GlobalSecurity.org In the News

Central Command Beefing Up Qatar Presence

BY GEORGE CORYELL AND KEITH EPSTEIN

MacDILL AIR FORCE BASE - In what could be a prelude to an attack on Iraq, U.S. Central Command - the headquarters unit here that is running the war in Afghanistan - is sending almost one-third of its staff to a large new multibillion-dollar air base at al-Udeid in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar.

The military says it's for a week-long training exercise, but such a move would also be necessary before any large- scale operation against Iraq.

About 600 people are going to Qatar for the exercise in November, according to the command. They would be able to oversee all U.S. military forces in the region, such as the Navy command in Bahrain.

Lt. Col. Jim Yonts, a spokesman for CentCom, said the exercise is designed to test the readiness of newly designed mobile communications facilities, the Los Angeles Times reported in today's editions.

Everyone involved is expected to return to Florida by early December, Yonts said.

But the Los Angeles Times and Associated Press also quoted unnamed military sources as saying the 600-person contingent might stay in Qatar indefinitely.

Commercial satellite pictures openly available on the Internet show that construction has been stepped up sharply at the al-Udeid base in recent months.

A tent city and air conditioned warehouses have been built for tanks and armored vehicles. Runway ramps and aircraft parking areas have been freshly paved and in some cases built from scratch, and hangers reinforced to withstand aerial attack have been constructed for fighter jets, the Los Angeles Times said.

The Washington Post said the Pentagon ordered the construction step-up as a hedge against an attack on an almost identical U.S. command center in Saudi Arabia that was headquarters for the Persian Gulf war, or the possibility of the United States being denied use of the Saudi facility, at least for any new campaign against Iraq.

Among the al-Udeid base's capabilities are a new high- tech command post, satellite links allowing for the control of thousands of air strikes daily, and two huge aircraft shelters that would allow fighter jet operations even in adverse conditions. There is also a runway more than two miles long - more than enough to handle the biggest U.S. bombers and transport planes fully loaded.

Equipment stockpiled there includes more than 200 M-1A1 Abrams tanks and 200 armored personnel carriers, along with enough fuel and food to provision tens of thousands of soldiers for a month.

Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine reported late last month that a new command operations center at the base looks like the Joint Air and Space Operations Center at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. The magazine said that facility was designed to reduce the number of people needed to run an air war by up to 80 percent.

The CentCom move is a clear sign that the U.S. is positioning itself for war with Iraq, several analysts said.

"Some can say [Army Gen. Tommy Franks, CentCom's commander] is just moving people over because it's become clear we need a more robust headquarters in the region...but I believe it's intended to allow CentCom to conduct an Iraq operation," said Jay Farrar, a former deputy assistant defense secretary. "We're prepping for an eventual move against Iraq."

"We probably can't do it tomorrow," added Anthony H. Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "But with the buildup, we're a lot closer than many people think we are."

John Pike, director of globalsecurity.org, a technology policy group in Washington, estimates the military now has or soon will have the ability to support four brigades in or near Kuwait and Qatar.

An existing base at Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean, has the capacity to handle two more brigades.

If his estimate is correct, Pike said, it means 50,000 troops - including support personnel - could be airlifted to the region in about 10 days.

CentCom's announcement ccmes as Qatar's foreign minister, Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani, is in Washington meeting with administration officials and members of Congress. Al- Thani is scheduled to testify in closed session today before a House committee and will meet with Pentagon officials on Friday.

Saudi Arabia has allowed the United States to use its operations center there for the war in Afghanistan and for air patrol's of the no-fly zone over southern Iraq. But relations between Washington and Riyahd have frayed since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, partly because 15 of the 19 hijackers were of Saudi origin.

The Saudis have refused to support the Bush administration's condemnation of Saddam Hussein, and Saudi officials have said privately they think it unlikely that Saudi military facilities would be made available for an attack on Iraq. Publicly, they have also challenged the administration's handling of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

Ever since the Gulf war, U.S. and British pilots have periodically targeted Iraqi radar and command sites on patrols over the no-fly zone. But the frequency of such strikes has quickened in the past several weeks.