Ideas y Trucos para Tener Carisma y Magnetismo Personal ("Ideas Y Trucos"/Practical Ideas Series)

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La obra es una guia practica con numerosos metodos para desarrolar la autoconfianza, mejorar la propia imagen y atraer e influir en los demas.

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Historians have given a great deal of attention to the lives and experiences of Civil War soldiers, but surprisingly little is known about navy sailors who participated in the conflict. Michael J. Bennett remedies the longstanding neglect of Civil War seamen in this comprehensive assessment of the experience of common Union sailors from 1861 to 1865.

To resurrect the voices of the "Union Jacks," Bennett combed sailors' diaries, letters, and journals. He finds that the sailors differed from their counterparts in the army in many ways. They tended to be a rougher bunch of men than the regular soldiers, drinking and fighting excessively. Those who were not foreign-born, escaped slaves, or unemployed at the time they enlisted often hailed from the urban working class rather than from rural farms and towns. In addition, most sailors enlisted for pragmatic rather than ideological reasons.

Bennett's examination provides a look into the everyday lives of sailors and illuminates where they came from, why they enlisted, and how their origins shaped their service. By showing how these Union sailors lived and fought on the sea, Bennett brings an important new perspective to our understanding of the Civil War.

Customer Reviews:

Mr. Lincoln's sailors.......2005-02-17

After reading on the civil war for 40 years or more, one complaint I've had is that no one writes of the Union navy beyond the officers from admirals downward. Since I served in the U.S. Navy from 1961-1967, it isn't strange that I would hold some interest in these earlier shipmates. So I eagerly awaited the University of North Carolina to issue this book. I purchased a copy and was not disappointed.

I feel the book to be well worthwhile if one is interested in the union jack or blue jackets of that era. Some reviewers may have found the book not quite to their liking, but my humble opinion is that with the paucity of books available on this subject, one should be thankful for almost anything that is written on the area.

One of the more interesting items in this book are the pictures and illustrations. What did these men really look like? The appearance of their hats and uniforms? Here and there, some photographic books do give a clue. But I've encountered few that had as their entire subject the blue jacket of that day. It would seem from the pictures, that one need was to have had at least one banjo on board the ship. And curiously the numbers of navy men barefoot on board. And it was also of interest the number of African American sailors serving on board many of these ships. The Navy welcomed their service at least a year before the Union army, and by war's end upwards of 18% of all Union Navy men were African Americans, honorably serving their country.

With the author's notes covering almost the final 100 pages of this book, it appears very well documented. And as with any Civil War America book from Chapel Hill, you know it is solid history. I applaud this attempt by my fellow Ohioian for his efforts to give these mostly ignored and forgotten men an open hearing. Sadly, they too seemed aware their efforts were lost to history, with the combat armies often being remembered at their expense.

For me, this book is a very good first step in the direction of revealing these men and their naval service to our contemporary readers. I await even more of their stories.

Semper Fi.

Thoroughly Satisfied.......2005-01-07

Northern Sailors don't get much respect. While they certainly didn't attain the glory that soldiers did during the war, and while they didn't see nearly as much combat as most soldiers, they did their duty. Yet, they are underepresented. Of the thousands upon thousands of books written about the Civil War, this is the first to actually examine the psyche, background, physical characterisitics, and everyday life of Union sailors. Bennett does a good job of it, too.
His examination of the average sailor isn't simply rehashing known facts, it's delving into the reasoning behind the actions and events in sailor's lives. It's as much a psychological research work as a historical narrative. For anyone interested in Naval history, Civil War history, or simply looking to beef up their nautical knowledge, this book is absolutely and undeniably invaluable.

Union Jacks.......2004-11-12

I have not finished the book but find the author's assessments so far harsh. He spends a great deal of the first chapter commenting on the stupidity and ignorance of the sailors while quoting extensively from letters and diaries written by the sailors. The description of the dirt and filth he provides don't jibe with his talk of the efforts to clean the ships. He says the sailors are personally dirty and then describes what, in a later day, would be called a ki-yi bath when the dirty sailor was bathed by his shipmates using their clothing scrub brushes. It seems inconsistent to me.

Interesting book.......2004-10-08

This book is chock full of information. Unfortunately, the author's 21st century attitudes prevail over the information. He persisted in interpreting attitudes and behaviors in a modern context which created a negative impact on the reader.

