May 16, 2006
Al Udeid--Vietnam Redux + 2006 update
In 1961, a young man who had fled Hungary with his family and enlisted in the US Air Force to finance a college education, returned from his tour of duty a frighteningly changed person. He alluded to having survived life in the jungle and the discovery that the fellow standing watch over night had his throat cut while the others in their tent slept. He couldn't say where he'd been because it was a secret. The "official story" for the longest time was that the Vietnam War started in 1964, even though "advisors" had been dying there since 1957.
So, starting wars in secret is nothing new.
Originally compiled for the Hannah blog on July 13, 2005
The top pictures from al-Udeid air base show air-craft shelters, able to house betwen 30 and 40 planes, whose design makes them difficult to "see" unless the angle of the sun is just right.
Lower pictures show the buildout between January 2002 and June 2002. Perhaps the intense bombardment of Iraq in October 2002 originated from here since Saudi Arabia announced on August 7, 2002 that our base there could not be used. A year later all American assets had been relocated here.
"Secret" Air Base for Iraq War started prior 9-11
by Duke1676
This is great investigative work, and further evidence that Bush and the neocons were planning pre-emptive military action long before September 11th, and no matter what WMD intelligence revealed--Chris
With a small ceremony on April 26, 2003, control of Prince Sultan Air Base was handed back to the government of Saudi Arabia. Since the mid-nineties it had been the premier US air base in the region and the nerve center for all air force operations in the Gulf. As the home of the Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC), the base was the primary command and control facility responsible for orchestrating the air campaigns for both Operation Southern Watch in Iraq and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.
The timing of the closing of PSAB seemed odd, coming just weeks after the official start of military actions in Iraq. It should have, at the very least, caused unwanted logistical problems for the Pentagon and regional commanders, but it didn't. A contingency plan had long been in the works, not only for Prince Sultan Air Base, but also for the entire map of the Middle East, including Iraq.
Diaries :: Duke1676's diary :: Tue Jun 21st, 2005 at 01:10:28 PM EDT
Long before the US pullout, a new home for the operations had secretly been built in the deserts of Qatar. What had been in October 2001 "nothing more than a runway and a field of sand covered by two-dozen tents and a few warehouses", the Al Udeid Air Base was transformed in a few short months into one of the largest air bases in the world.
Published reports and official DOD statements claimed that the amazing transformation was the result of the heroic response of US servicemen to the tragedy of 9-11. A determined military had beaten indeterminate odds to transform a barren wasteland into a state of the art military base in order to "take the war to the terrorists".
The true story of the building of Al-Udeid is actually quite different. The planning for the mammoth base had in fact taken place long before Sept. 11, and actual work on the base began as early as the spring of 2001. The building of Al Udeid turns out not to be a "miracle in the desert" in response to a heinous attack, as touted by the military, but rather a required step on the path to regime change in Iraq.
It has long been accepted knowledge that the Bush Administration was working feverishly towards regime change in Iraq during the 18-month period between 9-11 and the official start of the war in March of 2003. The Downing St Minutes confirmed that the Administration was set on a path to war at least as early as mid-summer of 2002. The accounts of Paul O'Neil and Richard Clarke verified that Iraq was a front burner issue for the Administration from the very first day, and only intensified after the attacks. Yet finding hard evidence to prove that planning for the war in Iraq was taking place prior to 9-11 has been hard to find. A look at the building of Al Udied can provide that evidence.
THE BUILDING OF AL-UDEID (THE OFFICIAL STORY)
According to published reports, the groundwork for what would become Al-Udeid Air Base was first laid at a cost of over one billion dollars in 1996 in an attempt by the Qatari government to lure the American military to set up shop in the small Gulf nation. At the time it was built, Qatar had not yet acquired as much as a single airplane to call the base home. Although they would later purchase an air force comprised of 12 French Mirage fighter jets, they would never actually station them at Al-Udeid. They were simply playing a waiting game, hoping that eventually the volatile nature of the region would bring the Americans knocking at their door. The Qatari's gamble paid off with the events of Sept. 11. In response to the attacks, the US presence in the region needed to increase exponentially. By Sept. 29, 2001, according to the official records, the first military teams arrived to begin looking the base over in preparation for Operation Enduring Freedom.
