What do you think?
Rate this book
The Perfect Kill: 21 Laws for Assassins
What is the definition of assassination? Robert B. Baer’s boss at the CIA once told him, “It’s a bullet with a man’s name on it.” Sometimes assassination is the senseless act of a psychotic, a bloodletting without social value. Other times, it can be the sanest and most humane way to change the course of conflict—one bullet, one death, case closed. Assassination has been dramatized by literature and politicized by infamous murders throughout history, and for Robert Baer, one of the most accomplished agents to ever work for the CIA, it’s a source of endless fascination, speculation, and intrigue.
Over several decades, Baer served as an operative, from Iraq to New Delhi and beyond; notably, his career was the model for the acclaimed movie Syriana. In The Perfect Kill, he takes us on a serpentine adventure through the history of political murder; its connections to, and differences from, the ubiquitous use of drones in state-sponsored killing; his firsthand experience with political executions; and his decades-long cat-and-mouse hunt, across the Middle East and Europe, for the most effective and deadliest assassin of the modern age. A true maverick with an undeniably captivating personal story, Baer pulls back the curtain on the underbelly of world politics and the quiet murderers who operate on the fringe of our society.
Over several decades, Baer served as an operative, from Iraq to New Delhi and beyond; notably, his career was the model for the acclaimed movie Syriana. In The Perfect Kill, he takes us on a serpentine adventure through the history of political murder; its connections to, and differences from, the ubiquitous use of drones in state-sponsored killing; his firsthand experience with political executions; and his decades-long cat-and-mouse hunt, across the Middle East and Europe, for the most effective and deadliest assassin of the modern age. A true maverick with an undeniably captivating personal story, Baer pulls back the curtain on the underbelly of world politics and the quiet murderers who operate on the fringe of our society.
331 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 1, 2013
161 people are currently reading
1506 people want to read
About the author
Robert B. Baer
13 books234 followersRobert B. Baer is a former Middle East intelligence specialist for the CIA, and a winner of the Career Intelligence Medal. He is the author of four New York Times bestsellers, including See No Evil—the basis for the acclaimed film Syriana, which earned George Clooney an Oscar for his portrayal of Baer. He is considered one of the world’s foremost authorities on the Middle East and frequently appears on all major news outlets. Baer writes regularly for Time.com and has contributed to Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. He is the current national security affairs analyst for CNN.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 68 reviews
July 5, 2015
1.The bastard has to deserve it
2. Make it count
3.Placate the edifice until it’s time to blow it up
4. Every act a bullet or a shield
5. Always have a backup for everything
6. Tend your reputation like a rare orchid
7. Rent the gun, buy the bullet
8. Vet your proxies in blood
9. Don’t shoot everyone in the room
10. Never cede tactical control
11. Own the geography
12. Make it personal
13. No dancing with feathers
14. Don’t get caught in flagrante delicto
15. Don’t miss
16. If you can’t control the kill, control the aftermath
17. He who laughs last shoots first
18. Like a bolt of lightning out of the clear blue
19. Always have an encore in your pocket
20. Nothing wounded moves uphill
21. Get to it quickly
Those are the “21 laws for assassins” as Baer identifies them. Naturally they are all given a more detailed explanation in the text. Each chapter begins with a short explanation of the law -- usually a sentence or two -- and then the chapter is broken up into sections, each with its own title (which is often another maxim) and finally they end with a “Note to assassins,” which restates the “law” yet again. The message is generally consistent in each chapter, but because Bauer jumps around geographically and chronologically, the narrative is impressionistic and can be hard to follow. So this is partly a treatise on assassination, partly a travelogue of Lebanon in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, and partly the memoir of CIA operative with an unofficial mandate to assassinate one of the most successful assassins in the region.
Baer, a former CIA operative, tells about as much as he legally can about his service in Lebanon. He apparently had other official goals, but he became obsessed with the idea of assassinating one of the most effective and feared assassins in the region, “Hajj Radwan.” By telling the stories of Radwan’s exploits and his own efforts to find and kill him, Baer illustrates the 21 lessons about “political murder” or assassination. He is often very funny and self-deprecating, and does a good job of creating suspense when he describes some successful and unsuccessful assassination attempts, including some attempts made on his own life by unknown agents (certainly not Hajj Radwan, who Baer is sure would not have failed).
The jist of his theory of assassination (or political murder, as he usually terms it) is that assassination is a method for achieving political ends, but to be effective it must follow the lines he outlines, and failing to do so will cause the assassination attempt to fail and/or the aftermath to fail to achieve the goal. He argues that a lot of people and organizations think they understand how to use violence but really don’t, and end up causing mayhem and chaos without actually accomplishing what they intended, whether that goal was to stabilize or destabilize a government, to create or destroy the prestige of a person or organization, or simply to prevent the foreseeable consequences of the target’s efforts. The “laws” are meant to explain why, for example, one leading Mexican drug cartel has assassins that will kill their targets but leave bystanders and witnesses unscathed, while other cartels kill lots of innocent bystanders in the misguided belief that this makes them appear strong. The laws also say that claiming responsibility or otherwise grandstanding about the killing is a mistake. Baer makes an interesting case by referring to numerous examples from history.
