US Overseas Deployments and Bases

Panama agrees to host two U.S. naval bases

RIA Novosti

02:03 28/09/2009 MEXICO, September 27 (RIA Novosti) - Panama will sign before October 2009 a treaty with the United States on the opening of two U.S. naval bases on its territory, a senior Panamanian government official said on Sunday.

According to Panama's La Prensa newspaper, a preliminary agreement was reached between Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during recent talks in New York.

"The U.S. and Panama will sign before October 30 an agreement on the deployment of two naval bases on the pacific coast of our country to fight international drug-trafficking," said Minister of Government and Justice Jose Raul Mulino.

"One of the bases will be located in Bahia Pina...450 kilometers [280 miles] east of the capital, Panama City, and another one - in Punta Coca about 350 km [217 miles] west of the capital," Mulino added.

The U.S. government will also allocate additional $7 million to Panama this year for the fight against organized crime and illicit drug trade.

According to Panamanian intelligence, there are over 2,000 hideouts on the Pacific coast of Panama, which international drug cartels use as transshipment bases for narcotics shipped from South America to the United States.

All U.S. bases in Panama were closed and U.S. military forces left the country at the end of 1999 in accordance with the Panama Canal treaties.

 

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2009/09/mil-090928-rianovosti02.htm

www.stripes.com/news/official-u-s-japan-will-delay-futenma-relocation-plan-1.146968

Too many people in the United States and on Guam fighting against putting all that military hardware-people-money on one tiny island.

Why did the Pentagon want to put all it's eggs in one basket to begin with? What a poor military strategy wasn't it?

A military base on a small island in the middle of the ocean sounds vulnerable, but when your country operates enormous carrier group forces and has plenty of subs it means it is very well protected from prying eyes or interference.

It also means you soldiers can't go off base for the weekend and rape and murder some 13 year old girl.

GarryB,

That part of the world should be your specialty....do you know why all the old white men on that island who made it their home all have cancer and rare diseases and their kids were born with rare disorders,cancers, leukemia?

What's up with that coral rock?

I could write 10,000 pages on it, but will say it couldn't be nuclear testing because the French told us that was safe.

The US also told the Islanders it was safe too.

The British did as well... and then moved their testing to where no one would care... Australia.

It's a toxic dumpsite.

US Federal EPA has given DOD a waiver for the TCE at the bottom of the water table this year.

Old wells shut down for having too much PCE.....are being re-opened so the military can sell the water to the public to fund its operation.


Chemical weapons dumped at sea around that coral rock.....who knows what was dumped on land during military rule for decades.


If you ever deploy their GarryB....bring your own water like the Aussie's.....well they bring pallets of beer....they don't drink water. ha ha ha ha!!

They had a documentary on Russia Today with an American veteran of the Pacific war and he was walking along a beach on a Pacific Island where thousands of his fellow Marines were killed taking the beach and the place was covered in plastic bags and plastic bottles and human waste that has just been dumped into the ocean and happened to wash up there.

Sunny blue skies, deep blue ocean, white sand... if it didn't look like a rubbish dump you might think it was a beautiful place to live but with rubbish and sewerage just dumped in the ocean it would be the last place I would want to live to be honest.

Life will adapt however... with their mini subs exploring Lake Baikal the Russians have solved an ongoing mystery... they knew oil was leaking into the water there from deep below the surface yet their tests for water purity in the water found there was little oil contamination. Had the oil leaks just started? No.

They found bacteria that was consuming the oil... what happens when such bacteria spread?
What happens if such bacteria happened to find their way into saudi oil wells?

What happens when bacteria evolve to develop an appetite for plastic?

The irony is that human waste can already be processed and used to generate useful power producing gases like methane, but dumping it in the sea it is not only useless for power generation it also ruins the environment at the same time.

I've been to many islands in the Pacific.

You can pick up trash on the beach...come back tomorrow and it's covered in trash again.


There's a floating garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean from trash from Asia, the ocean currents have it in a gyre, larger than the US. Ocean currents bring all the trash by those islands.

Back to Guam and why everyone dies there. There are chemical weapons dumped at sea around the island. Chemical weapons buried in the +100 military dumps. Back before there were hazardous material laws the island was a dumping ground for millions of gallons of oil, antifreeze, fuels, radioactive waste, munitions. The Marianas Trench has also been a dumping ground for radioactive material/waste...hence why the US HAD to make it a National Marine Park and ban any country from going below the water line...so they can't see what's down there.

