Robert Baer person
also: Baer, Bob, Bayer, Task Force Deputy Baer
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Related entities (most co-mentioned)
CIAintelligence service · 7Kurdistanplace · 4United Statescountry · 3Abdullah al-Sawaniperson · 3Operation Achillesoperation · 2Stephen Richterperson · 2Fred Turcoperson · 2Irancountry · 2Tajikistancountry · 1Moroccocountry · 1Anthony Lakeperson · 1Richard Hornperson · 1George Tenetperson · 1Guamcountry · 1Republican Guardorganization · 1Warren Merrickperson · 1Massoud Barzaniperson · 1Bob Planoperation · 1Mosulplace · 1Erbilplace · 1Maulana Barzaniperson · 1Frederick Heightperson · 1Turkeycountry · 1Indiacountry · 1
Claims (1)
Robert Baer headed
Operation Achilles host_asserted
“The other was Jalal-Talibani. They were at each other's throats. Shalabi decided the only way to bridge the differences was to have everyone fight Saddam. He activated his scheme for an uprising. Project Achilles. Baer put Shalabi's initiat…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 51 (53) @ 47:33
Mentions (12)
▶ 42:34
In 94, Stephen Richter replaced Frank Anderson as the head of the division. He wanted action. Fred Turco agreed that Langley should at least be testing possibilities. His deputy, Robert Bayer, plus a couple of other staffers visited Kurdist…
▶ 44:34
in the Humvees. Would never, ever recommend that to anybody, especially when it's 120 degrees in the summer. Task Force Deputy Baer argued that the CIA needed a permanent presence. He volunteered to set up a CIA base. Baer arrived in Januar…
▶ 45:04
a confirmed Middle East expert. He had been deputy station chief in Morocco, most recently station chief in Tajikistan, and had been doing cleric at the Terrorism Center. Teams rotating through Kurdistan on his watch varied from four to 10 …
▶ 45:30
First tasked after his arrival, Baer met with an Iraqi defector, General Abdullah al-Sawani, a former commander of Saddam's special forces and of the Turkmen ethnicity from Mosul. Sawani had defected earlier, but had several brothers still …
▶ 46:00
Here lay potential answers to the CIA's dilemma on how to neutralize Saddam's best troops. Sawani popped the great question, would the U.S. support a coup if he launched one? Willing to take all the risks, the Iraqis nevertheless needed sec…
▶ 47:33
The other was Jalal-Talibani. They were at each other's throats. Shalabi decided the only way to bridge the differences was to have everyone fight Saddam. He activated his scheme for an uprising. Project Achilles. Baer put Shalabi's initiat…
▶ 51:00
down the river on orders from Nixon and Kissinger. Now Barzani made common cause with Iran. Bayer saw the Iranian gear with Barzani's fighters, even Iranian militia guarding Kurdish supply points. His faction seemed already to know of the L…
▶ 52:07
General Sawani saw failure all around and aborted his own effort. He took his family and fled to Syria. Robert Baer, ordered back to Washington, endured an FBI investigation for a potential violation on the ban on assassinations since the I…
▶ 57:13
Taliban factions switched sides to align with the Iranians while the Barzani forces sided with Saddam himself. The Iraqi army began attacking in August of 1996, the golden anniversary of the date of Barzani's father formed a Kurdish politic…
▶ 58:37
to Guam aboard a US military aircraft. Then in May of 97, US authorities arrested half a dozen of the CIA fighters on immigration charges, suspecting that Saddam had used the refugee flow to insert spies. The thought of officers like Fred T…
▶ 59:04
and former CIA Wolseley volunteered pro bono legal aid to the Iraqis. The case turned into a spectacle. Even this debacle did not end the sorry story of the Iraqi project, a sort of tar baby that proceeded in tandem with the overt U.S.-U.N.…
▶ 31:09
The Iraq project had gone up in smoke, making Robert Baer the top target of a Justice Department inquiry. The month earlier, there was a major flap that had begun in Paris with the French accusing the CIA of economic spying against them, de…