how did michael scheuer rise so high in the CIA

[ronaldo23]

just curious after reading his books and seeing his videos. How can someone whose beliefs are so antithetical to the CIA attitudes towards terrorism rise up to a high level analyst/head of bin laden post? Was it only after he retired that he saw the light?

[PSYOP]

Because he kept his mouth shut until he left the agency.

[HOLLYWOOD]

The US government is one of the most discriminatory hiring entities in America today.

The CIA, FBI, etc all set age limits for new hires... they want you young, energetic, and impressionable. When you are very young, your ideologies can be steered and manipulated by your big government boss. Then you're cultured to a work environment and mindset/control to .gov policy of basically being politically correct sycophant and totally dedicated without question. Speak up, make waves, you are out.

Once you retire, then you can give a piece of your mind about everything that is wrong.

There are many many former/retired agents that speak of such distaste of how this government agency operates. Many have immense animosity once they realize how they were abused and used. C-SPAN has covered many of incidents communicated by former agents.

[ronaldo23]

The US government is one of the most discriminatory hiring entities in America today.

The CIA, FBI, etc all set age limits for new hires... they want you young, energetic, and impressionable. When you are very young, your ideologies can be steered and manipulated by your big government boss. Then you're cultured to a work environment and mindset/control to .gov policy of basically being politically correct sycophant and totally dedicated without question. Speak up, make waves, you are out.

Once you retire, then you can give a piece of your mind about everything that is wrong.

There are many many former/retired agents that speak of such distaste of how this government agency operates. Many have immense animosity once they realize how they were abused and used. C-SPAN has covered many of incidents communicated by former agents.
but does scheuer feel this way? he almost never talks about his relationships with the agency or how he quarreled with his fellow people there while he was a member. Nor have I been able to find anything from fellow agents that either positively/negatively describes his career there. If anything, he seems to retain a bit of the CIA mentality in how he agrees that those behind wikileaks should be aggresively prosecuted for treason.

[devil21]

I agree with HOLLYWOOD's post but I also think the CIA is even more arrogant now than it was while Michael was coming up. 9/11 changed the game completely. If people will bite on something like 9/11 en masse then anything is possible.

[Warlord]

The US government is one of the most discriminatory hiring entities in America today.

The CIA, FBI, etc all set age limits for new hires... they want you young, energetic, and impressionable. When you are very young, your ideologies can be steered and manipulated by your big government boss. Then you're cultured to a work environment and mindset/control to .gov policy of basically being politically correct sycophant and totally dedicated without question. Speak up, make waves, you are out.

Once you retire, then you can give a piece of your mind about everything that is wrong.

There are many many former/retired agents that speak of such distaste of how this government agency operates. Many have immense animosity once they realize how they were abused and used. C-SPAN has covered many of incidents communicated by former agents.

Hollywood you're on fire this weekend... has all the 'Memorial' propaganda got you worked up :)

[jmdrake]

just curious after reading his books and seeing his videos. How can someone whose beliefs are so antithetical to the CIA attitudes towards terrorism rise up to a high level analyst/head of bin laden post? Was it only after he retired that he saw the light?

Are his views really that antithetical to the CIA's views on terrorism? He talks about blowback. The CIA talks about blowback. The CIA tortured terror suspects. He supports torture of terror suspects. After OBL's "death" Ron Paul said the raid could have been done better if it was coordinated with the Pakistani government and OBL was captured alive. Scheuer said there was no reason to cooperate with the Pakistanis and we were better of killing OBL than taking him alive. (He gave no reason why. I've never seen Scheuer talk about the CIA indirect funding of Al Qaeda. I've never seen him talk about the CIA running the Jeddah Saudi Arabia visa desk where 15 of the 19 hijackers came through on "visa express." I've never seen him say anything to intimate that the CIA ever did anything "wrong". It's just all that "bad Washington D.C. foreign policy" that's the problem. Don't get me wrong. I'm glad he's on our side (mostly). But I wouldn't put him in the same category of whistleblowers like Ray McGovern, Colleen Rowley, Sibel Edmonds, Karen Kwiatowski or Michael Springman. All of those whistleblowers have actually criticized their former employers. I've not seen Scheuer do that....ever.

[Warlord]

He doesn't criticize them because he's likely protecting his pension. He's happy to just talk policy and I think the CIA are too. Policy can be conveniently blamed on the president and the State Department :)

Don't forget he was there for 20 years so he must have seen or been involved in EVERY black operation from originally founding Al Qeada / helping/buying the mujahedin to Iran/Contra, Operation Gladio, to Nicaragua death squads. Yep Michael has seen a fair bit in his time as an "analyst".

I wonder if he met with these guys when they came to DC?

http://cdn.historycommons.org/images/events/a812_reagan_and_afghans_2050081722-16016.jpg

Afghan mujaheddin i.e al-Qeada. Reagan called them the equivalent of the Founding Fathers!

Warlord's father is third from the right. He always liked Reagan.