Personal

Born in the year 1952, Robert Booker Baer also called as Bob Baer, grew up in Aspen, Colorado. He was interested in taking up skiing as a professional career. Most of his childhood years were spent in Europe. He graduated from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. George Tenet, CIA director was his classmate there. He entered CIA after his graduation. He underwent one year training that included foreign language courses and a paramilitary course.

Profession

In his CIA career, Baer had done various assignments working from all parts of the world including Morocco, India, Lebanon, Beirut, and Tajikistan. He has intimate knowledge about Middle East region and the erstwhile Republics of Soviet Union due to his deployment as clandestine officer over there. According to him, CIA tackled the terrorism suspects either by sending them to Jordan, if it wanted to torture them or to Egypt, if they were to disappear forever. He quit CIA in the year 1997 after twenty one years of service. Since then, he has involved himself in writing and consultancy work. He is also a significant contributor to CNN.

Achievements

Robert Baer, in appreciation of his service at CIA that spanned over two decades, received the Career Intelligence Medal from CIA in the year 1998. He is fluent in many languages including French, Farsi, German, Arabic, Russian, Baluch, and Tajik. He is also a staunch supporter for the Agency’s recruitment of agents to improve its Human Intelligence (HUMINT). He has authored many books. The Academy Award winning movie Syriana was based on his books ‘Sleeping with the Devil’ and ‘See No Evil’. Baer has also produced several documentaries for Channel 4 in the United Kingdom of which Cult of the Suicide Bomber II received an Emmy nomination in the year 2006.

During the Gulf War, Baer was assigned to organize opposition to President Saddam Hussein, but was recalled and questioned by the FBI for conspiracy against the Iraqi leader. He also urged the US Government to support the internal conspiracy to overthrow Saddam Hussein in the year 1995. Robert Baer always entertained the opinion that the Pan Am Flight 103 was sabotaged by the PFLP-GC, but currently he believes Iran was the prime cause for the act of bombing.