Viktor Bout is an accused weapons dealer who was arrested by INTERPOL last year in Thailand. The Drug Enforcement Agency has been fighting to get him extradited to the United States since then. Well the Thailand court finally ruled and said no extradition will occur.
The DEA wanted him arrested because they claimed he was selling ground to air missiles to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. According to the DEA these missile could be used to target their agents working on Columbia to wipe out cocaine crops. Well Thailand doesn’t care as it’s not their fight and according to their court Mr. Bout broke no Thailand laws:
“The US charges are not applicable under Thai law,” said the judge delivering the hour-long verdict at Bangkok’s Criminal Court. “This is a political case. The Farc is fighting for a political cause and is not a criminal gang. Thailand does not recognise the Farc as a terrorist group.”
The court “does not have the authority to punish actions done by foreigners against other foreigners in another country”, the judge said.
You mean the Thailand court isn’t willing to extradite a man who is be accused of working against a foreign force in a foreign land? Man I wish the United States would learn that lesson. But I’ve been hoping Mr. Bout wouldn’t be extradited since I heard of his arrest for two major reasons.
First of all we have no business sending our people into Columbia to wage our war on drugs. The war on drugs has been a costly failure since day one and only accomplished making drug lords rich and powerful due to the fact illegal substances command a much higher value. The second reason because I don’t think the United States has any business telling people who they can sell weapons to. We sell our weapons all the time to other countries such as Iran and China. We’re are being hypocrites by saying we can sell weapons to some countries but nobody can sell weapons to countries or factions we don’t approve of.
I guess both of those reasons can be summed up by saying we have no business telling anybody outside of the United States what they can and can not do period. Especially if that person isn’t a United States citizen.