Michael Scheuer famous quotes

04-17-2025

I don't believe in inevitability. But I think it's pretty close to being inevitable...Yes, I think it's probably a near thing.
-- Michael Scheuer

#Believe #Thinking #Terrorism
Most dramatically, and perhaps least noticed, is the violence inside Saudi Arabia itself.
-- Michael Scheuer

#Violence #Arabia #Saudi Arabia
It's not a choice between war and peace. It's a choice between war and endless war. It's not appeasement. I think it's better even to call it American self-interest.
-- Michael Scheuer

#War #Thinking #Self
No one wants to abandon the Israelis. But I think the perception is, and I think it's probably an accurate perception, that the tail is leading the dog - that we are giving the Israelis carte blanche ability to exercise whatever they want to do in their area.
-- Michael Scheuer

#Dog #Exercise #Thinking
The U.S. intelligence community is palsied by lawyers. When we were going to capture Osama bin Laden, for example, the lawyers were more concerned with bin Laden's safety and his comfort than they were with the officers charged with capturing him. We had to build an ergonomically designed chair to put him in, special comfort in terms of how he was shackled into the chair. They even worried about what kind of tape to gag him with so it wouldn't irritate his beard. The lawyers are the bane of the intelligence community.
-- Michael Scheuer

#Safety #Community #Special
The war in Iraq - if Osama was a Christian - it's the Christmas present he never would have expected.
-- Michael Scheuer

#Christmas #Christian #War
Until we respect bin Laden, we are going to die in numbers that are probably unnecessary.
-- Michael Scheuer

#Respect #Numbers #Unnecessary
I think Mr. Clarke had a tendency to interfere too much with the activities of the CIA, and our leadership at the senior level let him interfere too much. So criticism from him I kind of wear as a badge of honor.
-- Michael Scheuer

#Leadership #Senior #Thinking
A nuclear weapon of some dimension, whether it's actually a nuclear weapon, or a dirty bomb, or some kind of radiological device. Yes, I think it's probably a near thing.
-- Michael Scheuer

#Dirty #Thinking #Bombs
No one should be surprised when Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda detonate a weapon of mass destruction in the United States. I don't believe in inevitability. But I think it's pretty close to being inevitable.
-- Michael Scheuer

#Believe #Thinking #Weapons
You couldn't have done this without killing an Arab prince.
-- Michael Scheuer

#Done #Killing
Our leaders continue to say that we're making strong headway against this problem. And I think we are not.
-- Michael Scheuer

#Strong #Thinking #Leader
Sister Virginia used to say, 'You'll be known by the company you keep.'
-- Michael Scheuer

#Sister #Virginia #Used
Bin Laden does reprehensible activities, and we should surely take care of that by killing him as soon as we can. But he's not an irrational man. He's a very worthy enemy. He's an enemy to worry about.
-- Michael Scheuer

#Men #Worry #Enemy
One of the great intellectual failures of the American intelligence community, and especially the counterterrorism community, is to assume if someone hasn't attacked us, it's because he can't or because we've defeated him.
-- Michael Scheuer

#Community #Intellectual #Assuming

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