CIA Building SECRET (Not So Secret Now) Base In Middle East For Attacks Against Yemen

[HOLLYWOOD]

It's Out of Control your tax dollars at work will the country declines, this is becoming such a paradox to the extinct Roman Empire

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/15/world/middleeast/15yemen.html?_r=1

C.I.A. Building Base for Strikes in Yemen

By MARK MAZZETTI

Published: June 14, 2011

WASHINGTON — The Central Intelligence Agency is building a secret air base in the Middle East to serve as a launching pad for strikes in Yemen using armed drones, an American official said Tuesday.

Related

• Yemen’s Opposition Meets With Government Officials (June 14, 2011)
• Times Topic: Yemen — Protests (2011)

The construction of the base is a sign that the Obama administration is planning an extended war in Yemen against an affiliate of Al Qaeda that has repeatedly tried to carry out terrorist plots against the United States.
The clandestine American operations in Yemen are currently being run by the military’s Joint Special Operations Command, with the C.I.A.’s assistance and with the approval of Yemen’s fragile authoritarian government.
But with Yemen’s embattled government on the brink of collapse, Obama administration officials are concerned that a future government might not support American operations. By putting the operations under C.I.A. control, they could be carried out as a “covert action,” which can be undertaken without the support of the host government.
The construction of the base, first reported by The Associated Press, is further evidence that the administration sees armed drones as the weapon of choice to hunt and kill militants in countries where a large American military presence is untenable. Since he took office, President Obama has drastically escalated the C.I.A.’s bombing campaign in Pakistan using armed drones, and the spy agency has carried out more than 25 strikes there this year.
The American official would not disclose the country where the C.I.A. base was being built, but the official said that it would most likely be completed by the end of the year. Discussions about the C.I.A.’s taking over operations in Yemen began last year, the official said, before the political uprising and violence that broke out in the country in recent months.
Last month, the military renewed its campaign of airstrikes in Yemen, using drone aircraft and fighter jets to attack Qaeda militants. One of the attacks was aimed at Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical American-born cleric who is one of the most prominent members of the Qaeda affiliate group, which is called Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

 

[flightlesskiwi]

if anyone is interested about what's going on with our not-so-secret wars it would behoove such a person to do a little research about drones. i offer this USAF report that was written in 2005. much has changed since then, but it is highly relevant to the shift in military ideology that came due to the "war on terror".

Section III examines the RPA and UAV attributes that make RPAs and UAVs effective platforms for various missions. Attributes such as persistence and versatility contribute to highly capable systems improving the way we currently operate and allow us to do things previously impossible or impractical.

(emphasis mine)

hxxp://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/usaf/afd-060322-009.pdf

 

[oyarde]

Drone attacks have been going on for a very , very long time in Yemen.....

 

[HOLLYWOOD]

YEMEN = Scrimmage Game tryout of NEW US weaponry of the Military/Intel Industrial Complexes.

 

[flightlesskiwi]

YEMEN = Scrimmage Game tryout of NEW US weaponry of the Military/Intel Industrial Complexes.

Not just Yemen. Remember the leaked photo of the super stealth drone in Afghanistan?

 

[Zippyjuan]

Drones are pretty stealthy as is. You don't need a "stealth" drone really- particularly in a place like Afghanistan where there are no sophisticated radars or defense systems. Unless they are getting a lot bigger to carry more instruments and weapons.

 

[flightlesskiwi]

Drones are pretty stealthy as is. You don't need a "stealth" drone really- particularly in a place like Afghanistan where there are no sophisticated radars or defense systems. Unless they are getting a lot bigger to carry more instruments and weapons.

they were/are using it in pakistan. the base of operations was afghanistan.

and just to throw in a thought-- we all hear about drones bombing this or that. just remember the mission is also ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance). so, yeah, you do need a "stealth" drone-- or at least the AF thought so.

Their use will encompass ISR, strike, mobility—and even combat search and rescue.

Fridley said the original plan was to phase out the Predator as the Reaper came into the inventory, but at the direction of Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, the Air Force is building RPA capability as fast as possible to provide ISR support to forces fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Predators are being retained even as the more powerful Reapers are delivered and fielded.

hxxp://www.airforce-magazine.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/2010/August%202010/0810RPA.aspx

 

[oyarde]

YEMEN = Scrimmage Game tryout of NEW US weaponry of the Military/Intel Industrial Complexes.

Good Observation