Southcom to Lose Cuba to New Northcom in Colorado Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit [In a bizarre move that may be due to Tommy Franks' total incompetence, or perhaps to distance their own covert military operations from the untrustworthy gusanos, or perhaps simply because of utter ignorance (or a turf war) inside the bumbling Bush Administration, Cuba is being removed from the Caribbean for the purposes of Pentagon planners. Good or bad, it'll slow them down a little. Go, Georgie, Go! Catch the groovey quotes from the madman former drug czar and General, Barry McCaffrey, who not long ago had a cordial interview with Fidel, after which he delivered the shocking news to the mainstream press that Cuba is an anti-drug trafficking country. Perhaps his minions at Southcom are just being paid back for that remark.] source - JosePertierra@aol.com The Miami Herald - April 24, 2002 Southcom to yield Cuba role to new command; Other Latin functions will stay by Carol Rosenberg Pentagon planners have carved Cuba out of the rest of Latin America in a new defense plan that concentrates on homeland defense from headquarters in Colorado, The Herald has learned. Under the new Unified Command Plan, established in response to the Sept. 11 attacks, the Southern Command, based just west of Miami, will be responsible for territory south of Cuba starting in October. A Northern Command will have jurisdiction over U.S. military activities from Canada to Cuba, including the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay. COVERING THE COASTS "It's messy and everyone recognizes that," said a senior Defense Department official in Washington. "But they wanted to have a sense of covering the approaches" to the United States from the sea. The transfer is not expected to take place immediately upon creation of Northcom in October. Southcom could for about two years continue to supervise military operations at the base called Gitmo, officials said, including the new offshore prison project for international terror suspects. "If I were the Northcom CINC [commander in chief], the last thing I would want to be worried about right now is getting entangled in Cuban issues," said the defense official. The switch surprised some regional specialists. "Southcom does have some Latin American expertise and some of them do speak Spanish," said former U.S. Ambassador Ambler H. Moss Jr., director of The North-South Center at the University of Miami. Putting Cuba under Northcom "makes as little sense as anything I can think of." "Southcom's got jurisdiction over things in the Caribbean. If you're going to worry about a situation in the Caribbean, as far as security threats, international crime, tracking drug planes or illegal migration, Cuba is part of the Caribbean," he said. "That astounds me. They haven't thought it out at all." ROLES DIVIDED At Southcom headquarters in Doral this week, officials awaited final word on the division of responsibilities. Air Force Maj. Eduardo Villavicencio, a spokesman, said his understanding was that Northcom would handle any future contact with Cuban armed forces in Havana and Southcom would still supervise the U.S. Navy base. "I don't think Cuba's going to be a big deal," said Villavicencio. "DOD [the Department of Defense] doesn't per se have a lot of dealings with the government of Cuba." Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced the new command plan last week, laying to rest questions about the immediate future of the Pentagon's Miami outpost. Southcom survives as a strong entity run by a four-star general and a Northcom will be set up, probably at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado. An earlier proposal considered creation of an America's Command stretching from Canada to Argentina that would have diminished the role of Southcom, perhaps using a two-star general for contacts with Latin American and Caribbean counterparts. Rumsfeld did not spell out that Cuba would be included in the new Northcom turf, which officials said included the United States, Canada, Mexico and some U.S. territories in the Caribbean. Retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who was 1994-96 commander of Southcom, said Monday that he "hadn't heard a hint of" the idea to exclude Cuba from Southcom. But, he said, he could argue both sides. "It probably makes pretty decent sense because you're going to have to coordinate local law enforcement, local health-care providers when Castro dies," he said. "Florida and the Gulf Coast states at every level will be engaged with the significant probability of a huge exodus from Cuba. "Probably having Northern Command view Cuba as inside the envelope is not a bad idea. You've got to draw the line somewhere." BORDER ISSUES McCaffrey suggested the decision was driven more by migration and border issues than the notion that Northcom would guard waters around the United States. "I think it's more than the approaches. I think it's saying we're all sitting in the same bathtub with Mexico, Cuba and Canada" on immigration matters. McCaffrey was a key player in 1995 in getting the Caribbean transferred to Southcom's authority from the Atlantic Command, based in Norfolk, Va. That coincided with Southcom's move to Miami as the United States ceded territory to Panama with the return of the Canal Zone. Advocates of integrating the Caribbean argued that there were regional issues such as drug trafficking and migration that needed to be minded from one headquarters. Some opponents wondered whether Southcom would be subject to local pressure in Miami's highly charged Cuban and Haitian politics. Since then, successive commanders of Southcom have kept relatively low profiles in Miami, sometimes addressing local business leaders but steering clear of local controversy. A congressional staffer with special interest in Southcom also said that the move likely meant that Northcom would concentrate on migration and border issues as part of its mission to enhance homeland defense. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytcari-04.25.02-19:21:59-30790