Key Pentagon strategist who paid FBI’s spy in Trump investigation sees Iran nukes as ‘probable’

by WorldTribune Staff, March 11, 2021

Joe Biden’s team has been politely attempting to nudge Iran into talks regarding the United States returning to the 2015 nuclear deal, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

ONA chief James H. Baker

As it turns out, a top Pentagon strategist, who currently heads up the secretive Office of Net Assessment (ONA), had warned in 2017 that, even under the JCPOA and its restraints on bomb-making uranium enrichment, Iran would likely acquire nuclear weapons.

ONA chief James H. Baker said during a private talk in July 2017 before a Japanese-U.S. audience that it was “probable” Iran would one day possess nukes, Rowan Scarborough reported for The Washington Times on March 9.

“So far, the ruling mullahs have refused to negotiate, as their surrogate armies in Yemen and Iraq fire rockets at Saudi Arabian civilian targets and Iraqi bases housing Americans.”

As Biden bows to the mullahs, a possible Iranian nuclear arsenal is being watched by Israel.

Related: Inspector general probes retaliation at secret Pentagon think tank, once run by ‘Yoda’, December 1, 2017

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz told Fox News this month that he is updating plans to strike Iran’s nuclear targets.

In May 2018, then-President Donald Trump, saying the nuclear deal was nothing more than a giveaway to a chief sponsor of terrorism and a killer of U.S. service members, pulled the U.S. out of the JCPOA.

Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican, has been investigating Baker’s tenure at ONA.

A Department of Defense inspector general report said ONA failed to follow contracting rules for studies it financed and did not verify sourcing for $1 million in reports done by Stefan Halper, the FBI’s main spy in the Trump-Russia collusion hoax.

President Barack Obama chose Baker to head ONA in 2015. His 2017 talk was titled “Rise of Eurasian Revisionist Powers (Iran, Russia, China) and the Implications for the Japan-U.S. Alliance”.

“The region dominates Iran in every dimension of power, even though lack of Sunni cooperation severely hampers effectiveness,” his talking points state.

“Saudi Arabia possesses the will and wealth to contest Iranian expansionism. Proxy wars and destabilizing tendencies in Syria, Iraq and Yemen are likely to preoccupy the entirety of Timur’s old possessions and prevent stability. Each of these trends is likely to continue. Iranian probable possession of a nuclear weapon carries serious and likely risks, but offers Iran only limited use in reshaping the power dynamics in the region,” Baker said.

Timur was a Central Asian conquerer who established an empire in the region in the 1300s.


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