs), which showed that they were of the type used for supplying contractors on government service (a "T" DoDAAC) with fuel provided on credit at US Air Force bases. The first post, from the 21st of May, is here. Only some two other bloggers - Laura Rozen of War and Piece and Douglas Farah at link have picked up on the story. Farah, in particular, has moved the story on several times.
Today, it seems the print media are finally catching up. (After all, they could have Googled back in May and basked in the glory all summer, but..) US magazine Mother Jones is running a comprehensive story on the involvement of the US with Air Bas, in which they quote Bout's financial advisor, Texan accountant Richard Chichakli, as confirming the existence of US-Bout contracts. Richard tends to give good quote, as anyone who fossicks through my comments threads on the Bout issue will discover, and he was no different for Mother Jones:
"Victor said if anybody calls you, unless it’s Jesus himself, with an ID, don’t bring him to me"
Hmm...not at all rattled, then. Farah, for his part, has produced a long post giving detail of the TBTC-series fuel contracts (but no new information compared to my original posting, here) and, interestingly, claiming to have other documents placing Bout aircraft at various locations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The rest of the Bout posts are: 1st June, 4th June, 7th June, 8th June, 1st July, 24th July, 6th August, 9th August, 13th August, 21st August, 20th September and 26th September. Don't I wish this blog had a categorisation function like the Movable Type boys.
Despite further efforts and the valuable aid of several readers, I still have not been able to clarify why the US needed Viktor Bout's services. Interestingly, though, I have recently found a photo placing one of British Gulf's Antonov 12s in Kabul in July, 2003. (Edit: links restored)
Original: http://yorkshire-ranter.blogspot.com/2004_09_01_yorkshire-ranter_archive.html#109636299511743704
____________________________________________________________________________________
Sunday, October 03, 2004
Baghdad - 24th January, 2004. A giant Russian transport..
..rolls out at the US-run airport, with its Australian air traffic controllers and piles of junked Iraqi aircraft, high-security PX store and high-value detainee camp. The aircraft was an Ilyushin Il-76MD, serial number 83485313, registered S9-DAE and carrying the markings of an airline called Skylink. S9- is the international registration prefix for Sao Tome and Principe, a tiny island off West Africa that was also host to the now notorious British Gulf International Airlines until all its staff and assets transferred to a new registry, that of Kyrgyzstan. Strangely, through all this, the firm's base and offices remained right where they had been - in Sharjah.
Strangely, though, I can find no record of the aircraft ever being registered to Skylink, the name it proudly bore if not in very big letters. Neither does an Antonov An-12, registered 9L-LEC (Sierra Leone registry, dear God), that is also placed in Baghdad during January 2004 - perhaps not surprising, as the name appears to be signwritten using black gaffer tape or similar on this machine. This may begin to explain the third of the US Department of Defence fuel contracts at the heart of the story. Did contract no. TBTC01, to "Sky Traffic Facilitators" of Sharjah, cover the "Skylink" aircraft?
As another contribution to the mess, is it not curious that Iraqi Airways is operating a Boeing 737 registered in Sierra Leone (9L-LEG), leased from a Jordanian firm and previously owned by Trans Air Congo - also previous operators of 9L-LEC?
Original: http://yorkshire-ranter.blogspot.com/2004_10_01_yorkshire-ranter_archive.html#109681822138399372
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Sunday, November 28, 2004
Bout and the upcoming Rwandan invasion of the Congo
The Observer reports on the gathering threat of another Rwandan intervention in the DRC. Back in June, I reported that just as fighting broke out anew in eastern Congo, one of Viktor Bout's aircraft had shown up in Kigali. (Linky) It's no surprise to notice this key paragraph, then:
"n the towns of Walikale and Rubaya soldiers of the Rassemblement Congolais Pour la Démocratie, or RCD-Goma, Rwanda's proxy force in eastern Congo, transferred sacks of the minerals cassiterite and tantalite to lorries bound for airstrips from which jets shuttled to Kigali"
A source who regularly comments here mentioned at the time that the Kenyan arms dealer and Bout intimate Sanjivan Ruprah is a relation of the RCD's leader.
