Kai BirdThe Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames

In terms of genres, spy novels are not at the top of my list of must reads, but having a passion for history and the Middle East, Kai Bird's "The Good Spy" sounded like a book with great appeal. A biography of a CIA spy in the Middle East post WWII. I was not familiar with Robert Ames so brought only my knowledge of the region to the table. It was fascinating to gain an understanding of the region and players through the back channels, not what you read about in the NYT or BBC. The life of an operative works on the periphery of good and evil, moral and amoral and never more so than in the complex and strife torn area that is the Middle East.Bird creates a well rounded portrait of Ames from his rise in the CIA throughout several posts in the region, ultimately culminating in his tragic death at the US Embassy in Beirut in 1983. t was ultimately this bombing and the subsequent Marine Barracks bombing near the airport in Beirut that led to Reagan's withdrawal of soldiers meant to maintain some semblance of order in this war torn nation.While the book traces Ames career, it does so alongside the broad history of the changing landscape of the Middle East post WWII with the founding of the state of Israel, pan-Arabism led by Nasser and ultimately the rise of fundamentalism across the region. Across countries gradually rising from post-colonialism, these shifts reshape a region into the powder keg it has become. Hard as it is to believe, people one time referred to Beirut as the Paris of the Middle East. It is a region with tons of complexity, surreal characters, faction and friction and more nuance then almost anywhere. It was in such a world that Robert Ames rose the CIA ranks, growing to love the character and characters of the region, the culture and nuance of such complexity. In this region, there are often few players of historical importance that are without blemishes. Bird highlights the challenges of working in such a region through Ames and the reality of cultivating contacts with unsavory characters. It became increasingly important as extremism was growing after a myriad of conflicts within nations and with Israel. While the public position was not to negotiate with such unsavory characters, the reality is that it is often necessary, particularly covertly.It is through Ames relationship with Hassan Salameh, Arafat's intelligence chief and a critical member of his inner sanctum, that Birds portrait "soars". Bird doesn't hide Salameh's warts and leaves the reader to pass judgment about cultivating sources with such murky and unsavory elements. From any objective perspective, Salameh did plenty that was abhorrent, including his (still disputed) role in the 1972 Munich massacre. However, there is enough depth to the work and relationship Ames built with Salameh to demonstrate the importance of cultivating such sources. While Salameh was never an official recruit (he wasn't being paid), it was immensely informative to get beneath all the back room dealings and conversations that provided a glimmer of hope that some of the most intractable problems in the world might be solved.However, all that one is left with is the false hope after events larger than either Ames or Salameh, first the Embassy bombing that killed Ames and the assassination of Salameh, that extinguished the tiny but perceptible glimmer of light their rendez-vous provided. A great bit of research to bring to light someone who both sought to understand and embrace a region and forge common ground to make this world safer that most of us wouldn't ever have known about.

The title “The Good Spy”, a biography of Robert Ames, a prominent CIA officer who died in the bombing of the American embassy in Beirut in 1983, holds within it a certain ambiguity. Whether the author intended it to be so is not clear. Does it mean that Ames was a kindly and decent man? Or is it meant to suggest that he was a competent member of his profession? Either interpretation or both are possible. Ames, at least from the account presented in this book, was a devoted and loyal family man who cared deeply for his wife and six children. He was also a highly successful CIA officer, one who rose from obscurity to senior and influential positions with exceptional rapidity. As is usually the case, Ames’s fast rise was a combination of ambition, hard work, talent, and luck. His specialty was the Middle East. He read a great deal, learned Arabic, and became intimately familiar with the cultural and historical background of the area. He was also a tough and clever functionary. At least one of his colleagues called him a “throat cutter and back stabber”. He impressed, and became an advisor to, CIA chieftains Richard Helms and William Casey, as well as Secretary of State George Schultz and members of the National Security Council staff. His luck was closely tied to his area of expertise. The volatility of the Middle East, and especially of the Israeli-Palestinian relationship, was as critical to American foreign policy interests in the 1970’s and 80’s as it continues to be today. Officers on the operations side of the agency appeared to be on fairly loose leashes. Even by those standards Ames was something of a rogue. He operated independently and opened channels without or, arguably, even against directions. His most important - some would say most notorious - exercise of this sort was starting an active and continuing liaison with the PLO at a time when the U.S.’s public position was that the PLO was a terrorist organization which we neither recognized and with which we eschewed contact. Some within the agency thought that Ames loved the Arabs too much. Certainly he was an unabashed Arabist. He courted and became friendly with a senior PLO intelligence officer named Ali Hassan Saleh and through him was able to communicate indirectly with PLO leader Yasser Arafat. Saleh was later assassinated by Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service. Author Kai Bird interviewed dozens and uncovered a great number of absorbing facts. The story he tells never loses impact, though his prose can be irritatingly casual and breezy. Implicit in his tale is the question of whether the expansive activities of the CIA do as much harm as good, not to mention whether they are worth their high cost. Certainly over the years as many misadventures as positive achievements can be fouund on the record. CIA intelligence functions also duplicate State Department diplomatic reporting, military intelligence, and the vast information gathering capacity of the NSA. The discord resulting from interagency rivalries and differences of perspective also does damage. George Schultz, when he was Secretary of State, is quoted as saying that Bill Casey “had too much of an agenda”. “It’s a mistake for the CIA to have an agenda”, he added. “They’re supposed to produce intelligence. If they have an agenda, the intelligence gets slanted.” Overall, this book does little to alter one’s views of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. At the time of the narrative, both sides come across as mendacious, manipulative, and duplicitous. So in that regard, if in no other, nothing has changed.

Very good product and service

Ricostruzione rigorosa dei fatti, delle circostanze e della vita di questo agente della CIA.Dalla narrazione emerge chiaramente che Ames credeva di poter fare Lawrence d'Arabia ed è rimasto vittima della propria creduloneria e della fiducia verso gli arabi che voleva applicare agli accordi di pace tra arabi e israeliani.Il libro mi è piaciuto molto proprio perchè non è celebrativo ma è critico sull'operato di Ames.Tra l'altro è ben scritto e di facile lettura per me che non sono un fenomeno in inglese.

Decue. Il faut être expert pour suivre

A compelling view behind the scenes of a complex, at times scary and unstable period in time.It demonstrates that everyone has his/ her part to do on this planet, everyone is here for a reason, gifts and flaws included.

1次オイル・ショックの苦境の頃、中東で仕事をされた方々に強くお勧めします。Black Septemberによるミュンヘンオリンピック事件、パレスティナ難民キャンプの残虐な破壊、PLOと米国の関係、ベイルートの米国大使館爆破がイランの仕業、そしてイズボラの誕生など、謎の事件の答えがCIAの活動と共に明かされていて興味は尽きない記録です。折太郎