Customer Reviews

SEE NO EVIL

5 star:		(148)
4 star:		(50)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

As a former clandestine case officer, leaving the Agency in 1988 after unsuccessfully chasing terrorists for a few years, I knew we were in bad shape but I did not realize just how bad until I read this book. The author, working mostly in the Near East (NE) Division of the Directorate of Operations, and then in the Counter-Terrorism Center when it was just starting out, has an extremely important story to tell and every American needs to pay attention. Why? Because his account of how we have no assets useful against terrorism is in contradiction to what the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) told the President and his top advisors at Camp David on Saturday 15 September. According to the Washington Post of 31 January 2002, page A13, on the 15th the DCI laid out an ambitious "Worldwide Attack Matrix" and told the President that the United States had a "large asset base" from its years of working the terrorism target. One of these two men one is closer to the truth than the other. In my judgement, I believe Baer has three-quarters of the weight on his side. This discrepancy warrants investigation, for no President can be successful if he does not have accurate information about our actual capabilities.

There are four other stories within this excellent book, all dealing with infirm bureaucracies. At one level, the author's accounting of how the Directorate of Operations has declined under the last three leaders (as the author describes them: a recalled retiree, an analyst, and a "political" (pal)) is both clearly based on ground truth, and extremely troubling. The extraordinary detail on the decline and fall of the clandestine service is one that every voter should be thinking about, because it was the failure of the clandestine service, as well as the counterintelligence service (the Federal Bureau of Investigation) that allowed 9-11 to happen...at the same time, we must note that it was a policy failure to not have investigated similar incompetencies when a military barracks in Saudi Arabia, two Embassies, and a naval destroyer were attacked, and it was clearly known in open sources that bin Laden had declared war on America and had within America numerous Islamic clerics calling for the murder of Americans--all as documented in an excellent Public Broadcast Service documentary.

At a technical level, the author provides some really excellent real-world, real-war annecdotes about situations where clandestine reporting from trusted operations officers has not been accepted by their own superiors in the absence of technical confirmation (imagery or signals). As he says, in the middle of a major artillery battle and break-out of insurgent elements, screaming over the secure phone, "its the middle of night here". We've all known since at least the 1970's that the technical intelligence side of things has been crushing human sensibility, both operational and analytical, but this book really brings the problems into the public eye in a compelling and useful manner.

At another level, the author uses his own investigation for murder (he was completely cleared, it was a set-up) by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and at one point by the Secret Service, to shed new light on the complete break-down of internal security processes within the CIA. At its lowest point, he is pressured by DO management with a psychological evaluation to determine his fitness for duty--shades of Stalinism! I know this technique, of declaring officers unfit for duty based on psychological hatchet jobs, to be a common practice over the past two decades, and when Britt Snider was appointed Inspector General at CIA, I told him this was a "smoking gun" in the 7th floor closet. That it remains a practice today is grounds for evaluating the entire management culture at CIA.

There is a fourth story in the book, a truly interesting account of how big energy companies, their "ambassadors" serving as Presidential appointees within the National Security Council, and corrupt foreign elements, all come together. In this the spies are not central, so I leave it as a sidenote.

In my capacity as a reviewer of most intelligence-related books within these offerings, I want to make it clear to potential buyers of this book that the author is not alone. His is the best, most detailed, and most current accounting of the decrepit dysfunctionality of the clandestine service (as I put it in my own book's second edition), but I would refer the reader to two other books in particular: David Corn's "Blond Ghost: Ted Shackley and the CIA's Crusades"--its most memorable quote, on covert action in Laos, being "We spent a lot of money and got a lot of people killed, and we didn't get much for it."--and Evan Thomas' "The Very Best Men--Four Who Dared: The Early Years of the CIA"--its best quote: "Patriotic, decent, well-meaning, they were also uniquely unsuited to the grubby, necessarily devious world of intelligence." There are many other books, including twelve (12!) focused on reform and recommended by the Council on Intelligence.

The author is a brave man--he was brave on the fields of war and clandestinity, and he is braver still for having brought this story to the public. We owe him a hearing.

