He added that, following completion of the Afghan campaign, new forms of "less conspicuous military cooperation should be devised."

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, while on a visit to Pakistan, India and Nepal, suddenly found himself with what appeared to be a crisis in the Persian Gulf. On the surface, Powell seemed to dismiss the Post story out of hand Jan. 19. However, a careful reading of his statement shows something quite different. Powell made three statements:

1. "There have been no discussions of such an issue."

2. "There is nothing in that story that warrants my attention at the moment."

3. "We are constantly reviewing our footprint in that part of the world to see if we have the right distribution of our presence over the various countries that are there. We want to be good guests in all the countries that host our military forces, so I know [Defense] Secretary [Donald] Rumsfeld keeps this under constant review."

By the following day, on an interview on the Fox network, Powell shifted from his earlier comment. "There has been no discussion of such an issue".

Instead, he said: "It has not reached any level of discussion that brought it to the top levels of the State Department. But it wouldn't be unusual for our people to be discussing with the Saudis exactly how we are distributed through Saudi Arabia. … But we have not received a kind of notice, or there have been no discussions of the kind suggested in the newspaper story or any comment coming from the Saudis, that would suggest this kind of action."

In other words, it wouldn't be unusual to have discussions about troop deployments at some level in the State and Defense Departments, but there has been no formal request. In any case, it hasn't become an