Robert Baer
Encyclopedia
Robert "Bob" Booker Baer (born July 1, 1952) is an American author and a former CIA
case officer assigned to the Middle East
. He is TIME.com's intelligence
columnist
and has contributed to Vanity Fair
, The Wall Street Journal
, and The Washington Post
. Baer is a frequent commentator and author about issues related to international relations, espionage and U.S. foreign policy.
and raised in Aspen, Colorado
, and aspired to become a professional ski
er. He spent many years of his childhood with his mother in Europe, before returning to the US. After a fairly poor academic performance during his freshman year at high school
, his mother sent him to Indiana's Culver Military Academy. In 1976, after graduating from the Georgetown University
School of Foreign Service
and entering the University of California, Berkeley
, Baer decided to join the CIA's Directorate of Operations (now the National Clandestine Service) as a case officer. Upon admittance to the CIA, Baer engaged in a year's training, which included a four-month paramilitary
course and foreign language courses.
He is fluent in Arabic, French
, German
, Persian
(Farsi), as well as his native English
. He is also conversant in Russian
, Tajik
, and Baluch
.
, India
; in Beirut, Lebanon; in Dushanbe, Tajikistan; in Morocco
, and in Salah al-Din in Iraqi Kurdistan
. During the mid-1990s Baer was sent to Iraq with the mission of organizing opposition to Iraqi president Saddam Hussein
but was recalled, and investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
, for allegedly conspiring to assassinate the Iraqi leader. While in Salah al-Din, Baer unsuccessfully urged the Clinton administration to back an internal Iraqi attempt to overthrow Hussein (organized by a group of Sunni military officers, the Iraqi National Congress
' Ahmad Chalabi, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
's Jalal Talabani
) in March 1995 with covert CIA assistance. Baer quit the Agency in 1997 and received the CIA's Career Intelligence Medal on March 11, 1998. Baer wrote the book See No Evil
documenting his experiences while working for the Agency. The C.I. Desk: FBI and CIA Counterintelligence As Seen From My Cubicle, by Christopher Lynch, Dog Ear Publishing, ISBN 9781608447398, describes parts of the contentious CIA pre-publication review process for Baer's first book.
In a blurb for See No Evil
Seymour Hersh
said Baer "was considered perhaps the best on-the-ground field officer in the Middle East."
Baer offers an analysis of the Middle East
through the lens of his experiences as a CIA operative. His political outlook does not hew exclusively to either conservative
or liberal viewpoints. Through his years as a clandestine officer, he gained a very thorough knowledge of the Middle East, Arab world
and former Republics of the Soviet Union
. Over the years, Baer has become a strong advocate of the Agency's need to increase Human Intelligence (HUMINT
) through the recruitment of agents. Baer, long a supporter of the theory that the PFLP GC brought down Pan Am Flight 103
, has recently begun to promote the theory that Iran was behind the bombing.
In 2004, he told a reporter of the British
political weekly New Statesman
, regarding the way the CIA deals with terrorism suspects, "If you want them to be tortured, you send them to Syria. If you want someone to disappear—never to see them again—you send them to Egypt."
on June 9, 2006, Baer was asked if he believed "that there was an aspect of 'inside job' to the September 11, 2001 attacks
within the U.S. government". He replied, "There is that possibility, the evidence points at it." However, he later stated, "For the record, I don't believe that the World Trade Center was brought down by our own explosives, or that a rocket, rather than an airliner, hit the Pentagon. I spent a career in the CIA trying to orchestrate plots, wasn't all that good at it, and certainly couldn't carry off 9/11. Nor could the real pros I had the pleasure to work with."
had been orchestrated by Iran, and that a secret dossier proving this was to be presented as evidence in the final appeal by convicted Libya
n bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi. According to Baer, this suggests that Megrahi's withdrawal of the appeal in return for a release on compassionate grounds was encouraged to prevent this information from being presented in court.
and Sleeping with the Devil
were the basis for the 2005 Academy Award-winning Warner Brothers motion picture Syriana
. The film's character Bob Barnes (played by George Clooney
) is loosely based on Baer. For this role, Clooney won a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
. To better resemble Baer, Clooney gained weight. When Baer learned of this, he was inspired to get back into shape.
For the past two years, Robert Baer has worked closely with the director Kevin Toolis and Many Rivers Films, a Channel 4
production company in the UK, and presented four authoritative documentary series, Cult of the Suicide Bomber I, The Cult of the Suicide Bomber II and Cult of the Suicide Bomber III on the origins of suicide bombing. Cult of the Suicide Bomber I was nominated for an Emmy
in 2006. In 2008 Baer presented Car Bomb – a film history about the weapon
.