Original: http://yorkshire-ranter.blogspot.com/2004_11_01_yorkshireranter_archive.html#110167081825344875
_____________________________________________________________________________________
(UN-11)007: Licence to Kill
Remember (Wave of Boutery) that Antonov 12 full of "fish" that crashed in al-Riyan, Yemen, flying for an airline that didn't exist? I was pretty sure it was one of Viktor Bout's, but I couldn't be certain. Now, I am. The Aviation Safety Network reports that the aircraft involved was none other than UN-11007, serial no. 9346509 not a stranger to these pages and a veteran of Air Bas, Irbis Air, Air Cess and GST Aerocompany. See (below) this post from May 2004 and also this one from December 2004 (See below) . It also appears in a photo taken in Sharjah in January 2004 in a lineup between two other exactly identical Antonov 12s all belonging to different and supposedly independent, as well as suspicious, companies.
At the other end of the pipe, AllAfrica gives some background on those "fish" and the flow of arms through Mwanza, Tanzania (where the last Boutjet crashed) to the DRC. As Bob Dylan put it, who will revoke his licence to kill? At this rate, it looks like carelessness is candidate no.1...
Original: http://yorkshire-ranter.blogspot.com/2005/04/un-11007-licence-to-kill.html
____________________________________________________________________________________
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
And what about Air Bas?
Another of those fuel contracts was signed with Air Bas Transportation, UAE. The only address given is a Sharjah PO box number (8299), and the billing details are the same. Oddly enough, the DODAAC contract is number TBTC02. The British Gulf one is TBTC03! Now, the best known Bout airline, Air Cess, was made to disappear during 2001, no doubt in order to conceal the ownership of its assets. Many of its activities continued under the new title Air Bas. In fact, most of its fleet were stripped of their (minimal) markings and re-registered to get them off the Kazakh registry, before they re-appeared in Air Bas titles and new regs. Especially interesting is the history of an An-12, serial no. 9346509 that worked for Cess under the Kazakh registration UN-11007, and was also registered to "GST AeroCompany" under the same reg. It then re-appeared as an Air Bas-er registered 3C-00Z. The significance is that, although BGIA is a recent development, Bas has never been anything other than "Stadtbekannt" or "known to the city" as a sheister outfit. This defeats any claim of ignorance.
It will come as no surprise that they are also connected with British Gulf. And - as a starter for 10 - I wonder who Sky Traffic Facilitators of Sharjah, contract no. TBTC01, are? They appear to be a charter broker based in Sharjah. And the contact given for them by Air Cargo World is one Kirill Pilgorov. Strange, given that Kirill is better known as a Russian movie star.
Original: http://yorkshire-ranter.blogspot.com/2004/05/and-what-about-air-bas.html
___________________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Bout: The Story Blows Wide Open
Newsweek has blasted the Viktor Bout scandal wide open, at long last. Key message:
"In an effort to crack down on one of the world's most notorious international criminals, President George W. Bush last summer signed an order barring U.S. citizens from doing business with Russian arms trafficker Victor Bout. But not long afterward, U.S. officials discovered Bout's tentacles were wider than anticipated: for much of this year, NEWSWEEK has learned, a Texas charter firm allegedly controlled by Bout was making repeated flights to Iraq—courtesy of a Pentagon contract allowing it to refuel at U.S. military bases. One reason for the flights, sources say, was that the firm was flying on behalf of Kellogg Brown & Root, the division of Halliburton hired to rebuild Iraq's oilfields."
Halliburton and Bout both, eh? That's something like a Bush administration perfect storm. I certainly didn't think it would be anything that obvious when I published details of the fuel purchase agreement that the Newsweek article is built on, back in May. (If you want a quick rundown, this post contains a summary and links to all the Bout content pre-28th September. Since then, we've also published picture of one of his planes in Baghdad,this report on suspicious aircraft, and this slab of speculation on his activities in Rwanda.) Apparently Air Bas have been landing some five times a week at various points in Iraq, running ammunition. It's just what we've been saying all along. The Newsweek guy seems to have looked up Richard Chichakli, Viktor's accountant and financial manager, who is known to read this weblog occasionally (Hi!), who confirms a past story that the UAE-based company Falcon Express had passed a contract on to Bas.
