Михаэль Шойер: ЦРУ аналитігі мен Осама бин Ладенді іздеуші

American counterterrorism analyst
the German canoer

Michael F. Scheuer (pronounced "SHOY er"), (born 1952) is an American former intelligence officer for the Central Intelligence Agency, blogger, author, commentator and former adjunct professor at Georgetown University's Center for Peace and Security Studies. One assignment during his 22 year career was serving as Chief of the Bin Laden Issue Station (the Osama bin Laden tracking unit at the Counterterrorism Center, known as "Alec Station") from 1996 to 1999. He also served as Special Advisor to the Chief of Alec Station from September 2001 to November 2004. Scheuer became a public figure after being outed as the anonymous author of the book Imperial Hubris (2004), in which he criticized many of the United States' assumptions about Islamist insurgencies and particularly Osama bin Laden. Later in 2004, shortly after the "outing" of Scheuer's harsh criticism of America's close alliance with Israel, Scheuer resigned from his position at the CIA. In his book, Scheuer depicted bin Laden as a rational actor who was fighting to weaken the United States by weakening its economy, rather than merely combating and killing Americans. Scheuer challenges the common assumption that terrorism is the threat facing the United States in the modern era, arguing rather that Islamist insurgency (and not "terrorism") is the core of the conflict between the U. S. and Islamist forces, who in places such as Kashmir, Xinjiang, and Chechnya are "struggling not just for independence but against institutionalized barbarism." Osama bin Laden acknowledged the book in a 2007 statement, suggesting that it revealed "the reasons for your losing the war against us". In February 2009, Scheuer was fired from his position as a senior fellow of the Jamestown Foundation by the foundation's president. In September 2014, in addition to earlier "praise" received from Al Qaeda, the Islamic State issued a press release quoting Scheuer in order to appeal to an American audience. By 2019, Scheuer was endorsing QAnon conspiracy theories and advocating violence against various perceived enemies of Donald Trump, including former president Barack Obama, whom Scheuer falsely claimed was "Kenya born."

Scheuer was born in Buffalo, New York, and graduated from Canisius College with a BA in history in 1974. He went on to earn an MA in American History from Niagara University in 1976 and another MA in American Canadian Relations from Carleton University in 1982. He also received a PhD in British Empire–U. S.–Canada–U. K. relations from the University of Manitoba in 1986. Scheuer served in the CIA for 22 years before resigning in 2004. He was chief of the Bin Laden Issue Station at the CIA's Counterterrorism Center from 1996 to 1999, and worked as Special Adviser to the Chief of the bin Laden unit from September 2001 to November 2004. He is now known to have been the anonymous author of both the 2004 book Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror and the earlier anonymous work Through Our Enemies' Eyes: Osama bin Laden, Radical Islam, and the Future of America. After his anonymously published books were publicly associated with his name, he was mentioned by Osama bin Laden in his statement of September 7, 2007. According to bin Laden, "If you want to understand what's going on and if you would like to get to know some of the reasons for your losing the war against us, then read the book of Michael Scheuer in this regard." He made radio and television appearances and taught a graduate level course on Al Qaeda at Georgetown University. He also participates in conferences on terrorism and national security issues, such as the New America Foundation's December 2004 conference, "Al Qaeda 2.0: Transnational Terrorism After 9/11." In 2009, Scheuer reported that he had lost his position as a Senior Fellow with the Jamestown Foundation, after "several major financial donors to Jamestown threatened to withdraw funding" if he continued in that role. The funding threats were pursuant to his criticism of Barack Obama's "dancing the Tel Aviv two step" in allegedly kowtowing to the Israeli lobby, as well as Scheuer's disdaining of Obama's selection as Chief of Staff of Rahm Emanuel, "a U. S. citizen who during the 1991 Gulf War left America to serve in Israel's military." [T]he crux of my argument is simply that America is in a war with militant Islamists that it cannot avoid; one that it cannot talk or appease its way out of; one in which our irreconcilable Islamist foes will have to be killed, an act which unavoidably will lead to innocent deaths; and one that is motivated in large measure by the impact of U. S. foreign policies in the Islamic world, one of which is unqualified U. S. support for Israel.

In his second book, Imperial Hubris, a New York Times bestseller, Scheuer writes that the Islamist threat to the United States is rooted in "how easy it is for Muslims to see, hear, experience, and hate the six U. S. policies bin Laden repeatedly refers to as anti Muslim:
U. S. support for apostate, corrupt, and tyrannical Muslim governments. U. S. and other Western troops on the Arabian Peninsula. U. S. support for Israel that keeps Palestinians in the Israelis' thrall. U. S. pressure on Arab energy producers to keep oil prices low. U. S. occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. U. S. support for Russia, India, and China against their Muslim militants." Scheuer contends that Al Qaeda is following a martial strategy that is more rational than it is given credit for among Western politicians and media. He cites Carl von Clausewitz's dictum that one must strike one's enemy's "center of gravity", and pairs it with an al Qaeda writer's assertion that "the American economy is the American center of gravity". In a videotape released around September 7, 2007, Osama bin Laden stated, "If you want to understand what's going on and if you would like to get to know some of the reasons for your losing the war against us, then read the book of Michael Scheuer." It details how the 2003 Iraq War has affected Al Qaeda and the United States. He argues that the instability in the Iraq War has benefited Al Qaeda without serving any U. S. interests.

