A very interesting tour of the worst places in the world.Regarding the decline of the CIA, I found it not unlike the the stories of corporations like GM, Sony, and Microsoft that grew massive and lost then lost the "eye of the tiger", opening themselves up to being taken by surprise by an underestimated force.Regarding terror, Baer's work in the Middle East through the 80s and 90s put the 9/11 attacks in perspective as an escalation of a rising tide of Islamic fundamentalist violence.I was particularly shocked at Iran's role in fostering international terror. It seemed that plot after terrorist plot led back to Iranian intelligence services, to the extent that Saddam's desperate dictatorship of Iraq seemed almost benign by comparison. The brief history of Iranian involvement in terrorism that is contained in this book affected how I think about current events regarding Iran.