Editor’s note: WorldNetDaily brings readers exclusive, up-to-the-minute global intelligence news and analysis from Geostrategy-Direct, a new online newsletter edited by veteran journalist Robert Morton and featuring the “Backgrounder” column compiled by Bill Gertz. Geostrategy-Direct is a subscription-based service produced by the publishers of WorldTribune.com, a free news service frequently linked by the editors of WorldNetDaily.
The United States is quietly building up its forces in Kuwait amid reports that it is considering expanding military operations in the war against terrorism.
About 2,000 soldiers from the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division, based in Fort Hood, Texas, were sent to Kuwait in late November. Additional troops from the 4th Infantry Division, also from Fort Hood, are said by U.S. officials to be next in line. The heavy armored Fort Hood troops will marry up with tanks and armored vehicles already pre-positioned in Kuwait.
U.S. intelligence agencies also are building up personnel in Kuwait in anticipation of future operations in the region, U.S. officials said.
A spokesman for the U.S. Army in Kuwait said the troops are in the country to conduct training exercises. The forces are designed to bolster the army presence in Kuwait.
“They are designed to show that we are standing by our allies in the region,” the spokesman said. The soldiers are based at Camp Doha, north of Kuwait City.
“The brigade will enhance current force levels to provide a more robust deterrent to Iraq,” said another military official, who noted that there is concern that during operations in Afghanistan the Iraqis might try to exploit the conflict to its advantage.
U.S. intelligence officials said Iraqi military forces have dispersed in the past several months, and there have been some troop movements in northern Iraq. Iraqi armored columns have been spotted moving in northern Iraq near the Saddam Dam.
The dam is of great interest to U.S. intelligence agencies, which suspect that it may contain some type of underground military facility nearby.
Meanwhile, coinciding with the U.S. military buildup, a German newspaper reported last week that the Berlin government is sending 600 soldiers who specialize in weapons of mass destruction to Kuwait.
The unit specializing in detecting nuclear, biological and chemical weapons is being dispatched to the Persian Gulf for “several possibilities,” according to a military spokesman quoted by the Rhein-Zeitung newspaper on Nov. 30. The spokesman declined to comment on the “exact zone of action” for the unit.
The spokesman refused to answer when asked if the German troops were part of a U.S.-led military operation against Iraq.
President George W. Bush said last week that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein should permit United Nations arms inspectors to return to Iraq and warned that Saddam would “find out” the consequences for refusing to do so. The comment was viewed as a veiled threat to use force against Iraq.
In response, Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said on Dec. 1 that Iraq would not be intimidated by threats.
“We are not scared by those threats,” Aziz told reporters in Baghdad.
Since the expulsion of U.N. inspectors in 1998, Iraq has been rebuilding its chemical, biological and nuclear programs, according to a CIA report made public earlier this year. Iraq also has been building an unmanned aerial vehicle program involving converted Czech L-29 trainer jets, the report said.
“These refurbished trainer aircraft are believed to have been modified for delivery of chemical or, more likely, biological warfare agents,” the report said.
Baghdad is refusing to allow U.N. weapons inspectors to return until after the world body lifts sanctions against Iraq.
Related story:
Iraq, terrorism and geopolitics
Subscribe to Geostrategy-Direct.
