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Middle East Institute is honored to host Michael Scheuer, to discuss his new book “Marching Toward Hell: America and Islam after Iraq .” A decorated senior CIA counterterrorism officer, Michael Scheuer had one of the most crucial jobs in American intelligence. He was the head of the CIA’s Osama bin Laden unit (“Alec Station”) and responsible for the U.S. government’s rendition program. His expertise became understanding the motives and missions of Islamic extremists better than most scholars and analysts in the world.

In 2004, frustrated with the shortcomings of the 9/11 commission, Scheuer left his position at the CIA so that he could warn the American people of the dangers we still face from terrorist attacks. His new book “Marching Toward Hell: America and Islam after Iraq,” sounds a critical alarm and explains how our foreign policy has made our enemy stronger, altering the geopolitical landscape in ways that are profoundly harmful to U.S. interests and security concerns.

Michael Scheuer is a twenty-plus-year CIA counterterrorism officer who was involved in managing some of America’s largest and most important covert action programs in the Islamic world. From 1996 to 1999, he served as the chief of the Osama bin Laden tracking unit at the Counterterrorist Center. He then worked as Special Adviser to the Chief of the bin Laden unit from September 2001 to November 2004, and was the first chief of the U.S. government’s rendition program. He resigned from the CIA in 2004. He is the author of the 2004 New York Times bestseller Imperial Hubris, and is currently an Adjunct Professor of Security Studies at Georgetown University and a Senior Fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, writing regularly for its online publication Global Terrorism Analysis.