The US was wise for pulling the funding for a big military there. It's a toxic graveyard. Likely receiving more fallout from the 3 Japanese nuclear reactors that went critical.


Poor island should just be renamed Death Isle. Somebody nuking it would be doing the United States a favor.

I bet there's many chemical weapons buried there, US will leave in the ground just to save costs of properly disposing of it.

Is the Russian Island near Japan that polluted? Were they stupid too with their chemicals?

Their old chemicals were probably dumped in the same way but the modern stuff is being destroyed in custom built facilities as far as I know.

It was a slow process because they had enormous stocks of that crap, but occasionally there have been progress reports on how they are getting on destroying all that stuff.

Regarding the pollution in the sea... that is really bad, and it is not going to go away. We need to do something about it.

The huge irony is that life often finds a way to survive and its solution might not suit us at all. What happens when the enormous amounts of plastic in the sea environment results in microbes that consume plastics. Sounds great for cleaning up our mess, but what happens when these microbes multiply and continue to consume plastic. Not as far fetched as it sounds because the Russians have found microbes that consume oil in Lake Baikal... would it be a huge step for them to consume oil based products?

Perhaps running out of cheap oil would be a good thing... it might make the plastic and rubbish in the sea valuable so it becomes worth while sending out ships to scoop up all the old plastic so that it can be melted down and reused.
A local company has developed a process of getting any sort of plastic (doesn't need to be sorted) and putting it in a machine that heats it and melts it into a large plastic block. The block is solid and water and weather proof and can be used as an inner layer for a building material because it is a good insulator, and it can also be used for things like sea barriers or road barriers. It is made of rubbish so it is cheap and it is a way of using rubbish rather than putting it in a land fill or dumping it at sea.

I always hoped that the US would lead the way in clean green technology like that... things like Star Trek always seemed to show a utopian future where energy was not oil based and was cheap and there seemed to be nothing wasted... no silly consumerism or other wasteful concepts. As an added bonus such technology could be sold to the world to generate wealth and at the same time it would solve Americas dependence on oil... so it could solve its problems in dealing with Chavez and Saudi Arabia... that they would normally otherwise not have any ties to at all.

The US has high moral standards, which I would respect rather more if they actually kept to them. Most of the time their exceptions to their high moral standards occur when their interests particularly in oil supply are involved.

Pervius wrote:www.stripes.com/news/official-u-s-japan-will-delay-futenma-relocation-plan-1.146968

Too many people in the United States and on Guam fighting against putting all that military hardware-people-money on one tiny island.

Why did the Pentagon want to put all it's eggs in one basket to begin with? What a poor military strategy wasn't it?

They were moving them to ease political tension with Japan. All those sailors and marines raping local girls was getting too much. Now that China is shaking its stick Japan has lightened its position.

Well what do you know...

http://rt.com/news/sci-tech/bug-plastic-cleaning-oceans/

This should be seriously studied as it might be a great thing or it might be the worst thing possible.

As mentioned in the article, those plastics contain toxic materials so if these bacteria convert the plastics to waste that includes those toxic materials they might enter and destroy the food chain. If they process the toxins and make them safe however perhaps we need to set up incubators and grow enormous amounts of these bacteria in put them in landfills and all the worlds oceans to deal with all the plastic.

Perhaps it would be safer to collect up all the plastic rubbish and use the bacteria in special processing pools separate from the environment and then use the waste they produce for whatever it can be used for... ie it might be a useful fertiliser, or it might be good for plankton or whatever.

The suns ultra violet rays could be breaking down the plastic and the bacteria is just there to eat some of the byproducts.

The bacteria eating plastic byproducts is a man-made organism:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nylon-eating_bacteria

The RT news story was preceded by the CNN story quoting Massachusetts scientists. The US made the most money off of plastic....it would be them that would dump the Nylon-Eating bacteria into the oceans to dispose of their profit waste stream.

Obama Deploys Troops to Central Africa

Luis Ramirez | Pentagon October 14, 2011

U.S. President Barack Obama has deployed 100 U.S. troops to Central Africa to help forces that are fighting the Lord’s Resistance Army group - known for its campaign of rape and killing in the region, and its use of child soldiers.

The president, in a letter to Congress, said he has authorized the deployment of a small force of combat-ready U.S. troops.

