But I figured that someone must be showing up for work every day at the State Department, whether Condi bothers to or not. And after a bit of a search I did in fact find a whole rumor quelling page on their site that explained how it was absolutely not true that members of the Bush family were secret Paraguayan land barons.
But the very same page also dispelled another rumor about Paraguay, one that I became intrigued by, that the US military had some secret major involvement in a remote airfield there. The State Department explained in substantial detail just exactly why the airfield was of no interest and no use to the US military, citing specifics about the airport itself, right down to the dimensions of the runway.
In fact, those dimensions were the critical factor in the State Department's proof that the airfield was useless to the US. And since they'd gone to the trouble to cite verifiable facts (for once) I figured the least I could do was check up on them and make doubly sure they had them all correct. We sure wouldn't want our State Department providing our citizenry with information that was less than accurate. That might damage their credibility. "Trust but verify," is how one old fella once put it.
With the help of "The Google" Earth and some other on-line research I came up with the following comments and comparisons between the facts as presented by our State Department and the facts as gleaned from "The Google:"
The following bold text is taken from: http://usinfo.state.gov/...
All graphics have been added by me. The aerial views are courtesy of Google Earth. My comments are in plain text. I have left one quote and a couple of pics unreferenced since they came from a tourist who passed through the region and I would prefer to maintain his privacy. His small comments serve only as fill-in info and do not affect the main points of the diary in any way. His photos speak for themselves.
The airport under discussion is located at:
Latitude/Longitude -22.044986 -60.621694
or 22° 02' 41.95" S
60° 37' 18.10" W
Check it out. Open a separate Google Maps or Google Earth window, C&P the coordinates and look around as you read. Be sure to click on "Satellite" view. Map view's got nothin' there.
" * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * "
(Whenever I read this State Department page I always hear the words spoken in that petulant pseudo authoritative voice of Condi's. It's really quite annoying.)
Mariscal Estigarribia Airport Built by Paraguayans, not Americans
The "U.S. base" allegations usually cite the Dr. Luis Maria Argana International Airport in Mariscal Estigarribia, Paraguay, as the facility around which U.S. plans allegedly center. The claims are that Americans constructed the airport, and built a long runway in order to facilitate U.S. military flights. Both claims are false.
In September 2005, Colonel Elio Antonio Flores, the spokesman for the Paraguayan military, stated that Paraguayan military engineers constructed the airport between 1977 and 1986, not the United States.
You mean the US didn't actually send down all the bags of cement, the workers and the trucks and the runway making equipment by ship, then drive it in a big long convoy all the way inland to reach Paraguay? Shocking!
So, we didn't build it. OK. That leads one to ask then, who paid to have it built, and who would allow it to then go essentially unused? Especially since it was built at a time when the Paraguayan government was too poor to contribute any money whatsoever toward the Itaipú Dam on the Río Paraná, the giant Hydroelectric project which now provides them with much of their nation's electricity. If they couldn't kick in a few bucks toward the dam, what in the world were they doing pouring millions into a slab of concrete out in the middle of nowhere?
The Mariscal Estigarribia airport was constructed at a time when the Paraguayan government envisioned developing a free-trade zone in its northern Chaco region to help develop the area.
Which I guess is why, unlike other purely civilian airports in Paraguay, this particular airport has a several mile long perimeter security road constructed along the inside of its boundary fence, and guardhouses at both the entrance to the airport proper and at the two entrances out on the highway. Hmmmm.
Main gate
North gate
This from a tourist's trip report:
The entrance to Mariscal Estigarribia is an Army Checkpoint. You need valid travel papers!
You can fly to Mariscal Estigarriba, but it's not any airline's destination. I still don't know what the status of the field is. In 1999 I discovered an open hangar being build, but empty.
There is a small station building (4 rooms) with fresh water and a radio to guide the occasonal visiting plane. One soldier at the gate.
This place is quite the location for a Free Trade Zone. A region of Paraguay known locally as "The Green Hell," where the temperature can reach 122 degrees F. And it has everything you'd want in a FTZ, everything that is but people, and water, and the area electrical grid runs on a wood burning power plant!
This comment, from a member of the small Mennonite Community nearby (30 miles away, a community that thinks of itself as another country,) sums up the water situation quite simply:
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/...
We work as hard as we can with the few liters of water we have.
Yep, a prime location for a FTZ, alright, if ya happen to like yer FTZ's real quiet and on the outskirts of Death Valley.
But that's not enough proof that the airport wasn't really meant to be what they said it was meant to be. It just makes that claim seem awfully suspect, or the whole project very stupid. But dictatorships can indeed be stupid, and a Rightwing dictatorship is what Paraguay had at the time the airport was built. So we'll just keep this info in mind and move on.
The primary cargo aircraft of that era, the DC-8 and Boeing 707, needed very long runways to take off when fully loaded.
Our first fact check. These folks seem to know a lot about air cargo:
http://www.aircharterserviceusa.com/...