Scheuer's views emphasized the danger of Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, as well as the ineffectiveness of U. S. policy against these imminent threats. The threat to the United States, Scheuer has consistently maintained, continues to grow, and the U. S. continually fails to grasp the nature of the struggle in which it is engaged: Islamist and anti American sentiment continue to grow around the world, and the bin Laden movement is aimed, not at killing or conquering Americans or reforming their internal political systems, but rather bankrupting them in order to reduce their worldwide influence and thereby liberate Muslims from the yoke of American political, military, and financial influence. The failure of the U. S. to apprehend this threat is, in part, rooted in a misunderstanding and underestimation of Osama bin Laden himself. To Scheuer, Osama bin Laden's "beliefs, goals, and intentions" were

carefully chosen, plainly spoken, and precise. He has set out the Muslim world's problems as he sees them; determined that they are caused by the United States; explained why they must be remedied; and outlined how he will try to do so. Seldom in America's history has an enemy laid out so clearly the basis for the war he is waging against it. Scheuer's criticism of U. S. foreign policy includes a sweeping condemnation of the invasion of Iraq, which he has characterized as a "Christmas present" to Osama bin Laden's Islamist recruitment efforts, and a validation of bin Laden's claims that the U. S. is at war with Islam. From his personal involvement in background research in the run up to the war, Scheuer states that "there was no connection between [Al Qaeda] and Saddam." U. S. rhetoric about bin Laden having allegedly "hat[ed] freedom" has also irked Scheuer, who suggests that those "willing to give their lives to destroy the dictatorship in Saudi Arabia must want freedom in some kind of way." This erroneous rhetoric, according to Scheuer, is not only to be found in the media and among politicians, but even in the 9/11 Commission Report, in which bin Laden and his followers were identified "as takfiris, who kill Muslims if they don't agree with them. They're not takfiris. They're just very devout, severe Salafists and Wahhabis." The insistence on referring to al Qaeda and the Islamist movement around it as a terrorist group or terrorist movement has also been a mistake, according to Scheuer. The U. S. is faced with an insurgency, rather than mere terrorism. Speaking on the BBC News on November 9, 2012, Scheuer criticized what he called the Obama administration's deceit about the threat from Islamic militants, and misleading the American people in his first administration by claiming that the word "jihad" had nothing to do with military affairs, and that it had to do with "self reform and community improvement", which Scheuer claims was a blatant lie.

Scheuer has been critical of the Clinton and Bush administrations for not having killed bin Laden, for costly and disastrous policy missteps, and for not taking decisive measures to defend the country. He states that Clinton had eight to ten opportunities to kill bin Laden prior to September 11, and Bush had one opportunity thereafter. Richard A. Clarke and the Clinton administration, according to Scheuer, thwarted the CIA's ambitions to kidnap or kill bin Laden when they had the chance. According to Scheuer,

Clarke's book Against All Enemies is also a crucial complement to the September 11 panel's failure to condemn Mr. Clinton's failure to capture or kill bin Laden on any of the eight to 10 chances afforded by CIA reporting. Mr. Clarke never mentions that President Bush had no chances to kill bin Laden before September 11 and leaves readers with the false impression that he, Mr. Clinton and Mr. Clinton's national security adviser, Sandy Berger, did their best to end the bin Laden threat. That trio, in my view, abetted al Qaeda, and if the September 11 families were smart they would focus on the dereliction of Dick [Clarke], Bill [Clinton] and Sandy [Berger] and not the antics of convicted September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui. Of the Bush administration, Scheuer warns against assigning it full responsibility for the nation's troubles since September 11, 2001. Although the "unprovoked attack of Iraq" will forever be remembered as "infamous", as will Dick Cheney's "reptilian contention that Americans who criticize U. S. foreign policy are 'validating the strategy of the terrorists'"; according to Scheuer, a "bipartisan governing elite", both Democratic and Republican, is to blame for the nation's woes. (Notwithstanding the bipartisan responsibility, Scheuer comments, "the thought of what history will say about Donald Rumsfeld's tenure at the Department of Defense ought to make his relatives shudder down to their latest generation.")

