International Journal of Intelligence and

CounterIntelligence

ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ujic20

Editor’s Note

Jan Goldman

To cite this article: Jan Goldman (2023) Editor’s Note, International Journal of Intelligence and
CounterIntelligence, 36:2, 299-300, DOI: 10.1080/08850607.2023.2167382
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/08850607.2023.2167382

Published online: 21 Feb 2023.

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International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence, 36: 299–300, 2023
# 2023 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 0885-0607 print/1521-0561 online
DOI: 10.1080/08850607.2023.2167382

Editor’s Note

Over the last 38 years, this journal has published hundreds of book reviews. A
good book review focuses on the strengths and weaknesses of the author’s thesis
and research and how it compares with other publications of that genre.
Additionally, our book reviewers differ from other journals because most of our
reviewers have first-hand knowledge of events or may have been involved with
first-hand knowledge, given their position in the intelligence community.
Academic rigor combined with professional experience is the backbone and
“raison d’^etre” of this publication.
We are setting aside a particular section of this issue on the recent publication
of The Fourth Man: The Hunt for a KGB Spy at the Top of the CIA and the Rise
of Putin’s Russia by Robert Baer. Although we have never done this, we believe
this book requires special attention.
Rumors have long swirled of another mole in American intelligence, one
perhaps more damaging than all the others combined. Perhaps the greatest
traitor in American history, a Russian ruse to tear the CIA apart, or perhaps
nothing more than a bogeyman. He is often referred to as the “fourth man,” a
designation adopted from Andrew Boyle’s book of the same title, which told the
story of KGB penetrations in Great Britain during the Cold War.
After the arrest in 1994 of Aldrich Ames, a KGB penetration of the CIA, there
were still questions about lost assets which his betrayal could not clearly explain.
In addition, there was reporting from Agency sources in the KGB that there was
another spy in the CIA or FBI. The CIA created an investigative unit to look into
this matter. Baer describes the work of these three officers who reached a
conclusion, which became their very firmly held conviction, that Paul Redmond,
a senior CIA officer, was the spy. While Baer relates in great detail the
accusations, inferences, and circumstantial evidence used by the group, in a
rather confusing way he portrays himself as a reporter who is not taking a stand
on the validity of this charge and is not pointing his finger at anyone.
Three intelligence professionals (including the individual the book, in effect,
accuses of being the spy) and a known British author on intelligence took up our
challenge to review the book. Baer is a former operations officer with 21 years of

AND COUNTERINTELLIGENCE VOLUME 36, NUMBER 2 299

300 EDITOR’S NOTE

service in the CIA who has little experience in Russian operations and none in
counterintelligence. He has written several well-received books by the general
public, with one made into a movie. I thought it was essential to reach out to the
author to seek clarification of his book by allowing him space to refute some of
the criticism and scrutiny of his publication. The author declined our invitation
to participate.
This journal’s mission is to serve the academic and professional worldwide
intelligence communities. These exclusive articles and personal perspectives by
intelligence professionals should shed some light on the author’s claims or, as he
would indicate, perceived claims.
This particular section supports the foundational leanings of the journal—“we
are neither hawks nor doves but rather owls seeking to reach true objectivity”—
and I believe this special section allows us to do that.

Jan Goldman
Editor-in-Chief,
International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTELLIGENCE