1/2 star extra if you are interested in the contemporary Middle East in particular. For that limited audience, 2.5 stars. This is one of those memoirs, of which we have quite a few in the past 30 years, in this case from the CIA troop, this one with some blacked-out words and phrases. Above all else, this account gives interesting detail on the policy machinations behind CIA posture in dealing with insurgent groups and rebels, particularly in the 90s. For any member or former member of the U.S. bureaucracy (me, DOD), the arcane debates and conclusions explaining which targets will be pursued, which will be ignored, and which informants are deemed to be less than credible, will be all too familiar. In fact, this book relates stories which will be familiar to foreign servants and embassy-dwellers of many countries, not only in North America, but also in Europe, etc. The reasoning and approaches of all these security elements (et al), no matter in what country, are similar--at least up to a certain point.
One of the points Baer comments on is that in the 90s, primarily under the Clinton administration, many in the CIA and elsewhere in the U.S. government felt their hands were tied; they were not permitted the full range of action they would have preferred; a more cautious age had dawned. This is the meaning of Baer's title, "See No Evil." Whether this was true or not, let readers of this book (and others like it) decide.
Enjoy.

2.5 stars - 5/10

This book is about the true story of a ground soldier in the CIA's war on terrorism, go figure. While the book had some interesting parts, it just wasn't really for me. Me being a European that has no real interest in the technical nitty-gritty practices of the CIA, found this book to be pretty boring. Not that what was happening wasn't interesting, it's just filled with abbreviations that I didn't know the meaning of, and while the meaning was at the end of the book which I found out halfway, it still didn't really help because it constantly took me out of it on every page.

What interested me most was that the CIA is really a husk of its former self. It went from a good and proper spying operation to... not much really, in comparison. The book talks about how the CIA and Washington had a lot of opportunities to take out certain terrorists, but they never did, which lead to a lot more death than needed. You could feel the anger and annoyance that Baer felt.

All in all, would I recommend it? If you're interested in some of the history of the CIA, absolutely. If you're like me and you don't like reading about topics that don't really interest you and you only want to read it because it's on your bookshelf and you want to finish it just for that reason? Then... I'd say give it the good ol' skip.

Excellent and raw, Mr. Baer takes the reader through the world of espionage and some of the darkest years of middle eastern history. The Lebanese conflict amply highlights failure of CIA and US administration in understanding the changing dynamics of new age warfare. It is no wonder that the political correctness and attempt to shove everything into ethical frames resulted in weakening of national security. Baer shows that the world beyond niceties need practical approach to secure the nations assets and at times it takes one to put aside academic judgements of moral righteousness.
Crystal clear in its approach and limited but focused narrative to understand how nations fail themselves when they walk the garden path of ethical, moral idealism and avoid practical realities.

An amazing book. If, like me, you watched CNN and BBC World during the '80s and '90s, and wondered what was really going on in the Middle East then this book will tell you.

Robert Baer is a very good writer and the plot reads like a Boys Own Annual.

My favourite story is of a Washington staffer sent to Beirut as a case agent. He was quickly suckered into paying US dollars to buy a set of plans of the sewer system of South Beirut. He didn't know that South Beirut had always been an illegal settlement and had never had any sewers.

Overall a dispiriting view of the spectrum of human behaviour and motivations. A true hero (who joined the Pesh Merga in a muddy Nissan pickup to overthrow Saddam Hussein in 1995), whose objectives were undermined and undercut by political correctness, petty Beltway wars and careerism. People who can write a memo that sounds good but doesn't include any of the salient facts.

In terms of fighting the wars you've heard of and the wars you've never heard of, I picked up the book, flicked to the pictures in the middle, and there was a picture of him with a militia of AK47-toting Yaghnobi, from the Yaghnob valley in Tajikistan. Even he describes that border region as the seventh circle of hell.

This book actually changed my world view of human affairs and human behaviour.

Invisible

The source book for George Clooney's Syriana. Baer's account is remarkable for revealing all that's wrong with the arrogant mind-set of a country that believes it has the right to interfere with the internal affairs of its neighbors.

