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Fri=om AF Daily Report 5 Feb 09

Blindsided: Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev abruptly announced Tuesday his intent to close Manas Air Base, a critical supply hub and staging area for US and coalition forces operating in Afghanistan. His announcement, coming as the US prepares to dispatch thousands of additional troops to Afghanistan, reportedly was made after a Feb. 3 meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow, the Los Angeles Times reported. In response, US defense officials said they hoped that the US would be able to keep using Manas, as the US government had received no official word of a change in status from the Kyrgyz government. But, if the closure goes through, they said the US would find other means to supply its forces. "While we value the relationship we have and the arrangements we have with Manas, the United States would certainly be able to continue operations in Afghanistan if we did not have that facility," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said yesterday. He added, "We are talking about the United States military, the most flexible, adaptable, capable, innovative military in the world." (Includes AFPS report by Donna Miles) (For more, read Wired magazine's Danger Room blog entry from yesterday and the transcript of Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell discussing Manas Feb. 3)

Nothing new to me and I think it is not really new for the US officials. I remember having read an article last year about a possible closure (at least for US forces).

It is not new. It is an ongoing Saga. I am sure there will be much more to come. It just shows it is not just $$ involved, but also the Geopolitics of the area.

Could not have said it better. Money is not all in this world - but some people don't get it

My local paper, which is not noted for international acumen, says the deal is back in negotiations. I don't have a clue as to what that means. Even if the US stays there, they are always subject to an overnight shut-down.

Commentary: Kremlin trumps NATO
By ARNAUD DE BORCHGRAVE, UPI Editor at Large
Published: Feb. 6, 2009 at 10:54 AM
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WASHINGTON, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- Elevated to the rank of "major non-NATO ally" by President George W. Bush, Pakistan is now deemed too dangerous for the hundreds of U.S. and NATO supply trucks that keep allied forces fighting against the Taliban in Afghanistan. In the latest attack against the NATO lifeline, 11 trucks and 13 containers were demolished outside Peshawar, near the northern end of the 600-mile route from the port of Karachi to the Khyber Pass. This followed the attack and collapse of a key bridge near the Khyber Pass, which backed up some 1,000 trucks all the way to Karachi. Normally, some 600 supply trucks a day cross the border into Afghanistan.

Kifayatullah Jan, the manager of Port World Logistics, a major North Atlantic Treaty Organization contractor, said his drivers were ready to pack it in when Pakistani insurgents torched 106 containers. "No protection, no business," lamented Jan. NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan require 70,000 containers of supplies per year, or about 75 percent of their total needs in fuel, food, equipment and construction materials. On any given day, there are 3 million gallons of fuel on Pakistani roads destined for allied forces in Afghanistan. In some cases, the Taliban extracted payments of $1,000 per vehicle at the point of a gun. Helicopter engines valued at $13 million were also hijacked. Taliban fighters gave Pakistani drivers certificates guaranteeing their trucks were requisitioned, not stolen.

The southern route through Pakistan was kept open while negotiations proceeded with Russia and the former Soviet Muslim republics -- known as the "Stans" -- for an alternate northern route. Supplies would be unloaded onto trains in German ports and taken by rail through Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and then by truck into Afghanistan, a distance five times longer than the 1,000-kilometer journey from Karachi to Kabul. Hardly an incentive for NATO and U.S. staying power against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

It doesn't require an overwhelming effort of geopolitical imagination to see the potential for Russian troublemaking along the northern supply route. For the time being, the Medvedev-Putin tandem has made clear the U.S.-NATO operation against the Taliban in Afghanistan is also in Russia's interest. The men in the Kremlin are anxious to prevent Islamist extremism spreading from Afghanistan into the Stans. They also like the idea of America's military machine pinned down in Iraq and Afghanistan. After all, the Soviets spent 10 years fighting the mujahedin guerrillas -- and were forced into a humiliating withdrawal six months before the fall of the Berlin Wall. They wouldn't mind seeing superpower America suffer the same fate. When they want to express displeasure, they can turn NATO's northern route into a Pakistan-like nightmare; all they have to do is invoke a railroad strike or a major railroad accident to cause difficult breathing on NATO's Afghan supply lung.

The five-to-10-year commitment in Afghanistan, as seen by some members of the Obama administration, loses much of its allure as the United States switches supply lines from the southern route through Pakistan to the northern route through Russia. Top Pentagon planners say we no longer can afford the luxury of democratic nation-building in Afghanistan. Instead, says a recommendation to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, all resources should be thrown against the Taliban's privileged sanctuaries in Pakistan's tribal areas while at the same time de-emphasizing longer-term goals for bolstering democracy.

