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EspañolSTEVEN EMERSON
'Steven Emerson' is an American investigative journalist specializing in national security, terrorism, and Islamic extremism. He is the executive director of The Investigative Project, a data-gathering center on Islamist groups, and the author of six books on terrorism and national security, including ''American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us'' (2002). "Biography", ''Steveemerson.com''.
Emerson is known for having predicted, before September 11, 2001, that Islamists would launch a major terrorist attack on U.S. soil, and for having warned the U.S. Congress in 1998 of the danger posed by Osama bin Laden. He has been criticized by the Council on American-Islamic Relations and by journalists for what they see as an anti-Islam or anti-Arab stance. [1]
Emerson received a Bachelors of Arts degree from Brown University in 1976, followed by a Masters of Arts in sociology in 1977. After university, Emerson worked on staff as an investigator for the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee until 1982, and as an executive assistant to Senator Frank Church. Emerson, Steven. ''Secret Warriors: Inside the Covert Military Operations of the Reagan Era'', G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1988 (see bio on back flap).
Emerson then worked as a freelance writer, published mainly in ''The New Republic'', including a series of articles exploring the influence of Saudi Arabia in American corporations, law firms, public-relations outfits and educational institutions. In their pursuit of large contracts with Saudi Arabia, he argued, American businesses had become unofficial, and unregistered, lobbyists for Saudi interests. This material received further elaboration in his first book, ''The American House of Saud: The Secret Petrodollar Connection'', which was published in 1985.
From 1986 to 1989 he was employed by ''U.S. News and World Report'' as a senior editor specializing in national security issues. In 1988, he published ''Secret Warriors: Inside the Covert Military Operations of the Reagan Era'', a strongly critical review of recent efforts to strengthen American covert capabilities. In 1990, he co-authored ''The Fall of Pan Am 103: Inside the Lockerbie Investigation'', which argued for the alternate theory that Iran was behind the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.
In 1990, he joined CNN as an investigative correspondent for the network's ''Special Assignment'', and continued to write about terrorism. In 1991, he published ''Terrorist: The Inside Story of the Highest-Ranking Iraqi Terrorist Ever to Defect to the West'', which detailed his account of how Iraq had spread and increased its terror network in the 1980s with United States support.
He left CNN in 1993 to work on his documentary ''Jihad in America'' for the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), which exposed the clandestine operations of Islamist groups in the U.S., and for which he received the George Polk Award for best television documentary, [2]and the top prize for best investigative report from the Investigative Reporters and Editors Organization (IRE). [3] Emerson elaborated this subject in his next book, ''Jihad Incorporated: A Guide to Militant Islam in the U.S.''[4]
Emerson is also the founder and executive director of The Investigative Project, one of the world's largest intelligence archives on Islamist groups. He started the Project in 1995, after the broadcast of ''Jihad in America''. Since September 2001, Emerson has testified before Congress dozens of times on terrorist funding and on the operational structures of al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad, and has given interviews debunking 9/11 conspiracy theories. He is a contributing expert to the ''Counterrorism Blog''. [5]
Richard Clarke, the former head of counter-terrorism for the U.S. National Security Council, said of Emerson: "I think of Steve as the Paul Revere of terrorism ... We'd always learn things [from him] we weren’t hearing from the FBI or CIA, things which almost always proved to be true." ''Brown Alumni Magazine'', November-December 2002.
