Told you that filthy, cowardly ***** in the White House never
intended to leave. He's just gaming us.

On Mon, 10 Sep 2007 04:37:49 -0700, Kurt Nicklas
<nicklask@bellsouth.net> wrote:

Pentagon planning base near Iraq-Iran border: report

Mon Sep 10, 2007 3:11AM EDT
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN1045476420070910?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&rpc=22&sp=true

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Pentagon is preparing to build a military
base near the Iraq-Iran border to try to curtail the flow of advanced
Iranian weaponry to Shiite militants across Iraq, the Wall Street
Journal reported on Monday in its online edition.

Quoting Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the commander of the Army's 3rd Infantry
Division, the Journal said the Pentagon also plans to build fortified
checkpoints on major highways leading from the Iranian border to
Baghdad, and install X-ray machines and explosives-detecting sensors
at the only formal border crossing between the two countries.

The base will be located about four miles from the Iranian border and
will be used for at least two years, according to the report. U.S.
officials told the paper it is unclear whether it will be among the
small number of facilities that would remain in Iraq after any future
large-scale U.S. withdrawal.

The report comes on the same day the top U.S. commander in Iraq and
U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker present a progress report to Congress on
the war.

U.S. President George W. Bush, under mounting pressure to change
course in Iraq, plans a prime time speech on the war this week. He is
unlikely to unveil a major shift in strategy in the 4-year-old war
that has claimed the lives of more than 3,700 U.S. troops and tens of
thousands of Iraqis.

Early Monday morning, Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Withington
told Reuters he could not comment on the specifics of the report, but
said: "Coalition and Iraqi partners will continue to put pressure on
the enemy, including disruptions of any supply lines, in an effort to
reduce violence and to protect the Iraqi people."

Lynch told the paper, "We've got a major problem with Iranian
munitions streaming into Iraq. This Iranian interference is troubling
and we have to stop it."

U.S. officials accuse Iran of fomenting violence to destabilize Iraq
and of seeking to build nuclear weapons under cover of civilian
nuclear program, charges Iran denies.

Maj. Toby Logsdon, the U.S. officer overseeing the project, told the
Journal that the new outpost will have living quarters for at least
200 soldiers, who could arrive in November.

"Iran will know this is here -- they will have to rethink how they do
things, and the smugglers will have to rethink how they do things,"
Logsdon told the Journal.