On October 2, 2001 a rapid-response team of civil engineers, the 823rd RED HORSE Squadron whose specialty is to repair and build structures such as runways and roads in remote areas, arrived. According to the accounts of the 823rd, the Qatar base "was nothing more than a runway and a field of sand covered by two-dozen tents and a few warehouses". Since there was no room in the warehouses for the RED HORSE airmen to sleep, they moved into an expandable shelter on the flightline and lived and worked out of there
They had come to begin the largest construction project ever undertaken by a RED HORSE team; a $9.1 million military construction project that consisted of building a 1,240- foot by 630-foot concrete ramp with taxiways, shoulders and lighting. While waiting for funding and approval for the ramp project, the RED HORSE troops spent two months doing other base projects, like building the operations center and helping set up the tent city. Finally in January 2002 ramp construction began. The completed ramp, as big as 8 football fields, was finished in late March.
As March 2002 began, the airfield was still classified as "Secret".
Only a handwritten "Army Camp" sign marked its entrance. By the middle of the month, several thousand new American troops were now stationed at the base. Many of these troops were supporting the large complement of US aircraft, which included F-16 fighters, JSTARS reconnaissance aircraft, and KC-10, KC-130 and KC-135 aerial tankers. The rapid growth of the base made Qatar's Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani decide he had to let his people know about extent of the American presence in their country. It was agreed that the best way to announce the presence of the base was to have Vice President Cheney visit on March 17, 2002.
Within ten days of Cheney's visit, reports were coming out of Saudi Arabia that the US was moving communications and computer equipment from Prince Sultan Air Base to Al-Udeid in anticipation of a base closing. US military trucks had been seen leaving the base 50 miles south of Riyadh, and arriving at the border with Qatar in the second week of March. It was speculated that a move was being made in response to the Saudi government's refusal to allow air raids on Afghanistan to be launched from its soil. Additionally, in the event of a Saudi refusal to collaborate in a second phase of the US "war on terror" against Iraq, the move would be needed to allow the US to effectively conduct an air campaign.
At the time US central command spokesman, Major Ralph Mills confirmed the equipment movements but insisted they represented business as usual. Mills told reporters, "This is not uncommon. This is status quo. We are moving stuff from point A to point B, this is an ongoing process." Dick Cheney also denied there were any plans to close Prince Sultan AB, claiming no decision had made to change military positions with respect to Saudi Arabia.
By June of 2002 the work on the first phase Al Udeid was nearing completion.
The US military had quietly moved munitions, equipment and communications gear to the base from Saudi Arabia. The base was now home to 3,000 troops. A huge tent city had been erected with warehouses and miles of security barriers. Miles of freshly paved runways and acres of new aircraft parking ramps showed up on satellite imagery from the period. Newly built hangers, munitions supply areas and control facilities had been hardened with concrete to withstand aerial attack, and the base now boasted the longest runway in the region at over 15,000 feet. It had become as one military analyst said; "The most capable base in the Gulf region."
On August 7, 2002
the Saudis announced that the US would no longer be allowed to fly combat missions in Iraq out of Prince Sultan Air Base in support of Operation Southern Watch. The Saudi decision had no effect on US war plans by that time, as Al Udeid was more than prepared to pick up where the Saudis had left off. A year later, Prince Sultan was closed after all Command and Control was moved to Al Udeid.
A HIDDEN HISTORY OF AL-UDEID (PAVING THE ROAD TO WAR IN IRAQ)
As the Bush Administration came to power in January 2001, the sound of war drums began beating along the Potomac. Numerous accounts from the period tell of an increased emphasis on the need for regime change in Iraq. As the political wing of the administration worked on setting the stage for policy change, the military began to deal with the practicalities of waging war. With the deteriorating situation in Saudi Arabia in general, and the possible need replace Prince Sultan AB in particular; the DOD began to make moves to find a replacement.
