Below is a time line of reports of military build-up and actions in the middle east in preparation for the Iraq War that I was able to glean from the internet during a week in June, 2005. Most of this is not on other time lines. Here it is, for what it's worth.
Timeline of the 2003 Invasion of Iraq: Build-Up of Forces and Materiel in Persian Gulf and `Spikes' of Bombing in Northern and Southern `No-Fly Zones', in Preparaton for 2003 Invasion of Iraq, Prior to Authorization by Congress
Timeline of the 2003 Invasion of Iraq: Build-Up of Forces and Materiel in Persian Gulf and `Spikes' of Bombing in Northern and Southern `No-Fly Zones', in Preparaton for 2003 Invasion of Iraq, Prior to Authorization by Congress
January 2002
Global Security.org reports: "In early January 2002, it was learned that senior U.S. military planners were to deploy to camp As Sayliyah, to staff the Headquarters in preparation with a war with Iraq."
Contract awards are tentatively scheduled for January 24, 2002 for an Operations and Maintenance contract for As-Sayliyah with the Army Corps of Engineers, to prepare for `large permanent party presence."
http://www.globalsecurity.org/...
February 2002
On a visit to CENTCOM headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base, Senator Bob Graham (D-FL) chair of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, is told by General Tommy Franks, "Senator, we are not engaged in a war in Afghanistan. Military and intelligence personnel are being redeployed to prepare for an action in Iraq[.] The Predators are being relocated. What we are doing is a manhunt....We're better at being a meat ax than finding a needle in a haystack. That's not our mission, and that's not what we are trained or prepared to do." (Intelligence Matters, Bob Graham, p.125)
February 5, 2002
Israeli newspaper Yediot quotes Israeli military sources as claiming that U.S. plans to attack Iraq in May. The Pentagon is given the go-ahead to draw up attack plans in the second phase of the war against terror. Contacts are being made inside Iraq with a view to setting up a new government after Saddam is overthrown.
http://english.pravda.ru/...
March 2, 2002
"A four-man CIA team, led by the agency's chief officer in Istanbul contacted local politicians in Iraqi Kurdistan three weeks ago and approached them as to their needs in the event of an uprising."
Iraqi newspaper Al-Hayat claims a seven-man CIA team is in northern Iraq. Members of congress support a plan in which U.S. aircraft would bomb Iraqi communications centers (which are already in progress), along with Republican Guard centers and clusters of Iraqi military vehicles.
http://english.pravda.ru/...
March 15, 2002
Aircraft fuel orders increase considerably. 150,000 barrels are ordered for bases at Jacobad in Pakistan, and Bagram and Kandahar in Afghanistan. 1.2 million barrels are ordered for Star Jebel base in U.A.E.
http://english.pravda.ru/...
March 27, 2002
A senior executive of a Saudi contracting firm tells the Guardian that several companies had been invited to prepare bids to move computers and electronic equipment from the hi-tech command centre at Prince Sultan air force base.
Second week of March, U.S. military trucks are seen leaving al Kharj near Riyadh and arriving at the Qatar border.
A U.S. contractor prepares a bid to install telephone switchboards at al Udeid air base in Qatar.
Special Forces set up base in Oman and move into Kurdish northern Iraq
Unconfirmed reports of a build-up in Kuwait of 25,000 to 35,000 troops.
http://www.why-war.com/...
March 29, 2002
Guardian newspaper reports that U.S. air force is prepared to move its leadership from Prince Sultan air force base in Saudi Arabia to Qatar because of the Saudi rejection of a military act against Iraq. Bids are launched with Saudi companies to transport advanced electronic equipment to a base in Qatar.
http://www.arabicnews.com/...
Spring 2002
The White House asks the CIA for "a document that could be used to make the public case for war with Iraq." This document, titled 'Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction Programs' was presented to the Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities before and after the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001 on October 4, 2002. Senator Graham states that this document was provided as a declassified version of a `National Intelligence Estimate' on Iraq which the Joint Inquiry had requested of the CIA in September 2002.