Boeing B707 Runway requirement 6955 ft.
http://www.aircharterserviceusa.com/...
Douglas DC8 Runway requirement 6700 ft.
The runway at Mariscal Estigarribiais is 3,500 meters long, well over 11,000 ft. Hmmmmmm.
Airport Unsuitable for Most U.S. Military Aircraft
The June 13, 2005, Clarin article claimed that American "B-52 airplanes" could be used at Mariscal Estigarribia. In reality, the runways are too narrow for them. B-52s typically need a runway width of 150 feet (46 meters) to land and re-engined models will require a runway width of 175 feet (53 meters), according to a June 2004 report (page 28) of the U.S. Defense Science Board Task Force on B-52 Re-Engining. However, the runways at Mariscal Estigarribia are only 131 feet (40 meters) wide.
As you can see, they really did their homework, right down to the specific report and the very page. Even linked to it. Musta been a whole lot of research involved. Or as those of us who define our work by the coffee cup would say, a two pot job. Unfortunately, the value of their work all hinged on one small yet pertinent fact, the actual width of the runway. And they lied about it. A pity, really. And after all that work, too:
Here we have the runway at Mariscal Estigarribia, a runway that's 60 meters wide, very nearly 200 feet, (twelve 5 meter wide slabs,) not 131 feet/40 meters. But it's not listed as such in any of the public airport documentation I've been able to find, none of it.
Wouldn't someone in the Paraguayan military construction engineers have noticed that they spent a few extra years building a runway 50% wider than they thought they were building? And surely, once that discrepancy was noticed wouldn't all of the incorrect civilian aviation info on the runway width be corrected, or at least some of it corrected? After all, runway length and width are kinda important info to pilots. And they have had 20 years to correct that error. I'd think they'd be proud of having such a grand runway, but you'd almost think someone was trying to hide the information, for one reason or another.
The airport’s numerous deficiencies also make it impractical to use. It has no published approach, no navigational aids,
Ah, more facts to check. These folks sure seem to know an awful lot about this unused airport and what it doesn't have. They musta used some double super-secret database to verify all that stuff. I just used "the Google," so maybe they know something I don't:
Like about this nice big expensive radar dish (see shadow) and building that's just to the west of the runway.
And this NDB locater antenna east of the runway, the beacon that pilots use to guide them to airports. Note the worn path leading to the transmitter shed at the antenna site, indicating ongoing maintenance. This is almost certainly the "radio" the tourist mentioned earlier in his comments.
http://worldaerodata.com/...
And here's a doc listing the NDB locater radio freq of 381 kHz. So not only doesn't it exist, but it's transmitting on 381 kHz! That's impressive!
no lighting,
Another fact to check.
http://worldaerodata.com/...
Got lights. This is too easy.
its refueling facilities are only designed for small aircraft such as Cessnas,
What have we here? Looks like a fuel tank, a big one.(Calculated tank capacity aprox. 50,000 gallons.) For all those little lost Cessnas; they get awful thirsty. Emergency landing is hard work!
Note the NDB freq doc above lists the fuels available, including jet fuel for those little Cessnas.
and the condition of the runway is listed as "poor" in the U.S. Air Mobility Command Airfield Suitability Report.
An "Airfield Suitability Report" from the "U.S. Air Mobility Command." Sounds impressive. Bet they really know their stuff. How odd that they didn't use the world standard PCN rating system, instead using the meaningless word "poor" to characterize the runway condition. (After all, what's "poor" to a biz jet is "heaven" to a big bush plane.) Makes 'em sound like they have no idea what they're talking about and just made something up.
Of course, any discussion of runway condition is all quite amusing when one stops to consider that the US military has landed a giant C-5B on a runway of raw ice in Antarctica. These are, after all, military aircraft we're talking about, not pampered little biz jets.
This illustrates what I'm talkin' about:
Dirt runway testing increases C-17 safety, agility
<snip>
A C-17 Globemaster III takes off from Fort Hunter Liggett, Calif., Sept. 23, 2006, while performing take-off and landing testing on semi-prepared runways. The first of four test phases was conducted at Fort Hunter Liggett to validate the ability of the aircraft to bring a large force into a wet or dry dirt airfield without making runway condition corrections. (Photo by Bobbi Zapka)
A C-17 landing in the dirt! I guess we could call the condition of the runway "poor."
I wonder what else the "Airfield Suitability Report" has to say about the airport? Its runway width perhaps? Its parking apron? It really should have something to say about those in an "airfield suitability report." But there's no link to this report, no page reference this time. And when I finally found it on-line it seems that no civilian access to it is allowed. Guess we'll have to take their word for these things. Unless we turn to "the Google" again.
Runway condition report
In addition, there is not enough room on the small parking apron to have sufficient clearance from the runway for another aircraft to land.