Defense department officials say the first of about 100 troops arrived in Uganda this week. The rest will follow in the coming weeks, moving into areas of South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of Congo where the group operates. A department official says U.S. troops will remain as long as needed, perhaps several months.

In his letter, President Obama said that although the troops will be combat-ready, they will only be providing information, advice, and assistance to regional forces fighting for the removal of Joseph Kony, who is the head of the Lord’s Resistance Army. Obama said the U.S. troops will not engage the L.R.A. directly, except in self-defense.

Center for Strategic and International Studies Africa researcher Richard Downie explained why Kony is of concern to the United States.

“Joseph Kony and his followers have committed egregious human-rights abuses in a large swathe of Africa for many, many years now.

Really, I think the U.S. feels it has to act to tackle the L.R.A. because of the abuses it has committed. It does not pose a national security threat to the United States as such, but it feels impelled to act in this situation,” he said.

The deployment is in line with President Obama’s public commitment to promote governance and human rights in Africa. The troops will primarily assist the Ugandan army, which has taken the lead in fighting the L.R.A.

Downie says Uganda and other nations in the region have been unable to eradicate the group on their own and are eager for U.S. help.

“Intelligence suggests that it is operating in perhaps two or three small groups in very remote areas, one of them in the far northeast of the

Congo, another in the Central African Republic, and perhaps another one also in South Sudan. So this really explains why it is so difficult to eliminate this group because they are operating in a remote region, in very, very small groups,” said Downie.

The Pentagon is not saying what types of units are being deployed. Officials say soldiers will work to safeguard civilians.

The U.S. launched a similar support operation to try to combat the L.R.A. in 2008. That mission failed to capture Kony and other commanders. The operation came under criticism by human-rights advocates, who said the effort resulted in a campaign of revenge by L.R.A. fighters who killed hundreds of civilians in the months that followed.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2011/10/mil-111014-voa01.htm

Six months ago the US sent an elite unit to hunt down guerrilla leader Joseph Kony. They've not met Kony’s forces yet – they mostly stay holed up in their camps. But they are trying their best to collect local rumors that could help Ugandan troops.

­The 100 American troops on location rarely leave the safety of their camps, which are shielded by barbed wire and surveillance systems. They already have five such heavily-guarded camps in the region – in South Sudan, Congo, the Central African Republic, and two in Uganda.

The only help the veteran Green Berets provide to their African colleagues is technical advice and intelligence about the Lord’s Resistance Army's possible locations. Although the US forces are, as always, well-armed, they are only permitted to shoot in self-defense. In such conditions, US soldiers prefer to stay away from the action in unfamiliar territory.

The veterans of conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and other sandy oil-rich regions spend most of their time interviewing locals who might have seen something in the jungle or heard of the whereabouts of Kony and his army.

But the high-tech means of tracking, surveillance and reconnaissance have proven useless in the jungle, especially after Kony allegedly ordered his ruthless militia to stop using all electronic communication devices and return to old-school methods.

Kony’s LRA went deep underground after the International Criminal Court declared them wanted in 2005. Last month, Ugandan Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi confirmed the LRA, which now consists of only several hundred fighters, was completely forced out of Uganda in 2006.

The warlord himself reportedly left Uganda long ago, but thousands of troops from Uganda, the Central African Republic, South Sudan and Congo continue searching for him in the remote jungle terrain.

The US military joined the hunt last October, after Uganda announced the discovery of some 2.5 billion barrels of crude oil.

http://rt.com/news/kony-us-troops-camps-uganda-327/

US Defense Department to Abandon Using 15 Military Bases in Europe

The UK, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy and Portugal will see partial and full closures of bases, as well as reduction in duty and civilian personnel.

MOSCOW, January 8 (Sputnik) — Fifteen military bases across Europe will no longer be used by US armed forces, saving Washington $500 million every year, the US Department of Defense said in a statement Thursday.

"The Department of Defense announced today the consolidation of some US infrastructure in Europe, including the return of 15 sites to their host nations. These actions… will save the U.S. government approximately $500 annually," the statement said.

The UK, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy and Portugal will see partial and full closures of bases, consolidation and closures of US facilities, as well as reduction in duty and civilian personnel.

"I know that this will result in a reduction in size of our local host nation workforces at some nations… In the end, this transformation of our infrastructure will help maximize our military capabilities in Europe and help strengthen our important European partnerships, so that we can best support our NATO allies and partners in the region," Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said, as quoted in the press release.

