Michael Scheuer - Through Our Enemies Eyes: Osama bin Laden, Radical Islam, and the Future of America

THROUGH OUR ENEMIES EYES

Also by Michael Scheuer

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

Osama bin Laden, Radical Islam,
and the Future of America

Revised Edition

Michael Scheuer

For the brilliant officers of Alec who gave America opportunities not taken. They now know, with Lieutenant General Daniel Harvey Hill (C.S.A.), that it is unfortunate to have different views from the rest of mankind. It secures abuse.

and

For the Bay, past and present; the Class of 52; the Inchon-Chongju Duo; Ranch Hands Beth and Bernice; and, as always, So long, Chiefy.

and

For Americas clandestine service and the U.S. Marine Corpsbringers of victory, if unleashed.

Copyright 2006 by Michael Scheuer

First edition published in 2002.

Published in the United States by Potomac Books, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Scheuer, Michael.

Through our enemies eyes: Osama bin Laden, radical Islam, and the future of America / Michael Scheuer. 2nd ed.

p. cm.

First edition published: Washington, D.C.: Brasseys, c2002, and entered under title. Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-57488-967-3 (pbk.: alk. paper)

1. Bin Laden, Osama, 1957- 2. TerroristsSaudi ArabiaBiography. 3. Jihad. 4. ViolenceReligious aspectsIslam. 5. Qaida (Organization) 6. Terrorism Government policyUnited States. I. Title.

HV6430.B55.S34 2006

958.1046092dc22

2005024233

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper that meets the American National Standards Institute Z39-48 Standard.

Potomac Books, Inc.
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Dulles, Virginia 20166

Second Edition

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Through Our Enemies Eyes is among the most important books published on terrorism since September 11, 2001. At a time when it has become fashionable to blame the U.S. intelligence community for the failures that led to those tragic events, Through Our Enemies Eyes provocatively challenges such broad-brush indictments, clearly showing that not everyone was asleep at the wheel. Written during 1998 and completed the following year, it not only connected the dots, but did so in a uniquely authoritative and compelling manner that would eventually establish its reputation as a classic in the field.

First published in 2002, Through Our Enemies Eyes was arguably a most unlikely candidate to attain that stature. Written by a long-serving Central Intelligence Agency officer, it initially attracted scant attention. The nature and importance of its authors national security work required that he remain anonymous. This meant that there was no intriguing photograph of a suitably contemplative figure available for publicity purposes. There was no one to invite onto television and radio talk shows for interviews or to profile in the features sections of newspapers. There could also be no public book launches, signings, or opportunities to field interested readers questions. That the author also had the temerity to compare Osama bin Laden to some of Americas most hallowed statesmen and political figures in order for readers to better understand our enemy and comprehend his magnetism and standing within the Muslim world, doubtless rendered Through Our Enemies Eyes a publishers and publicists nightmare.

Yet Through Our Enemies Eyes slowly but inexorably began to gather a loyal readership and increasingly enthusiastic following. Among the war on terrorism cognoscenti in and around Washington, D.C., mere word-of-mouth established the book as required reading for anyone seeking to understand bin Laden, the movement that he cofounded and led, and the profound threat that it posed (and continues to pose) to the United States and to international peace. Accordingly, the books reputation spread as a thoroughly reliable, trenchant, and commendably clear exegesis of al Qaedas ideology, goals, and alarming ambitions.

Through Our Enemies Eyes is especially noteworthy for another reason: it was based entirely on open source literaturethat is, nonclassified information. This is particularly significant at a time when Americas national security architecture and intelligence community have undergone the most extensive reorganization and reorientation since their creation following World War II. Through Our Enemies Eyes incontrovertibly demonstrates that probing analysis, deductive reasoning, and accurate conclusions can be drawn about even highly secretive movements and reclusive leaders independently of classified and other highly restricted government information.

As a result of a second book published in 2004 titled Imperial Hubriswhich also challenged the conventional wisdom, this time in the context of Americas conduct of the war on terrorismwe now know the identity of the anonymous author of both works. He is Michael Scheuer, a twenty-two-year CIA veteran who headed its bin Laden unit from 1996 to 1999 and was at the vortex of the intra- and interagency disputes and disagreements since laid bare by the 9/11 Commission, congressional investigations, and other inquiries into the events leading up to the attacks that fateful day. Scheuers academic training as a historianand his longstanding personal interest in the American Civil Warexplains his command of primary sources, his identification and interpretation of seminal events, and most importantly, his profound understanding of the role of leadership and ideology in shaping world events and affecting the course of history.

Publication of this second edition of Through Our Enemies Eyes is timely. Four years into the war on terrorism, the United States seems at a crossroads in this monumental struggle. The sustained successes of the wars early phases appear to have been stymied by the protracted insurgency in Iraq, the inability to kill or capture bin Laden and his chief lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and most critically by an inability to break the cycle of recruitment and regeneration that has sustained a terrorism campaign that, as Through Our Enemies Eyes persuasively argues, commenced long before 9/11. The recent bombings in Bali and London, no less those in Madrid, Istanbul, Jakarta, Casablanca, Riyadh, and elsewhere, demonstrate the continued resonance and appeal of a movement and an ideology that Scheuer magisterially charts and describes in these pages. The key to success in warfare, the Chinese strategist Sun Tzu wrote, is to know your enemy and you will know yourself. In Through Our Enemies Eyes, Scheuer answers the first part of that irrefutable formulation. It is up to the books readers to answer the second. Thanks to Mike Scheuer they have a very solid foundation from which to begin.

Bruce Hoffman
Washington, D.C.

The future always comes as a surprise, but political wisdom consists at least in some partial judgement of what may surprise us. And for my part I cannot but believe that a main unexpected thing of the future is the return of Islam. Since religion is at the root of all political movements and changes and since we have here a very great religion physically paralyzed but morally intensely alive, we are in the presence of an unstable equilibrium which cannot remain permanently unstable.