Since the first Gulf War, the US had had limited military agreements with Qatar. In 1992, a Defense Cooperation Agreement was signed that permitted "access and prepositioning" of US assets in the country. In November, 1995 another agreement to host "several Air Expeditionary Force deployments" was reached. Yet as of 2000, Al Udeid had been mostly ignored, but that was about to change.
In 2000 the US planned to to use Al-Udeid as a munitions storage facility
according to The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) 2000 report released in the fall of that year.
ICBL Report 2000: Qatar
Additionally, based on U.S. Air Force plans for its war reserve ammunition stockpiles in the Persian Gulf region, U.S. Gator antipersonnel mines, as well as Claymore mines, may be introduced and stockpiled at the Al Udeid area in Qatar in the near future. U.S. Air Force documents indicate that the Al Udeid storage facility will eventually contain 142 CBU-89 Gator mine systems, each with twenty-two antipersonnel mines, and 141 M18/M18A1 Claymore mines
The ICBL 2001 report, which was completed just prior to 9-11 confirmed that the munitions storage plan had in fact gone into effect. Located in the remote desert region of Qatar, Al-Udeid was a perfect candidate for this kind of usage. But munitions storage facility would not last long. As the Bush administration came to power they had new plans for the air base, plans that would clear the path to war with Iraq.
By March 2001 the Air Force began investigating moving operations to the Al-Udeid.
According to a Congressional report given by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the airfield was now being looked at as potential US base. In his annual Allied Contributions to the Common Defense Report , Rumsfeld stated:
"Since November 1995, Bahrain and Qatar have both hosted several Air Expeditionary Force deployments in support of Operation SOUTHERN WATCH, and the United States Air Force recently established a limited prepositioning facility at Qatar's Al-Udeid Airbase and is investigating moving to the airfield. Qatar also hosts prepositioned U.S. Army assets at As-Saliyah."
This was the first time the use of Al-Udied as a potential base for US air operations was officially acknowledged. Back in April 2000, then Defense Secretary William Cohen had been asked about the use of Al-Udeid at a press conference in Kuwait. He acknowledge that he had "discussed ways in which Al-Udeid may be used in the future, in a crisis situation" with the Qataris, but no agreement could be reached. Obviously the new administration had more luck with the Qatari negotiations then its predecessors.
In June 2001 communications capabilities were completed at Al Udeid
According to his online biography archived at a website for those who had served at Prum Air Station in Germany, Bill Goodman (USAF Ret) states that communications work began at Al Udeid sometime before June 2001. Towards the end of his long and distinguished military career, Goodman says that while working for Air Force Central Command, he oversaw the installation of "communications capability" at Al Udeid in the spring.
"In June of 1996 ...I accepted a position on the United States Central Command Air Forces Staff. I was a Project Manager and Communications Systems Manager for Southwest Asia. I got to spend much time traveling throughout the Middle East. Most significant, and my last official duty in the Air Force was that I was project manager for an initial communications capability at Al Udeid Air Base in QATAR. I completed everything in June of 2001 and am pretty proud of what I helped accomplish there and feel like I made a difference."
Around the same period, Alaswar Technology Group Co (aka.Al-Aswar Electronic) of Hawally Kuwait supplied and installed two "60 foot guy masts, microwave dishes and allied works" in Qatar; one at the Saliyah Army Base, the other at Al-Udeid. Whether these communication dishes were part of the work Bill Goodman was doing cannot be known. What is known is that the US military had personnel working at Al-Udied long before the Sept 29, 2001 date always claimed to be the first time US servicemen set foot at the base.
In the Summer of 2001 construction contracts for the airbase began to go out for bids.
By the summer of 2001 plans to expand Al Udeid into a large-scale installation were well under way. The bidding process for contracts to do the work had all ready begun.
On August 9, 2001 bids went out for a "contractor owned-contractor operated" fueling station for both fighter and cargo planes as well as a diesel and automotive gasoline facility for ground vehicles. Also in the bid was a fueling station for mobile aircraft refueling vehicles and a commercial tank truck receiving facility.
