An article in The Cipher Brief in defense of Paul Redmond, a retired senior CIA counterintelligence officer, is an impressively powerful, pointed, incisive, detailed and punchy statement that successfully demolishes Baer’s book, The Fourth Man, which accuses Paul of being a Russian spy inside the Agency.

Since this article was written by such a strong and reputable team of impressive authors with true inside knowledge (Mike Sulick, Cindy Webb and Mark Kelton), it constitutes a devastating rejoinder to the malarkey that Baer peddled in his misguided book.

Anyone who has personally known Paul Redmond instantly knew that Baer’s speculations were entirely off the mark, and that includes me. Paul Redmond was and still is a true hero of our intelligence community.

I recommend you read it:

Former CIA Counterintelligence Chiefs Weigh in on The Fourth Man
Robert Baer’s book The Fourth Man leads readers to conclude—falsely—that highly accomplished, retired CIA officer Paul Redmond was himself a long-time spy for the KGB. As former leaders of Counterintelligence who were directly involved over decades in the Russian operations and investigations discussed in the book, we found the book to be riddled with errors and what we found to be irresponsible, false assumptions from Mr. Baer’s primary sources. Let’s dig in to why. . . . . .

But wait, there’s more!

Paul Redmond himself wrote a review about the book, which will be published in an upcoming International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence. The journal has made the article available free outside their paywall for one month, so be sure to read this too:

The Ghosts of Angleton
In mid-1960, when I joined the then Soviet Bloc (SB) Division of CIA’s Operations Directorate, the division was paralyzed by the belief that all of the operations it was running, or trying to run, were controlled by the State Committee for Security (KGB). This risky, paranoid state of affairs, known as “the Monster Plot,” was caused by James Angleton, chief of CIA Counterintelligence, who had an almost religious belief that the KGB had penetrated the CIA. His view was shared by SB Division management. In addition to the paralysis, the careers of several officers falsely suspected of spying were ruined. . . . . . .

 

David Charney, MD