“I think the world is more perilous and America is basically undefended. For me the two touchstones after 9/11 for domestic security were our borders. Not for discriminatory reasons or to stop immigration, but simply to allow law enforcement to find out who is in our country without facing an undocumented pool of aliens that increases by the hour.” ThinkingWorldTwoCountryReasonAmericaLawHoursSecurityIncreaseImmigrationOur CountryAliensBordersPoolLaw EnforcementEnforcementTouchstones Author:Michael Scheuer
“I've said before: If Osama bin Laden was a Christian, Iraq was the Christmas present he always wanted but never expected his parents to give. It validated for the Muslim world virtually all of bin Laden's rhetoric. He had always said the Americans will destroy any strong Muslim regime, and we did.” IfsWorldGivingSaidWantedChristianStrongParentIraqExpectedRegimesRhetoricBin LadenOsama Bin LadenMuslim WorldChristmas Present Author:Michael Scheuer
“Every mujahadeen who comes in from outside the country finds an environment where Arabic is spoken. So in that sense, it's a tremendous come-on for the young in Islam. But I think much more important is, it just validates so much of what the Muslim world is predisposed to believe.” ThinkingWorldBelieveImportantCountryYoungEnvironmentIslamMuslim World Author:Michael Scheuer
“We now have some years of very reliable polling by Western firms in the Islamic world, in multiple Islamic countries. And invariably, the question that asks, "Do you view U.S. foreign policy as an attack on Islam and Muslims?" is maxed out. Whether it's Jordan or Indonesia or Egypt, you get 80,85 percent of people saying "Yes."” PeopleWorldYearsCountryAsksViewsPolicyPercentIslamWesternFirmIslamicForeign PolicyMultipleEgyptIndonesiaJordanSaying YesPolling Author:Michael Scheuer
“I think you can take the recent war in Lebanon as a very good example of how this plays. The Americans and their allies clearly stood back - clearly in the eyes of Muslims - and basically said to the Israelis, "Do what you need to do, and we'll hold the ring for you and not call a cease-fire." That perception in the Muslim world very much played to the anti-American sentiment.” ThinkingWorldNeedsSaidWarPlayEyeFireExamplePerceptionVery GoodRingsCeaseSentimentsAlliesGood ExamplesLebanonMuslim WorldAnti-american Author:Michael Scheuer
“It's very clear from what he [Osama ben Laden] said, what his lieutenants have said, that America is not even their main enemy. We're simply in the way of what they want to do in their own world, which is to destroy police states and Israel.” WorldWayWantSaidStatesAmericaEnemyClearPoliceIsraelPolice StateLieutenants Author:Michael Scheuer
“He [Osama bin Laden] is clearly an odd combination of a 12th-century theologian and a 21st-century CEO. He runs an absolutely unique organization in the Islamic world. It's multiethnic, multilinguistic, multinational. He is a combat veteran, three times wounded. He has a huge reputation in the Islamic world for generosity and leadership. He's a man who speaks eloquent, almost poetic Arabic, according to Bernard Lewis.” MenWorldRunningThreeSpeakCenturyHugeUniqueOrganizationReputationGenerosityCombinationOddIslamicPoeticCombatWoundedCeo21st CenturyVeteranTheologianThree TimesBin LadenEloquentOsama Bin LadenMultinationalsCombat Veterans Author:Michael Scheuer
“Initial incompetence is not a reason to be dismissive of capabilities. Al Qaeda itself was incompetent when it started as a terrorist organization. And clearly it's gone from blowing themselves up to knocking down the World Trade Center.” WorldReasonGoneOrganizationTradeTerroristAlsCapabilityInitialsKnockingAl QaedaIncompetenceIncompetentWorld TradeWorld Trade Center Author:Michael Scheuer
“I think it's very instructive to look at a man like Ramsey Ahmad Yousef, who almost brought down the World Trade Center in 1993. He's short some fingers, his body is scarred, he's missing an eye - because he was practicing and not getting it right. But eventually they get it right.” ThinkingMenWorldLooksBodyEyeMissingTradeFingersWorld TradeWorld Trade Center Author:Michael Scheuer
“The Western world doesn't really give enough credit to the importance in history of the Soviet invasion and the subsequent war in Afghanistan. For us it was a sideshow of the Cold War. For the Islamic world it was an unprovoked infidel invasion of a Muslim country not unlike Iraq.” WorldGivingWarCountryEnoughColdImportanceWesternIraqCreditIslamicAfghanistanSovietCold WarInvasionWestern WorldInfidelSideshows Author:Michael Scheuer
“And the fact that the Muslim world, over the course of a decade, rallied and defeated a superpower is an extraordinary symbol in the Islamic world today. You have to remember they were soundly thrashed over the last century by the West, and in the last 50years, three times by the Indians, three times by the Israelis. And so a victory against the Soviets is huge.” WorldFactsTodayLastsRememberThreeCoursesCenturyHugeVictoryWestExtraordinaryDecadesSymbolsIslamicDefeatedThree TimesWorld TodaySuperpowerMuslim World Author:Michael Scheuer
“The second part of that war was that Muslims came from all over the country to Pakistan, and they met each other. For the first time those men had an awareness of the Islamic world as a whole, not of just Egypt or Algeria or Indonesia, but of what Muslims call the Uma, the Islamic community. And that's an extraordinarily important thing. And that emanated in Pakistan.” MenWorldFirstsImportantWarCountryWholeCommunityAwarenessMetsFirst TimeImportant ThingsIslamicEgyptPakistanIndonesiaAlgeria Author:Michael Scheuer
“First of all, there's no separation of church and state in the Islamic world. They're one and the same. And so when President Bush or Senator Kerry or Prime Minister Blair says, "Look, adopt our secular democracy, look at how good we've done. We have a wonderful level of standard of living for our people," what many Muslims hear is, "Turn your back on God and follow what men say."” PeopleMenWorldFirstsLooksStatesDoneTurnsPresidentChurchLevelsDemocracyWonderfulStandardsSeparationMinistersIslamicPrimeSecularSenatorsPrime MinisterPresident BushChurch And StateSeparation Of Church And StateStandards Of LivingBlair Author:Michael Scheuer
“We've gone thorough religious wars and civil wars. America has gone through slavery, we've all gone through two world wars, segregation. Ultimately it's been a bloody, trying, wasteful, but eventually positive struggle.” WorldTryingTwoWarAmericaReligiousStruggleGoneSlaveryWar Of The WorldsCivil WarBloodySegregationThoroughTwo WorldsReligious Wars Author:Michael Scheuer
“There is no way to avoid the reality that the American government in the past years has been the most spectacularly hypocrisy-driven government in the world. We rival the Soviet Union in some stages, in some ways, in hypocrisy.” WorldWayYearsHas BeensRealityGovernmentPastStageUnionsDrivenHypocrisySovietSoviet UnionRivalsAmerican Government Author:Michael Scheuer