COMMERCE BUSINESS DAILY ISSUE OF AUGUST 13, 2001 PSA #2913
SOLICITATIONS
X -- COCO SITE AT AL UDEID
Notice Date
August 9, 2001
Contracting Office
Defense Logistics Agency,
Logistics Operations,
Defense Energy Support Center,
8725 John J. Kingman Road,
Fort Belvoir, VA, 22060-6222
Solicitation Number
SP0600-01-R-0117
Response Due
October 5, 2001
Description
COCO Site at AL Udeid, Qatar 1. An aircraft hydrant fuel system capable of servicing both fighter and cargo aircrafts. 2. Approximately 72,000 barrels of JP8 storage capacity. 3. A ground products dispensing facility for Diesel Fuel and Automotive Gasoline. 4. A truck fill stand capable for mobile aircraft refueling vehicles. 5. A commercial tank truck receiving facility (i.e. tank truck off loading heads).
Record
Loren Data Corp. 20010813/XSOL001.HTM (D-221 SN50U5O6)
(Contact info edited)
On Sept 7, 2001, according to company news releases, a contract was awarded GSCSGulf to build "administration facilities, a worker break room, ablution facilities, an outside storage area, a loading dock, FMSE facility, and a generator run up." Later in the month GSCSGulf was awarded two contracts farmed out from DynCorp. One was for a Fuel Receiving Point, the other for a Bulk Fuel Storage facility. "The projects (were) to be built under expedited construction schedules in order to ensure fuel systems (were) in-place for incoming USAF tanker squadrons deployed as part of Operation Enduring Freedom."
Although the press release from the 30th of September mentions "Operation Enduring Freedom", bidding on the contract had to have been completed long before that date. As the release states GSCSGulf had won the contracts from DynCorp, one must assume they competed for them.
GSCS Chosen to Build WRM Support Facilities
(7 September 2001) GSCS has won a contract to simultaneously construct 10 minor construction projects in support of the US Air Force War Reserve Material (WRM) program at Al-Udeid Air Base, Qatar. Individual projects include: administration facilities, worker break room, ablution facilities, outside storage area, loading dock, FMSE facility, generator run up
DynCorp Selects GSCS to Construct USAF Fuel Systems
(30 September 2001) GSCS has won two contracts with DynCorp International for the construction of a Fuel Receiving Point and a Bulk Fuel Storage Point, both at Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar. The projects are to be built under expedited construction schedules in order to ensure fuel systems are in-place for incoming USAF tanker squadrons deployed as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.
GSCSGulf was awarded two more contracts during this period. Both had been won competitively, hence bids had been taken. Although it is impossible to know how the events of 9-11 affected the bid review and acceptance process, even under expedited conditions it seems highly unlikely that any but the last contract would have been initiated after 9-11 given the DOD's usual 60 to 120 day turn around time.
GSCS Wins Tent-City Site Preparation Contract
(3 October 2001) GSCS has been competitively awarded a contract for the emergency preparation of 61 acres of outside open area in support of a US Air Force tent city to be erected at Al-Udeid Air Base, Qatar. Work includes: excavation, backfilling, soil compaction, trenching for electrical cables, application of rock aggregate, construction of drainage ditches, access roads with culverts, parking areas, interior access corridors and perimeter earth berms.
GSCS Wins RMS Contract for USAF Aircraft Parking Apron Materials
(28 December 2001) Readiness Management Support L.C. has competitively awarded GSCS a contract for the rapid supply of base course aggregate (42,184 metric tons) and sub-base aggregate (73,482 metric tons) in support of construction of a new US Air Force concrete aircraft-parking apron at Al-Udeid Air Base, Qatar.
October 2001 satellite images showed extensive work had already been completed at Al-Udeid
The Oct 2001 images of runways, structures and roads show an air base far more advanced than the official story would have us believe, revealing that the base was certainly more than one month old. If this construction was part of the original Qatari project, or new US additions cannot be known. What is known is that the base was not "a simple runway and a field of sand covered by two-dozen tents and a few warehouses". Satellite images from Jan 2002, and the following June, show the rapidity with which base was completed. The clock on war with Iraq was running, and the military was in a race to beat that clock.
