US Defense Secretary Robert Gates denies speculation that the dispatching of a second aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf fleet is a sign of an impending military operation. Gates stressed the move was planned for sometime, and it not in any way related to current political realities.

According to Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell, quoted by the New York Times, the second carrier arrived on Tuesday and the first is scheduled to leave the area.

Reports on the deployment in Israel differ measurably from the American media, with Yediot Achronot, the nation’s main daily newspaper reporting the second carrier is being sent to send a clear message to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In addition, the planes on the carrier will begin military maneuvers in the area, in clear sight of the Iranians, part of US President George W. Bush’s tactic to send a clear message to Tehran.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)