Military

Central Command Not Moving to Qatar, Officials Say

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Sept. 11, 2002 -- U.S. Central Command is not moving to the Persian Gulf state of Qatar, as news reports have suggested.

Rather, a small portion of the combatant command will participate in a command post exercise called Internal Look '03 sometime in November, command officials said. Roughly 1,000 personnel will take part in the exercise, 600 from Central Command and 400 from subordinate commands.

Exercise Internal Look '03 will also test the standing deployable headquarters. The standing headquarters was one of the recommendations from the Quadrennial Defense Review released last year.

The exercise will last one week, CENTCOM officials said, but the deployment will last longer. "You have to allow for the advance party, set-up time and take-down time," one official said. He added that the long-standing exercise was first run in 1990.

Officials could not say who the exercise commander will be nor would they comment on whether other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council would participate.