Being an old tin can sailor myself, I can tell this is a pretty routine movement. Carrier battle groups, particularly in action, are big industrial operations and go through an enormous amount of wear and tear after a just a few months at sea. Men, ships and aircraft are usually pretty worn out after duty "on the line". In the 8 months I was in WESTPAC, we escorted BGs led by Coral Sea, Enterprise, and several other bird farms. Even my ship spent about half of its time on the line, the rest of the time in various Far East ports refitting. It had just had a major overhaul when I went aboard, and was due for another yard period right after I left it. The story you linked us to is pretty obviously just propaganda, and not very good propaganda, either.

The activity to look for to predict this sort of thing is not front-line units, but support ships such as oilers, tenders, minesweepers and supply vessels, as well as the surface escorts needed to keep them secure. For every man of war in harm's way, there are three or four ships in the fleet train needed for support. Forward bases like Diego Garcia would suddenly be clogged with ships and CONUS naval activities would be cancelling leaves and be stripped of ships and aircraft. There is no such thing as a sneak attack in Naval warfare, that's why Pearl Harbor was so brilliantly planned and so totally unexpected.

If we were seriously considering military action against Iran, two BGs, one worn out, the other fresh and inexperienced in theater, would be totally inadequate. And everyone knows Mr Rumsfeld never goes to war
without adequate forces to accomplish his mission.