Rating: 
Summary: First rate...
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: An awsome 271 pages
Review: In See No Evil Robert Baer tells of his 25 years in the CIA and how it was systematicaly destroyed by White House politics and how this interference lead to the massive intelengence breakdown of Sept. 11.
Rating:
Summary: SEE NO EVIL
Review: This was an excellent book. What an insight into how dirty washington politics really can be. Those who allowed the CIA to disengage from the World should be tried for treason.
Rating: 
Summary: Couldn't Even Finish It
Review: I am not up on politics, so maybe that is why I had such a hard time with this book. It reads more like a report to headquarters than anything. It skips around a lot, too, which made it difficult for me to follow. The subject matter is so interesting that you'd think you wouldn't be able to put it down, but as it turned out, I had to force myself to continue. About halfway through, I gave up. The author has had an incredible life, and what I did manage to get through really opened my eyes to a lot of things. You might like this book more than I did, especially if you are already familiar with middle eastern politics. I think it could have been an excellent book had the author co-written it with an experienced writer instead of trying to do it himself. To sum up, the subject matter is great, but the way it is written makes what should be a thrilling read, slow and confusing.
Rating:
Summary: Sad but true story of staggering ineptness
Review: Baer has written a brilliant book that truly captures the staggering incompetence of the Agency's Directorate of Operations. Sadly Baer's book has the ring of truth. Lack of trained linguists, religious nuts trying to convert assets, management more concerned with sexual harrassment training than ops, who could make that up? Unfortunately todays intell community on both the ops and analytical side is teeming with people better suited to selling shoes at Macy's then doing real intelligence work. Baer's book is a living illustration of this. Missed opportunity after missed opportunity is portrayed in agonizing detail. This book is a testament to the sad catalogue of failures that our Intelligence Community has racked up over the years. What do you want for 30 billion a year? Even more galling is that in the aftermath of 9/11 some intelligence types (like the DCI) continue to preen about our intell successes. Watch as they try and spin 9/11 into an intell triumph. Only the clowns who decided that language skill were not important could try and spin a disaster as monumental as Pearl Harbor into a victory. Its no coincidence that Baer left the Agency, most of the effective ones have fled or are closing in on retirement. Well done Mr. Baer, keep the faith!!
Rating:
Summary: A Real Eye Opener!
Review: This "must read" is unquestionably the best of the current crop of terrorism-related literature. In describing the systematic degradation of CIA successfuly undertaken by the Clinton Administration, it addresses the question of why the massive 9/11 intelligence failure occurred. Using an anecdotal, personal experience perspective as a point of departure, the book leads the reader to arrive at two compelling and significant, interrelated conclusions: (1)There exists a decades-old partnership of Arafat's Palestinian Fatah, Lebanese Hizbullah, and the Islamist Iranian leadership; and (2)Without the sponsorship of a substantial state (i.e., not merely an Afghanistan), 9/11 would not have been possible. The conclusions are all the more compelling because the source (Bob Baer) was an American intelligence insider whose bona fides attest to the book's being untainted by the likely Mossad disinformation that renders others in the genre suspect.
Rating: 
Summary: A bombshell for news junkies - provacative for all Americans
Review: 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).
Rating:
Summary: The CIA must change
Review: This book frightens me. Bob Baer's account of his service to our country is a compelling read in its own right. It is his demonstration that the CIA has become unwilling and now unable to protect our country from the Islamic terroists that will keep me frightened for a long time to come. This book should be must reading for everyone on capitol hill - and for every American.
Rating: 
Summary: Inherently incredible
Review: This is a fantastic book. It is well-written and pursuasive. If it is true, it is an important book. Unfortunately, it is inherently incredible that anyone who actually feels that way Baer claims to feel would have Seymour Hersh write the Foreward. Seymour Hersh has done as much as anyone to destroy the CIA and leaders who have the back-bone to use the type of human intelligence that Baer advocates. Hersh, and other liberal dogmatists like him, have emasculated this country--we need leaders like Nixon and Kissinger before the CIA will regain its place in the world. Hersh, and other like him, have made that impossible. The CIA has been imasculated, and all Americans are in grave danger, as Baer argues. Unfortunately, it happened on Hersh's watch. Thus, Baer's entire argument is undermined by have Hersh introduce the book. And Hersh, once again, shows himself to be a hypocrite, by now advocating the type of "dirty" business that he has, in his hypocricial fashion, heretofore condemned. Bear cannot be telling the truth if he is in bed with Hersh.
Rating:
Summary: A not too detailed indictment of the CIA
Review: The grand message of this book is that desk jocks and inexperienced analysts are running the CIA. To me this is not new news but it further makes the case that much of what the CIA does is victimized by flawed analysis and ladder climbing wonks who want to call the shots without ever having gone "in country."
The book didn't do much for me until Baer started talking about his experience in the Middle East. But left unanswered is the question of why, in the case of the hostages in Lebanon, he wasn't more vociferous in pin-pointing where the hostages were being held. His experience in Iraq is an indictment against both the CIA and the Clinton administration. While that episode is worth the read, he doesn't really go after the political reasoning that may have been behind Clinton's refusal to get rid of Saddam, and later bin Laden. Much, if not all, of our current problems with Islamic terrorism could have been prevented had Clinton taken action. The CIA reviewed the manuscript and didn't really black out all that much but it is a good read and confirmed to me that the problem with the CIA isn't with the Bob Baers that the CIA doesn't seem to value, it is with the mentality of those sitting behind desks, plotting their next career move.
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