CQ HOMELAND SECURITY - INTELLIGENCE
Nov. 12, 2004 - 3:26 p.m.
Ex-CIA bin Laden Expert Will Warn of Nuclear Terror Threat on '60
Minutes'
By Mickey McCarter, CQ Staff
Former CIA al Qaeda expert Michael Scheuer, who resigned from the
agency
this week to publicly criticize what he says are flaws in the
government's
war on terrorism, will tell CBS' "60 Minutes" news magazine on Sunday
that
Osama bin Laden now has the approval of religious leaders to use
weapons
of mass destruction - including nuclear weapons - in his campaign
against
the United States.
According to a press release previewing the interview, Scheuer will
describe how bin Laden "secured from a Saudi sheik ... a rather long
treatise on the possibility of using nuclear weapons against the
Americans.
"[The treatise] found that he was perfectly within his rights to use
them.
Muslims argue that the United States is responsible for millions of
dead
Muslims around the world, so reciprocity would mean you could kill
millions of Americans," Scheuer said, according to the release.
Scheuer, the author of "Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the
War on
Terror," which was published anonymously, headed the bin Laden
tracking
unit at the CIA from 1996 to 1999. The CIA recently forbade him from
speaking to the press after several months of interviews about his
book.
He resigned from the agency Nov. 9 to make his arguments in public.
Scheuer will tell "60 Minutes" that bin Laden drew criticism from some
Muslims for the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, because they were
launched without warning and without an offer to convert the victims
of
the attacks to Islam.
However, the Oct. 29 release of a videotape by bin Laden constitutes
fair
warning, as it addresses the American people directly, Scheuer warned.
"Their intention is to end the war as soon as they can, and to
ratchet up
the pain for the Americans until we get out of their region," Scheuer
said. "If they acquire the weapon, they will use it, whether it's
chemical, biological or some sort of nuclear weapon."
The "60 Minutes" interview with Scheuer, his first televised interview
since his identity was revealed, is scheduled to air Nov. 14, at 7
p.m.
ET.
Source: CQ Homeland Security
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