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How politicized is our intelligence community compared to others. Human intelligence work, when done properly, is not necessarily good for one's career.Baer reaches out through his books to get public support for the stated mission of the CIA. Last, See No Evil is a general book about intelligence and the CIA, complete with information that should be helpful to reform the Agency.The most important aspect of this book is the picture it shows of the Central Intelligence Agency and its role in government. For example, a case officer operating in a foreign and hostile environment would naturally have to associate with foreign nationals. The events have to do mainly with violence in the Middle East and the constant power struggle there. government now recognizes this and plans to correct the problem. After listening to the audio version of See No Evil twice, ably read by the author, I feel a bit pessimistic about quick reform of the intelligence community. See No Evil is many books in one.
Beyond that, however, are the underlying problems that make human intelligence a chronic problem for government. In doing so, the case officer is exposed to investigations related to any number of charges, such as providing secret information to a foreign intelligence agent. Therefore the CIA probably benefits by having advocates such as Baer to inform the public about the need for non-politicized intelligence. But facts are supposed to be neutral and intelligence personnel are charged with getting to the truth whatever it is. There will continue to be a lack of human intelligence, which takes many years to build up, and because the political system does not readily allow human intelligence to thrive.Baer shows how many of the important people at the CIA, the remaining and flourishing "old-boy-network," enhance careers by avoiding risk. It's a biography, telling a very interesting story about how life's twists and turns shaped a young man such that he was identified by the CIA as good agent material. Baer's unusual upbringing had the advantage of giving him the ability to operate in any country independently and keep his wits about himself. However, this may be a common problem for all governments.
Politicians of either party probably will never voluntarily allow the Agency to do its job appropriately due to inherent conflicts of interests. The mere act of a case officer doing his or her job is professionally risky. Others are true professionals and risk their lives doing what they were hired to do. The matter then becomes one of relativity.
Career rewards for shaping intelligence to fit policy are too great a temptation for the all the CIA's upper echelon to avoid, I think. See No Evil does not address that question but hopefully Baer will produce another good book that does. I don't know how the intelligence community can avoid being politicized. This is also a history book, weaving a tale of many events with which Baer played a role as an intelligence gatherer.
Namely, top politicians need intelligence that suits their political purposes, whether to award contracts to donor corporations or conduct a political career-enhancing foreign policy. The true professionals, in doing their job, jeopardize their careers by definition. We all know from the newspapers that human intelligence was underutilized and not trusted compared to high-tech signal and satellite intelligence, and the U.S. Some create paperwork making it appear as if they're busy while cooperatively censoring intelligence politicians would find inconvenient.
Instead, the failure is one of bureaucratic leaders, afraid to take a risk for intelligence.The author takes the reader through a journey from his days of uncertainty as a grad student, the highly secretive spy training, and his own journey in finding Iran at the root of all evil. Politics and intelligence is all too often politicized for unnecessary agendas, but Baer seems to be able to disassociate from the potential for pointing fingers and accusing a political group for the failure of CIA operations. While the book focuses on his entirety in the CIA and takes the reader through the timeline of events, Baer is quick to reference how each event built upon the previous and the evidence continued to lead back to Iran.No doubt this book's popularity and poignant nature spawned his following book, "The Devil We Know." Baer is a skilled historian, having actually been a part of the recent history of the CIA. His account of the American politics with the Middle East is enlightening to say the least.
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. 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. I'm surprised at the large number of favorable reviews. It is very easy to criticize decisions in the past when the outcomes have already been determined. There are other better books that expose the CIA. 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.
A really eye-opening and thought provoking book.I am so glad I read it. 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.
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. 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.
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. 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.
See No Evil is by most accounts an excellent read. 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.
Defiantly a recommended read though for anyone who is curious what life is like for a spy in modern society. 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.
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.
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