Robert Baer provides a very interesting read and and warning for the future. He shows us how the old CIA operators in the Operations Division were trained to gather intelligence from human sources, who most of the time remained on the American payroll for years. This is the way we won the Cold War. But now, Baer tells us, the CIA has been eviscerated and is a shell of its former self, more preoccupied with political correctness and telling senior leaders what they want to hear. The human agent has been replaced by total reliance on satellites, electronic eavesdropping and other technology we have had for many years, but which are no substitute for a human being. He calls the failure of our intelligence networks regarding 9/11 a disaster and makes a compelling case that if we do not go back to the human element of intelligence gathering, such tragedies will become more and more frequent. Anyone interested in our national security should read this book.

'See No Evil' documents Robert Baer's career as a CIA field officer, but it also does much more. It shows us how intelligence in this country has drastically changed since the Cold War and the tragic consequences we as a nation are paying for those changes.

At the beginning of his career, Baer describes himself as an extremely unlikely candidate for the CIA. He relates experiences of his training and facts from many events that we just _think_ we know about. Baer's story makes for very interesting and exciting reading as he describes the thrills and dangers of his first several years as a field officer. It was an incredibly tough and dangerous job, but a necessary one, as the author adequately demonstrates.

Excitement quickly turns to anger for both the author and the reader. As the Cold War ends, the reader will learn how the CIA took a dramatic turn, seeking to gain intelligence from satellite surveilance rather than from agents in the field. Why not? The technology is available and fewer lives will be lost. Sounded like a good idea at the time, but not to Baer. You'll read about how terrorists in the Middle East and in other parts of the world were quickly ignored after the Cold War in favor or special interests in Washington. You'll also see how close we really were to putting an end to Saddam Hussein forever. You'll read about many other events that will surprise you, shock you, and make you mad as hell. 'See No Evil' made me experience all those feelings and more. How could the CIA have fallen to such a level as Baer describes in this book? What a terrible price we as a nation have paid and continue to pay for our lack of top-notch intelligence.

I'll admit that twenty years ago I pretty much ignored all the fighting and disputes going on in the Middle East. I ignorantly thought that it didn't concern me, so I didn't give it much thought. The country was doing well, I was doing well, and that's all that mattered. I won't make that mistake again. I hope that Baer's book is read by millions of Americans and especially the big boys in Washington. This is not a book to be swept under the rug. It's a book to be read and heard by America, screaming at the top of our lungs, if need be.

As odd as it may seem coming from a operative overseas, this book reveals why we were left open for attack more so than any other write on the market. Washington certainly would not let us in on what was happening with the terrorist networks, since they really did not have information they SHOULD of had. That is the one convincing message of this astounding book. Our government deliberately let our guard down. After leaving Iraq militarily inept, our government thought that was the victory and could live with a few foreseen terrorist attacks. The USS Cole type of attack, and embassies bombed considered acceptable losses. According to this book, they wouldn't care to believe 911 was a possibility so they gave up on any routine type of terrorist intelligence prevention matters. This book is worth buying, I'm sorry I cannot mention all the info here, but the book is written in a way that draws you in and interests you even if you had zero interest in the matter. I read it since my brother left it at my home, I picked it up, and was taken. The book is of high material quality as well. Another excellent book and must read concerning 911, Afghanistan, speaks of this religious deviance by saying they in fact would bring the buildings down by insane actions and deny it was terrorism but divine direction and future occurrences is SB 1 or God by Karl Mark Maddox

This book astonished me. Could the failed CIA-organized coup in Iraq back in the 90's really have failed because of Tony Lake's direct intervention? Did America really cut off its nose by virtually destorying its Arabic intelligence-gathering missions following that misreportage? Was 9-11 preventable, if not avoidable?

Well, according to Mr. Baer, the answer to all of those questions is yes. He was there, in the middle of it, running leads and gathering whatever intelligence he could in the Middle East for a span of about twenty years, getting out in the mid 90s when the CIA was 'overhauled' at the hands of the FBI.

This is a 'you're there with him' book, and Mr. Bear's writing is never slow or disinteresting. Is it all true, though? Given Bear's background and the 'official' censorship by the current CIA administration of many passages in the book, I have little reason to doubt him. He claims to have solved the Beirut embassy bombing in which hundreds of marines were killed. He claims the US called a halt to the Kurdish-organized coup of Hussein with 24 hours of its planned execution, dooming it to failure.

This is deeply disturbing material.

If you ever wondered how foriegn spies are recruited, read this. If you want a down-and-dirty account of our failed intelligence mission, read this.

