19324: (Chamberlain) U.S. considers sending warships, Marines to Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     WASHINGTON, Feb 27 (Reuters) - The United States is considering
sending a three-ship group carrying U.S. Marines, headed by the helicopter
carrier USS Saipan, to Haiti as the Pentagon weighs a range of options for
addressing the crisis, defense officials said on Friday.
     The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said no deployment
orders had been issued to send the Saipan group to Haiti from Norfolk,
Virginia, but called that one of the options currently under review. It
would take about two days for those ships to reach Haiti, one official
said.
     The other ships in the Amphibious Ready Group, which could carry about
2,000 Marines, are the USS Oak Hill and the USS Trenton, the officials
said. The Saipan is an amphibious assault ship that carries helicopters and
AV-8B Harrier attack jets.
     "They haven't received any orders and nobody has told them to go
anywhere," one defense official said.
     The U.S. Southern Command last week sent a four-member security
assessment team to examine the safety of the U.S. Embassy, and on Monday
sent about 50 Marines to Haiti to protect the Embassy and other U.S.
facilities in the capital Port-au-Prince amid an armed revolt against
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.