Free Republic

Noted free-speech champion Keith Olbermann has declared that we have to "legally stop" Glenn Beck. The Fox News host's crime? Not reacting strongly enough for Olbermann's taste when a guest made an over-the-top remark. [H/t reader JKF.] On the June 30 editon of Beck's show, former CIA analyst Michael Scheuer said: "the only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama bin Laden to detonate a major weapon in the United States." Apparently Scheuer thinks that's what it would take to shock the country and its leaders back to their senses. Olbermann was infuriated that Beck didn't...

Two weeks ago Democrats were in full attack mode, intending to prosecute any and all who “tortured” enemy combatants. Thanks to the backbone of some former senior CIA folks and I might add, the Washington Post, there has been an abject reversal, culminating in a letter from the House Intelligence Committee to all CIA personnel. Here's the story. Recently the CIA has come under assault recently like no other time. The first insult was the appointment as Director of Leon Panetta, a political hack with no previous intelligence experience. The agency soon became a punching bag, in an orgy of...

While ex-CIA analyst Michael Scheuer likened Osama bin Laden to figures such as Robin Hood and Saint Francis of Assisi in his 2004 book, Imperial Hubris, one would've assumed that with the publication of The Al Qaeda Reader in 2007, which presents a very different picture of bin Laden, based on his own words, that Scheuer, at the very least, would have stopped depicting the former as nothing more than a man with grievances fighting tyranny and oppression. Yet, according to this article, in his latest book, Scheuer is now presenting Osama's writings as being similar to Thomas Jefferson's! I...

Michael Scheuer is a former CIA agent and analyst. In his 22-year career, he served as the Chief of the Osama bin Laden Task Force and bin Laden Station (aka "Alec Station"), from 1996 to 1999, the Osama bin Laden tracking unit at the Counterterrorist Center. He then worked again as Special Advisor to the Chief of the Osama bin Laden unit from September 2001 to November 2004. In his books and in many interviews he has detailed at least 10 cases where the Clinton administration refused to capture or kill Osama bin Laden when they had the ability to...

TERRORISM MONITOR Volume 2 Issue 1 (January 15, 2004) A RUSSIAN AGENT AT THE RIGHT HAND OF BIN LADEN? By Evgenii Novikov The Arabic television channel Al Jazeera broadcast an audiotape on December 19, 2003, that was said to be from Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, the right hand man of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. In it, Zawahiri claimed that his group was chasing Americans everywhere, including in the United States. This claim helped raise the terror threat level. But where is Zawahiri, whose head now carries a price of US$25 million? Recent media reports have said that he is...

The al-Qaeda leader who is thought to have devised the plan for the July 7 suicide bombings in London and an array of terrorist plots against Britain has been captured by the Americans. Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, a former major in Saddam Hussein’s army, was apprehended as he tried to enter Iraq from Iran and was transferred this week to the “high-value detainee programme” at Guantanamo Bay. Abd al-Hadi was taken into CIA custody last year, it emerged from US intelligence sources yesterday, in a move which suggests that he was interrogated for months in a “ghost prison” before being transferred...

The CIA's former Bin Laden specialist, Michael Scheuer, has written a revealing article about KSM --- Khalil Sheikh Mohammed, the operational chief of Al Qaeda, who has now been convicted by a military tribunal. KSM's elaborate confession was published by the Defense Department, giving Scheuer a chance to show us how well he understands Al Qaida. Unfortunately he doesn't say anything new about that, while being amazingly candid about his own biases and that of his cohort at the CIA. It's not a pretty picture. Like Valerie Plame, Scheuer is an unabashed Leftist, as he showed in his first CIA-approved...

VIRTUAL KILLTHE CHRIS WALLACE-BILL CLINTON INTERVIEW DECONSTRUCTED HEAR: the only idea clinton was promoting during the interview the devastating case made against bill clinton by: Michael Scheuer, former 'hunting bin Laden' CIA Division Chief, and Richard Miniter, author of Losing Bin Laden: How Bill Clinton's Failures Unleashed Global Terror DECONSTRUCTED INTERVIEW (play now) by Mia T, 9.27.06   "Mr. bin Laden used to live in Sudan. He was expelled from Saudi Arabia in '91 and he went to the Sudan. We'd been hearing that the Sudanese wanted America to start dealing with them again. They released him [bin Laden]....

