April 16, 2024 (EIRNS)—The United States is expanding its secret intelligence-military base in the Negev desert in Israel, now planning to build a barracks to house American military personnel, according to reports by two organizations, The Intercept and Intelligence Online. This base may have played a prominent role in the shooting down of Iranian missiles and drones on April 14.
The codename for this U.S. military base Site 512. Site 512 has radar facilities whose purpose is to allow the United States to protect Israel from missiles fired from Iran. It also uses the latest signals intelligence equipment employed by the Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency. Site 512 appears to involve the United States deeply in Israel’s wars against Palestine and Iran.
The background is reported on the Oct. 27, 2023 by The Intercept, in an article, “U.S. Quietly Expands Secret Military Base in Israel”: “The U.S. Army is quietly moving ahead with construction at Site 512, a classified base perched atop Mt. Har Queren in the Negev, to include what government records describe as a ‘life support facility’: military speak for barracks-like structures for personnel. Though President Joe Biden and the White House insist there are no plans to send U.S. troops to Israel amid its war on Hamas, a secret U.S. military presence in Israel already exists. And the government contracts and budget documents show it is growing.” Though it was “not publicly announced,” The Intercept—by plowing through U.S. budget documents, and looking through Defense Department reports—discovered that on Aug. 2, 2023, the Pentagon had obtained $35.8 million for building the barracks and other support activities at Site 512. The Intercept affirmed that Site 512 was established “to contend with … the danger posed by Iranian mid-range missiles.”
On Nov. 2, 2023, an American publication, Jewish Press reported, in “U.S. Military Establishing a Secret Base on Mt. Qeren South of Gaza”: “On Aug. 2, 2023, the Pentagon snuck [sic] the contract announcement on the Mt. Qeren base third on a list of five Army contracts: Bryan Ashush JV, Colorado Springs, Colorado, was awarded a $35,889,240 firm-fixed-price contract for the construction of a life-support area.” The Site 512 base, as The Intercept had reported, can house as many as 1,000 troops.
