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

• Author: Kreyche, Gerald F.

BY ROBERT BAER CROWN PUBLISHERS 2002, 282 PAGES, $25.95

This story of Middle East intrigue involving bungling, bureaucracy, and bravery also tells how the Central Intelligence Agency, once an effective and highly touted arm of the government, was turned into a paper tiger by political correctness, human rights advocates, apathy, internecine warfare among government agencies, and a failure of nerve. It proves that "money talks" and that there are double agents everywhere. CIA agent Rick Ames was one who traded lives for money when he informed the KGB of U.S. agents.

The author, a 21-year-veteran of the agency, which evolved from the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in 1947, takes readers on a fascinating journey through many of the fractious Moslem countries. Robert Baer, a case agent and later Director of Operations whose job was to recruit spies and traitors, has written a firsthand and fascinating tale of wheeler-dealers, big oil interests, political lobbying, assassinations, and hostage-taking.

For decades, terrorism has been the stock in trade of nearly all of the Middle East. The bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 killed 241 Americans. The French barracks suffered a loss of 58 in another bombing. The Iran-contra affair was only part of the many dirty works going on. In 1983, the American Embassy bombing killed 67 persons. More CIA personnel were killed in that tragedy than at any other time, and it seriously damaged intelligence-gathering in that zone. Within the last two years, there was the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole and the attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Among the terrorists in the Middle East was Menachim Begin, later prime minister of Israel, who had a price on his head for his activities against the British. Muammar Quadaffi of Libya was another, as was Yasir Arafat, who organized the Fatah group. Hezbollah and Hamas also had their own political agenda for disrupting life in that part of the world. Turf wars abounded among the...