Robert Baer served as a CIA agent for 21 years. He worked in Syria, Iraq, Sudan, Morocco. The plot of the Hollywood's production "Syriana", which won an Oscar in 2005, is based on his book "Sleeping with the Devil". The prototype of the main character in the film, Bob, played by George Clooney, is actually Robert Baer himself.
In 1988 he is part of the team, which investigated the Lockerbie assault.
By Svetoslav Ivanov, Darik Radio
Q: How far our conversation could go, Mr. Baer? What are we allowed to talk about and we are not?
A: There are certain things I cannot talk about...
Q: Can you first tell us what you have been responsible for with the CIA?
A: I was in the CIA for 21 years. I was in the directorate of the operations, which meant that I was assigned overseas, collecting information, usually through human sources. I mainly served in the Middle East, in Syria, Iraq, Sudan, Morocco and a couple of some other places.
Q: Let's look at some international affairs that have recently hit the headlines. The entire world talks about operation that will probably be performed by the US military against Iran. What is behind such intentions?
A: There are two things that stand behind an attack on Iran, which I believe but I am not certain, of course. The first reason is Israel. The country's government almost is pushing the White House to do something about Iran's nuclear program and Iran's extending influence. George Bush's White House is very close to the Israelis, he is influenced by the Israeli lobby, by the country's religious lobby - the evangelical Christians. This movement has enormous political influence on this White House. For this administration, the occupation in Iraq has been a catastrophe and it would never get better. American soldiers will never be able to control Iraq. We could be there for 30 years. And what would happen if we boost our troop levels to half a million - there would be a political storm here even if we try, if Iran will occupy Southern Iraq? It would put enormous pressure at the west side of the Gulf. At the same time Iran's alliance with Russia is getting stronger by the day, so we have currents, which could one day control the Gulf and 2/3 of the world's oil reserves. One day or another we can get into a hot war with Iran.
Q: What could be the link between Iran and terrorism?
A: The last Iranian terrorist attack was in 1996. So we are talking about 11 years since the Iranians have been involved directly in terrorism. The Israelis will say that the showing of our cities was terrorism, Iran and Hisbullah will get it as an act of self-defence, an act of war, because what they are saying is that Hisbullah is the real de facto state Lebanon. It was a justified attack on the border to regain prisoners and so forth. There is no evidence now that the Iranians are involved in terrorism.
* EXPECT the second part of the interview with Robert Baer next Friday
Scripted by Margarita Stoyancheva
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Photo by motherjones.com
