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1,2) Two More US Planes Land At Black Sea Airport AS Warplanes, Troops, Equipment Pour Into Bulgaria 3) Bulgaria: Frontline Of US Military Build-Up http://www.online.bg/ASP/wwwbgweb2.asp?mode=article&artdate=2003/3/4&artno=21 Bulgaria Online March 4, 2003 Another two US planes landed in Sarafovo The operation of transporting US military equipment and people to Bulgaria Burgas airport continued on Monday as two KC-10 Extender tanker jets landed there, Bulgarian Info radio reported. The aircraft that took off from a New Jersey base brought jet fuel, equipment and seventy combaters [combat troops]. Thus the US contingent in Burgas, some 390km east of Bulgaria's capital Sofia, already numbers 200. Unloaded and refuelled, the tanker jets left for the US the same day. The information center that US militaries equip at the Burgas airport will be ready within a month. On February 7 Bulgaria's Parliament agreed to allow the overflight and transit passage by US and allied troops through Bulgaria in a possible war against Iraq for a period of six months. The lawmakers also passed a motion authorising the use of the air base in the Burgas residential district of Sarafovo by the US -led coalition. ------------------------------------------------------- http://www.online.bg/ASP/wwwbgweb2.asp?mode=article&artdate=2003/3/4&artno=15 Bulgaria Online March 4, 2003 US aircraft arrive at Bulgaria's Black Sea airbase Source: The Times Of India US aircraft arrived at a Bulgarian airbase near the Black Sea town of Bourgas on Monday, as part of the build-up of forces for a possible war on Iraq, a Defence Ministry official said. The official told Reuters two of the US aircraft that flew into the base were refuelling planes. A third was carrying military equipment. The official indicated more US planes may arrive in the coming days. The base was used by US forces in late 2001 during the US-led military campaign against Afghanistan. Bulgaria, grateful for US support in winning it a NATO invitation last November, has offered Washington the use of the Bourgas base in the event of a war. It has also sanctioned the dispatch of 150 troops near Iraq to tackle non-conventional warfare threats. Washington, which accuses Baghdad of harbouring weapons of mass destruction, has threatened to attack Iraq if it does not disarm and warned time is fast running out. Bulgaria, once the Soviet Union's closest ally, is one of the strongest supporters of the US position on Iraq in the UN Security Council. On Saturday, the parliament in neighbouring Turkey narrowly blocked US troops from deploying in the country -- a setback for Washington's plans for a "northern front" against Iraq. ------------------------------------------------------- http://www.online.bg/ASP/wwwbgweb2.asp?mode=article&artdate=2003/3/4&artno=12 Bulgaria Online March 4, 2003 Bulgaria finds itself in the frontline of US military build-up On a beach by the grey waters of the Black sea, scores of young American airmen are racing against the clock to get ready for war. Surrounded by Kalashnikov-toting Bulgarian military police, fenced in by red corrugated iron, and shrouded by a pine grove, the men of the US air force's 409th air expeditionary group are pioneers in a mission that is reconfiguring decades of the US military presence in Europe and redrawing Europe's military map. "We're in a rush," said Sergeant Jason Smith, just arrived from Charleston in North Carolina. "Our main role is to support the global war on terror. And we're preparing for future operations." Since last Tuesday night when two US Hercules transport aircraft dropped out of the sky from Ramstein base in Germany on to Bulgaria's Burgas airport, 200 metres from the Americans' beachside encampment, the airmen, many barely out of their teens, have been working frantically to get Burgas fit for the US war machine. The battleship-grey transports - huge C-5 Galaxies, C-141s and the C-130 Hercules - have been landing almost every day over the past week, disgorging hot dogs and Coke, computers and secure phone systems, huge tarpaulins for a "tent city", showers and tanks of water, and more troops and pilots. Yesterday afternoon a brace of KC-10A Extender jets, the biggest air tankers in the USAF, landed at Burgas to play a key role in the campaign against Saddam Hussein. The two tanker jets, capable of carrying more than 160,000kg of fuel, are to be followed by at least 14 others. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more http://taxes.yahoo.com/ --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.bdn7KI.YXJjaGl2 Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] TOPICA - Start your own email discussion group. FREE! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/create/index2.html ==^================================================================
