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SARKIS SOGHANALIAN OBITUARY
Michael Gillard
guardian.co.uk
Monday 14 November 2011
World's largest private arms dealer for more than two decades
Sarkis Soghanalian leaving a Florida court in 1991. Photograph:
BILL COOKE/AP
For a man who lived his life in the shadowy, secret world of arms deals
and spooks, Sarkis Soghanalian, who has died aged 82, never stopped
talking. About his deals, his connections. To government agents,
prosecutors and journalists. In private, on television. Often to keep
out or get out of jail. Most of what he said, while well informed,
was self-serving; much of it was difficult to prove and some was hard
to believe.
Over two decades, Soghanalian was the world's largest private arms
dealer - involved in Lebanon, Nicaragua, Angola, the Iran-Iraq war. A
short, rotund figure, Soghanalian revelled in being described as
"the merchant of death".
"That name does not bother me a bit," he explained.
He was also a long-time asset of the CIA, FBI and other US government
agencies. He was a "cut-out" with "plausible deniability" on covert
arms deals where the US did not want its fingerprints to be found. He
supplied arms to Anastasio Somoza, fighting the Sandinistas in
Nicaragua, and to Saddam Hussein, for deployment against Iran. He
was an informant providing valuable intelligence. "You listen with
your mouth and you talk with your ears," he explained. His Washington
contacts were a get-out-of-jail card when deals went bad - to pull
strings with judges and prosecutors.
Soghanalian was a Lebanese citizen - he was born in Iskenderun,
Turkey, but his Armenian family later moved to Beirut. He emigrated
to the US in 1958 and ran a garage before returning to Lebanon. He
became the agent for Colt, makers of the M16 rifle.
During Lebanon's civil war, Soghanalian supplied the Christian
militias and began his association with the CIA. He worked with
Felix Rodríguez, the Cuban exile agent involved in tracking down
Che Guevara in Bolivia, and Edwin Wilson, the renegade agent turned
arms trafficker who supplied Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. "It
takes a special type of character to make a successful arms dealer,"
Soghanalian said. "You need to enjoy taking risks. Trust and reputation
mean everything. But if you want to stay alive, you have to keep your
angels happy. You cannot afford to have governments on the other side
of the fence. You must know who's going to be happy and unhappy."
With too many unhappy people in Beirut, Soghanalian relocated to
Miami. He portrayed himself as a devout anti-communist. "I never sold
arms to anybody on the left," he claimed in 2000 - after it emerged
that he had armed the Farc rebels in Colombia. To help himself, and
Somoza, Soghanalian defrauded the British arms dealer John Ralph
in 1977 over $1.15m (about £640,000) paid to supply Mauritania
in west Africa - fighting the Polisario insurgents - with machine
guns. The guns went instead to Nicaragua. The rest of the money repaid
Soghanalian's debts.
"He's not some sleazy, fly-by-night gun runner. He certainly is
known to high officials of our government," Soghanalian's lawyer had
declared in 1978 - the year he attended a White House dinner. Just
how well connected Soghanalian was would become clear.
Ralph filed a criminal complaint but no action was taken until 1981
when Soghanalian was indicted for fraud. A year later, a highly unusual
plea bargain saw him sentenced to five years' probation. The judge
explained that the case "involved international affairs conducted by
the state department".
Soghanalian supplied Exocet missiles to Argentina, which were later
used in the Falklands conflict to sink HMS Sheffield. "The Americans
knew what I was doing, every minute, every hour," he claimed on US
TV in 2001.
His biggest deals, more than $1.5bn, were with Saddam, during Iraq's
eight-year war with Iran from 1980. The US supposedly banned the
selling of arms to both sides. Soghanalian claimed he was encouraged
by the Reagan administration, but dropped when expendable. He was
indicted in 1987 for conspiring to supply helicopters to Iraq.
Described by the prosecutor as "a con-man, a master manipulator",
Soghanalian was convicted in 1991 but, once again, help was at hand.
In 1993, his six-and-a-half-year sentence was slashed to two, and he
was released - in return for information on a counterfeit US currency
scam in Lebanon. "When they needed me, the US government that is,
they immediately came and got me out," he explained in 2001. "I can
produce the intelligence information they need."
Banned from US arms deals and owing the US taxman $30m, Soghanalian
moved to France, then Jordan. In 1999 he was arrested on arrival
in Miami over a $3m cheque fraud. But again, the arms dealer had
information to trade. He was released on bail after 10 months.
Soghanalian always claimed never to act against US interests - despite
dealing with Libya - but earlier, in 1999, had supplied 10,000 AK47s
to the Farc in a deal set up by the Peruvian spymaster Vladimiro
Montesinos, a CIA ally. The agency believed the guns were going to
Peru. The US was funding Colombia's war against the Farc. Montesinos
went to jail in Peru. Because of his "substantial assistance to law
enforcement", a 2001 plea bargain saw Soghanalian sentenced to the
time served for the cheque fraud, plus three years' supervised release.
By 2008 Soghanalian, in poor health, was living in a low-rent Miami
neighbourhood but still being visited by FBI officials, still looking
to do deals, still talking. When he died, the man who once had several
private jets was "broke", according to his son, Garo, who survives him,
along with a daughter, Melo.