Baer was interviewed in the Robert Greenwald
documentary Uncovered: The War on Iraq
. He was also one of the main participants in the 2009 documentary film Lockerbie Revisited
by Dutch film director Gideon Levy.
Baer recently wrote an online forward to Hoodwinked, by John Perkins, on Amazon.com
:
Following reports of an attempt by Iranian agents to assassinate the ambassador of Saudi Arabia to the USA, Baer told die Zeit
that he doubted that Iran was behind the attempt since there seemed no obvious motive and Iran had been more careful in past collaboration with terrorists.
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
case officer assigned to the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
. He is TIME.com's intelligence
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
columnist
Columnist
A columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs....
and has contributed to Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
, The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
, and The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
. Baer is a frequent commentator and author about issues related to international relations, espionage and U.S. foreign policy.
Early life
Baer was born in Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and raised in Aspen, Colorado
Aspen, Colorado
The City of Aspen is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the city population was 5,804 in 2005...
, and aspired to become a professional ski
Ski
A ski is a long, flat device worn on the foot, usually attached through a boot, designed to help the wearer slide smoothly over snow. Originally intended as an aid to travel in snowy regions, they are now mainly used for recreational and sporting purposes...
er. He spent many years of his childhood with his mother in Europe, before returning to the US. After a fairly poor academic performance during his freshman year at high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
, his mother sent him to Indiana's Culver Military Academy. In 1976, after graduating from the Georgetown University
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...
School of Foreign Service
Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service
The Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service is a school within Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., United States. Jesuit priest Edmund A...
and entering the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, Baer decided to join the CIA's Directorate of Operations (now the National Clandestine Service) as a case officer. Upon admittance to the CIA, Baer engaged in a year's training, which included a four-month paramilitary
Paramilitary
A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....
course and foreign language courses.
He is fluent in Arabic, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
(Farsi), as well as his native English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
. He is also conversant in Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, Tajik
Tajik language
Tajik, Tajik Persian, or Tajiki, is a variety of modern Persian spoken in Central Asia. Historically Tajiks called their language zabani farsī , meaning Persian language in English; the term zabani tajikī, or Tajik language, was introduced in the 20th century by the Soviets...
, and Baluch
Baluch
Baluch may refer to:*Balochistan region of south and southwest Asia*Baloch people, a people inhabiting the region of Balochistan*Sindhi Baloch, a community of Baloch descent found in the province of Sindh in Pakistan...
.
Career
During his twenty one - years CIA career, Baer has publicly acknowledged field assignments in Madras and New DelhiNew Delhi
New Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
; in Beirut, Lebanon; in Dushanbe, Tajikistan; in Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
, and in Salah al-Din in Iraqi Kurdistan
Iraqi Kurdistan
Iraqi Kurdistan or Kurdistan Region is an autonomous region of Iraq. It borders Iran to the east, Turkey to the north, Syria to the west and the rest of Iraq to the south. The regional capital is Arbil, known in Kurdish as Hewlêr...
. During the mid-1990s Baer was sent to Iraq with the mission of organizing opposition to Iraqi president Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
but was recalled, and investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
, for allegedly conspiring to assassinate the Iraqi leader. While in Salah al-Din, Baer unsuccessfully urged the Clinton administration to back an internal Iraqi attempt to overthrow Hussein (organized by a group of Sunni military officers, the Iraqi National Congress
Iraqi National Congress
The Iraqi National Congress is an umbrella Iraqi opposition group led by Ahmed Chalabi. It was formed with the aid and direction of the United States government following the Gulf War, for the purpose of fomenting the overthrow of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.-History:INC was set up following the...
' Ahmad Chalabi, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan is a Kurdish political party in Iraqi Kurdistan. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan was founded on June 1, 1975, by coordinations between Jalal Talabani and Nawshirwan Mustafa...
's Jalal Talabani
Jalal Talabani
Jalal Talabani is the sixth and current President of Iraq, a leading Kurdish politician. He is the first non-Arab president of Iraq, although Abdul Kareem Qasim was half Kurdish....