'BIN LADEN ALIVE TODAY BECAUSE CLINTON, BERGER + CLARKE REFUSED TO KILL HIM' :Osama-Division CIA ChiefCLINTON 'MISLED AMERICAN PEOPLE' IN CHRIS WALLACE INTERVIEW by Mia T, 9.26.06 CBS Terror Expert, Iraq War Critic and former CIA head for hunting Bin Laden on Monday CBS Early Show....   Harry Smith: "Elizabeth Palmer live in Pakistan this morning, thank you. I'm going to go back now to Michael Scheuer once again. Let's talk about what President Clinton had to say on Fox yesterday. He basically laid blame at the feet of the CIA and the FBI for not being able to...

WASHINGTON - Former advisers ridiculed ex-President Bill Clinton yesterday for saying he had a plan to invade Afghanistan, topple the Taliban and kill Osama Bin Laden after jihadists nearly sank the destroyer Cole. "The only order we got from [Clinton] after the Cole was to put together a target list for air attacks," said Michael Scheuer, who led the CIA's hunt for Osama Bin Laden under Clinton. "What I was involved in could in no way be called a full-fledged plan to attack and overthrow the Taliban," he said. In his fiery interview on "Fox News Sunday," Clinton claimed he...

Harry Smith Taken Aback as CBS Analyst Blames Clinton for bin Laden Failures Despite Bill Clinton's angry protestations, the bulk of the blame for America's failure to catch or kill Osama bin Laden lies squarely on the Clinton administration, at least according to terrorism analyst Michael Scheuer.Scheuer's words, delivered on today's edition of CBS's "Early Show," must have come as a shock for co-host Harry Smith since the liberal media's usual refrain on bin Laden is to blame Bush for the failure to kill him back in the early days of the Afghanistan campaign.That just isn't the case, Scheuer argued,...

Via the ABC News blog “Political Punch� comes this message from Michael Scheuer on The Path to 9/11 controversy. “This morning we received an email from Michael Scheuer, former chief of the Osama bin Laden Unit at the CIA’s Counterterrorist Center (and the previously “Anonymous� author of “Imperial Hubris�) who is clearly no fan of either the Bush nor the Clinton Administrations — nor the 9/11 Commission. He writes the following: “This whole business over ABC’s movie is amazing. Now Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. and a pack of political whores who pass themselves off as ‘historians’ have come out four-square for...

This is an expansion on debg's summary of Adam Gadahn's Al Qaeda videotape, available for download at http://www.lauramansfield.com/j/nnnnmn-1.rm. debg: He spent a long time saying we are ignorantGadahn did indeed spend a long time calling us "ignorant." After Zawahiri's introduction, he also accused us of "rapturously applause" when Israel wages war, of assenting to our governments' "atrocities in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere in the Muslim world." He also accuses us of "voicing our approval" of the so-called desecration of the Koran at Gitmo, and of our "yellow press and tele-evangelists insulting the 'Prophet' Muhammad [piss be upon him - my...

President Bush is wrong when he says we will not run from Iraq. He is whistling past the graveyard, hoping something good turns up. Sadly, nothing will. Why? Well, we will be beaten in Iraq and elsewhere because we refuse to accept reality and act with the brains or military ruthlessness reality requires. Domestic political requirements ruled the way the wars were fought; Republicans and Democrats made war plans with an eye toward staying in office. They seem to care nothing for soldiers and Marines killed in wars in which they lack the moral courage to use the force needed...

The CIA'S war against the Bush administration is one of the great untold stories of the past three years. It is, perhaps, the agency's most successful covert action of recent times. The CIA has used its budget to fund criticism of the administration by former Democratic officeholders. The agency allowed an employee, Michael Scheuer, to publish and promote a book containing classified information, as long as, in Scheuer's words, "the book was being used to bash the president." However, the agency's preferred weapon has been the leak. In one leak after another, generally to the New York Times or the...