He spends some time musing on the morality of assassination, and can’t help but bring drone missions and the modern face of the CIA into the discussion. He ultimately concludes that apart from the moral and legal issues assassinations raise, the United States is particularly unlikely to accomplish much with its drones. This is because what thwarts our efforts to arrest or assassinate our enemies is a our inability to understand the social and political networks in the Middle East and central Asia. But this same lack of understanding tempts us to rely on drones -- which will continue to miss targets and kill innocents because we don’t have the intelligence to find the right targets. Indeed the antiseptic drone control centers in the US are so comfortable and low-risk that we are tempted to abandon on-the-ground intelligence gathering, which ironically dooms the drone missions to failure. He also notes that because the timing of political murder is so critical, it is very difficult to accomplish the ultimate goal even when the target is finally killed. Sure Radwan was eventually assassinated, just like Bin Laden was eventually killed, but in both cases, he says, these enemies had already caused all the damage they could by creating ideologies, frameworks, and organizations to carry on their work without them. It may in fact be impossible to use political murder on a global/international scale simply because what makes it an effective tool is the fact that the immediate effects of each killing are only clear within the target’s network.
Fast-paced, suspenseful, and informative, this was a pretty quick and entertaining read. The author's self-deprecating humor goes a long way to keeping the reader sympathetic despite the subject matter.
**Full disclosure -- I got a free copy of this book through the Goodreads "first reads" giveaway program.**
2. Make it count
3.Placate the edifice until it’s time to blow it up
4. Every act a bullet or a shield
5. Always have a backup for everything
6. Tend your reputation like a rare orchid
7. Rent the gun, buy the bullet
8. Vet your proxies in blood
9. Don’t shoot everyone in the room
10. Never cede tactical control
11. Own the geography
12. Make it personal
13. No dancing with feathers
14. Don’t get caught in flagrante delicto
15. Don’t miss
16. If you can’t control the kill, control the aftermath
17. He who laughs last shoots first
18. Like a bolt of lightning out of the clear blue
19. Always have an encore in your pocket
20. Nothing wounded moves uphill
21. Get to it quickly
Those are the “21 laws for assassins” as Baer identifies them. Naturally they are all given a more detailed explanation in the text. Each chapter begins with a short explanation of the law -- usually a sentence or two -- and then the chapter is broken up into sections, each with its own title (which is often another maxim) and finally they end with a “Note to assassins,” which restates the “law” yet again. The message is generally consistent in each chapter, but because Bauer jumps around geographically and chronologically, the narrative is impressionistic and can be hard to follow. So this is partly a treatise on assassination, partly a travelogue of Lebanon in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, and partly the memoir of CIA operative with an unofficial mandate to assassinate one of the most successful assassins in the region.
Baer, a former CIA operative, tells about as much as he legally can about his service in Lebanon. He apparently had other official goals, but he became obsessed with the idea of assassinating one of the most effective and feared assassins in the region, “Hajj Radwan.” By telling the stories of Radwan’s exploits and his own efforts to find and kill him, Baer illustrates the 21 lessons about “political murder” or assassination. He is often very funny and self-deprecating, and does a good job of creating suspense when he describes some successful and unsuccessful assassination attempts, including some attempts made on his own life by unknown agents (certainly not Hajj Radwan, who Baer is sure would not have failed).
The jist of his theory of assassination (or political murder, as he usually terms it) is that assassination is a method for achieving political ends, but to be effective it must follow the lines he outlines, and failing to do so will cause the assassination attempt to fail and/or the aftermath to fail to achieve the goal. He argues that a lot of people and organizations think they understand how to use violence but really don’t, and end up causing mayhem and chaos without actually accomplishing what they intended, whether that goal was to stabilize or destabilize a government, to create or destroy the prestige of a person or organization, or simply to prevent the foreseeable consequences of the target’s efforts. The “laws” are meant to explain why, for example, one leading Mexican drug cartel has assassins that will kill their targets but leave bystanders and witnesses unscathed, while other cartels kill lots of innocent bystanders in the misguided belief that this makes them appear strong. The laws also say that claiming responsibility or otherwise grandstanding about the killing is a mistake. Baer makes an interesting case by referring to numerous examples from history.
He spends some time musing on the morality of assassination, and can’t help but bring drone missions and the modern face of the CIA into the discussion. He ultimately concludes that apart from the moral and legal issues assassinations raise, the United States is particularly unlikely to accomplish much with its drones. This is because what thwarts our efforts to arrest or assassinate our enemies is a our inability to understand the social and political networks in the Middle East and central Asia. But this same lack of understanding tempts us to rely on drones -- which will continue to miss targets and kill innocents because we don’t have the intelligence to find the right targets. Indeed the antiseptic drone control centers in the US are so comfortable and low-risk that we are tempted to abandon on-the-ground intelligence gathering, which ironically dooms the drone missions to failure. He also notes that because the timing of political murder is so critical, it is very difficult to accomplish the ultimate goal even when the target is finally killed. Sure Radwan was eventually assassinated, just like Bin Laden was eventually killed, but in both cases, he says, these enemies had already caused all the damage they could by creating ideologies, frameworks, and organizations to carry on their work without them. It may in fact be impossible to use political murder on a global/international scale simply because what makes it an effective tool is the fact that the immediate effects of each killing are only clear within the target’s network.