Moscow's primacy in its "near abroad" is back in business. After taking $150 million a year from the United States for base rights at Manas, Kyrgyzstan changed its mind and asked the United States to leave. Russian pressure came in the form of $2 billion in credits and $150 million in aid. But the United States said no deal, we're staying. About 1,000 Americans are based there, and 15,000 U.S. personnel are rotated in and out of Afghanistan via Manas every month.

Local Kyrgyz newspapers, in disinformation operations presumably paid for by Russian operatives, have accused the United States of using Manas for everything from drug trafficking to storing nuclear weapons to planning to attack Iran. The Russians also have enlisted local intellectuals to advocate an accelerated U.S. exit.

Some NATO allies have pointed out that a shorter and more efficient route would be through Turkey and Iran into Afghanistan. Besides diplomatic engagement, the Obama administration is yet to decide on a new Iranian policy. Meanwhile, the mullahs, pumped up by their successful launching of a tennis ball-sized satellite into orbit, have no intention of quitting their quest for a nuclear weapon.

Both the Iranian regime and Russia aided the original U.S. invasion of Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001, to overthrow the Taliban and destroy al-Qaida's bases and training camps. Some Europeans say, albeit sotto voce, Iran's hatred of the Taliban could be harnessed again, but with more carrots than sticks in the diplomatic mix. Obama's yet-to-be-announced senior hand to handle Iran is Dennis Ross, longtime Middle Eastern negotiator, who favors more sticks and fewer carrots. And Ross still believes President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or his father superior, Supreme Religious Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the holy city of Qom, can be talked out of their nuclear ambitions.

Vice President Joe Biden, accompanied by national security adviser James L. Jones, CENTCOM Commander Gen. David H. Petraeus and Richard Holbrooke, U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, flew to Germany this weekend for the annual Munich Conference on Security Policy. Top-tier Russian and Iranian delegations were also in attendance. Offline topside conversations provided an opportunity to defuse the return of East-West tensions. Stay tuned.

FRom AF Daily Report 26 Jun 09

Manas Boot Lifted: The Parliament of Kyrgyzstan on Thursday ratified a new agreement that will enable US and coalition forces to continue using Manas Air Base, which is a central mobility hub for operations in Afghanistan, despite an earlier decision to oust the US. Now all that remains is for Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiev to sign it. Reporters questioned Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell the day before about rumors of the new agreement, asking in particular if the rent had gone up. Morrell replied that he would not go into any monetary compensation arrangement, but he said, "There is give and take in any negotiation, and I think we arrived at a place where we both felt comfortable." According to a June 25 Pentagon report, the new agreement raised the rent by about $17.4 million to $60 million per year for use of the facility, transited by about 15,000 troops and some 500 tons of cargo every month.

From AF Daily Report 9 JUL 09 '

New Manas Deal Takes Effect: Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev on Tuesday signed into law the new agreement that allows the US military to keep using Manas Air Base as a major airlift hub from which to sustain its forces in Afghanistan and support the US troop surge there. The Associated Press reported July 7 that, with Bakiyev's signature, the law takes effect immediately and reverses a measure adopted by the Kyrgyz government in February that would have evicted the US from Manas by August. Under the new agreement's terms, the United States will now pay Kyrgyzstan $60 million in annual rent for the use of the base, up from the previous $17.4 million mark, according to AP. The Kyrgyz parliament approved the new deal back in June. Approximately 15,000 US personnel and about 500 tons of cargo transit Manas each month.

From AF Daily Report 13 Nov 09

Short memories! They were almost closed paid a lot of money, and now doing upgrades!!!

Manas Gets Upgrades: The 376th Air Expeditionary Wing at Manas AB, Kyrgyzstan, on Nov. 9 formally opening a new fire station, maintenance warehouse, and emergency management buildings for explosive ordnance disposal. Members of Manas' 376th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron completed these projects under a $2 million construction initiative. "We were previously living in tents," said Anthony Hernandez, fire chief for the 376th ECES fire emergency service. The new fire station features several individual offices and bunk rooms for shift workers and allows the airmen to store and maintain their equipment better in extremes of weather. "This really enhances our operations," said Lt. Col. Mike Mendoza, 376th ECES commander. (Manas report by SSgt. Olufemi Owolabi)