His work has drawn much criticism. Louay Safi, the Director of Research at the International Institute of Islamic Thought has described Emerson as belonging to "a network of anti-Muslim pundits who, driven by bigotry and exclusivist ideology, are bent on marginalizing Muslim Americans, and using unscrupulous tactics to distort the image of Muslims." [6] Emerson was criticized after the Oklahoma City bombing, which he attributed to a Middle Eastern terrorist attack, arguing that it was "done with the intent to inflict as many casualties as possible. That is a Middle Eastern trait."[7]
After his film ''Jihad in America'' aired in South Africa, Emerson writes that the FBI informed him that a South African Muslim group had dispatched a team to the U.S. to assassinate him. Since that time, Emerson says, he uses a collapsible mirror to check there are no bombs underneath his car, stays away from windows, varies his routine, does occasional U-turns when driving to make sure no one is following him, wears inconspicuous clothing, and changes his routes and the times he leaves his home. He requires security when speaking at universities, and a police guard when addressing the Senate. According to ''Slate'', people who visit his Washington, D.C. office are blindfolded ''en route'', and employees call it "the bat cave." [1] He left the condominium he had just purchased when ''Jihad in America'' was first aired, and now lives undercover. [2]
★ (1985), ''The American House of Saud: The Secret Petrodollar Connection'', Franklin Watts, ISBN 0-531-09778-1
★ (1988), ''Secret Warriors: Inside the Covert Military Operations of the Reagan Era'', Putnam, ISBN 0-399-13360-7
★ (1990) with Duffy B., ''The Fall of Pan Am 103: Inside the Lockerbie Investigation'', Putnam, ISBN 0-399-13521-9
★ (1991), ''Terrorist: The Inside Story of the Highest-Ranking Iraqi Terrorist Ever to Defect to the West'', Random House; Villard paperback edition, ISBN 0-679-73701-4
★ (1995), ''The worldwide Jihad movement: Militant Islam targets the West (Policy forum)'', Institute of the World Jewish Congress
★ (2002), ''American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us'', Free Press; 2003 paperback edition, ISBN 0-7432-3435-9
★ (2006), ''Jihad Incorporated: A Guide to Militant Islam in the US'', Prometheus Books (October 2, 2006), ISBN 1-591-02453-6
★ Terrorists among us - Jihad in America''
★
★
★ Daniel Pipes
★ Robert Spencer
1. "Who is Steven Emerson?", Council on American-Islamic Relations.
2. George Polk Award
3. "Steven Emerson", Harry Walker Agency.
4. Jihad Incorporated, interview with Steve Emerson, FrontPageMagazine, October 16, 2006
5. Steven Emerson, ''Counterterrorism Blog''.
6. Counterpunch article characterizing Steven Emerson
7. CBS News, 4/19/95; Steven Emerson's statement on Oklahoma City bombing; Video of Steven Emerson declaring Oklahoma City bombing Middle Eastern work.
★ Steven Emerson's website
★ Counter Terrorism Blog, where Emerson is a contributing expert.
★ Nicholas, Jake. "On our soil: Interview with Steven Emerson", ''Planet Jackson Hole'', July 19, 2006.
★ Emerson's January 25, 2000 testimony to the House of Representatives' Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims
★ Emerson's February 24, 1998 testimony to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Government Information, entitled "Foreign Terrorists in America"
★ Emerson, Steven. ''How I made 'Jihad in America' and lived to tell about it", February 26, 2002
★ ''Get Ready for Twenty World Trade Center Bombings'' ''Middle East Forum'' interview with Steven Emerson, conducted on April 7, 1997; published June 1997
★ "In Defense of Steven Emerson and Daniel Pipes", a letter from Shaykh Prof. Abdul Hadi Palazzi, ''Root and Branch Information Service'', September 19, 1999
★ Emerson, Steven. "Exposing jihad within our borders", March 21, 2002.
★ Sugg, John F. Steven Emerson's Crusade, ''Extra!'', Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, January-February 1999.
★ ''WSJ Rejects Muslim Reply to Steven Emerson''
★ Who is Steven Emerson?, Council for Arab-American Relations, undated, retrieved on January 2, 2005
★ Boehlert, Eric. The prime-time smearing of Sami Al-Arian, ''Salon'', January 19, 2002.
★ "Withdraws Defamation Suit, Counterpunch, May 19, 2003, retrieved January 4, 2004
★ "Extra's Report on Steven Emerson: Setting the Record Straight" -FAIR, February 2, 1999.
★ Mintz, John. ''The Washington Post'', November 14, 2001.
