See No Evil is an absolutely fascinating book. It tells dozens of thrilling and enlightening stories spanning the globe, describing complex problems facing the CIA, within and without, in the years preceding 9/11.
The first two thirds of See No Evil are written as a near biography, taking the reader through highlights of Robert Baer’s career in the field as a CIA “agent,” or, case officer. This part of the book is filled with incredible and sometimes unbelievable stories. One riveting example was when Bob was stationed in New Delhi and an agent gave him a very short amount of time to copy and return highly valuable manuals to the Soviet T-72 tank, with the mission ending in a Bourne film-esque car chase. Another story that took me aback was when he went on a drunken, impromptu, unsanctioned parachuting mission with Russian special forces while stationed in Tajikistan.
This book is not all just fun stories of adventures in far corners of the world though. He also discusses the transition from the Soviet Union to Russia, and gives insight into the rise of Russian nationalism and the general chaos that was left in the wake of the Soviet Union’s collapse. Additionally, there is a pervading darkness of terrorism woven throughout the book, and the shadow of 9/11 looms large in the reader’s mind. The event that is discussed the most in See No Evil is the bombing of the US Embassy in Beirut in 1983. Bob Baer admits readily in the book that investigating the bombing became an obsession of his and consumed years of his life.
Another obsession of Robert’s is the way that Washington bureaucracy hinders the work that CIA case officers like himself are tasked with doing. He makes several compelling points about how the top ranking people in intelligence would rather remain blind to threats in order to not get their hands dirty. They would prefer to “see no evil.” Bob argues that this is one of the primary reasons the US intelligence community was caught with their collective pants down on September 11th 2001. I will say, however, that Bob’s idea to plant intentionally defective bombs on the cars of Syrian diplomats stationed in Germany was shocking, and I think they were right to say no to that one..
Unfortunately, in the final third of the book, Robert Baer falls into the tedium that he had spent the previous two thirds complaining about. Having been brought back to Washington and no longer out in the field, the book became monstrously heavy with names, memos, offices, and meetings. Of course, this serves to highlight the point he has been making, and in the process he also sheds light on a lot of corruption in D.C., especially regarding oil. Other interesting bits were when the CIA redacted a whole paragraph of the book about the Saudi royal family, and how the Russians were interfering in the presidential election, trying to get Bill Clinton re-elected.
Overall, this was an illuminating read. I learned a lot about what the CIA actually does, and read some amazing stories. I’m also very glad that this book has a glossary, otherwise I would certainly be put on a watchlist for googling many of the people, places, and things mentioned...

This is an inside look from a CIA operative at the war on terror predating 9/11 by almost 20 years back to the US Embassy bombing in Beirut. Hearing how politics really dismantled intelligence gather in other countries was disheartening. It's nothing we all aren't aware of. Well worth the read.

In today's political climate anyone with strong political views from either side of the aisle who might read this book will pick it apart for one reason or another. I personally enjoyed it because it provided me with a tiny window to the past. The spy business significantly changed after the fall of the USSR, and this book covers a couple of decades, one from either side of the fall.

One of the best sources I've read regarding how CIA/NCS HUMINT operations actually work(ed in the 80s-90s). The book can get fairly inside baseball with the exacting attention to detail when it comes to familial and social connections of various terrorists, Mideast politicians/generals/sheikhs/imams/etc. and CIA-run agents in the theaters in which Baer operated, but the intertwining lines that Baer draws between all these figures (in order to illustrate his investigations into the 1983 Beirut embassy and barracks bombings and Iran's role in the Lebanon hostage crisis) illustrate the dire need for HUMINT operators even moreso than Baer's editorializing on the subject does. I.e., this stuff is messy and confusing and no one reader, analyst or investigator could be expected to untangle it on his or her own.

Essentially, this is a convincing exposé of the shortcomings of the CIA in the wake of the Cold War and in the years leading to 9/11, when the previously dangerously-ballsy CIA eschewed its til then five decade reliance on human intelligence in favor of "hard" evidence, journalistic sources and SIGINT/GEOINT and the growing surveillance complex -- which Baer convincingly demonstrates are all poor tools given the nature of modern asymmetric warfare, decentralized non-state actors, and surveillance-savvy terrorists.

Anyway. I could write an essay on this, but it probably wouldn't be very good. This book is.

Interessante

Great read, but an unfortunate revealing of the CIA no longer being all that it’s cracked up to be in movies. None of that James Bond stuff, just politicized pawns.

Oh wow! I rarely review books but after reading this one I really felt I need to put some thoughts down. This was a very interesting read. You get huge insight into how terrorism works, how the CIA used to work and works now. Corruption is rampant in Washington and no one even now wants to take responsibility. This was very enlightening and I get the feeling there is so much more going on then we will ever know. It did get a little hard to follow because there are so many interweaving sorry lines but other than that I think you get the picture of what seemed to be going on at the time. Overall an excellent read.

If you think this administration (or any other in the past) knows what's going on in the world because it gets daily intel briefings from rafts of highly effective and disciplined informants and agents strategically placed worldwide, well think again. This book makes it clear that the schism between Washington DC and its intel community is worse today than it was even when this book was written 20 years ago. Our CIA personnel risk their own lives and the lives of countless others around the world, while Washington looks on and either does nothing with the info, or does absolutely the wrong thing, because it has no idea what it's doing. Period. Statecraft and spying: GAMES played with real LIVES that are lost on a daily basis. I am disappointed and discouraged to have to come to the conclusion that politicians and other government key players are really clueless and operating blindly in most cases, while making life and death decisions that affect thousands, if not millions, of people around the world, daily. Furthermore, the people responsible for these decisions suffer no consequences themselves. I don't think it even keeps them up at night. It's disgraceful and shameful and makes one wonder why we (the average people) keep tolerating the fecklessness of those we task with the job of "keeping us safe". Trust me, they are not up to it, and in many cases, seem barely interested.

