Intelligence and Counterintelligence Professionals’ thoughts about the book, The Fourth Man, and its accusations that Paul Redmond is a Russian spy:
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“It’s a tragic day that we have to defend Paul against some of these ridiculous and outrageous accusations that have been made with him. I’ve known Paul most of my career, spent 38 years of the FBI. He was treated as a professional, a long time, experienced officer and basically he was a big pain in the ass, but nobody questioned his ability. He stood up to the CIA, he didn’t roll over to the FBI. After leaving CEG/CIC, I went back to the FBI as the Section Chief of the Russian Section. I knew every case we had worked, every case we’re working, and any future cases. Paul’s name was never ever mentioned.” —Retired FBI Senior Executive Edward Curran
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“Throughout my entire career, Paul Redmond was undoubtedly the best and most effective Counterintelligence Officer I ever encountered in any government agency. The allegation that Mr. Redmond is a spy is ridiculous and an irresponsible charge without any credible sourcing or evidence.”—Retired Senior CIA and FBI Executive John MacGaffin
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“Paul Redmond established the mechanisms that would have caught Paul Redmond the spy. So by establishing those mechanisms, if he was a spy, in fact, he’d be suicidal. I don’t think he is.” —Retired Senior CIA Executive Michael Sulick, Former Chief of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service
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“The Fourth Man book is an ethics monstrosity.”
—Retired Senior CIA Operations Officer
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“When I went out to Russia, we were running cases, running activities that wouldn’t have been allowed to run had Paul Redmond been a spy. I was a junior officer under Paul. He was always demanding, in fact, he was a pain in the ass. I also inherited a number of his cases. They were always well done. But he put in place the plumbing that led us not only to Ames, but to Hanssen. And I can say that pretty definitively. These people [who wrote and were sources for this book]….you know my dad always said to me, honor is the only thing in life that can’t be taken from you. Only you can give it up. The people behind this have given up their honor. They have besmirched the honor of everybody here. It’s not only Paul, but everybody. We owe it to Paul and we owe it to ourselves to push back on this in every way we can.” —Retired CIA Senior Executive Mark Kelton, Former Associate Deputy Director for Operations for Counterintelligence (ADDO/CI)
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“By circa 2005, SIU had concluded that there was no ‘Fourth Man,’ having been able to find solid answers for the other ‘leftovers’ and having not received further reporting deemed reliable on the matter.” —Retired Senior CIA Counterintelligence Officer Dr. Richard Rita, served in SIU for 20 years, including as Chief. Wrote the official CIA history of the SIU
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“In the CI business you always assume there has been a penetration of your agency but to suggest that you are nearly positive you know who that person [as Baer does in his book] is without being able to charge someone – is borderline malpractice.”—Retired Senior CIA Operations Officer Joseph Augustyn
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“If there had been any actual evidence the Agency would have taken action. It did not, promoting this individual into more senior slots and if, as Baer claims, the FBI has an incredible amount of derogatory information on this individual why would he have been, upon leaving the CIA, appointed to one of the most important security oversight positions in the USG?” —Retired Senior CIA Operations Officer Tony Jordan
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“It cannot be overstated how Mr. Baer’s compilation of flawed assumptions, omissions and untruths from his principal sources have caused tremendous personal, professional and financial damage to Paul Redmond. His distinguished record is one of a dedicated patriot who spent a career building strong counterintelligence capability in CIA and across the USG. The true story is that Mr. Redmond was an aggressive CI hero building strong CI programs for CIA, including establishing the CIA-FBI Investigative unit that identified Ames and then the follow-up SIU. He is a national treasure throughout a career of building strong Counterintelligence programs across the US government and with our many foreign allies.” —Retired CIA Senior Executive Lucinda (Cindy) Webb, Former Associate Deputy Director for Operations for Counterintelligence (ADDO/CI)
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“As Milt Bearden made clear in his book, “The Main Enemy,” SE had a number of stunning, highly productive cases in the 1989-91 timeframe, with no indications of compromise. Ames didn’t have access to those cases, but the primary suspect did, and no damage resulted. I got to know the primary suspect fairly well, especially when he was DC/SE. Both in word and deed, I witnessed him attacking the Soviet intelligence services with utter determination, if not Jesuitical zeal. He was visibly delighted when I helped expose a longtime KGB double agent and subsequently with the results of my work, under his direction, teamed with the FBI. Consequently, I have a very hard time squaring my observations of him with Bob Baer’s book. I found “The Fourth Man” to be neither good history nor sound intelligence analysis.”—Alex Goodale, Retired CIA Reports Operations Officer, Soviet Specialist
