‘Kitty Hawk miles and miles away’

The Pentagon has no plans of deploying the American aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk in the Sulu Sea to be used in joint anti-terrorism exercises in Mindanao, US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said yesterday.

"The Kitty Hawk is hundreds, probably thousands of miles away. We have no thoughts whatsoever of bringing it here," Wolfowitz told reporters in a news conference in Makati City.

"It was the first I ever heard of the notion. There is simply nothing to it. Kitty Hawk is not even close to the Philippines," he said, refuting reports the aircraft carrier would be used to support US troops participating in joint RP-US training exercises, called Balikatan 02-1, in Zamboanga City and Basilan island.

There are around 1,000 US troops participating in the training exercise which is aimed against Abu Sayyaf terrorists, who have been holding hostage an American missionary couple and a Filipina nurse for over a year now.

Under an agreement, the US troops must leave by July following six months of training, advising and sharing intelligence with Filipino troops fighting the Abu Sayyaf which has been linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist network of Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden.

Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes also refuted reports the US warship would be deployed for Balikatan 02-1.

"There is no such thing," Reyes told reporters at Camp Aguinaldo.

"I talked with them. They revealed the schedule of the Kitty Hawk for the next three months and it’s not going to be near the Philippines in any way," Reyes added. — With Jaime Laude