Known as "Anonymous" when his book, Imperial Hubris, came out in 2004, Michael Scheuer served in the CIA for 22 years and as chief of the bin Laden unit of the Director of Central Intelligence Counterterrorist Center from 1996-1999. Since publication of Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror, and his subsequent resignation from the CIA in November, 2004, Scheuer has offered informed, passionate, and controversial commentary on U.S. policy in the Middle East. Frustrated with the Bush Administration's simplistic portrayal of terrorists as "freedom haters," he talked with BuzzFlash about the anti-American insurgency and the American foreign policy choices that he believes fuel it.
An advocate of frank discussion of the Muslim perspective, he both urges us, and helps us, to understand this war, and why it won't be easy to end. He also characterizes our recent U.S. presidential campaign as "completely barren on both sides of any discussion of the foreign policy issues that are at play in this war..." We don't agree with everything Scheuer has to say (we think, for instance, there is a distinction to be made between the Sharon Likud government and Israel, just as there is a distinction to be made between the Bush government and America), but he knows terrorism about as well as anybody and needs to be heard.
Thanks Johnnie...I guess that certainly explains why he is so popular with the MSM.
Oh..and Richard Clarke as well.
Pffffffft
MNJ,
I have a different take on Scheuer from an article in American Thinker a few months ago...
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Like Valerie Plame, Scheuer is an unabashed Leftist, as he showed in his first CIA-approved book. He openly admires Al Qaida -— remember, this is the guy who was in charge of protecting us before 9/11 (!!!) And he sides with the justice of their cause.
.....
Scheuer’s bottom line: We deserved 9/11.
Oddly enough, the CIA’s top Bin Laden’s specialist has an utterly immoral view of war, contrary to the entire Western “Just War” tradition, which ranges from Cicero to Aquinas and well into the 20th century. In a Just War context, the Geneva Conventions mean something; targeting innocents means something; wearing uniforms that visibly identify soldiers and protect civilians means something. None of those major, life-saving civilizational constraints mean anything to Scheuer.
He approvingly quotes KSM:
“Knowing history better than his interlocutors, KSM told the tribunal: ‘But you are military men. I did it [the list of attacks] but this is the language of any war ... Military [men] throughout history know very well. They know war will never stop. War start from Adam when Cain he killed Abel until now. It’s never gonna stop killing people. This [killing and victims] is the way of the language [of war] ... You know never stopping war. This is life.’”
But that is the barbarians’ view of warfare. And if you hold that view, there is no difference between the fire and the fire brigade. The fire consumes innocent lives, while the fire brigade risks life and limb to save them. But the Scheuers of this world are so morally lost and confused that they cannot tell the difference.
Scheuer certainly doesn’t seem like a very bright or well-informed guy, but much worse, it is his moral worldview that is corrupted: That is the real problem. If our CIA promoted him up the ranks in utter disregard of his nihilistic view of the American cause, there must be something profoundly wrong at Langley.
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I get a really bad feeling everytime I think of Scheuer being in charge of the Bin Laden unit and appearing in LSM venues telling us how to procede from here.
Sorry I trutsted this guy once never again.