The Shadow-gloom and Weight of the Sacred

A few days ago, I finished reading Robert Baer's memoir See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism. It is this memoir that influenced the film Syriana--one of my all-time favorite movies. (Syriana isn't a film adaptation of the book; it is a fiction story that came about from screenwriter/director Stephen Gaghan's having read the book.)

Robert Baer was recruited by the CIA out of college and began working for them not long after his graduation. He gathered intelligence in some of the most adverse situations of the last 40 years: Sudan, Beirut, Iraq, Afghanistan, among others. The defining moment for Baer's CIA career was the 1983 U.S. Embassy Bombing in Beirut, which killed 63 people, including 8 CIA operatives. Much of the book discusses the investigation of this bombing and Baer's frustration from Washington's seeming indifference to a thorough and conclusive investigation.

Baer bemoans what he sees as a change in culture at the CIA. In the beginning, the CIA was concerned with attaining intelligence, but during Baer's time there, CIA workers became more concerned with not tarnishing their name in political circles. Congress becomes more concerned with showing satellite images from their seat on Capitol Hill than with intelligence reports, which prompts the CIA to focus on satellite imagery rather than on-the-field operations. Eventually, the political concerns at the CIA become too much for Baer to deal with and he retires.

Baer spends seven or eight years before he finds out who drove the van into the Beirut embassy, and he ultimately concludes the bombing was funded by Iran, but he argues that this is how good intelligence is attained: years of leg work, fostering relationships with scoundrels in order to gain information, and taking risks (i.e., being free of political ambition).

See No Evil is a short, pithy book, and because it centers around the world of espionage, it's an exciting book. Baer is not a great writer. Don't expect the eloquence of one of Frank McCourt's memoirs, but it's still better writing than L. Ron Hubbard. See No Evil is also a good companion piece to Steve Coll's magnificent Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 11, 2001 (which I reviewed here).

I've been trying to learn more about U.S. involvement in the Middle East and South Asia, and anyone interested in this topic will find See No Evil an enjoyable and informative book. Also, readers interested in the CIA and the intelligence gathering process will find this book interesting. And, if you're not interested in those topics, I'd still recommend See No Evil because you might become interested after reading.