Rating: 
Summary: Lots of Evil in the World
Review: Having just finished reading the book, I rushed to get this review on the site. With the exception of being plagued by constant typos, the text reads smoothly and is segmented to give different aspects of the larger picture. Baer, a man who spent 25+ years in the CIA (most of those while posted in overseas assignments), gained firsthand information from terrorists. The effects of the intelligence he gathered may be invisible to us for the very fact that he was able to collect and stop the proposed action. Baer blames the overly politicized machine that has become the CIA in recent years for its failure to foresee the attacks on US interests in recent years. There is no blame placed on the CIA for its ignoring information that had been received about proposed attacks. Rather, the blame is placed for the lack of intelligence gathering.Baer lets the average reader in on some of the inner-workings of the CIA. This is not a spy novel, far from it, but instead we get the chance to see what running an agent is really like. Because there is a fair amount of sensitive information that is revealed the CIA had to screen the book first. In a nice move, Baer decided to leave the CIA blackouts in place. As you are reading about a case officer or the Saudi Royal family, a sentence will be covered with black markings. In this way, we don't know exactly what the information was, but there is enough there to keep me interested. Why 4 stars?:
The only reason I took a star away from this book was due to Baer's constant references to Middle Eastern contacts. While he does a good job of giving background information, the situations are so complicated I occasionally had a hard time keeping up with them. I do recommend this book to any American who wants to know more about how international terrorism takes place and to those who feel that the United States has become overly politicized.
Rating: 
Summary: An Excellent book by an American patriot
Review: Robert Baer is a true American patriot. As a 24 year old former Marine and Political Science major, who hopes to work for the CIA in counter terrorisim, I picked this bool up and was immediately impressed. Baer goes in depth into the training he recieved and the missions he was sent on. He talk about the American Governments lack of understandin about Muslim extremists, and how America responded wrongly against threats from Hezbollah and Al Qaida. America should have mercilassly gone after the cowards of Hezbollah and Iran, after they killed our Marines and kidnapped America citizens. We also should have dealt with Al Qaida and Osama Bin Laden back in the 90's before Sept 11th. Baer concludes all these things in his book, which is exciting and very well written. One of the most shocking things in the book, is how we could have killed Saddam Hussein in the mid 90's, but instead backed off. Baer was the point man for what could have been a great coup against Saddam, instead he was shamelessly betrayed by the CIA and the Justice Dept. This book serves as a reminder that not everyone is the intelligence community has America's best intentions in mind, and that in the future CIA agents, and leaders must be willing to act on thier own to destroy Americas enemies, and keep Americans safe from terror.
Rating:
Summary: Is it worth the money?
Review: Is it worth the money? Every penny. The anecdotes and themes are taught and suspenseful and the author speaks with authority. There will be few moments when you are bored are distracted by epic macho stories - the author gets to the point. Mingled with the personal account are stories from behind the scenes in Washington that make for a fascinating peek at the inner workings of this secretive organization. It's hard to find a book of this nature that is candid about the author's flaws and emotional turmoil. Combine this book with David Bannon's Interpol expose, Race Against Evil, to get a highly personal feel for what it must be really like to live in the world of secrets. Well worth a read!
Rating:
Summary: Engaging, frank and open
Review: In an era following one of the biggest failures of the U.S. intelligence community and when some suggest that James Woolsey should play a prominant role in post-war Iraq, the American public needs an honest, first-hand account of the behind the scenes working of the CIA and the political context within which it operates. This is exactly what Mr. Baer provides. His prose is engaging, intelligent and forthright. Mr. Baer has managed to weave together his own experience as a clandestine manager in India, post-Soviet Union Tajikistan, Paris, Beirut and Iraq with the political intrigues taking place behind the scenes in Washington.
Rating: 
Summary: Good insights about the CIA and little insight into the M.E.
