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While government officials withheld speculation on the cause of the blast as fire brigades continued to battle the ensuing fire, union leaders called Friday evening for officials from the Caribbean Petroleum Corp. to explain what caused the powerful explosion and massive fire at the company’s fuel facility near San Juan Bay. Ricardo Santos, an official at UTIER, the largest electrical utility union in Puerto Rico, said information had begun to circulate that work had been done at the facility to try to stop a leak on Thursday afternoon. The blast, which rocked the San Juan metro area, occurred at around...

BP has announced the discovery of yet another huge oil field in the Gulf of Mexico. At the same time, communist Russia is ready to work with Cuba to begin drilling 50 miles offshore Key West in the Gulf, and China is negotiating with Canada for the right to develop the vast oil resources in Alberta. Still, the Obama administration has remained resolute in opposing U.S. offshore drilling, Jerome Corsi's Red Alert reports. Found 250 miles southeast of Houston, the Tiber well was found under 4,132 feet (.8 mile) of water and was drilled to a total depth of 35,055...

There may never be a better time or place to have an encounter with the world's largest fish than right now off the Alabama coast. For the last few weeks, unprecedented numbers of whale sharks have been seen cruising just a few miles off the beach, their broad snouts and tall dorsal fins breaking the surface as they swim lazily along, mouths agape, sucking in plankton.

The remains of Navy Captain Scott Speicher, a pilot who has been missing since being shot down during the 1991 Gulf War, have been positively identified. The Pentagon has released a statement: The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) has positively identified remains recovered in Iraq as those of Captain Michael Scott Speicher. Captain Speicher was shot down flying a combat mission in an F/A-18 Hornet over west-central Iraq on January 17th, 1991 during Operation Desert Storm. "Our thoughts and prayers are with Captain Speicher's family for the ultimate sacrifice he made for his country," said Ray Mabus, Secretary of...

Mexico vowed to keep looking for a mysterious island that could extend its offshore oil claims after university researchers said they couldn't find it. "The island doesn't exist" in the area where it was shown on maps, a National Autonomous University of Mexico study concluded after conducting studies with underwater sensing devices and aerial reconnaissance in the area. "Isla Bermeja" appeared on maps from the 1700s as a speck of land off the northwest coast of the Yucatan peninsula. A group of Mexican legislators hoped the island would help their decade-long effort to fend off what they describe as U.S....

WASHINGTON (CNN) — U.S. military commanders in the Middle East have been sent a highly classified message reminding American forces to maintain discipline and prudence if they encounter any Iranian military or security forces during potential unrest surrounding Iran’s presidential election, CNN has learned. This so far is the only acknowledged U.S. military reaction to the unfolding situation in Iran. Two U.S. defense officials with direct knowledge of the message confirmed the details to CNN but said the issue is so sensitive that they could not divulge whose signature was on the message. It was distributed via secure communications in...

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – French President Nicolas Sarkozy opened his nation's first military base in the Gulf Tuesday, boosting the naval presence along strategic oil routes and in pirate-infested waters off the Somali coast. The new naval base outside the United Arab Emirates' capital, Abu Dhabi, is France's first major foreign military installation since the 1960s and its first outside Africa. It is expected help safeguard vital Persian Gulf shipping lanes. It also puts France in position to play a higher profile role in calming the growing tensions between Iran and Gulf Arab states. Some of the most...

Last week Dennis Ross, the US state department’s envoy to the Gulf, completed his first trip to the region, with stops in Egypt and almost every GCC state. Ross’s portfolio is focused on Iran, and his mission was to reassure America’s Arab allies, especially in the Gulf, that Barack Obama’s plans for dialogue with Iran are not the prelude to a “grand bargain” with Tehran that will sacrifice the interests of the smaller Gulf states. To reinforce the point, the US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates is visiting Egypt and Saudi Arabia this week; Gates told the press that his...