THE ROAD TO WAR WAS PAVED WITH PROPAGANDA
As any chess player can attest, the game is most often won or lost in the first few moves. The Bush Administrations plan for regime change in Iraq was much like a chess game, each piece needed to be in place before the gambit. Although the grand schemes were hatched in the plush offices of right wing think tanks and corporate boardrooms, the heavy lifting was done by simple pawns in the hot deserts of the Southwest Asia, long before the first rumbles of shock and awe were ever heard.
Able to use the smoldering embers of the World Trade Center as a canard to sell a "global" war on terror to not only the American people, but to those who would fight it, the Administration was able to cover their tracks with a web of misinformation. Al-Udeid was never intended as a frontline in a war against the terrorists of 9-11. It was planned as the frontline for something far different; the "War on Terror", which was nothing more then a clever repackaging of the plans for Iraqi regime change that began with the first Gulf War.
The level of misinformation can be illustrated with a simple story coming from the building of Al Udeid:
According to the official DOD history of Al Udeid, the first fatality of Operation Enduring Freedom was a civil engineer, Master Sgt. Evander Earl "Andy" Andrews who died on Oct. 10, 2001 in a construction accident. To honor Andrews, the sprawling tent city at Al-Udeid was christened "Camp Andy". The story of "Camp Andy" is oft told in press accounts about the base and is a cornerstone in the façade of the official account.
Left out of the official story is the fact that since the existence of the base was classified at the time, the military initially announced only that the fatality occurred somewhere in "Southwest Asia", and his parents waited months to find out what had really happened to their son.
Just as Master Sgt. Andrews parents were not told the truth about their sons' death in Qatar, the American people were never told about the planning and execution of the war in Iraq. The history of the building of AL Udeid demonstrates that the Military planners were on a path to war long before the events of that fateful September morning "changed everything".
This is the first in a three part series by the IRAQFACT working group on military activities prior to Congressional approval for war
==============================================
2006 Update begins:
U.S. Is Preparing Base in Gulf State to Run Iraq War
Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Sun Dec 1 09:56:57 MST 2002
NYT December 1, 2002
U.S. Is Preparing Base in Gulf State to Run Iraq War
By MICHAEL R. GORDON
DOHA, Qatar - The United States military is installing a new command
center at a heavily guarded base in this small Persian Gulf state
that would be ready to serve as the main headquarters for a war on
Iraq.
The official purpose of the work at the base, As Sayliyah, is to
prepare for a major American military exercise in December called
Internal Look. But it will be no ordinary exercise. American
officials say that it will be the first time that a war game of its
type has been conducted outside the United States and that the
command and control procedures practiced would be the same used for a
war with Iraq.
Gen. Tommy R. Franks, the head of the Central Command, is expected to
arrive in about a week to take part in the exercise. About 750 staff
members from the headquarters of the United States Central Command
are also being sent. General Franks will participate along with top
Army, Marine, Air Force, Navy and Special Operations commanders in
the region....
Like many Persian Gulf states, Qatar is worried about the reaction in
the Arab world to an American attack on Iraq and hopes that a
conflict can be avoided. That attitude seems natural in a country
that is home to Al Jazeera, the Arab satellite television network
that was started in 1996 with financing from Qatar's emir, Sheik
Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani.
At the same time, Qatar has been more receptive to cooperation with
the United States military than neighboring Saudi Arabia, and it has
spent more than $1 billion to build an air base, Al Udeid, to attract
American forces here....
A tiny nation of about 750,000, Qatar operated in Saudi Arabia's
shadow for years. The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 jolted
the Qataris, according to former Qatari officials and Western
officials. Qatar saw that the Saudis were unable to defend themselves
against a potential Iraqi threat, let alone protect other gulf
states, those officials said. The Qataris saw that the Saudis had to
invite the Americans to protect their kingdom. "They woke up to the
fact that they needed superpower protection," a Western official
said, referring to the Qataris.
Soon after the Persian Gulf war in 1991, the United States and Qatar
quietly signed a defense cooperation agreement that provided
Washington with what one official called a "big green light" to set
up operations here. In recent years, Qatar has emerged as vital real
estate for United States military strategy in the Persian Gulf.
