Cited Book: Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror

Michael Scheuer was head of the bin Laden unit at the CIA until 2003. He chastises the politicians for feeding the public nonsense about bin Laden’s motives. They have nothing to do with American lifestyle, desire to curtail American freedom or desire to proselytise Islam.

He explains that Osama bin Laden is a competent, religiously motivated, charismatic leader. It is foolish to try to dismiss him as a madman or a criminal. You will never understand what makes him tick that way.

Al Qaeda is primarily a defensive organisation. Again pretending otherwise keeps you from understanding them.

bin Laden’s five demands are quite specific, but few people pay any attention to:

1. End all aid to Israel.
2. Withdraw military forces from the Arabian Peninsula and all Muslim territory.
3. End all involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq.
4. End U.S. support for the oppression of Muslims in China, Russia, India and elsewhere.
5. restore Muslim control of the Islamic world’s energy resources for the benefit of Muslims.

He points out the invasion and occupation of Iraq was a huge gift to bin Laden because it has just tied down more U.S. forces that otherwise could be fighting Al Qaeda. Further, it proved bin Laden’s claim that the U.S.A. is aggressively targeting the Muslim world.