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“I burst out laughing when the finger meant for the Fourth Man was aimed at Paul Redmond. Redmond was not well liked, had a particularly foul mouth, and was hard on his subordinates, not always with cause, but he was a professional and intelligent and about as unlikely a candidate for a Soviet spy as anyone I can imagine.” . . . . “Baer deserves to be called to account for sloppy research on his part and, more so, for relying on the SIU for its findings on Paul Redmond. When I first heard of the SIU, I thought it probably had been formed to keep the three CIA members, all women, two of them known to me professionally, of the SIU busy, out of the hair of their seniors, including Redmond. The unit took itself seriously, however, and concluded that Redmond was a KGB spy, a conclusion with Angleton’s stamp all over it. The CIA should have known that if it formed an investigative unit, it would get a result. Not one that would end up in a book, though.” —Retired Senior CIA Operations Officer Colin Thompson
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I am both deeply saddened and infuriated that Paul’s good name and reputation have been so maliciously smeared in this book.”–Randall Fort
“I’ve had the honor of knowing Paul Redmond since the early 1980s and the privilege of working with him a number of times in the intervening years. He is brilliant, assertive, acerbic, occasionally arrogant, and one of the accomplished and successful case officers in CIA history. I am both deeply saddened and infuriated that his good name and reputation have been so maliciously smeared in this book.”—Randall Fort, Deputy Executive Director at the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB), Special assistant to the Secretary for National Security and Director of the Office of Intelligence Support at the Treasury Department, Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research in the State Department
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“I have not read Bob Baer’s book but the suggestion that Paul Redmond was the so-called “fourth man” is incredible–literally. I worked very closely with Paul from the mid-1980s thru the 1990s including during the period when Ames, Hansen and others were active. I had knowledge of most of our sensitive cases and how we worked to determine who had compromised the cases and when they were compromised. I was also very aware of several CIA officers who were at one time or another suspected of being spies for Russia–at one point I was on a list of suspects and I would suggest that the KGB found it convenient to spread such slander to sow disarray within CIA then as now. Indeed, most of the senior officers in the then SE division were looked at the time. And almost immediately following the arrests of Hansen and Ames there were rumors of a “fourth man.” I heard rumors of several possibilities. These were rumors not rooted in anything that was clearly indicative of a continuing penetration. Any serving officer who lived through that period and who went through CI investigations and aggressive polygraphs can tell you that the search internally for spies was wide and deep–the notion that someone like a “fourth man” escaped somehow despite multiple interagency investigations and a very heightened security awareness until Bob Baer pieced together this story strains credulity. My recollection is that Paul Redmond brought his intelligence and dedication to bear on CI challenges of working on the Soviet/Russian target every day.”—John Zebatto, retired CIA officer
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“Baer’s book as many have stated, is poorly written and logically inconsistent. Baer was very well aware of alternative technical explanations but his failure to seriously consider them for the losses of our agents undermines the credibility of the conclusion reached in this book.”—Louis Surgent, senior CIA technical expert
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“As an academic outsider with interests in the Middle East this case has bothered me a bit. I have respected Baer’s published works but you do not make allegations of that gravity against a living person unless you really have the goods to back it up. The red flag for me is that Baer spent most of his career engaging in field activities so it’s a bit of a stretch, I think, for someone who did not spend decades at HQs to have much inside knowledge of what was going on in the building and each of Baer’s extrapolations from “Max” forward involves increasing numbers of premises that do not appear to be well grounded but are derived from secondary as tertiary sources. Redmond’s claim of confirmation bias seems apt. My personal speculation, based on nothing more than a hunch, is that Baer’s book may involve some sour grapes. Since Redmond’s job involved looking at red flags of various sorts it’s possible that Baer was the subject of some sort of questioning or investigation by CIC over some issue and Baer’s revenge is to put something in public space, staying clear of the line of open libel, but still sullying the reputation of a retired officer with whom he has a significant beef. That is nothing but my speculation but something motivated Baer to write this book and if he really had the goods, he would be talking to the Office of Security not the public in a book. —Carl A Wege, Professor of Political Science Emeritus, College of Coastal Georgia
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“The Baer book is an outrage.”
—Mark Lowenthal, former Assistant Director of Central Intelligence for Analysis and Production, former Vice Chairman for Evaluation on the National Intelligence Council. Served in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), as both an office director and as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State.
