Lauren Coontz is a staff writer for Coffee or Die Magazine. Beaches are preferred, but Lauren calls the Rocky Mountains of Utah home. You can usually find her in an art museum, at an archaeology site, or checking out local nightlife like drag shows and cocktail bars gin is key. A student of history, Lauren is an Army veteran who worked all over the world and loves to travel to see the old stuff the history books only give a sentence to.
She likes medium roast coffee and sometimes, like a sinner, adds sweet cream to it. Follow Lauren Coontz: Twitter Instagram. Skip to main content Skip to primary sidebar Skip to footer Search. Photo courtesy of the US National Archives. Note the sign indicating directions to locations in the US. Photo by Kirby Crawford, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Youtube Instagram. Facebook Twitter Youtube Instagram Pinterest.
Facebook Twitter Youtube Instagram. Footer Emails Suck. He was a U. Air Force C transport pilot from to , and he flew into Diego Garcia about 20 times during that period. I developed a fondness for the place and the military lifestyle. From July to July I was made responsible for the support of transport aircraft operating through the island, and for supporting operations in Oman, Somalia, Kenya and Mauritius ».
The most intense operational period on Diego Garcia came after the Kuwait invasion by Iraqi military in The base population almost doubled overnight, and Diego Garcia became the only U. Navy base that launched offensive air missions during Operation Desert Storm. Almost all duty positions were understaffed and the staff worked long and inconvenient hours.
Recreation was typical of small town America with community bowling alleys, a swimming pool, a theatre, several restaurants and bars, all run by the U. Because of the weather and environment — almost identical to the Florida Keys in the summer — water related activities were available on weekends, such as fishing, snorkelling and boating.
But the U. Although thousands of people live on this small island, secrets are still very well guarded. There is credible evidence that the facilities were used in a U. The highly anticipated U. However, no mention of the Chagos Archipelago was made in the report, providing relief to the politicians in London and heightening suspicion of a MI6-orchestrated cover-up.
Scores of planes took off daily, mostly supporting operations in Afghanistan. British customs officers did check customs and passenger manifests for planes that were offloading in Diego Garcia. However, normal protocols were not to inspect military aircraft in transit. If a prisoner was held at the back of a plane in transit, and did not get off, then their presence on Diego Garcia is unlikely to have been noticed by British officials ». In , U. It is highly unlikely that Mauritius will soon recover sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago, since it is clearly still required for defence purpose.
John Pike, a Washington-area military expert who runs the website GlobalSecurity. Even if the lease is supposed to end in , one could bet that the U. Luckily, the U. The judgment also determined that the Maldives could not avoid negotiating its maritime boundaries with Mauritius by saying there was a valid live dispute over the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands between the UK and Mauritius.
In an advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice , endorsed by the UN general assembly , found the UK in breach of international law by seeking to maintain its claim to the archipelago. The UK ignored the ICJ and the UN opinions, dismissing them as advisory, which prompted Mauritius to go to the international maritime court to press its claim.
It did so by asking the maritime court to resolve its separate maritime dispute with the Maldives, the other nearest island to the waters around the archipelago. The Maldives had tried to fend off the involvement of the maritime court by saying there was an existing sovereignty dispute between the UK and Mauritius over the Chagos Islands, which meant it did not need to negotiate with Mauritius. But by eight votes to one, the maritime court, in a one-hour judgment, ruled in favour of Mauritius, rejecting all the jurisdictional objections the Maldives had raised.
The end of UK administration has no implications for the US military base at Diego Garcia, which Mauritius is committed to maintaining.
0コメント