What have we here? More than 700 feet of clearance! Yes, that's a B-52 image, to scale, C&P'd all the way from Minot, ND. I thought of doing a cutout, adding a second B-52, a B-1, some F-15's and a football field to show that there's still room to land just about anything, but I'm too lazy. You can do it though. I don't mind. :)
Because of these limiting factors, the government of Paraguay restricts the airfield to emergency use only.
Emergency use only...emergency use only.
It says "Landing fees and diplomatic clearance may be required."(For those emergency landings at a civilian airport.) One can only shrug.
(Hanger, built by the Paraguayans in 1999 as a convenience for those emergency diplomatic landings, no doubt.)
So, the desperately poor Paraguayans spent several years having their military construction engineers build a huge runway in a hot, dry, unpopulated region of the country, a runway that was accidentally big enough for the largest of American military aircraft. And they've forgotten to mention that interesting fact to anyone for the last 20 years.
Nor did they bother to build a single hanger for their airport for over a decade after the runway was finished, even though they built what appears to be a substantial (if seldom used) military base next to the airport that they say was really intended to be part of a Free Trade Zone. Where's my hip-boots? It sure is gettin' deep around here.
Much has been made of what is often described as the unusually long (3,500 meters) runways at the Mariscal Estigarribia airport. Proponents of the "U.S. base" theory claim that such long runways could only be intended for the use of American military aircraft. In fact, the length of the Mariscal Estigarribia runways is not unusual for an international airport. Two other airports in Paraguay have runways of similar length: Guarani International Airport (3,400 meters) and Silvio Pettirossi International Airport (3,353 meters). Neighboring Bolivia has three airports with runways that equal or exceed the length of those at the Mariscal Estigarribia airport.
There's one big difference that comes readily to mind. Those other airports are actually USED. This one took 9 long years and many millions of dollars to build, and if we can believe the Condi Rice State Department, it simply isn't used.
Leila Rachid, Paraguay’s minister of foreign relations, told the newspaper Ultima Hora that the airport belongs to Paraguay and it will not be used by the United States. "The airport which we have in Marshal Estigarribia dates back many years," said Minister Rachid, "and it was not constructed in order to perform military exercises [with the United States], nor to install a base."
Which is why South America's only unused civilian airport large enough to land B-52's was built with two adjacent exercise tracks and a basketball court!
And more guard posts
And tourist pics captioned: "Officer's House Beside Samu'u Tree."
Yep, civilian all right.
So here's the bottom line. A very poor country built an enormous unused concrete runway in the middle of nowhere for planes they don't have, and right beside it built what appears to be a rather large military base that they seldom if ever use. And our State Department lies to us about every aspect of the place, even though the proof of their lying is just a mouse click or 2 away. Do they like to insult our intelligence? Do they just not care? You decide.
My take on it, based on the evidence you see here, is that someone other than the Paraguayans, someone with very deep pockets, wanted a large enough air base in central South America that it could be used as a staging area for major intervention anywhere in the region, just in case.
Not a full time base, no, not even a good maintenance facility, no giant hangers, no equipment, just a runway, radar and some fuel handy. With a place to make plans and to temporarily house troops. Just the basics, a veritable concrete aircraft carrier in the heart of South America with all the essentials in place, one so big that it could easily be used by large cargo planes, troop planes and of course, bombers, whatever the military had. An expensive facility in the middle of nowhere that goes unused because its has been unneeded, so far. An airbase that has become something of a liability because it is no longer secret, but sitting there for all to see under the watchful eye of "the Google."
I have no proof of who initially paid for it, but you've seen proof enough right here of who's still lying about it.
That's my take on it. What's yours?
Conclusion
This is the funniest part of the whole damn thing. The righteous indignation drips from every word.
Publicly available information, statements by both Paraguayan and U.S. government officials, and other readily available evidence clearly show that allegations that the United States plans to establish a military base in Paraguay are false. There is no such U.S. plan or intention.
Unfortunately, factually inaccurate information about Paraguayan-U.S. military exercises, combined with unsupported conspiracy theories, have been embellished and repeated in various media and Internet outlets since June 2005. These false claims have also been cited by persons and groups opposed to Paraguayan-U.S. military cooperation and U.S. engagement in South America.
I sincerely hope I have helped put somebodies false claims to rest.
Note: I didn't even bother to look into the denial that the Bush family is buying tens of thousands of acres of land in Paraguay. I'll let someone else work on that one. Exposing so many lies all at once makes me tired.
So there ya have it. Who ya gonna believe, Condi Rice's personal State Department, or "The Google" and yer lyin' eyes?
"The Google" can be a heck of a handy lie detector. Use it. I do.
All of the State Department's lying aside, here's what I figure is going on down there these days. These folks seem to have it right. They at least knew how wide the runway was. And I didn't even find their site until just before I was ready to post this diary. It was buried beneath several Google search screens full of wild conspiracy theories. It just points out how much info there is in the "tubes," and how much of it we miss. Keep looking. It's always satisfying to call a liar a liar, and prove it.
