ALERT: USAF Buildup at Diego Garcia

Posted: 2nd April 2025

European Nuclear Disarmament Information | Published by the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation

April 2025

ALERT: USAF Buildup at Diego Garcia

Several sources are reporting a significant buildup of USAF aircraft at Diego Garcia. As the ‘Defence One’ website indicates: “Diego Garcia has long played a crucial role in U.S. strategic bomber operations, having hosted B-52 and B-1 missions during the Gulf War, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Its remote location and long runway make it a key forward operating base for long-range operations, especially when regional basing options are constrained by diplomatic or security concerns.” In a post on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter), the account @ianellisjones, shared the following graphic, indicating the deployment of six B2 Stealth ‘Spirit Bombers’ and other aircraft [read post here]:

In addition to the increased deployments at Diego Garcia, a second US Navy ‘Carrier Strike Group’ – the Carl Vinson – is en route to the Middle East where it will join the Harry Truman CSG which has taken part the recent significant attacks on Yemen. 

The Middle East Eye website states that Diego Garica is the base “the US may use if it decides to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities is a speck of an island in the Indian Ocean that few associate with the Middle East but that the US has used for decades to project military power in the region” and reports the following statement from US President, Donald Trump: “My big preference – and I don’t say this through strength or weakness – my big preference is, we work it out with Iran. But if we don’t work it out, bad, bad things are going to happen to Iran.” The same story records the response from Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, to calls for a resumption of direct nuclear talks with the US: Iran is “firm on not engaging in direct negotiations under maximum pressure and military threats”. The US has chosen to increase pressure and raise the military threat.

After international court rulings and a public campaign for justice, the British Government finally agreed to return the Chagos Islands (which Britain calls the ‘British Indian Ocean Territory’), of which Diego Garcia is part, to Mauritius. However, part of the deal – which has not yet been finalised and is mired in controversy in several directions – allows for an initial ‘99-year lease’ of the airbase. The United States agreed a 50-year lease (with the right to extend for a further 20 years) with the British government in 1966. The exact terms of this deal, which expires in 2036, are secret. 

There is every indication that the United States intends to attack Iran. There is every indication that – as in the recent past – Diego Garcia will be the launch site for any such attack. It is clear that the nuclear status of Iran (which is not a nuclear power) will be used as a pretext for any such attack. To summarise: two nuclear-armed NATO member states, both parties to the NPT, look to be colluding to prepare an attack on a non-nuclear armed state, also a party to the NPT. Meanwhile, nuclear-armed Israel – which is not a party to the NPT and which refuses to confirm its nuclear status – is carrying out a genocide on Palestine. The difference? The US and UK are “allies” of Israel. 

This nuclear hypocrisy and gross double-standards should be exposed. So should the collusion, secrecy and realities of the ‘special relationship’ between the US and Britain on Diego Garcia and elsewhere. The anti-nuclear, peace and anti-war movements must urgently demand ‘Don’t Attack Iran’. 

Appeal for Peace and Disarmament

The Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation is pleased to support the ‘Appeal for Peace and Disarmament’ and urges others to sign and share. Click HERE for more information and to sign.

Alarmed by statements by European leaders gratuitously portraying Russia as a threat to all of Europe if it is not stopped in Ukraine, professionals from several countries have drafted a manifesto in favour of diplomatic solutions, peace and disarmament.
While we unequivocally condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we believe that these statements, including those of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, are aimed solely at ‘manufacturing consent’ among citizens around rearmament.
The accelerated rearmament they propose will certainly have a very negative impact on public services, will erode the welfare state, will increase public debt and, above all, in the absence of arms control agreements, will make war with an atomic power like Russia more likely.
We ask for your signature to tell our governments to work for peace and not for arms companies.