Fast-paced, suspenseful, and informative, this was a pretty quick and entertaining read. The author's self-deprecating humor goes a long way to keeping the reader sympathetic despite the subject matter.
**Full disclosure -- I got a free copy of this book through the Goodreads "first reads" giveaway program.**
November 3, 2014
http://ensuingchapters.com/2014/11/02...
It was not hard to get me to pick up The Perfect Kill: 21 Laws for Assassins, by former CIA case officer and best-selling The Perfect Killauthor Robert Baer. Advice on how to pull off a flawless assassination? From a CIA insider? Sign me up.
But before you start stockpiling your arsenal, don’t think of The Perfect Kill as a modern-day Anarchist Cookbook. This is an engaging work of military history—an insider’s view of the Middle East through the eyes of an assassin.
The assassin, though, is not Baer, but rather Hajj Radwan (aka Imad Mughniyeh), a notorious Lebanese terrorist affiliated with Hezbollah and the Islamic Jihad Organization. He is the man responsible for the 1983 suicide bombings of the U.S. embassy and marine barracks, and Baer links him to a number of kidnappings, hijackings and assassinations in the 1980s and ’90s.
Despite being an international fugitive (he was on the “most wanted” list of dozens of countries) and the focus of numerous arrest and assassination attempts by the U.S. and Israel, Radwan was able to execute successful terrorist attacks for a quarter-century before being killed by a car bomb in 2008.
His ability to elude justice for so long is frustrating to fans of instant karma, but for an experienced CIA operative (Baer himself was in pursuit of Radwan), he authored a playbook for political murder.
While the subject matter alone is interesting, Baer’s writing makes this a thrilling read from start to finish. He has a narrative voice that is concise, informative and though he occasionally drifts toward the conspiratorial (which isn’t a bad thing), he tempers it by clearly defining what is fact and what is conjecture.
And Baer’s got the bona fides to back it up. He writes for Time and other news outlets; he has produced documentaries for the BBC; and he has authored nonfiction best-sellers like See No Evil and Sleeping with the Devil.
Oh, and George Clooney played Baer in Syriana. Not a bad resume.
Each chapter begins with a “rule” for assassins, such as “The Bastard Has to Deserve It” (Law #1), “Every Act a Bullet or a Shield” (Law #4) and “Nothing Wounded Moves Uphill” (Law #20). Also included are “notes” to help one stick to this law and historical lessons (successful and otherwise) enforcing its importance.
But always, the primary narrative is the chess match between Bear and Radwan, and it is one that spans decades and continents. It’s a fascinating tale, and not surprisingly, the TV rights to the book were sold months before its publication.
I’m excited to see its adaptation, but there’s no substitute for the source. This is a stellar book that is a must-read for fans of history, the Middle East, the military and U.S. foreign policy.
It was not hard to get me to pick up The Perfect Kill: 21 Laws for Assassins, by former CIA case officer and best-selling The Perfect Killauthor Robert Baer. Advice on how to pull off a flawless assassination? From a CIA insider? Sign me up.
But before you start stockpiling your arsenal, don’t think of The Perfect Kill as a modern-day Anarchist Cookbook. This is an engaging work of military history—an insider’s view of the Middle East through the eyes of an assassin.
The assassin, though, is not Baer, but rather Hajj Radwan (aka Imad Mughniyeh), a notorious Lebanese terrorist affiliated with Hezbollah and the Islamic Jihad Organization. He is the man responsible for the 1983 suicide bombings of the U.S. embassy and marine barracks, and Baer links him to a number of kidnappings, hijackings and assassinations in the 1980s and ’90s.
Despite being an international fugitive (he was on the “most wanted” list of dozens of countries) and the focus of numerous arrest and assassination attempts by the U.S. and Israel, Radwan was able to execute successful terrorist attacks for a quarter-century before being killed by a car bomb in 2008.
His ability to elude justice for so long is frustrating to fans of instant karma, but for an experienced CIA operative (Baer himself was in pursuit of Radwan), he authored a playbook for political murder.
While the subject matter alone is interesting, Baer’s writing makes this a thrilling read from start to finish. He has a narrative voice that is concise, informative and though he occasionally drifts toward the conspiratorial (which isn’t a bad thing), he tempers it by clearly defining what is fact and what is conjecture.
And Baer’s got the bona fides to back it up. He writes for Time and other news outlets; he has produced documentaries for the BBC; and he has authored nonfiction best-sellers like See No Evil and Sleeping with the Devil.
Oh, and George Clooney played Baer in Syriana. Not a bad resume.
Each chapter begins with a “rule” for assassins, such as “The Bastard Has to Deserve It” (Law #1), “Every Act a Bullet or a Shield” (Law #4) and “Nothing Wounded Moves Uphill” (Law #20). Also included are “notes” to help one stick to this law and historical lessons (successful and otherwise) enforcing its importance.
But always, the primary narrative is the chess match between Bear and Radwan, and it is one that spans decades and continents. It’s a fascinating tale, and not surprisingly, the TV rights to the book were sold months before its publication.
I’m excited to see its adaptation, but there’s no substitute for the source. This is a stellar book that is a must-read for fans of history, the Middle East, the military and U.S. foreign policy.
