Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:00the power of partnership, will continue to bolster Ukraine's
00:00:03armed forces by rushing them the capabilities that they need to defend their
00:00:07country, but where does this aid really
00:00:10go, and who decided to arm a country that has been one of the
00:00:13biggest supermarkets of smuggled weapons for almost 30 years.
00:00:20to the market
00:00:50My name is Radwan Mortada. I am a journalist specializing
00:00:53in security and judicial files,
00:00:56and terrorist groups. Since then, I have specialized
00:01:00specifically in security files and I was following
00:01:03the files of jihadists
00:01:06and a large number in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and the Middle
00:01:08East.
00:01:13journalist and during his career he's produced hundreds of reports on wars in the
00:01:16middle east. he's met with Islamic jihadist leaders
00:01:20many times and knows exactly how weapons get into their
00:01:23hands.
00:01:26There's something here that I'll show you now, this map.
00:01:35All the Lebanese-Syrian borders have
00:01:39illegal crossings through which smugglers,
00:01:41whose profession is the residents of those
00:01:45areas, and the Lebanese, pass.
00:02:00We will contact one of the arms dealers in the Bekaa
00:02:03region to come and tell us. We will film an
00:02:06interview with him. He will come and tell us
00:02:09exactly what the situation of Ukrainian weapons is. Do we have Ukrainian weapons or not, and where are they coming
00:02:13from?
00:02:16Hello, hello. Hello.
00:02:20How are you? Fine. How are you?
00:02:24I'm fine, habibi.
00:02:27We were talking about filming
00:02:31with him. When can we? When do you
00:02:34want? We can today, we can tomorrow. And you go ahead. I'll get there
00:02:38and someone will be waiting for me and you'll say hello and you'll guide me. I'll meet the guy and he'll bring
00:02:42you to us.
00:02:46mafia arms dealers set up a meeting in a small town on the lebanise
00:02:50border
00:02:55one of the main arms trafficking roots in the middle east passes through
00:02:58here. We're going to the Bekaa now. We need
00:03:02to meet, we need to see exactly
00:03:05what weapons are available in the market, what prices they are being sold
00:03:08at, whether there is a demand for weapons now
00:03:12or not, and what is the connection between the war in Ukraine
00:03:16and arms
00:03:16smuggling to the region.
00:03:23a 30 minute drive from the syrian border a meeting is arranged here with a guide who will take the journalist to major arms
00:03:27dealer.
00:03:43an unremarkable gray house on the
00:03:45poor people who wait outskirts, but this modest exterior hides what resembles
00:03:49an arms warehouse.
00:03:52arms smuggling is big business for the locals and sometimes
00:03:56it's the only way to survive.
00:04:11only. Minnin was a link in
00:04:30These weapons, we produce them today.
00:04:32The weapons that you see here in front of you, we have two sources
00:04:36for them. Many people, because of the economic crisis, have started
00:04:40selling their weapons. That is, the poor class and the destitute class
00:04:43today are selling individual weapons. They don't
00:04:46have heavy or medium weapons. They have individual weapons and they are forced to sell them
00:04:50to survive. This is due to the economic crisis. And also
00:04:54tank. Within a month of today, we are receiving Ukrainian weapons. You know, at
00:04:59global nature of the beginning of the crisis in Ukraine
00:05:02weapons. These weapons are then taken by traders to Turkey,
00:05:05and from Turkey they enter Iraq, and from Iraq they come overland to Syria
00:05:09and Lebanon. We as traders are now finding in the market
00:05:13that medium and light weapons are being offered to
00:05:17us. They tell us that these are Ukrainian NATO weapons, and you can see that the pieces
00:05:20are still new, clean, and well-maintained weapons.
00:05:23But their price is more expensive than the price of Lebanese
00:05:26weapons and the weapons available in the market. But the Ukrainian
00:05:30weapons that are coming
00:05:32are very, very well-maintained.
00:05:39What kind of weapons are coming? Can you tell me about them?
00:05:43The weapons coming from Ukraine through Syria by land
00:05:47are Kalashnikovs, Pikes, and
00:05:49small pistols. All of them are new and still
00:05:53in their boxes, Muhammad. Never.
00:05:57People like it. We have a young
00:06:01generation that likes to buy such
00:06:05things. You tell him this piece came from Ukraine, it's still in its box or
00:06:08still covered in grease, as they say. They like it. So everything is coming in.
00:06:12Medium, meaning Pike weapons and below. Pike,
00:06:15Kalash,
00:06:19of pistols
00:06:21are entering. Small pistols. You also told me that there were
00:06:23sniper rifles. The issue of
00:06:26sniper rifles. Sniper rifles entered, but most of them are
00:06:29sold in Syria. Sniper rifles. Some
00:06:33pieces entered Lebanon. Today, sniper rifles are in demand in Syria because
00:06:36there is a war there. In Lebanon, sniper rifles are
00:06:40not used much.
