Former CIA official predicts Israeli war against Iran in September, says there’s warning order inside Pentagon to prepare for conflict

Robert Baer, a longtime CIA officer who spent 21 years in the Middle East, told a Los Angeles radio station Saturday that he predicts that Israel may mount a strike against Iran in the fall, before vote on a Palestinian state.

While the CIA former officer 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."

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 with near certainty that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is planning 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," he said.

He 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 senior CIA officer warned, meanwhile, that 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.

He 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 where they can: Basra, Baghdad," effectively forcing the US to "jump into the fight" with attacks on Iranian targets, he added.

"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.