The final report of the Truth and Reconciliation (TRC) has provided specifics on key players in weapons purchase with ordered access to the country's finances, listing former Maritime Commissioner Benoni Urey, now Mayor of Careysburg, as the liaison in dealing with and purchasing weapons from Viktor Bout, the Russian illicit arms dealer now behind bars in Thailand after failed US extradition request for allegedly supplying terrorists with weapons.

The Thai court denied US request to have the man referred to as a 'merchant of death' to the US, although Washington is making new appeals.

Report: "In 1995 he founded Air Cess in Liberia, this would mean the beginning of his grip on weapons supplying in Africa. Bout didn't care who he supplied with weapons or for what cause as long as people paid him his money. U.S. and U.N. officials say Bout airlifted thousands upon thousands of assault rifles, grenade and missile launchers and millions of ammunition rounds into Africa. Clients of Bout's companies include Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Libya, Congo-Brazzaville, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland and Uganda. You could almost say that without Bout there would be peace in Africa."

Referred by the former US National Security Council member Lee S. Wolosky as "the most powerful player in the trafficking of illegal arms, " the TRC report says his contact person within Chares Taylor's team during the Liberian war was Mr. Urey.

The TRC: Benoni Urey, a Liberian national and the former Commissioner of Maritime Affairs during the Taylor Administration, served a vital role in the Charles Taylor Administration's control over corporate entities. Urey allegedly embezzled funds from the Liberian International Shipping and Corporate Registry (LISCR) that were used to purchase weapons, helped manage LSC and was a primary point of contact between the Taylor regime and Viktor Bout. In addition, he worked closely with Kouwenhoven to arrange OTC weapon shipments.

Bout, a former Russian air force officer, has been linked to some of the world's most notorious conflicts, allegedly supplying arms to the former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor and the Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. He has repeatedly denied the accusations.

On August 14, 1997, twelve days after his inauguration, Charles Taylor issued an executive order that unlawfully directed the International Trust Company (ITC), a U.S. based corporation that managed Liberia's shipping registry, to deposit 10% of annual maritime revenues into the personal account of Urey. This amount was estimated at $1.2 milllion USD annually.

Viktor Vasilevich Bout, one of the world's most notorious arms merchants with proven links to the Taliban, has become a valued partner of the US as it grapples with the insurgency in Iraq.

Bout's airline, British Gulf, flies material into Baghdad International airport for the US occupation forces. Given that the airport is now the world's most dangerous, with planes with everything from Kalashnikovs to surface to air missiles, Bout's 60 aircraft and 300 pilots and personnel provide the US authorities with "plausible deniability" in case one is downed.

According to the commander of the U.S. Transportation Command, Air Force General John Handy, insurgents fire on U.S. military aircraft using Baghdad International on almost a daily basis. Handy remarked, "As we fly around, we are repeatedly shot at, with manpads (man-portable air defense systems), small arms, and triple-A (anti-aircraft artillery)." Handy compared the situation in Iraq to Afghanistan, noting that nearly all of the attacks "probably right now, 90 to 95 per cent" involve Iraq, with "very, very little out of Afghanistan". Aside from his fiscal compensation, it is believed that Bout will be amnestied from the multitude of international charges he faces in return for his service. For a man who formerly supplied the Taliban and guerrilla movements from Rwanda to the Philippines, that is quite a feat. Former US National Security Council member Lee S. Wolosky called Bout "the most powerful player in the trafficking of illegal arms." A UN Security council report notes that in law enforcement circles, Bout is referred to as "Viktor B" due to his use of at least five aliases and variant spellings of his surname.