Wall Street Journal
September 24, 2001
As More Forces Head To Region, U.S. Seeks Greater Access To Bases Ringing Afghanistan
By Greg Jaffe, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON -- As the Pentagon continues to build up forces in the Middle East, U.S. officials are lining up access to bases ringing Afghanistan that will give U.S. forces rapid access to the Taliban government's strongholds as well as Osama bin Laden's camps throughout the country.
A second deployment order signed by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld sends large numbers of intelligence-gathering and surveillance planes to the Persian Gulf region. They include both U-2 spy planes and RC-135 Rivet Joint surveillance aircraft, which can intercept radio communications involving Taliban officials and Osama bin Laden's team, said defense officials. The U-2s also provide detailed mapping and targeting data that would be critical to a strike that could involve everything from attack aircraft to Special Forces.
Mr. Rumsfeld also confirmed Sunday that the U.S. lost contact with an unmanned spy plane over Afghanistan. It wasn't clear whether the Taliban shot the plane down or whether it malfunctioned and crashed. In either case, though, the episode seemed to confirm the stepped-up level of military activity.
In Uzbekistan, the Pentagon is building up a force of special-operations commandos and Army Rangers who would conduct clandestine operations in Afghanistan, supported by helicopters and Air Force Special Forces combat planes, said defense officials. A U.S. delegation, made up of military officers, also is on its way to Tajikistan, where the U.S. hopes to base some rescue and recovery troops to assist any Special Forces troops or downed pilots, said a defense official.
Officials also said that, contrary to some reports, the U.S. will have access to at least some sophisticated military facilities in Saudi Arabia. The Pentagon quietly has been granted access to a new command and control center at Prince Sultan Air Base outside Riyadh, which is capable of controlling the movement of hundreds of aircraft over a vast distance. Air Force Lt. Gen. Charles Wald, commander of U.S. Central Command's air component, arrived late last week at the Saudi air base, where he will plan and direct any air attacks on Afghanistan.
Saudi Arabia has said that it doesn't want American attack planes flying missions out of its bases -- a stricture it has had in place since the end of the Gulf War. But Saudi officials also have signaled that they would be willing to look the other way if some missions are flown, so long as Washington doesn't formally request permission to launch them from Saudi bases or announce their use. In recent years, U.S. fighter jets have conducted strikes against southern Iraq from the base, according to a former defense official with knowledge of the region.
Perhaps more important to any U.S. operation is access to Pakistan, where the U.S. would likely base Special Forces units as well as armed attack planes that could conduct strikes against the Taliban and Osama bin Laden in southern and eastern Afghanistan. Aside from a general offer of cooperation, Pakistan still hasn't ironed out with Washington any of the operational details for forthcoming military operations against Afghanistan. The Pentagon is sending a small delegation of senior uniformed military officers to Islamabad to hammer out what the U.S. would need in the way of military support from Pakistan in the weeks and months to come.
Initially, U.S. officials planned to send a second delegation made up of State Department and Pentagon officials to Islamabad to follow the military delegation. But now it isn't clear whether the broader delegation will be going. One Pakistani official said that Islamabad was particularly concerned that the U.S. military delegation heading to Pakistan be of sufficient rank to make "real decisions."
The Pentagon also is asking for access to Masierah Air Base in Oman, from which it could launch fighter jets to strike targets in southern Afghanistan. Because Masierah Air Base is located on a small island off the coast of Oman, military officials wouldn't have to worry about protecting their planes from strikes. "There is nothing but sand crabs near that base. It is exceedingly secure and it is very well positioned for strikes against Afghanistan," said John Pike, who runs globalsecurity.org (www.globalsecurity.org), an independent defense-analysis think tank.
At the moment, the Pentagon's force in the region consists of large numbers of Air Force bombers and surveillance aircraft, Army and Air Force special-operations troops and Navy fighter jets based on aircraft carriers in the Arabian Sea. The B-1 and B-52 bombers, based on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, likely would be used to launch attacks on air fields and what is left of the Taliban's dilapidated air force in the region.
Navy fighters, based on carriers in the Arabian Sea, likely would work closely with small Special Forces units, operating from bases out of Uzbekistan, to strike smaller or moving targets. Using laser-target designators, the Special Forces could identify small cells linked to Mr. bin Laden and then beam precise information about the cells to Navy fighters or Air Force Special Forces planes.
Defense officials said that any strikes on Afghanistan were still several days away. Indeed Mr. Rumsfeld, who has been working seven days a week without a break, spent only half a day at the Pentagon on Sunday, said a defense official.
