[Via Communist Internet... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] . . ----- Original Message ----- From: Downwithcapitalism <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2001 3:44 AM Subject: [downwithcapitalism] Offical: US out of Vieques... in 2003 New York Times. 14 June 2001. Bush to Announce Halt to Vieques Exercises. WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration will announce on Thursday that it will halt all military exercises and aerial bombing runs on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques by May 2003, reversing the Navy's long-running insistence that no other locale was suitable for battle simulations, senior officials said tonight. The decision was made at a White House meeting today that included President Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, who has frequently voiced concerns that the mounting protests against the Navy operations and the arrest of the protesters seeking to block the exercises was costing Mr. Bush vital support among Hispanics. Also attending was Gordon England, the Secretary of the Navy, who told lawmakers tonight that he would recommend that the Navy stop using the range by 2003, officials said. Another exercise involving the dropping of inert bombs is scheduled to begin on Monday, and a senior administration official said today that "we wanted to get the word out quickly" that the administration would end the exercises, though not as quickly as Puerto Rican officials have demanded. The announcement on Thursday, which was first reported on the evening network news reports, appears intended to short-circuit Puerto Rican plans to hold a referendum next month on the Navy's operations on the island, which contains 33,000 acres and has about 9,300 residents. While the referendum would have no legal effect on the Navy, Gov. Sila Caldern, until now a harsh critic of the military's refusal to end the exercises, has used it to build political pressure on the Bush administration---a tactic that seems to have worked. Ms. Caldern signed a bill into law this week authorizing the July 29 referendum, though it is now unclear whether that will go ahead. Some critics of the Navy's activities said tonight that they would continue their crusade until the Navy agrees to halt all maneuvers at Vieques immediately. "If they're saying 'we will continue bombing till 2003,' that would be unacceptable," said Representative Jose E. Serrano, a New York Democrat who was born in Puerto Rico. Said Representative Charles B. Rangel of New York, another opponent of the bombing, "It's like me telling you that I'm going to stop beating you in the head with a hammer in two years." He called the two-year deadline a "very embarrassing thing" for Governor Caldern, who has campaigned heavily on a Navy pullout. Governor Caldern released the following statement in Spanish tonight: "The information being disseminated this afternoon over the military maneuvers in Vieques is not official." Her office, she added, "should not make any statements about it for the moment." A defense official said the Pentagon began seriously studying ways to leave Vieques after President Bush said in an interview broadcast in early May by Univision, the Spanish- language network, that the United States needed to find another base for its Atlantic live-fire training. The official said that after May 2003, the Navy would return the Vieques range to the Department of Interior, which would then determine how to clean up or otherwise dispose of the land, which is uninhabitable because it is littered with shrapnel and unexploded shells. The Navy has conducted exercises on the eastern tip of the island for more than 50 years. The decision today could also affect operations in the Pacific. The Marine Corps is under similarly intense pressure on the Japanese- owned island of Okinawa, where training exercises have long raised major protests. * * * * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
