Michael Scheuer
Michael Scheuer
Michael F. Scheuer is a former CIA intelligence officer, American blogger, author, foreign policy critic, and political analyst. He is currently an adjunct professor at Georgetown University's Center for Peace and Security Studies. One of his assignments during his 22-year career was serving as Chief of the Bin Laden Issue Stationfrom 1996 to 1999. He also served as Special Advisor to the Chief of Alec Station from September 2001 to November 2004...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPublic Servant
CountryUnited States of America
tangled
We are tangled in a very significant Islamic insurgency in Iraq.
bin himself immune outside shown wants
Bin Laden has consistently shown himself to be immune to outside pressure. When he wants to do something, he does it on his own schedule.'
extra fighting fights-and-fighting mile offer warn
When Saladin was fighting the Crusaders, he would warn them, he would offer them a truce, he would try to go the extra mile before attacking.
action covert dirty hands rather view
She was always of the view that she would rather not get her hands dirty with covert action.
arabic crazy drawing guys kinds quality rush
There's no quality control. You'll have guys out there with a smattering of Arabic drawing all kinds of crazy conclusions. Rush Limbaugh will cherry-pick from the right, and Al Franken will cherry-pick from the left.
chance thinking
The thinking was that he (bin Laden) was in Afghanistan, and he was dangerous. But because he was there, we had a better chance to kill him,
attack enemy tradition warning
Warning your enemy before you attack him is very much a tradition in Islam.
dangerous threat within worldwide
This is a worldwide and still very dangerous threat and is well within what he has said before.
almost talking
They have always been almost puritanical in talking about setbacks.
america building cover either exposure
The exposure of such, either firms or aircraft, just undoes years of cover building and makes America weaker.
nuclear unlike
In this case, nuclear material, so by the end of 1996, it was clear that this was an organization unlike any other one we had ever seen.
attacks bin countries designed rethink support
In all cases, bin Laden indicated that these attacks would be designed to make the countries rethink their support for America.
powerful gold yemen
There is a direct correlation between what al Qaeda says and what it does. And the one thing that has been the gold standard of correlation has been bin Laden's 1995 - or was it 1996? - pledge that every attack is going to be more powerful than the last. If you go back to the first attack in Yemen in 1992 and chart it out, every attack has been more powerful, more destructive than the last one.
eye men thinking
I think it's very instructive to look at a man like Ramsey Ahmad Yousef, who almost brought down the World Trade Center in 1993. He's short some fingers, his body is scarred, he's missing an eye - because he was practicing and not getting it right. But eventually they get it right.