★ Friedman, Robert. ''The Nation'', May 15, 1995.
Emerson is known for having predicted, before September 11, 2001, that Islamists would launch a major terrorist attack on U.S. soil, and for having warned the U.S. Congress in 1998 of the danger posed by Osama bin Laden. He has been criticized by the Council on American-Islamic Relations and by journalists for what they see as an anti-Islam or anti-Arab stance. [1]
Education and early career
Emerson received a Bachelors of Arts degree from Brown University in 1976, followed by a Masters of Arts in sociology in 1977. After university, Emerson worked on staff as an investigator for the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee until 1982, and as an executive assistant to Senator Frank Church. Emerson, Steven. ''Secret Warriors: Inside the Covert Military Operations of the Reagan Era'', G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1988 (see bio on back flap).
Journalist and commentator
Emerson then worked as a freelance writer, published mainly in ''The New Republic'', including a series of articles exploring the influence of Saudi Arabia in American corporations, law firms, public-relations outfits and educational institutions. In their pursuit of large contracts with Saudi Arabia, he argued, American businesses had become unofficial, and unregistered, lobbyists for Saudi interests. This material received further elaboration in his first book, ''The American House of Saud: The Secret Petrodollar Connection'', which was published in 1985.
''U.S. News and World Report'' and ''CNN''
From 1986 to 1989 he was employed by ''U.S. News and World Report'' as a senior editor specializing in national security issues. In 1988, he published ''Secret Warriors: Inside the Covert Military Operations of the Reagan Era'', a strongly critical review of recent efforts to strengthen American covert capabilities. In 1990, he co-authored ''The Fall of Pan Am 103: Inside the Lockerbie Investigation'', which argued for the alternate theory that Iran was behind the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.
In 1990, he joined CNN as an investigative correspondent for the network's ''Special Assignment'', and continued to write about terrorism. In 1991, he published ''Terrorist: The Inside Story of the Highest-Ranking Iraqi Terrorist Ever to Defect to the West'', which detailed his account of how Iraq had spread and increased its terror network in the 1980s with United States support.
''Jihad in America''
He left CNN in 1993 to work on his documentary ''Jihad in America'' for the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), which exposed the clandestine operations of Islamist groups in the U.S., and for which he received the George Polk Award for best television documentary, [2]and the top prize for best investigative report from the Investigative Reporters and Editors Organization (IRE). [3] Emerson elaborated this subject in his next book, ''Jihad Incorporated: A Guide to Militant Islam in the U.S.''[4]
The Investigative Project
Emerson is also the founder and executive director of The Investigative Project, one of the world's largest intelligence archives on Islamist groups. He started the Project in 1995, after the broadcast of ''Jihad in America''. Since September 2001, Emerson has testified before Congress dozens of times on terrorist funding and on the operational structures of al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad, and has given interviews debunking 9/11 conspiracy theories. He is a contributing expert to the ''Counterrorism Blog''. [5]
Richard Clarke, the former head of counter-terrorism for the U.S. National Security Council, said of Emerson: "I think of Steve as the Paul Revere of terrorism ... We'd always learn things [from him] we weren’t hearing from the FBI or CIA, things which almost always proved to be true." ''Brown Alumni Magazine'', November-December 2002.
