Michael Scheuer: In His Own Words
Introduction
Posted: April 3, 2009
Updated: January 11, 2010
Michael Scheuer, an author and adjunct professor at Georgetown University's Security Studies Program, is a former CIA analyst. Scheuer was the head of the CIA's bin Laden unit from 1996-1999. He resigned from the CIA in 2004.
Scheuer objects to any and all U.S. support for Israel, arguing that protecting Israel unnecessarily endangers Americans by angering the "Islamist world." He has been outspoken in his criticism of the "Israel lobby," which he claims stifles debate about Israel and pressures the U.S. to pursue policies that are detrimental to American interests. His language on the "Israel lobby," Israel and its American supporters has been particularly scathing, accusing them of strong-arming the media, politicians and the general public into blind support for Israel.
In 2005 Scheuer took a position as a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, DC, and regularly published reports on U.S. foreign policy, Al Qaeda and international terrorism.
In January 2009, Scheuer was terminated from his position at the foundation; he claims his termination was a result of his statements on U.S.-Israel relations. In an article he wrote a few weeks after his termination for antiwar.com, a libertarian site that regularly publishes anti-Israel articles, Scheuer alleged that he was asked to leave following a speech he made at the foundation in which he accused President Obama of "dancing the Tel Aviv two-step" during the presidential campaign by vowing to protect Israel.
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