English: Former CIA officer Robert Baer, whose books inspired George Clooney‘s Syriana, gave a talk at the UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. Here are some of the quotes I wrote down:

“If you want to make difference, don’t join the CIA. Go join the American Enterprise Institute; they are making the policy today. “Washington has become a capital for mercenaries… Government responsibilities have been outsourced to private companies. “The US government is not looking for Bin Laden anymore. The hunt for Bin Laden has been outsourced. If you think there are CIA ninjas running around (looking for Bin Laden) in Waziristan, you are wrong…” Asked to compare between journalists and CIA operatives: “Journalists are more careful about facts and more curious…” “Judith Miller did not know anything about Iraq. The US government itself did not know anything about Iraq. Saddam was not sharing information even with his (highest ranking) 11 generals… so how come Judith or the government knew about the WMD? “Rumsfeld is a bit crazy… “Torture doesn’t work, and never worked. “The talk about waterboarding not being torture is crazy. Waterboarding was invented by the Inquisition, perfected by the Nazis… Why is it wrong for the Berkeley police to use waterboarding, but it’s OK for the CIA to use on Muslims?

“You cannot talk about Israel (in the US). You cannot talk about Jerusalem, about the West Bank..”