Also reccommended: "American Jihad", "Hazardous Duty", "Report From Ground Zero" and "War In a Time of Peace" (a bit dry, but great backround on Clinton's foriegn policy cabinet during the years Bear was running contacts in Iraq).

I saw Robert Baer on CNN last night and he said he thinks the CIA is improving. He says the agency has finally realized it cannot carry out it's mission without field operatives. He says, however, it will take five years to train agents to operate in places like the Middle East. Apparenly, agents cannot get the hang of things overnight. The gist of SEE NO EVIL is that for years, the agency moved in the wrong direction--relying almost exclusively on technology and less and less on human contact. Baer left the CIA in 1997 and was working as a "consultant" last summer in Lebanon when he heard something was afoot. It seems the folks in Washington preferred to look the other way and see no evil--hence Sept. 11. Baer says on that dreadful day, the FBI, CIA, INS, and plenty of others failed. A small band of fellow citizens on a plane flying over PA saved Washington. (The Pentagon is in South Arlington--and as it happens--a few blocks from my house where I stood and watched black smoke rise into the sky. Although the Pentagon was damaged, the damage would have been far worse if the plane had crossed the river, because the Pentagon is constructed of reinforced concrete. Experts think the plane that crashed in PA was headed for DC. Two of my work colleagues were on that flight--Federal workers.)

Since I work for a Federal agency, I can certainly identify with some of the bureacratic struggles Mr. Baer experiences. However, there are ways to get things done, and Mr. Baer himself shows how he managed to do so on more than one occasion. First you have to give up the idea of rapid advancement. Bureacracies don't reward risk-taking. Baer skated on thin ice more than once because he made the decision that he had to live with his own conscience. His his final citation (awarded to him without his knowledge) says, "He repeatedly put himself in personal danger, working the hardest targets, in service to his country."

This is not poppycock. Plenty of career Feds take their jobs very seriously and love the country as much as Mr. Baer. Many have made sacrifices and been sacrificed, and not always for a good cause. Many like Baer have become whistle blowers. Unfortunately, whistle blowers are often seen as "bad" because they upset the status quo and force all of us to face reality. In a land where indulgence and fanasy entertainment rule, many people don't want to be reminded of that evil is real.

Many of our elected officials and appointees are narrowly focused on career advancement, shortsighted and care only about what happens during their watch, and can hardly contain themselves as they prepare for the next election, the next big job, the next salary increase. But don't throw the baby out with the bath water, there are good guys in Washington. Some of them are elected officials like John McCain and John Kerry. Some are appointed like Donald Rumsfield. Many are career civil servents like Mr. Baer.

Robert Baer's book reads like a John LeCarre thriller and I enjoyed it so much I had to slap myself in the face and say, you dummy, this is the real thing, THIS IS NOT FICTION. These guys really get killed--like Michael Spann. I hope the CIA uses the book as part of its recruitment package.

The sad fact is that the U.S. has been wounded over and over and failed to act to stop terrorism. When you add up all the insults and injuries as Baer has done the truth is overwhelming: the hostages, the murders and assainations, the capture and/or destruction of U.S. and other embassies, the U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon, Black Hawk down, the military quarters in Yemen, the U.S.S. Cole, the airline crashes and hijackings, and hundreds of other incidents including the Sept. 11 disasters. Our so-called leaders have been asleep at the switch--too interested in partying and/or shagging an intern in the cloak room. Alcohol, drugs, and illicit sex are a problem in Washington DC.

But worst of all is sheer incompetance. As Baer puts it, each administration handed the problem along to the next without really addressing it--the not on my watch syndrome. Clinton seems to have been especially concerned with donations to his campaign war chest than to doing the job he was elected to do. Baer says the Bush Sr. and Reagan administrations could have done more too. Unfortunately, the latter was too concerned with the Cold War to notice the hot war. All of them were not up to the job--yet they were elected, some of them more than once. And don't think BIG OIL arrived with the current President Bush. One can trace the tracks of BIG OIL and big business back to JFK. Ike warned U.S. citizens of the miltary industrial complex--it's other name is oil.

Baer says we are at war, and the war will be difficult to win. The ignorant have already taken to the streets to protest. But what is the alternative? In 1971, I was thrown out of a military commisary for wearing pants--I know I would not survive a Muslim regime.

Robert Baer writes an excellent book detailing the life of a CIA Case Officer and the problems he faced during his career. The story is not only exciting, and doubly so because of the fact that it is real, but it sheds light on the REAL problems with the business of intelligence, including dependence on electronic intelligence and a gauche bureaucracy.

You'll learn a lot about recent history, about terrorism, the less than peachy side of the Middle-East, and the equally unpeachy face of American politics in foreign policy.

The image that most people have of the CIA is either the manipulative master spy agency which assasinates foreign leaders, and overthrows governments or an agency at home in the excting swashbuckling world of international espionage of James Bond. The truth, as Robert Baer describes it, is much less exciting. Baer was a CIA field officer for more than twenty years and by his own description, one of the last of the true adventurers. This book is part memoir and a large expose of a vital element of our national security which has gone bad. In the first part of the book, Baer describes his unnusual childhood and explains how he came to be hired by the CIA despite a lackluster college career. When he joined the agency in 1976, the old cowboys who built the CIA from the old OSS were retiring and dying off. Baer was a throwback to the old days. An officer who believed that his job was to develop useful information about the country to which he was stationed. Baer describes how a field officer in the Division of Operations works, how a foreign agent is recruited. He recounts his first jittery assignment in India.

In the next part of the book Baer recalls how he came to specialize in the Middle East, having learned Arabic. It is at this point that his disillusionment began as well. He arrives in Beruit shortly after the Embassy bombing that killed 14 CIA officers. Eager to get to the bottom of it, he finds himself stonewalled by managers who seem to be interested in nothing more than not rocking the boat with the State Department. When posted to London and Hamburg in the 80's, Baer discovers that Islamic radicals, having been exiled from their home countries, have set up shop and begun to form terrorist cells. When he suggests infiltrating these groups he is told that the CIA doesn't run agents in friendly countries! This is a stunning lapse of sense as we now know all to well.

Throughout the book, Baer describes himself as someone comfortable in the stealthy world of foreign espionage but a fish out of water in the murky world of Washington politics and CIA bureaucracy. No matter how much he was rebuffed in his efforts to promote the interests of the United States in the places to which he is posted, Baer seems to have never lost his Candide-like naivity. He continues to expect that THIS TIME, the agency will do the right thing. This is apparently why he stuck it out so long.

The most compelling part of Baer's story comes in the 90's when he is posted to the Northern Kurdish controlled part of Iraq. Finding opportunities to support groups who might overthrow Sadaam Hussein, which he assumed to be U.S. policy, he is stunned when he and the anti-Sadaam players have the rug pulled out from under them by a venal Clinton White House. To make matters worse, Baer is recalled to Washington and falsely accused of attempted murder. ALthough cleared of this charge, he is rewarded for his valient efforts by being posted to a dead end career killer in Washington. That such an excellent field operative would be turned into a desk jockey for political reasons is a stunning indictment of the entire Washington culture. At CIA headquarters, he learns just how slimy both Washington politics and the Clinton administration are. Indeed, he documents how the overriding concern of the Clinton administration seemed to be not American security interests but protecting the business of Big Oil.

He also writes about how the Aldrich Ames spy scandal basically gave the FBI the imputus to destroy the CIA from the bottom up. Virtually every field officer was harassed and investigated for espionage. Ironically, the FBI was ignorant of its own master spy Robert Hanssen who continued to operate during this period.

Ultimately, after Baer's attempts to blow the whistle to Congress go nowhere he decides to resign. That a brilliant field agent could have his career destroyed by untalented mediocrities is horrifying. This is a very frightening book. In his introduction, Baer tells us how angry he is that the only thing standing between the 9/11 terrorists and the White House were the brave people of flight 93. The CIA and the entire American national security community abrogated their responsibilities and nothing seems to have improved. Baer heard from a source that a CIA bigwig believes an investigation will show that 9/11 was an intelligence triumph not a failure. Baer says that if this is a true statement then he is frightened for the future of our country. I am inclined to believe him. This book describes the destruction of a once useful agency by as Baer puts it "political correctness, by petty Beltway wars, by careerism, and much more" There is no disputing Baer's conclusion that on "September 11, 2001, the reckoning of such vast carelessness was presented for all the world to see." The complete book on the failures of the national security/intelligence world to protect this nation has yet to be written. Baer's book is a good introduction to the CIA's role in that failure. I recomend this book to everyone. It was an eye opener. Every member of COngress should be compelled to read it. Congress and the President should overhall the CIA from top to bottom and recruit dedicated people like Robert Baer who want to serve and protect the United States and who will be rewarded not punished for their efforts.