Read
August 6, 2020The author of this book offers us a different way to see the world and people. That's all I can say so far.
More to come.
More to come.
November 26, 2018
Hard to know how exactly to rate this. There are irritating aspects to it, as it wanders literally all over the place from 17th century France, to the IRA, the Mossad and the Islamic terror groups that got their start in the cauldron of 1980s Lebanon, Beirut and the spin-off from the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Baer wants to tell several tales--the history of political assassinations, the disintegration of Lebanon, the nascent Islamic terror movement and he bounces around quite a bit in covering these subject. As a result, these themes suffer somewhat in the telling simply due to issues of space, confusion and organization. But there are so many outstanding nuggets and anecdotes that they make up for many of the shortcomings. The CIA is revealed for what it is, basically an amateur spy organization completely out of its depth when it comes to dealing with the true 'believers' who are the source of the vast majority of political murder and mayhem, especially in the crucible of the Middle East (or Africa, Pakistan, Afghanistan or actually anywhere the true believers exist in numbers). His observation that the CIA decision to stop dealing with 'low-lifes' as being akin to the Mayo Clinic refusing to see sick people was priceless. The agency is revealed as basically nothing more than an air force with drones and very crude level of spy craft. They are almost completely incapable (and seemingly uninterested in trying) of infiltrating in any meaningful way the Islamic cells that exist in every corner of the world today. The retelling of the Khost CIA debacle shows the agency as nearly complete amateurs. The general description of the agency today is not encouraging in any way either, infected with the same PC-crap, diversity crazed mentality that describes the entire U.S. government. A minor distraction was his use of 'Hajj Radwan' alias for the real 'protagonist', Imad Fayez Mughniyah. It is obviously no secret and his name is given in the afterword. According to Baer, he may well have been the mastermind (as part of Hezbollah) of the 1983 Beirut U.S. Embassy and Marine Corps barracks bombings. It is almost defies belief that on one was ever charged in these huge atrocities. This is a valuable book if for no reason other than to demonstrate the difficulties of operating against the skilled and determined forces that are arrayed in the world for purposes that do not include a 'diverse workforce' as the ultimate goal of an organization.
November 17, 2014
The author, Robert B Baer, was a CIA agent and is now national security affairs analyst for CNN. He knows a lot about the inner workings of espionage and in this book attempts to illuminate the reader about what it takes to be a good assassin. Baer seems to have primarily worked in the Middle East with most of his time spent in Lebanon. He chooses a very successful Lebanese assassin named Hajj Radwan to be the real world model that he uses to illustrate his twenty one laws for assassins and each law is a new chapter in the book. For instance “Law #6 TEND YOUR REPUTATION LIKE A RARE ORCHID” (pg 69) is the title of the sixth chapter and explains this law by using a story from Lebanon involving Hajj Radwan that happened in 1985-86 while Baer was stationed there.
I had a couple of problems with this book. At first, I found the book interesting but the further along it got it just seemed to circle back to a few key events and figures and about halfway along it had become too repetitive and even though the topic was assassination I became somewhat bored. What bothered me more and made me question the authenticity of Baer’s stories was a character called the Colonel. On page 73 Baer describes the Colonel saying “He was a Sunni from the north.” But shortly afterwards on pages 82-83, Baer says “In spite of being a Christian, could the Colonel not have had a grudging respect for Hajj Radwan?”. Is the Colonel a Sunni or is he a Christian? This contradiction made me question what was true in the rest of the book. THE PERFECT KILL is a scary, but disappointing read—not something I would recommend to anyone without a very specific interest in Middle Eastern skullduggery.
I had a couple of problems with this book. At first, I found the book interesting but the further along it got it just seemed to circle back to a few key events and figures and about halfway along it had become too repetitive and even though the topic was assassination I became somewhat bored. What bothered me more and made me question the authenticity of Baer’s stories was a character called the Colonel. On page 73 Baer describes the Colonel saying “He was a Sunni from the north.” But shortly afterwards on pages 82-83, Baer says “In spite of being a Christian, could the Colonel not have had a grudging respect for Hajj Radwan?”. Is the Colonel a Sunni or is he a Christian? This contradiction made me question what was true in the rest of the book. THE PERFECT KILL is a scary, but disappointing read—not something I would recommend to anyone without a very specific interest in Middle Eastern skullduggery.
September 23, 2015
The laws are interesting.
The real problem I had with this book is that the author roots himself deeply with very specific characters that I am not familiar with. Which is fine if you are looking for the nitty gritty perspective of someone who was there on the ground. I however was just looking for interesting stories.
The first half of the book I struggled to get close to the main baddie character who we never actually get to meet or ever see. The latter half of the book this wasn't so much a problem because he achieves this boogie man status that doesn't require us ever see him because he is lurking around every corner and in every shadow.
I thought I had more to say about this book but in any event it was ok, just not what I was looking for.
I did appreciate the references to Machiavelli.
The real problem I had with this book is that the author roots himself deeply with very specific characters that I am not familiar with. Which is fine if you are looking for the nitty gritty perspective of someone who was there on the ground. I however was just looking for interesting stories.
