Bestselling Author and Former Head of the CIA’s bin Laden Unit
Marching Toward Hell
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Stern Center, Great Room – 7:00 p.m.
“Continuing the Conversation” immediately following the presentation, Stern 102
What policies should the Obama administration pursue with regard to Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and Iran in the ongoing war against terrorism?
Topical Background
On September 20, 2001, President Bush officially launched the controversial “Global War on Terrorism”. “Our war on terror begins with al-Qaeda,” Bush proclaimed, “but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated.”
Terrorism was defined in the first National Strategy for Combating Terrorism, published in February 2003, as “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by sub-national groups or clandestine agents.”
The Bush administration initially identified two primary objectives in its “Global War on Terrorism”: to stop terrorist attacks against the United States, its citizens, its interests, and our friends and allies around the world and to create an international environment inhospitable to terrorists and all those who support them.
About the Speaker
Michael Scheuer worked at the CIA on national security issues related to Islamic extremism for 22 years. From 1996 to 1999 he served as the chief of the bin Laden Unit in the CIA’s
Counterterrorist Center. He also served as the unit’s senior adviser from 2001 to 2004. Scheuer is currently a news analyst for CBS News and a terrorism analyst for The Jamestown Foundation’s online publication Global Terrorism Analysis.
Scheuer is the author of the New York Times and Washington Post bestseller Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror, Through Our Enemies’ Eyes: Osama bin Laden, Radical Islam, and the Future of America, as well as From Pandora’s Box: America and Militant Islam After Iraq. His most recent book is Marching Toward Hell: America and Islam After Iraq. A 1974 graduate of Canisius College, Scheuer holds master’s degrees from Niagara University (1976) and Carleton University (1981), and a Ph.D. from the University of Manitoba (1986).
Video of the Program