Rumsfeld fighting to keep US military bases in SW Asia

[Roland99]

Below is a timeline of articles I've collected in the last few months related to US military bases in various countries in SW Asia:


Rumsfeld Baku visit leaves questions behind
http://www.bakutoday.net/view.php?d=13143

In a display of the Caspian region’s strategic importance to America, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld took time out from a fast moving tour of America’s war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, to pay a third visit to Azerbaijan Tuesday night, his first arrival in a year.

According to local reports, during his roughly three-hour visit Rumsfeld met with his Azerbaijani counterpart Defense Minister Safar Abiyev and addressed Azeri peacekeepers in Iraq and the current pace of settlement talks regarding the Karabakh conflict.

While brief, the trip generated huge interest among Azerbaijani media, with some reports calling the visit “shrouded in secrecy.” Local analysts blamed the suspicion on recent international speculation that the United States seeks to establish a major military presence in Azerbaijan. The so-called Caspian Guard will reportedly be headquartered in Baku and comprised of American troops trained for rapid response missions for regional crises. The guard is part of Rumsfeld’s overall strategy to re-craft America’s overseas military units from bulky Cold War bases to more deployable units flexible enough to put together different force packages for different operations. While specific information on the unit is hard to obtain, a recent report in the Wall Street Journal quoted Chief of U.S. European Command, General James Jones addressing the U.S. Congress about the guard. Jones said the U.S. plans to allocate some $100 million to cover the guard’s first 10 years of activities.

The guard will reportedly be one of the U.S. European Command’s 10 posts, with the Caspian region included in its area of responsibility. The command center will boast the most up-to-date radar equipment and also focus on dealing with potential terror attacks on the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline.

(Other articles:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/april2005/210405militarybases.htm
http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/conspiracy_theory/fullstory.asp?id=217
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L1478278.htm
http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/a-list/2004w11/msg00091.htm
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/MEN307A.html )


General fired for saying Romania to host U.S. bases
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5826287&cKey=1117366528000

A senior Romanian general has been removed from his job after telling the press Romania would provide U.S. forces with bases near the Black Sea, the Defense Ministry said on Sunday.

General Valeriu Nicut, head of the strategic planning division for the Romanian general staff, said on Wednesday after an international military conference on security issues that the U.S. would set up two military bases in Romania within one year.

"General Nicut is not the head of the strategic planning division any more, his situation is being assessed and he will be given another job within the army," Defense Ministry spokesman Cristinel Ghiga said.

"During Wednesday's press conference, General Nicut had no mandate to speak to the press on the issue of bases," he added. "There is no accord on this issue with the American state."

There's Democracy, and There's an Oil Pipeline
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/29/weekinreview/29sanger.html?

WASHINGTON — Samuel Bodman, the new secretary of energy, led the United States delegation to Azerbaijan last week to celebrate a huge moment in America's effort to diversify its sources of oil: The opening of a pipeline that will carry Caspian oil to the West, on a route that avoids Russia and Iran.

Mr. Bodman delivered a message from President Bush: "As Azerbaijan deepens its democratic and market economic reforms, this pipeline can help generate balanced economic growth, and provide a foundation for a prosperous and just society that advances the cause of freedom."

Just a few days earlier, the Azerbaijani police beat pro-democracy demonstrators with truncheons when opposition parties, yelling "free elections," defied the government's ban on protests against President Ilham Aliyev. Mr. Aliyev is one of President Bush's allies in the war on terror, even though he won a highly suspect election to succeed his father, a former Soviet strongman.

<...>

"Look, I was part of the incubation of this policy," said Richard N. Haass, who was head of policy planning in the State Department from 2001 to 2003, referring to the decision to make democracy a major theme of the Bush presidency. "But I don't think you can make it the controlling issue. The administration has set itself up for inconsistency." In fact, Mr. Bush has started to talk about the need for patience as Americans wait for democracy to take hold elsewhere. His wife, Laura, took up the theme this month on a trip to the Middle East. Asked about the difficulties of mounting any real challenge to President Mubarak in Egypt, she said, "To act like you can just go from here to there overnight is naïve." Full democracy, she said, is "not easy and we know that it's, in many cases, not even possible."