Union Jacks: Yankee Sailors in the Civil War.(Book Review) : An article from: Journal of Southern History

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Union Jacks: Yankee Sailors in the Civil War.(Book Review) : An article from: Journal of Southern History
James E. Valle
Manufacturer: Southern Historical Association
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Binding: Digital

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This digital document is an article from Journal of Southern History, published by Southern Historical Association on August 1, 2005. The length of the article is 605 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Union Jacks: Yankee Sailors in the Civil War.(Book Review)
Author: James E. Valle
Publication: Journal of Southern History (Magazine/Journal)
Date: August 1, 2005
Publisher: Southern Historical Association
Volume: 71 Issue: 3 Page: 712(2)

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Union Jacks: Yankee Sailors in the Civil War.(Book Review) : An article from: The Journal of African American History

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Union Jacks: Yankee Sailors in the Civil War.(Book Review) : An article from: The Journal of African American History
Steven J. Ramold
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
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This digital document is an article from The Journal of African American History, published by Thomson Gale on September 22, 2005. The length of the article is 1040 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Union Jacks: Yankee Sailors in the Civil War.(Book Review)
Author: Steven J. Ramold
Publication: The Journal of African American History (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 22, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 90 Issue: 4 Page: 430(3)

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Union Jacks: Yankee Sailors in the Civil War.(Book review): An article from: Journal of Social History

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Union Jacks: Yankee Sailors in the Civil War.(Book review): An article from: Journal of Social History
Thomas C. Buchanan
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This digital document is an article from Journal of Social History, published by Thomson Gale on December 22, 2006. The length of the article is 888 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Union Jacks: Yankee Sailors in the Civil War.(Book review)
Author: Thomas C. Buchanan
Publication: Journal of Social History (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 22, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 40 Issue: 2 Page: 529(2)

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Right Diagnosis Wrong Prescription

Real behind the scenes of how the spy agency worked

Dispatches From the Pre-9/11 War on Terror Front

Useful Stuff

"Why don't they listen to me?"

See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism
Robert Baer
Manufacturer: Three Rivers Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Inside the CIA

ASIN: 140004684X
Release Date: 2003-01-07

Book Description

In his explosive New York Times bestseller, top CIA operative Robert Baer paints a chilling picture of how terrorism works on the inside and provides startling evidence of how Washington politics sabotaged the CIA’s efforts to root out the world’s deadliest terrorists, allowing for the rise of Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda and the continued entrenchment of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

A veteran case officer in the CIA’s Directorate of Operations in the Middle East, Baer witnessed the rise of terrorism first hand and the CIA’s inadequate response to it, leading to the attacks of September 11, 2001. This riveting book is both an indictment of an agency that lost its way and an unprecedented look at the roots of modern terrorism, and includes a new afterword in which Baer speaks out about the American war on terrorism and its profound implications throughout the Middle East.

“Robert Baer was considered perhaps the best on-the-ground field
officer in the Middle East.”
–Seymour M. Hersh, The New Yorker

From The Preface
This book is a memoir of one foot soldier’s career in the other cold war, the one against terrorist networks. It’s a story about places most Americans will never travel to, about people many Americans would prefer to think we don’t need to do business with.

This memoir, I hope, will show the reader how spying is supposed to work, where the CIA lost its way, and how we can bring it back again. But I hope this book will accomplish one more purpose as well: I hope it will show why I am angry about what happened to the CIA. And I want to show why every American and everyone who cares about the preservation of this country should be angry and alarmed, too.

The CIA was systematically destroyed by political correctness, by petty Beltway wars, by careerism, and much more. At a time when terrorist threats were compounding globally, the agency that should have been monitoring them was being scrubbed clean instead. Americans were making too much money to bother. Life was good. The White House and the National Security Council became cathedrals of commerce where the interests of big business outweighed the interests of protecting American citizens at home and abroad. Defanged and dispirited, the CIA went along for the ride. And then on September 11, 2001, the reckoning for such vast carelessness was presented for all the world to see.

Download Description

In See No Evil, one of the CIA's top field officers of the past quarter century recounts his career running agents in the back alleys of the Middle East. In the process, Robert Baer paints a chilling picture of how terrorism works on the inside and provides compelling evidence about how Washington politics sabotaged the CIA's efforts to root out the world's deadliest terrorists.

