Robert Baer: Putin, Russia, and The Hunt for a KGB Spy

The CIA beginning in the early 1980s made a series of stunning arrests-three high-profile Russian spies, Aldrich Ames, Edward Lee Howard, and Robert Hanssen, were uncovered as some of the most damaging leaks the agency had ever seen. Yet, as told by former CIA officer Robert Baer, the investigation for a “fourth man” ensued shortly after, and now relates the never-before-told story about the hunt for what may very well be the greatest traitor in American history.
Robert Baer is a New York Times bestselling author and former CIA case officer with 21 years of service. He is the intelligence columnist for Time, intelligence and security analyst for CNN, and his works have appeared in The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. Baer’s book See No Evil was the basis for the acclaimed film Syriana, and he was the co-host for the History Channel series Hunting Hitler.
In his latest book, The Fourth Man, Baer recounts a thrilling tale of hunting a so-called “super mole” who was believed to have more destructive power than their three predecessors combined. Three women, leading experts in counterintelligence, led the team as they poured through their own ranks, finding loose threads, smoking guns and rumors that the traitor was nothing more than a Russian trick to break the CIA apart. And, at the height of their intellectual duel and legendary game of cat-and-mouse, the shocking conclusion to their investigation would shake American Intelligence to its core.
Join us, as Baer retells the thrilling hunt for a KGB spy at the top ranks of the CIA, with all its twists and turns-and its implications for the future of America, Russia and the rise of Vladimir Putin.
NOTES
Photo by Mike Boese.
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[@gregoryevans9601]

Thanks for everything you did, Bob!

[@dave9351]

Thanks for your service to the country and your honesty ! Reading "Sleeping With The Devil" ("See No Evil" 👌)

[@bawbtherevelator6445]

Great interview and interviewer. Baer's next Book about Hollywood destroying Upton Sinclair's campaign for CA Governor in 1934 leads directly to Nixon, Reagan and today's GOP. Thanks so much

[@Nolenation2023]

Will there be a documentary series like on Hulu of this

[@jabbalechat7910]

There's a review of Baer's book over at the Cypher Brief titled, The Fourth Man and the Hunt for Proof, by former CIA officer Joseph Augustyn...

[@2Goiz_1CuP]

My Ukrainian friends say not to worry that Putin will inevitably drown in his oil

[@jordand2782]

Would Putin's demise influence the war of attrition against Ukraine? Baer is basically saying: their is no real way of telling...

[@jamesmilichich6693]

Odum. Wrote a book. “Fixing Intel,” I think it was. My problem was it was all about counter-Intel.

[@UnDaoDu]

I wonder how Bob feels 6 months later… 56:00

[@jordand2782]

I wonder too. Bob does say, "it's hard to predict the future"

[@2Goiz_1CuP]

Number 4 Its Paul Redmond my friends 🇺🇲♥️. ...because that tease wasnt very fair to us

[@2Goiz_1CuP]

@@djwsam575 fair

[@vctor6768]

The person who told you there is a fourth man is the fourth man 😂😂😂

[@jordand2782]

You were the person who told me their was a fourth man so perhaps it's you? I haven't watched the film yet. Robert Baer has my attention. He's out there. Obviously it's not a film but you know what I mean? Baer is no joke.

[@vctor6768]

🫣 don't send the FBI to me man,,😂

[@officialdropnation]

Plot Twist: Robert Baer was the KGB spy

[@77Sunsetstrip]

I'm liking Hillary...

[@vctor6768]

Hallelujah

[@aaroncarlin5853]

But...... Milt Bearden turned away Mitrokhin and ordered all the files on the Soviet Union destroyed after the fall of the Berlin Wall.......

[@libertinoradio4597]

Interesting. I enjoyed the recent series "Hunting Hitler" featuring Mr Baer. It was interesting more for the connections it avoided talking about (Operation Paperclip, the CIA employing Mengele, etc) whilst exploring by default and very selectively the Ratlines. This is an underexplored area of history for sure, I'm sure part of the reason is there are too many dirty secrets impllcating everyone, not just the South American (largely CIA backed and trained) dictatorships the series rightly condemned.

[@jamesmilichich6693]

You know, when the Intel that Putin intended to invade Ukraine my first thought was that Ukraine would resist. That thinking was based on history…,,the famine in 1932-33….Ukrainian antiI-Soviet behavior in WWII, the Cossacks, the nationalist resistance after WWII, Have to admit I was astonished that the Ukrainians, the UAF, survived day one. Then I watched the a Russian column parked on the road for days and days. Targets.

[@jamesmilichich6693]

@@djwsam575 because Russia is a per enemy membe r of the Security Council and would have vetoed any UNSC action.

[@jamesmilichich6693]

@@djwsam575 I’m probably losing some of your argument in “the translation,” but I think we basically agree. For the United States, since 2001, greed and corruption are the driving forces. Everything is measured in dollars. In 2003, before we decided to attack Iraq, Dick Cheney, the Vice President and an oil businessman, held a SECRET meeting on “energy policy.” Why, I asked myself…and a government person I knew, was an energy policy meeting classified secret ? My answer, to myself, was that our energy policy was based on Iraq. However, things didn’t work out. Still, I go back to Winston Churchill’s assessment of the United States. “…Americans will always do the right thing. Only after they have tried everything else.” Maybe.

[@jamesmilichich6693]

@@djwsam575 I was a mile uphill from the Pentagon on 9/11. My parents ate buried at Arlington National Cemetery across the street from the point of impact there. My wife was on her way to NYC that day. I called her and told her not to go. a half hour later I called her back and told her not to come back to Washington. We were under attack. I was in Afghanistan in 1969. As I got a a bus back to Pakistan I thought "...if we ever have a war here, we just won't get it." I was thinking of culture, of poverty, of corruption. It didn't occur to me that that we were the carriers of corruption. I hope we do better in Ukraine, but I doubt it.

[@millonariospr]

Hi! I work for the Puerto Rico Police Department is theres a way i can reach Mr.Robert is urgent! Thanks!

[@unclejj13er75]

Clapper and Hayden knew nothing? Shocked.

[@gerhardrausing777]

Why would this guy be chasing Hitler in South America, the second later, on another channel? serioooozna tjuvack?

[@ottdog1952]

Why indeed.

[@Johnconno]

He doesn't look anything like George Clooney. 🇹🇷

[@joecoffee7750]

He’s much older now vs the 80s