The news stories all say 8000 will leave out of 13000. None of the recent stories I have seen explicitly state that the 5000 will stay but it is a reasonable assumption as they don't mention them going anywhere else. Some stories seem to allude to all the marines leaving, but I do not believe that is correct.
Here are some details on the original 2005 Agreement
http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:...&ct=clnk&gl=us
Quote:
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The headquarters of III Marine Expeditionary Force will be relocated to Guam and other locations. Remaining Marine units in Okinawa will be realigned and reduced into a Marine Expeditionary Brigade. About 7,000 Marine officers and enlisted personnel, plus dependents, will be transferred out of Okinawa to Guam.
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The numbers have changed a bit but I think the gist of the agreement has remained the same.
When I first read the recent stories it seemed like they were saying all the marines were leaving. I did some followups and some digging after LAW said it was untrue (not that I don't trust you LAW but I like to research things on my own before making any post). Now given the fact that the original agreement states a brigade is staying, no recent article states all 13,000 are leaving, and LAWs assertions have all led me to believe that my initial assessment was wrong.
Again I don't see what the big deal is. The media makes mistakes on reporting military matters all the time. We all know that.