World Thug Watch

Charles Taylor is currently on trial for war crimes at The Hague. He admits that his thugs hoisted the skulls of rival groups on stakes, but sees nothing wrong with that. He denies his troops disemboweled rival fighters. It's all part of the testimony into his actions during the war in Sierra Leone.

The invasion of Liberia and his ascent to power was a prelude to Taylor's involvement in the brutal 1991-2002 civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone, for which he is accused of 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

He has pleaded not guilty to all charges at the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

Taylor is not on trial for offenses in Liberia, but his testimony appeared aimed at allegations at the heart of the prosecution case that rebels backed by Taylor in Sierra Leone used terror tactics, including systematic amputations to intimidate the population.

Taylor has dismissed those allegations as lies and rumors.

Elsewhere, Mirhussein Mousavi says that deaths and injuries to protesters against the Ahmadinejad regime will not go in vain.

Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi vowed not to let the blood of protesters killed in postelection crackdown go in vain as he met with the family of a young man shot to death during the turmoil, reformist Web site reported Wednesday.

Mousavi, meanwhile, announced Wednesday that he will attend Tehran’s main Friday prayer services this week for the first time, a key symbolic assertion of the opposition’s presence after the crackdown.

The sermon Friday is due to be delivered by Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a powerful cleric in Iran’s leadership who has not performed the sermon since the turmoil erupted following the disputed June 12 presidential election. Rafsanjani is a top rival of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and is believed to be a strong behind-the-scenes backer of Mousavi.

"I’ll join you (for prayers) on Friday July 17," Mousavi said, according to his Web site ghalamnews.ir.

The main Friday prayer sermon at Tehran University is a significant political platform that hard-line clerics have used in recent weeks to demand a halt to postelection protests and spread the message that that turmoil was fueled by foreign enemies. Rafsanjani’s sermon could give the first opposition voice in the sermon.

The pro-Mousavi Web site mowjcamp.com said reformist leaders will hold street protests after attending the Friday prayers.

The Ahmadinejad regime isn't backing down and has continued to thwart protesters at every turn and is as bellicose as ever, even as the head of their nuclear program resigned over the regime's actions.

North Korea continues to simmer like ripe kimchi, and the UN has added still more companies and entities to its sanctions blacklist:

[N]ations are now banned from doing business with five firms involved in North Korea's nuclear programme, and five individuals are to have their financial assets frozen and face a travel ban.

They include:

* three North Korean trading corporations - Namchongang, Korea Hykosin and Korea Tangun, as well as North Korea's bureau of atomic energy
* an Iranian-based company, Hong Kong Electronics, is also sanctioned, accused of moving millions of dollars used for North Korea's nuclear programme
* Yun Ho-jin, Ri Je-son, Hwang Sok-hwa, Ri Hong-sop and Han Yu-ro now face sanctions because of their involvement in the development of North Korea's banned activities
* countries cannot sell North Korea certain types of graphite or para-aramid fiber because they could be used to make parts for ballistic missiles

Merchant of Death Nabbed In Thailand

Viktor Bout, a major arms dealer, was arrested in Thailand by the authorities there. The guy has ties to some of the worst scum on the planet, including Liberia's Charles Taylor (currently on trial for war crimes/crimes against humanity), the Taliban, and all other kinds of baddies.

According to U.S. officials, Bout -- a former Soviet air force officer who speaks multiple languages -- has what is reputed to be the largest private fleet of Soviet-era cargo aircraft in the world.

Bout acquired the planes shortly after the breakup of the Soviet Union, the U.S. Department of Treasury said in 2005.

At that time, the U.S. Treasury announced it was freezing the assets of Bout and his associates who are all tied to former Liberian President Charles Taylor. Taylor is currently on trial at the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal at The Hague.

Intelligence officials said he shipped large quantities of small arms to civil wars across Africa and Asia, often taking diamonds in payment from West African fighters.

British intelligence officials found evidence in Afghanistan that Bout had shipped arms to the Taliban and al Qaeda, as well as circumstantial evidence that he shipped weapons technology into Iraq.

And the U.S. government said it received information that Bout profited $50 million from supplying the Taliban with military equipment when they ruled Afghanistan.

Bout -- who is said to be the inspiration for Nicholas Cage's character in the movie, "Lord of War" -- told CNN in an interview in 2002 that he never sold arms to the Taliban or the al Qaeda terrorist network. He also denied providing weapons and missile guidance technology to Iraq.

Why would he admit to providing weapons to the Taliban or Al Qaeda? Arms dealers aren't exactly going to shout out about their links to global terrorist organizations or those who provided them shelter in the past? That's not exactly the way you stay out of trouble or gain new clients, so I discount his statements to CNN as nothing more than a smokescreen.

UPDATE:
The New York Times notes that Bout had links to FARC as well:

One of the world’s most notorious arms dealers, suspected of supplying weapons to the Taliban and Al Qaeda and of pouring huge arms shipments into Africa’s civil wars with his own private air fleet, was arrested by Thai authorities in a hotel here Thursday. His capture was prompted by a tipoff from the United States in connection with the procurement of weapons for the Colombian FARC rebels.

The DEA tipped off the Thai authorities to his presence and a Thai security official claims that American counter-terrorism officials are questioning him.