Diego Garcia: The Secret US Military Base

United States in its insatiable hunger for power, over the years has strategically and connivingly set up military bases around the world under the pretext of "peace keeping". The news of these military bases is well suppressed from the mainstream media. Examples of U.S. bases around the world include Guantanamo Bay, Saudi Arabia, Ascension Islands, Diego Garcia, and many more. Here I shall demystify the secret that is, Diego Garcia.

Diego Garcia is a tiny, isolated, remote atoll located in the heart of the Indian Ocean, some 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) south of India's
southern coast, Diego Garcia has more reason for being in the news than Paris Hilton. It is a lethally equipped island with state-of-the-art destruction machines’ (including an illegal nuclear warhead) which has helped US in its bombing campaigns in the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan. Apart from that Diego Garcia is a NASA Space Command & Control Centre, Spy Station and a torture heaven for "suspected" terrorists.

A Brief History……

Chagos Archipelago (which includes Diego Garcia) and Mauritius were first inhabited by the French in the 18^th century. However, the British defeated the French and took over the island after the Napoleonic War in 1814 to 1965. Since 1965, Diego Garcia is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), a British overseas territory.

During the peak of Cold War, the US realizing its lack of control over the Middle East wanted to set up a military base in the vicinity. Therefore in 1965, the Chagos Islands, which include Diego Garcia, were detached
from Mauritius to form part of the British Indian Ocean Territories
(BIOT) as a condition for Mauritius' freedom from the United Kingdom. United Kingdom
received a US$14 million discount on the acquisition of Polaris missiles (Nuclear War head missile) from the United States for this exchange.

Between 1967 to 1973, Diego Garcia went through a illegal, enforced depopulation of its locals to make room for a US military base. The locals or Chagossians or Illois (islanders) were mix descendants of the slaves imported by the French and then by the British. When the US ordered the UK to free the population of its locals, UK obliged. Although being aware that deportation of Chagossians is illegal under of the Article 73 of the UN charter. Anyhow the Chagossians were deported under a fictional make belief that the Chagossians are Foriegn Contract Workers with no Right to Abode. However, this was only the legal hurdle the US had to handle. The actual practical deportation is even more unnerving. Agents of the British government present on the island took notice of the fact that the Chagossians made annual trips to Mauritius. They then offered the naive Chagossians a free trip to Mauritius in their local boat, just so that they will not let them back in. The Chagossians were stranded and destituted on a foriegn land with no skill, language or aid. However these weren't all the Chagossians, many were still working on Copra Plantations on Diego Garcia. In 1968, the Britain then bought the loss making plantation. They herded the Chagossians into the hold of a ship and dumped on the wharf of Port Louis, Mauritius. With just a single suitcase each.

But why does the US have a military base in the middle of nowhere?

As mentioned earlier during the Cold War era, the United States was realizing its lack of control in the Middle East. It was also keen on establishing a military base in the Indian Ocean because of Diego Garcia's proximity to India, a potential ally of the Soviet Union, the United States saw the island as a strategically important one. However, this hasn’t been the only attempt to menace India. Recent declassified US Official records reveal that President Richard Nixon secretly pleaded China to “menace” India by moving troops to the Indian border during the '71 Indo-Pak war. India’s growing power was always a concern to the United States. U.S. military activities in Diego Garcia have caused friction between India and U.S. in the past during the Cold War era, various political parties in India repeatedly demanded the U.S. to dismantle the military base.

Although Diego Garcia was ready with the world's biggest runways, it didn't launch any attacks. It just serves as a listening post for the NSA. It was only in January 1980, when the White House announced what became known as the Carter Doctrine: "An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force." This is when Diego Garcia was set up almost like a war launch pad. There were multiple missions to handle on this front which include Iran Revolution, Tehran Rescue of US citizens, Iran-Iraq war, Russian Invasion of Afghanistan. And it also served as a transit point between US and its Middle East bases. Diego Garcia's full capability was used during the Gulf War when full strength air strikes were launched, while simultaneously dispatching Pre-positioning ships. These Squadrons
quickly delivered its equipment to Saudi Arabia (where US has another base funded by the Saudi government). There, soldiers flown
on air transports from U.S. and European bases quickly unloaded and
deployed the pre-positioned material. Diego Garcia has also been the Military Centre during the US invasion in Afghanistan Operration Enduring Freedom and 2003 Iraq Invasion.