(Intelligence Matters, Bob Graham, p. 181 and note, p. 182)
May 2002
General Tommy Franks briefs the Pentagon and White House on the major outlines of his Iraq war plan. For the first time, President Bush acknowledges being thoroughly involved in the planning.
"I'm involved in the military planning, diplomatic planning, financial planning ... reviewing all the tools at my disposal," the president said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
May 27, 2002
Iraq's Minister for Foreign Affairs complains about U.S. and U.K. aggression in a letter to the U.N. Secretary General: "...in the period from 16April to 16May they carried out 844 armed sorties, 52 from Saudi Arabia, 656 from Kuwait, 136 from Turkey." [in the No-Fly Zones]
http://rawstory.com/...
June 11, 2002
Defense Secretary Rumsfeld media Availability in Qatar
Q. Is it true that you are planning action against Iraq in October?
...........
Rumsfeld.........."We are doing action already."
http://www.dod.mil/...
June to August 2002
Beginning of `spikes' of bombing in the No-Fly Zones in Iraq.
"As the U.S. quietly moved armor to the region in early 2002, along with supplies of ammunition from Qatar in August, the strikes mushroomed." The number of days per month that allied planes attacked installations in Iraq leapt from six to nine between July and August of 2002.
http://rawstory.com/...
June 2002
"US Air Force Lieutenant General T. Michael Moseley, in "a [July 19, 2003,] briefing to military commanders, ... acknowledged that the Air Force launched offensive operations against Iraq in June 2002. Three months before President George W. Bush appeared before the United Nations to present a case for 'disarming' Iraq, five months before the adoption of UN Resolution 1441 threatening 'serious consequences' if Iraq did not cooperate with weapons inspectors, and a full nine months before the war was officially announced, the Bush administration had already ordered combat operations to begin."
"According to Moseley, the Air Force received its orders from the White House to begin the preparations for a war on Iraq in late 2001--following the September 11, 2001 attacks."
http://www.wsws.org/...
June 2002
Kellogg, Brown and Root begins a contract in Kuwait, with 1,800 employees setting up tent cities for tens of thousands of soldiers, including a Subway, Burger King and Baskin Robbins.
http://www.corporatewatch.org/...
July 1, 2002
Arabic News reveals the presence of U.S. military bases in Qatar. Although U.S. officials circulate a media profile of the Al Udeid airbase to journalists accompanying U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's visit to Qatar, saying that the air force base is the only U.S. military base in Qatar, it is revealed that there are two other bases in country: "al-Seleyah camp", used as a warehouse for trucks and military vehicles and ammunition for 5,000 troops; "snoopy', adjoining Doha airport, used as a logistics center through which are shipped food, medicaments and fuel.
http://www.arabicnews.com/...
July 2002
America plans PR blitz on Saddam
THE Bush Administration launches a multimillion-dollar PR blitz against Saddam Hussein, using advertising techniques to persuade crucial target groups that the Iraqi leader must be ousted.
The campaign consists of dossiers of evidence detailing Saddam's breaches of UN resolutions, and will be launched this week at American and foreign audiences, particularly in Arab nations sceptical of US policy in the region.
The campaign, which will initially receive over $200 million (£130 million), will be overseen by the Office of Global Communications, whose existence will not be formally announced until next month.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/...
"Truth From These Podia: Strategic Influence, Perception Management & PSYOP in GW2"
by Col. Sam Gardiner, US. Air Force (Ret.)
On p.52 Col. Gardiner writes that the `Coalition Information Center' (part of the Office of Global Communications in the White House, created by Karen Hughes) was spun off in July, 2002, although the Executive Order authorizing its creation was not issued until January, 2003.
http://www.prwatch.org/...
The Washington Post publishes an article that may consist of propaganda created by the `Coalition Information Center'. `Bush to Create Formal Office To Shape U.S. Image Abroad', July 30, 2002 The article implies that the purpose of the OGC is to promote a positive image of the US abroad. In fact the true purpose was to produce propaganda to be used in the US to create a casus belli for the Iraq war. This was accomplished by `leaking' fabricated `intelligence' to reporters of the main stream media, who then wrote articles about the `threat' which Saddam Hussein's Iraq posed to the U.S.