The first half of the book I struggled to get close to the main baddie character who we never actually get to meet or ever see. The latter half of the book this wasn't so much a problem because he achieves this boogie man status that doesn't require us ever see him because he is lurking around every corner and in every shadow.
I thought I had more to say about this book but in any event it was ok, just not what I was looking for.
I did appreciate the references to Machiavelli.
December 13, 2023
I listened to the audio book and the narrator, Keith Szarabajka, was a great choice and his gravely, raspy voice was the perfect choice for this book.
This book had me asking, why does the USA continue to have and find a/the CIA because they seem to get us into more trouble than they resolve. If the CIA didn’t exist and we hadn’t funded the Mujhadeen and UBL would 9/11 have happened? The existence of the CIA clearly did not stop 9/11.
This book is in the long side and interesting and doesn’t always talk about killing or assassination which I found interesting. It’s more a memoir of Baer’s life as a CIA agent with his 21 Laws for assassins sprinkled in of which most really make no sense or resonate with the average person.
I did agree with his argument that assassination should be in person rather than by drone strike and the rise of drones has automated killing and assassinations which the US tried to claim it doesn’t engage in.
I can recommend this book though it is not for everyone.
This book had me asking, why does the USA continue to have and find a/the CIA because they seem to get us into more trouble than they resolve. If the CIA didn’t exist and we hadn’t funded the Mujhadeen and UBL would 9/11 have happened? The existence of the CIA clearly did not stop 9/11.
This book is in the long side and interesting and doesn’t always talk about killing or assassination which I found interesting. It’s more a memoir of Baer’s life as a CIA agent with his 21 Laws for assassins sprinkled in of which most really make no sense or resonate with the average person.
I did agree with his argument that assassination should be in person rather than by drone strike and the rise of drones has automated killing and assassinations which the US tried to claim it doesn’t engage in.
I can recommend this book though it is not for everyone.
November 23, 2025
Just an amazing book. Although it's about assignation in general this book offers a great portal into Lebanon during the 80s and the insane life that an America CIA operative must have had in Beirut at the time. It might be set in the middle of a civil war, but this makes me want to visit the country even more. Baer is a great writer, the book is interesting and funny at the same time and really easy to read. What more do you want?
December 21, 2014
Rambling quasi-memoir stuffed into pseudo "rules" format, but sinful fun
This entertaining trek down Baer's highly-redacted past misses the meat and seasoning of the full story like a meal of salad and fish soup. Focusing on Baer's own hunt for one Mid-East antagonist that ends with him "high-tailing out like a three-legged jackrabbit" when his quarry appears to turn the tables, this picaresque collection of anecdotes and killing techniques is at its best when Baer's formidable mother pays him a visit. She never deserts her quarry, never misses an opportunity and fearlessly skewers all the Nazis, philanderers and corrupt bureaucrats that seem to pop-up when she's on scene like tin rabbits in an arcade shooting gallery. Baer himself is enamored of the elegant mano-a-mano putting down of societal impedimenta and despises the sterile nouveau-drone world where air-conditioned jump-suited glorified RC hobbyists take orders from contractors in Utah sifting through screens full of dots glowing with ever-increasing levels of risk-denoting hue stemming from cyber-analytics. He prefers those who dress in scuffed shoes and jeans, share three cups of tea with his quarry, inhale the aroma of his world, admire the music and women that surround him, assess the extremity of risk he presents first-hand in the target's tongue, then inject a drop of adenosine with a 50-gauge needle into his nictitating membrane while a team of like-minded operators hold him still in his bed. Ah ... the good old days.... Unfortunately, the book amounts to little more than bare sketches of publicly-released accounts of Mid-East mayhem thinly tied to the hunt for the killer of Navy diver Robert Stethem and author of such horrors as the bombings of the U.S. Embassy and Marine barracks in Lebanon. There are tales of Mom for comic relief, and the aforementioned "rules." A good adventure read, but devoid of context, reflection and depth. Thankfully, it's most admirable aspects are the author's charming humility coupled with a complete lack of admiration for things that go clank. While hardware is definitely part of the story, we get the feeling that Baer would be as mystified by a modern automobile engine as the next fellow. Definitely relatable, Baer's greatest gift in this little book is to appeal to the secret assassin inside us all. After all, murder mysteries are wildly popular, and what boy doesn't fantasize about being on the third floor in Abbottabad, dropped in by Blackhawk, with an "arrest" warrant in his Velcroed pocket?
