Massive US Military Buildup on Two Strategic Islands: Socotra and Masirah – http://lunaticoutpost.com

While quietly casting lines to draw Tehran into talks on their nuclear dispute, PresidentBarack Obama is reported exclusively by DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s military and Washington sources to have secretly ordered US air, naval and marine forces to build up heavy concentrations on two strategic islands – Socotra, which is part of a Yemeni archipelago in the Indian Ocean, and the Omani island of Masirah at the southern exit of the Strait of Hormuz.
Socotra is situated 80 kilometers east of the Horn of Africa and 380 kilometers southeast of the Yemeni coastline. It lies athwart the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. A military base there is in a position to oversee the shipping moving in and out of those strategic naval waterways.
Lushly verdant, Socotra is approximately 120 kilometers long by 40 kilometers wide. Its population of 55,000 has its own distinct language and culture. Since 2010, the US has been quietly building giant air force and naval bases on Socotra with facilities for submarines, intelligence command centers and take-off pads for flying stealth drones, as part of a linked chain of strategic US military facilities in the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf.
The Socotra facilities are so secret that they are never mentioned in any catalogue listing US military facilities in this part of the world, which include Jebel Ali and Al Dahfra in the United Arab Emirates; Arifjan in Kuwait; and Al Udeid in Qatar – all within short flying distances from Iran.
Additional US forces are also being poured into Camp Justice on the barren, 70-kilometer long Omani island of Masirah, just south of the Hormuz entry point to the Gulf of Oman from the Arabian Sea.
US military facilities were established there after the signing of an access agreement with Oman in 1980.

Up to 100,000 US troops present by early March

For the new buildup on Socotra, Washington had to negotiate a new deal with Yemen’s ousted ruler Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Injured in an assassination attempt last year, Saleh demanded permission to travel to the United States for medical treatment. The Obama administration first refused, then relented when Saleh made it his condition for consenting to additional troops landing on the island.
Western military sources familiar with the American buildup on the two strategic islands tellDEBKA-Net-Weekly that, although they cannot cite precise figures, they are witnessing the heaviest American concentration of might in the region since the US invaded Iraq in 2003.
Then, 100,000 American troops were massed in Kuwait ahead of the invasion. Today, those sources estimate from the current pace of arrivals on the two island bases, that 50,000 US troops will have accumulated on Socotra and Masirah by mid-February. They will top up the 50,000 military already present in the Persian Gulf region, so that in less than a month, Washington will have some 100,000 military personnel on the spot and available for any contingency.
US air transports are described as making almost daily landings on Socotra and Masirah. They fly in from the US naval base of Diego Garcia, one of America’s biggest military facilities, just over 3,000 kilometers away. The US military presence in the region will further expand in the first week of March when three US aircraft carriers and their strike groups plus a French carrier arrive in the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea: They are theUSS Abraham Lincoln, USS Carl Vinson, USS Enterprise and the Charles de Gaulle nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
A fourth US carrier will be standing by in the Pacific Ocean, a few days’ sailing time from the water off Iran’s coast.

Obama may debunk Republican charges that he is weak on Iran

READ MORE: http://www.pacificrimcoins.com/pacrim/co…nd-masirah

A couple maps

Suqutra, Yemen

Masirah, Oman

Max Powers  Wrote:

Image exceeds set limits. Click to view full size image

Image exceeds set limits. Click to view full size image

Thanks for the maps and guest too for posting them.

Ironhide  Wrote:

Thanks for the maps and guest too for posting them.

i posted them mainly cause i didnt know where those places were

Max Powers  Wrote:

Ironhide  Wrote:

Thanks for the maps and guest too for posting them.

i posted them mainly cause i didnt know where those places were

I had an idea, but I probably would have failed if I was told to point them out myself lol. Don´t feel bad, you are not alone.

Ironhide  Wrote:

Max Powers  Wrote:

Ironhide  Wrote:

Thanks for the maps and guest too for posting them.

i posted them mainly cause i didnt know where those places were

I had an idea, but I probably would have failed if I was told to point them out myself lol. Don´t feel bad, you are not alone.

thanx…

http://www.zougla.gr/page.ashx?pid=2&aid=460878&cid=5
^ greek (i think) used google translate 2 translate the 1st few sentences
if anyone can tell me what language it is, i might be able 2 get the whole web page translated.

