CAMERA Media Analysis
11 February '11
In the days following tectonic events in Egypt, media outlets scrambled to make sense of the crisis, turning at times to ill-prepared commentators who had little genuine knowledge of Egyptian society and political life. Ironically, one figure called upon in the rush to decipher developments was Michael Scheuer, a former CIA official whose obsessive and bigoted attacks on Israel are matched by few in mainstream discourse.
He denigrates Israel as a parasitical nation that has no value whatsoever for America and which could cease to exist without any cost for Americans. He terms Israel "a spreading cancer on our domestic politics," the "most arrogant, avaricious and treacherous US ally." He excoriates Israel's supporters as "Israel-Firsters," "fifth columists" and "disloyal" Americans who are "enemies" of the U.S. and who "will have to be destroyed" in the political process after exposing their supposedly traitorous conduct. He repeatedly refers to Americans sympathetic to Israel as akin to "copperheads" — subversive Northerners in the Civil War. He claims Israel's supporters have previously dragged America into war and that Americans are dying for Israel and he charges Israel is trying to drag America into a future war with Iran.
Scheuer's virulent attacks are also leveled at erstwhile colleagues in the intelligence community. In particular, he despises John O'Neill, the late head of counter-terrorism at the FBI who was killed in the 9/11 attacks. In testimony before a Congressional Committee on April 17, 2007 he said: "I think I also said that the only thing -- good thing that happened to America on 9-11 September was that the building fell on him, sir."
He's expressed similar contempt toward CIA Directors, stating on the Lehrer News Hour on January 6, 2009: "Judge Webster, Mr. Woolsey, John Deutch, George Tenet, Porter Goss, these are all ... mediocrities."
In other statements as well, Scheuer's observations seem strikingly out of the mainstream, yet television hosts treat him with kid gloves. In a segment with Fox's Bill O'Reillly on January 7, 2011 in which the host pointedly charactizes his guest as "a humane man," the topic was Sudan and impending elections by the secessionist Christian southern region of that country that has suffered upwards of two million dead at the hands of the Muslim Arab north. Scheuer argued the creation of a Christian nation in the south would just antagonize the Muslim world and followed a pattern of similar previous American policies. He expressed complete disregard for the loss of life inflicted on the Christians of the south in the following exchange:
(Read full "Scheuer's Ravings")
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