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History of Armenia 35: Sarkis Soghanalian, The Armenian Viktor Bout

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Once upon a time a Lebanese Armenian man became the CIA's #1 gun runner, this is his very strange story.

*this was recorded before Israel's invasion of Lebanon.

*it was also recorded before Viktor Bout was found to be back in business for Russia.

Sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/06/world/middleeast/sarkis-g-soghanalian-arms-dealer-dies-at-82.html

Silverstein, Ken and Daniel Burton-Rose. Private Warriors

Kahaner, Larry. AK-47: The Weapon that Changed the Face of War

Cerf and Sifry. The Iraq War Reader

Melkonian, Markar. My Brother's Road: An American’s Fateful Journey to Armenia

https://web.archive.org/web/20100208193505/http://www.foia.cia.gov/search.asp?pageNumber=1&freqReqRecord=20100122.txt

https://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sierraleone/soghanalian.html

https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/the-man-who-armed-iraq-6365143

https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB502/

History of Armenia 35: Sarkis Soghanalian, The Armenian Viktor Bout History of Armenia 35: Sarkis Soghanalian, The Armenian Viktor Bout

Comments

That would have been the only thing his family cared about lol

Lions Led By Donkeys Podcast

I can only imagine Reagan poking Thatcher over the phone about those Exocets, absolutely fascinating story there. Great piece!

Jsuman

100%

Chris Bandoian

Weird question - was his wife Armenian? If no, I wonder if that bothered his parents more than the arms dealings.

Hammerthrust Von Sexron

Before you call William Eagleton the most American named US diplomat, you've got to remember former secretary of state, Lawrence Eagleburger, famous also for not so glorious reasons (such as denial of war crimes) linked to Yugoslavia

Leo Josef

Not unless the Google machine lies to me.

Peggy O'Connell

I guess leftist militants are easier to justify supporting than leftist states, which honestly makes sense.

Jonathan Grafton

It's like Juan Brujo hating the PRI for supposedly being communist, while supporting the Zapatistas, or my grandpa hating communism while supporting the IFB in Syria.

Jonathan Grafton

You're fucking kidding me

Lions Led By Donkeys Podcast

I know!

Lions Led By Donkeys Podcast

With Sarkis' politics, I would have figured he supported JCAG over ASALA.

Jonathan Grafton

Joe, did you know Mark Garagos’ wife’s maiden name is Kassabian?

Peggy O'Connell

If I ever become a CIA arms trafficker, I'll name my company "Front Airlines" and give each one of the planes names like "Plausible Deniability", "Spook", etc

kliachichka

I enjoyed this episode.

Curly

Now that this guy has been featured, I'm gonna listen to all of these episodes lol.

Jonathan Grafton

The Billings, MT airport has a nice lil fluff piece on Air America at baggage claim

Bob F

Excellent episode. Enjoyed it thoroughly. Also, would enjoy more with this co-host!

A Guy

This is why we pay the Patreon money. Excellent episode

Cee_kay

i think i gotta give that another listen to i think its my favorite this year so far

Lain of the Wired

He is a bastard. But he is an honest bastard.

Lions Led By Donkeys Podcast

Sarkis' honesty is so refreshing in a world full of plausible deniability

Boris K

Right as I was in the middle of re-listening to the Bout 2 parter

nughh


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