Rebel: post you want to know about -- keep safe and God bless you and all in harm's way.
U.S. prepares evacuation plan for Americans in Lebanon
Concerned about the fate of Americans in Israel's siege of Lebanon, the Pentagon and State Departments are developing plans in case a mass evacuation becomes necessary, officials said Saturday.
The U.S. government was not yet formally recommending evacuation, however.
"We're at a monitoring point," said a Pentagon spokesman, Army Lt. Col. Mark Ballesteros. "We're prepared to respond and provide assistance if required."
The State Department said it was considering various ways of helping Americans who wished to leave Lebanon by finding ways to transport them to Cyprus. There, they could catch commercial airline flights.
However, options for traveling to the island nation were limited, considering Israel's naval blockade of Lebanon's ports and the attacks that have left the airport in Beirut unusable.
U.S. officials declined to speculate on whether U.S. forces would provide helicopters or ships to transport people in the event of an evacuation.
The department said it had received reports that Americans fleeing overland to Syria were being denied visas and had been refused entry to the country.
1,884 posted on 07/16/2006 1:00:22 AM CDT by BurbankKarl
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This thread needs to be put in the breaking news section