Falcon Express, a small operation with four Beech 1900s based in Dubai, has been said for some time to be operating an Antonov 12 and an Ilyushin 76 for bigger loads. TO clarify a little, we will have to go through the names. Here goes. During the summer, a new set of names in the scandal appeared. As well as British Gulf International and Air Bas, we now began to hear of "Jetline" and "Skylink". I initially thought that the Jetline was Jetline International, a former charter broking company now supposedly operating VIP flights for Sin-Sad community governments. Several of the aircraft on its books have a history with Bout, especially the Il-62 5A-DKT which has been reported under the registration 3C-QQR with Jetline, two other regs with Air Bas and now its current registration back at Jetline. Further, a BAC111 registered 3C-QRF is said to be operated for none other than Chichakli's San Air General Trading.
Other investigators, especially the excellent Douglas Farah, concentrated on SkyLink Air & Logistics, a large Canadian firm that operates airports in war-zone reconstruction. It has a subsidiary called Jet Line, that operates Ilyushin 76 aircraft out of Moldova (a previous Bout base). SkyLink operate Baghdad Airport. Surely these were they? But there is also another Skylink, Skylink Express, based in Russia. One of its aircraft, An-12BP serial number 1347909, is currently operating for GST Aero, a dubious Kazakh-registry outfit based (where else?) in Sharjah. It previously worked for a string of more or less dodgy companies in Angola and the DRC. (Oh, and the UN, who seem to hire aircraft from the Bout empire more often than suggests due care and attention.) Throughout its wanderings, though, two things have been constant - a lack of identifying titles, and an Aeroflot callsign, although it hasn't been part of the Russian flag carrier for years. One Il-76 photographed in Baghdad and Mosul is registered to a "private operator" in Sao Tome and Principe but based in Sharjah - where, on the 17th of February, 2004, shortly after being seen in Mosul in December 2003 and Baghdad on the 24th of January, 2004, all traces of "Skylink" were removed. 9L-LEC was in town on the same day, as was UN-11007, a veteran of Boutcos Irbis Air and - Air Bas!
You could rapidly lose track of these things. Of course, that's exactly the reason for this intrigue and complexity. None of the aircraft above appear directly on Air Bas's official roster, but we know from the fuel records that it's them. Perhaps the fact that Bas has a US corporate registration in Texas made it a favourable figurehead for operations in Iraq - it's more reassuring than - say - Kyrgyzstan or Sao Tome and Principe, even if the planes are registered in either Equatorial Guinea or Kazakhstan and based in the UAE. It's going to be very interesting to see what gets shaken out of the story now Big Media are on the case. Still, they had their chance back in May. Both the Financial Times and Le Monde had at least bits of the story - the French were even the first to put a name to the suspects - but it seems that neither of them Googled "British Gulf International Airlines" when Le Monde printed it, which would have given them the fuel contracts and a king-hell scoop.
Original: http://yorkshire-ranter.blogspot.com/2004/12/bout-story-blows-wide-open.html
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, September 28, 2004
Viktor Bout aircraft in Kabul - 16th July 2003
One of British Gulf's Antonov 12s, registration EX-161, serial number 5343305 was photographed in Kabul on the 16th of July, 2003. Close examination of the photo gives the impression that the registration and titles were newly added. What significance the aircraft's name, "Fatima" (signwritten on the nose) has is currently unknown.
Click Here to view the photo
The image itself will be visible once arranged with the photographer.
LINK and alternate comments posted by Alex : 10:18 AM
1 comment
Finally, print media discover the Viktor Bout story
Back, back, way back when, I did some research following up reports in the Financial Times and Le Monde that the US Government had been putting pressure on the UK to help keep gun-runner Viktor Bout off a UN asset freeze list, apparently because he had done the state some service in Iraq. It only took a little Googling and thought to discover a list of fuel supply contracts issued by the US Department of Defence's Defence Energy Support Centre that demonstrated conclusively that at least two (Air Bas and British Gulf International Airlines) and possibly a third Bout-related airlines were indeed working for the US Government. Applying the rules contained in the DOD instruction manual for these contracts, I was able to interpret the contract identification numbers (DODAACs), which showed that they were of the type used for supplying contractors on government service (a "T" DoDAAC) with fuel provided on credit at US Air Force bases. The first post, from the 21st of May, is here. Only some two other bloggers - Laura Rozen of War and Piece and Douglas Farah at link have picked up on the story. Farah, in particular, has moved the story on several times.