Reason

Alarmed by the Orwellian language that has taken hold in European political discourse—where war is seen as the path to peace, while peace is said to lead only to more war—we call for sanity.
We, the European citizens, have become involuntary passengers on a train driven by leaders who, under the declared pretext of “making Russia bleed,” choose to ignore the disastrous consequences of a conflict in which we will all be losers.
On the eve of past European conflicts, such as World War I, courageous intellectuals from the warring nations—including Jean Jaurès, Romain Rolland, Bertha von Suttner, and Bertrand Russell—publicly spoke out for peace, though sadly, their voices were not heeded.
Today, the silence of intellectuals across all countries is deafening. Like the rest of European citizens, they seem worryingly anesthetized. And when someone dares to raise their voice in favour of diplomacy, they are immediately slandered as a “puppet of Putin.”
We unequivocally condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a violation of international law. However, we also recognize that this tragedy is partly a consequence of the persistence of a military organization, NATO, labelled as “defensive,” which, far from dissolving after the fall of the communist bloc, continued expanding right up to Russia’s borders—despite high-level promises made to Russia at the time.
The war in Ukraine has now lasted three years. The casualties on both sides far exceed one million, including the dead, wounded and permanently maimed, though neither country provides official figures.
On top of that, millions of Ukrainians have fled the country—some to Western Europe, others to Russia—all seeking to escape the violence. A true human disaster.
Donald Trump’s United States, more focused on what it perceives as China’s growing power and the situation in the Middle East, seems determined to exploit Ukraine while also indebting Europe, further weakening its social welfare systems for the benefit of the U.S. military industry.
And our governments, refusing to accept that, given the imbalance of forces, the war is lost, continue to support the Ukrainian president by promising more weapons and money so that the Ukrainian army can fight to the last man or woman.
All of this while they push for the rapid militarization of our nations under the spectre of an impending conflict with Russia.
Have our leaders considered that, since the arms limitation agreements signed during the Cold War—so crucial in maintaining peace—no longer exist, a military confrontation with a nuclear power like Russia could lead to a third, and this time final, world war?
We call on politicians not to forget the two great wars that bloodied the continent in the last century. Abandoning George Orwell’s newspeak, they must work actively in favour of diplomatic solutions.
It is the only way to prevent future massacres that devastate nations for the mere profit of the powerful arms industry.

Scientists Against Rearmament – A manifesto

The Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation is pleased to endorse ‘Scientists Against Rearmament – A manifesto’. Authored by Carlo Rovelli and Flavio Del Santo, the manifesto identifies the disastrous drive towards militarisation in Europe and calls for a different approach, one inspired by the Russell-Einstein Manifesto of 1955 which urged scientists across the Cold War divide to ‘remember your humanity, and forget the rest.’ Click HERE to endorse the manifesto.

END Info 41 | DOWNLOAD HERE | CLICK HERE TO ENDORSE THE MANIFESTO

‘Stop ReArm Europe’

Call to Action

Let’s organize a European movement against ReArm Europe! Join us!

“We oppose the EU’s plans to spend an extra €800 billion on arms. This will be €800 billion stolen. Stolen from social services, health, education, labour, peace building, international cooperation, from a just transition and climate justice. It will only benefit arms manufacturers in Europe, in the USA and elsewhere.

It will make war more likely, and the future less safe for everyone! It will generate more debt, more austerity, more borders. It will deepen racism. It will fuel climate change. We do not need more weapons; we do not need to prepare for more wars. What we need is a totally different plan: real, social, ecological and common security for Europe and for the world.”

Stand up against war. Stop ReArm Europe. 

Click HERE for more information.

The Spokesman 159: Genocidal Intent | BUY HERE

£7.00 | 136 pages | A5 format | ISBN 978 0 85124 9414

Edited by Tony Simpson & Tom Unterrainer

Editorials: Genocidal Intent Tom Unterrainer, Gaza’s Cemeteries Tony Simpson

Genocide as colonial erasure Francesca Albanese

In Defence of the Concept of Genocide Martin Shaw

Corporate Complicity in Israel’s Occupation Richard Hermer & Michael Mansfield

Addendum to Milton’s Paradise Lost Sylvia Riley

Remember Our Humanity Jørgen Watne Frydness

Eyewitness Testimonies Terumi Tanaka

Journalism is not a crime Julian Assange

Towards a World Voice Diplomacy John Gittings

Bertrand Russell on Man, the Future and Peace Johan Galtung

Griff and Trevor Richard Eyre

Peacemongering Ross Bradshaw

Russell Vietnam McCartney Tony Simpson

fall, v. Sarah Jackson

Promethean Damage Tom Unterrainer

Reviews Michael Ward, Glyn Ford, Barry Baldwin, Nigel Potter, Stephen Winfield, Tony Simpson

The Reader Ben Thompson