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“Paul Redmond is a patriot who fought tirelessly to seek out and disrupt CI threats and make systemic changes to strengthen our nation’s ability to detect and disrupt threats by adversarial services around the world. This very well-informed, methodical and thoughtful response by former CIA Counterintelligence Chiefs is a critical counterbalance to the misinformation and slander laid out in The Fourth Man.”—Stephanie Bellistri, retired senior CIA Officer
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“Bob Baer should be ashamed of himself, and needs to recant these scrollous accusation against Paul Redmond. Having worked directly with both officers on several occasions over the years, there is no question in my mind that Mr. Baer is “no” Mr. Redmond, not by any measure. That Bob Baer is profiting with a book containing such blatant lies is equally appalling. Paul Redmond is not a “public figure”, and as such, is entitled to obtain legal counsel to seek redress of this intentional slander. I should add my serious disagreement with Bob Baer’s contention that the CIA, in the aftermath of the Rick Ames arrest, lost interest in catching spies. This allegation is patently false. CIA Ops Officer Jim Nicholson was arrested within 2 years of the Ames take-down, while the late CIA CI officer Brian Kelly came under active, hostile CI investigation. What’s more, during my 18-month tenure (1995-96) in the EUR front office (as COPS and DC/EUR), I had to counsel a handful of experienced EUR home-based C/Os who underwent involuntary directed CI polygraphs administered by the FBI. The CI net at that time was cast far and wide. Since Mr. Redmond is not a “public” figure”, he is entitled to obtain legal counsel to seek redress for the blatantly malicious, indeed slanderous, accusations made by Mr. Baer. I for one, hope he avails himself of this right, and wish him success in doing so.”—Peter Dorey, retired senior CIA Officer
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“Bob has sensationalized poorly sourced innuendo masquerading as “analysis”. He also knows operations well enough to know his book is ass-clownery, best suited for sales to the uninformed. A real shame, given the heroism of true CI and counterespionage heroes.”—Robert Kandra, senior CIA executive and operations officer; served as Chief of CIA’s Special Activities Division and as the FBI’s Associate Executive Assistant Director of the National Security Branch
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“This article in defense of Paul Redmond is an impressively powerful, pointed, incisive, detailed and punchy statement that successfully demolishes Baer’s book, The Fourth Man. 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.”—Dr. David Charney, Psychology of an Insider Spy expert, NOIR4USA.org
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“Excellent piece by Mike Sulick, Cindy Webb and Mark Kelton. Measured, detailed, authoritative, it is a worthy rebuttal to Baer. And glad to see it today in the Cipher Brief. Great work by these worthy colleagues! Really pleased with this result!”—David Hunt, retired Counterintelligence Special Assistant to the Director of Central Intelligence
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“The authoritativeness of the authors of this rebuttal far exceeds that of the author of the book, and his sources. Mr. Baer owes Paul Redmond a retraction and a public apology.”—Gregory Sims, retired senior CIA Operations Officer
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“Super great article on Baer’s book. I was especially happy to see such well-deserved praise for Paul and all that he has accomplished for the community, the Agency, and the scores of individual offers that he mentored. I’m so pleased this article is finally out. I’m sure it will not totally remove the suffering but know we have always stood by you. Thank you, Paul, for your service, your guidance, and your friendship. You are a true hero to us all.”—Paul Stombaugh, retired CIA Operations Officer
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“It is the height of unethical professional conduct for former intelligence officers to write such a story in any circumstance but all the more so, with no access to historic documentation nor direct, in-depth first-hand knowledge. Paul Redmond was a dedicated officer who worked tirelessly to make the agency a safer and more secure organization during a time of maximum CI damage. He is one of only a few, including the three that wrote this article, to stand up and stop the hemorrhage. This book is only about making money.”—Benjamin Perez, retired CIA Operations Officer
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“The piece in Cipher Brief eviscerated the book completely. Also appreciated Paul’s takedown in International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, complete with his trademark sardonic tone. Could picture him saying it. That said, really wonder about the motives of Baer’s “sources.” —David Gutschmit, retired CIA Operations Officer
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“I’m pleased serious voices weighed in to point out the folly of Baer’s irresponsible book.”—John Sipher, retired CIA officer
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“Important voices in support of an excellent professional. Paul, I am sorry to see this attempt to besmirch your outstanding service and leadership.”—Maura Hennessy-Shaw, retired CIA Officer
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“I am glad to see senior officers publicly defending Paul Redmond from slander. These are sound recommendations and should be implemented.”—Luis Rueda, retired senior CIA Officer
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Other retired Intelligence Officers who viewed the Three CIA CI Chiefs and Paul Redmond’s article very favorably, are very supportive of the article and glad both articles have been published:
- Ray Mislock (FBI Counterintelligence Executive)
- John Deutch (CIA Director)
- Tom Twetten (CIA Deputy Director of Operations)
- Spike Bowman (FBI Counterintelligence Executive)
- Scotty Skotzko (Assoc. Deputy Director of Operations for Counterintelligence)
- John Turnicky (CIA Director of Security)
- A former Chief of CIA Counterintelligence (still serving)
- Joel Brenner (Director, National Counterintelligence Executive)
- General Guy Swan, USA (ret)
- Christopher Burgess (CIA)
- Tess Torres (CIA/CI)
- Robert Pringle (CIA)
- Ray Batvinis (FBI)
- Christina Rocca (CIA/CI)
- Paula Doyle (CIA)
- Barry Zulauf (ODNI)
- Christopher Bane (CIA)
- William Nolte (CIA, NSA, ODNI)
- Deb Fuller (CIA)
- Paula Sweeney (CIA)
- Richard Eric Pound (CIA)
- William Brown (CIA)
- John Maguire (CIA)
- Jerwayne Cook (CIA)
- Gail Helt (CIA)