…..”The Americans are unsure of the purpose behind the building of the nonworking aircraft carrier, but speculate Iran could orchestrate its sinking. Thus, they decided to stay ahead and expose the vessel and prevent black propaganda”… 

Something’s up.   –  We never try to stop black propaganda.  Well, we’ve never done it before in our intelligence history.  We use knowledge of it to ridicule the enemy state from the outside inward.  (more after article)
WASHINGTON – Iran is constructing a simulated American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, and according to US intelligence sources, Iran’s aim is to blow it up and later claim it has sunk an American aircraft carrier.

According to American sources, the sinking of the ship is designed for propaganda purposes, in case the nuclear program negotiations fail and the military tensions between Washington and Tehran intensify.
The New York Times reported Friday that American satellite images initially revealed the vessel in the Persian Gulf last summer, and its contours resemble the US Nimitz-class carrier. Mock planes were spotted on deck, which is about two-thirds the length of a typical Nimitz, and has no nuclear propulsion system.
US intelligence sources claimed, however, that Iran is not capable of building an aircraft carrier. “Based on our observations, this is not a functioning aircraft carrier; it’s a large barge built to look like an aircraft carrier,” said Jason Salata, a spokesman for the Navy’s Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, across the Persian Gulf from Iran.

Hmmmm….   Let’s look at what others don’t and play this out.

Here’s the “official explanation”:

Whatever the purpose, American officials acknowledged on Thursday that they wanted to reveal the existence of the vessel to get out ahead of the Iranians.   (NYT – LINK)

Well, isn’t that special ?
Boy, Howdy – the timing and public display of this little satellite image would be, well, serendipitous no ?
Bear with me.

If I were a U.S. military intelligence official, and if we knew a missing Boeing 777-200ER was inside a rogue nation state;  and we wanted to send them a message that we knew -and how we knew- what better way than to give the New York Times a convenient year old intelligence report to deliver publicly, complete with some satellite imaging – just to let them know – that we know – what we know – and how we know it.
If I were a U.S. military intelligence official wanting to tell that same rogue terror nation state their ‘window for action’ was currently open yet could not be kept open much longer…….  I might just poke them along with such a message that only they would understand within the innocuous public broadcast.
Stay tuned !

And when you go to the New York Times article – don’t skip noting the attribution given to the satellite images:

The mock-up is of a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier.  Credit Digitalglobe