00:08:32The eight nation eastern European block whose mission had been to maintain
00:08:35peace in post war Europe was abolished, weapons from all
00:08:39Soviet military units were repatriated.
00:08:43Preparations are always a hassle, especially when you are taking away such a large
00:08:46household.
00:08:52From the GDR, Czechoslovakia and Hungary,
00:08:54six tank divisions will return to their homeland.
00:08:58In addition, by decision of the USSR government, all military equipment
00:09:01from Hungary and Poland was withdrawn here. This was a mass
00:09:05of weapons, they didn't sit on a golden
00:09:07barrel.
00:09:14After the Soviet Union collapsed, Ukraine, now
00:09:17independent, came into possession of, according to the most
00:09:20conservative estimates, 9,00 tanks,
00:09:2311,00 armored vehicles, 18,000 artillery
00:09:26systems, 4,000 aircraft and helicopters, in addition to
00:09:30tens of millions of small arms and billions of rounds of
00:09:34ammunition. London's international institute for
00:09:36strategic studies said Ukraine's military property was worth around
00:09:40$90 billion dollars. everything that was there was the most advanced at that time.
00:09:44In Ukraine, there were T-80 tanks,
00:09:48a gas turbine tank could cover 15-20
00:09:51km, which is especially important when responding to a combat
00:09:55alarm. It was indeed a very advanced
00:09:58tank. The T-80 has a turbojet
00:10:01engine, it was unique in itself, this
00:10:07the USSR's collapse, the new
00:10:09Ukrainian state launched a global sell off. of Soviet
00:10:13weapons. The first contracts were signed shortly
00:10:16after, and in 1991,
00:10:20series of civil wars broke out in
00:10:22Yugoslavia.
00:10:45I saw the breakup of Yugoslavia, I participated in the
00:10:49war.
00:10:55I acquired certain military knowledge during
00:10:59my military service and a security course
00:11:02in the Pančevo garrison, military post
00:11:062875, under General Mladen Bratić.
00:11:20Was an intelligence officer in Bosnia. He saw how weapons flooded into the for.
00:11:25Yugoslavia,
00:11:28Mujahideen, terrorists came in
00:11:32armored vehicles and transporters of
00:11:35the then international organizations, but people came,
00:11:38weapons came mainly
00:11:42within the flights on
00:11:46planes that were available to Alija Izetbegović,
00:11:49Antonov 2 was mainly used, and it was operated by
00:11:52Ukrainian pilots, with Ukrainian... armament and military equipment,
00:11:56because of the connections with certain Ukrainian
00:11:59generals who reached the top of the then
00:12:03Ukrainian government, up to President Leonid Kuchma, who
00:12:06reached various people in the Ministry
00:12:09of Defense.
00:12:15This would then open up a much larger question of the responsibility
00:12:18of the political and state leadership for financing terrorism, for war
00:12:22crimes on Vozuća, especially in the middle.
00:12:25So, towards Croats on Vozuća, towards Serbs and so on, Astra
00:12:29company also received S300, it received a missile system
00:12:32that was a marvel at the time, which was then, so
00:12:36practically, few countries had it,
00:12:39imagine that Ukraine sent one of the two
00:12:43it had at that
00:12:45time to Croatia.
00:12:55When we were quite accustomed to having half the globe dance to our
00:12:58tune.
00:13:03Who could possibly have imagined that in the 21st
00:13:06century I would find myself being obliged to
00:13:09dance?
00:13:18We taught India to speak English and
00:13:21because of you, I have to speak in Hindi.
00:13:44heavy weapons were delivered to Bosnia by sea from Odessa,
00:13:48the cargo went through the Croatian ports of Riecha and
00:13:51split, small arms and ammunition were often delivered.
00:13:58All the time during the war 1991-1995,
00:14:01officially there was an embargo on the import
00:14:04of weapons into the territory of SFR Yugoslavia, an embargo
00:14:07that the United Nations adopted. However,
00:14:11in practice, that embargo was not
00:14:14respected. It was known immediately when the Ukrainian
00:14:18Antonov was shot
00:14:20down, this happened at Plitvice
00:14:24Lakes. It looks like a jungle
00:14:26where that Antonov plane crashed. And yes, it is a transport plane, it's from
00:14:30the Soviet Union. His task was
00:14:33to transport weapons and ammunition
00:14:35from Croatia or from Pleso, Zagreb Airport,
00:14:39or from Krk, there was an airport on the island of Krk,
00:14:42for the Fifth Muslim Corps.