On the morning of September 11, 2001, the world witnessed the terrible result of that intelligence failure with the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In the wake of those attacks, Americans were left wondering how such an obviously long-term, globally coordinated plot could have escaped detection by the CIA and taken the nation by surprise. Robert Baer was not surprised. A twenty-one-year veteran of the CIA's Directorate of Operations who had left the agency in 1997, Baer observed firsthand how an increasingly bureaucratic CIA lost its way in the post-cold war world and refused to adequately acknowledge and neutralize the growing threat of Islamic fundamentalist terror in the Middle East and elsewhere.

A throwback to the days when CIA operatives got results by getting their hands dirty and running covert operations, Baer spent his career chasing down leads on suspected terrorists in the world's most volatile hot spots. As he and his agents risked their lives gathering intelligence, he watched as the CIA reduced drastically its operations overseas, failed to put in place people who knew local languages and customs, and rewarded workers who knew how to play the political games of the agency's suburban Washington headquarters but not how to recruit agents on the ground.

See No Evil is not only a candid memoir of the education and disillusionment of an intelligence operative but also an unprecedented look at the roots of modern terrorism. Baer reveals some of the disturbing details he uncovered in his work, including:

In 1996, Osama bin Laden established a strategic alliance with Iran to coordinate terrorist attacks against the United States.
In 1995, the National Security Council intentionally aborted a military coup d'etat against Saddam Hussein, forgoing the last opportunity to get rid of him.
In 1991, the CIA intentionally shut down its operations in Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, and ignored fundamentalists operating there.

When Baer left the agency in 1997 he received the Career Intelligence Medal, with a citation that says, "He repeatedly put himself in personal danger, working the hardest targets, in service to his country."

See No Evil is Baer's frank assessment of an agency that forgot that "service to country" must transcend politics and is a forceful plea for the CIA to return to its original mission -- the preservation of our national sovereignty and the American way of life.

"Robert Baer was considered perhaps the best on-the-ground field officer in the Middle East."
   SEYMOUR M. HERSH, THE NEW YORKER

"Robert Baer [was] one of the most talented Middle East case officers of the past twenty years."
   REUEL MARC GERECHT, THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY

Customer Reviews:

Right Diagnosis Wrong Prescription.......2007-10-11

Bauer gives a compelling account of his exploits as a CIA agent. For the "ripping good yarn" three stars.

He also offers his take on the reasons for serious deficiencies by our intelligence services. No argument that there are shortcomings, but no stars for his analysis of the causes.

Why? Some major thematic defects with the book on this score.

First, the underlying genre is a familiar one: the single honest and courageous protagonist fighting against apathy, stupidity and venality. Perhaps, understandable given Mr. Bauer's experience with the Agency's appreciation of his service. But a plot line more suited to fiction than serious analysis.

Is there bureaucracy, stupidity and even venality in the CIA? No argument here. But equally there should be no argument that this condition exists in any human institution. So then the right question becomes one of degree rather than kind. Were these factors so pervasive as to compromise the mission of the Agency? Was Bauer the only dedicated, selfless intelligent operative in the Agency? Or, if not the only one, one of a mere handful of such individuals? All in all this seems a bit far fetched.

The book does shed some light on why our intelligence services may be working at a suboptimal level, particularly in the Middle East, though perhaps not in the way the author intended.

Bauer's career is in some ways a "poster child" for suboptimal behavior.

Intelligence work is a not a particularly glamorous craft. At its heart it's rather mundane meticulous analysis and the routine work of running agents rather than flamboyant action. The heroes of fiction - James Bonds or "Jack" Bauers - are not particularly useful. Grey anonymity - an absence of footprints - is the most desirable operational trait.

Intelligence work requires a cold discipline. Actions in the field are undertaken for concrete objectives. Many of Bauer's missions seem to have been highly visible personal adventures with little apparent (intelligence) utility. They exposed a valuable asset to capture or compromise. No doubt the trips to the Beka'a, the Pamirs or the Yaghob Valley were ripping good fun as was driving T-72s and parachuting with Russian troops. How these advanced US intelligence interests is questionable.

Intelligence is also a team sport, contrary to popular fiction. In this critical game, it's very important that the players let the coach call the plays. Policy is set in Washington not in the field. Bauer's disingenuous actions in Northern Iraq - his attempt to make his own foreign policy - were not appropriate and really didn't serve our national interests well.

