Robert Baer

Robert Booker Baer was born on July 11, 1952, in Los Angeles, California. At age 9, he moved to Aspen, Colorado, and later traveled extensively across Europe with his mother, experiencing pivotal events such as the 1968 riots in Paris and the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. These early experiences provided him with exposure to global political landscapes before embarking on a distinguished career in intelligence. He attended Georgetown University and the University of California, Berkeley.

Baer served as a CIA case officer from 1976 to 1997, primarily deployed in the Middle East. His field assignments included locations such as Madras and New Delhi in India, Beirut, Damascus, Khartoum, Paris, Dushanbe, Morocco, the former Yugoslavia, and Iraqi Kurdistan. During the mid-1990s, he was involved in an operation in Iraq aimed at organizing opposition to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. This mission led to his recall and an FBI investigation into allegations of conspiring to assassinate the Iraqi leader. Baer received the CIA Career Intelligence Medal for his service.

After retiring from the CIA, Baer transitioned into a career as an author, political commentator, and intelligence and security analyst for CNN. He has contributed to publications such as Time, Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. His book, “See No Evil,” which detailed his experiences as a CIA operative, was adapted into the film “Syriana,” with George Clooney portraying a character based on Baer. He has also hosted the History Channel’s reality television series “Hunting Hitler” and appeared in “JFK Declassified: Tracking Oswald.”