One crucial base is As Sayliyah, a 262-acre installation completed in
August 2000 at a cost of more than $100 million. The base has more
than 20 climate-controlled warehouses, storing hundreds of M1 tanks,
Bradley fighting vehicles and other armored vehicles. It is capable
of housing enough armored equipment for a heavy Army brigade. It
includes a community center and living quarters for the approximately
300 American troops who have been permanently based there.
Qatar's willingness to allow the United States to build and operate
the base is a breakthrough for the Pentagon, and it represents a
level of cooperation that far outstrips what the Saudis have been
prepared to offer. After the gulf war, when Vice President Dick
Cheney was the defense secretary, he went to Saudi Arabia to discuss
storing a division's worth of Army equipment there, but the Saudis
turned him down.
Armored vehicles and other weapons from As Sayliyah have been quietly
shipped to Kuwait, a transfer that the Pentagon initially cast as an
exercise but that is seen as a preparation for war. Soldiers from the
Third Infantry Division, which is expected to play a key role if
there is an invasion of Iraq, rumble around Kuwait on
well-maintained, modern armored vehicles that still bear the shipping
labels from the Qatar installation.
After the United States began shipping armored equipment out of As
Sayliyah, the military started to install communications equipment
there for the command center that General Franks and his staff will
use to conduct the exercise. Western officials say the Qataris have
long suggested that Central Command establish a headquarters here,
and the exercise may be the first step.
It is what the military calls a command post exercise, meaning that
the top American commanders will carry out a war game that will
simulate a campaign against an enemy in the region, but will not
involve the deployment of troops. Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf
conducted such an exercise in July 1990 in Tampa, Fla., that used the
scenario of an Iraqi attack on Saudi Arabia....
During the war exercise, General Franks will command his forces from
his new Qatar headquarters while Vice Admiral [Tommy] Keating and Lt.
Gen. Earl B. Hailston, the senior Marine commander in the region,
will be at their command centers in Bahrain. Meanwhile, Lt. Gen.
David D. McKiernan, the top Army commander in the region and the
officer who would be in charge of American land forces in the event
of a war, will be at his command center in Kuwait. The Air Force
commander, Lt. Gen. T. Michael Moseley, will be at his command center
at Prince Sultan Air Base near Riyadh.
As in a war, the senior commanders will talk to each other using
teleconferences and sophisticated communications equipment.
Military officials say that when the exercise is over in
mid-December, General Franks and his staff are scheduled to leave
unless there is an escalation of tensions with Iraq. But the exercise
is likely to be under way as the United States and its allies review
the declaration that Iraq is scheduled to submit on Dec. 8 about its
programs to develop weapons of mass destruction. Even if General
Franks leaves, the forward headquarters will be in place in case of
war.
"All we have to do is hop on a plane and come forward," a military
official said.
As Sayliyah is not the only base the United States military is using
here. In a bid to lure the Americans, the Qataris built Al Udeid Air
Base. It was constructed in 1996, before Qatar even acquired an Air
Force, an approach that Western officials quip is a classic example
of the "if we build it they will come" approach. Qatar later bought
12 French Mirage fighter jets, but they are not stationed at Al Udeid.
The United States did not begin to use the base until Sept. 29, 2001,
when Washington rushed to get its forces in position to attack the
Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
The first American casualty of the Afghan campaign occurred when
Master Sgt. Evander E. Andrews, a civil engineer, died in
construction accident at the base. Because the existence of the base
was classified at the time, the military initially announced only
that the fatality occurred somewhere in Southwest Asia. Today, the
sprawling 288-tent complex at Al Udeid is known as Camp Andy.
Al Udeid has hardened aircraft shelters, including two special
shelters from which aircraft could take off while under fire, and one
of the longest runways in the Middle East. It also has a backup
combat air operations center, which could be used to run an air
campaign if the Saudis did not allow the Americans to direct combat
operations from Prince Sultan Air Base. But the Al Udeid air combat
center is not in operation.
