U.S. quietly builds up base near Iraq

AL-UDEID AIR BASE, Qatar -- If President Bush ordered airstrikes on Iraq, this vast, remote and little-publicized base in the central Persian Gulf would be a critical hub for U.S. warplanes, bombs and supplies.

Qatar is spending millions of dollars to expand al-Udeid. Over the past months, the U.S. military quietly has moved munitions, equipment and communications gear to the base from Saudi Arabia, the control center for U.S. air operations in the gulf for more than a decade.

About 3,300 U.S. troops are in Qatar, mostly at al-Udeid. The base is an isolated outpost amid a flat, seemingly endless stretch of scrubby desert about 20 miles from Doha, Qatar's capital.

Signs of an American military buildup are unmistakable:

A tent city has sprouted with huge, air-conditioned warehouses and miles of security barriers that attest to the U.S. military's sharpened focus on protecting troops against terrorist attacks.

Freshly paved runways and aircraft parking ramps stretch deep into the desert. Al-Udeid's main, 15,000-foot runway is the longest in the region and can handle the largest Air Force transport planes.

New hangars for fighter aircraft are hardened to withstand aerial attack. Within view from the main runway are dozens of hardened bunkers.

"It is likely the most capable base in the gulf region," said William Arkin, a private military analyst.

Al-Udeid is by no means the only important U.S. military base in the gulf area. Nearly 10,000 U.S. Army soldiers are at Camp Doha in Kuwait and 4,200 are in Bahrain, headquarters for the Navy's 5th Fleet. Several thousand are in Saudi Arabia and a few thousand in Oman.

Days after the Sept. 11 attacks, Qatar granted permission for the United States to send a group of warplanes, organized as the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing, to al-Udeid. They flew attack missions over Afghanistan and were supported by KC-10 and KC-135 refueling aircraft also based at al-Udeid.

There has been speculation that al-Udeid is being built up as an alternative to, or replacement for, the Combined Air Operations Center at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. The Saudis have made clear they do not favor a U.S. invasion of Iraq, and it is possible that if Bush went ahead, the Saudis might forbid the use of the Prince Sultan air control center.

Qatar is small, roughly the size of Connecticut, but its location on the western shores of the gulf, bordering Saudi Arabia, make it well suited for air operations against Iraq.

Spanish police believe Atta met in Spain 8 weeks before Sept. 11

MADRID, Spain -- Spanish police believe suspected Sept. 11 suicide pilot Mohamed Atta met in Spain with other key leaders of the attack on the World Trade Center eight weeks before the hijackers flew U.S. airliners into the buildings, a newspaper said Sunday.

Atta met in or near Tarragona on July 10 with Ramzi Bin al-Shibh, a Yemeni who's the subject of a worldwide manhunt, and Marwan al-Shehhi, a cousin of Atta with whom he took flight lessons in Florida, El Pais said.

U.S. authorities believe Atta, an Egyptian, was aboard American Airlines Flight 11, which struck the north tower of the World Trade Center, and that Al-Shehhi of the United Arab Emirates was aboard United Airlines Flight 175, which struck the south tower.

The Spanish report has been turned over to the FBI, the newspaper said.

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