The long awaited US military attack on Iran is now on track for the first week of April, specifically for 4 AM on April 6, the Good Friday opening of Easter weekend, writes the well-known Russian journalist Andrei Uglanov in the Moscow weekly "Argumenty Nedeli." Uglanov cites Russian military experts close to the Russian General Staff for his account.

The attack is slated to last for twelve hours, according to Uglanov, lasting from 4 AM until 4 PM local time. Friday is a holiday in Iran. In the course of the attack, code named Operation Bite, about 20 targets are marked for bombing; the list includes uranium enrichment facilities, research centers, and laboratories.

The first reactor at the Bushehr nuclear plant, where Russian engineers are working, is supposed to be spared from destruction. The US attack plan reportedly calls for the Iranian air defense system to be degraded, for numerous Iranian warships to be sunk in the Persian Gulf, and the for the most important headquarters of the Iranian armed forces to be wiped out.

OPERATION BITE More Than We Can Chew?

A recent article on the Israeli-based DebkaFile reports that a third carrier group, the USS Nimitz, is steaming out of San Diego for the Persian Gulf next week to join the John C. Stennis and Eisenhower carrier groups already in the Gulf. The possibility of a third carrier deployment was first reported in Newsweek over a month ago. If the Eisenhower does not rotate back to the States--and many have speculated that it won't--this will represent the largest U.S. naval air presence in the Gulf since the 1991 Gulf War I.

Originally posted by JacKatMtn
an article referring to Operation Bite FYI:

OPERATION BITE More Than We Can Chew?

A recent article on the Israeli-based DebkaFile reports that a third carrier group, the USS Nimitz, is steaming out of San Diego for the Persian Gulf next week to join the John C. Stennis and Eisenhower carrier groups already in the Gulf. The possibility of a third carrier deployment was first reported in Newsweek over a month ago. If the Eisenhower does not rotate back to the States--and many have speculated that it won't--this will represent the largest U.S. naval air presence in the Gulf since the 1991 Gulf War I.

Nimitz is currently scheduled to leave San Diego in April 2007 on a six-month deployment in the Arabian Sea, relieving the Eisenhower.

Dropping Bombs on Iran

The conspiracy theorists will pick up on the news out of San Diego that the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier battle group will sail Monday for the Persian Gulf as meaning WAR with Iran.

A third aircraft carrier does sound provocative and scary, especially during yet another hostage-taking and stand-off, with the continuing WMD dispute, Iran's supposed meddling in Iraq, and not to mention the county's religious and anti-Israel posturing.

And there is no question that Iran has not so slowly taken on the mantle of favorite enemy to many in Washington, even to the geopolitically challenged who seem content, even desperate, to join the neocons in blithely referring to war there as more justified than Iraq.

The change in tone is itself worrisome, because when combined with all of the war speculation, and with all of the crying wolf and military moves that are advertised as being intended to provoke, Iran might come to the wrong conclusion and feel compelled to militarily lash out.