Today, it seems the print media are finally catching up. (After all, they could have Googled back in May and basked in the glory all summer, but..) US magazine Mother Jones is running a comprehensive story on the involvement of the US with Air Bas, in which they quote Bout's financial advisor, Texan accountant Richard Chichakli, as confirming the existence of US-Bout contracts. Richard tends to give good quote, as anyone who fossicks through my comments threads on the Bout issue will discover, and he was no different for Mother Jones:
"Victor said if anybody calls you, unless it’s Jesus himself, with an ID, don’t bring him to me"
Hmm...not at all rattled, then. Farah, for his part, has produced a long post giving detail of the TBTC-series fuel contracts (but no new information compared to my original posting, here) and, interestingly, claiming to have other documents placing Bout aircraft at various locations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The rest of the Bout posts are: 1st June, 4th June, 7th June, 8th June, 1st July, 24th July, 6th August, 9th August, 13th August, 21st August, 20th September and 26th September. Don't I wish this blog had a categorisation function like the Movable Type boys.
Despite further efforts and the valuable aid of several readers, I still have not been able to clarify why the US needed Viktor Bout's services. Interestingly, though, I have recently found a photo placing one of British Gulf's Antonov 12s in Kabul in July, 2003. (Edit: links restored)
Original: http://yorkshire-ranter.blogspot.com/2004_09_01_yorkshire-ranter_archive.html#109636299511743704
____________________________________________________________________________________
Sunday, October 03, 2004
Baghdad - 24th January, 2004. A giant Russian transport..
..rolls out at the US-run airport, with its Australian air traffic controllers and piles of junked Iraqi aircraft, high-security PX store and high-value detainee camp. The aircraft was an Ilyushin Il-76MD, serial number 83485313, registered S9-DAE and carrying the markings of an airline called Skylink. S9- is the international registration prefix for Sao Tome and Principe, a tiny island off West Africa that was also host to the now notorious British Gulf International Airlines until all its staff and assets transferred to a new registry, that of Kyrgyzstan. Strangely, through all this, the firm's base and offices remained right where they had been - in Sharjah.
Strangely, though, I can find no record of the aircraft ever being registered to Skylink, the name it proudly bore if not in very big letters. Neither does an Antonov An-12, registered 9L-LEC (Sierra Leone registry, dear God), that is also placed in Baghdad during January 2004 - perhaps not surprising, as the name appears to be signwritten using black gaffer tape or similar on this machine. This may begin to explain the third of the US Department of Defence fuel contracts at the heart of the story. Did contract no. TBTC01, to "Sky Traffic Facilitators" of Sharjah, cover the "Skylink" aircraft?
As another contribution to the mess, is it not curious that Iraqi Airways is operating a Boeing 737 registered in Sierra Leone (9L-LEG), leased from a Jordanian firm and previously owned by Trans Air Congo - also previous operators of 9L-LEC?
Original: http://yorkshire-ranter.blogspot.com/2004_10_01_yorkshire-ranter_archive.html#109681822138399372
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Sunday, November 28, 2004
Bout and the upcoming Rwandan invasion of the Congo
The Observer reports on the gathering threat of another Rwandan intervention in the DRC. Back in June, I reported that just as fighting broke out anew in eastern Congo, one of Viktor Bout's aircraft had shown up in Kigali. (Linky) It's no surprise to notice this key paragraph, then:
"n the towns of Walikale and Rubaya soldiers of the Rassemblement Congolais Pour la Démocratie, or RCD-Goma, Rwanda's proxy force in eastern Congo, transferred sacks of the minerals cassiterite and tantalite to lorries bound for airstrips from which jets shuttled to Kigali"
A source who regularly comments here mentioned at the time that the Kenyan arms dealer and Bout intimate Sanjivan Ruprah is a relation of the RCD's leader.
Original: http://yorkshire-ranter.blogspot.com/2004_11_01_yorkshireranter_archive.html#110167081825344875
_____________________________________________________________________________________
# posted by Always @ 3:24 PM 