The United States has a large number of military installations across Europe. Bulgaria, Germany, Italy, Greece, Spain, Netherlands, Portugal, and the United Kingdom are among the nations that host various US Army, Marine Corps, Air Force and Marine Corps forces.

US to Permanently Base F-35 Fighters in Europe: Pentagon

The F-35s and about 1,200 personnel are scheduled to arrive at RAF Lakenheath in 2020.

WASHINGTON, January 8 (Sputnik) — The US Air Force will base the first F-35 Joint Strike Fighter group in Europe at Royal Air Force station (RAF) Lakenheath in the United Kingdom, the Department of Defense announced Thursday.

“The US Air Force will permanently base the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in Europe and the secretary of defense has selected RAF Lakenheath in the United Kingdom as the first location to host two squadrons of F-35s,” Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Derek Chollet said at a press conference.

The F-35s placement will lead to more collaboration, training and support opportunities between the US and the United Kingdom, the Defense Department said.

The F-35s and about 1,200 personnel are scheduled to arrive at RAF Lakenheath in 2020 as part of a consolidation and restructuring of US forces across Europe. RAF Mildenhall in the United Kingdom will be closed down and 3,200 US military personnel will be removed, according to the Department of Defense.

The F-35 is a single engine advanced fighter plane combining air-to-ground and air-to-air operational capability with stealth technology. The nearly $400 billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program is largely funded by the United States.

The United States plans to buy 2,443 F-35s while the 10 allied countries will purchase 721 fighters, according to the plane’s producer Lockheed Martin.

USA will protection Europe from IS/ISIS they will mouslim in Europe to taken suisice in european citizen.

No good USA parlament thinking if I writen right now.

Terrorist is like murders A small group.

Small groups never win.

Talibans won because they haves 60000 soldiers begins and USA 100,000 soldiers down to 64000 and now 10000.

35000+ talibans have been killed and only 2300 american's killed in Afghanistan.

USA have only offerted down their size.

Between 2300-2600 american soldiers has been killed since beginning 2002.

Good lucky United States of America.

13 year in war against talibans.

USA will protection Europe from IS/ISIS they will mouslim in Europe to taken suisice in european citizen.

F-35s in Europe will not stop terrorism... which is a much more realistic threat to the US and west than Russia.

35000+ talibans have been killed and only 2300 american's killed in Afghanistan.

Body count is a useless measure of who is winning. The Taleban are still in Afghanistan and the Americans are leaving.

Good lucky United States of America.

13 year in war against talibans.

Yes, the Americans killed a lot of poor people and didn't lose too many soldiers in the process.

Still it was a total waste of time and money.

I believing all time american troops to Europe to fight against terrorist's if they do suisice bombs in out citizen like in Iraq and Syria.

Onormal with taken other lives with own life rights?

Battalion0415 wrote:I believing all time american troops to Europe to fight against terrorist's if they do suisice bombs in out citizen like in Iraq and Syria.

Onormal with taken other lives with own life rights?

How about the not-so-notorious Swedish neutrality?

The US is going to close 15 bases and facilities in Europe.

http://sputniknews.com/military/20150110/1016742003.html

US to increase European contingent with 3.000 troops, 150 tanks in 2015. Most probably a redeployment from Afghanistan.

http://rt.com/news/221471-us-tanks-troops-europe/

Kyo wrote:

Battalion0415 wrote:

I believing all time american troops to Europe to fight against terrorist's if they do suisice bombs in out citizen like in Iraq and Syria.

Onormal with taken other lives with own life rights?

How about the not-so-notorious Swedish neutrality?

The US is going to close 15 bases and facilities in Europe.

Maybe NATO 2015 or 2016 with todays or 14000.

Maye I have right about U.S. troops to Europe.

They will to defend Europe from ISIS and Al Qaida.

U.S. troops in Afghanistan, Yemen and Iraq.

Kyo wrote:US to increase European contingent with 3.000 troops, 150 tanks in 2015. Most probably a redeployment from Afghanistan.

http://rt.com/news/221471-us-tanks-troops-europe/

i think they are not intended against "foreign treats". more like threats to the U.S interests from within the E.U. itself.
but to quote RT too:

http://rt.com/files/episode/27/c3/00/00/1680563_truthseeker_480p.mp4