The Political Conundrum!

I know this blog focuses a lot of its content on Afghanistan and some general military issues, but on this posting I am putting up a B-Roll of 1st BCT, 82nd Airborne Division soldiers jumping into Iraq. As a Master Parachutist Jumpmaster I always have a soft spot for paratroopers in action. This also shows just how safe that our forces have made it in Iraq.

B-Roll of U.S. Paratroopers who are training Iraqi Forces in combat, maintenance, medical and parachuting. Scenes include the Paratroopers preparing for a jump and then parachuting out of the airplane. Produced by Pfc. Jessica Cooke.

The U.S. Justice Department today handed down a new indictment against Viktor Bout and his Syrian-American partner Richard Chichakli, alleging the Merchant of Death with laundering money and attempting to buy two aircraft in the Unites States through a series of front companies.

The indictment may add to Bout's legal woes, and certainly is a blow to Chichakli, who has been happily holed in Moscow, with occasional trips to Damascus while using his website to mock the U.S. government, along with you truly and others. The indictment and Interpol alert will likely keep him holed up in Moscow, at least for a while.

Chichakli, who prided himself on his ability to create fetching fruit platters, fled the United States when his assets were frozen by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets control. He used Lufthansa frequent flier miles to purchase his ticket, as he had no money available, and then proceeded on to Syria, before joining Viktor in Moscow.

Bout, of course, is still in a Thai jail, awaiting an appeals court decision on whether he can be extradited to the United States to stand trial for attempts to knowingly sell surface to air missiles and other lethal equipment to undercover agents posing as FARC operatives. Last year a lower court ruled that Bout could not be extradited, and the appeals court ruling will be final.

The charges may be used to try give the Thai court more reason to authorized Bout's extradition to the United States. It will also certainly make Chichakli, who helped Bout set up his operations in the UAE in the 1990s while acting as his accountant, a less mobile figure.

Bout's attempt to buy the aircraft show how mobile his network - which supplied the Taliban in Afghanistan, the FARC in Colombia and other terrorist groups - had become. The indictment alleges Bout and Chichakli wired some $1.7 million through the United States on behalf of a front company named Samar Airlines, to purchase two Boeing aircraft in the United States. My full blog is here.

A helicopter lands for an emergency medical evacuation while Marines and Afghan national army soldiers with Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, provide security and prepare to provide covering fire Feb. 13 on the outskirts of the city of Marjah, Helmand province, Afghanistan. Marines with Bravo and Alpha Company, 1/6, inserted into the city at night by helicopters as part of a large-scale offensive aimed at routing the Taliban from their last-known stronghold in Helmand province.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano today traveled to Mexico City at the invitation of her Mexican colleague, Interior Secretary Fernando Francisco Gómez-Mont, to meet with officials from North, Central and South American and Caribbean and the International Civil Aviation Organization to discuss ways to bolster global aviation security measures and standards.

Janet Napolitano, secretaria del Departamento de Seguridad Nacional (DHS por sus siglas en inglés), viajó hoy a la Ciudad de México, por invitación de su colega mexicano, el secretario de Gobernación Fernando Francisco Gómez-Mont, con el fin de reunirse con homólogos de Norteamérica, Centroamérica, Sudamérica y el Caribe, como también funcionarios de la Organización de Aviación Civil Internacional, para hablar sobre maneras de reforzar medidas y estándares de seguridad en la aviación mundial.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano yesterday toured Transportation Security Administration (TSA) explosive detection technologies and canine program operations in Virginia and Texas—highlighting $576 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds and other security investments devoted to securing the U.S. aviation system and creating jobs in local communities across the country since President Obama signed the bill into law one year ago.