) in March 1995 with covert CIA assistance. Baer quit the Agency in 1997 and received the CIA's Career Intelligence Medal on March 11, 1998. Baer wrote the book See No Evil
See No Evil (book)
See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War Against Terrorism is a 2003 memoir by Robert Baer, a former CIA case officer in the Directorate of Operations. Baer begins with his upbringing in the US and Europe and continues with a tour of his CIA experiences across the globe...
documenting his experiences while working for the Agency. The C.I. Desk: FBI and CIA Counterintelligence As Seen From My Cubicle, by Christopher Lynch, Dog Ear Publishing, ISBN 9781608447398, describes parts of the contentious CIA pre-publication review process for Baer's first book.
In a blurb for See No Evil
See No Evil (book)
See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War Against Terrorism is a 2003 memoir by Robert Baer, a former CIA case officer in the Directorate of Operations. Baer begins with his upbringing in the US and Europe and continues with a tour of his CIA experiences across the globe...
Seymour Hersh
Seymour Hersh
Seymour Myron Hersh is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and author based in Washington, D.C. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker magazine on military and security matters...
said Baer "was considered perhaps the best on-the-ground field officer in the Middle East."
Baer offers an analysis of the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
through the lens of his experiences as a CIA operative. His political outlook does not hew exclusively to either conservative
American conservatism
Conservatism in the United States has played an important role in American politics since the 1950s. Historian Gregory Schneider identifies several constants in American conservatism: respect for tradition, support of republicanism, preservation of "the rule of law and the Christian religion", and...
or liberal viewpoints. Through his years as a clandestine officer, he gained a very thorough knowledge of the Middle East, Arab world
Arab world
The Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...
and former Republics of the Soviet Union
Republics of the Soviet Union
The Republics of the Soviet Union or the Union Republics of the Soviet Union were ethnically-based administrative units that were subordinated directly to the Government of the Soviet Union...
. Over the years, Baer has become a strong advocate of the Agency's need to increase Human Intelligence (HUMINT
HUMINT
HUMINT, a syllabic abbreviation of the words HUMan INTelligence, refers to intelligence gathering by means of interpersonal contact, as opposed to the more technical intelligence gathering disciplines such as SIGINT, IMINT and MASINT...
) through the recruitment of agents. Baer, long a supporter of the theory that the PFLP GC brought down Pan Am Flight 103
Pan Am Flight 103
Pan Am Flight 103 was Pan American World Airways' third daily scheduled transatlantic flight from London Heathrow Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport...
, has recently begun to promote the theory that Iran was behind the bombing.
In 2004, he told a reporter of the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
political weekly New Statesman
New Statesman
New Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....
, regarding the way the CIA deals with terrorism suspects, "If you want them to be tortured, you send them to Syria. If you want someone to disappear—never to see them again—you send them to Egypt."
September 2001 attacks
In an interview with Thom HartmannThom Hartmann
Thom Hartmann is an American radio host, author, former psychotherapist and entrepreneur, and progressive political commentator. His nationally-syndicated radio show, The Thom Hartmann Program, airs in the United States and has 2.75 million listeners a week...
on June 9, 2006, Baer was asked if he believed "that there was an aspect of 'inside job' to the September 11, 2001 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
within the U.S. government". He replied, "There is that possibility, the evidence points at it." However, he later stated, "For the record, I don't believe that the World Trade Center was brought down by our own explosives, or that a rocket, rather than an airliner, hit the Pentagon. I spent a career in the CIA trying to orchestrate plots, wasn't all that good at it, and certainly couldn't carry off 9/11. Nor could the real pros I had the pleasure to work with."
Iran
In June 2009, Baer commented on the disputed election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as Iranian President and the protests that accompanied it. "For too many years now, the Western media have looked at Iran through the narrow prism of Iran's liberal middle class — an intelligentsia that is addicted to the Internet and American music and is more ready to talk to the Western press, including people with money to buy tickets to Paris or Los Angeles. Reading Lolita in Tehran is a terrific book, but does it represent the real Iran?"Lockerbie bombing
On 23 August 2009, Robert Baer claimed that the CIA had known from the start that the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103Pan Am Flight 103
Pan Am Flight 103 was Pan American World Airways' third daily scheduled transatlantic flight from London Heathrow Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport...
had been orchestrated by Iran, and that a secret dossier proving this was to be presented as evidence in the final appeal by convicted Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
n bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi. According to Baer, this suggests that Megrahi's withdrawal of the appeal in return for a release on compassionate grounds was encouraged to prevent this information from being presented in court.
