See No Evil

See No Evil chronicles the twenty-five years of Robert Baer’s career as a field operative for the CIA. Bob spent many years on the ground collecting intelligence in the Middle East and is privy to much of what went on behind the scene in this volatile area. Much of the book is more fascinating than a Tom Clancy or Robert Ludlum spy novel, especially because it records real events. The people Bob dealt with and the situations he got himself into, and out of, are more colorful than any fiction author could have imagined and put down on paper.

In addition to being entertaining, it is very informative. It is one of the best books I have read on the Middle East and terrorism so far. Bob has first hand knowledge of many of the key players in the Middle East and he traces all the connections with great detail. In fact, there is so much detail it is impossible to keep all the people, places, dates and facts straight.

As a case officer, Bob recruited and ran hundreds of agents, collecting information on terrorists vital to the security of our country. He paints a vivid picture of what life is like as a real secret agent, not some James Bond fantasy. His descriptions are so realistic they draw you into the action so you feel as if you are there experiencing everything with him.

Bob has a clear purpose for writing this book, and it isn’t merely to entertain people or to boost his image. He is serious about the degeneration of America’s intelligence agencies and their increasing inability to collect valuable intelligence on our enemies. Bob clearly saw the decline of the CIA from the inside, and its devolution into near complete incompetence led him to resign. When America’s intelligence officers become more concerned with protecting their careers than in gathering intelligence, it is the beginning of the end. It was shocking to see how so many within the CIA and other intelligence agencies were not collecting intelligence and actually preventing those in the field from collecting any worthwhile intelligence.

As a result, America is blind and deaf and has no clue what is happening around the world, especially in Islamic countries. At the beginning of the Iraq war, there was not a single agent within Iraq collecting intelligence for the U.S. There are no human intelligence resources in any Muslim nation, nor has anyone penetrated any terrorist organization. It is no wonder that we were taken by surprise on 9/11.

Another problem is the politicization of the intelligence agencies. More often than not, presidents and elected officials are more concerned with their public image and getting reelected than they are in dealing realistically with terrorism. Terrorism is messy and it is easier to sweep the information under the rug than to deal with it. For example, the CIA had clear intelligence that gave them the exact date and time that the U.S. Embassy in Beirut would be bombed, but the information was never acted upon. The CIA knew from the very beginning that Iran was behind the bombing and was using the Islamic Jihadist Organization as a front to cover their tracks. But instead of punishing Iran, the U.S. chose to ignore Iran’s terrorist activities and let it get away with many more terrorist strikes. In fact, the U.S. knew that a high ranking Iranian government official was the leader of the IJO attacks, yet chose to pin their hopes on building a relationship with him in order to normalize relationships with Iran.

In the 1990s there was clear evidence that Osama bin Laden had networked with the IJO and was being backed by Iran. In fact, bin Laden had a hand in many of the IJO’s bombings. Bin Laden went to Iran and convinced them to stop trying to undermine the Central Asian states and to join him in attacking America. Bin Laden also networked with Egypt’s Islamic Brotherhood, forming the most formidable terrorist alliance in history. These three organizations, IJO, IB, and Al Qaeda are all working together to destroy the West, and they are not only determined, they are trained and equipped to carry out their goal. The attacks of 9/11 were not carried out solely by Al Qaeda, but by this new terrorist alliance. The problem is much larger than the U.S. government has let on.

The CIA and the U.S. government knew of the connections of Iran and Saudi Arabia to radical Islamic terrorist organizations yet chose to remain silent. They felt it is better to “See no evil” than to deal with the growing threat. It is easier to sweep the bad news under the rug and leave it for the next administration to deal with. Getting reelected was much more important than stopping global terrorism, especially since any effective action would be politically damaging. All the presidents in the last 15 years have glossed over the problems, kept the truth from the public, and pretended that they were doing all they could to fight terrorism, all the while refusing to act on the truth. This is why we are in such a mess today. Terrorism has grown into one of the most pernicious problems because our government didn’t have the backbone to do what is necessary to stop it while it was still a localized problem.

America’s response to 9/11 was misguided since it failed to deal with the source of terrorism. Even if we killed Osama bin Laden or captured him and paraded him down the streets of Manhattan, all we would do would be to make a martyr out of him around which millions of young Islamic men would rally. By attacking Saddam Hussein, we have only done what is easy and not what is needed. By attacking Iraq we have only infuriated all the Islamic states and given them a chance to give us a black eye.

One of the most startling revelations Bob gives is the failed attempt by the Iraqi military to overthrow Saddam Hussein. The Iraqi general behind the plot begged for American assistance but the U.S. waited until the last day to tell the general that we would not help. By then it was too late since the key players were already committed and couldn’t back out. The end result was the capture and execution of all the coupe leaders, except the general who escaped to Belgium. The U.S. could have had Saddam ousted without a single American life lost, but because Clinton didn’t have the guts to do what was right, we are stuck in Iraq today.

The key is to gather intelligence on the terrorists. We need to infiltrate their networks, and get agents on the ground who can tell us what the terrorists are planning so we can stop them. As long as we trust in satellites and high tech gadgets and refuse to employ human intelligence, we will lose the war. We also have to do what is necessary to stop the terrorists before they can strike.

Terrorists do not have bureaucracies to slow them down, bureaucrats interested in protecting their careers, calcified channels of command and do-nothing politicians. Instead, they are highly motivated, highly trained, focused and agile, forming networks when needed, and then dismantling those networks when they are finished. They are quick, intelligent, and won’t stop until they succeed. We can’t afford to play games and sweep the truth under the rug any longer.

After retiring from the CIA, Robert Baer became a consultant. He moved to Beirut and renewed old networks. In August of 2001, one of his contacts gave him a list of all the operatives in Al Qaeda along with information that they were planning something “big.” This information, along with other crucial intelligence on bin Laden, was sent to the CIA, but no response was ever given. Bob then met with a high Saudi government official who refused to even look at the list. They, too, like America, wanted to keep their head in the sand and “see no evil.”


Here are some helpful links:

http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/03/09/12_baer.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Baer

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200305/baer

http://books.guardian.co.uk/extracts/story/0,,631433,00.html

http://www.fpa.org/topics_info2414/topics_info_show.htm?doc_id=100339