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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Former CIA ME Case Officer Sez Israel Atx Iran This Sept |
| 2011-07-16 |
| Israel may mount a strike against Iran in the fall, longtime CIA officer Robert Baer, who spent 21 years in the Middle East, told a Los Angeles radio station Saturday. Baer ventured such a move will drag the United States into another major war and endangering US military and civilian personnel throughout the Middle East and beyond. Baer spoke on the provocative KPFK Los Angeles show Background Briefing, hosted by Ian Masters. Baer didn't name sources for his prediction of an Israeli attack, but the few he did cite are all Israeli security figures who have publically warned that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was adamant to strike Iran, such as former Mossad Chief Meir Dagan. Baer said that "There is almost near certainty that Netanyahu is planning an attack (on Iran)Â… and it will probably be in September before the vote on a Palestinian state. And he's also hoping to draw the United States into the conflict," he explained. The ax-CIA official went on to guess that the Israeli air force would attack "Natanz and other nuclear facilities to degrade their capabilities. The Iranians will strike back where they can: Basra, Baghdad," effectively forcing the US to "jump into the fight" with attacks on Iranian targets. "Our special forces are already looking at Iranian targets in Iraq and across the border (in Iran) which we would strike. What we're facing here is an escalation, rather than a planned out-and-out war...it's a nightmare scenario. We don't have enough troops in the Middle East to fight a war like that. I think we are looking into the abyss," he said. It sounds like this guy is a prima-donna hysteric, maybe trying to sell more books. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #6 And the options for Israel are? Especially with Obama as President of the US? Samson. |
| Posted by: Secret Asian Man 2011-07-16 23:00 |
| #5 And the options for Israel are? Especially with Obama as President of the US? |
| Posted by: tipover 2011-07-16 21:22 |
| #4 "Our special forces are already looking at Iranian targets in Iraq and across the border (in Iran) which we would strike. What we're facing here is an escalation, rather than a planned out-and-out war...it's a nightmare scenario. We don't have enough troops in the Middle East to fight a war like that. I think we are looking into the abyss," he said. I agree with his assessment, with or without the attack prediction. Such a scenario could have very frightening second order effects for the United States. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2011-07-16 16:41 |
| #3 A dear, old-fashioned, simple man who thinks in terms of straightforward rubble bouncing and political assassinations... Not only is that what it's going to come to, but that is what is needed. Bouncing of rubble and serious wet work with extreme prejudice and malice aforethought. Just about everywhere. |
| Posted by: Secret Asian Man 2011-07-16 15:57 |
| #2 Mr.Baer's Wikipedia page is revealing. A CIA Middle East expert who is fluent in Arabic, French, German, Persian, as well as his native English. He is also conversant in Russian, Tajik, and Baluch. But not Hebrew, which isn't difficult to learn after acquiring Arabic, indicating a certain worldview. He is of a certain age as well, and likely is about as comfortable with computers as I, ie. an end user. A dear, old-fashioned, simple man who thinks in terms of straightforward rubble bouncing and political assassinations instead of recognizing Stuxnet and contaminated uranium as successful attacks in their own right. Compare his perspective to that of Prime Minister Netanyahu, whose thesis for his Management MS from MIT was about the impact of computerization on the newspaper industry. Another way to think about it is that some people change their countries from military to economic/military/scientific powerhouses, while others get pulled from their clandestine assignments in Iraq for trying to organize the assassination of Saddam Hussein al Tikriti, even if both have written books about Islamic terrorism. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2011-07-16 14:41 |
| #1 Baer didn't name sources for his prediction of an Israeli attack I wonder why? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2011-07-16 14:39 |