TELEGRAPH– There are not many sane people who can say with confidence that, had a
president of America only listened to them, they could have saved $1.3
trillion and many hundreds of thousands of lives. Michael Scheuer can.
During his 22 years in the CIA – three and a half as head of a 18-man Osama bin Laden unit – he told his bosses at Langley on 10 occasions that he had a clear opportunity to kill or capture the terrorist chief. On all 10 he was told to hold his fire.
To look at Scheuer, 59, bespectacled, bearded and apparently every inch the academic and author he has become, you would not guess at his espionage past. The unit he led between 1995 and 1999 was codenamed Alec station, after his son, but it was nicknamed the “Manson family”, after the criminal Charles Manson, for the zeal with which it approached its task.
That we know anything at all about Scheuer’s past as a terrorist hunter is down to him. Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terrorism, which was published anonymously in 2004, the same year as he left the CIA, had the dubious honour of being praised for its insight in a speech by bin Laden. He was later unmasked as the author and has written three further books under his own name, the latest a biography of the man he spent much of his life trying to capture.
At a time when half the world has become an armchair expert on the world’s previously most wanted man, Scheuer is very much the real deal.
Read full article about Ex-CIA Man Had Bin Laden in Sights 10 Times.
© 2011 Telegraph
Photo by flickr user Varintsai
Thanks for the link, you always know the headlines that I’ll want to check out.
The claim that he had him in his sights 10 times seems spectacular – but to me this is really more of a limited hangout as it supports the official conspiracy theory.
By the government’s own admission, Bin Laden was a CIA asset code named Tim Osman. Scheuer’s claim that they (the CIA) “We were aware of him but he absolutely refused to talk to us…” is easily disprovable bullshit.
Meanwhile, is the Telegraph merely incurious or are they in on it? Did it really not occur to them to ask “Why do you think your superiors prevented you from pulling the trigger?”, “Are you aware of other instances of the CIA protecting Osama?” and “Why are you just now coming out about this?”.
The truth is, once you are CIA, you are always CIA. Scheuer is just doing his part to protect his employer.
By the way, it’s really lame that your feedback form will wipe out a comment if you happen to enter the wrong captcha information.