For millennia Iran has guarded the ­strategic waterway dividing it from its Arab neighbours as a symbol of national greatness that should be defended in name and deed. But now its insistence that it be known only as the Persian Gulf threatens to torpedo ambitious plans for a sporting extravaganza intended to promote Islamic harmony. Iran announced it was cancelling the Islamic Solidarity Games planned for October rather than bow to Arab demands that the Persian tag be dropped from the competition's medals and promotional material. Arab nations, led by Saudi Arabia, refused to compete unless the waterway was called...

SALALA, Oman - At a mausoleum in a south Omani town overlooking the Indian ocean, Muslims venerate a local pre-Islamic prophet known as Amran. Worshippers offer prayers over what are said to be remains of a figure not attested to in mainstream Islamic tradition as a prophet, but whose grave enjoys air-conditioned protection by the local authorities all the same. It’s typical of the separate cultural identity that the Gulf Arab state of Oman jealously protects from its neighbour Saudi Arabia, whose puritanical Wahhabi form of Sunni Islam frowns upon such practices. It also goes some way to explain why...

Details match those of 1813 privateer The mystery surrounding the wreckage of a ship at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico may have moved a few steps closer Monday toward being solved. Details that investigators have been able to piece together about the vessel match those of a ship that capsized in the Gulf in November 1813 after being chased by a British ship that was part of a naval blockade during the War of 1812, said Jack Irion, a marine archaeologist with the federal Minerals Management Service. In that incident, all eight crewmen were rescued by the British...

Nearly 200 years ago, a ship sank in the Gulf of Mexico, about 35 miles off Louisiana's coast. It stayed, undiscovered, on the seabed, about 4,000 feet below the surface, until 2002, when a crew happened upon the wreckage while checking out a pipeline. An expedition led by Texas A&M University found no skeletal remains and nothing to indicate the vessel's name, where it came from or how it sank. But underwater sleuths discovered plenty of artifacts, including a telescope, pottery, French bottles, swords, English mustard jars, hourglasses, a cast-iron stove and a Scottish cannon, Louisiana State Museum spokesman Arthur...

Losses by Gulf Funds may Reach $450b: Deutsche Bank Issac John 23 December 2008 DUBAI - Losses by Gulf sovereign funds in the global financial turmoil is expected to reach to $450 billion, which is equivalent to the region’s oil income for a whole year, a top executive of Deutsche Bank in the Middle East said. Henry Azzam, Deutsche Bank CEO for the MENA region, said the region’s sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) may not perform well in 2009 after poor 2008 results. According to recent estimates, the size of the combined GCC sovereign funds stood at well over $1.3 trillion,...

Gulf states weigh appeasing Iran with security pact as U.S. withdraws ABU DHABI — The Persian Gulf states are examining the feasibility of a security agreement with Iran in an effort to reduce regional tension. Gulf Cooperation Council sources said several countries, including Saudi Arabia, have dropped their objection to a strategic accord with Teheran meant to end the arms race and begin security cooperation. The sources said GCC states have become concerned over the withdrawal of the United States from the region as well as the steady decline in crude oil prices, the source of major weapons programs.

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran on Sunday proposed developing nuclear power plants jointly with neighbouring Arab states in the Gulf, amid international pressure on Tehran to halt its sensitive atomic work. "I suggest that countries in the region put on their agenda the creation of a consortium to build and develop light-water nuclear plants," said Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, the head of Iran's atomic energy organisation. "Iran is ready to present a comprehensive proposal if the Persian Gulf countries agree to it in principal," he told an energy conference in Tehran. However, he did not give any specifics about the proposal, or...

The crisis in Kuwait’s banking sector deepened on Tuesday as the chairman of Gulf Bank resigned over derivatives losses and Moody’s warned it could downgrade the bank, the country’s second biggest lender. Kutayba Al Ghanim replaced his brother Bassam Al Ghanim as chairman of Gulf Bank after depositors on Monday started to withdraw deposits from the stricken bank. It was the first known bank run in the region during the crisis and came despite the Kuwaiti central bank’s pledge to support the bank and guarantee all bank deposits in the country. Moody’s Investors Service said it would review Gulf Bank’s...

TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran has opened a new naval base east of the Strait of Hormuz in a bid to boost its military control over the strategic Gulf waters, the country's navy chief was quoted as saying on Tuesday. "With the opening of this naval base a new line of defence has been created east of the Strait of Hormuz," Admiral Habibollah Sayyari was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency. "We can prevent the entry of any enemy naval units into the strategic Persian Gulf area if need be," he said, adding that the base was located in...

HAVANA: Cuban oil officials said on Thursday that Cuba may have more than 20 billion barrels of recoverable oil in its offshore fields, more than twice the maximum estimate of the US geological survey. Such a large oil find would likely make Cuba an oil exporter and bring prosperity to the communist-run island that now imports half its energy needs. Officials said they hoped to drill the first production wells next year. The estimate, unveiled at a Cubapetroleo, or Cupet, news briefing, is sharply higher than the maximum of 9 billion barrels the US geological survey has said may lie...

Large and dangerous Hurricane Ike approaching the Upper Texas coast. Mandatory evacuations began in earnest Thursday as an estimated one million coastal residents headed inland. There were widespread reports of gas stations running out of fuel. The National Weather Service posted dire storm surge predictions of 20-25 ft storm surge along the coast and bay heads. Hurricane warnings covered a 400 mile swath of the Gulf of Mexico. Wholesale gasoline prices spiked 30 percent Thursday, or nearly $1 a gallon, out of fear of what Ike might do. Public Advisory Updated every 3 hours Discussion Updated every 6 hours Buoy...

WASHINGTON - Some 63% of Americans supports a preemptive Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, should the international community's diplomatic efforts to curb its nuclear development fail, a recent poll held by the Israel Project revealed Thursday. The survey indicated a growing concern in the US of the possibility that Iran would be able to possess actual nuclear capabilities: About 87% of those polled said a nuclear Iran will pose a threat to the US and 96% believe it would be of imminent threat to Israel. Furthermore, 90% said that should Iran possess nuclear weapons it may sell them, or...

Some of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds are seeking to scale back their exposure to the US dollar in a sign of global concern about the currency. One big sovereign fund in the Gulf has cut its dollar-denominated holdings from more than 80 per cent a year ago to less than 60 per cent, while China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) has been looking to strike deals with private equity firms in Europe as a part of a strategy to reduce its dollar holdings. Sovereign wealth funds have played a leading role in helping to recapitalise faltering US...

A simple question, What if it was not the Arabs, not the Muslims (OPEC) that control the world's energy? What if the oil tycoons were of a different background, say Irish Catholic or Jewish? Could you imagine how they would be lynched [in the media and all tools of public opinion]? But it's "only" Arabs, Muslims, and they can do whatever they want, limit or extend production of oil. Worst is of course the immense unlimited power they enjoy in being permitted to continue "business" as usual... in the "field" of crimes against humanity... No one ever dares speaks out...

The US Treasury Department has added three al Qaeda operatives from the Gulf States to the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorist Individuals. The three operatives have provided logistical, financial, and material support to al Qaeda and the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group throughout the Middle East. Two of these operatives have provided direct support for al Qaeda leaders based in Iran and two have operated in the tribal regions in Pakistan. The US has designated Khalifa Muhammad Turki al Subaiy, a Qatari national; and Adil Muhammad Mahmud Abd al Khaliq and Abd al Rahman Muhammad Jaffar 'Ali, Bahraini nationals, as...

Pemex says there are billions of untapped barrels in Mexico's deep waters. But it lacks the capital and know-how to go after them. A bill being pushed by President Felipe Calderon's administration would make it easier for Pemex to hire the expertise it needs. But deep-water projects cost billions and can take a decade to come on line. Oil majors typically want a share of any crude that they find -- a standard industry practice forbidden by Mexico's constitution.

They are countries so rich in oil and gas that they would never want for fuel to drive their booming economies and the lavish lifestyles of their rulers. Now, however, in a role reversal that makes selling sand to Saudi Arabia look like a sensible business transaction, the oil-rich Gulf states are planning to import coal. An acute shortage of natural gas has led to the city states of the United Arab Emirates seeking alternative fuels to keep the air cool, the lights on and the water running. Abu Dhabi is working with Suez, the French utility company, on a...