July 10, 2002
President Bush and his advisors review plans for a massive, full-scale military conquest of Iraq, requiring five ground force divisions numbering 200,000, two marine corps divisions, and 15 wings of U.S. fighters and bombers.
Advance elements of five American divisions are already in Kuwait searching for sites to quarter U.S. troops and set up advanced communications and logistics networks.
Other preparatory deployment moves are taking place all over the map. The 101st Airborne Division, which will be used against Iraq, is being quietly withdrawn from Afghanistan. Turning day-to-day command of Afghanistan operations over to the 18th Airborne Corps, under Lt. Gen. Daniel McNeill, leaves Franks and the Central Command free to focus on planning the attack on Iraq.
The pace of air operations in Afghanistan declines to 50 per day, "leaving plenty of assets free to topple Hussein..."
The battle plan is outlined in a UPI article, `U.S. Plans Massive Invasion of Iraq' by Richard Sale http://www.upi.com/...
July 15, 2002
At a Department of Defense News Briefing, Brig. Gen. Rosa acknowledges a `spike' in operations in the Southern No-Fly-Zone, striking air defense facilities near An Nasiriyah and a mobile radar associated with a mobile surface-to-air missile system near Abu Sukhayn.
http://www.dod.mil/...
July 16, 2002
Pravda reports one killed and seven injured in a U.S. and U.K. attack on civil objects in southern Iraq. http://english.pravda.ru/...
August 4, 2002
U.S. military moves equipment, troops and communications gear into the Gulf region in an indication that President Bush may order an attack to drive Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from power. Military leaders lay the groundwork for an assault sometime next year should Bush order it.
Among the indications of attack preparations:
* Army Gen. Tommy Franks moves the headquarters of the Third Army to Kuwait from Fort McPherson, Ga. The Third Army would form the backbone of any invasion force.
* Army units in Kuwait include so-called quartering parties -- soldiers who plan the logistics required for the arrival of large numbers of other troops.
*The U.S. Maritime Administration, which monitors the fleet of cargo ships that would be needed to ship heavy Army weaponry overseas, is closely examining the condition of that fleet to ensure it is ready for duty.
The Army has about 20,000 soldiers mainly in Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The Navy and Marine Corps maintain headquarters staff in Bahrain with nearly 3,000 personnel, while the Air Force has several air bases in the region including a headquarters in Saudi Arabia. Another 12,000-plus military personnel, including Marines and sailors, are spread across several warships in the Persian Gulf, Red Sea and Indian Ocean.
Barry McCaffrey, a senior Army commander during the 1991 Gulf War, says "there is undoubtedly an operational buildup going on globally to confront terrorism, which will include Iraq." Barry McCaffrey, is a member of the board of directors of Raytheon Aerospace, LLC, and will later serve on the advisory board of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, a Washington lobbying group formed in October 2002 to increase public support for the war in Iraq. http://www.publicintegrity.org/...
http://deseretnews.com/...
September 13, 2002
U.S. military builds up its attack force. Heavy equipment is pre-positioned. 30,000 troops and 400 warplanes are in the Gulf.
The U.S. air force contacts th Washington Kurdish Institute for a `crash course' in Kurdish. Navy SEALs set up headquarters in Bahrain. Other units are in Kuwait, Qatar and Oman. There are enough tanks, armored cars and munitions in place in Qatar and Kuwait for three heavy mechanized brigades.
Nine bases for Iraq attack
The Guardian (September 13, 2002)
# Egypt 1,300 miles from Baghdad: Cairo West air base has often served as a refueling and airlift base. Numerous ports could serve as staging positions for any build-up of operations.
# Jordan 340 miles from Baghdad: Dozens of aircraft based at two airbases, Ruwayshid and Wadi al-Murbah, both close to the Iraqi border. 22nd Marine expeditionary unit in the country for exercises. In the past Jordan has permitted overflying and base requests by US and coalition forces.
# Turkey 570 miles from Baghdad: Several thousand US personnel based at Incirlik Air Base. Around 50 F-15 and F-16 fighters and A-10 tankbusters based here to enforce northern "no-fly zone" in Iraq. Air forces to include Patriot antimissile batteries. UK has four Jaguar ground attack aircraft and VC10 airborne tankers along with around 200 personnel in the country.
