July 16, 2007 (LPAC)--Vice President Dick Cheney reportedly has reasserted the military option against Iran, according to an account in today's London Guardian from a "well-placed source in Washington."

At a June meeting on Iran policy including the White House, the Pentagon and the State Department, Cheney gained the upper hand. He was opposed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, along with Under Secretary Nicholas Burns and Defense Secretary Robert Gates. "The balance has tilted. There is cause for concern," the Guardian's source said.

Burns had told the meeting that diplomatic maneuvering would still be continuing in January 2009, which displeased Cheney and Bush.

"Bush is not going to leave office with Iran still in limbo," the source said.

The Guardian reports that almost half of the US's 277 warships are stationed close to Iran, including two carrier groups. But the paper quotes a Pentagon spokesman that when the USS Enterprise arrives there, the USS Nimitz will leave, and that there will be no overlap which would leave three carriers in the Gulf at the same time.

Actually, last Friday's India Defense Review reported that both the Nimitz and the USS Kitty Hawk will be participating in 5-nation military maneuvers in the Bay of Bengal in September, which means that four US aircraft carriers will be in or near the Persian Gulf by that time at the latest.

An informed Washington source confirmed the broad substance of the Guardian's account, along with the above report about the four US carrier groups.