Steve 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 FoxNews, MSNBC, and other national news programs, and has often been invited to give testimony to Congress about purported threats from terrorists operating domestically.
Discussing the trajectory of Emerson's career, Zachary Lockman, a scholar at New York University, wrote in 2005: "[Emerson's] main focus during the 1990s was to sound the alarm about the threat Muslim terrorists posed to the United States. By the end of that decade Emerson was describing himself as a 'terrorist expert and investigator' and 'Executive Director, Terrorism Newswire, Inc.' Along the way, critics charged, Emerson had sounded many false alarms, made numerous errors of fact, bandied accusations about rather freely, and ceased to be regarded as credible by much of the mainstream media . The September 11 attacks seemed to bear out Emerson's warnings, but his critics might respond that even a stopped clock shows the right time twice a day" (see Lockman, "Critique from the Right: The Neoconservative Assault on Middle East Studies," New Centennial Review, 2005.)
Among his claims to fame is his February 14, 1998 testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee in which he stressed the growing threat from a host of Islamic extremists, including Osama bin Laden. Testified Emerson: "In the five years since the [1993 World Trade Center] bombing, intelligence officials and law enforcement agents have discovered that militant Islamic extremists have established extensive networks throughout the United States. Although there is no established hierarchy that centrally coordinates the activities of the myriad militant networks, the intelligence and law enforcement communities agree that the entire spectrum of radical groups from the Middle East has been replicated in the United States." Among the groups Emerson highlighted were Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, "followers of Osama bin Laden," the Taliban, "and support groups of mujahideen (holy warriors) in Bosnia, Philippines, Chechnya, and other places." According to Emerson, "These groups have created large networks of supporters from whom they have raised tens of millions of dollars for their movements, recruited and trained new followers, underwritten their brethren organizations in the Middle East and elsewhere, and even remotely directed terrorist operations back in the Middle East or Europe."
Earlier, in 1994, Emerson produced the Frontline piece Jihad in America, which won the George Polk Award for best TV documentary. The film was also credited in part with leading to the Patriot Act: "Congressman Christopher Smith told the Washington Post in November 2001 that Jihad in America, which was distributed to members of Congress after September 11, 2001, 'played a real role in the House passage of the Patriot Act antiterrorism legislation'" (Brown Alumni Magazine, November/December 2002). This is a dubious honor, as parts of the act were ruled unconstitutional and several states and cities have passed laws condemning what they see as the act's infringement on civil liberties. Despite that, in his 1998 testimony, Emerson said: "The film included previously unknown videos of the clandestine activities of radical Islamic terrorist groups operating in the United States and featured interviews with moderate Muslims and federal counterterrorism officials speaking for the first time about the magnitude of the threat posed by militant Muslim groups on U.S. soil. I was gratified by the fact that the film served as the impetus for the counterterrorism legislation passed by Congress, and that it became a standard part of federal law enforcement education and training."
Emerson also claimed during his 1998 congressional testimony that the media attention generated by the film made him a target of terrorism: "I became the target of radical fundamentalist groups throughout the United States (and internationally) who fiercely denied the existence of 'Islamic extremism' and accused me of engaging in an 'attack against Islam.' For this 'transgression,' my life has been permanently changed . One morning, in late 1995, I was paged by a federal law enforcement official . I found out why I had been summoned: I was told a group of radical Islamic fundamentalists had been assigned to carry out an assassination of me."
Emerson has turned the claims about threats to his life into a signature aspect of his professional persona, one that he highlights in his promotional materials and interviews. As Slate.com reported in 2003, "People who visit Emerson's DC office must be blindfolded en route, and employees call it 'the bat cave'" (March 14, 2003).
Despite its awards, Jihad in America has been criticized by some observers as mere "agit-prop," as journalist John F. Sugg calls it (see Sugg's "Sami Al-Arian Speaks," Counterpunch, November 16, 2005). In a 1999 article for Extra!, a publication of the watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), Sugg documented how the film's apparent efforts to target certain Middle Eastern professors resulted in a rash of inflammatory articles published by the Tampa Tribune that were later heavily criticized for lacking fairness and balance. According to Sugg, the Miami Herald undertook a lengthy investigation into the Tribune's reporting, concluding that "the Tampa newspaper had ignored 'perfectly innocent' interpretations of activity, giving vent only to characterizations that suggested 'extremely dark forces were on the prowl.'"
Sugg also contested Emerson's claims that he was targeted for assassination because of his film and challenged the accuracy of his 1998 congressional testimony. In a 1998 article for the Weekly Planet, Sugg said that when he queried FBI spokesman John Russell regarding Emerson's claims about being notified by the agency of a hit squad that was targeting him and the possibility of being put in the witness protection program, Russell responded: "You pushed the right button asking about your friend Steve Emerson. We've never given any thought to putting him in the witness protection program." Regarding whether there was any truth to the claims of an assassination squad, Russell said: "No, none at all" (Weekly Planet, May 21, 1998).
In 1995, Emerson founded the Investigative Project on Terrorism, which according to lecture group Harry Walker Agency is "one of the world's largest archival data and intelligence on Islamic and Middle Eastern terrorist groups." The project's website, however, serves as little more than a promotional tool plugging Emerson's various books, including his latest, Jihad Incorporated: A Guide to Militant Islam in the United States (Prometheus Books, 2006). In a review of the book posted on the American Library Association's Booklist web site, Brendan Driscoll wrote: "Emerson matter-of-factly names and catalogues a host of . organizations and narrates each group's specific activities, footnoted to news articles and government reports. Given the nature of the topic, it is difficult to tell which of Emerson's many claims are credible and which err on the side of overstatement (something Emerson has been accused of before). This book will be most sought after by readers hungry for factual specifics about possible threats rather than for more nuanced theoretical or historical approaches to the topic" (BooklistOnline.com).
