US asked to leave Uzbek air base

[takeo]

US asked to leave Uzbek air base

Uzbekistan has reportedly given the US six months to move out of a key base used for operations in Afghanistan.
The notice to leave Karshi-Khanabad air base, known as K2, was given to the US embassy in the Uzbek capital on Friday.

A Pentagon spokesman said the US was "evaluating the note to see exactly what it means".


Earlier this month, Russia, China and four Central Asian states demanded a timetable for US troop withdrawal from the region, saying military operations in Afghanistan were coming to an end.

Washington's rivals for regional dominance, Russia and China, have made it clear they do not want to see US forces in the region on a permanent basis.

The Uzbek government requested in its letter that the US terminate all its operations in Uzbekistan, Pentagon spokesman Glenn Flood said.

He said he did not know why the request had been made and the US state department was assessing the note.


Strategic role of 'K2' base

The Washington Post reported that the US had been given six months to move aircraft, personnel and military equipment from the base in southern Uzbekistan.


The eviction notice came days after US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld returned from a visit to Uzbek neighbours Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4731411.stm

[Illuminatus]

Hardly a strategic advantage for the pro-Saddam French.

So Uzbekistan has formally ordered the USA to leave an air base that has been a relief and supply hub for Afghan refugees and on-going operations.

It's thier protest over a secret United Nations operation on Friday to spirit out refugees who had fled an uprising in Uzbekistan this year.

The United Nations, in one its rare moves is absolutely correct on this issue.

Most US/Uzbek operations have already ceased.

Meanwhile,

The USA received assurances from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan that the American military could continue to use bases in those Central Asian nations to support relief & aid efforts and counter Islamic-terrorism operations in Afghanistan.

Much to the despair of the French, Rumsfeld anticipated the Uzbek action and traveled to the region for a reason.

The diplomatic note from the Uzbes terminating the base agreement arrived just a couple of hours after neighboring Kyrgyzstan permitted the United Nations to airlift to Romania more than 400 Uzbek refugees it had been sheltering since the violence.

From Romania, the refugees will be resettled in other countries, including the United States. Uzbekistan had demanded their return.

Anticipating eviction by Uzbekistan, ol' Rummy won pledges from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan last week to let the United States continue using airfields there for operations in Afghanistan.

True, Kyrgyzstan does not border Afghanistan, and Tajikistan's roads into the country are poor, but Rumsfeld expressed optimism that those more distant bases would be adequate to continue to bring aid, hope, food and medicine to good the people of Afghanistan.

[KettleWhistle]

From Romania, the refugees will be resettled in other countries, including the United States. Uzbekistan had demanded their return.

Funny, but even more sad, is how this is reminiscent of the old USSR, where you couldn't leave the country without official government-issued permissions, fomerly known as "exit visas."

[Quicken]

If they want the US out, it has to leave. I think this clearly shows to those who insist upon calling the US an Empire that we only stay where we are wanted and leave when asked.

[Mediocrates]

I also note that the Russian response to increased demands from Kazhakstan for the use of Baikanour Cosmodrome is to accelerate the development of Svoboda 17 Cosmodrome in the Siberian Arctic.

[KettleWhistle]

If they want the US out, it has to leave. I think this clearly shows to those who insist upon calling the US an Empire that we only stay where we are wanted and leave when asked.
Such has happened before, i.e. when DeGaul asked the U.S. to dismantle the bases in France, and also in Lybia, China right after the commies took over the country, and several other places. The U.S. has a very decent record in this regard.

[takeo]

Such has happened before, i.e. when DeGaul asked the U.S. to dismantle the bases in France, and also in Lybia, China right after the commies took over the country, and several other places. The U.S. has a very decent record in this regard.

The Cubans are less satisfied (Guantanamo)

[takeo]

Hardly a strategic advantage for the pro-Saddam French.

So Uzbekistan has formally ordered the USA to leave an air base that has been a relief and supply hub for Afghan refugees and on-going operations.

It's thier protest over a secret United Nations operation on Friday to spirit out refugees who had fled an uprising in Uzbekistan this year.

The United Nations, in one its rare moves is absolutely correct on this issue.

Most US/Uzbek operations have already ceased.

Meanwhile,

The USA received assurances from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan that the American military could continue to use bases in those Central Asian nations to support relief & aid efforts and counter Islamic-terrorism operations in Afghanistan.

Much to the despair of the French, Rumsfeld anticipated the Uzbek action and traveled to the region for a reason.

The diplomatic note from the Uzbes terminating the base agreement arrived just a couple of hours after neighboring Kyrgyzstan permitted the United Nations to airlift to Romania more than 400 Uzbek refugees it had been sheltering since the violence.

From Romania, the refugees will be resettled in other countries, including the United States. Uzbekistan had demanded their return.

Anticipating eviction by Uzbekistan, ol' Rummy won pledges from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan last week to let the United States continue using airfields there for operations in Afghanistan.

True, Kyrgyzstan does not border Afghanistan, and Tajikistan's roads into the country are poor, but Rumsfeld expressed optimism that those more distant bases would be adequate to continue to bring aid, hope, food and medicine to good the people of Afghanistan.

