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| Massive US Military Buildup on Two Strategic Islands: Socotra and Masirah |
| 2012-01-27 |
| Via Subscription Debka, but reproduced in full, with edits for brevity. Obama has secretly ordered US air, naval and marine forces to build up heavy concentrations on two strategic islands -- Socotra, which is part of a Yemeni archipelago in the Indian Ocean, and the Omani island of Masirah at the southern exit of the Strait of Hormuz. Socotra is situated 80 kilometers east of the Horn of Africa and 380 kilometers southeast of the Yemeni coastline. It lies athwart the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. A military base there is in a position to oversee the shipping moving in and out of those strategic naval waterways. Lushly verdant, Socotra is approximately 120 kilometers long by 40 kilometers wide. Its population of 55,000 has its own distinct language and culture. Since 2010, the US has been quietly building giant air force and naval bases on Socotra with facilities for submarines, intelligence command centers and take-off pads for flying stealth drones, as part of a linked chain of strategic US military facilities in the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf. The Socotra facilities are so secret that they are never mentioned in any catalogue listing US military facilities in this part of the world, which include Jebel Ali and Al Dahfra in the United Arab Emirates; Arifjan in Kuwait; and Al Udeid in Qatar -- all within short flying distances from Iran. Additional US forces are also being poured into Camp Justice on the barren, 70-kilometer long Omani island of Masirah, just south of the Hormuz entry point to the Gulf of Oman from the Arabian Sea. US military facilities were established there after the signing of an access agreement with Oman in 1980. Up to 100,000 US troops present by early March For the new buildup on Socotra, Washington had to negotiate a new deal with Yemen's ousted ruler Ali Abdullah Saleh. Injured in an assassination attempt last year, Saleh demanded permission to travel to the United States for medical treatment. The Obama administration first refused, then relented when Saleh made it his condition for consenting to additional troops landing on the island. Western military sources familiar with the American buildup on the two strategic islands tell that, although they cannot cite precise figures, they are witnessing the heaviest American concentration of might in the region since the US invaded Iraq in 2003. Then, 100,000 American troops were massed in Kuwait ahead of the invasion. Today, those sources estimate from the current pace of arrivals on the two island bases, that 50,000 US troops will have accumulated on Socotra and Masirah by mid-February. They will top up the 50,000 military already present in the Persian Gulf region, so that in less than a month, Washington will have some 100,000 military personnel on the spot and available for any contingency. US air transports are described as making almost daily landings on Socotra and Masirah. They fly in from the US naval base of Diego Garcia, one of America's biggest military facilities, just over 3,000 kilometers away. The US military presence in the region will further expand in the first week of March when three US aircraft carriers and their strike groups plus a French carrier arrive in the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea: They are the USS Abraham Lincoln, USS Carl Vinson, USS Enterprise and the Charles de Gaulle nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. A fourth US carrier will be standing by in the Pacific Ocean, a few days' sailing time from the water off Iran's coast. Our military sources have also picked up reports of British and French air, naval and special forces landings this month in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #11 US military has a history with Masirah. Per Eric Haney's book, it played a part in the failed attempt to rescue the embassy hostages from Iran. |
| Posted by: Mercutio 2012-01-27 21:37 |
| #10 Our Pharaoh knows that the "Liberty" in the region will really suck. |
| Posted by: Bugs Glomoque3110 2012-01-27 21:25 |
| #9 OTOH CHINA DAILY FORUM > CUBA MAY BE BOMBED [anti-Gaddafi = "Libyuh-style"] UNDER GINGRICH, in support of any simil popular uprising breaking out there. CUBA/HAVANA SPRING. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2012-01-27 21:10 |
| #8 "Enormous caves" is it just me, or is anyone else suddenly getting images of MACARTHUR, BATAAN + CORREGIDOR??? * ION DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [US] PENTAGON TO SEND FOURTH AIRCRAFT CARRIER TO GULF. Meanwhile, the IRGC = Iran suddenly wants to hold a MILEX. Again, MULLAHS = made it clear many Yarns ago that nothing less than de facto foreign conquest of Iran will stop it from doing what it wants to do. AS LONG AS US-ALLIED WARSHIPS STAY OFFSHORE, PATROLLING UP-N-DOWN, + NO ENEMY GROUND ARMIES ATTACK + OCCUPY IRAN, IRAN WILL GO ON WID ITS NUCPROGS. * SAME > OIL INDUSTRY SEES CHINA [+ Russia] WINNING, WEST LOSING FROM IRAN SANCTIONS. Beijing + Moscow poten stand to benefit from receipt of lots of Iranian oil at preferred/discounted rates. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2012-01-27 20:54 |
| #7 Doesn't Iran occupy some islands nearby, on the Arabian side near Hormuz? |
| Posted by: Grunter in Sydney 2012-01-27 20:40 |
| #6 Iff Iran + IRGC hope to sink a US CVN, it will likely have to be done outside the Gulf proper + Strait of Hormuz. And then there's Balochistan. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2012-01-27 18:49 |
| #5 The 4 comments above illustrate perfectly the genius that is Rantburg. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2012-01-27 18:19 |
| #4 According to the Wiki, Socotra is 82 miles by 31 miles. It also has some enormous caves. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2012-01-27 18:08 |
| #3 It's like Guam: they'll tilt the islands over when the flare goes up and bada bing- there are all the bases. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2012-01-27 17:52 |
| #2 I don't know about the rest of this, but putting 100K troops on Socotra is a stretch. I looked at the island on Google Maps. One small airport with a single landing strip. The nearby towns are small. The land is rugged. No port, not even a long dock at the major town of Hadiboh (Hadibu). No port handling facilities. And we're going to put twice as many personnel on it as the island has people? Masirah has a larger airfield and, by the map, some ability to handle container ships, all at the northern end. But it's a stretch to think that we'd put a lot of troops, aircraft, etc in there without the rest of the world figuring it out. Definite salt time. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2012-01-27 17:39 |
| #1 What will be the Casus Belli (Other than Obama wanting reelection)? |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2012-01-27 17:28 |