His work has drawn much criticism. Louay Safi, the Director of Research at the International Institute of Islamic Thought has described Emerson as belonging to "a network of anti-Muslim pundits who, driven by bigotry and exclusivist ideology, are bent on marginalizing Muslim Americans, and using unscrupulous tactics to distort the image of Muslims." [6] Emerson was criticized after the Oklahoma City bombing, which he attributed to a Middle Eastern terrorist attack, arguing that it was "done with the intent to inflict as many casualties as possible. That is a Middle Eastern trait."[7]
Death threat
After his film ''Jihad in America'' aired in South Africa, Emerson writes that the FBI informed him that a South African Muslim group had dispatched a team to the U.S. to assassinate him. Since that time, Emerson says, he uses a collapsible mirror to check there are no bombs underneath his car, stays away from windows, varies his routine, does occasional U-turns when driving to make sure no one is following him, wears inconspicuous clothing, and changes his routes and the times he leaves his home. He requires security when speaking at universities, and a police guard when addressing the Senate. According to ''Slate'', people who visit his Washington, D.C. office are blindfolded ''en route'', and employees call it "the bat cave." [1] He left the condominium he had just purchased when ''Jihad in America'' was first aired, and now lives undercover. [2]
Works
Books
★ (1985), ''The American House of Saud: The Secret Petrodollar Connection'', Franklin Watts, ISBN 0-531-09778-1
★ (1988), ''Secret Warriors: Inside the Covert Military Operations of the Reagan Era'', Putnam, ISBN 0-399-13360-7
★ (1990) with Duffy B., ''The Fall of Pan Am 103: Inside the Lockerbie Investigation'', Putnam, ISBN 0-399-13521-9
★ (1991), ''Terrorist: The Inside Story of the Highest-Ranking Iraqi Terrorist Ever to Defect to the West'', Random House; Villard paperback edition, ISBN 0-679-73701-4
★ (1995), ''The worldwide Jihad movement: Militant Islam targets the West (Policy forum)'', Institute of the World Jewish Congress
★ (2002), ''American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us'', Free Press; 2003 paperback edition, ISBN 0-7432-3435-9
★ (2006), ''Jihad Incorporated: A Guide to Militant Islam in the US'', Prometheus Books (October 2, 2006), ISBN 1-591-02453-6
Documentaries
★ Terrorists among us - Jihad in America''
★
★
See also
★ Daniel Pipes
★ Robert Spencer
Notes
1. "Who is Steven Emerson?", Council on American-Islamic Relations.
2. George Polk Award
3. "Steven Emerson", Harry Walker Agency.
4. Jihad Incorporated, interview with Steve Emerson, FrontPageMagazine, October 16, 2006
5. Steven Emerson, ''Counterterrorism Blog''.
6. Counterpunch article characterizing Steven Emerson
7. CBS News, 4/19/95; Steven Emerson's statement on Oklahoma City bombing; Video of Steven Emerson declaring Oklahoma City bombing Middle Eastern work.
Further reading
★ Steven Emerson's website
★ Counter Terrorism Blog, where Emerson is a contributing expert.
★ Nicholas, Jake. "On our soil: Interview with Steven Emerson", ''Planet Jackson Hole'', July 19, 2006.
★ Emerson's January 25, 2000 testimony to the House of Representatives' Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims
★ Emerson's February 24, 1998 testimony to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Government Information, entitled "Foreign Terrorists in America"
★ Emerson, Steven. ''How I made 'Jihad in America' and lived to tell about it", February 26, 2002
★ ''Get Ready for Twenty World Trade Center Bombings'' ''Middle East Forum'' interview with Steven Emerson, conducted on April 7, 1997; published June 1997
★ "In Defense of Steven Emerson and Daniel Pipes", a letter from Shaykh Prof. Abdul Hadi Palazzi, ''Root and Branch Information Service'', September 19, 1999
★ Emerson, Steven. "Exposing jihad within our borders", March 21, 2002.
★ Sugg, John F. Steven Emerson's Crusade, ''Extra!'', Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, January-February 1999.
★ ''WSJ Rejects Muslim Reply to Steven Emerson''
★ Who is Steven Emerson?, Council for Arab-American Relations, undated, retrieved on January 2, 2005
★ Boehlert, Eric. The prime-time smearing of Sami Al-Arian, ''Salon'', January 19, 2002.
★ "Withdraws Defamation Suit, Counterpunch, May 19, 2003, retrieved January 4, 2004
★ "Extra's Report on Steven Emerson: Setting the Record Straight" -FAIR, February 2, 1999.
★ Mintz, John. ''The Washington Post'', November 14, 2001.
★ Friedman, Robert. ''The Nation'', May 15, 1995.
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