Many Western observers “have ignored the very real accomplishments and popular acceptance of the Taliban government in Afghanistan,” then-CIA analyst Michael Scheuer wrote anonymously in 2002. His previously-analyzed book, Through Our Enemies’ Eyes: Osama bin Laden, Radical Islam, and the Future of America, contains sobering analysis, which foresaw the failure of American-led nation-building efforts […]
Jihad Through Michael Scheuer’s Eyes
CIA analyst Michael Scheuer emphasized the “overwhelming centrality of religion in all of [Osama] bin Laden’s activities” in his 2002 book Through Our Enemies’ Eyes: Osama bin Laden, Radical Islam, and the Future of America. Twenty bloody, trauma-filled years after Al Qaeda’s devastating September 11, 2001, attacks, Scheuer’s writing remains as relevant as ever, however […]
Impervious Hubris: How U.S. Intelligence Failures Led to ISIS
Over a decade after U.S. leadership declared a “war on terror,” all it has to show for it is the creation of the Islamic State—an Islamic body that has taken terror and atrocities to a whole new level. How did this happen? A key factor often overlooked is the intelligence community’s failures concerning what fuels […]
Hugh Fitzgerald: Why Do So Many Ask “Why Do They Hate Us?”
“So many times I passed by these locations. Why do they hate us so much?” asked Franziska Brantner, a German Green MP and former member of the European Parliament, on Twitter (about the attacks in Brussels). Do you remember Michael Scheuer, that obsessively anti-Israel former “bin Laden desk” expert at the C.I.A., who used to […]
No Happy Ending and No Happy Beginning
“In this book, not only is there no happy ending, there is no happy beginning and very few happy things in the middle.” –Lemony Snickit, from ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ George Jonas, author of Vengeance, has written: “But is there something about Islam that is conductive to the formation of extremist sects and radical […]