The second of two audio books I got for a 16-hr drive. Out of all the possibilities in the library, I picked this one because the author's last name jumped out at me (me), and also because I've seen him quite a bit on CNN.

I really liked his narration of his early years and inculcation to the CIA. This bit was an undemanding and fast-paced personal story. When we got past his India stint and into the Middle-East years, things got heavier.

This is a serious book by a serious dude. One thing that held me back from really committing to sticking with the book was the fact that it was written so long ago. I mean, I have shirts that are older than this book, but so much has happened since 2002 that I question the topicality of the perspectives and cautionary statements that Baer makes.

I will say that the Middle-East stuff sent my thinking on a tangent, which was about the notion of political correctness. To be perfectly transparent, whenever I hear someone identifying "political correctness" as a major problem in America, my bias is to pigeon-hole that person as an ignorant jerk, probably a bigot, probably anti-woman and anti-gay. I imagine someone who thinks that oppression of white males is a thing. This someone also revels in the First-Amendment right to express views I find irredeemably stupid but can't live with the idea that people will criticize the holder of those views.

Bob Baer, on the other hand, talked about political correctness from the perspective of a CIA "ground soldier". In this context, he experienced the outright refusal of his chain of command to authorize intelligence-gathering on known terrorists, due to political considerations. So it's kind of a classical definition of political correctness. And from this perspective I totally share the rage against the stupidity of worrying about political niceties in the face of bad guys who are intent on waging war on American civilians.

After about six hours, and having daydreamed my way through said tangent, I found the relentless barrage of names, dates, and terrorist network connections to be beyond my ability to follow. So that was it. I want to see what else he's written more recently.

For those of you who have seen Syriana, Clooney's character is allegedly based on Baer. But what I got out of this book was not the story of a good solider who believed in democracy and was thwarted by dark forces in Washington. Instead, I got the story of a C.I.A. cowboy who most likely did more harm than good in the region and was thwarted in his attempts at further meddling in the Middle East by the incompetence of the suits at Langley.

This books isn't Syriana. Its a memoir of one operatives time in the Middler East, it's more about bragging and settling scores than anything else.* However, I still think it's worth reading. Baer's recollections of Lebanon during he civil war (and especially of he bombing of the U.S. embassy are obvious biased, but still totally fascinating) and his story of getting knifed at the end of his career in Washington is probably a pretty accurate story of how forces in Washington move against each other. This is a quick read, and worth it I think if you're interested in the region or the C.I.A.

*and it is a little beyond me why Sy Hersh wrote the introduction, but whatever.

An excellent real-life narrative of life as a CIA operative in the decades leading to 9/11. You can't miss Bob Baer's message, since he repeats it so often, on the importance of on-the-ground operatives for intelligence, rather than relying on high-tech means alone. He also has interesting insights into the political correctness that paralysed the CIA after the Iran contra affair. I experienced this tale as an audiobook, superbly narrated by Sean Barrett. Man, is this Barrett guy good or what!

Interesting story and criticism of CIA and Washington bureaucracy

An excellent book written by a former CIA agent who has been there. The thing I liked about his writing and his story is that he doesn't take himself too seriously, has a sense of humor, and does (did) his job very well.

I saw an impressive interview with Robert B Baer 20 years ago that I remember to this day. He came across so well, expressed himself so clearly and openly. By comparison, his book is a disappointment: page after page of dialogue interspersed with dense text with multiple names and abbreviations. Admittedly, there is a glossary at the back but I tend to lose patience, end up wondering who the intelligence books are for. They all - not only this particular book - seem to follow the logic that you, the reader, are in the know and therefore explanations are unnecessary. However, Baer spent several years in the Middle East and I would have loved to read about his surprises or difficulties with the Arabic personal names for one. Even the photograph captions are disappointing. The reader who has not seen the tv interview, will not learn what the author looks like although there are several photos of him in the book. It is sort of guesswork as I believe most intelligence gathering is.