Kicking out was not in the open, in a big spat. But it really happened. The withdrawal (really an eviction) from Prince Sultan Air Base was at Saudi "request". Done under cover (diplomatic face-saving) of simply redeployment of our aircraft...[but after we just spent somewhere around a billion dollars building up the damn thing]?
Saudi Base to Close; Ops Center Moves to Qatar. FDCH Regulatory Intelligence Database April 28, 2003. Available online at:
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mth&an=32W3454501378U.S. Aircraft Leaving Saudi Arabian Airbase. FDCH Regulatory Intelligence Database April 29, 2003. Available online at:
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mth&an=32W0967014044
The following snippets are from these:
"On April 29 2003, Donald Rumsfeld announced that he would be withdrawing US troops from the country stating that the Iraq War no longer required the support. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz had earlier said that the continuing US presence in the kingdom was putting American lives in danger. The announcement came one day after the Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC) was shifted from Prince Sultan Air Base to Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar."We had been told in no uncertain terms that the Saudi Royal's would not be able to prevent a revolution if we stayed, that we had to lower our "footprint" and get out."U.S. officials transferred control of most portions of Prince Sultan Air Base to Saudi officials at a ceremony on 26 August 2003. The base had been home to about 60,000 US personnel over time. Roughly 4,500 US troops were redeployed from Saudi Arabia to Qatar, leaving a scant 500 in Saudi Arabia, primarily at Eskan Village."