--- In BoundaryPoint@y..., Kevin Meynell <kevin@m...> wrote:

Few would argue that the US exercises de-facto sovereignty over
Guantanamo Bay, whereas it exercises much less control over (say)
Diego Garcia.

Kevin,

I don't think the US leases any base in Diego Garcia. It's a British
base on which the US has troops. We have many examples of that:

a. US troops currently on French bases in Djibouti.
b. US artillery troops on Belgian bases in Germany (they may have
left by now, I heard that the Belgians have pulled out of Germany).
c. US troops currently on bases in Spain under Spanish command.

I recently read a travel anthology about by an intruder who approached
Diego Garcia in the 1990s, and it was the British commander who, while
they were listening to American Forces Radio while waiting for
permission to land, had the upper hand and ordered him out of the
territory's waters and away from the US ships at anchor there. He
wrote that the US GI's who first came out to greet them were friendly
and tipped them off as to how to get ashore. They wandered ashore
only until the British showed up. They tried delaying tactics under
maritime law, but the governor cited a British law and threatened to
use it to seize the visitor's boat under it's terms if they didn't
immediately depart. That doesn't speak to the US exercizing
sovereignty there.

I'm not positive, but even though the base may have been "turned over"
to the US for it's use, I don't think it is a lease that governs.

Regards

LN