See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism

The book "See No Evil" by Robert Baer is a thrilling adventure story about the experiences of a young CIA case officer in Asia and the Middle East. It is written with energy and a touch of humor, making it a captivating read for those interested in espionage procedurals. The second half of the book reveals a different side of Baer, as he becomes burnt out and in need of rest. This is marked by a re-call to headquarters and an investigation into his involvement in a murder for hire plot. As Baer continues to operate on his own in the field, he becomes increasingly isolated and out of control, leading to his eventual return to headquarters in Washington D.C. There, he struggles to navigate the unfamiliar and seemingly unfathomable world show more of Washington politics. Despite these challenges, Baer is a talented writer and deserves a loyal audience for this and his other books. show less

I have seen and enjoyed Baer as a talking head on cable news. That got my interest and I came to see him as really not in the stereotypical spy mold when I read The Company We Keep: A Husband-and-Wife True-Life Spy Story. Here he really has a screed against the CIA and a leadership and gov't (NSC, especially) cowed by big business putting profit above national security. Incompetence is a real prominent thread: "...a headquarters staffed with officers [who] so badly misidentified the Chinese embassy in Belgrade that we sent a missile into it."

Baer's behind the scenes story on a failed Kurdish coup in Iraq and lack of CIA interest in Bin Laden linkages to Iran paint an intriguing back story to the Beirut embassy bombing that one of the show more first salvos in the war with Islamic jihad. Along with Clinton admin influence peddling, this edition is updated with post-9/11 observations by the veteran spy.

Among the most interesting things to me here, though is all the fits and starts and details to the beginning of his career - what it's like to be a spy noob - and similarly learning to recruit agents and then have to pass them on as a veteran to another new-hire. show less

If anything, the book is even more chillingly convincing than the movie it inspired: Syriana.

You may not believe the full extent to which oil can so blatantly pervert the course of politics and corporate behaviour, but where there's smoke, there must be fire, right? This book delivers plently of smoking guns.

Note to self: Syriana Babel Lord of War = top 3 geopolitical thrillers of recent times

Baer's account of his time in the CIA is an exercise in disillusionment. You too will begin to see how things really work - not just at the CIA, but in Washington, too. You'll find there is no conspiracy but the one to keep up the illusion that the government is acting in our best interest. If you ever needed proof that politicians (okay, well, most of them) are in it for themselves, you need read no further than this book. The people who do care and have the smarts to change things either don't have enough power or the political savvy to survive in a world (politics) that has become increasingly incompetent and self-absorbed. It's a sad story, but one that needed to be told.

If anything, the book is even more chillingly convincing than the movie it inspired: Syriana.

You may not believe the full extent to which oil can so blatantly pervert the course of politics and corporate behaviour, but where there's smoke, there must be fire, right? This book delivers plently of smoking guns.

Note to self: Syriana Babel Lord of War = top 3 geopolitical thrillers of recent times

No one should expect Baer to be as eloquent as Shakespeare, but he does paint a vivid picture of how things were for CIA agents on the ground during the eighties and nineties. Things began to change in the late nineties, with CIA agents looking more to forward their careers than gather intelligence, a detriment for the United States, which depended on agents with a knowledge of the complexities and outright contradictions that make up the Middle East. In short, it's a portrait of how 9/11 was allowed to happen.

The movie Syriana is based on this book (also I think on Sleeping with the Enemy which is about “deals” the US made with Saudi Arabia for access to oil.) I haven’t seen the film but my sister said it was hard to follow. I thought reading the book might make it easier.

Robert Baer was a CIA officer working in the Middle East, one of the first who traced Middle Eastern terrorists, one of very few Arab speakers in the field. He spent the mid-80ies in Lebanon, was stationed in a satellite office when 7 CIA officers were blown up in the US Embassy in Beirut in 1983. He worked on finding US hostages that were kidnapped in that period. Even after the CIA gave up on finding out who was responsible for the Embassy bombing, he persisted and show more finally discovered that it was ordered by Iran and carried out by a branch of Fata, though possibly without the knowledge of Yassar Arafat. He also worked among Russians and Mujahideen in Tajikistan and in Northern Iraq with Ahmad Chalabi and Jalal Talabani in 1995 when the US refused to support a military coup against Saddam. He was ordered home because someone (he thought Chalabi) had put out a rumor that a US agent named Robert Pope who helping (against US law) in a plot to assassinate Saddam. The FBI was sure he was Robert Pope.

Back in Washington, Baer had to dodge impossible political situations and saw the Agency and the Government deliberately ignoring information that tended to reflect badly on the politics of the day—even if it would yield more information about terrorists. Baer thought the CIA was not taking enough chances or putting enough human officers in the field where they could identify and run agents among those dedicated to destroying the US. Without more people doing the kind of work he did, he thought US intelligence would be doomed not to understand the enemy. show less