Enhance quietly forces the U.S. to Indian

First registration: Saturday, January 28, 2012, 11:28

Great concentration of forces there in two islands of Socotra and Masirah concentration which reaches 2003 levels when the U.S. had invaded Iraq and is expected to peak until next February.

The island of Socotra is located in the homonymous archipelago of Socotra-also known as Soqotra-and is the largest island of the complex consists of 4 islands. Located about 240 km from the Horn of Africa and 380 km south of the Arabian Peninsula.

Jeez I hope they don’t bomb the cr@p out of Socotra. There are the most amazing plants that live there, and the only place they can be found growing naturally.

http://www.google.com/search?q=socotra&h…80&bih=906

czygyny  Wrote:

Jeez I hope they don’t bomb the cr@p out of Socotra. There are the most amazing plants that live there, and the only place they can be found growing naturally.

http://www.google.com/search?q=socotra&h…80&bih=906

some beautiful pics of plant and animal life of socotra here
http://www.socotra.name/virtual-tour-around-socotra.php

czygyny  Wrote:

Jeez I hope they don’t bomb the cr@p out of Socotra. There are the most amazing plants that live there, and the only place they can be found growing naturally.

http://www.google.com/search?q=socotra&h…80&bih=906

I believe that is the least of their concerns unfortunately for nature and us.

More troop movement.

Third US Carrier Group on the way to Iran

For months now we have been following US naval developments and deployments in the Arabian Sea, which serve one purpose and one purpose only – to demonstrate US military strength in the Straits of Hormuz region and to keep Iranian ‘offensive passions’ subdued. Yet never has the US had a total of three aircraft carrier groups in the vicinity, always topping out at 2 in the Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet, most recently these being the CVN-70 Vinson and CVN 72 Lincoln, with a third boat present merely until a rotation in or out of the theater of operations was complete. That is about to change, and with it the prevailing price of Brent, which we are confident is about to take a new step wise price higher as the US makes it all too clear what the endgame is, because as Naval Today reports, the “US navy to deploy third carrier group to Persian Gulf”, probably the CVN-77 George H.W. Bush which departed Norfolk two weeks ago according to the most recent naval update, or any other Norfolk-stationed aircraft carrier: there is a wide selection to chose from.

From Naval Today:

US Navy to Deploy Third Carrier Group to Persian Gulf

US Navy to Deploy Third Carrier Group to Persian Gulf

The carrier group based in Norfolk, VA will also include a guided missile cruiser and three guided missile destroyers, reports Interfax.

USS Abraham Lincoln had already entered the Persian Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz on Jan 22. She is escorted by a guided missile cruiser and two destroyers (USN), one British and one French warships.

Meanwhile, another US Navy’s carrier strike carrier group headed by USS Carl Vinson is stationed eastward the Strait of Hormuz, in northern part of the Arabian Sea washing southwest coast of Iran.

At present, the US has 15,000-men force deployed in Kuwait, expeditionary marine battalion, and amphibious landing group

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/third-airc…oming-iran

so many wardrums

With the drums of war beating ever louder against Iran, the U.S. military has quickly moved to reestablish a war footing in the Persian Gulf. The preparations for a looming military confrontation thus continue apace.

According to the Washington Post (1/27), “The Pentagon is rushing to send a large floating base for commando teams to the Middle East.” As the paper reports, the USS Ponce, a 40-year old amphibious transport dock previously set for decommission, will now be converted into a special ops hub, and then likely sent to the Persian Gulf.

The Pentagon, the Post reports, is seeking to retrofit the USS Ponce on an accelerated timeline. In fact, the military has gone ahead and waived “normal procurement rules because any delay presented a ‘national security risk.’”

At the same time, the Wall Street Journal reports (1/28) the Pentagon has notified Congress that it will divert an additional $82 million to refine the Massive Ordinance Penetrator (MOP). (The MOP is a 30,000-pound “bunker-buster” bomb “specifically designed to take out the hardened fortifications built by Iran and North Korea to cloak their nuclear programs.”)
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?c…&aid=28953