Former Chief of CIA Quits To Speak Out Against Bush's Handling of Bin Laden & Terrorism
By Dana Priest
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 12, 2004; Page A04
Michael Scheuer, the author and former chief of the CIA's Osama bin Laden unit, announced yesterday that he had resigned from the agency so he could speak openly about terrorism and what he sees as the government's failure to understand the threat from al Qaeda.
"I have concluded that there has not been adequate national debate over the nature of the threat posed by Osama bin Laden and the force he leads and inspires, and the nature of the intelligence reform needed to address that threat," Scheuer, whom the CIA banned from speaking publicly in July, said in a statement issued by his publisher.
The agency allowed Scheuer to publish his book, "Imperial Hubris," anonymously, and to conduct media interviews to promote it under the name "Mike." The book became a bestseller.
But he became a critic of the war in Iraq, saying it inflamed anti-American sentiment among Muslims, and eventually his name was published. After some White House officials and pundits asserted that the CIA had allowed Scheuer to act as its surrogate critic on the war, CIA officials forbade him from speaking publicly.
Scheuer said in an interview with The Washington Post on Monday that he believes the agency silenced him after CIA officials realized he was blaming the CIA, not the administration, for mishandling terrorism. "As long as the book was being used to bash the president, they gave me carte blanche to talk to the media," he said. "But this is a story about the failure of the bureaucracy to support policymakers."
The statement, issued in the name of Scheuer's publicist, Christina Davidson, said Scheuer criticized the CIA leadership for allowing "the clandestine service to be scapegoated for pre-9-11 failures -- failure more properly placed at the door of senior members of the U.S. intelligence community and senior policymakers, for whom, in Scheuer's view, saving lives has seldom appeared to be the top priority."
Scheuer was chief of the CIA's bin Laden station from 1996 to 1999 and remained a counterterrorism analyst after that. He could not be reached for comment yesterday.
The statement released by his publicist said that "after a cordial meeting with senior CIA officials on Tuesday, Scheuer decided that it would be in the best interests of the intelligence community and the country for him to resign in order to continue speaking publicly with regard to Osama Bin Laden, al Qaeda, and the 9-11 Commission Report."
This kind of BS thread name, Bush did this, Bush did that, is just retarded.
Get over it, he is the President of your country. Wait 4 more years and you can try again for Hillary because that's all you'll have.
Al Queada bombed the WTC way before Bush so, this isn't a Bush thing. If our Government doesn't understand Al Quaeda, that's what you should have named your thread. Instead, It's "I hate Bush some more crap".
This will be my last post to threads that start like this one. I will ignore them all from this point forward.
This kind of thing happens in any new company and new situation too. I expect this sort of thing to happen as nobody has ever tried what we are trying to do. It's never been done before so, some of the rules of engagement are being defined as we go. Waiting until we have everything perfect seems unlikely. As Bush said at the onset, "It's better to this than do nothing". I agree with him totally. The UN would still be sitting on their hands as Al Quaeda ran wild.
One cannot sit back, even in business and wait until everything is rosey and perfect. Sometime you just have to have the balls to get it started. Many best accomplishements had their plans evolving during the process.
Bush has balls and that's what this country needs.
Say good bye.
"Those who know nothing of Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war. Those who say this are witless." ~Ayatollah Khomeini
USA1 said this in post #2 : It's never been done before so, some of the rules of engagement are being defined as we go. Waiting until we have everything perfect seems unlikely. As Bush said at the onset, "It's better to this than do nothing".
Bush has balls and that's what this country needs.
Say good bye.
"It's never been done before"
I presume you're talking about Iraq. You need to look in a history book because not only has it been done before but it's been done before by the very people involved today, the British almost 100 years ago. All aggressive military actions are presented as freeing something or someone or regaining something that's rightly yours.
Bush has got balls? No, Bush has got the biggest military budget the planet has ever seen, the biggest bombs and weapons ever devised, and a right-wing group of ideolists standing behind him with an agenda that believes in perpetual war and American influence and dominance in the world.
Talked to some friends.
Parents with kids in Iraq serving in the war say that the media has painted a false picture of Iraq. Their kids say that when they watch news on Iraq, it seems the talking heads are describing a completely different country than that which they were just fighting in. All we see is dismal news.
One kid said he had a man run up to him and yell, "I am a Christian. I am a Christian" with a big ole smile on his face. If he had done that previously, he would have been killed.
Of all the freedoms Americans are allowed, I would state that the freedom to go to church and worship in America without fear of death or imprisonment is worth it all.
We're not getting the complete scoop on this, from any countries viewpoint...BBC included.
And I am not going to make any more generalizations nor show any more contempt for it...because truthfully I have no idea what's actually going on in Iraq.
And for anyone to sit around and criticize without all the facts, without having been there themselves...well, it's irresponsible at best.
I have to add though, that the Iraqi war goes against the American constitution. No where in our constitution does it give executive or legislative powers for nation building or "freedom fighting" across the globe.
But as to the issue of whether or not this war is helping the Iraqi people, I have to say I just don't know. I'm not going to believe either side of the equation, because I've never been there and I just don't trust the media anymore. I'm tired of trying to pick out a needle of truth from a mountain of dung. There is more to life than that.
USA1 said this in post #2 : This kind of BS thread name, Bush did this, Bush did that, is just retarded. Get over it, he is the President of your country.
This will be my last post to threads that start like this one. I will ignore them all from this point forward.
can we count on that? i doubt it.
you're like the kid that stuck his hand in the jar at the store, stole the candy, got away with it, and doesn't want to talK about it anymore.
the country made a sorry mistake we will all likely regret. (sorry, world, we tried.) the reason you keep hearing people harping on this subject is that we were lied to and steered in the WRONG direction. NOW YOU TELL US TO TAKE THAT WRONG DIRECTION AND LIKE IT.
there is a right way to do things and a wrong way! close to 50% of this once great nation objected to the bush machine's way of doing things, and we're not going to stop talking about it while our well being and our children's well being are continuing to be threatened by a madman imbecile of a war criminal who rules in our own country.
THIS WAS NOT A FOOTBALL GAME THAT ENDED WITH THE 4TH QUARTER, PAL. THIS ONE'S GOT UNLIMITED OVERTIMES!
11-13-2004 03:33 AM