The former chief of the CIA’s Osama bin Laden unit says bin Laden’s “truce” offer comes from a long-established Muslim tradition of warfare -- sending a clear signal to the United States that an al Qaeda attack is more than likely. Twenty-two-year CIA veteran Michael Scheuer, who wrote “Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror,” says bin Laden has offered his final warning before launching his next strike. “Warning your enemy before you attack him is very much a tradition in Islam from the prophet to the times when Saladin was fighting the Crusaders, he would...

RUSH: We're going to keep going with this. I mentioned earlier in the previous hour that even last night in the media, that the template on this al-Qaeda attack in Jordan is, "It's Bush's fault. Bush caused this. Bush is responsible!" So we played connect the dots in the first hour of the program. Just to review that, when you connect the dots, what do you get? You have Jordan. You have three suicide bombers. You've got 57 people dead so far; over 300 people wounded. You have terrorists. You have the culture of death, the expressed desire to end...

The U.S. intelligence community is palsied by lawyers. We had at least eight to 10 chances to capture or kill Osama bin Laden in 1998 and 1999. And the government on all occasions decided that the information was not good enough to act. . . . The lawyers are the bane of the intelligence community. . . . It is quite depressing...how investigations or captures of Osama Bin Laden or other Al Qaeda were hindered by lawyers, rules developed by lawyers, or fears of lawyers. For example, there were the FBI lawyers who wouldn't allow seeking a search warrant to...

     Inman on the Culture of Leaks 07/26 06:04 PMI recently asked Admiral Bobby R. Inman (USN Ret.), a professor at UT's LBJ School of Public Affairs who served as both Director of the National Security Administration and former Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, what he thought about Wilson, Plame and the leaking of classified information. Inman brought up an episode that has been overlooked in the recent debate — the CIA leaks during the 2004 election cycle, particularly the book Imperial Hubris, published by former CIA analyst Michael Scheuer under the pseudonym Anonymous. Inman said: I was utterly...

Because the media do not always remember that nothing should be too dangerous to talk about in America, I would first like to thank TCS for allowing Mr. Apostolou to publish his essay on my work and ideas ("Michael Scheuer's Bloody Logic", TCS, 3/17/05). I am indeed an old-fashioned conservative nationalist, stuck with the quaint belief that U.S. foreign policy should protect Americans first, last, and always. I of course never said anything remotely resembling "America must kill innocent Muslims because of its relationship with Israel" -- although that's a clever way of diverting attention from the arguments of my...

Michael Scheuer, whose book Imperial Hubris lambasts US strategy in the war against al Qaeda, has attracted attention for recent public statements on Israel. The former head of the CIA's bin Laden unit, Scheuer claimed at the Council on Foreign Relations in February that Israel controls the debate on US foreign policy. As important as Scheuer's hostility to Israel is his underlying message: that to keep Israel happy, the US must kill innocent Muslims. While Scheuer's views on the Middle East are unpleasant, they are not far from the orthodoxy among retired diplomats. The view of the superannuated foreign service...

PORTER GOSS was confirmed as director of central intelligence on September 22, 2004. That day, acting CIA director John McLaughlin said, "I know I speak for my colleagues at CIA and throughout the intelligence community in congratulating Porter Goss on his confirmation by the Senate as director of central intelligence." It was a gracious statement from a man who had wanted the job. But in terms of accuracy it should go down as the latest in a long line of bogus CIA assessments. McLaughlin was not speaking on behalf of many of his colleagues at the CIA when he congratulated...

As expected, former CIA Senior intelligence analyst Michael Scheuer has been making the rounds on political talk shows explaining his dissatisfaction with the U.S. government's policies vis-à-vis the War on Terror, as outlined in his best-selling book Imperial Hubris. Normally we would dismiss clichéd assertions such as Mr. Scheuer's, but his allegations and comments deserve attention as his championing by the MSM elevates him to a position of profound influence among the public. Putting aside Mr. Scheuer's admiration and praise for Osama bin Laden stated two Saturday's ago on Meet the Press (you can read them for yourself in the...