This entertaining trek down Baer's highly-redacted past misses the meat and seasoning of the full story like a meal of salad and fish soup. Focusing on Baer's own hunt for one Mid-East antagonist that ends with him "high-tailing out like a three-legged jackrabbit" when his quarry appears to turn the tables, this picaresque collection of anecdotes and killing techniques is at its best when Baer's formidable mother pays him a visit. She never deserts her quarry, never misses an opportunity and fearlessly skewers all the Nazis, philanderers and corrupt bureaucrats that seem to pop-up when she's on scene like tin rabbits in an arcade shooting gallery. Baer himself is enamored of the elegant mano-a-mano putting down of societal impedimenta and despises the sterile nouveau-drone world where air-conditioned jump-suited glorified RC hobbyists take orders from contractors in Utah sifting through screens full of dots glowing with ever-increasing levels of risk-denoting hue stemming from cyber-analytics. He prefers those who dress in scuffed shoes and jeans, share three cups of tea with his quarry, inhale the aroma of his world, admire the music and women that surround him, assess the extremity of risk he presents first-hand in the target's tongue, then inject a drop of adenosine with a 50-gauge needle into his nictitating membrane while a team of like-minded operators hold him still in his bed. Ah ... the good old days.... Unfortunately, the book amounts to little more than bare sketches of publicly-released accounts of Mid-East mayhem thinly tied to the hunt for the killer of Navy diver Robert Stethem and author of such horrors as the bombings of the U.S. Embassy and Marine barracks in Lebanon. There are tales of Mom for comic relief, and the aforementioned "rules." A good adventure read, but devoid of context, reflection and depth. Thankfully, it's most admirable aspects are the author's charming humility coupled with a complete lack of admiration for things that go clank. While hardware is definitely part of the story, we get the feeling that Baer would be as mystified by a modern automobile engine as the next fellow. Definitely relatable, Baer's greatest gift in this little book is to appeal to the secret assassin inside us all. After all, murder mysteries are wildly popular, and what boy doesn't fantasize about being on the third floor in Abbottabad, dropped in by Blackhawk, with an "arrest" warrant in his Velcroed pocket?
abandoned
September 15, 2017Only finished first third.... Too boring.
I read some of Baer's other books like See No Evil and Sleeping with the Devil but this one was written a lot differently... Jumps around too much. Just Baer's own "Assassin's Laws" try to hold the narrative together.
Skip this one.
I read some of Baer's other books like See No Evil and Sleeping with the Devil but this one was written a lot differently... Jumps around too much. Just Baer's own "Assassin's Laws" try to hold the narrative together.
Skip this one.
March 31, 2021
Este libro lo vi recomendado en TikTok y tenía que leer libros de no ficción este mes. Pero creo que si no hubiera sido por ese vídeo no hubiese pensado en leerlo.
El libro tiene dos tipos de escritura.
Por un lado una lista de reglas para asesinos y por otra su propia historia dentro la CIA, ambas partes se mezclan. Creo que esto fue un fallo, cualquiera de las dos opciones sola hubiera sido muy entretenida y fascinante, la historia de Baer es suficiente por sí sola, no necesita un apoyo externo.
Baer hace un muy buen trabajo en llevarnos con él a las misiones de los años 80 y 90. Puedes sentir que estás ahí mismo con él. La vida que ha llevado el escritor es increíble y de película.
El libro tiene dos tipos de escritura.
Por un lado una lista de reglas para asesinos y por otra su propia historia dentro la CIA, ambas partes se mezclan. Creo que esto fue un fallo, cualquiera de las dos opciones sola hubiera sido muy entretenida y fascinante, la historia de Baer es suficiente por sí sola, no necesita un apoyo externo.
Baer hace un muy buen trabajo en llevarnos con él a las misiones de los años 80 y 90. Puedes sentir que estás ahí mismo con él. La vida que ha llevado el escritor es increíble y de película.
Read
November 3, 2021I was glad to find this since I'm plotting out a story with assassins in it and there are very few books about assassination generally, or the theory of how one ought to be conducted. A lot of the book is either colorful storytelling about the author's exploits or bite-sized recountings of historical assassinations, but I think the views of violence and power presented hold water. Having 21 laws helps marketability, but I feel like with a couple free hours I could pare this list down to fewer than 10 without losing anything of value. If you're intrigued by military accounts or the type of person who really likes spy novels, I'd recommend this to you. If you're trying to unseat a hegemony, do a little extra research.
April 19, 2020
Not your typical CIA thriller. Robert takes you through the thought process of an assassin and the strict rules of execution they must adhere to - but not necessarily the kinds of people you expect to be spies and operators. A flourist in California. A liberal arts major. A man who turned down a top military position in Iran so he could remain true to his cause. More than a political and military book, Robert explains the philosophy and history behind assassins in war, and how Sun Tzu's wise words of 'winning a war without ever fighting' (or at least very little) is still favored by many top officials.
June 3, 2019
The title doesn't capture what the book is really about. While Baer does outline a list of rules, the bulk of the book is composed of a mixture of memoir and history detailing his time as a CIA operative in Lebanon and elsewhere in the Levant during the 1980s and 90s.
A decent read for anyone interested in the bumbling attempts of the CIA to get anything done; further proof that the CIA was and is a failed organization.
A decent read for anyone interested in the bumbling attempts of the CIA to get anything done; further proof that the CIA was and is a failed organization.
May 6, 2021
The kind of mental gymnastics you have to do to remain righteous about murder when that’s what you do in your career is beyond me.
He got so much wrong about Lebanon it was cringeworthy. This book is written from the unquestioned premise that the US should be the world police/enforcer and operates under the sophomoric subscription to the pure good and pure evil mythology.
I couldn’t finish this book. It was so bad and completely lacked nuance.
He got so much wrong about Lebanon it was cringeworthy. This book is written from the unquestioned premise that the US should be the world police/enforcer and operates under the sophomoric subscription to the pure good and pure evil mythology.
I couldn’t finish this book. It was so bad and completely lacked nuance.
