Top CIA officer: Israel will probably attack Iran in Sept.

By JPOST.COM STAFF 
07/16/2011 13:04

Robert Baer tells LA KPFK radio that strike on Tehran likely to happen before vote on Palestinian state, that PM wants US to be involved.

  Israel will probably attack Iran in September, a veteran CIA officer who spent 21 years in the Middle East, including in Lebanon and Syria, told a Los Angeles radio show on Tuesday.

While former CIA officer Rober Baer didn't reveal the sources behind his prediction, he referred to former Mossad chief Meir Dagan's warnings of an Israeli attack on Iran as "no bluff."

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Baer told the KPFK Los Angeles show Background Briefing that previous comments made by Dagan that an Israeli attack on Iran could lead to a regional war, "tell us with near certainty that Netanyahu is planning an attack, and in as much as I can guess when it's going to be, it's probably going to be in September before a vote on the Palestinian state."

Baer added that Netanyahu is "also hoping to draw the United States into the conflict, and in fact there's a warning order inside the Pentagon to prepare for conflict with Iran."

The retired senior CIA officer predicted a scenario in which Israel would attack the Natanz nuclear facility as well as "a couple of others to degrade their capabilities."

"The Iranians will strike back were they can and that will be in Basra and in Baghdad," where the US has a diminished troop presence, Baer said, adding "we've started to look at Iran's targets in Iraq and across the border."

Baer, however, diffused predictions of regional war, saying, "What we're facing here is an escalation, not a planned all-out war."

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