00:14:46Leonid Mininen an entrepreneur close to Ukraine's
00:14:49top leadership was
00:14:51shipments. This rare footage shows min in watching a
00:14:55small arms demonstration with colleagues.
00:14:59We'd never have learned of the existence of this major
00:15:03trafficker of death,
00:15:05He had, he
00:15:08owned a hotel in Cinisello
00:15:12Balsamo. And
00:15:15so this hotel had the presidential
00:15:18suite on the top floor, that is, residential, a
00:15:21hotel, not four stars, but it had its
00:15:25little room. And so he picked up prostitutes who
00:15:28he took to his room in his suite.
00:15:31So one of these was not
00:15:35paid, she went to the police.
00:16:20This documentation was the key to Liberian exports, the key to
00:16:24exports to the Democratic Republic of Congo, to
00:16:27Burkina Faso, to Eritrea and
00:16:30Ethiopia.
00:16:37we discovered this trafficking
00:16:54that he, Minin, organized from Ukraine for the
00:16:58supply of arms to the rebels of Sierra
00:17:02Leone through what had become the
00:17:05president.
00:17:15exotic and tropical timber enterprise,
00:17:19officially it conducted logging operations in liberia,
00:17:23but in fact as confirmed by a UN special commission, it
00:17:26supplied arms to president Charles Taylor, a ruthless
00:17:29dictator guilty of genocide against his countries.
00:17:33I then went to Monrovia in Liberia, I went to visit the factory.
00:17:37to see them find other documentation there, but at the same
00:17:40time he supplied weapons
00:17:43to the RUF rebels through the mediation of the
00:17:47president of Liberia,
00:17:50Taylor.
00:17:54this is not a military
00:17:56cool, this is pure civilian of
00:18:00rising.
00:18:04using dummy companies, minion acquired.
00:18:37they are easy to transport, no scanner can detect them.
00:18:44And in return, the payments for these things can
00:18:47be made with oil, for example, I don't pay you
00:18:51cash in dollars, but I pay you with oil
00:18:54supplies, diamond supplies, or other
00:18:58means.
00:19:03so-called blood diamonds,
00:19:07unlike metals, for example, gold, but
00:19:11a kilogram, half a kilogram, 200 grams of diamonds is already a huge
00:19:15sum, for large shipments of weapons, Ukrainian war barons
00:19:18chartered aircraft which were registered in offshore
00:19:21zones. Most armed shipments were carried a
00:19:25BAC 111 owned by an Israeli businessman of
00:19:29Ukrainian origin, Leonid
00:19:31Minnin.
00:19:34Registered in the cayens, it was operated by Limard. the firm registered in
00:19:38Monaco. These are photos of one of the airlines
00:19:42that arrived in Liberia, circumventing the UN arms
00:19:45embargo. It stagged full of weapons boxes. The
00:19:49plane was owned by Leonid Minnin. The first
00:19:53delivery arranged by Minnin in March 1999
00:19:56was a cargo of 68 tons of military
00:19:59equipment, including 3000 akm
00:20:03assault refel, 1 million rounds of ammunition.
00:20:0725 rpgs sevens and related
00:20:11ordinance, esterla 3 and
00:20:14met systems and 80 related missiles, the
00:20:17arms were bought from the ukrainian arms marketing
00:20:20company, yukerpets export, minions and his business
00:20:24partners names and their involvement in UK exports arms
00:20:28deliveries surfaceed during investigations into arms
00:20:31dealing in the middle east, payments of the shipment show the
00:20:36the arms de
00:20:50further payments from the same amount were
00:20:53made to various companies including
00:20:57yoker spet export air foil
00:21:00transbalkan cargo service
00:21:03fonex arsenal
00:21:05corp general technical
00:21:07bulgaria the scale of the trade is
00:21:11astonishing hundreds of thousands of tons of contraband were
00:21:15plied between the continents
00:21:18for some odd reason it went uner. for many
00:21:20years, the second arms delivery arranged
00:21:24by Minnin was rooted via Codevoir
00:21:28rather than Burkina Faso, the arms deal consisted of
00:21:32130, 13 tons of
00:21:35arms brokered through the Ukrainian state-owned
00:21:39company and included
00:21:4210,500 ak 47
00:21:45asalt rifle, 120 sniper
00:21:49guns. 100 grenade launcher, night
00:21:52vision equipment and 8 million rounds of ammunition.
00:21:56A portion of these arms was delivered in July
00:22:002000s, apparently distined for Code
00:22:03divoir, using an end user certificate
00:22:06signed on May 26th, 2000s by a senior
00:22:10official of the Ministry of Defense. The officials mentioned in the documents,
00:22:14their patrons in Keve and Minion and his friends didn't seem to be on intelligence
00:22:18agencies radars.
