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9-11 Inside Job and Neocons Hacked 2004
US Approves Plans for Iran Counter-Strike
Second carrier group deployed to Gulf as U.S. approves plans for
Iran counterstrike
LONDON — The U.S. military has drafted and won approval for attack
plans ir response to an Iran attack.
Western diplomatic sources said the U.S. military's Central Command
has submitted plans for an air and naval strike on Iran. The sources
said the plan envisioned escalating tensions that would peak with an
Iranian-inspired insurgency strike against U.S. military assets in
the Gulf.
Meanwhile, on April 29, a second American aircraft carrier, USS
Abraham Lincoln, steamed into the Gulf in what officials termed a
show of force. They said the U.S. Navy plans to withdraw a carrier
group, USS Harry S. Truman, from the region.
"There is tremendous tactical benefit to us to operate the two
side-by-side in restricted space," Lt. Gen. Carter Ham, director of
operations at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Wednesday. "We can
generate more sorties, some of them strike, some of them
reconnaissance, some of them to perform other operations."
"This is not some grand scheme to destroy the Iranian regime and its
nuclear program," a source said. "It is a practical plan on how to
respond to an Iranian strike or a provocation."
Officials said the Defense Department has sought an update for plans
to attack Iran amid what they term its "increasingly hostile role"
against the United States. The officials cited the weapons flow to
insurgency groups in Iraq as well as confrontations with U.S. ships
in the Gulf. "I have reserve capability, in particular our navy and
our air force so it would be a mistake to think that we are out of
combat capability," Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, said.
Under the plan approved by the Defense Department, Central Command
would be allowed to retaliate for an Iranian attack with U.S. air
strikes. The sources said the plan contained a series of options
that range from a limited to full-scale attack.
"We are not taking any military elements off the table," Mullen
said.
The most comprehensive retaliation would target all Iranian military
assets in the Gulf. The sources said the aim of Central Command was
to prevent any Iranian attempt to block the Straits of Hormuz, the
passage of 40 percent of global oil.
In the second stage, the U.S. Navy and Air Force would strike
missile centers and command and control facilities deep in Iran.
Much of the strikes would be conducted from the two U.S. Navy
carrier strike groups in the Gulf.
If the second stage of the plan is implemented, the sources said,
the U.S. military would also target Iran's nuclear weapons program.
The sources said all major facilities, including Arak, Bushehr and
Isfahan, would be destroyed.
The sources said the Pentagon has not approved a Centcom option to
initiate a U.S. strike on Iran's nuclear program. They said that at
this point the Pentagon was concern with protecting the huge U.S.
Navy presence in the Gulf.
"I believe recent events, especially the Basra operation, have
revealed just how much and just how far Iran is reaching into Iraq
to foment instability," Mullen said.