MEXICO CITY, April 30, 2008 – The movement of a second aircraft carrier into the Persian Gulf this week doesn’t signal an escalation of the U.S. naval presence -- but could serve as a “reminder” of it to countries in the region, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said here last night. Gates did not specifically name Iran when responding to a reporter’s question about the arrival this week of USS Abraham Lincoln in the Gulf. “The size of our naval presence in the Gulf rises and falls constantly,” he said. “This deployment has been planned for a long time. I...

US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said Tuesday the deployment of a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf should be seen as a "reminder" of US military power in the region. But Gates flatly denied that the United States was preparing the ground for military strikes against Iran. "I don't think we'll have two carriers for a protracted period of time. So I don't see it as an escalation. I think it could be seen, though, as a reminder," Gates told reporters here during a visit with Mexican officials. The arrival of the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Gulf follows...

The foreign minister of the Sultanate of Oman, Yusef Bin Alawai Bin Abdulla, agreed to hold a short photo-op at the beginning of his meeting with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Monday at the Sheraton Doha hotel. In the last eight years, since the Al-Aqsa intifada led to severing of relations between the two countries, Israeli and Omani foreign ministers have met mostly in secret, in European capitals or on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. When it comes to Israel's ties with the Arab world, progress is measured in millimeters. Therefore, although it might seem to be...

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was to leave for Qatar Sunday for a two-day visit during which she is scheduled to speak at the opening of the Doha Forum on Democracy, Development and Free Trade. In her speech, Livni is expected to call on Arab nations to assist in the Israel-Palestinian peace process by promoting "gradual" normalization of ties with Israel, among other things. The foreign minister is scheduled to meet with the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, as well as Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamed bin Jassem al-Thani. During her meetings with senior Qatari officials, Livni is...

ARABIAN GULF — The Royal Navy has taken command of the Coalition Maritime Forces protecting Iraq's vital oil platforms in the Northern Arabian Gulf. Commodore Duncan Potts RN has taken over command of Combined Task Force 158 (CTF158) from Commodore Allan du Toit of the Royal Australian Navy. Command of the Task Force is rotated between the UK, US and Australia. The UK last held command of CTF158 in July 2007 and will command the Task Force until August. Combined Task Force 158's primary mission in the Northern Arabian Gulf is maintaining security in and around both the Al Basrah...

Health Problems In Persian Gulf War Veterans Higher Due To Chemical Exposure, Study Shows ScienceDaily (Mar. 13, 2008) — A study by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine shows there is increasing evidence that high rates of illness in Persian Gulf War Veterans can be explained, in part, by exposure to certain chemicals, including pesticides and nerve agents. Veterans from the 1990-91 conflict have a higher rate of chronic, multi-symptom health problems than either non-deployed personnel or those deployed elsewhere. Symptoms routinely reported by these veterans include fatigue, muscle or joint pain, memory problems, trouble...

Gulf Stream's secret is a load of hot air 18:21 12 March 2008 NewScientist.com news service Catherine Brahic A wall of warm air rises up from the Gulf Stream, shown here as it moves along the North American coastline (Image: F Araki and S Kawahara, ESC JAMSTEC) It could be the end of preparing for a balmy European summer only to be met with rain and freezing temperatures. After years of mystery surrounding the Gulf Stream, researchers have finally worked out how it affects European weather. The key, they say, is a corridor of warm air that rises up from...

GULF Arab states, flush with proceeds from record high oil prices, are racing to build the world's tallest tower. Saudi Arabia has joined the fray with a plan to build a 1 mile (1600m) tower in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, according to the London-based Middle East Economic Digest (MEED). The project, which would overtake super-tall skyscrapers in neighbouring Kuwait and Dubai, the city state associated with mega ventures, places the competition to build the world's tallest tower firmly in the Gulf region. Of all the other high-profile buildings under construction around the globe, such as New York's Freedom...

