Michael Scheuer, Bat Shit Crazy? [Video Update]
By Larry Johnson on April 29, 2009 at 12:32 AM in Current Affairs
Michael Scheuer likes to project an image of calm detachment, but lurking beneath that seemingly placid exterior is a disturbed man. Don’t know who crazy Mike is? He started off at CIA as an analyst in the European Division. He was at best a mediocre talent, which is the major reason he found a new career in the Counter Terrorism Center (CTC). Truth be told the CTC was a dumping ground, particularly for many analysts who could not succeed in the mainline divisions.
So Scheuer emerges today braying like a mule on crack, hurling insults and calumny at folks, such as FBI Director Robert Mueller. Scheuer showed up on The O’Reilly Factor tonight and said that Mueller was “either a liar or an incomptent.” Being called an incompetent by Scheuer is like Mother Teresa being accused of mass murder by John Wayne Gacy.
Why the venom from the craven Scheuer? Simply because Robert Mueller had the audacity to report the truth that conventional methods of interrogation succeeded in gleaning critical intelligence from terrorist suspects. Mueller is not offering an opinion. He bases this conclusion on the actual experience of FBI Agents–Ali Soufan, Dan Coleman and Jack Cloonan–who actually interrogated real terrorists. Michael Scheuer not only has ZERO experience on this front, he has never had any training in this matter.
Consider the following about Scheuer’s “illustrious” career:
At one time Scheuer was put in charge of the effort to find and kill Osama Bin Laden. How did he do? Well, Osama is still walking around. And who did Scheuer assemble for the task of catching a Saudi Islamic fanatic? He hired only women from the Soviet Division of the Directorate of Intelligence. Not an Arabist among them. Not a single expert in Islam. No one who knew or understood the culture. Friends of mine at the CIA tell me that Scheuer was nicknamed, Charlie Manson, because of the cabal of women he collected for the task of getting Bin Laden.
Scheuer also hated the FBI. Just a couple of years ago Scheuer said that FBI Counter Terrorism Chief John O’Neill and National Security Counter Terrorism Chief Richard Clarke were responsible for 9-11. Let that bizarre comment sink in. Neither man hijacked any of the planes on 9-11. Neither trained or funded any of the hijackers. Both worked tirelessly to try to stop Bin Laden. Yet in Scheuer’s alternate universe they carry the blame. Heck of a job Mikey.
Lawrence Wright, in his best sellar, The Looming Tower, reports that Scheuer’s bosses ultimately removed him because they apparently lost faith in his competence.
Today (Tuesday) Scheuer is given the platform of the Washington Post to continue spewing his vile smears:
Now, in a single week, President Obama has eliminated two-thirds of that successful-but-not-sufficient national defense troika because his personal ideology — a fair gist of which is “If the world likes us more we are more secure” — cannot tolerate harsh interrogation techniques, torture or coercive interviews, call them what you will. Surprisingly, Obama now stands alongside Bush as a genuine American Jacobin, both of them seeing the world as they want it to be, not as it is. Whereas Bush saw a world of Muslims yearning to betray their God for Western secularism, Obama gazes upon a globe that he regards as largely carnivore-free and believes that remaining threats can be defused by semantic warfare; just stop saying “War on Terror” and give talks in Turkey and on al-Arabiyah television, for example.
Americans should be clear on what Obama has done. In a breathtaking display of self-righteousness and intellectual arrogance, the president told Americans that his personal beliefs are more important than protecting their country, their homes and their families. The interrogation techniques in question, the president asserted, are a sign that Americans have lost their “moral compass,” a compliment similar to Attorney General Eric Holder’s identifying them as “moral cowards.” Mulling Obama’s claim, one can wonder what could be more moral for a president than doing all that is needed to defend America and its citizens? Or, asked another way, is it moral for the president of the United States to abandon intelligence tools that have saved the lives and property of Americans and their allies in favor of his own ideological beliefs?
Michael Scheuer’s certainty in believing a pack of lies is beyond simply sad and pathetic. His attack on Mueller crosses not just the boundary of decency. It is dishonest.
If you want to understand how Christian men and women in Nazi Germany could efficiently manage death camps and calmly murder Jews–men, women and children–one need only watch the spectacle of a clown like Scheuer railing against people who believe in the rule of the law, the Constitution and the principle enshrined in the Declaration of Independence that individuals have fundamental, God granted rights that no man or law is entitled to snuff out.
In my opinion Scheuer needs some serious attention from a psychiatrist. I believe that Scheuer’s rantings are a stain on the CIA.
As I have written previously, there is a long list of experienced CIA Case Officers (the spies who actually work overseas) and FBI Agents who are repulsed by torture and know first hand that we can defeat terrorists and prevent attacks without behaving like immoral tyrants. Scheuer, who has no operational experience overseas, is in my view just a sadomasochistic voyeur who likes to talk tough but, when he had the chance to make a difference, dropped the ball.
by Ronald Scott
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