Fifth Fleet abandons base in Bahrain; Navy denies evacuation underway
World Tribune 3/16/2011
BREAKING
Special To The World Tribune

ABU DHABI — The U.S. Navy has begun to vacate its facilities in Bahrain, diplomatic sources said. However a statement by the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command denied that an evacuation was underway.

Western diplomatic sources said many or most of the navy's Fifth Fleet has left Manama. They said many of the U.S. naval personnel were transferred to Oman, where a naval exercise was taking place.
"There is a skeleton crew left," a diplomatic source said.

The sources said only several hundred U.S. Navy personnel were left at Fifth Fleet headquarters, Middle East Newsline reported. They said U.S. warships were no longer patrolling the coast of Bahrain.

The statement by the Fifth Fleet Public Affairs Office said that while the departure of family members and "non-essential civiliar personnel living in Bahrain" had been authorized, operations "at U.S. Fifth Fleet and NSA Bahrain remain normal, and U.S. service members and family members are not being evacuated."

The sources said the administration of President Barack Obama appeared to be preparing for the collapse of the Sunni kingdom in Bahrain. They said Washington does not intend to protect the regime of King Hamad Bin Issa Al Khalifa.

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http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2011/ss_military0291_03_16.asp

ETA:Navy guys, have you heard anything about this?

That was out of the blue.

If they have they shouldn't/wouldn't talk about it

I heard that the US Navy fled Japan before the quake.  Can anyone confirm it?

This.



 

If this is true I am sure someone will be leaking documents to support the story shortly.

I call BS

I haven't heard a damn thing.

Yeah I heard the samething because Obama used a laser on the moon to induce the quake....

Oh wait...

BS

I read an article that stated that all dependents were being flown out, but not military personal.  

Bushes Fault obviously.

Well the island is under martial law. There is curfew between 4pm and 4am. The al-Khalifa family has indicated they would just as soon kill every shia on the island than cede control.

They're a bunch of corrupt bastards, in general, I won't miss them. UAE will take up the banking center slack.

"Western diplomatic sources" is pretty vague. I'm inclined to think that the 5th is either on maneuvers or someone on the diplomatic staff is fibbin'.

That being said, I can also imagine Ozero pulling them out. Sir Obama ran away, bravely ran away, away...

Nephew is stationed there and scheduled to xfer out in 2 1/2 weeks. Not soon enough. I hope they all stay safe.

Que the clapping coconuts!

But that is nothing new.

The monarchy falling and the Shiites gaining controul would be very bad for our national interests and for the region in general and it would be a major victory for Iran, which seems to be manipulating this crisis to a considerable degree.  They want the monarchy to fall to the Shiite majority.

Oh no.

From troofers to our very own version of "quakers"?

Say it aint so.

Well, of course, par for the course, don't help our friends that have been keeping our 5th fleet for years now....

They probably got the dependents out. That's pretty standard. No reason to have a bunch of US civilians living out in town when you have foreign troops coming in.

US Coast Guard has personnel and ships there also, been wondering how all this would shake out. 1,000 Saudi troops have been shipped in, dead protesters today, reports of helicopters firing into Shiite strongholds, minority US friendly monarchy, Obama called the kings of Bahrain and SA today to urge "restraint", might make Libya look good before it's all over except these are supposed to be our allies, who knows who would take over if there was a regime change, will be interesting.  

STRATFOR is reporting nothing.  Even a rumour with some weight behind it would get their attention and at least be put on their update list.  Methinks this rumour is false.