Intelligence requires careful discretion. Agents associate with a variety of people, many of whom are rather unsavory. The trick is to use the contact rather than be used. How our national interest benefited from contact with Mr. Tamraz isn't immediately clear to me. There is another danger here: the contact spinning such association as an American imprimatur.

Bauer does highlight some structural and political problems which affect the Agency's performance. That the national interest of the USA is often conflated with business interests, particularly oil, is distressing but not surprising.

However, all these points are at the margin of the central issue.

A more fundamental failure needs to be addressed. It is the same one which dogs the crafting of our foreign policy - a failure to think coldly and rationally about issues.

When we analyze domestic policies, by and large we accept that our government is influenced by popular perceptions with results shaped by the interplay between competing groups. However, when we venture to lands foreign, we abandon this nuanced view for one much more simplistic and simple minded.

We see our own interests as the only legitimate ones. Competitors must then be evildoers. Or, if we are in a charitable mood, suffering from some other serious moral or intellectual defect. The impulse for discovering grand conspiracies follows in train. Often we fail to recognize groups of our antagonists for what they are - temporary tactical alliances of convenience among groups with disparate constituencies and often competing ideologies rather than unitary blocs controlled by some grandmaster of evil who can compel his subordinates to take actions against their own very real interests. Imagine ascribing master/servant relationships and unanimity on all points among the Allies in WWII - the USA the master, or if your politics differ, the servant of the USSR and you'll understand this fallacy.

We also fall prey to the "great man" theory. If only we can remove the wrong man or install the right one, we can engineer a change in policy even if it is contrary to the wishes of the majority of that country. To use a domestic analogy, this is equivalent to believing that Al Franken or Fred Thompson could persuade the NRA to embrace gun control. Or NOW to abandon Roe v. Wade. In some extreme cases we believe we can manufacture leaders and parachute them into power. Delusions of this sort doom our actions and also reflect the poverty of our strategic thinking. As a result, we often associate with leaders who do our cause no good. The choice of the former head of the INC - a man with no discernible political support in Iraq as well as with certain other considerable negatives - as that country's putative Thomas Jefferson is an example of this pathology. No surprise that we fail and wind up being used.

And sadly often we also fail to marry our long term strategic interests to appropriate foreign policy. Foreign policy or intelligence "quick" fixes result in unwelcome blowback as history demonstrates time and time again.

Finally, perhaps an obvious point: a rational foreign policy in the long term interests of the US will promote the work and thus the success of our intelligence services. Rowing against the tides of history while perhaps heroic is at the end of the day rather foolish and so destined for failure. This is really the issue for reflection.

Real behind the scenes of how the spy agency worked.......2007-10-02

Only halfway through, but this book is great. It shows you in depth how the agency worked. Reveals how training was done, how missions worked. Includes real stories not just analysis.

Dispatches From the Pre-9/11 War on Terror Front.......2007-09-30

The stories and experiences of real life are often more gripping than fiction. Given that celebrated novels receive greater fame and publicity, it is rare to come across a book that captures the adventure of a captivating adventure novel and the benefit of a knowledgeable nonfiction author. A medley of suspense, wisdom from years experience, and formidable lessons from around the globe abound in former CIA officer Bob Baer's veracious story from the forefront of the US's struggle against international terrorism.

Baer recounts his professional life in one of the most riveting, true-life spy tales around. His first book is easy to follow and lively; even if you're not a James Bond suspense-novel junkie you'll likely appreciate "See No Evil." Baer's insight on the past and the state of current intelligence operations in a post 9/11 world with admonition for, what he sees as, the most potent gambit in the war against Middle Eastern terrorism, is vital for composing a winning strategy in the region.

The reputability of being the basis for George Clooney's character in the film "Syriana." shouldn't deter readers who actually watched the risible movie. George Clooney's Bob Barnes never amounted to the valorous character we become acquainted with in the book; his pitiful role is a real injustice to the real life Baer. There are no real parallels between the fictional movie`s plot and the book based on Baer's firsthand experiences.

With such a furtive job like a case officer, it is rare for an author to lift the shroud of secrecy for the public to behold some of these highly-speculated operations. An ordinary American youngster, full of guilelessness and vitality, finds himself leading an anything but ordinary life in an abstruse field that eventually takes him to the forefront of the nation`s interests in the Middle East. Ultimately departing an agency hampered by politicalization and putrefied by scandals, Bob holds back nothing in sharing passionate convictions, doubts, and solicitude in an earnest reflection of his entire espionage career. From the young operative's tribulation of his first assignment in India up to senior liaison orchestrating a coup against Saddam His story is gripping, his insight and perception on the challenges we face is indispensable.

