Pentagon takes first steps toward retaliation with ‘Operation Infinite Justice’

By Robert Burns

Associated Press

WASHINGTON – The Air Force laid the groundwork Wednesday for dispatching dozens of warplanes to the Persian Gulf area, setting in motion “Operation Infinite Justice” for the promised war on terrorism.

“The United States is repositioning some of its forces to support the president’s goal,” National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said without elaborating.

Combat aircraft, including F-16 Fighting Falcons and F-15 Eagles, will be preceded by Air Force airlift control teams from bases in California and New Jersey, senior defense officials said.

The airlift control teams will establish what the Air Force calls an “air bridge,” coordinating ground communications to match up refueling aircraft with fighters and bombers crossing the Atlantic.

It probably will take about a week to get the combat planes in position, one official said.

Asked whether Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld had signed a deployment order, his chief deputy, Paul Wolfowitz said Wednesday, “There are movements and we will see more movements.” He would not elaborate.

Separate from the order to send Air Force planes to the Persian Gulf area, the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and the ships in its battle group left their home port at Norfolk, Va., on Wednesday for a scheduled six-month deployment to the Mediterranean.

Just before the carrier left Norfolk Naval Station, the Navy secretary, Gordon England, gave the sailors a pep talk.

“We’re learning once again that freedom and liberty and the American way of life are not a birthright,” he said. “It is time for us to pick up the mantle to destroy terrorism and remove this cancer.”

The loudspeaker played “New York, New York” as the carrier pulled away from the pier.

The deployment from Norfolk includes more than 15,000 sailors and Marines, including 2,100 Marines aboard a battle-ready unit known as an Amphibious Ready Group, led by the assault ship USS Bataan.

The Theodore Roosevelt battle group includes two attack submarines, the USS Hartford and the USS Springfield, both capable of firing Tomahawk cruise missiles.

The Navy already has one carrier battle group in the Gulf – the USS Carl Vinson – and a second, the USS Enterprise, is in the Arabian Sea to the south.

Sending land-based Air Force jet fighters to the Gulf would give the Pentagon leeway to move the Carl Vinson into the Arabian Sea, closer to Afghanistan, while maintaining enough aircraft to continue enforcing the “no fly” zone over southern Iraq. Airplanes aboard the Vinson have been making those patrols.

The defense officials who discussed Wednesday’s aircraft deployment order said no planes had yet moved.

U.S. officials continued to seek arrangements for access to military bases near Afghanistan. According to diplomatic sources in Pakistan, the United States has already begun meeting with leaders of the factions opposing the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan.

At Kharan, a city in southwest Pakistan, a small number of U.S. military personnel have been spotted moving satellite and radar equipment at an isolated air base that has a long runway, according to a Western military official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Kharan is about 100 miles from the Afghan border.

The United States already has a sizable and well-developed military presence in the Persian Gulf, with combat aircraft stationed in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and elsewhere. It appeared likely that many of the extra combat aircraft to be deployed in the next several days would go to Kuwait and Bahrain, one official said.

Earlier Wednesday, Rumsfeld said America’s war on terrorism must go beyond terrorism suspect Osama bin Laden.

“This is not a problem of al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden. It is a problem of a number of networks of terrorists that have been active across the globe,” Rumsfeld said. Bin Laden, considered by the Bush administration to be the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and his associates have activities in 50 or 60 countries, including the United States, the secretary said.