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KLMNO THE WORLD
Suspected Russian arms dealer to be extradited to U.S. THAI RULING
A SURPRISE
U.S. hopes he’s willing to provide intelligence
by John Pomfret
The forthcoming extradition of a major reputed arms dealer to the United States could yield the Obama administration a treasure trove of intelligence about the networks that move weapons and drugs around the world and about the governments that se- cretly facilitate the traffic. That is, if he cooperates. An appeals court in Thailand
MARTIN MEJIA/ASSOCIATED PRESS A soothsayer inhales ayahuasca through a shell in a ceremony in Lima in 1998. Some doctors believe the drug may improve mental health.
In Peru, a mystery tour of the mind Hallucinogen ayahuasca draws visitors seeking to relieve depression and find clarity
by Juan Forero
iquitos, peru — Kevin Sim- mons, a 28-year-old Chicago na- tive, said he “was stuck” — de- pressed, locked away in his home and taking more than a year to even open his e-mail. The road to recovery, he said, came deep in the Peruvian jungle, in the form of a sludgelike concoc- tion the Indians call “the sacred vine of the soul.” The potion is ayahuasca, and increasingly, it is becoming an elixir for foreigners grappling with everything from depression to childhood trauma. Coming from the United States and as far away as Australia, they arrive in a jungle city of faded glory to par- ticipate in ayahuasca rituals of- fered by a range of healing cen- ters. Ayahuasca may taste like ground-up earth, but many leave here praising the brew in rever- ential terms for having purged them of demons and shown them a clarity about life that they never thought possible. “It’s provided a sense of okay- ness, this maternal reassurance that everything is all right,” said Simmons, who now does environ- mental work in Panama. “It made me feel like trying again, remind- ing me of this beautiful internal world that we have.” This city, on the murky,
chocolate-colored Amazon in northeastern Peru, has always lured outsiders seeking adven- ture, riches or redemption. Its heyday a century ago brought rubber barons, none more color- ful than Carlos Fitzcarrald, inspi- ration for Werner Herzog’s film about an obsessed would-be rub- ber magnate who hauls a steam- ship overland to reach a rich strand of rubber trees. The end of the rubber boom brought decay to Iquitos, leaving once-opulent mansions in disre- pair. The city’s resurrection has partly come from tour operators offering fishing and sightseeing deep in the forest. Now, the ayahuasca devotees are flowing in, searching for in- sight into their lives from a grow-
has been shown to help overcome addictions, said Charles Grob, a professor of psychiatry and pedi- atrics at UCLA medical school who oversaw a study in the 1990s of the members of a Brazilian church that uses ayahuasca in its sacrament.
Grob said there are no clinical studies to show that ayahuasca al- leviates depression but the anec- dotal evidence is tantalizing. “I believe, and my colleagues
JUAN FORERO/THE WASHINGTON POST
Shaman Juan Tangoa, holding a dose of the ayahuasca brew he prepares, watches over partakers at Yacu Puma Healing Center. Some have scary hallucinations, others report a sense of peace.
ing flock of local and foreign sha- mans, or medicine men. Tour op- erators say the potion — and the ceremonies in which it is con- sumed — has become a corner- stone of the local tourism indus- try.
“I’m the only tour operator in
Iquitos who’s never made a penny on ayahuasca,” said William Grimes, a former soybean farmer from Indiana who has spent much of the past 12 years here. Grimes said that some of those who initially came for the aya- huasca were drug users looking for an LSD-like high. But that quickly ended, Grimes said, and most who now come are seeking ayahuasca’s medicinal properties and the experience of indigenous rituals. “We’re seeing people coming for three or four weeks at a time, going on special diets, staying in nice hotels, eating in nice restau- rants and contributing to the economy,” said Grimes, who owns Dawn on the Amazon Tours and Cruises. “I think it’s good.” The visitors go to centers with names like the Temple of the Way of Light, Sachamama and the Ya- cu Puma Healing Center. Some also visit the Blue Mor-
pho ayahuasca center, founded by Hamilton Souther.
