See No Evil The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIAs War on Terrorism

?See No Evil is a compelling account of America?s failed efforts to ?listen in? on the rest of the world, especially the parts of it that intend to do us harm.?
?Wall Street Journal

?Robert Baer was considered perhaps the best on-the-ground field
officer in the Middle East.?
?Seymour M. Hersh, The New Yorker — Review

User Ratings and Reviews

2 Stars let down
I’m surprised at the large number of favorable reviews. I was very excited to read this book from the description but ended up disappointed. It started out great – describing what it was like to join the CIA and the training etc. Then it begins to get dense with names and details and the bigger picture gets obscured.

There is a whole lot of complaining in the book and when I read a book like this I must always remember that hindsight is 20/20. It is very easy to criticize decisions in the past when the outcomes have already been determined. Nonetheless, the author does present some valid overarching criticisms of the CIA and I’m sure the CIA would do well to heed them.

The author does not give a lot of historical context to his situations and I think that hurts the quality of this work.

Unless you are a die-hard CIA enthusiast, you may want to pass on this one. There are other better books that expose the CIA.

4 Stars See No Evil
See No Evil is a fascinating true view of 20 years of life in the CIA….including the frustration of how “political correctness” has changed the role of the CIA and how America is so vulnerable today. A really eye-opening and thought provoking book….I am so glad I read it!

5 Stars An excellent book detailing the CIA’s Past and Possible Future
See No Evil is by most accounts an excellent read. For anyone interested in the real world of intelligence and espionage it tells a riveting tale complete with close calls and the dangers of intelligence collection without glamorizing it to the point of a Flemming-esq satire. Of course the book’s real value comes from the insight provided by Robert Baer and his twenty plus years working for the CIA’s Directorate of Intelligence as an Operations Officer. His detailing of the CIA’s gradual movement away from its origins with the OSS and towards a very politically correct intelligence agency in a dangerous world in important for anyone evaluating the current world climate. It also provides weighty insights into the lapses in the US intelligence community that lead to the eventual rise of international terrorism and the development of multinational terror networks, mostly from the perspective of a foot soldier evaluating the continually changing cultural and socio-political landscape of the Near East. In my mind though the greatest knowledge the book offered up were the subtle insights into the international intelligence community and the lesions able to be garnered from past short comings which may allow us to prevent history from repeating itself once more. It should be noted though that the book only details events prior to 9/11 and doesn’t detail any number of changes which were said to occur in the US Intelligence community in the following seven years. If you’re looking for a more high level review of that you may want to check out The CIA at War by Ronald Kessler. Defiantly a recommended read though for anyone who is curious what life is like for a spy in modern society.

5 Stars as usual, Goverment promates those who don’t dare to make waves.
I work for the Federal government and I can feel Robert Baer’s frustration with management. Management does not listen to the little guy who is out in the feld actually doing the leg work and who has an actual feel for what is really going on. Most managers sit in their Ivory tower and relish in thier “Superior Self”,I know everything and can kiss off.

5 Stars Jason Bourne meets D.C. burearcracy
Robert Baer delivers a full throttle textual punch with See No Evil. He weaves the story of his 21 years in the CIA, drawing from years of journals and files he has kept. His storytelling is supurb, and the fact that these stories relly happened (unlike the Bourne movies referenced in my review title) make the book all the more gripping. I found his stories very detailed and well written, and I was particularly fascinated with what he had to say about Iraq in the mid-1990s.

From India and Lebanon during the Cold War to Tajikistan and Iraq in the 1990s, Robert Baer truly was one of the CIA’s main operatives in the Middle East. Some here have commented that Baer speaks with a sort of “been there, done that” attitude, especially towards the end of the book. In one respect they are right, but in a way, I think he, and those with the field experience like him, have earned the right to say what should have been done.

When Baer was reassigned to Washington, D.C. in 1995, he got a quick course in how D.C. politics worked. He found himself under investigation by the FBI for allegedly trying to kill Saddam Hussein, (assassinations being against the rules at the CIA, despite what Hollywood tells us). Once beating that wrap, he quickly became embroiled in a shady campaign fundraising scandal involving a shifty Lebanese businessman, former KGB officials, Caspian Sea oil money, and President Clinton’s national security team and re-election campaign. It was all a dizzying experience for him, and he decided to get out before he was implicated in anything that would end in a jail sentence. The irony of the books is that Washington politics proved to be too much for a man who made a living discovering the secrets behind the worlds most evil and powerful terrorist organizations.

I relate his story to that of General Romeo Dallaire, the Canadian General in charge of the UN force in Rwanda in the days leading up to the Rwandan genocide of April 1994. Dallaire knew what was about to go down, and frequently told his superiors at the UN that his troops were under manned and under supplied, but his voice was drowned out through the deafening roar of government bureaucracy and political correctness. The events of April 1994 spoke for themselves, and General Dallaire, now a successful author and public speaker, lived to talk about that incident as well as what he feels should be done in regards to other threats to world security. When I recently saw Dallaire at a speaking engagement, he began, towards the end of his speech, to blast the UN for not acting properly to stop the genocide from ever happening. At first I didn’t agree with his accusations. But in retrospect, he was the one left holding down the fort while the rest of the world watched it go up in flames, so if anyone earned the right to speak out, it was Dallaire.

Baer is much the same way. He witnessed first hand the situations in Iraq and Lebanon go to hell, so although his readers may not entirely agree with his opinions, he, more than anyone else, should be considered an authority on the subject. Should his stories be taken with a grain of salt? Perhaps. You don’t need to agree with everything he has to say at the end of the book. It is obvious that he is a great storyteller and a supurb and detailed notetaker. But no one can deny that what he did working for the CIA was heroic, and it has earned him the right to speak with authority about the situations in the Middle East. See No Evil is a must read for anyone interested in the Middle East, the CIA, the Cold War, or anyone who just wants a lesson in how mindless bureaucrats can fumble important situations, often at the most important times.

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