Hagel tours low-profile U.S. base in Qatar

[unhappycamper]

http://hamptonroads.com/2013/12/hagel-tours-lowprofile-us-base-qatar

Hagel tours low-profile U.S. base in Qatar
By Lolita C. Baldor
The Associated Press
© December 11, 2013

AL UDEID AIR BASE, Qatar

The U.S. air operations center in Qatar has long been a hub where combat sorties into Iraq and Afghanistan were tracked and international forces kept watch over hotspots in the Persian Gulf and western Mediterranean Sea. But for years it's kept a low profile in a region sometimes reluctant to advertise its significant U.S. military presence.

~snip~

His visit lifted a veil from a key American base and underscored one of the themes of Hagel's weeklong trip across the region: telling allies that the end of the Afghanistan war, the tentative Iran nuclear deal and budget pressures at home do not mean that the U.S. will abandon them.

He pressed that message in meetings in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar, where differences over U.S. policies on Iran and Syria have made Gulf allies nervous

In recent years U.S. officials have tried to limit public talk of al Udeid, although its existence is not a secret. But on Tuesday Hagel walked through the operations center, with about a dozen journalists trailing him, as three huge video screens lit up with maps of the Gulf, the western Mediterranean Sea and Syria, and tracking of bomber flights into Afghanistan.