[A-List] US imperialism: Iraq, Qatar

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

US to set up command post at Qatar air base
By Peter Spiegel in Washington
Financial Times: October 30 2002

The Pentagon will send more than 600 headquarters personnel from US central
command to the Gulf in early December to set up a command post for US forces
in the region, defence officials said on Tuesday.

The new command post, expected to be set up at the al-Udeid air base in
Qatar, will be established as part of month-long military exercises called
Internal Look but the Pentagon may decide to leave it there indefinitely,
where it could be used to direct US troops in an invasion of Iraq.

Gen Tommy Franks, the head of central command - currently based at MacDill
air force base in Tampa, Florida - will move with the new personnel, about a
quarter of its staff, for at least a week. Although Internal Look exercises
occur every other year, this will be the first time a deployable
headquarters will be involved.

"Over the last year central command has built a deployable
command-and-control capability," Gen Franks said. "What that actually means
is containers of communications gear, very large communications pipes that
we're able to put in the back of an airplane, fly it a long ways, land it on
the ground and then set up a command-and-control complex."

The al-Udeid base, just outside Doha, is approximately 640km from the Iraqi
border and has long been considered the most likely position from which US
central command, which is in charge of all military forces in the region,
might run an Iraqi campaign. Since March the US has moved communications and
computer equipment to al-Udeid from nearby Saudi bases and has expanded the
base to hold approximately 10,000 troops.

Gen Franks said the Pentagon had not decided whether to make the deployable
command post permanent. He would not speculate on whether keeping staff
there was contingent on a decision to attack Iraq.

"The purpose of it is command, control, communications, to be sure that we
have the right bandwidth lined up, to be sure we can talk to our
components," he said. "It's no more than that, it's no less. Does it give us
increased capability? You bet."

Although Qatar has no border with Iraq, the air base is expected to be a
launching point for combat jets and support aircraft if an Iraq invasion
were launched. During the Afghan campaign it served as a base for about
4,000 US troops but that figure is now down to approximately 2,000.