This individual is basically echoing what Richard Clarke said. The point he's making is the main reason I have issues with the Bush administration.
WASHINGTON - 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."
Oh, my God; I care so little, I almost passed out.
well what's done is done.
No point in crying over spilled milk.
Just hope for a positive resolution.
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I look at it as someone who's made it his work for the better part of a successful intelligence career to advise the administration on the terrorism/Al-Quaeda threat who's tired of being ignored. I look at it as an individual that want to see what he believes is the greatest LEGITIMATE threat to our way of life get the proper attention moving forward.
Dealing with Iraq, and focusing the proper resources on Al-Quaeda are NOT mutually exclusive.
Oh, my God; I care so little, I almost passed out.
Oh I agree, being told you can't say something when its important that you do is never an easy thing to do. I'd like to see the information provided or ignored. It would help the American public enforce what type of policies they want their president to institute.
How do his statements make you more critical of the Bush administration? He's saying that the "failure (is) more properly placed at the door of senior members of the U.S. intelligence community and senior policymakers," rather than scapegoating the President. Did you skim too quickly? =p
Time makes more converts than reason. - Thomas Paine
Also, can anyone link me the complete transcript from the last bin laden tape? I read what aljazeera has posted at http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/ ... 87F61F.htm
but I'm not sure if it's the most complete. Can anyone confirm this as the only one?
