Perilous
Times
Israeli military strike on Iran predicted
Ex-CIA agent cites warning that possibility is 'no bluff'
Posted: July 18, 2011
8:52 pm Eastern
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meeting with the U.S.
president
Israel could launch a military strike on Iran before the United
Nations General Assembly votes to recognize the existence of a
Palestinian state as it is expected to do in the fall, a Middle
East expert and former operative of the Central Intelligence
Agency has said in a report.
Robert Baer, who spent 21 years in the Middle East as part of
CIA's Directorate of Operations, pointed to a recent statement by
former Mossad chief Meir Dagan, who warned of an Israeli attack on
Iran.
He quoted Dagan as saying that such an attack would be "no bluff."
Baer, author of "See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier
in CIA's War on Terrorism," also noted previous comments by Dagan
suggested an Israeli attack on Iran could lead to a regional war.
Dagan also is on the public record as saying that a possible
military attack on Iranian nuclear facilities would be "the
stupidest thing I have ever heard. If anyone seriously considers
(a military strike) he needs to understand that he's dragging
Israel into a regional war that it would not know how to get out
of. The security challenge would become unbearable."
Nevertheless, Baer said that Dagan's most recent comment told
"with near certainty" that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu was planning such an attack.
"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 said.
He added that Netanyahu is hoping to draw the U.S. into the
conflict and "in fact there's a warning order inside the Pentagon
to prepare for conflict with Iran."
In January 2010, Netanyahu raised the prospect of a military
strike on Iran because the Islamic Republic has continued its
nuclear enrichment program despite the imposition of international
sanctions. At the time, he said that if U.N. economic sanctions
did not work, then he would exercise the military option.
"The only chance these sanctions will achieve their objectives
would be to couple them with an understanding from Iran that if
they don't achieve their goal they would be followed by a credible
military option," Netanyahu said.
The following month, in February 2010, U.S. Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff Michael Mullen warned that Israel might attempt to
"mousetrap" the U.S. into a war with Iran