Sarkis Garabet Soghanalian, arms dealer, born 6 February 1929;
died 5 October 2011
Michael Gillard
guardian.co.uk
Monday 14 November 2011
World's largest private arms dealer for more than two decades
Sarkis Soghanalian leaving a Florida court in 1991. Photograph:
BILL COOKE/AP
For a man who lived his life in the shadowy, secret world of arms deals
and spooks, Sarkis Soghanalian, who has died aged 82, never stopped
talking. About his deals, his connections. To government agents,
prosecutors and journalists. In private, on television. Often to keep
out or get out of jail. Most of what he said, while well informed,
was self-serving; much of it was difficult to prove and some was hard
to believe.
Over two decades, Soghanalian was the world's largest private arms
dealer - involved in Lebanon, Nicaragua, Angola, the Iran-Iraq war. A
short, rotund figure, Soghanalian revelled in being described as
"the merchant of death".
"That name does not bother me a bit," he explained.
He was also a long-time asset of the CIA, FBI and other US government
agencies. He was a "cut-out" with "plausible deniability" on covert
arms deals where the US did not want its fingerprints to be found. He
supplied arms to Anastasio Somoza, fighting the Sandinistas in
Nicaragua, and to Saddam Hussein, for deployment against Iran. He
was an informant providing valuable intelligence. "You listen with
your mouth and you talk with your ears," he explained. His Washington
contacts were a get-out-of-jail card when deals went bad - to pull
strings with judges and prosecutors.
Soghanalian was a Lebanese citizen - he was born in Iskenderun,
Turkey, but his Armenian family later moved to Beirut. He emigrated
to the US in 1958 and ran a garage before returning to Lebanon. He
became the agent for Colt, makers of the M16 rifle.
During Lebanon's civil war, Soghanalian supplied the Christian
militias and began his association with the CIA. He worked with
Felix Rodríguez, the Cuban exile agent involved in tracking down
Che Guevara in Bolivia, and Edwin Wilson, the renegade agent turned
arms trafficker who supplied Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. "It
takes a special type of character to make a successful arms dealer,"
Soghanalian said. "You need to enjoy taking risks. Trust and reputation
mean everything. But if you want to stay alive, you have to keep your
angels happy. You cannot afford to have governments on the other side
of the fence. You must know who's going to be happy and unhappy."
With too many unhappy people in Beirut, Soghanalian relocated to
Miami. He portrayed himself as a devout anti-communist. "I never sold
arms to anybody on the left," he claimed in 2000 - after it emerged
that he had armed the Farc rebels in Colombia. To help himself, and
Somoza, Soghanalian defrauded the British arms dealer John Ralph
in 1977 over $1.15m (about £640,000) paid to supply Mauritania
in west Africa - fighting the Polisario insurgents - with machine
guns. The guns went instead to Nicaragua. The rest of the money repaid
Soghanalian's debts.
"He's not some sleazy, fly-by-night gun runner. He certainly is
known to high officials of our government," Soghanalian's lawyer had
declared in 1978 - the year he attended a White House dinner. Just
how well connected Soghanalian was would become clear.
Ralph filed a criminal complaint but no action was taken until 1981
when Soghanalian was indicted for fraud. A year later, a highly unusual
plea bargain saw him sentenced to five years' probation. The judge
explained that the case "involved international affairs conducted by
the state department".
Soghanalian supplied Exocet missiles to Argentina, which were later
used in the Falklands conflict to sink HMS Sheffield. "The Americans
knew what I was doing, every minute, every hour," he claimed on US
TV in 2001.
His biggest deals, more than $1.5bn, were with Saddam, during Iraq's
eight-year war with Iran from 1980. The US supposedly banned the
selling of arms to both sides. Soghanalian claimed he was encouraged
by the Reagan administration, but dropped when expendable. He was
indicted in 1987 for conspiring to supply helicopters to Iraq.
Described by the prosecutor as "a con-man, a master manipulator",
Soghanalian was convicted in 1991 but, once again, help was at hand.
In 1993, his six-and-a-half-year sentence was slashed to two, and he
was released - in return for information on a counterfeit US currency
scam in Lebanon. "When they needed me, the US government that is,
they immediately came and got me out," he explained in 2001. "I can
produce the intelligence information they need."
Banned from US arms deals and owing the US taxman $30m, Soghanalian
moved to France, then Jordan. In 1999 he was arrested on arrival
in Miami over a $3m cheque fraud. But again, the arms dealer had
information to trade. He was released on bail after 10 months.
Soghanalian always claimed never to act against US interests - despite
dealing with Libya - but earlier, in 1999, had supplied 10,000 AK47s
to the Farc in a deal set up by the Peruvian spymaster Vladimiro
Montesinos, a CIA ally. The agency believed the guns were going to
Peru. The US was funding Colombia's war against the Farc. Montesinos
went to jail in Peru. Because of his "substantial assistance to law
enforcement", a 2001 plea bargain saw Soghanalian sentenced to the
time served for the cheque fraud, plus three years' supervised release.
By 2008 Soghanalian, in poor health, was living in a low-rent Miami
neighbourhood but still being visited by FBI officials, still looking
to do deals, still talking. When he died, the man who once had several
private jets was "broke", according to his son, Garo, who survives him,
along with a daughter, Melo.
Sarkis Garabet Soghanalian, arms dealer, born 6 February 1929;
died 5 October 2011