Great history lesson and certainly leaves you wondering about our future security as a nation. It was a slow read for me due to the foreign names and history events I didn’t necessarily remember. Interesting story of the CIA.

Bon livre, qui donne un sneak peek dans le fonctionnement du secteur du renseignement, et de la bureaucratie.

Malheureusement il n'y avait pas de fil conducteur au récit, et par moment on s'égarait dans la panoplie de personnages temporairement évoqués. Par ailleurs, des connaissances non détaillées des régions abordées dans ce livre nuiraient à la compréhension et à l’appréciation du lecteur.

Malgré ces points négatifs, j'ai plutôt bien apprécié le livre, et je le recommanderai (ou du moins certaines parties), à des proches voulant apprendre un peu plus sur quelques affaires en détail.

It was good, but if you had read his second book first then this one almost becomes obsolete ~ almost. This reader finished,'See No Evil' after he had already read Baer's first book ('Sleeping with the Enemy') and to be quite honest, he wasn't much the wiser. That is to NOT say that this reader didn't enjoy it because he did. Baer's descriptions into central Asia were just mind-boggling as were his stories about Beirut, Lebanon. His ability to live away from his wife and family for long periods of time were just amazing and not only should Mr. Baer be commended for that, but also hats off to his wife too. (She deserves a medal for putting up with a husband that was never home). What really disturbed this reader, however, was the picture he painted of the CIA in Washington pandering to whims and wishes of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. It was the central theme to his book (after all that's the books title) and he gave a third of the book that focus.

This reader thought, however, that if you really interested in this aspect then, you could almost skip the book entirely and read his second one instead. 'Sleeping with the Enemy', spends its' entirety on how the US and the CIA "climb into bed' with Riyadh all for the sale of oil. Also, perhaps, Mr. Baer could have clarified the moral dilemma he faced as a CIA agent about killing another human based on information gathered about that person. It was almost as if he had the right to assume the mantle of God: I deem death to that person who is a known 'terrorist'. Well, that so called terrorist still has basic human rights which includes the right to fair and just day in court. Further, he gave the example where an entire building with people inside it (such as real families, women and children) were all killed because it was the "easiest way" to terminate the target. This person saw an incredible moral dilemma that unfolded which the author didn't really address.. How could all these innocent people be killed (could I say murdered) just to murder a murderer (or a known terrorist, a single individual). The ends does not justify the means when so many innocent people are in the wrong place at the wrong time. There were better ways to apprehend the known criminal by waiting for the person to leave the building and then handcuffing him. Lastly, this person also thought that the US had a social and moral obligation to build relations with countries in peril through investment, infrastructure, finance, schools and employment and NOT just to terminate 'targets' in those countries. Even so, believe it or not, this reader still actually enjoyed the book.
3 stars.

Robert Baer has lived the real life of a CIA operative: sorties in former Soviet sattelites, covert operations in Lebanon, a restive and unsatisfying post in Paris. And, fortunately for readers, he has taken copious notes along the way.

I came across "See No Evil" _ part memoir, part lament _ after recently re-watching a movie it inspired, "Syriana." It is an entertaining, mole's eye view of the intelligence community. Baer takes you from his itinerant childhood in Europe and restless college days through his career in the CIA, which he applied to more or less on a whim.

We go from the fabled CIA Farm in Virginia's Tidewater area to the badlands of Lebanon, Tajikistan, northern Iraq and beyond. Baer is a wry, if jaded, observer. This is the life of a real intelligence operative and he is candid about the trade-offs, schemes and, at times, utter incompetence he encounters. This is an entertaining, if bracing, journey. We'll meet ex Soviet generals, Hezbollah hardmen, assassins, government bureaucrats, snaky oil men. They're all rendered in full.

A fairly bleak narrative unfolds. Baer believes that the intelligence industry is compromised, beholden to politics and capitalism as never before. The author left the CIA a few years before the 2001 terror attacks that fundamentally changed so many things. But so much of this can be read as his own guided map of how we arrived at that point.

Baer has plenty of theories -- he lays out a convincing case that the deadly bombing of the U.S. embassy in Lebanon in 1983 can be tied back to Iran. And he speculates, less convincingly but no less ardently, that the Sept. 11 terror attacks must have involved more than just Al Qaeda's planners. Again, Baer points the finger toward Iran but with considerably less information to back up the claim. Whatever its merits, the idea that someone with Baer's considerable background in terrorism and intelligence believes it lends it some credence.

Where the book loses some momentum is when Baer gets caught up in his own kvetches. He feels hard done by certain aspects of CIA life, and was twice, by his own telling, the victim of NSC staffers run amok. At key points, in Baer's narrative, he is undermined by some desk-jockeys who would not dream of the in-the-field operations he carried out for 20 plus years in the CIA.

This may be so. And Baer is forceful and convincing, but there's no real way to adjudicate the case. Beter is to ignore that background noise and focus on what "Evil" is: a worthwhile, fast-paced read that gives both much more insight into the CIA and the mindset of its ground troops than has previously been available. Baer is an entertaining, lucid writer and this "Evil" is well worth the time.