Is the United States moving toward military action with Iran? The resignation of the top U.S. military commander for the Middle East is setting off alarms that the Bush administration is intent on using military force to stop Iran's moves toward gaining nuclear weapons. In announcing his sudden resignation today following a report on his views in Esquire, Adm. William Fallon didn't directly deny that he differs with President Bush over at least some aspects of the president's policy on Iran. For his part, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said it is "ridiculous" to think that the departure of Fallon --...

Asian workers work long hours in poor conditions for little pay For decades, migrant workers in the oil-rich Arab states of the Gulf worked hard, sent home millions of dollars' worth of remittances - and seemed immune to labour unrest. Now there are signs that is beginning to change. On Sunday, a court in Dubai sentenced 45 Indian construction workers to six months in prison for their involvement in protests demanding pay increases. On their release from jail, they face deportation. The sentences follow a series of demonstrations late last year, when construction workers demanding better pay and conditions...

Iran bristles as French forces head for war games in the Gulf By Ben Hall in Paris and Simeon Kerr in Dubai February 23 2008 French armed forces will take part in large-scale war games in the Gulf next week, underlining France's growing military presence in the region amid heightened tensions over Iran's nuclear ambitions. France will deploy 1,500 personnel, two frigates and eight Mirage fighter jets to the defence exercises, held in conjunction with the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Paris has long-standing defence co-operation agreements with the two countries and is one of their biggest suppliers of arms....

LONDON (Reuters) - Gulf states believe Israel will destroy Iran's nuclear programme rather than allow it to acquire an atomic bomb, an adviser to the Kuwaiti government and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) said on Tuesday. If Iran did build the bomb, said adviser Sami Alfaraj, then the Jewish state might be one of the countries -- along with the United States and Pakistan -- Gulf Arab nations would ask to provide a "nuclear umbrella" to guarantee their security. Alfaraj, president of the Kuwait Centre for Strategic Studies, said Israel might bomb Iranian nuclear facilities in the same way it destroyed...

We just returned from a few days of vacationing in Key West, Florida, the southernmost point in the United States. Everywhere throughout this priceless jewel of scenic beauty, old-time Spanish architecture and fun-loving tourists are reminders that this island is only 90 miles from Cuba, and that, calling itself the Conch Republic, it recently once seceded from the USA and declared a brief war on us. The war and its almost immediate surrender was to call attention to the dire consequences that the disastrous Mariel boatlift of 1980 (one of President Carter’s many terrible ideas) was having on Key West’s...

Iran Seeks Confrontation in Gulf By: Kenneth R. Timmerman Wednesday, January 9, 2008 8:35 AM The near-miss confrontation between Iranian speedboats and a U.S. naval convoy in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday was a clear provocation by Iran, aimed at testing the reaction time of U.S. Navy commanders and the political will of the United States, sources within the Iranian military tell Newsmax. The U.S. failed the test, because no shots were fired, the Iranians said. As a result, the U.S. Navy can expect similar provocations in the future, as Iran seeks to determine what red lines the U.S....

The incident, which President Bush denounced Tuesday as a "provocative act," was videotaped by a crew member on the bridge of the destroyer USS Hopper, one of the three ships that faced down five Iranian boats in a flare-up early Sunday, the AP reports. Video = http://www.breitbart.tv/html/26424.html

Iran this week played a very dangerous game of chicken with the U.S. Navy in the Persian Gulf. Five small boats of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard harassed and provoked three U.S. warships in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday morning. The boats swarmed the U.S. ships and engaged in threatening behavior. And they almost paid a high price for the stunt. And it's still not clear what the Iranians were up to. Was this an attempt to lure the United States into attacking the boats, and thus creating an international incident? If so, it was a suicide mission. U.S. Navy...