00:22:28German, a passport, we were saying that, a Ukrainian passport,
00:22:32an Israeli service passport, he also
00:22:35had that which allowed him to move around very easily,
00:22:39but it indicates that he had good, good connections,
00:22:42so why, and there again
00:22:46why did he have all these passports that he then denied because he was...
00:22:59top brass, it would have been impossible implement such a colossal trade of ukrainian
00:23:03arms, through the black
00:23:05market,
00:23:09we got our hands on this immense
00:23:12quantity of documents that allowed us to understand, the evidence is in the
00:23:16we bill, the evidence is the payments, the evidence is in the...
00:23:20the bank files, but there are also
00:23:24all the relationships that they maintained among themselves, these people
00:23:28in in doing their
00:23:31business, various kinds of business, here is the
00:23:35illegal arms market, it is
00:23:37hidden, secret precisely because it is illegal, and he
00:23:41we found in this documentation that he was
00:23:44yes, he was the author
00:23:47of these arms sales.
00:23:51But he wasn't, he was also the one who maintained
00:23:54relationships with a series of arms traffickers, for
00:23:58example with Marc Rich, a famous arms trafficker
00:24:01pardoned by Clinton in the last days of his
00:24:04presidency. Minnen's billionaire lifestyle,
00:24:08dalliances with African terrorists and connections with politicians and government
00:24:12officials all around the world, even inspired Hollywood.
00:24:15The film story is quite accurate, but unlike
00:24:18Nicholas Cage's character. cops didn't go after Minnin,
00:24:22despite overwhelming evidence, an Italian
00:24:25court only charged him with possession of drugs and
00:24:28diamonds, meaning in Italy justice is quite
00:24:32slow, there are
00:24:35for justice for years, Mr. Minin
00:24:38manages to get an appeal, then the
00:24:41Court of Cassation where he is acquitted
00:24:44in less than a year.
00:24:48This is disturbing. I must say that we are trying to find out what
00:24:52happened to him, it's not clear what happened
00:24:54to him.
00:24:58Can be explained by one thing
00:25:01a chain of interested and very powerful parties,
00:25:05so powerful that just for them, the Ukrainian parliament adopted
00:25:08special laws, for instance, law number
00:25:111919.
00:25:15When anyone could engage in the export of weapons, which was
00:25:18recorded not as weapons, but simply as goods, it was simply that
00:25:22and this corresponded to Ukrainian legislation, that is, special loopholes
00:25:25in the legislation were
00:25:27made,
00:25:31many knew that ukraine traded arms a statewide
00:25:34scale, but the true sales volumes were uncovered by
00:25:37accident when in 2008 Somali
00:25:40pirates seized a cargo ship, the MV Fiina. With such
00:25:44binoculars, we saw pirates
00:25:46for the first time.
00:25:50olsky is now retired, but these photos on the walls and newspaper
00:25:54clippings remind him of past events, they're prominently
00:25:58displayed so that his family doesn't forget the hell captain
00:26:01nikolsky had. The ship was captured
00:26:05at 4:00 PM at the shift
00:26:09change. We noticed
00:26:11a boat
00:26:13on the horizon. On the boat,
00:26:16people waved their hands,
00:26:20approaching, approaching, then
00:26:24shooting began. It happened that their
00:26:27capture technique was well-rehearsed: one group
00:26:30climbed aboard the ship, the second... opened fire.
00:26:33Everything that could be was hit, and in addition, there were two
00:26:37shots from an RPG. One fell into the sea,
00:26:40splashed, not reaching the side,
00:26:43the second hit the side, but did not explode.
00:26:46From this, I have long concluded that pirates
00:26:50could not have known the nature of the cargo themselves,
00:26:54because if they had
00:26:57known that a huge
00:27:00amount of explosives was being transported, they would never have shot, because
00:27:0410,000 tons,
00:27:07exploding, would have made a large crater in the sea
00:27:10along with these pirates.
00:27:13When they saw,
00:27:16went down into the hold, looked,
00:27:19of course, the pirates' eyes gleamed with joy, because
00:27:23there had never been such
00:27:24a jackpot.
00:30:29And good evening. It is prime time here in the United States. Thanks for. watching, I'm Bim
00:30:33Swan. Tonight we continue our special coverage of the U.S. mid-term
00:30:36elections, because in the aftermath of those elections,
00:30:39two major questions that we have asked for months have emerged:
00:30:43one, yes, Trump's Maga coalition is
00:30:46dead, just as we warned. The question
00:30:49tonight though is, why? And two, the Iran
00:30:53war. Was it a betrayal of voters that cost Republicans
00:30:56massive numbers of seats across the country, because after last night...