Veteran CIA officer Robert Baer, who spent more than two decades years in the Middle East, including stints in Lebanon and Syria, predicted on Pacifica Radio's KPFK Los Angeles show Background Briefing Tuesday that Israel would attack Iran's Natanz nuclear facility this September (and perhaps a few others), attempting to degrade their production capabilities.

Referring to former Mossad chief Meir Dagan's warnings of an Israeli attack on Iran as "no bluff," Baer maintained

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...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.

Baer also predicted that the Iranians would

...strike back where they can and that will be in Basra and in Baghdad...[W]e've [the US] started to look at Iran's targets in Iraq and across the border.

Baer did not appear to be aware of the US Status of Forces Agreement with our "Iraqi allies" which specifically (and unconscionably) precludes using Iraqi territory for such a purpose. (Via Diana West --Article 27, Paragraph 3: "Iraqi land, sea and air shall not be used as a launching or transit point for attacks against other countries.")

Baer concluded by dismissing the likelihood of a regional war, stating,

What we're facing here is an escalation, not a planned all-out war.