It wasn't long ago the story line coming out of Afghanistan was that the country was sliding toward warlordism and anarchy. This, it was said, was just one example of how the Bush Administration's war in Iraq was causing reverses in the broader war on terror. Or not. Earlier this month, Pakistan's Daily Times reported that the U.S. military has been contacted by Taliban fighters seeking to lay down their arms in exchange for an amnesty. Barring some bitter-enders, it seems many former Taliban fighters now realize their future lies within the country's democratic political process, not against it. We...

Fair use for education/discussion purposes: Yahoo! News News Home - Help AFP CIA renditions of terror suspects are 'out of control:' report Sun Feb 6, 5:57 PM ET WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Central Intelligence Agency (news - web sites)'s 'rendition' of suspected terrorists has spiralled 'out of control' according to a former FBI (news - web sites) agent, cited in a report which examined how CIA (news - web sites) detainees are spirited to states suspected of using torture. Michael Scheuer a former CIA counterterrorism agent told The New Yorker magazine "all we've done is create a nightmare," with regard...

BuzzFlash interview: Michael Scheuer. Ex-CIA bin Laden unit chief explains why insurgents are willing to die fighting us I’m very much frustrated with the inability of our leaders to make more than a superficial effort to understand the enemy, not because we need to sympathize with them or empathize with them, but because he’s so dangerous. We really need to take the measure of the enemy and why the enemy is fighting us.... Islamic militancy is a complex issue, but it’s not impossible for Americans to understand if they’re talked to directly and frankly. So far, we’ve gone through 12...

ON SUNDAY'S Meet The Press Tim Russert asked his guest, Michael Scheuer, to respond to questions concerning his first book from 2002, Through Our Enemies' Eyes. In it, as I pointed out in an earlier article, Scheuer cites numerous pieces of evidence that substantiate the Bush administration's claim that Saddam's Iraq had a relationship with al Qaeda. However, in his recent media appearances, Scheuer now gives the impression that there is no evidence that there was a relationship. Tim Russert asked Scheuer about this apparent contradiction; his response left much to be desired. Scheuer's response does, however, illustrate one of...

In a series of bizarre comments that show the depth of the failed thinking at the nation's premier intelligence service, the former head of the CIA unit charged with capturing or killing Osama bin Laden said on Sunday that the terror mastermind was a "remarkable," "great" and "admirable" man. "He's really a remarkable man," former CIA agent Michael Scheuer told NBC's "Meet the Press." "[He's a] great man in many ways, without the connotation positive or negative. He's changed the course of history." Scheuer's book "Imperial Hubris," which the CIA allowed him to publish anonymously earlier this year, was touted...

EVER SINCE THE Guardian of London revealed almost two weeks ago that "Anonymous," the author of the soon-to-be-published Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror (Brassey’s, Inc.), is a CIA figure "centrally involved in the hunt for Bin Laden," the American press has been playing catch-up — yet in a strangely coy sort of way. Public interest in the book itself isn’t at all hard to understand: it’s not every day that an active US intelligence officer publishes a work that disputes the Bush administration’s assertions, holding that, among other things, bin Laden is not on...

NEW YORK The active U.S. intelligence officer known only as "Anonymous," who has gained world renown this month as author of an upcoming book called "Imperial Hubris," is actually named Michael Scheuer, according to an article in the Boston Phoenix today by Jason Vest. Speculation about his identity has run rampant since a June 23 article in The New York Times discussed the book and the background of the author. The book, "Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror," asserts, among other things, that Osama bin Laden is not on the run and that the invasion...

EVER SINCE THE Guardian of London revealed almost two weeks ago that "Anonymous," the author of the soon-to-be-published Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror (Brassey’s, Inc.), is a CIA figure "centrally involved in the hunt for Bin Laden," the American press has been playing catch-up — yet in a strangely coy sort of way. Public interest in the book itself isn’t at all hard to understand: it’s not every day that an active US intelligence officer publishes a work that disputes the Bush administration’s assertions, holding that, among other things, bin Laden is not on...