# Saudi Arabia 620 miles from Baghdad: Previously the command center directing all air operations in the region including Southern Watch over Iraq and the campaign in Afghanistan. Up to 5000 air force and army personnel have been based here. Up to 80 fighters regularly used to patrol the southern "no-fly zone" in Iraq. Centre coordinates intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance information. UK has six Tornado F3s and 300 RAF personnel. Saudis unhappy to let US use bases here for Iraq invasion.
# Kuwait 360 miles from Baghdad: Around 10,000 US army and 3000 air force personnel based here. Home to a US army command centre. 3rd infantry division at Camp Doha includes M-1A12 battle tanks, M-2A2 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, M-109A6 Paladin artillery, helicopter assault craft. Special forces units known to be on site. Up to 80 fighter planes in the country. UK has eight Tornado GR4s and around 430 personnel at a base.
# Bahrain 620 miles from Baghdad: Headquarters of 5th fleet, with 4,200 personnel based in Manama. The USS George Washington carrier battle group, with attack submarines, cruisers, destroyers and up to 70 fighters is in the region. Air force has bombers, tactical fighters and refueling tankers at Shaikh Isa air base. 2,200 Marines in the region. UK has had small presence with Nimrod reconnaissance aircraft and VC10 tankers here.
# Qatar 700 miles from Baghdad: 600 members of US armed forces central command move here from Florida for an exercise in November but could be more permanent. Al-Udeid air base has the Gulf's longest runway and hangers for 100 aircraft. Currently, it is home to 319th Air Expeditionary Group, fighter-bombers, reconnaissance planes and tankers, with enough equipment on site for one Army brigade and support units.
# Oman 1,150 miles from Baghdad: US is financing the building of new air base at Masnaah. Oman can be used for numerous airlift hubs including Seeb and is believed to be home to B-1 bombers and air refueling planes. British special forces are currently believed to be training in the area and Oman has in the past been hugely cooperative for UK forces training.
# Diego Garcia 3,340 miles from Baghdad: A number of B52 Stratofortress bombers, capable of carrying eight cruise missiles each, are believed to be located on this Indian ocean atoll. In the past, it has played host to B1B bombers and supply ships for both the air force and army. There have been reports that there may be as many as 23 supply ships full of ammunition, fuel and trucks in the area.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
http://www.oceanbooks.com.au/...
October 2002
The Navy provides the most obvious evidence war is imminent. It already has two aircraft carriers within striking distance and up to four others preparing to get underway by December.
Troops are being trained in Texas and California for specific missions, such as building Bailey bridges over the Euphrates River and conducting urban warfare in Baghdad.
In Kuwait, travellers passing through the international airport can see fleets of U.S. Air Force C-5A Galaxies and C-17 jets disgorging cargo almost every night.
Several military fuel bowsers are on the road north and west of Kuwait City near the Iraq border, as are empty army flatbed trucks designed to carry 70-tonne M1-A1 Abrams tanks.
There is enough kit already in Kuwait for another 10,000 armoured troops. The tanks, armoured personnel carriers and artillery for two more brigades are only a week away at a base on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean leased from Britain.
More refuelling tankers and reconnaissance aircraft are kept at bases in Oman and B-52 bombers are based at Diego Garcia.
http://www.endthewar.org/...
On Oct. 11, Reuters reports the Navy's Military Sealift Command is to move large quantities of equipment from the home bases of both the U.S. Army's V Corps and the Marines' I Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF) to the Gulf region. Each headquarters has the ability to plan and conduct combat operations for at least 75,000 personnel. The only remaining levels of command necessary to deploy are the division headquarters and further actual combat brigades. The Navy tendered for the move of 867 pieces of 'hazardous rolling stock' from California, taking 99,000 square feet. (This amount of equipment probably indicates that at least a brigade's worth of material is being moved). Separately, another tender called for the transport of 253 pieces of 'wheeled [and] tracked vehicles and containers', from Belgium and Italy -- both countries where the U.S. Army has pre-positioned equipment -- to be landed at two undisclosed Gulf ports.
