U.S. Is Preparing Base in Gulf State to Run Iraq War

The New York Times ^ | 11/30/2002 (for editions of 12/1/2002) | Michael R. Gordon

[GeneD]

DOHA, Qatar — The United States military is installing a new command center at a heavily guarded base in this small Persian Gulf state that would be ready to serve as the main headquarters for a war on Iraq.

The official purpose of the work at the base, As Sayliyah, is to prepare for a major American military exercise in December called Internal Look. But it will be no ordinary exercise. American officials say that it will be the first time that a war game of its type has been conducted outside the United States and that the command and control procedures practiced would be the same used for a war with Iraq.

Gen. Tommy R. Franks, the head of the Central Command, is expected to arrive in about a week to take part in the exercise. About 750 staff members from the headquarters of the United States Central Command are also being sent. General Franks will participate along with top Army, Marine, Air Force, Navy and Special Operations commanders in the region.

Western officials say the United States has not yet formally asked the Qataris if it can run a war with Iraq from their country. The official line is that the United States is merely improving its military readiness while it waits to see if Iraq provides a complete account of its weapons programs and cooperates with United Nations inspectors.

Like many Persian Gulf states, Qatar is worried about the reaction in the Arab world to an American attack on Iraq and hopes that a conflict can be avoided. That attitude seems natural in a country that is home to Al Jazeera, the Arab satellite television network that was started in 1996 with financing from Qatar's emir, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani.

At the same time, Qatar has been more receptive to cooperation with the United States military than neighboring Saudi Arabia, and it has spent more than $1 billion to build an air base, Al Udeid, to attract American forces here.

The Qataris view Washington as their main protector against external threats in a volatile region. So the Bush administration is calculating that Qatar will allow use of its bases as a hub for a war with Iraq if Washington can mobilize enough support among members of the United Nations Security Council to provide the necessary political cover.

"The Qataris have decided that their future lies in having the closest possible ties with the United States" said Patrick N. Theros, the American ambassador to Qatar from 1995 to 1998. "They are more likely to support a U.S. military action than some of their neighbors in order to maintain this relationship."

A tiny nation of about 750,000, Qatar operated in Saudi Arabia's shadow for years. The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 jolted the Qataris, according to former Qatari officials and Western officials. Qatar saw that the Saudis were unable to defend themselves against a potential Iraqi threat, let alone protect other gulf states, those officials said. The Qataris saw that the Saudis had to invite the Americans to protect their kingdom. "They woke up to the fact that they needed superpower protection," a Western official said, referring to the Qataris.

Soon after the Persian Gulf war in 1991, the United States and Qatar quietly signed a defense cooperation agreement that provided Washington with what one official called a "big green light" to set up operations here. In recent years, Qatar has emerged as vital real estate for United States military strategy in the Persian Gulf.

One crucial base is As Sayliyah, a 262-acre installation completed in August 2000 at a cost of more than $100 million. The base has more than 20 climate-controlled warehouses, storing hundreds of M1 tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles and other armored vehicles. It is capable of housing enough armored equipment for a heavy Army brigade. It includes a community center and living quarters for the approximately 300 American troops who have been permanently based there.

Qatar's willingness to allow the United States to build and operate the base is a breakthrough for the Pentagon, and it represents a level of cooperation that far outstrips what the Saudis have been prepared to offer. After the gulf war, when Vice President Dick Cheney was the defense secretary, he went to Saudi Arabia to discuss storing a division's worth of Army equipment there, but the Saudis turned him down.

Armored vehicles and other weapons from As Sayliyah have been quietly shipped to Kuwait, a transfer that the Pentagon initially cast as an exercise but that is seen as a preparation for war. Soldiers from the Third Infantry Division, which is expected to play a key role if there is an invasion of Iraq, rumble around Kuwait on well-maintained, modern armored vehicles that still bear the shipping labels from the Qatar installation.

