Quotes by Michael Scheuer

“Theres been a huge wedge between what the analysts think and what the Bush administration wants them to say.”

“The thinking was that he (bin Laden) was in Afghanistan, and he was dangerous. But because he was there, we had a better chance to kill him,”

“But at the end of the day, we settled for the worst possibility -- he was there and we didnt do anything.”

“is pretty close to being inevitable.”

“Youll have to ask the lawyers.”

“Frankly when I resigned in November, there wasnt anyone.”

“They have always been almost puritanical in talking about setbacks.”

“The exposure of such, either firms or aircraft, just undoes years of cover building and makes America weaker.”

“We asked the president what we should do with the people we capture.”

“It proves two things. Hes not dead. And despite all the things we say about him being isolated and alone, he can clearly dominate the international media when he wants to.”

The war in Iraq - if Osama was a Christian - its the Christmas present he never would have expected.

One of the great intellectual failures of the American intelligence community, and especially the counterterrorism community, is to assume if someone hasnt attacked us, its because he cant or because weve defeated him.

Im much better informed than Mr. Clarke ever was about the nature of the intelligence that was available again Osama bin Laden and which was consistently denigrated by himself and Mr. Tenet.

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.