U.S. Admiral speaks of close collaboration with Spanish Navy

After a meeting with Balearic leader Jaume Matas, Admiral Winnefeld said that the aircraft carrier would be in port until Saturday, although he did not give her next destination for security reasons.

The Admiral said that he was unaware of the protests of ecological groups because of the presence of the Roosevelt in Balearic waters.
But he did explain that the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier did not generate any pollution and it was not dangerous.
Both GOB and Greenpeace have expressed their opposition to the presence of the aircraft carrier in the Bay of Palma because it is powered by two nuclear reactors.

Yesterday, GOB called on the government to demand “the immediate departure” of the aircraft carrier. In a communique, it called on the tourist sector of the Balearics to show its “rejection” to the ship's presence.

The Balearic government, however, approves the presence of the American aircraft carrier the USS Theodore Roosevelt in the bay of Palma “while all security measures are fulfilled,” government spokesman Joan Flaquer said yesterday, shortly after the giant of the seas arrived.

And, in direct contrast to the ecologists, he added that the people of the Balearics “are always ready to open their arms” to visitors.

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Flaquer said it was a cause for “pride” to be able to “welcome and attend” the ship's crew, adding that the visits of Sixth Fleet ships to the port of Palma had always been appreciated by island commerce, particularly in the decades of the 1970s and 1980s.

The government spokesman stressed that it is the Port Authority which has the power to admit ships into the port of Palma.
As a result, he said, it is this body rather than the Balearic government which should make sure that the Roosevelt or any other ship complies with the necessary requisites to be admitted to Balearic ports.