Diego Garcia: Military Strength

In terms of its military strength Diego Garcia is the strongest military base US has outside its own mainland. It has an airbase that supports the
largest of modern aircrafts. B-52s and other bombers have been deployed
from Diego Garcia on missions to

1) Iraq during the 1990 Gulf War.
2) Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom.
3) Iraq again during the 2003 invasion.

High-tech portable shelters to house the B-2 bomber were built on the island before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and a fleet of B-52s, B-1s and B-2s from Diego Garcia also led the shock and awe attacks on Baghdad on March 22, 2003, dropping 4,200 lb. bunker busters on the city. B-2 bombers are the most expensive airplane ever build costing $2 billion dollars a piece. They're undetectable by radars and most of their functioning is unknown due to its classified nature. Imagine bombing tribal nations with no radars with high-tech undetectable planes…sheesh!
Apart from these bombers, Diego Garcia is also a regular deployment site for US Navy P-3C Orion patrol and anti-submarine
aircraft, which is an aircraft for ocean surveillance and submarine warfare. The atoll also shelters the 14 ships of Marine Pre-positioning Squadron Two. These ships carry the equipment and supplies to support a major armed force with light tanks, armored personnel carriers, munitions, fuel, spare parts and even a mobile field hospital. As mentioned earlier.

The base also serves as a naval refueling and support station. This means that Diego Garcia acts as an oasis for the many hidden submarines, ships constantly circling the globe under the pretext of “peace keeping”.

The base is also a part of the U.S. Space Surveillance Network with a 3
telescope GEODSS station, and is a NASA Space Shuttle emergency
landing site.

However the biggest threat & concern is the presence of a nuclear warhead present on the island. YES, Diego Garcia is rumoured to have a nuclear warhead. According Protocol II of the African Nuclear Weapon Free Zone Treaty, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, the Russian Federation and China are invited to agree not to test or assist or encourage the testing of a nuclear explosive device anywhere with the African zone, which includes Diego Garcia. However, neither the U.S. nor the UK recognizes Diego Garcia as being subject to the African Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Treaty, even though the rest of the Chagos Archipelago is included, suggesting the U.S. and/or U.K. wishes to maintain the freedom to base nuclear weapons there. So that’s how the U.S. neither admits, neither denies harboring a nuclear warhead on the island.

What else happens on the island?

Apart from helping America bomb countries under the pretext of “peace keeping”, Diego Garcia imports “suspected terrorists” for torturing them. Human rights groups have often claimed that the military base is used by the U.S. government for the controversial "extraordinary rendition" of prisoners. Extraordinary rendition is an American way of bending laws which involves the sending of untried criminal suspects, suspected terrorists or alleged supporters of groups which the US Government “supposedly considers” to be terrorist organizations, to countries other than the United States for imprisonment, interrogation and torturing. Critics have accused the CIA of rendering suspects to other countries in order to avoid US laws prescribing due process and prohibiting torture, even though many of those countries have, like the US, signed or ratified the United Nations Convention Against Torture. Critics have called this practice "torture by proxy" or "torture flights". As Diego Garcia is located in the middle of nowhere, it makes a safe haven for the US to torture the living day light of who ever they “think” is a terrorist.

It is also likely that the National Security Agency (NSA) has a listening post on the island, by which the NSA collects spy intelligence data about other countries.

Currently Diego Garcia is a base of equivalent strength compared to any base on the US soil, if not stronger. With a lethal possibility of a nuclear warhead, the stakes just increase ten fold. All in the name of Oil. Chagossians have resorted to living in the Mauritian slums subject to harsh rascism, unemployment resorting to prostitution, substance abuse, suicide. Recently they were granted their plea to resettle on a neighbouring island by the British courts, only to be revoked later. Even their compensation has reached them filtered through various levels of corruption and inflation.

All this, in the name of oil.

I encourage everyone to view this award winning documentary about the plight of the Chagossians: Stealing a Nation

Also visit www.chagossupport.co.uk