Uzbekistan Mulls Future of U.S Air Base
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050707/ap_on_re_eu/uzbekistan_us_2

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement the air base at Karshi-Khanabad, which U.S. forces use to support operations in neighboring Afghanistan, had been only intended for combat operations in Afghanistan during the overthrow of the Taliban regime after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

"Any other prospects for a U.S military presence in Uzbekistan were not considered by the Uzbek side," it said.

Uzbekistan also said the United States had not paid for making flights from the air base and had offered virtually no compensation for additional costs incurred by the Uzbek authorities for guarding the base and creating new infrastructure.

"In the view of the Foreign Ministry of Uzbekistan, these considerations should be central to examining the prospects of the future presence of the U.S military force at the Khanabad air base," the statement concluded.

Kyrgyz President Questions Presence Of U.S. Base
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/07/160461b7-bb64-4031-ba65-171a5362b36a.html

11 July 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Kyrgyzstan's newly elected President Kurmanbek Bakiev today questioned the continued presence of U.S. troops on a military base they have used since late 2001.

At his first news conference since yesterday's elections, Bakiev said the necessity of the U.S. base in his country should be discussed now that the situation in Afghanistan has stabilized.

The comment echoed a call by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which last week said Washington should set a date for the withdrawal of its bases in Central Asia.

The SCO groups four Central Asian republics with Russia and China.

Rumsfeld Seeks Deal on Bases in Kyrgyzstan
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/25/international/asia/25cnd-rumsfeld.html?

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, July 25 - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld arrived in this Central Asian nation today to shore up an unsettled military basing arrangement here that has been critical to operations in Afghanistan. The refueling and cargo mission operated by the American military from Manas Air Base, just outside the Kyrgyz capital, has been essential to ferry aid, troops and equipment to and from Afghanistan. About 1,000 American troops operate from the airfield, the base for a dozen KC-135 refueling jets and C-130 cargo planes.

But this agreement appeared to be cast in jeopardy earlier this month when Kyrgyzstan and three other Central Asian states joined Russia and China in calling for the United States to set a deadline for withdrawing from the base here and another in neighboring Uzbekistan.

Mr. Rumsfeld told reporters traveling with him en route here from Washington that the status of the bases was a matter of negotiations with the host countries, not the regional alliance, which is known as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and is dominated by Russia and China.

<...>

Ten days ago, Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was even blunter in his assessment of the alliance's demand: "It looks to me like two very large countries were trying to bully some smaller countries."

[acmejack]

1. Gotta take good care of that pipeline now.

these guys are truly amazing (but not in a good way!)

[stillcool]

2. wow...and thanks....

i haven't been paying attention i guess. Surprising and then not. This always seems to happen with these guys. They pay off, get access, and then the sands shift. While their frustration is understandable they've got to come up with some better strategies for securing their pipe-lines.

[Roland99]

3. The "war on terror" sure makes a convenient cover, eh?

[Roland99]

4. Well.....US to Continue Using Kyrgyz Air Base

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5168634,00.html

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (AP) - American troops can stay at a Kyrgyz air base for as long as they are needed to bring stability to Afghanistan, officials of this former Soviet republic assured Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Tuesday.

The remarks came at a time when the future of the U.S. military presence here and elsewhere in Central Asia has come into question. A July 5 statement by members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization - of which Kyrgyzstan is a member - called forces in the Kyrgyz republic totally depends on the situation in Afghanistan,'' he said. ``Once there is stabilization there will be no need. But now I agree with Mr. Secretary, who mentioned that the situation in Afghanistan is far from stable.''

Rumsfeld did not say publicly what the United States might offer in exchange. But Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Roza Otunbayeva told reporters that the defense secretary had pledged increased military assistance.

``The state of our army leaves much to be desired in terms of equipment and training,'' Otunbayeva told reporters. ``Rumsfeld promised to seek congressional support on the issue and assured it would be gained.''

Great...more arms sales. And the military-industrial complex grows ever larger.