Fresh out of college with an an- thropology degree, Souther said, he was feeling lost in the world when he had a spontaneous mys- tical experience and interactions with spirits. The message he re- ceived: Go to Peru, he recounted. He left California in 2001 and trained for nearly two years in the jungle to be a master shaman. He now holds forth at Blue
Morpho’s retreat, complete with a roundhouse and bungalows on 180 lush acres an hour outside of Iquitos. He mixes the brew and then officiates at nighttime cer- emonies, where he makes connec- tions with spirits through his ica- ros, or chants, and the shaking of leaf rattles.
“Some people come to rid themselves of problems,” Souther, 32, explained. “Other people come to transcend their past, other peo- ple come to release very strongly held identities about themselves to be able to become new and fresh in their lives and reinvent themselves.”
But some people, he cautioned, “receive absolutely no benefit from drinking ayahuasca.” Though ayahuasca is technical- ly a hallucinogen — it contains a hallucinogenic alkaloid that is il- legal in the United States — the plant is not addictive. In fact, it
believe, that it holds great poten- tial for helping us further under- stand the mind, the realm of in- ternal experience, psycho- spiritual experience,” Grob said. “And it may have a very powerful potential on improving mental health.” Those who run Blue Morpho, as well as repeat clients, say that tak- ing ayahuasca is no magic carpet ride. Some users go on a terrifying journey replete with nightmarish visions. Ayahuasca also induces a severe gastrointestinal reaction, leaving users retching and dis- charging from both ends. The physical and mental pounding from ayahuasca weeds out those looking for a quick trip. “There is no way somebody would take ayahuasca as a recrea- tional drug and then go out and party,” said Malcolm Rossiter, an Australian who works at Blue Morpho. “This is what separates ayahuasca from hallucinogenic drugs. You don’t just take it to have fun.” The payoff can be profound, say those who have repeatedly used ayahuasca. Some say the potion provides an almost divine, trans- formative experience. Others de- scribe new insights into their lives. The long, exhausting cer- emonies where ayahuasca is con- sumed often end in intense joy. Danny Vulic, 36, an Australian who has come to Peru twice for ayahuasca, said the brew has helped guide him as he makes de- cisions in life. “You know, it is just really nur-
turing, caring, it is an amazing thing,” he said. “I am always quite willing to surrender to the medi- cine completely. I want the work to be done. I have full trust in it.”
foreroj@washpost.com
DIGEST AFGHANISTAN
Attack on road crew kills at least 7
At least seven members of a road construction crew were killed when they were attacked by insurgents in southern Af- ghanistan, officials said Friday. The attack occurred Thursday,
reportedly in or near the Sangin and Nahri Sarraj districts of Hel- mand province. Police said offi- cials were investigating reports that 35 people — road crew work- ers and insurgents — were killed and 19 wounded. The reports could not be confirmed because the area is under Taliban control. Also Friday, NATO reported that three coalition soldiers, in-
cluding one American, were killed in the south. The national- ities of the two other victims, who died in a roadside bombing Friday, were not released. The American was killed Thursday. The deaths brought to at least 18 the number of U.S. troops killed this month and 31 for the multinational force. —Associated Press
RUSSIA
Base in Armenia given 24 more years
Russia secured a long-term foothold in the energy-rich and unstable Caucasus region Friday by signing a deal with Armenia that allows a Russian military
SOUTH KOREA
Activist arrested after visit to North
A South Korean pastor who spent nearly 70 days in North Ko- rea on an unauthorized visit was detained Friday after returning
base to operate until 2044 in ex- change for a promise of new weaponry and fresh security guarantees. The agreement is part of Mos-
cow’s efforts to strengthen its clout in former Soviet nations, which worries its neighbors. In particular, it could raise tensions between Armenia and neighbor- ing Azerbaijan
—Associated Press
Police officers held in killing of Mexican mayor: Six police offi- cers were arrested in connection with the killing of a mayor in northern Mexico as the country’s escalating drug violence targets more public officials. The sus- pects included the officer who guarded the house where Santia- go Mayor Edelmiro Cavazos, 38,
Two killed as anti-India protests continue in Kashmir: Indian po- lice opened fire on thousands of people demonstrating against In- dian rule, killing at least two peo- ple, as protests across Kashmir showed no sign of abating. At least 61 people, mostly stone- throwing protesters, have been killed over the past two months
home in a rare crossing at their heavily armed border. Rev. Han Sang-ryol, a pro-
unification activist, is thought to have flown to North Korea from China around June 12. South Koreans need govern- ment permission to visit the North because the countries are still technically at war.