Books and media
Baer's books See No EvilSee No Evil (book)
See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War Against Terrorism is a 2003 memoir by Robert Baer, a former CIA case officer in the Directorate of Operations. Baer begins with his upbringing in the US and Europe and continues with a tour of his CIA experiences across the globe...
and Sleeping with the Devil
Sleeping With the Devil
Sleeping With the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude is a critique written by former Central Intelligence Agency officer Robert Baer of the relationship that exists between the United States and Saudi Arabia...
were the basis for the 2005 Academy Award-winning Warner Brothers motion picture Syriana
Syriana
Syriana is a 2005 geopolitical thriller film written and directed by Stephen Gaghan, and executive produced by George Clooney, who also stars in the film with an ensemble cast. Gaghan's screenplay is loosely adapted from Robert Baer's memoir See No Evil...
. The film's character Bob Barnes (played by George Clooney
George Clooney
George Timothy Clooney is an American actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. For his work as an actor, he has received two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award...
) is loosely based on Baer. For this role, Clooney won a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
. To better resemble Baer, Clooney gained weight. When Baer learned of this, he was inspired to get back into shape.
For the past two years, Robert Baer has worked closely with the director Kevin Toolis and Many Rivers Films, a Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
production company in the UK, and presented four authoritative documentary series, Cult of the Suicide Bomber I, The Cult of the Suicide Bomber II and Cult of the Suicide Bomber III on the origins of suicide bombing. Cult of the Suicide Bomber I was nominated for an Emmy
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
in 2006. In 2008 Baer presented Car Bomb – a film history about the weapon
Car bomb
A car bomb, or truck bomb also known as a Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device , is an improvised explosive device placed in a car or other vehicle and then detonated. It is commonly used as a weapon of assassination, terrorism, or guerrilla warfare, to kill the occupants of the vehicle,...
.
Baer was interviewed in the Robert Greenwald
Robert Greenwald
Robert Greenwald is an American film director, film producer, and political activist.-Early life:Greenwald was born and raised in New York City, the son of Ruth and Harold Greenwald. He attended the city's High School of Performing Arts...
documentary Uncovered: The War on Iraq
Uncovered: The War on Iraq
Uncovered: The War on Iraq is a 2004 documentary directed by Robert Greenwald that deals with the media treatment of the developing push for an invasion of Iraq in the early 2000s and the eventual 2003 Invasion of Iraq...
. He was also one of the main participants in the 2009 documentary film Lockerbie Revisited
Lockerbie Revisited
Lockerbie Revisited is a Dutch 50-minute documentary from the VPRO television documentary series Backlight which was broadcast in the Netherlands on the eve of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi's second appeal against conviction that started at the High Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh on 28 April 2009...
by Dutch film director Gideon Levy.
Baer recently wrote an online forward to Hoodwinked, by John Perkins, on Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
:
"I wasn’t twenty pages into Hoodwinked when I realized Perkins nailed it. What got us into the mess we’re in today, the worst recession since the Great Depression, is the same grotesque capitalism cum corruption we shoved down the throat of the Third World since the end of World War II. (Yes, the Third World’s elites were cheerfully corrupted.)
We, and the rest of the West, learned the trick of selling unneeded infrastructure, services, over-sophisticated weapons--stuff that could never benefit anyone other than the people who lined their pockets. And yes, Perkins is right, the international economists and press were handmaidens to the thievery.
It was all fairly routine until 9/11, when the real gorging started. Tell the people their roof is on fire and they’ll give you whatever you ask for. Between 2001 and 2009 the Department of Defense budget increased 74 percent, and that is not to mention the hundreds of billions of dollars in related contracts. Nigeria on the Potomac.
Perkins is quick to state he doesn’t believe in a grand conspiracy theory. Few of the people who call the shots have ever met each other. They don’t have a playbook other than a couple of fraudulent economists like Milton FriedmanMilton FriedmanMilton Friedman was an American economist, statistician, academic, and author who taught at the University of Chicago for more than three decades...
and the others who worship at the altar of deregulation. No, what they have in common is an obsession with the winner takes all.
Perkins's message isn’t going to be popular. We’re a country invested in a system in which five percent of the world’s population consumes 25 percent of the world’s resources. It's a system we’re trying to sell to the world, only we don’t mention that we’ll need five planets to sustain it.
Perkins isn’t the pessimist I am. He says we can save the world if we green it--and, of course, start telling the truth to each other. Otherwise we end up a banana republicBanana republicIn political science, the pejorative term Banana Republic denotes a politically unstable country dependent upon limited primary productions , which is ruled by a plutocracy, a small, self-elected, wealthy group who exploit the country by means of a politico-economic oligarchy...
like the ones we know so well how to despoil."
