"Pentagon plans to add outposts in W. Africa"

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The U.S. military is quietly expanding its network of small outposts worldwide to help fight terrorism in Middle Eastern and African hot spots, even as it prepares to send home tens of thousands of troops from Cold War bases in Germany and South Korea.

Among the places the military already has placed or hopes to establish such new "lily pads," or jumping off points: Bulgaria and Romania in Eastern Europe; Singapore; Azerbaijan in Central Asia, and the tiny island nation of Sao Tome and Principe off the oil-rich coast of West Africa from which the military could monitor the movement of oil tankers and protect oil platforms.

"Freedom of action," is a term the Pentagon uses to describe the flexibility it seeks, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is to brief senators on the plan today.

When President Bush announced in August that 70,000 troops and 100,000 of their family members in Europe and Asia would move to bases in the United States, much of the public reaction was focused on the historic scale of withdrawal.

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