CBS News | CIA Agent Details Terror Threat (Video)

CBS News CIA Agent Details Terror Threat: "Former CIA agent Michael Scheuer spoke to 60 Minutes in his first television interview out of the shadows.

This summer, with the CIA’s blessing, he authored a highly critical book on the administration’s counterterrorism policy, published under the name Anonymous, which the White House viewed as a thinly veiled attempt by the CIA to undermine the president’s reelection. Through it all, Anonymous has officially been anonymous, until Friday, when he resigned from the CIA after 22 years. Correspondent Steve Kroft reports.

After a 22-year career as a spy charged with keeping secrets, Scheuer decided it was more important to join the public debate on how to best attack Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda.

“His genius lies in his ability to isolate a few American policies that are widely hated across the Muslim world. And that growing hatred is going to yield growing violence,” says Scheuer. “Our leaders continue to say that we’re making strong headway against this problem. And I think we are not.”

In 1996, at a time when little was known about the rich Saudi, other than he was suspected of financing terrorism, Scheuer was assigned to create a bin Laden desk at the CIA.

“The uniqueness of the unit was more or less that it was focused on a single individual. It was really the first time the agency had done that sort of effort,” says Scheuer.

Did he try to figure out where bin Laden was? “Where he was, where his cells were, where his logistical channels were,” says Scheuer. “How he communicated. Who his allies were. Who donated to them. … I think it’s fair to say the entire range of sources were brought to bear.” "

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