During the early part of the Afghan campaign, F-16 fighters and E-8C
Joint Stars reconnaissance planes that monitor ground units were
based here along with refueling tankers. These days, the only
aircraft are KC-135 and KC-10 refueling tankers.
The emir decided it was time to let his public know about extent of
the American presence at the base last spring. It was agreed that
Vice President Cheney could land there in March along with a group of
traveling reporters....
Al Udeid could easily shift its focus to Iraq if the United States
moves on Baghdad. And there are still other bases. The United States
military has used part of the Doha Airport as a logistics hub, an
installation that is known informally and inexplicably as Camp Snoopy.
And Qatar still has its secrets. According to knowledgeable
officials, Qatar has allowed the United States to store ammunition at
a secret facility in the desert. It is called Falcon 78.
--
Yoshie
=======================================
US to test Qatar air base as war looms
By Vernon Loeb
Washington
September 13 2002
The United States military command responsible for operations in Central Asia and the Persian Gulf will send 600 troops from its base in Florida to a multi-billion-dollar air base in Qatar in November to test a headquarters that could be used to oversee a war against Iraq, defence officials said yesterday.
Although officials billed the move as part of a one-week biennial exercise, they said it would be led by General Tommy Franks, the chief of Central Command, and acknowledged that moving at least some operations and personnel from Florida to Qatar on a permanent basis was under consideration.
The decision, which comes as the Bush administration is stepping up plans for a possible war aimed at toppling Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, illustrates the emergence of Qatar as a key strategic US ally in the Gulf. It comes in a period in which relations with Saudi Arabia, where the US already has a military command centre, have been under severe strain.
The headquarters will be established at Al Udeid Air Base near Doha, the Qatar capital, where the US military presence has been expanding rapidly in recent months. The base has a runway long enough for the heaviest US cargo aircraft and bombers to take off fully loaded, and the Pentagon has begun construction of a sophisticated air operations centre at the site that could supplant or replace an existing centre at Prince Sultan Air Base outside Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Since the war on terrorism began late last year, US authorities have been installing computer monitors, communications gear, intelligence equipment and other assets at the base. In recent months, the number of US warplanes and personnel at the base has swelled, with about 2000 troops now populating a large military tent city in the desert, according to one official.
The November deployment to Qatar, which could involve an additional 400 support personnel, bringing the total number of US forces involved to about 1000, follows controversy regarding a decision by General Franks and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to keep Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Florida, during the war in Afghanistan.
General Franks decided to remain in Tampa, defence officials said, because he and Mr Rumsfeld thought a move would be disruptive during the opening stages of the war and believed that Saudi Arabia would have objected to stationing the headquarters at Prince Sultan.
But many air force and army commanders involved in Afghanistan complained about the arrangement and indicated they thought General Franks should have moved to the region so that the Central Command staff would have been in roughly the same time zone as military commanders in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asian republics.
They noted that an earlier Central Command leader, General Norman Schwarzkopf, moved from Tampa to Riyadh soon after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in August, 1990. General Schwarzkopf commanded the 1991 Gulf War from the Riyadh headquarters.
The Central Command's announcement came as Qatar's foreign minister, Sheik Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani, is in Washington meeting administration officials and members of Congress.
Earlier this year, the Qataris made it clear they would not place restrictions on the use of facilities by US commanders prosecuting the war on terrorism, one senior defence official said.
- Washington Post
=======================================
U.S. May Shift to Persian Gulf Air Bases
Saturday May 13, 2006 5:01 PM
By JIM KRANE
Associated Press Writer
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - The U.S. military is preparing for the day when air power from bases along the Persian Gulf will help ensure that friendly governments in Iraq and Afghanistan survive without American ground troops, a senior U.S. general said.
``We'll be in the region for the foreseeable future,'' said U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Allen G. Peck, deputy air commander of U.S. Central Command, which oversees the region. ``Our intention would be to stay as long as the host nations will have us.''
Agreements have been struck recently with Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates for long-term use of their bases. Already home to U.S. and allied fighter, transport and observation planes, the bases will become more critical if plans proceed to gradually withdraw ground forces from Iraq.
