corrente

...is to either put these dots together the same way they read to me, and use Any Means Necessary to keep this from happening--or else to decide that I'm paranoid screaming crazy. Hey, if I'm wrong and you can prove it, I will be grateful as hell. Or ignore it. Up to you.

Here's Dot 1. The Virginian-Pilot does good work on military stories. I haven't been reading them since the project to raise the turret of the USS Monitor was completed, but somebody in a thread over at Atrios noticed this last night and it made my hair stand up on end: Hampton Roads:

NORFOLK — The Navy has ordered five ships and 2,800 sailors to deploy on unexpected missions to support anti-terrorism efforts in the Balkans and Middle East. Four of the ships will leave today.
The deployments are in response to requests from the European Command and the Central Command and are not exercises, Vice Adm. Mark Fitzgerald, commander of the 2nd Fleet, said Tuesday.

While most ships know several months in advance – sometimes a year or more – when they will deploy, these ships were given between six and eight weeks’ notice to get ready, Fitzgerald said.[snip]

The flotilla includes the amphibious assault ship Saipan, amphibious transport dock Nashville and the guided missile frigate Nicholas, all from Norfolk. The guided missile cruiser Philippine Sea will deploy from Mayport, Fla., and the dock landing ship Gunston Hall will join the group from the Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base in Virginia Beach a week later.

The Saipan, Nashville, Nicholas and Philippine Sea will deploy for approximately three months, while the Gunston Hall will remain at sea about six months.

Okay, that's bad enough. I asked my Military Analyst the ex submariner* what this sounded like. Not a carrier group, he sez...too small. But at very least a task force. And if they're not mentioned as taking a submarine (he sniffs dismissively) it can't be very important.

So I goes nosing around a bit more. And run across this, dateline May 5. Call it Dot No. 2:
(via Navy Times)

SAN DIEGO — The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Nimitz will leave San Diego on Saturday, carrying 5,500 sailors and Marines and leading a strike group on a scheduled deployment to the central and western Pacific.
Rear Adm. Peter Daly will lead the Nimitz carrier strike group on the deployment, which is expected to last about six months. Capt. Gordan Van Hook commands Destroyer Squadron 23.
Capt. Ted Branch commands Nimitz, based at North Island Naval Air Station in Coronado; the ship deployed to the Persian Gulf in 2003 to support combat operations in Iraq. Deploying with the carrier are the cruiser Princeton, guided-missile destroyers Higgins and Chafee, fast combat support ship Bridge and the fast-attack submarine Louisville.

Uh-oh.....that's where the submarine is!

Two unrelated stories, right? A continent apart--one on the North American east coast, the other on the west. No possible relation. Tinfoil hat time. Or else it's Dot No. 3....

Because what did Sy Hersh tell us was a dead-on guaranteed event in June 05? Back around the first of the year he predicted this. Google "Sy Hersh Syria attack" and guess what's the first hit to come up: very grim dKos diary.

Maybe we let the Israelis hit Iran while we keep Syria pinned down with these naval forces (the Army and Marines being a bit preoccupied at the moment.) Maybe it's the other way around.

Don't let Sy Hersh be the 21st century's first Cassandra, doomed to see the future, and be able to tell it, but never to be believed. Maybe he's full of shit, totally mistaken. Misinformed. Paranoid. Not wearing enough tinfoil on the cranium. Happens to the best of us in these evil days.

But lemme tell ya, I read that story out of Hampton Roads and I was stricken with a certainty that comes but few times in a life. This is it.

"Every one that doeth evil, hateth the light," Jesus to Nicodemus, John something or other. Start talking this story up. What are these deployments for? Ask questions. Crank the big spotlights over this way.