Useful Stuff.......2007-08-28

After reading the book one can never be so ignorant!!!
It's pretty sad to watch these guys risk their lives for such dangerous missions and let go in the end...

"Why don't they listen to me?".......2007-07-27

Robert Baer
See No Evil
book review

The first half of this book is a great adventure story. The second reveals a personality.

We are treated to a sampling of the adventures of a vigorous, energetic, productive young case officer's (we learn that a CIA "agent" is the local who does the actual spying, "case officer" being the term for the professional recruiter and manager of agents) experiences during the birth and maturation of his productive years in southern Asia and the Middle East. For those of us interested in espionage procedurals, this part of the book is exhilarating. I couldn't put it down. It is written with vim and a touch of humor.

The second half of the book is in some ways more interesting, as it reveals through a change of style a man who needs rest. Mr. Baer's supervisors should have recognized it and brought him "in from the cold" from time to time, so that he could adjust in a healthy way back to normal life with a normal perspective. I saw this happen more than once in my own law enforcement career. Such seems to me what Robert Baer reveals to us, consciously or not, in the second half of his book.

The transition is marked by a curious re-call, which Robert Baer ("Robert Pope"?) resists vehemently, during which he is investigated as a suspect in a murder for hire. The portrayal of the burned out case officer in the movie Syriana, based on See No Evil, seems to be Robert Baer himself. The fictional character, Wilson, knows too much, or thinks he does. The fictional character in the movie blows up some bad guys, acting on his own authority in secret. The real Robert Baer in See No Evil is accused of plotting to assassinate Saddam Hussein, a weird story in itself. By is own admission, there are things he does not write up in reports.

It is as though he has arrived in the insane hell of Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now (a movie Mr. Baer refers to in his book). He wonders why "they" back at headquarters don't pay more respect to his on-the-spot reporting. As the fictional character, Captain Willard, says to himself in Apocalypse Now, "They didn't know I wasn't even in their f...ing army anymore."

But, you see, Robert Baer has been in the field so long and left alone to do pretty much as he sees fit, and it begins to tell. When he and his team are sent to northern Iraq, he interprets whole world scenarios through his team's emplacement. The whole course of world history depends on him and his team's mission. He blows their role out of proportion and takes on the role of the representative of the United States. He writes that the local Kurds think of him as the Untied States Ambassador.

He is turning into Colonel Kurtz. It is he whom they rely on, and he tells them lies about what Washington thinks and commitments he thinks they should make. Whether the Kurdish leaders really believe him or not is a matter of speculation. Robert Baer seems to think they do. Everything rests on Robert Baer, and Washington just won't do what he tells them needs to be done. It is time to be brought "in from the cold." He's gone over the edge, out of control, and control is what secret operations rely on most. He needs closer supervision. He needs to be watched. (Cf. the latter career of James J. Angleton.) His bosses order him back to the home office in Washington.

From there we get a phantasmagoria of life in the most unfathomable world imaginable, Washington, D.C. Robert Baer is out of his environment. He admittedly does not understand how it works. He is still "out in the field." He proceeds to engage this strange new world in the context of what he knows how to do. He runs into roadblocks wherever he turns. Why won't they listen to me?

In sum, read this book. Mr. Baer the author is a good writer and deserves a loyal audience for this and the other books he has written. For those interested in good-humored, adventurous spy stories, it is A-number-one. For those interested in the questionable practices and questionable values of unsupervised operators left to assume roles they should not, this is a perfect example of it.

Gary Berntsen, too, in his revelation, Jawbreaker, shows us another example of self-exaggerated importance among field people. Why does the CIA allow these people to publish and appear on television? In other recent histories written about these circumstances, nary a word is mentioned about the Gary Bernstsens' or Robert Baers's exploits. "Why won't they listen to me?" "I could've got Saddam Hussein." "I could've got Osama bin Laden." "If only I had two divisions of men with the will to cut off the arms of inoculated children ...." (Colonel Kurtz)

Maybe the operational side of the CIA should be abandoned. Maybe they are loose cannons. Maybe the CIA should be kept strictly to the business of gathering and analyzing information. Mr. Baer alludes to the establishment of FBI offices overseas. Maybe the CIA or at least its operational side should be folded into the FBI. There are just too many intelligence agencies. There is nothing central about the Central Intelligence Agency. There is not enough control. There are too many Robert Baers and Gary Berntsens out there doing too many things on their own.