February 14, 2025
Some good general principles and concepts, widely spaced with a lot of stem-winding war stories from an apparently bumbling ex-CIA agent. If you've ever watched the original Magnum P.I. with Tom Selleck, imagine the character Higgins droning on with his war stories - it's that kind of style. If you can stay awake and focused, you might learn a few things along the way, even if it does feel like you're being dragged behind a donkey cart on a dusty, winding Lebanese mountain road.
October 31, 2016
Excellent and engaging read. The author does a masterful job telling a story of espionage and political murder. In the process he lays out how difficult it is to use targeted violence effectively. Highly recommend this book.
Read
December 10, 2020Overall it was a good book. Despite his experience I think he has a fanciful idea of the perfect assassin. They do this and they don't do that. Well we have seen assassins who do the exact opposite of some of the things he said and are still successful.
May 9, 2017
A hard read. CIA bromance with a Lebanese assassin. Lots of death by a political hand. Main message. Drones are bullshit. A present from my son.
September 12, 2017
This was a very interesting book, and it led me to read others by weaving such a compelling tale of life and politics in the 1980s and 1990s. Also check out Killing Mr. Lebanon.
June 14, 2018
The author sounds like he is just randomly picking words out of a thesaurus, making the book difficult to read. The content is interesting though.
January 22, 2020
Good to great if you like this genre, dates and times along with setting you feel you're there or can imagine what is said is gospel. I can't imagine keeping a low heart rate and doing these "jobs"
December 15, 2021
Mid-level bureaucrat waxes nostalgic over unsanctioned extrajudicial killings. Did not finish.
January 12, 2022
Great book. One of Baer’s best
March 14, 2022
This inverted my view of geopolitics. I'll finish writing a review when I am no longer dizzy.
October 8, 2023
Thought that’d be a bit more interesting
July 7, 2024
After being heavily redacted by the CIA, the book ends up choppy and confusing, requiring the reader to read between the lines. Good anecdotes.
October 13, 2016
Super interesting read.
December 18, 2016
A very interesting and cynical trip through the harsh reality of assassination, told by an ex-CIA agent who tried and failed to arrange the killing of a high-level Hezbollah operative. Baer doesn't so much tell his story as borrow from it where appropriate (and where he's allowed to) to get across his ideas about when it is appropriate to use assassination as a political tool.
Wait, what? Murder is sometimes appropriate? How does that work?
Baer makes a good case. He lays out his "rules" using pragmatic and focused language, and more importantly is careful never to present himself as an expert. If anything, Baer talks of his CIA career as a series of mistakes far more often than he ever tries to convince the reader he's some kind of James Bond clone. I had to Google his name to find out that he was decorated twice by the CIA during his career. For that reason alone, I found myself liking the guy. Far too many testimonials/autobiographies reek of ego; this one does not.
In all, this was an interesting read, although I will say that Baer's blunt pragmatism might be too much for more idealistic readers to take. I enjoyed it immensely, but then again I have a rather jaundiced view of politics and violence. More idealistic souls might balk. After all, the author is laying out how to construct the perfect assassination here, as well as making a case for how it is in fact the best choice when dealing with 'problem people'. I have to say I was somewhat convinced. Your mileage may vary.
In closing, here are Baer's 21 "Laws" of assassination:
#1: The bastard has to deserve it.
#2: Make it count.
#3: Placate the edifice until its time to blow it up.
#4: Every act is either a bullet or a shield.
#5: Always have a backup for everything.
#6: Tend to your reputation like a rare orchid.
#7: Rent the gun, buy the bullet.
#8: Vet your proxies in blood.
#9: Don't shoot everyone in the room.
#10: Never cede tactical control.
#11: Own the geography.
#12: Make it personal.
#13: No dancing with the feathers (e.g. don't brag)
#14: Don't get caught doing it.
#15: Don't miss.
#16: If you can't control the kill, control the aftermath.
#17: He who laughs last shoots first.
#18: Be a bolt of lightning out of a clear blue sky.
#19: Always have an encore in your pocket.
#20: Nothing wounded moves uphill.
#21: Get to it quickly.
Wait, what? Murder is sometimes appropriate? How does that work?
Baer makes a good case. He lays out his "rules" using pragmatic and focused language, and more importantly is careful never to present himself as an expert. If anything, Baer talks of his CIA career as a series of mistakes far more often than he ever tries to convince the reader he's some kind of James Bond clone. I had to Google his name to find out that he was decorated twice by the CIA during his career. For that reason alone, I found myself liking the guy. Far too many testimonials/autobiographies reek of ego; this one does not.
In all, this was an interesting read, although I will say that Baer's blunt pragmatism might be too much for more idealistic readers to take. I enjoyed it immensely, but then again I have a rather jaundiced view of politics and violence. More idealistic souls might balk. After all, the author is laying out how to construct the perfect assassination here, as well as making a case for how it is in fact the best choice when dealing with 'problem people'. I have to say I was somewhat convinced. Your mileage may vary.
In closing, here are Baer's 21 "Laws" of assassination:
#1: The bastard has to deserve it.
#2: Make it count.
#3: Placate the edifice until its time to blow it up.
#4: Every act is either a bullet or a shield.
#5: Always have a backup for everything.
#6: Tend to your reputation like a rare orchid.
#7: Rent the gun, buy the bullet.