—Reuters
was seized Sunday. His body was found handcuffed and gagged Wednesday outside his town, a popular weekend getaway for residents of the industrial city of Monterrey. Meanwhile, a federal judge presiding over the case of a former Cancun mayor facing drug-related charges survived an attack Thursday in the west coast state of Nayarit.
in the largest pro-independence demonstrations in the Muslim majority region in two years.
Australians go to the polls: Aus- tralians will choose on Saturday whether they will oust their first female prime minister after two months in office and return to conservative rule in a cliffhanger election that threatens the sur- vival of a first-term center-left government. Voters face an un- usual choice between two rela- tive unknowns: Julia Gillard, a prime minister whom they did not elect, and Tony Abbott, a fledgling opposition leader who barely gained the endorsement of his own party eight months ago.
—From news services
on Friday overturned a lower court’s ruling and ordered that Viktor Bout, a 43-year-old former Russian military translator, be sent to the United States, where he faces federal charges of con- spiring to sell weapons to a ter- rorist organization, money laun- dering and sanctions busting. The Thai court decision, an- nounced after months of diplo- matic pressure from the United States, surprised many in the U.S. government who followed the case. Many officials had predicted
privately that the court would rule the other way. On Friday, the acting deputy at-
torney general, Gary G. Grindler, said the Justice Department was “extremely pleased” with the rul- ing. His sentiments were echoed by the State Department. For decades Bout, who in- spired the 2005 political thriller “Lord of War,” is believed to have operated as a major arms smug- gler, fueling conflicts in Afghani- stan, Angola, Congo, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Su- dan. Lee S. Wolosky, a National Se-
curity Council official during the Clinton administration, said Bout came to the government’s attention because of his close ties to the Taliban in the 1990s. Bout moved weapons and cash to Af- ghanistan at that time, Wolosky said.
If Bout cooperates with U.S.
law enforcement, Wolosky said, “he could be very helpful with re- spect to ongoing efforts in Af- ghanistan because he clearly has had a network there for a number of years.” Bout’s organization knew the country better than anyone, possessed the best maps and had an unrivaled network of sources, U.S. officials said.
So far, at least, Bout has given no indication that he will cooper- ate. He has denied the allegations against him and, on Friday, told a reporter from Russia’s RIA No- vosti news agency, “We will go to court in America and we will win.” The Russian government fought against Bout’s extradition. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called Friday’s ruling an “un- lawful, political decision” made “under very strong external pres- sure,” the Reuters news agency reported, adding that Moscow would continue to seek Bout’s re- turn to Russia. Douglas Farah, a former Wash-
ington Post reporter and the au- thor of a book about Bout, “Mer- chant of Death,” said his report- ing indicated that Russia was concerned that Bout might coop- erate with U.S. law enforcement and reveal Russian connections to shady regimes. Farah’s book re- ports that, among other ventures, Bout moved Russian-made weap- ons from Iran to Hezbollah forces in Lebanon in 2006. “There have been a lot of Rus- sians arrested around the world,” he said. “But not many of them get a resolution from the Duma and are offered a place in the Russian Embassy while they await trial. The Russians are wor- ried he might talk.” Michael A. Braun ran opera-
tions at the Drug Enforcement Administration when his agents and Thai police partnered to ar- rest Bout in 2008 in a sting opera- tion.
“I think he’s sitting on a boat- load of valuable information,” Braun said. “There are a lot of nefarious arms traffickers out there, but there are not more than half a dozen who have the ability to ac- quire massive amount of arms and then deliver them around the world with pinpoint accuracy,” he said. The U.S. government might
have its own motive to strike a deal: to avoid a deeper look at Bout’s ties to Washington. For several years, after the U.S.
invasion of Iraq in 2003, Bout’s logistics companies were used by Pentagon contractors to move material into Iraq and Afghani- stan. In 2004, President George W. Bush issued a directive making it illegal to do business with Bout. But apparently the Pentagon con- tinued the contracts into 2006. “It’s always been an open ques-
tion,” Wolosky said, “whether or not the U.S. government actually knew he was the subcontractor.”
pomfretj@washpost.com
SATURDAY, AUGUST 21, 2010
SUKREE SUKPLANG/REUTERS
Viktor Bout, 43, faces charges in the United States including conspiring to sell weapons to terrorists and money laundering.
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