Aware of the violence going on in the Somali countryside, Ambassador Bishop felt "the odds were better than even that we would have to leave Mogadishu under less than favorable circumstances." On August 1, Ambassador Bishop visited United States Central Command—the military command for the Middle East and Northeast Africa—where he worked with military experts to review the embassy's Emergencies and Evacuation (E&amp;E) plan until he was "satisfied...that [Central Command] realized that it might have to conduct an evacuation from Mogadishu and was prepared to do that." A few hours after his visit, Iraq invaded Kuwait. The US was mobilizing assets for a response when Ambassador Bishop arrived in Mogadishu on September 6. The primary interest of the Ambassador was to maintain the US military's permission and access to airfields and ports in Mogadishu and Berbera, which the US had negotiated in 1979. This was especially important given the mobilization for intervention in Kuwait, Somalia's strategic location near the Arabian Peninsula and the mouth of the Red Sea, and because Saudi Arabia would not allow US troops on their soil. The embassy was also home to a large number of USAID staff, although the spread of unrest into the countryside was making their work increasingly difficult.