Leaders offer conflicting reports on timeline for move to Guam

[unhappycamper]

Leaders offer conflicting reports on timeline for move to Guam
By David Allen, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Sunday, February 8, 2009

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — More officials are expressing concern that the planned move of some 8,000 Marines and their families from Okinawa to Guam could be delayed.

While Japanese and Pentagon officials are standing by the timetable in a bilateral agreement signed in May 2006 that the move will be completed in 2014, the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific and a Guam senator say it may take a decade or more to accomplish.

One issue is a key provision of the agreement — a new Marine air facility to be built in rural northeast Okinawa on Camp Schwab to replace Marine Corps Air Station Futenma.

Okinawa officials want the plan revised to move runways for the new airport offshore. Their opposition has delayed the project.

Another sticking point is that Japanese taxpayers want assurances that money their country spends on the Guam end of the project will help Japan’s flagging economy.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=60547