Steven Emerson
Steven Abram Emerson is a former freelance journalist turned antiterrorism expert who began making a name for himself in the mid-1990s as one of the key promoters of the idea that Islamic terrorists were actively operating on American soil.
Although he has been repeatedly criticized for producing faulty analyses and having a distinctly anti-Islamic agenda, Emerson is a frequent guest commentator on Fox News, MSNBC, and other national news programmes, and has often been invited to give testimony to Congress about purported threats from terrorists operating domestically.
The American Spectator commented in a profile of Emerson that "Steve Emerson is to the media what Richard Clarke [a former US government advisor on terrorism turned media pundit and security consultant] was to the government".[1]
Contents
Message
According to Jason Trahan, writing for the Dallas News Crime Blog:
- The terrorism expert's message... is that radical Islamists are feverishly working inside the U.S. to undermine the Constitution and replace it with Shariah, or Islamic law.
- According to Emerson, violent overthrow is not their aim. Instead, he says, their strategy is a type of "legal jihad," which includes groups such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Islamic Society of North America... hiding behind free speech protections to spread their Islamist agenda.[2]
Blunders
A story in the New Yorker noted that Emerson claimed that the Oklahoma bombing was carried out by Islamists:
- Emerson became widely known in the aftermath of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, when, appearing as an expert on CBS News, he theorized that the attack was the work of Islamic extremists. It turned out that Timothy McVeigh was responsible.[3]
In addition, a report for FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) states:
- Emerson was wrong when he initially pointed to Yugoslavians as suspects in the World Trade Center bombing (CNN, 3/2/93). He was wrong when he said on CNBC (8/23/96) that "it was a bomb that brought down TWA Flight 800." [4]
A review by Richard H. Curtiss for the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs notes:
- Similarly, after Paris-bound TWA Flight 800 exploded off Long Island in July 1996, Emerson said in media statements he was “confident” and had “no doubt whatsoever” that the plane was brought down by a bomb and suggested to Reuters that it could be the work of “the permanent floating [Islamic] military international.” But after a painstaking investigation involving dredging up the aircraft, piece by piece by piece, from the sea floor, the FBI and FAA ascribed the explosion not to a bomb or a missile but to an accidental electrical spark that ignited fumes in an empty fuel tank.[5]
In a lesser known incident, Emerson had promoted the case of Iftikhar Chaudhry Khan, who had claimed he was a top Pakistani nuclear scientist, but turned out to be a "former low-level accountant at a company that makes bathroom fixtures." Khan was the source behind an article in The Observer that had claimed that "military commanders have discussed pre-emptive nuclear strikes against India."[6] According to Khan's lawyer, "Emerson was helpful in corroborating information and making scientific clarifications."[7]
The Bat Cave
In an extended profile in the Washington Post, John Mintz reported:
- People invited to the Washington-area office of terrorism expert Steven Emerson say he sets one condition: They must swear never to reveal its location. Some visitors have been blindfolded as they're driven to his headquarters, where the masks are removed to reveal a warren of rooms piled high with dossiers, transcripts and videotapes, they say. The people who work there call it "the bat cave." [8]
Israel link
During the 1990s the former Israeli intelligence commander Yigal Carmon stayed at Emerson's Washington apartment on trips to lobby Congress against Middle East peace initiatives. An Associated Press reporter who has dealt with Emerson and Carmon says: "I have no doubt these guys are working together."[9]
Affiliations
Organisations
- Investigative Project on Terrorism: Founder
- Counterterrorism Blog: Contributor
- International Analyst Network
- Obsession Interviewee in this Islamophobic film
Individuals
Government Service
U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee: Former Aide (Early 1980s)
Education
Brown University: BA, MA
Resources
- Rightweb profile Steve Emerson
- John F. Sugg Steven Emerson's Crusade Why is a journalist pushing questionable stories from behind the scenes? Extra! January/February 1999
- Testimony before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade, 31 July 2008
- Richard H. Curtiss, Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs, September 1999, pp.138-140
External Links
- Steven Emerson, Pentagon Islam Expert Fired for Telling the Truth, Fox News, January 11 2008 Transcript
Notes
- ↑ William Tucker, 'He Saw It Coming', American Spectator, 7 April 2004
- ↑ Jason Trahan, 'Controversial terrorism expert Steven Emerson warns against 'legal jihad' in Dallas speech', Dallas News CRIME Blog, 5:00 PM Fri, Sep 26, 2008
- ↑ Benjamin Wallace-Wells, PRIVATE JIHAD How Rita Katz got into the spying business, New Yorker, 29 May 2006, Posted 2006-05-22
- ↑ John F. Sugg, 'Steven Emerson's Crusade', Extra!, January/February 1999
- ↑ Richard H. Curtiss Foreword to The Agent: The Truth Behind the Anti-Muslim Campaign in America By Dr. Ahmed Yousef and Caroline F. Keeble, USAR Publishing Group Inc., 1999, 120 pp. published in Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, SEPTEMBER 1999, pages 138-140
- ↑ Peter Beaumont, Paul Beaver, Anwar Iqbal, 'Pakistan's plan for a nuclear hit Scientist defects with list of Indian targets', The Observer, 28 June 1998
- ↑ John F. Sugg, 'Steven Emerson's Crusade', Extra!, January/February 1999
- ↑ John Mintz, "The Man Who Gives Terrorism A Name; Expert's Finger-Pointing Troubles Muslim Groups", Washington Post, 14 November 2001
- ↑ John F. Sugg, 'Steven Emerson's Crusade', Extra!, January/February 1999
