The woman who hunts illegal arms merchants

The Power of One

Kathi Lynn Austin has targeted, investigated and helped to bring down some of the world’s most dangerous arms dealers, exposing transactions that fuelled the Rwandan genocide and shutting down smuggling networks that helped power years of civil war in the Congo. But she is neither a cop nor a CIA agent nor a crusading prosecutor. She’s merely an American civilian with a deep sense of moral outrage and a deeper reservoir of courage.
Austin joins us to describe her unlikely career path into investigating the illicit arms trade, some of whose treacherous players she has met face-to-face. In doing so, she has gathered leads and evidence against everyone from a global gun kingpin to a network supplying guns to rhinoceros poachers. Says one colleague: “I’ve seen her living out dramatic detective stories, all in the name of peace and social justice and protecting our environment.”