January 8, 2008 -- EARLY Sunday morning, the US Navy lost its nerve and guaranteed that American sailors will die at Iranian hands in the future. ...[SNIP]... On Sunday, the Iranians tested us. We failed. They'll probe us again. And every time we fail to react decisively, we raise the number of future US casualties. Remember the USS Cole? You bet the Iranians do. They plan to better that attack by an order of magnitude. For almost 70 years, we've deployed the finest navy in the history of the world. But it looks increasingly as if we've gone from "Damn...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Two U.S. Navy fighter jets plunged into the Persian Gulf Monday, after what initial reports suggest was a mid-air collision, a defense official said. All three pilots ejected safely from the planes and were headed back to the USS Harry Truman, the aircraft carrier they were operating from, according to the official, who requested anonymity because the information was preliminary and not yet released publicly. No other details or the crash were released. One of the F-18 jets that crashed held two pilots, the other held just one. The crash occurred at about 1 p.m. EST.

Ancient flood brought Gulf Stream to a halt 19:00 06 December 2007 NewScientist.com news service Fred Pearce It was the biggest climate event of the last 10,000 years and caused the most dramatic change in the weather since humans began farming. And it may yet hold important lessons about climate change in the 21st century. Just over 8000 years ago, a huge glacial lake in Canada burst, and an estimated 100,000 cubic kilometres of fresh water rushed into the North Atlantic. Researchers now say they know for sure that this catastrophic event shut down the Gulf Stream and cooled parts...

MANAMA, Bahrain, Dec. 7, 2007 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates today commemorated a historic date in U.S. Navy history -- Pearl Harbor Day -- at U.S. Naval Forces Central Command headquarters here. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates walks with Crown Prince His Majesty Hamad bin Al-Khalifa in Bahrain while on a visit to Southwest Asia, Dec. 6, 2007. Gates is in the region to discuss defense issues and recieve updates from commanders. Defense Dept. photo by U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jerry Morrison  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. He got a detailed briefing about the command’s operations...

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reached out Monday to Gulf Arab states, proposing security and economic pacts free of "foreign influence" in the first appearance by an Iranian leader before a summit of a key group of Persian Gulf nations. The Sunni Muslim-led states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates are Washington allies and work closely with the U.S. military, making them unlikely to embrace Shiite Iran. But the mere presence of Ahmadinejad at the summit of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council, a group formed partly to counter the spread of Iran's...

LONDON, Nov 23 (Reuters) - The U.S. military has stepped up chartering of tankers and requests for extra fuel in the U.S. Central Command area, which includes the Gulf, shipping and oil industry sources say. The U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command (MSC) has tendered for four tankers in November to move at least one million barrels of jet and ship fuel between Gulf ports, from Asia to the Gulf and to the Diego Garcia base, tenders seen by Reuters show. "They have been very active," said a ship industry source, familiar with the MSC tender process, who asked not to...

MANAMA (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy began a series of exercises in the Gulf and wider Gulf waters on Friday involving a U.S aircraft carrier and two expeditionary assault ships. The five-day crisis response exercise involved amphibious, air and medical forces, the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, headquartered in Bahrain, said in a statement. "The scenario is challenging but prepares us for a real-world event," Commander Jay Chambers, of Combined Task Force 59, said. The start of the exercises coincided with world powers agreeing at talks in London to push ahead with a third round of sanctions against Iran, unless reports...

Navy to patrol Gulf in the spring By David Blair in Manama Last Updated: 2:49am GMT 02/11/2007 A Royal Navy aircraft carrier will be deployed in the Gulf next spring, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed. HMS Illustrious will sail for the highly sensitive waters near Iran Illustrious will sail for the highly sensitive waters near Iran accompanied by Edinburgh, a Type 42 destroyer whose main role is providing air defence, and Westminster, a Type 23 frigate. Two minesweepers and three support vessels from the Royal Fleet Auxiliary will complete the deployment for Operation Orion 08. The ships will spend...

The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz returns home to San Diego Bay, Sept. 30, 2007. Nimitz, the flagship of Nimitz Carrier Strike Group and embarked Carrier Air Wing 11, completed a six-month Western Pacific deployment. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Brian Gaines USS Nimitz Returns to San Diego Sailors, Marines support ground troops in Iraq, Afghanistan. By Petty Officer 2nd Class Dustin Q. DiazUSS Nimitz Public Affairs SAN DIEGO, Oct. 3, 2007 — The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz returned to its homeport of San Diego, Sept. 30, following a successful six-month deployment to promote peace,...