Cold Case    • Share   • Read Later  A matter of time In a
Bangkok cell, Bout waits for the U.S. charges to wind their way
through the Thai legal system  He's been called "the lord of
war" and "the merchant of death." He stands accused of selling
weapons to the world's most murderous regimes from Afghanistan's
Taliban to Liberia's Charles Taylor, who is now on trial in the
Hague for crimes against humanity. A movie starring Nicholas
Cage immortalizes his alleged nefarious exploits. But the
convoluted tale of Viktor Bout, the accused billionaire Russian
arms dealer languishing in a steamy Bangkok prison cell, is
bigger than just a provocative story about a notorious
character. As the U.S. and Russia battle over Bout's anticipated
extradition to New York to stand trial, his case threatens to
cast a new chill on relations between the two powers.  Besides
being charged with conspiring to sell weapons, Bout (pronounced
Boot) is accused of conspiring to murder American citizens.
While he denies all the charges, if