There was a time when Robert Baer probably would’ve had to kill you after dishing any one of his secrets. As a near-destitute student of Chinese at UC-Berkeley in the mid-70s, Baer, then 23, applied for a CIA field gig on a lark – as a joke, really. To his surprise, the agency forwarded him a tome-ish job manual, arranged for his interview, and formally tasked the Colorado native as case officer with the CIA’s National Clandestine Service, then known as the Directorate of Operations. “Before the end of this,” Baer admits, “I’m a trained murderer.”Those days are over. But in a moment of top-level leakage, notably surrounding U.S. cyber- and drone-war efforts throughout the Middle East, Baer, whose 21-year spook stint found him working almost exclusively in the Middle East, now seems uniquely positioned to contextualize both the White House and CIA’s beleaguered hush and still nefarious goings on. Motherboard sister site VICE recently caught up with the former agent at a sketchy motel in Newport Beach, California, where among other things he opened up on his role leading a team to wipe out Saddam Hussein, today’s culture of government secrecy, and the public’s right to know of classified operations. All while letting host Jason Mojica and camera dude (and Motherboard confidant) Chris Gill live to tell the tale. What a guy.Reach this writer at brian@motherboard.tv. @thebanderson
Advertisement