Rumsfeld denies discussing plans for permanent iraq bases

The US defence secretary has denied reports the United States has plans to establish permanent military bases in post-war Iraq.

Donald Rumsfeld said such an impression could damage the Washington’s efforts to pacify and rebuild the nation after Saddam Hussein was overthrown.

He was responding to an article on Sunday in The New York Times about the future American military presence in Iraq, the Middle East and Central Asia.

The article quoted unnamed senior administration officials as saying the US was planning a long term military relationship with the emerging government of Iraq that could include American bases or future access to bases.

Rumsfeld said no such discussions had reached his level at the Pentagon.

“The impression that is left around the world is that we plan to occupy the country, we plan to use their bases over the longer period of time, and it is flat false,” he said at the Pentagon yesterday.

Rumsfeld said neither he nor Gen Richard Myers, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, nor any other Pentagon official at what he considers a senior level had been involved in any discussions about future military ties with Iraq, or about using bases there.

Howell Raines, executive editor of The New York Times, said: “The story we published was carefully reported and accurately written. In light of Secretary Rumsfeld’s statement, we will follow the Pentagon’s post-war planning as it develops.”

The article cited US military officials saying that perhaps four bases in Iraq could be used in the future: one at the international airport just outside Baghdad; another at Tallil near Nasiriya in the south; the third at an isolated airstrip called H-1 in the western desert; and the last at the Bashur airfield in the Kurdish north.

US forces are already using these bases to support military operations against the remnants of Saddam’s forces, to deliver aid and supplies, and for reconnaissance patrols.