Review: This is a nice, light read well-suited for travel. Readers shouldn't come here to learn about the Middle East, but they will gain a lot of information if they are more interested in seeing how the CIA works overseas in terms of its straightforward spying operations. Nothing new or shocking is revealed here, but the statements made about the evolving CIA itself are interesting enough to keep interest. From the perspective of the author, the CIA needs major reform and a return to its roots of low-tech manpowered spying as his story seems to be one of a CIA that failed to fight terrorism with enough grit due to its overdependence on tech and the crippling effects of Washtington political intrigue, bureaucracy, and 'political correctness'. Though Baer is by no means a profound analyst, his gripes are plenty enough to make one reconsider how we think about the CIA's role.
Rating:
Summary: Good read, lots of info
Review: Robert Baer does an excellent job of laying out what he thinks is wrong with the intelligence community in the wake of the Trade Towers disaster. I think together with "Inside Delta Force" and "the Threatening Storm" a broad picture of how our governments defense system works behind the curtains.
To be sure Baer is merciless when describing the CIA he returned to in the 90's after being overseas for so long. He spares no administration blame from the 80's to the 90's. I think one thing he may not address (and how could he, he wasn't there) was after the Iran/Contras and all the double dealing in south America of the Reagan era, many people in Washington saw the CIA as courting disaster and the CIA was gleefully happy to oblige in pulling back its agents and dump money into technology.
With "Inside Delta Force" Erice Haney spares the CIA no affection in his dealings with them in Latin America. This goes to show that for all the good that people like Baer were doing , there were others in the ranks that were serving more important financial "national interests". Baer goes at length to show in his book about the money and oil dealings that plagued Clinton. He goes on to say that for all the press hubub about his contributors, no one in Congress really wanted to go after this "for real" because the money was spread around to all parties. I guess John McCain was right.
The problem was in the process that the importance of the mid east got shoved on the back burner. Still a fine piece of reporting and a first hand account of what we did and what we didn't do that led us to where this country now stands.
Rating: 
Summary: Credibility...
Review: While Robert Baer's recollections and analysis can occasionally be interesting, he's not always very insightful. Here's The New Yorker's Seymour Hersh, quoting Baer, a little more than one week before the Saddam's downfall and Baghdad's liberation: "Robert Baer, a former C.I.A. Middle East operative, told me in a telephone call from Jordan, "Everybody wants to fight. The whole nation of Iraq is fighting to defend Iraq. Not Saddam. They've been given the high sign, and we are courting disaster. If we take fifty or sixty casualties a day and they die by the thousands, they're still winning. It's a jihad, and it's a good thing to die. This is no longer a secular war." There were press reports of mujahideen arriving from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Algeria for "martyrdom operations."" Or not. And it puts a bit of a dent in Baer's credibility.
Rating:
Summary: A LOT OF BANG FOR THE BUCK!
Review: One of the interesting things about this book is that the author, being a former CIA agent, has to run anything he plans to publish past the CIA and let them "blackline" it. These blacklines are left in the book, so you can see what the CIA thought was important to delete, which, surpisingly, isn't much. There are a lot of names and dates in here that are not deleted, and a lot of information that you would never know if you just watched the news. This book was a fascinating look into the CIA and the changes created by politics, mistakes, and differing opinions of the CIA's mission.
Rating:
Summary: Stop everything, read this book now!
Review: If the date Sept. 11, 2001 means anything to you, you must read this book, now! This book is so wonderfully written and jam-packed with great detail and info that you will not put it down. The intelligence community needs men like Baer. After reading this book you will agree that Mr. Baer is a true American hero. Read, enjoy, then give this book to someone you care about.
Rating:
Summary: Everything you need to know about the CIA in the 90's
Review: Baer began as a CIA agent in the 80's. His book sputters through his life in the CIA. It reads like a book written by an amateur and barely roped in by his editor. But his experiences are fascinating. He spent most of his time overseas in the spy trenches with the people who matter today. His ability to use names, dates and locations is amazing. It's not dry at all. It's not James Bond but it is real life. There are lots of names you see on TV today and lots of research regarding terrorism. The last part of the book is a stinging slap to the face of the Washington DC political Babylon. He effectively demonstrates the power of money and big oil in the US capital. The focus on money in the 90's left us vunerable on 9/11. Baer shows you how it was done.
This is a must read for everyone concerned with terrorism.
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