I say all of this with all respect due to Robert Baer, Gary Berntsen, and those like them. As young men they enter into an adventurous world and ripen into the most sincere patriots one can find. They work hard and do good things. However, as mature men, they begin to think they know more than they do and that those with other responsibility know less. "Why don't they listen to us?" Why, indeed.

See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the Cia's War on Terrorism

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See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the Cia's War on Terrorism
Robert Baer
Manufacturer: Crown Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unbound

Political | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Terrorism | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

“Robert Baer was considered perhaps the best on-the-ground field officer in the Middle East.” --Seymour M. Hersh, The New Yorker

“Robert Baer [was] one of the most talented Middle East case officers of the past twenty years.” —Reuel Marc Gerecht, The Atlantic Monthly

In See No Evil, one of the CIA’s top field officers of the past quarter century recounts his career running agents in the back alleys of the Middle East. In the process, Robert Baer paints a chilling picture of how terrorism works on the inside and provides compelling evidence about how Washington politics sabotaged the CIA’s efforts to root out the world’s deadliest terrorists.

On the morning of September 11, 2001, the world witnessed the terrible result of that intelligence failure with the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In the wake of those attacks, Americans were left wondering how such an obviously long-term, globally coordinated plot could have escaped detection by the CIA and taken the nation by surprise. Robert Baer was not surprised. A twenty-one-year veteran of the CIA’s Directorate of Operations who had left the agency in 1997, Baer observed firsthand how an increasingly bureaucratic CIA lost its way in the post–cold war world and refused to adequately acknowledge and neutralize the growing threat of Islamic fundamentalist terror in the Middle East and elsewhere.

A throwback to the days when CIA operatives got results by getting their hands dirty and running covert operations, Baer spent his career chasing down leads on suspected terrorists in the world’s most volatile hot spots. As he and his agents risked their lives gathering intelligence, he watched as the CIA reduced drastically its operations overseas, failed to put in place people who knew local languages and customs, and rewarded workers who knew how to play the political games of the agency’s suburban Washington headquarters but not how to recruit agents on the ground.

See No Evil is not only a candid memoir of the education and disillusionment of an intelligence operative but also an unprecedented look at the roots of modern terrorism. Baer reveals some of the disturbing details he uncovered in his work, including:

* In 1996, Osama bin Laden established a strategic alliance with Iran to coordinate terrorist attacks against the United States.

* In 1995, the National Security Council intentionally aborted a military coup d’etat against Saddam Hussein, forgoing the last opportunity to get rid of him.

* In 1991, the CIA intentionally shut down its operations in Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, and ignored fundamentalists operating there.

When Baer left the agency in 1997 he received the Career Intelligence Medal, with a citation that says, “He repeatedly put himself in personal danger, working the hardest targets, in service to his country.” See No Evil is Baer’s frank assessment of an agency that forgot that “service to country” must transcend politics and is a forceful plea for the CIA to return to its original mission—the preservation of our national sovereignty and the American way of life.

From The Preface
This book is a memoir of one foot soldier’s career in the other cold war, the one against terrorist networks. It’s a story about places most Americans will never travel to, about people many Americans would prefer to think we don’t need to do business with.

This memoir, I hope, will show the reader how spying is supposed to work, where the CIA lost its way, and how we can bring it back again. But I hope this book will accomplish one more purpose as well: I hope it will show why I am angry about what happened to the CIA. And I want to show why every American and everyone who cares about the preservation of this country should be angry and alarmed, too.

The CIA was systematically destroyed by political correctness, by petty Beltway wars, by careerism, and much more. At a time when terrorist threats were compounding globally, the agency that should have been monitoring them was being scrubbed clean instead. Americans were making too much money to bother. Life was good. The White House and the National Security Council became cathedrals of commerce where the interests of big business outweighed the interests of protecting American citizens at home and abroad. Defanged and dispirited, the CIA went along for the ride. And then on September 11, 2001, the reckoning for such vast carelessness was presented for all the world to see.

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