The Pentagon on Wednesday gave orders to move as many as 100 or more U.S. warplanes toward the Middle East and Indian Ocean in response to last week's devastating attack on America, defense officials said. 
They said dozens of bombers, fighters and support aircraft were expected to soon begin moving toward bases in or near the vast area in the first military deployment of President Bush's declared "war on terrorism". 
The officials, who asked not to be identified, said two planned warplane deployment orders from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld were initial steps in a military effort named "Operation Infinite Justice" to punish those responsible for ramming hijacked airliners into the Pentagon and New York's World Trade Center on Sept. 11. 
The Navy on Wednesday also sent an additional aircraft carrier toward the region from Virginia, a move that along with the air deployment could place up to 500 U.S. warplanes in the Mediterranean, Gulf and Indian Ocean areas for what Washington has suggested could be a possible strike against Afghanistan. 
Washington has accused Afghanistan's ruling Taliban of harboring fugitive guerrilla leader Osama bin Laden, who the White House says is a prime suspect in last week's coordinated attacks. 
"The United States is repositioning some of its forces to support the President's goal" of punishing the culprits and any states found to harbor or support them, White House National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said. 
She refused to elaborate, but Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told reporters at the Pentagon that "there will be more deployments." Private defense experts say those are expected to include elite U.S. Special Operations troops. 
Nearly 200 U.S. Air Force warplanes are already stationed at bases in the Gulf, Turkey and the Indian Ocean region and the new movement is expected to push that land-based total to about 300. 
In addition to the Air Force planes, the aircraft carriers Theodore Roosevelt, Carl Vinson and Enterprise carry more than 210 Navy strike and support aircraft. 
The Roosevelt sailed from Norfolk on Wednesday for the Mediterranean. The Vinson is now in the Gulf and the Enterprise in the Indian Ocean. 
Defense officials confirmed reports by CNN that the air strike force, much of it to be deployed from the continental United States, would include F-15E attack jets, F-16 fighters, probably swing-wing B-1 bombers and support planes such as refueling aircraft and radar-control planes. 
One official refused to rule out movement of sophisticated B-2 "stealth" bombers to the region, although such aircraft could be flown round-trip directly from the United States on bombing missions. 
The Pentagon confirmed that Rumsfeld had on Wednesday signed at least one initial deployment order for U.S. military forces to begin moving, but refused to provide details of those movements, which experts have said could include Special Operations troops to hunt down bin Laden. 
"The United States is repositioning some of its military forces where required to prepare for and support the president's campaign against terrorism and to support efforts to identify, locate and hold accountable terrorists and those who support and harbor them," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters. 
Wolfowitz, asked by reporters at the Pentagon about the deployment, would say only: "There are movements and there will be more movements. And I hope that everyone understands -- I'm sure the American people understand -- why we do not want to reveal the details of those movements to people who may be trying to figure out what we are about to do next." 
He said the new "war on terrorism" needed to be an integrated strategy using diplomacy, financial pressure and military force. 
"If we do act militarily, we will act militarily as part of that strategy and to support those goals -- not simply for the sake of satisfying what is understandably an enormous urge by the American people ... for revenge," Wolfowitz said. 
"We are after something more than revenge. We are after dealing with and eliminating this threat to civilization." 