Kirgizistan in the recent past also questioned the American presence, they only agreed because of extra financial considerations. Kirgizistan however never questioned the Russian bases, which also don't pay rent. The same goes for Tadjikistan. However I don't think anyone should necessarily object to US bases in Kirgizistan as long as these are used for Afghanistan and not transform into permanent bases or will be used for geo-political reasons against China or Russia. The Kirgiz government made sufficiently clear this is not how they see the future of the airbase, by doing so reassuring Moscow and Beijing.



"Much to the dispair of the French"????? As far as I know France doesn't have strategical objectives in Central-Asia.

It seems the US is now looking towards Azerbaidjan for a permanent military base, officially because of the war in Afghanistan, but Azerbaidjan is not even close to afghanistan, everyone knows there are other reasons. Azerbaidjan is close to Russia (the most troubled region of Russia) as well as Iran and is the main focus of the new pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, and the Azeri dictator (who succeeded his father last year) has difficult relations with both Russia and Iran. Georgia may be another host, however Georgia is very unstable and too deep into Russian sphere of influence, with Russia maintaining two controversial military bases there and de facto controlling two separatist regions in Georgia. The only problem with Azerbaidjan is Nagorno-Karabakh, the powerful Armenian lobby in washington will not like it at all, while such a decision risks to provoke Moscow more than necessary.

And now I'm at it, what became of the "rose revolution" in Georgia? According to my Georgian friends, very little. Sakashvili's regime seems to be as corrupted and more autoritarian compared to the former Shevarnadze regime, the economy remains in shatters, relations with Russia (necessary to solve the economic and separatist problems) remain freezing, and he didn't succeed in "restoring territorial integrity of Georgia". What Georgia needs is more integration in GOS, not less, salvation is not going to come from Turkey nor from the US, Georgia's economy and culture is interconnected with Russia and other GOS-states, and that's where the future of Georgia belongs.







.

[KettleWhistle]

The Cubans are less satisfied (Guantanamo)
Gitmo is legally a U.S. base. The U.S. doesn't need Cuban's permission to be there.

[Quicken]

The Cubans are less satisfied (Guantanamo)


U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, was established in 1898, when the U.S. obtained control of Cuba from Spain at the end of the Spanish-American War, following the 1898 invasion of Guantanamo Bay.

The US government obtained a perpetual lease that began on February 23, 1903.

In 1905, in part because of the Platt Amendment, there was an uprising to which the US responded by occupying Cuba for three years. A 1934 treaty reaffirming the lease granted Cuba and her trading partners free access through the bay, modified the lease payment from $2,000 in gold coins per year, to the 1934 equivalent value of $4,085 U.S. Treasury Dollars, and added a requirement that termination of the lease requires the consent of both the US and Cuba governments, or the abandonment of the base property by the US.

Fidel Castro has only cashed one rent check, while steadfastly refusing to cash any others, because he views the lease as illegitimate.

The US control of this Cuban territory has never been popular with the Cuban government. The Cuban government strongly denounces the treaty on grounds that article 52 of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties declares a treaty void if its conclusion has been procured by the threat or use of force — in this case by the inclusion, in 1903, of the Platt Amendment in the Cuban Constitution. The US warned the Cuban Constitutional Convention not to modify the Amendment, and was told US troops would not leave Cuba until its terms had been adopted as a condition for the US to grant independence, making the Geneva Conventions applicable to the 1903/1934 treaty upheld by that Amendment.

The US has retorted that by cashing the first check he received in accordance with said treaty, Castro's government effectively ratified the lease, and cannot unilaterally change its mind after the fact on account of political tensions or ideological differences. The US argues that all claims regarding an original violation of sovereignty under the Platt Amendment, and questions of an illegal military occupation, became moot once the new and independent revolutionary government freely reaffirmed the base's legitimacy.

The Cuban government cut off water to the base, causing the US to first import water from Jamaica and then to build desalination plants. Today, the base is self-sufficient producing its own water and electricity. Only two Cubans, both elderly, still cross the base's North East Gate daily to work on the base; the Cuban government prohibits new recruitment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_Bay

[takeo]

Funny, but even more sad, is how this is reminiscent of the old USSR, where you couldn't leave the country without official government-issued permissions, fomerly known as "exit visas."

This exists in many other countries, perhaps in the majority of countries around the world. Even in France you need a pasport to leave the EU.

[FOGOMAINS]

Looked for some informations about terrorism and Europe and found this article:
http://www.signandsight.com/features/296.html

[Fallujah]

Gitmo is legally a U.S. base. The U.S. doesn't need Cuban's permission to be there.

Who says its Legally a US base?
The US government?
The US - Run UN?

Its the left-over of an illigitamit colonial - era imperalist Cuba.

[minusthejihad]

illigitamit

At least in AmeriKKKa we either learn to spell or have tools called spell check. But don't let the man get you down bra!

[Mediocrates]

Who says its Legally a US base?
The US government?
The US - Run UN?

Its the left-over of an illigitamit colonial - era imperalist Cuba.


Actually international law says so under treaties mutally agreed to by both parties. There are lots of places in the world like this; Gibraltar, Samoa, Hong Kong (till 1999) for example. The fact that these two countries, the US and Cuba don't like each other doesn't change that nature of those treaties.

[Quicken]

Who says its Legally a US base?
The US government?
The US - Run UN?

Its the left-over of an illigitamit colonial - era imperalist Cuba.

You obviously didn't read my post. The US has a legitimate lease on the land.