the good book

when i first read the bio on 'See No Evil' on amazon, i was thinking it was going to be a book that enlightens the reader about the direction the CIA has been going during the past decade. and it did, but not in the way i expected. it was told from the eyes of the field operator who believes that the best way to get to know your enemies is by talking with people who have turned against them.

it highlights how he entered the CIA from the bay area and how he was trained as a field agent (there are even blacked-out lines in the book proving that the CIA read it and edited it to protect some identities and operations). it's like being a detective in the local police department and shaking down petty criminals to get to the big fish, but on a global level. it's basically hobnobbing and networking.

what was incredible about the book was how two things affected the downfall of foreign intelligence in the middle east: the information and technological boom in the 1990's and the arresting of Rick Ames (a CIA agent) for being a KGB spy. the information age made everything easy for everyone, even the CIA. it was lulled into thinking that they would rely more on satellites and the internet to get the info they wanted rather than with agents in the field gathering data.

the timing of all this was incredibly ironic, at times i found myself shaking my head in disbelief. it was at a time when the CIA was less and less interested in middle east intelligence and more interested in making oil deals with exxon, ammoco, and mobil in russia. plus, any remaining CIA agents in the field were petrified to recruit enemy associates because the FBI was on a witch hunt for other Rick Ameses.

while all this was going on, two very important people integrated with international terrorism could have been eliminated (or at least controlled): Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. in fact, in 1994, the author was meeting with iraqi army generals who had fought under hussein and were asking the CIA for U.S. support in a planned coup again hussein (which never happened). then again in 1995, when bin laden was in sudan and the sudanese wanted him out, they were ready to 'deliver' bin laden 'on a silver platter' to the U.S. (which also never happened). bin laden ended up in afghanistan to keep in close contact with his clan in iran. this lack of intelligence and interest in the middle east allowed the bin ladens and iranians (using money and weapons from Iran-contra back in the 80's) to plan and execute what happened in nyc, unbeknownst to the CIA because there were no field agents!

something else i thought was ironic and didn't know was that hussein, bin laden, the islamic jihad organization, basically all middle east terrorist groups were in some way associated and educated by yasir arafat during the 80's and 90's. and it was arafat who received the nobel prize for peace in 1996.

why was this book so interesting to me? maybe because i've been out of the country for the last 4 years and don't watch the news. i'd rather get my news from the source.