Michael Scheuer, 22-year veteran of the CIA and former head analyst at the CIA’s bin Laden unit, discusses why terrorism is a predictable response to an interventionist US foreign policy; how Osama bin Laden lured the US into Afghanistan and radicalized a good portion of the Muslim world; how al-Qaeda’s influence has spread into Western countries through media-savvy English speaking Muslims; the more-or-less representative Islamic governments likely to sprout up after the Arab spring – if the US doesn’t undermine them like with Somalia’s Islamic Courts Union; why most American politicians steadfastly refuse to “know thy enemy” and continue fighting the war on terrorism from a position of ignorance; Ron Paul’s realistic view of foreign policy; why budding terrorists must be regularly killed off, thinned like weeds, else they overtake us; how Bill Clinton’s lust for arms deals and oil pipelines cost him the opportunity to kill OBL before 9/11; how the Israel lobby prevents an honest discussion of foreign policy; and a recommended reading list, including Peter Bergen’s The Osama bin Laden I Know: An Oral History of al Qaeda’s Leader, Amin Maalouf’s The Crusades Through Arab Eyes and James P. Duffy’s Lindbergh vs. Roosevelt: The Rivalry That Divided America.
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