Scheuer has stated that the Mearsheimer and Walt paper The Israel Lobby and U. S. Foreign Policy is essentially correct. Israel, according to Scheuer, has engaged in one of the most successful campaigns to influence public opinion in the United States ever conducted by a foreign government. Scheuer said to NPR that "They [Mearsheimer and Walt] should be credited for the courage they have had to actually present a paper on the subject. I hope they move on and do the Saudi lobby, which is probably more dangerous to the United States than the Israeli lobby." In Marching Toward Hell, Scheuer laments "the war in Iraq that was instigated by U. S. citizen Israel firsters and their evangelical Christian allies". He continues,

Because both U. S. political parties are wholly owned subsidiaries of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the Israeli government, there is no large scale U. S. military withdrawal from Iraq in the cards If you doubt this, keep in mind the name Rahm Emanuel. Slated to be the president elect's chief of staff, Mr. Emanuel has labored as a volunteer for AIPAC's various anti U. S. causes, strove to ensure the defeat of anti Iraq War Democratic congressional candidates in 2006, and in 1991, as a 32 year old U. S. citizen, chose to serve with the Israeli Defense Forces rather than volunteer to fight for the United States in the war against Saddam's Iraq.

In April 2009, Scheuer participated in the Doha Debates at Georgetown University, where he debated for the motion "This house believes that it is time for the USA to get tough on Israel" with fellow speaker Avraham Burg. Speakers against the motion were Dore Gold and Alan Dershowitz. Burg and Scheuer won the debate, with 63% of the audience voting for the motion. During the debate, Scheuer suggested that "the war in Iraq is the responsibility of the American fifth column that supports Israel" and accused Dershowitz of being part of this "fifth column". Dershowitz responded that he opposed the war in Iraq, that "more Jews than any other ethnic group in America opposed the war in Iraq" and that Scheuer was engaging in "bigotry."

Scheuer has stated his objection to any involvement by the U. S. in the Libyan insurgency, being particularly critical of the work of United States' UN representative Susan E. Rice, calling the whole affair "none of our business" and essentially a "recruiting tool for terrorists." His overall view is that the interests of U. S. foreign policy are far better served by the current status quo, whereby the existing autocratic regimes are better able to suppress the threat he perceives from Al Qaeda incursion than Western style democratic systems. Scheuer believes that, irrespective of NATO ostensibly leading the bombing operations, "in the Muslim world, this is Americans killing Muslims again, and it looks like it's for oil."

Scheuer expressed his support for U. S. presidential candidate Donald Trump in multiple blog postings on non intervention. com. Scheuer based his support on, in his view, Trump's strong support of the Second Amendment, Trump's proposed wall along the Southern Border, Trump's skepticism of NATO and military intervention in the Muslim World, and Trump's unpopularity with neoconservatives and their media outlets such as The Weekly Standard, National Review, and also much of the mainstream media. Scheuer also likes Trump's "America First" talk towards American statecraft. On December 23, 2013, Scheuer endorsed the extrajudicial killing of then Prime Minister of Britain David Cameron and President Barack Obama, endorsing the view of Algernon Sidney that "by an established law among the most virtuous nations, every man might kill a tyrant; and no names are recorded in history with more honor, than of those who did it." In July 2018, Scheuer called upon "those millions of well armed citizens who voted for Trump" to be ready to kill "a long and very precise list" of those who oppose Trump. His list included the entire mainstream media and two former Presidents. "If Trump does not act soon to erase" his opponents, he wrote, "the armed citizenry must step in and eliminate them." Scheuer referred to Kyle Rittenhouse, who was charged with murder for shooting people demonstrating in George Floyd protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin a “young hero”, hoping that “Rittenhouse’s necessary, patriotic, and constitutional actions will power the formation of militias across the United States.”

In March 2018, Scheuer claimed that the European Union was in the process of "falling apart", saying that British Prime Minister Theresa May was "siding with the EU" during the future relation talks of the UK leaving the European Union. Scheuer has called for the public execution of European politicians, saying that "all European rulers are tyrants" adding that "they are a despicable bunch, the people that head the European Union, and they really deserve to be hung." He is critical of the EU's abolition of the death penalty and the implications it has on the deportation of terrorist suspects, saying that "the EU's policy of easily obtainable political asylum and its prohibition against deporting wanted or convicted terrorists to a country with a death penalty have made Europe a major, consistent and invulnerable source of terrorist threat to the United States." Scheuer sees the extraordinary renditions carried out by the U. S. government as being hindered by the European Union: "The extraordinary rendition programme should not be destroyed because of "venal and prize hungry reporters, grandstanding politicians and sanctimonious Europeans."

In the Hulu miniseries, The Looming Tower (2018), Scheuer is the basis for the character of Martin Schmidt (portrayed by Peter Sarsgaard), depicted as one of two people primarily responsible for the lack of intelligence sharing between the CIA and the FBI in the lead up to 9/11.