Deadline expires, second carrier arrives

The UN Security Council's deadline for Iran to stop enriching uranium has come and gone, with more defiant statements from President Ahmadinejad.

The Pentagon, meanwhlle, has issued a classic non-denial denial about the BBC report we passed along yesterday, detailing plans for air strikes not only on Iran's nuclear facilities, but a broad array of military targets.  "Ludicrous," said a Pentagon flack.  Not "false," but "ludicrous."  Ludicrous in whose mind, exactly?

Meanwhile, that second aircraft carrier has arrived in the Gulf region.  The USS Stennis joins the Eisenhower, marking the first time since the Iraq invasion that two carriers have been deployed there.  For the moment, no one has managed to advance the Newsweek report that a third carrier group could soon be on its way; to wit, which one?

The Daily Reckoning