Following reports of an attempt by Iranian agents to assassinate the ambassador of Saudi Arabia to the USA, Baer told die Zeit
Die Zeit
Die Zeit is a German nationwide weekly newspaper that is highly respected for its quality journalism.With a circulation of 488,036 and an estimated readership of slightly above 2 million, it is the most widely read German weekly newspaper...
that he doubted that Iran was behind the attempt since there seemed no obvious motive and Iran had been more careful in past collaboration with terrorists.
Books
- See No EvilSee No Evil (book)See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War Against Terrorism is a 2003 memoir by Robert Baer, a former CIA case officer in the Directorate of Operations. Baer begins with his upbringing in the US and Europe and continues with a tour of his CIA experiences across the globe...
: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism, Crown Publishing Group, January 2002, ISBN 0-609-60987-4. - Sleeping With the DevilSleeping With the DevilSleeping With the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude is a critique written by former Central Intelligence Agency officer Robert Baer of the relationship that exists between the United States and Saudi Arabia...
: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude, Crown Publishing Group, July 2003, ISBN 1-4000-5021-9. - Blow the House Down: A Novel, Crown Publishing Group, 2006, ISBN 1-4000-9835-1.
- The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower, Crown Publishing Group, September 2008 ISBN 0307408647
- The Company We Keep: A Husband-and-Wife True-Life Spy Story, (to be released March 8, 2011)
Articles
- "See No Evil by Robert Baer", The Guardian Unlimited, January 12, 2002.
- Interview with Frontline, March 22, 2002.
- Interview with Buzzflash.com, September 12, 2003.
- Interview with Chud.com, November 20, 2005.
- Interview with GreenCine.com June 20, 2006
- Interview with MotherJones.com, July 5, 2006
- "The Fall of the House of Saud" by Robert Baer, The Atlantic, May 2003
- "A Coming Hamas-Israel War?" by Robert Baer, TimeTime (magazine)Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, February 5, 2008 - "Justice Served: Killing Mugniyah" by Robert Baer, TimeTime (magazine)Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, February 13, 2008. - Spotlight Mystery Flights Link TVLink TVLink TV is a non-commercial American satellite television network providing "diverse perspectives on world and national issues." It is carried nationally on DirecTV and Dish Network. Link TV was launched as a daily, 24-hour non-commercial network in 1999...
- Interview with Terry Gross – Fresh Air, October 2, 2008.
- "When Will Obama Give Up the Bin Laden Ghost Hunt?" by Robert Baer, TimeTime (magazine)Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, November 18, 2008. - "Don't Forget Mousavi's Bloody Past" by Robert Baer, TimeTime (magazine)Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, June 18, 2009. - "The CIA Has Secrets. Hello?" by Robert Baer, TimeTime (magazine)Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, July 27, 2009. - "Why the CIA Can't Be Picky About Afghan Partners" by Robert Baer, TimeTime (magazine)Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, October 28, 2009. - "The Khost CIA Bombing: Assessing the Damage in Afghanistan" by Robert Baer, TimeTime (magazine)Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, January 8, 2010. - "Why bin Laden Isn't Worth Worrying About" by Robert Baer, TimeTime (magazine)Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, January 26, 2010.
Films
- IMDB entry for Robert Baer listing films and TV interviews
- The Cult of the Suicide Bomber
- Cult of the Suicide Bomber II
- Cult of the Suicide Bomber III
- Car Bomb
- SyrianaSyrianaSyriana is a 2005 geopolitical thriller film written and directed by Stephen Gaghan, and executive produced by George Clooney, who also stars in the film with an ensemble cast. Gaghan's screenplay is loosely adapted from Robert Baer's memoir See No Evil...
See also
- William Francis BuckleyWilliam Francis BuckleyWilliam Francis Buckley was a United States Army officer and a Paramilitary Operations Officer in the Special Activities Division of the CIA. He died on or around June 3, 1985 while in the custody of Hezbollah...
(1928–1985) - John P. O'NeillJohn P. O'NeillJohn Patrick O'Neill was an American counter-terrorism expert, who worked as a special agent and eventually a Special Agent in Charge in the Federal Bureau of Investigation until late 2001...
(1952–2001) - Imad Mughniyah (1962–2008)
External links
- Hezbollah's most secretive operative BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
February 13, 2008 - Hizballah Mourns Its Shadowy Hero TimeTime (magazine)Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
February 13, 2008 - The Death of Terror's Pioneer NewsweekNewsweekNewsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
February 25, 2008 - Robet Baer Interview