Bob Baer
========

Robert "Bob" Baer is a former CIA case officer. Per John Kiriakou: "Bob Baer is a pretty famous former CIA officer. He's written a bunch of books, one was made into the movie Syriana that starred George Clooney." Kiriakou also confirms Baer worked with him in Kurdistan and calls him a good friend who was helpful with one of his own books.

The northern Iraq Saddam-assassination episode

Per Kiriakou, during the Clinton administration Baer "took it on the chin" after developing "a network of sources in northern Iraq and was making plans to assassinate Saddam Hussein, which he believed to be in the national interest." NSA intercepted one of his communications and forwarded it to Sandy Berger, the National Security Adviser, who called the CIA: "Your guy is going to do an extra-constitutional assassination. Either you pull him back, or he's under arrest for conspiracy." The CIA pulled Baer out of Iraq.

Kiriakou: "That would have changed history."

On the Strait of Hormuz, Baer's 25-year-old forecast

Asked about Baer's writing on Iran's ability to covertly retaliate against the West and shut down the Strait of Hormuz, Kiriakou confirms the memory is correct, Baer wrote about exactly that some 25 years ago, and Kiriakou says he was right then and remains right today: Iran can shut the strait, and while it cannot win a sustained bombing campaign, it can inflict real long-term economic harm on the West by closing it.

The fall guy

Kiriakou uses Baer's case to explain why the agency insists on a presidential finding or an Office of Legal Counsel opinion before an operation proceeds, the risk being prosecution by a later administration.

Baer "was serving in northern Iraq in the 1990s, and he was working with the Kurds to see if he might be able to take out Saddam Hussein, which he believed to be his mission. This is what he had been told to do."

Then: "one of his communications was intercepted by NSA. NSA informed the National Security Advisor, Sandy Berger, that there was a rogue CIA officer who was looking to kill Saddam Hussein. The NSC under Berger ordered the CIA to bring Bob home, and they threatened to charge him with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder." Baer "ended up having to leave the agency."

Kiriakou's verdict is unambiguous, and general: "Bob didn't do anything wrong. Bob did exactly as he had been told to do. And the operation just fell apart, and the White House was looking for a fall guy. That happens with some frequency."

See also

- Sandy Berger
- Saddam Hussein
- John Kiriakou
