US to send ‘mothership’ to Middle East
Press TV – January 28, 2012
The US military plans to deploy a large floating base, unofficially dubbed the “mothership,” for commando teams to the Middle East amid recent developments in the region.
The Navy is converting an aging warship it had planned to decommission into a makeshift staging base for the commandos in response to requests from the US Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, The Washington Post reported on Saturday.
The floating base could accommodate smaller high-speed boats and helicopters commonly used by the United States Navy’s Sea, Air, and Land Teams, commonly known as Navy SEALs.
Lieutenant Commander Mike Kafka, a spokesman for the Navy’s Fleet Forces Command, declined to elaborate on the floating base’s purpose or to say where exactly it will be deployed in the Middle East.
There are indications that the Pentagon will send the vessel to the region by early summer, and Navy documents show that it could be headed to the Persian Gulf.
The deployment of the floating base to the Middle East marks a return to maritime missions for SEAL teams, who have been engaged in ground operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for the past decade.
The US Navy had earlier planned to retire the amphibious assault ship USS Ponce and decommission it in March 2012 after 41 years of service. The warship was sent to the Mediterranean Sea last year to provide military support to NATO air strikes on Libya.
The USS Ponce will be instead transformed into what the US military calls an Afloat Forward Staging Base.
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January 28, 2012 - Posted by aletho | Militarism, Timeless or most popular | Middle East, Navy, Persian Gulf, United States Navy SEALs, USS Ponce
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Latest Comments

The sole purpose is for aggression. Not defensive, but attack. Therefore, it is a pirate ship, packed with brainwashed trigger-happy psychopaths looking for kicks and glory in a criminal and self-destructive way, rather they honestly realize it or not.
I doubt that legally, it would be unlawful for Iran to sink the USS Ponce in the straits of Hormuz. After-all, the straits are in within Iranian waterways as I understand it, and Iran has the right of self-defense against a threatening, menacing, belligerent pack of imperialist war criminals – US, NATO & Israel.
Honestly, troops should refuse to deploy. There is no valid excuse to take these wantonly belligerent acts of aggression. Other than it is part of the larger Geo-political strategy off world domination by force of arms.
The fraudulent pretext of WMDs is not enough, so you can expect an incident, real or imagined; but instigated nonetheless by the aggressor powers that are the criminals and whatever acts of reprisal taken out on them, it will be legitimate by any comparison. Including sinking the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier.
Iraq has every right to strike back when possible too, as does any wronged nation. H ad 9/11 been done by Yugoslavia, it would have been arguably a justified act of reprisal for the US had done to Yugoslavia.
The ruling criminal elite know this and that is why, in part, for all the TSA shit, and other totalitarian measures. They fear acts of reprisal, which are recognized in the Laws of Land Warfare in stated in Army Field Manual (FM 27-10, chapter 8, section 497) : http://ac-support.europe.umuc.edu/~nstanton/Ch8.htm
Therefore, it is an UNLAWFUL ORDER to enter the Persian Gulf, step one foot into Iranian territory, or flyover without prior permission. Obama should be impeached constitutionally speaking!
Not given credibility or obeyed!
Obama only deserved to be booed vociferously during the State of the Union address. Nothing but complicity, from the Complicit Congress, Court, and mass media disinformation complex!