Sixth Fleet May Move To Spain

John Hooper in Rome and Giles Tremlett in Madrid
Saturday February 7, 2004
The Guardian (UK)

The American navy said last night that it was considering moving its key, troubleshooting Sixth Fleet away from its base in Italy to Spain.

The move would deal a huge blow to the local economy in the area between Rome and Naples, but is likely to be greeted by Italians with as much bafflement as dismay. They had for some time been braced for a decision by Washington to shift the fleet's base port further eastwards, perhaps to Turkey. But no one had predicted a move that would send it several hundred miles in the opposition direction.

The Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported this week that officials in Madrid had been told the Pentagon wanted to move the fleet's headquarters and supply facilities to Rota, near Cádiz, a joint US-Spanish base which is not even in the Mediterranean, the fleet's traditional area of operations.

Though Rota is further from the hot spots of the Middle East, it has the advantage of being a combined naval and air facility, offering the sort of rapid deployment capability that the US military is now looking for. Spain and the US last year signed a $450m (£243m) deal that allows the Americans to increase their use of the base.

A spokesman for US Naval Forces Europe, Lieutenant- Commander Terrence Dudley, said: "The move of the US Sixth Fleet to new facilities in Spain is only one of many initiatives currently under consideration."

The Sixth Fleet comprises some 40 ships, 175 aircraft and 21,000 military and civilian personnel, all commanded from the aircraft carrier LaSalle, which is based at Gaeta, midway between Rome and Naples.

President George Bush ordered a wide-ranging review of the deployment of US forces last November. Lt Cdr Dudley said the navy was reviewing all aspects of its presence in Europe, "seeking to maximise its capabilities whilst reducing inefficiencies to meet the challenges posed by changing defence priorities".

Gaeta had the advantage of being close to Nato command facilities in Naples and, according to Nato sources, the alliance has no plans to move its own facilities. However, it is a tourist resort with relatively steep prices, which may have played a role in prompting the Pentagon to consider a move.

Luke Harding and Ian Black add: Nato defence ministers meeting in Germany last night gave a cool reaction to a standing request from the Bush administration for them to send troops to Iraq. The alliance's new Dutch secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, said it was too soon to say whether Nato would agree to an American proposal for it to take charge of a multinational division there, now led by Poland.

Nato officials said a decision was likely by the time President Bush met other alliance leaders in Istanbul in June, just before the US hands over power to an interim Iraqi administration.

Yesterday the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, suggested Nato could also eventually take over the southern Basra sector, currently occupied by Britain.

Nato's position on Iraq is that the alliance is now likely to play a role, but only after the establishment of Iraqi sovereignty and probably after a new UN resolution. It is unlikely that countries such as France, Germany and Belgium, which strongly opposed the war, would send forces without the approval of the UN security council.

"Pistols, from what I could see, appeared to be Astra A-series (Sig knockoffs)."

Same as I recall. I wonder if they have moved uo to carrying at least .40.

Now, if they could just find a way to start a holy war between the wingless pigeons (gypsies) and the Moors, Spain would be an infinitely better place.

A comparison of the DNA profiles of the two populations might prove interesting, now that I think of it.....

wingless pigeons

LOL! Although I believe Gypsies are actually thought to have come from India rather than the Middle East...

A couple of years ago, I was attending a noon Mass in a church in Madrid when the door burst open and a small troop of gypsies (probably Romanian gypsies) burst in.

They roamed up and down the aisles and finally fixed on a little old lady in the back of the church. One went up and asked her for money, and the others started grabbing at her purse.

Being a good Spanish old lady, however, she was not about to give it up without a fight, and she hung onto it and began to scream.

The men in the church, along with the sacristan, ran up to help her, and the sacristan grabbed one of the women and marched her to the door.

Surrounded by the men in the church, the gypsies left - but as they did, one of them turned around and screamed, "Racistas! Racistas!" (Racists, racists.)

I guess modern Gypsies are going through the Jesse Jackson Training School.

get off the base to meet and marry a Spanish woman. They look nice and are smart. Smart enough to let a man think he runs things, while they know otherwise. LOL!

Bob. Hi backatcha! Yep. What you said! HeHe. Btw, I spent 13 months at TJ from March 69 - April 70. Got credit for a short tour out of it!

Tracer, while we were in Marbella last summer, a filthy Gypsy woman came up to us in bus station and begged, no, DEMANDED money. Wife told her she would have more success if she bathed. The Gypsy let out a stream of obviously curses in a language wife didn't understand. The bystanders who saw it thought she may have been speaking Rumanian. They seem to be the new Gypsys and con artists in Spain.

Actually, Don, gypsies of late are from Romania and in fact refer to themselves collectively as "the Roma."

I remember sitting at a table outside a cafe in Segovia and being approached by a sordid woman who "announced her office" thus: "Soy Romano!!" and proceeded to demand money. We slipped a few pesatas her way and she rcoilid in digust, shouting "Paper money!! Paper money!!

I stood up and advised her in my best drill instructor voice that if she and her accompanying thugs lurking across the street did not get out of my face they would be tasting authentic Spanish polish from my size 13 Doc Martens through their undoubtedly well-encrusted rectums.

The Spaniards who were watching this unfold either gasped, laughed, cowered, or slinked away. The Brits and Germans present, however, applauded, howled with laughter, and then offered to join the fray (the French promptly surrendered and were led away by gypsy children).

I suppose that it's a miracle that a stupid lout such as I continues to draw breath in this crazy world, but I always make sure that my wife, other family members, and others whom I have hazarded have and utilize reliable escape routes and places of refuge before I face with a convincing snarl and a well-cultivated "thousand-foot stare" the wingless pigeons that insist on polluting the environment with their presence.

BTW, the trains in Spain stay mainly on the .... schedule (By George, he's got it!!). We prudently caught the next one out of town as planned......

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