#8: Vet your proxies in blood.
#9: Don't shoot everyone in the room.
#10: Never cede tactical control.
#11: Own the geography.
#12: Make it personal.
#13: No dancing with the feathers (e.g. don't brag)
#14: Don't get caught doing it.
#15: Don't miss.
#16: If you can't control the kill, control the aftermath.
#17: He who laughs last shoots first.
#18: Be a bolt of lightning out of a clear blue sky.
#19: Always have an encore in your pocket.
#20: Nothing wounded moves uphill.
#21: Get to it quickly.
January 4, 2015
“It’s a bullet with a man’s name on it.”
That was the response Robert B. Baer received when, as a CIA agent in the 1980’s, he asked his boss to define “assassination.” The answer was not satisfying – it didn’t address the nature of assassination, the reasoning and justifications for it, or the impact and implications of actually putting it into practice.
Baer is an ex-CIA agent and current national security affairs advisor to CNN, and with “The Perfect Kill” he provides a personal analysis of what assassination means beyond the simple concept of bullet meeting body.
Due to the sensitive nature of the material, the book was vetted by the CIA and employs the usual caveats: names, details, and time frames have been “adjusted” and the “true set-piece plot against Hajj Radwan” cannot be provided. Within those constraints the book is part history, part first-person recollection, and even part speculation. Baer does offer some theories based on his experiences but clearly states when he is speculating.
The overall arc of the book addresses the mid-1980’s hunt for the terrorist Hajj Radwan (real name: Imad Fayez Mughniyah) and the lessons – or “Laws” – learned.
Each chapter has one of these Laws as its title (such as “Always Have a Backup For Everything” and “Don’t Shoot Everyone in the Room”) and then goes on to explore the concept using as a background the hunt for Radwan.
No, Baer did not hunt down and assassinate Radwan, but it wasn’t for lack of effort. He has written about that in previous books so his intention is that “The Perfect Kill” be seen more as a “rule book” than a history book. Given the subject matter, however, a certain amount of history is to be expected.
That history, however, sometimes contributes to the one drawback the book has: it jumps around in time and location, interrupting the flow. The overall thread is never lost but the patchwork approach may discourage the mildly curious or casual reader.
The book is based on Baer’s analyses and interpretations of Radwan’s activities and his apparent underlying philosophy. Radwan was the mastermind responsible for many of the more well-known terrorist attacks during the 1980’s, including the U.S. Embassy bombings in Beirut, the murder of a CIA chief there, and the truck-bombing of Marine barracks that “brought to an end the long love affair between Lebanon and the United States.”
Although another terrorist, Illich Ramirez Sanchez, was dubbed “The Jackal” by the Press, it was in fact Radwan whose exploits were the real-life inspiration for Frederick Forsyth’s novel The Day of the Jackal.
With “The Perfect Kill,” Baer demonstrates that our enemies can and will unintentionally provide us with a treasure-trove of information, if we know where and how to look.
That was the response Robert B. Baer received when, as a CIA agent in the 1980’s, he asked his boss to define “assassination.” The answer was not satisfying – it didn’t address the nature of assassination, the reasoning and justifications for it, or the impact and implications of actually putting it into practice.
Baer is an ex-CIA agent and current national security affairs advisor to CNN, and with “The Perfect Kill” he provides a personal analysis of what assassination means beyond the simple concept of bullet meeting body.
Due to the sensitive nature of the material, the book was vetted by the CIA and employs the usual caveats: names, details, and time frames have been “adjusted” and the “true set-piece plot against Hajj Radwan” cannot be provided. Within those constraints the book is part history, part first-person recollection, and even part speculation. Baer does offer some theories based on his experiences but clearly states when he is speculating.
The overall arc of the book addresses the mid-1980’s hunt for the terrorist Hajj Radwan (real name: Imad Fayez Mughniyah) and the lessons – or “Laws” – learned.
Each chapter has one of these Laws as its title (such as “Always Have a Backup For Everything” and “Don’t Shoot Everyone in the Room”) and then goes on to explore the concept using as a background the hunt for Radwan.
No, Baer did not hunt down and assassinate Radwan, but it wasn’t for lack of effort. He has written about that in previous books so his intention is that “The Perfect Kill” be seen more as a “rule book” than a history book. Given the subject matter, however, a certain amount of history is to be expected.
That history, however, sometimes contributes to the one drawback the book has: it jumps around in time and location, interrupting the flow. The overall thread is never lost but the patchwork approach may discourage the mildly curious or casual reader.
The book is based on Baer’s analyses and interpretations of Radwan’s activities and his apparent underlying philosophy. Radwan was the mastermind responsible for many of the more well-known terrorist attacks during the 1980’s, including the U.S. Embassy bombings in Beirut, the murder of a CIA chief there, and the truck-bombing of Marine barracks that “brought to an end the long love affair between Lebanon and the United States.”
Although another terrorist, Illich Ramirez Sanchez, was dubbed “The Jackal” by the Press, it was in fact Radwan whose exploits were the real-life inspiration for Frederick Forsyth’s novel The Day of the Jackal.
With “The Perfect Kill,” Baer demonstrates that our enemies can and will unintentionally provide us with a treasure-trove of information, if we know where and how to look.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 68 reviews