Posted on 09/23/2003 8:12:01 PM PDT by kattracks
The Associated PressSAN JUAN, Puerto Rico Sept. 23 — The United States will close its Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in eastern Puerto Rico within the next six months, the territory's congressional delegate said Tuesday. Congress and President Bush are expected to sign off on the closure by the end of next week, said Anibal Acevado Vila, the U.S. territory's nonvoting congressional delegate. The Pentagon did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.
The base's closure comes after several years of protests against U.S. military exercises in Vieques, which ended with the Navy's May 1 withdrawal from its bombing range on that tiny outlying island.
The United States set up Roosevelt Roads and the Vieques bombing range in the 1940s and used it to prepare for international conflicts from World War II to the war in Afghanistan.
Roosevelt Roads was the site of the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Training Facility, which oversaw the exercises on Vieques.
Tensions between the Navy and locals heightened, however, when two errant bombs in 1999 killed a civilian guard on Vieques. Opponents said the bombing harmed the environment, the health of the island's 9,100 residents and its sole industries of fishing and tourism.
The Navy maintains the exercises never posed a health threat, but it turned to inert ammunition following the fatal accident.
Since 1999, more than 1,000 people including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Rev. Al Sharpton and actor Edward James Olmos have been arrested for breaking onto Navy lands to thwart the exercises.
Gov. Sila Calderon wanted Roosevelt Roads to remain open even after the end to Vieques military exercises.
Roosevelt Roads, which began laying off some of its 6,300 employees in April, injects an estimated $300 million a year into the U.S. Caribbean territory's economy.
Acevado Vila, who is running for governor in 2004 from Calderon's People's Democratic Party, said the base's closure would open opportunities for tourism and other investment.
Maybe you'll want to apologize in advance for all of your name-calling and personal attacks.
That $300 million will all be replaced with $100's of millions to spare.
They just announced that Puerto Rico will receive another $700 million for housing development, $45 million to dredge a canal and $25 million more for something else.
If you believe that 11,500 pristine acres of prime caribbean beachfront will stay empty, then you're just the kind of fool U.S. Taxpayer that Puerto Rico and our RINO's are looking for.
I'm not.
If you think "smart guy is name calling, you have a real problem.
If you think it is a good idea to trust that paragon of accuracy; the San Juan Star, then you have no business posting anything here. You are talking about a paper who's sole mission now, is to protect the politicians responsible for losing the Navy and it's money.
Ping me, Smart-Wimpyguy, when US papers are saying the same thing. Deal?
You're kidding, right?
The Liberal rags we have for papers will be reporting this give-away as soon as our 'Panderer in Chief's' signature is dry and there's no way to undo this travesty.
I know you need to believe Puerto Rico got screwed, but trust me, it was the U.S. Taxpayers and our Navy.
I await the liberal rags reporting what you claim(wont happen) because it would only take a phone call to disprove. Maybe you have a 'need' to believe the President pandered, but I'll believe it when you can prove it.
Puerto Rico got everything they wanted and, thanks to Bush, the U.S. Taxpayers get the bill, again.
Puerto Rico didn't lose a thing, not even sleep.
Face it, they won, we lost. We were stabbed in the back by RINOs.
Proof that the Navy is going to have to shell out grants from its defense budget for community development?
You were unaware that the Navy has been forced to squander U.S. Taxpayer's dollars in Puerto Rico for decades like this? This is not a new thing, it's just that the Navy believed that Bush was on their side, finally.
He sure fooled the Navy. Bush made suckers out of all of them.
Yeah, up until yesterday, the Navy believed our pandering politicians and their tough talk. All the land at Roosevelt Roads was going to be sold to the highest bidder and 100% of the proceeds from the sale were to go to the Navy.
Yeah, right. Suckers.
You need to believe Puerto Rico is suffering.
Puerto Rico has the Navy base and $100's of millions of new 'Janqui' dollars from different federal agencies to replace what they lost from the Navy.
Puerto Rico is laughing all the way to the bank.
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