After the United States began shipping armored equipment out of As Sayliyah, the military started to install communications equipment there for the command center that General Franks and his staff will use to conduct the exercise. Western officials say the Qataris have long suggested that Central Command establish a headquarters here, and the exercise may be the first step.

It is what the military calls a command post exercise, meaning that the top American commanders will carry out a war game that will simulate a campaign against an enemy in the region, but will not involve the deployment of troops. Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf conducted such an exercise in July 1990 in Tampa, Fla., that used the scenario of an Iraqi attack on Saudi Arabia.

American commanders have not disclosed the classified scenario that they plan to use for the war game. But it is clear that the exercise will enable the military to test the command and control procedures it would use if there is a war with Iraq.

"We are going to train the way we might fight," said Vice Adm. Timothy J. Keating, the commander of the Fifth Fleet and the top Navy commander in the region.

During the war exercise, General Franks will command his forces from his new Qatar headquarters while Vice Admiral Keating and Lt. Gen. Earl B. Hailston, the senior Marine commander in the region, will be at their command centers in Bahrain. Meanwhile, Lt. Gen. David D. McKiernan, the top Army commander in the region and the officer who would be in charge of American land forces in the event of a war, will be at his command center in Kuwait. The Air Force commander, Lt. Gen. T. Michael Moseley, will be at his command center at Prince Sultan Air Base near Riyadh.

As in a war, the senior commanders will talk to each other using teleconferences and sophisticated communications equipment.

Military officials say that when the exercise is over in mid-December, General Franks and his staff are scheduled to leave unless there is an escalation of tensions with Iraq. But the exercise is likely to be under way as the United States and its allies review the declaration that Iraq is scheduled to submit on Dec. 8 about its programs to develop weapons of mass destruction. Even if General Franks leaves, the forward headquarters will be in place in case of war.

"All we have to do is hop on a plane and come forward," a military official said.

As Sayliyah is not the only base the United States military is using here. In a bid to lure the Americans, the Qataris built Al Udeid Air Base. It was constructed in 1996, before Qatar even acquired an Air Force, an approach that Western officials quip is a classic example of the "if we build it they will come" approach. Qatar later bought 12 French Mirage fighter jets, but they are not stationed at Al Udeid.

The United States did not begin to use the base until Sept. 29, 2001, when Washington rushed to get its forces in position to attack the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

The first American casualty of the Afghan campaign occurred when Master Sgt. Evander E. Andrews, a civil engineer, died in construction accident at the base. Because the existence of the base was classified at the time, the military initially announced only that the fatality occurred somewhere in Southwest Asia. Today, the sprawling 288-tent complex at Al Udeid is known as Camp Andy.

Al Udeid has hardened aircraft shelters, including two special shelters from which aircraft could take off while under fire, and one of the longest runways in the Middle East. It also has a backup combat air operations center, which could be used to run an air campaign if the Saudis did not allow the Americans to direct combat operations from Prince Sultan Air Base. But the Al Udeid air combat center is not in operation.

During the early part of the Afghan campaign, F-16 fighters and E-8C Joint Stars reconnaissance planes that monitor ground units were based here along with refueling tankers. These days, the only aircraft are KC-135 and KC-10 refueling tankers.

The emir decided decided it was time to let his public know about extent of the American presence at the base last spring. It was agreed that Vice President Cheney could land there in March along with a group of traveling reporters.

Col. Timothy Scott, the wing commander at Al Udeid whose home base is in Alaska, said the base's sole focus was still Afghanistan.

"We do the air refueling for the coalition and the U.S. Navy and Air Force," Colonel Scott said. "The bulk of it comes out of here."

Al Udeid could easily shift its focus to Iraq if the United States moves on Baghdad. And there are still other bases. The United States military has used part of the Doha Airport as a logistics hub, an installation that is known informally and inexplicably as Camp Snoopy.

And Qatar still has its secrets. According to knowledgeable officials, Qatar has allowed the United States to store ammunition at a secret facility in the desert. It is called Falcon 78.