A capable Iraqi air force is years away and Iraqi infantry need the back-up and surveillance provided by U.S. warplanes, Peck said. The bases also could help rush soldiers into Iraq in a crisis. The Pentagon has been keeping thousands of troops in reserve in Kuwait, on Iraq's southern border.
Not everyone is convinced.
The Bush administration declines to say it won't seek to keep bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the U.S. military is spending almost $1 billion this year for base construction in Iraq alone. The base at Balad, for example, has been expanded to host F-16 fighter and C-130 transport squadrons.
A former Iraq intelligence chief for the State Department, Wayne White, said he believes one of the administration's unstated pre-invasion goals was to secure permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq after overseeing the installation of a pro-American government.
Peck, however, said he knew of no current U.S. plans to maintain permanent air bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Because of the Iraqi insurgency, experts say bases in the Persian Gulf nations are a better option given the long relationships Washington has had with them.
But there are risks even in those countries, where many people harbor suspicions of U.S. policy. Osama bin Laden and other Islamic radicals agitate against the U.S. military presence in the Muslim world. A huge U.S. air base and headquarters in Saudi Arabia was closed before the invasion of Iraq because of fundamentalists' pressure on the Saudi government.
Indeed, American diplomats and some military officers interviewed for this article agreed to discuss the matter only on condition of anonymity, because Arab governments have asked the U.S. military not to publicize their presence.
The Air Force operates refueling, cargo and surveillance flights from large bases in Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE, while maintaining runway access and warehoused supplies in Oman and Saudi Arabia.
The plan Peck described would have the Air Force eventually consolidate most of its Iraq operations in the Persian Gulf bases.
Afghanistan's military also could be backed up from Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic where U.S. officials are negotiating a long-term agreement. The Kyrgyz government has requested a doubling of the base rental, Peck said.
The U.S. base at Incirlik, Turkey, could also enter into the equation. For now, the Turkish government, a NATO ally, allows the U.S. military to operate only cargo, refueling and passenger flights to support operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the U.S. has based fighter jets there in the past.
Peck and others caution that the shift would take years. The top U.S. officer in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, recently said plans to begin reducing the U.S. presence this year are still on track. But President Bush also has said the counterinsurgency mission in Iraq will continue at least through the end of his term in January 2009.
``The idea that we can envision a time when air power in places like the UAE becomes our main way of watching over Iraq is still a bit ahead of its time - to put it gently,'' said Michael O'Hanlon, a military analyst at the Brookings Institution.
Either way, the Pentagon is planning for the time when U.S. forces pull out of Iraq, or in case Iraq's government asks them to leave. The idea of a long-term U.S. military presence is deeply unpopular in Iraq, polls say.
White and others say the United States could eventually turn over its bases to the Iraqi military and still back up the Iraqi government with small numbers of U.S. special forces troops, along with warplanes based in nearby countries.
``If we do not support the Iraqi army with reconnaissance and airstrike capabilities, which we now rely on so heavily against the insurgents, they're not going to stand a chance,'' said White, now an Iraq analyst at the Middle East Institute.
O'Hanlon said the gulf bases are safer than almost anywhere in Iraq. ``And everything in the region is close enough together that for most purposes the bases along the gulf should suffice.''
The air bases expected to host U.S. air operations after an Iraq pullout are Al-Udeid in Qatar, Ali Al Salem in Kuwait and Al-Dhafra in the UAE. The three bases also lie just across the Persian Gulf from Iran, which the Bush administration and other nations suspect is pursuing nuclear arms.
Visits to U.S. bases in Kuwait and Qatar found signs of heavy construction of permanent housing and operations buildings.
At Al-Udeid, forward headquarters for the U.S. Central Command, construction is under way on a concrete bunker that will house a command center where American and coalition teams will direct and monitor air operations over Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere in the region. The current center is housed in a temporary building on the base.
Construction of the new operations center is being funded by the Qatari government, a U.S. military official said on condition of anonymity, because of the sensitivity of the topic.
The change is inevitable, some experts say.
``We will not be able to retain bases in Iraq. That will simply not be possible,'' White said.
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