Sarkis Garabet Soghanalian (Armenian: Սարգիս Սողանալեան; February 6, 1929 – October 5, 2011), nicknamed the Merchant of Death, was a Syrian-Lebanese-Armenian[1][2] international private arms dealer who gained fame for being the "Cold War's largest arms merchant"[3] and the lead seller of firearms and weaponry to the former government of Iraq under Saddam Hussein during the 1980s.
[5] With the encouragement of the Reagan Administration and the backing of American intelligence agencies, he oversaw the transaction of several significant arms deals.
In 2001 he was arrested once more by the US government on bank fraud charges, but was released a year later after revelations of further weapons transactions deals between the CIA and Peru.
Due to the poor economic conditions his family lived in at the time, he decided to drop out of high school and joined the French Army and served in a tank division.
[3] According to an interview he gave years later, the United States was fully aware of Soghanalian's operations when he began obtaining weapons for Iraq.
[7] American intelligence officials had described him as a cooperative and reliable source in Lebanon, making him an ideal candidate to conduct the arms deal with Iraq.
[9] The Iraqi officials appealed to Soghanalian, then based in Miami, Florida, who in turn approached several European governments.
"[3] His other transactions to Iraq also included artillery from South Africa, which he routed through Austria as a "middle man," to bypass United Nations sanctions.
[3] In an interview with 60 Minutes, Soghanalian stated that top-level American officials were aware from the beginning of his deals in Iraq.
Encouraged by other senior officials, Nixon had written a letter on his behalf to expedite the sale of uniforms to Iraq.
He gives a first-hand description of official and unofficial American involvement in the enormous buildup of arms to Saddam Hussein.
Although the exact reasons remain unknown, his attorney stated that Soghanalian had cooperated with U.S. law enforcement officials in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to break up a $100 billion counterfeiting operation in the Bekaa valley in Lebanon.
[14] Soghanalian was fluent in English, Armenian, Arabic, French and Turkish and “could make himself understood” in Spanish and Italian.