Thank you. That clarifies things a lot. And.....oh my God. Why isn't this
on CNN or BBC or something? Where did you find it? Is "the Nation" a paper
magazine or an on-line site? Are they dependable and not tabloidish? If
the US strikes Iran all Hell will break loose.
Julie Krueger
========Original Message========
Subj:[lit-ideas] Re: October Surprise?
Date:10/5/2006 3:41:32 A.M. Central Standard Time
From:john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx
To:lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent on:
Hi, Julie.
Here is a description from a story in the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot.
--------------------
NORFOLK - After a six-year hiatus from patrolling the seas, Tuesday
marked a return to routine for the aircraft carrier Eisenhower.
For the families who waved goodbye to the 6,500 sailors of the
Eisenhower strike group, it meant the opposite: routines upended,
holiday traditions altered, relationships tested.
Accompanied by guided-missile destroyers Mason and Ramage and
guided-missile cruiser Anzio, the Eisenhower began what is expected to
be a seven-month tour in support of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The group will relieve the carrier Enterprise and three other
Norfolk-based ships due back next month.
----------------------------
This is the official story. The lead to the story in The Nation reads
as follows.
----------------------------
As reports circulate of a sharp debate within the White House over
possible US military action against Iran and its nuclear enrichment
facilities, The Nation has learned that the Bush Administration and
the Pentagon have moved up the deployment of a major "strike group" of
ships, including the nuclear aircraft carrier Eisenhower as well as a
cruiser, destroyer, frigate, submarine escort and supply ship, to head
for the Persian Gulf, just off Iran's western coast. This information
follows a report in the current issue of Time magazine, both online
and in print, that a group of ships capable of mining harbors has
received orders to be ready to sail for the Persian Gulf by October 1.
As Time writes in its cover story, "What Would War Look Like?,"
evidence of the forward deployment of minesweepers and word that the
chief of naval operations had asked for a reworking of old plans for
mining Iranian harbors "suggest that a much discussed--but until now
largely theoretical--prospect has become real: that the U.S. may be
preparing for war with Iran."
According to Lieut. Mike Kafka, a spokesman at the headquarters of the
Second Fleet, based in Norfolk, Virginia, the Eisenhower Strike Group,
bristling with Tomahawk cruise missiles, has received orders to depart
the United States in a little over a week. Other official sources in
the public affairs office of the Navy Department at the Pentagon
confirm that this powerful armada is scheduled to arrive off the coast
of Iran on or around October 21.
-----------------------------------
John
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
