Robert Baer

Robert Baer is one of the last men you would expect to oppose an attack on Iraq.

The former CIA officer was one of the key men operating inside Iraq during the aborted uprising in 1995.

At the time, he was one of the CIA operatives who encouraged an uprising from within the country. The US of course didn't step in to help the revolution and it was brutally crushed.

Baer is a man with considerable intelligence experience and real experience of the Middle East.

Critical

Robert Baer on operation

He worked for the CIA's Directorate of Operations for more than two decades and spent most of his career in the Middle East, with postings in Sudan, Lebanon and Iraq as well as Tajikistan, India and Europe.

He is also an Arabic speaker he was considered one of the best on the ground field officers in the Middle East.

He claimed the CIA was not listening, and criticised the organisation for not listening to early intelligence warnings about the September 11 attacks.

Lucky

Baer added: "They'd made up their mind before 11 September that no terrorism was going to reach US shores and in 1993 the first World Trade Centre bombing was an accident, people got lucky and we don't have to worry about it."

He has also published a book about his time within the CIA. The memoirs are entitled See No Evil: The True Story Of A Ground Soldier In The CIA's War Against Terrorism.