US considers keeping key air base in Bosnia after NATO pullout

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States is considering keeping a key military air base in Bosnia-Herzegovina after NATO wraps up its peace mission there as part of a new force projection concept designed to facilitate the war on terror, military officials said.

The plan, whose final approval at the Pentagon is still pending, was disclosed to members of Congress amid growing concern that Bosnia may become a "safe haven" for al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic militant groups that could use it as a base for operations in Europe and elsewhere.

Major General James Darden, a senior representative of the US European Command, told the House Armed Services Committee the military was examining "the usefulness of maintaining a small US presence at Eagle Base" outside the Bosnian town of Tuzla after NATO forces pull out of the country and hand over their security operations to a European Union force.

"What we would like to do is have it so that we can surge up to a battalion, if they were required," Darden noted.

He said the current blueprint called for stationing at the base about 150 US troops equipped with helicopters and thus making it usable as a jumping-off point for larger operations.

Eagle Base could be shared by the United States with its EU partners when they take control of the operation, Darden said.

"This is part of the Headquarters European Command strategy, for the continued security cooperation activities in the region," he pointed out.

A NATO summit held in Istanbul last month decided to wrap up a nine-year-old NATO peacekeeping mission in Bosnia, while EU foreign ministers agreed earlier Monday to deploy there a 7,000-strong force that would be headed up by a British officer.

The United States still has about 1,400 troops in the country, with about 850 of them deployed at Eagle Base, officials said. But their numbers will be drawn down soon.

Eagle was the first permanent military base created by US forces that crossed the Sava River into Bosnia in 1996 in an effort to restore peace to the war-torn country in line with the Dayton accords.

A former Yugoslav air base, it was modernized and improved by the Pentagon over the years to be able to handle large troop contingents and military supplies.

Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher suggested Eagle Base would also be "a good place" for forward deployment of munitions and military equipment.

The plan appears to be in line with a new force projection concept being pushed by top Pentagon planners that calls for abandoning a Cold War-era posture that relied by on large stationary deployments, primarily in Europe and the Korean Peninsula, in favor of a more flexible structure to deal with "unpredictable" threats.

"In the Cold War, we tended to focus on threats to specific regions, and tailored our military presence to those regions," Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith told Congress last month. "Now we are dealing with challenges that are global in nature... We need to improve our ability to project power from one region to another and to manage forces on a global basis."

Under the strategy, heavy armored and mechanized divisions deployed in Germany, for example, are slated to be replaced sometime over the next five years by lighter, more rapidly deployable forces, according to defense officials.

Yes your analysis was spot on, one for the history books. Keep it up! You can see how far this all reaches...

This is one the crippled Saudi that just 'surrendered' (or retired?):

Al-Harbi, a native of the holy city of Mecca, is thought to have fought in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan alongside al-Qaida chief bin Ladin during the early 1980s.

Al-Harbi, who was wounded while fighting in Bosnia, taught courses in Islam at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Islam's holiest site, but dropped out of sight after the 11 September attacks. Saudi-born bin Ladin is alleged to have been al-Harbi's associate

From:

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/8636577D-F324-48F1-97FC-10C3F12D3AD0.htm

These were the guys teh US was (and still are regarding the anti Serb bias) openly suporting! Well major blowback but still not being reported or investigated in teh US 'free' and self censoring press!

Terrorist Threats

  In general, the threat of terrorist influence in Bosnia is low as the operations of SFOR and International Community continue to suppress extremist enclaves and terrorist support activities. However, Bosnia still lingers as a potential safe haven for transit, training, arms sales and financial support of terrorist activities due to porous borders, lax immigration control and underdeveloped governmental and civil police and security organizations.

   Where present, terrorist influences in Bosnia exist primarily in Muslim extremist strongholds where anti-western resentments have been sharpened by sympathetic reactions to the current “Global War on Terrorism”, and by the introduction of more radical Muslim beliefs under the cover of foreign aid. This current threat consists mostly of indoctrination, training, and recruitment of young fighters for other places in the world where Muslims are fighting. There are, however, several recent indications that foreign sponsors have been frustrated in their attempts to recruit enough fighters from Bosnia to make it worth the risk.

   Most reporting of “terrorist” training today is more related to a continued perception that war can breakout at any time, especially as the International Community reduces its physical footprint in the country, and that the population must be ready to defend itself along ethnic lines. While the entity military structures have been dissolved or integrated, the perceived need for entity self-defense persists. These extremist and terrorist support activities are often assisted by outside sources sponsored with ethnic and religious separatist interests.

   It should be noted that SFOR leads operations in Bosnia to provide for a safe and secure environment to include counter terrorism actions. The US approach is to work with international organizations to deny terrorists safe havens in Bosnia and cut off their support networks through the integration of US policy, intelligence, and law enforcement efforts.

   USEUCOM’s Joint Interagency Coordination Group (JIACG), the US Embassy in Sarajevo, the US Joint Interagency Task Force (Bosnia), and SFOR all work successfully with the Bosnia Federation Financial Police and the Federal Intelligence and Security Service to identify Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) with direct terrorist links. Information collected and collated by local counterparts and US intelligence activities in Bosnia are key to these efforts. To date, eight Islamic NGOs operating in Bosnia have been positively linked to al-Qaida. Bosnian Federation officials, in coordination with the State Department and United Nations, have closed the offices and frozen all financial assets of these NGOs. We must maintain continued vigilance and conduct specific actions to disrupt the external support that foments extremist and terrorist behavior. We can do this by retaining robust US intelligence capabilities in the area and by actively supporting future NATO Headquarters in Sarajevo. We must also continue to work closely with other organizations that deal with counter-terrorism, crime and corruption.

Opening statement to the House Armed Services Committee, Major General James Darden, United States Army Reserve, Deputy Director, Plans and Policy, U.S. European Command

Reality and perception continue to be colored by ethnic concerns.

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