What's wrong with this picture?

1) A CIA officer in Lebanon strikes gold : He discovers a safe house for Abu Nidal, one of the top terrorist organizations which is interconnected with practically every other. He prepares to rent an apartment next door, bring a tech team, stick a mike in the wall and bug their meetings. His name is Robert Baer. Baer is outraged that the US embassy in Beirut has been bombed and no one seems close to a solution as to who did it or where they may strike again.

His chief, a confirmed desk jockey, vetos the operation on the grounds that it might upset the Lebanese government if they found out. He suggests Baer should finagle an invitation to attend an Australian embassy party instead. When Baer replies "Who the hell do you expect is going to show up at an Australian embassy reception?" he is met with silence.

2) Former KGB archivist, Vasili Mitrokhin gets turned away by the CIA on the grounds that Russia is now a friendly country.

This, despite the resurgence of Russian nationalism, possibly missing nuclear bombs, and the exposure of traitors Rick Ames (CIA) and Robert Hannsen (FBI).

This story, at least, has a happy ending. Vasili subsequently volunteered to British intelligence and the info provided culminated in the arrest of dozens of spies, including a U.S. colonel.

3) In 1995 Baer runs an 'office' in the hills of Kurd occupied northern Iraq. Opposition leaders and Iraqi generals join forces in a coup de etat against Saddam Hussein. The plan involves precise timing. As the US representative they give Baer all the details and ask if they have US cooperation. Baer reports all to his superiors stateside. He assures them Washington wants to get rid of Saddam.

The preliminary attack to divert Saddam's attention begins as scheduled. At this eleventh hour, Baer gets a telegram from HQ that the US is backing off and the Kurds and Iraqi generals are on their own. One of them ironically asks if they have never heard of the Bay of Pigs.

4) President Aliyev of Azerbijan informs Baer and other American 'delegates' that he is ready to help but that the US must "live up to its bargains".

The 'delegation' has no idea what he's talking about so Aliyev explains that the State Dept undersecretary and Deputy Energy secretary promised him help against Iran and threatened 'bad relations' with the US if Aliyev did not give a contract to Exxon---never mind competing American oil companies, or free market ideals---According to Baer, Clinton was "pimping for Exxon".

He reports on widespread corruption in Washington when it came to oil deals with former USSR republics. He names names and recounts how his offers to testify before Congress met with--you guessed it--silence.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

See No Evil is the story of Rober Baer, a self admitted ski bum who applied for a job at the CIA in his early twenties as a lark, not really thinking he'd be hired but hoping that if he were, he'd be able to get a paycheck while fooling around Switzerland's mountaintops.

No such luck. It turned out to be hard and dangerous work. However, he discovered he had a taste for being a field officer--rather like a cop who enjoys working the streets. He worked the streets for 21 years and recounts it in this best selling book.

Baer's main beef is that the US intelligence community is enamored of the "eye in the sky"--satellite photos and high tech gizmos whcin cannot tell what goes on inside the human mind. For that one needs field officers and infiltrators, which the increasingly PC establishment was unwilling to keep backing Consequently they became dinosaurs.

Baer's critics seem to charge him with wanting to dismantle the NSC, or down all American satellites and sell them for scrap. Rather absurd charges that side step the issues.

Great reading before we all become dinosaurs.

Robert Baer does an excellent job of drawing the reader into the shadowy world of the covert world of intelligence. His elaboration (as much as he can divulge) of the training and operations of case officers is both fascinating and worrysome. Fascinating, because it allows laymen get a glimpse of what "could have been" if they too had pursued the life of being a "spy" (come on...admit it, we all have that fantasy), and worrysome because he outlines the CIA and intelligence community's not so slow drift toward reliance on technical means to get intelligence, rather than the days-old practices of the human side of the world's second oldest profession. His elaboration on names that are all too familiar now to those of us who study the mid-east weaves an incredibly complex and captivating web. Immediately after finishing Baer's book, I started on American Jihad, and the web just grows more tangled. Truly a great read, though, and is highly recommended for anyone who wants the "down and dirty" side of espionage. It is all the more important now that we are trying to rebuild it.