19373: (Chamberlain) US mulls sending three warships, Marines to Haiti (later story) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Will Dunham

     WASHINGTON, Feb 27 (Reuters) - The United States is considering
sending three warships with about 2,000 U.S. Marines, headed by the
helicopter carrier USS Saipan, to rebellion-torn Haiti as the Pentagon
weighs options to address the crisis, defense officials said on Friday.
     The officials said no deployment orders had been issued to send the
Amphibious Ready Group led by the Saipan from Norfolk, Virginia, to the
impoverished Caribbean nation where President Jean-Bertrand Aristide faces
an armed revolt. But they called that one of the options being considered.
     "They are at a state of readiness that allows them to be able to
deploy, if called upon, within a matter of days," said Navy Lt. Jim Hoeft,
a spokesman for the Fleet Forces Command, referring to the Saipan group.
     A Marine Corps official said the 2,200-strong 24th Marine
Expeditionary Unit from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, was "prepared to
deploy" if such an order came.
     The Saipan is an amphibious assault ship that carries helicopters and
AV-8B Harrier attack jets. The other two ships are the dock-landing ship
USS Oak Hill and the amphibious transport dock USS Trenton, the officials
said.
     If ordered to sail, it would take about two days for those ships to
reach Haiti, one official said.
     "If the president (George W. Bush) decides to take action, the Navy
needs to be ready," said another Navy official, speaking on condition of
anonymity.
     Defense officials identified a range of options being explored.
     One possibility was to send the three ships and Marines to the Haitian
coast and then put Marines on the ground in Haiti to protect Americans and
U.S. facilities, or potentially to serve as a peacekeeping force depending
on political developments, officials said. Officials said far fewer than
2,000 Marines -- if any -- might be put ashore.
     Another option was to send ships without large numbers of Marines
merely for maritime interdiction or to support U.S. Coast Guard ships
trying to prevent a mass exodus of Haitian refugees to the United States,
officials said. A third option was to take no further military action,
officials added.
     A senior State Department official downplayed the chances of an
immediate deployment of ships and Marines, saying, "It does not make sense
at this point for a variety of reasons," which the official did not
specify.
     The Miami-based U.S. Southern Command last week sent a four-member
security assessment team to examine the safety of the U.S. Embassy in
Haiti. On Monday, Southern Command sent about 50 Marines to Haiti to
protect the embassy in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
     The rebels edged closer to the capital while supporters of Aristide
mounted defenses on Friday.
     The United States sent 20,000 troops to Haiti in 1994 to restore
Aristide to power after a coup.
     Pentagon officials have not been enthusiastic about a military mission
in Haiti. The U.S. military is stretched thin by operations in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
     The Bush administration came under pressure from some congressional
Democrats to take quick military action. "U.S. leadership means deploying a
security force -- preferably multilaterally -- before it is too late. That
means within the next 24 to 48 hours," said Sen. Christopher Dodd of
Connecticut.
     Florida Republican Rep. Mark Foley urged the United Nations to "take
immediate action to stop the bloodshed in Haiti" by sending an
international force to halt the violence and prevent a mass exodus of
Haitians to Florida's shores.
     The Pentagon last summer sent a similar three-ship group with about
2,000 Marines to the coast of Liberia amid political turmoil in the West
African country. Pariah leader Charles Taylor flew into exile in August and
most of the Marines never set foot on land.