Syriana was one of my favorite movies last year – the Bob Barnes character captured my imagination completely. When I found out that Bob Baer’s books See No Evil and Sleeping with the Devil were the inspiration behind the movie, I immediately one-clicked them on Amazon.
I’m hugely cynical about the intelligence machinery of our government. I’ve been exposed to enough spin in my life to understand that the cliche “things are rarely as they appear” is deeply valid. In trying to understand my obsession with 24, I think I’ve concluded that it represents the “anti-me” – I get to spend one hour a week living in a parallel universe that isn’t in line with my values.
See No Evil was a delicious romp through this terrain by someone who lived this for twenty years. Baer’s writing is sharp witted and he takes no prisoners in his critique of the people he worked with and his increasing disillusionment with the CIA.
Next up is Sleeping with the Devil right after I knock off Supreme Conflict.