Two Army brigade sets are afloat in the Indian Ocean, and up to two more may well be on the way, as well as the Marine brigade inferred above.
With the new tenders, the Navy has now requested six shiploads of military material since August.
KUWAIT
The headquarters of the Army's V Corps from Heidelburg, Germany and the Marines' I Marine Expeditionary Force from Camp Pendleton in California have been ordered to move to Kuwait (V Corps by mid December).
Three aviation battalions, each with at least 25 helicopters, have arrived or about to arrive.
There are numerous combat support and logistics units, including elements of the 513th Military Intelligence Brigade in Kuwait.
U.S. Air Force 332nd Aerospace Expeditionary Group (AEG) is located at Ahmed Al-Jaber air base.
386th Aerospace Expeditionary Group is stationed at Ali Al Salem air base in the south of Kuwait.
3,000 Air Force personnel support Operation Southern Watch over Iraq.
Total number of U.S. military in Kuwait may now be over 10,000.
JORDAN
1,400 U.S. Special Operations troops, almost certainly including Army Special Forces, exercising in the country as part of Exercise Early Victor '02, which begins on Oct.6. Jordanian, Omani, Kuwaiti and British troops are also taking part in the exercise.
Brig. Gen. Gary L. Harrell, commander Special Operations Forces Central Command, last reported in Jordan Oct. 15.
BAHRAIN
The top Marine general for Central Asia and the Persian Gulf, Lt. Gen. Earl B. Hailston, CENTCOM's Marine Component commander (MARCENT) for all Marine forces in the Pacific has his headquarters and staff in Bahrain.
Vice Adm. Timothy J. Keating, CENTCOM's Naval Component Commander (NAVCENT) for all Gulf naval forces has his 5th Fleet headquarters in Manama, Bahrain.
USS Abraham Lincoln carrier battle group is in the area. The group includes the carrier itself, Carrier Air Wing 14, USS Shiloh (CG 67), USS Mobile Bay (CG 53), USS Fletcher (DD 992), USS Paul Hamilton (DDG 60) and USS Reuben James (FFG 57) the attack submarine USS Honolulu (SSN 718), and the USS Camden, a combat support ship.
Four mine countermeasures vessels are assigned to the Fifth Fleet - USS Ardent (MCM 12), USS Cardinal(MHC 60), USS Dextrous (MCM 13), and USS Raven (MHC 61), all based at Bahrain. They form Mine Countermeasures Division 31.
The U.S. Navy has P-3 Orion anti-submarine and surveillance aircraft at Bahrain airport.
QATAR
The 379th Air Expeditionary Wing is located at Al Udeid. Al Udeid will host some 600 personnel from the Central Command headquarters (about a third of the full staff) to exercise a forward headquarters capability in November.
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
The 380th Air Expeditionary Wing and three reconnaissance squadrons are based at Al Dhafra, an hour outside Abu Dhabi.
OMAN
A new airbase has been under construction at Musnana'h, approximately 120 km. west of the capital Muscat, which has a 14,000-foot runway.
The B-1 force in the area, with the 405th Air Expeditionary Wing, is now located in Oman.
TURKEY
Incirlik Air Base near Adana hosts the 39th Wing and 4,000 U.S. military personnel assigned to support 50 F-15, A-10 and F-16 fighters, plus U.S. Navy EA-6 Prowler electronic warfare aircraft.
DIEGO GARCIA
40th Air Expeditionary Wing is located at Diego Garcia with B-52 bombers.
Forward basing preparations are underway for B-2 stealth bombers.
Task Group 57.2 of the 5th Fleet, a U.S. Navy P-3 Orion maritime patrol and surveillance force is present.
There are also pre-positioned strategic sealift ships for the Army and Air Force. Two Army brigade sets plus a Marine brigade set and equipment to support Marine aircraft are located around the atoll.
DJIBOUTI
There are around 800 U.S. troops, including special operations forces at Camp Le Monier in Djibouti.
U.S. Marines are training in the country.
The USS Belleau Wood is also in the region.
http://www.why-war.com/...