Although some of Emerson's supporters include the likes of former antiterrorism czar Richard Clarke, who told Brown Alumni Magazine that he saw Emerson "as the Paul Revere of terrorism," his biggest boosters seem to be among hardline neoconservatives and rightists who frequently cite Emerson as one of the country's foremost experts on Islamic terrorism. Daniel Pipes of the Middle East Forum, who has collaborated with Emerson on numerous occasions since the 1990s, once wrote of Emerson: "While Emerson remains doggedly on the trail of Islamists, especially those among them who support terrorism, he has for four years been forced to live at a clandestine address, always watching his movements. Like the case of Rashad Khalifa, murdered in Tucson for his views, the case of Steven Emerson suggests that, despite the Constitution's guarantees of freedom of religion and freedom of speech, when it comes to Islam, unapproved thinking can lead to personal danger or even death" (Commentary, November 1999).
More recently, in October 2006, the FoxNews program Hannity & Colmes featured Emerson during a show highlighting the purported connections between leftists in the United States and Islamic extremists. Asked whether there was a "quasi-alliance" between radical Islamists and radical left academics, Emerson said: "You're 100 percent right" (FoxNews, October 13, 2006).
Among some of his more notorious claims, Emerson told a reporter shortly after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that he believed the perpetrators were likely Islamic terrorists. The reporter, Tampa Tribune's Michael Fechter, wrote: "More and more, terrorism experts in the United States and elsewhere say Wednesday's bombing in Oklahoma City bears the characteristics of other deadly attacks linked to Islamic militants." Describing the incident, Eric Boehlert of Salon.com wrote: "Fechter seemed to be an odd choice to write the piece, since at the time the county news reporter had virtually no experience covering religion, politics, or terrorism for the Tribune. Instead, he wrote crime stories, covered local city council politics, and monitored neighborhood action groups. But what readers didn't know was that Fechter had recently befriended controversial terrorism expert Steve Emerson-who has been accused of sloppy journalism and with having a pervasive anti-Arab bias-and behind the scenes was remaking himself into a self-styled authority on terrorism" (Salon.com, January 19, 2002).
In an effort to downplay his claims, which he repeated to a number of journalists other than Fechter, Emerson later wrote that criticism of his allegations, especially from the likes of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), was misplaced. In an article for the conservative WorldNetDaily, Emerson wrote: "Less than six hours after the bombing I was asked on television whether I thought militant Islamic groups were involved. There was good reason for thinking they might be. The bombing, after all, was in Oklahoma City, where I had first encountered such militant groups in 1992. Several Hamas operatives were known to be living in the Oklahoma City area. At first, federal law enforcement officials were suspicious themselves" (WorldNetDaily, March 21, 2002).
Emerson is a contributor to CounterterrorismBlog.org, which describes itself as "a unique, multi-expert blog dedicated to providing a one-stop gateway to the counterterrorism community." In a July 28, 2005, entry titled "The American Islamic Leaders' 'Fatwa' Is Bogus," Emerson derided the well-intentioned "fatwa" against terrorism and extremism announced by a number of American Islamic groups-including the Fiqh Council of North America and CAIR. "The fatwa is bogus," Emerson argued. "Nowhere does it condemn the Islamic extremism ideology that has spawned Islamic terrorism. It does not renounce nor even acknowledge the existence of an Islamic jihadist culture that has permeated mosques and young Muslims around the world. It does not renounce Jihad let alone admit that it has been used to justify Islamic terrorist acts. It does not condemn by name any Islamic group or leader. In short, it is a fake fatwa designed merely to deceive the American public into believing that these groups are moderate" (CounterterrorismBlog.org, July 28, 2005).
Emerson and his supporters have gone to great lengths to defend his reputation. Responding to the 1999 Extra! article penned by John Sugg about Emerson, the Journal of Counterterrorism and Security International, which often features Emerson's work, published a press release accusing FAIR, CAIR, and Sugg of having "collectively fabricated evidence in manufacturing a conspiracy against investigative journalist and terrorism expert Steven Emerson." The press release also opined that FAIR was "an ultra-left wing group that has defended Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, supported Islamic and Middle Eastern terrorists, and even promoted a known anti-Semite."
In response, FAIR said: "The press release features the same kind of inaccurate and reckless charges that Extra! said were characteristic of Emerson's work . [T]he Journal seems to share Emerson's chronic inability to differentiate between criticism of U.S. policies and endorsement of the targets of those policies. FAIR, of course, has never defended the actions of Saddam Hussein or supported terrorism of any kind. As for the 'known anti-Semite,' FAIR (whose founder and executive director is Jeff Cohen) has no idea whom the Journal is talking about." The "conspiracy," said FAIR, was nothing more than a typical reporting investigation, involving interviews with various supporters and critics of Emerson. FAIR highlighted a number of inaccuracies in the Journal's accusation, including that fact that CAIR was not involved in the production of the article, but merely released its own comments about the article after the fact.
Emerson went on to sue Sugg and his employer at the time of the 1999 Extra! article, the Weekly Planet, for defamation. The lawsuit, which sought $11 million in damages, contended that Sugg and the Weekly Planet "maliciously and repeatedly published false and defamatory utterances" in an "ongoing campaign to undermine Emerson's credibility and damage his professional and personal reputation" (cited in CounterPunch Wire, "Withdraws Defamation Suit," CounterPunch, May 19, 2003). According to CounterPunch, in May 2003, Emerson decided to file for dismissal of the lawsuit.
|
Affiliations
The Investigative Project on Terrorism: Founder
Counterterrorism Blog: Contributor
Government Service
U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee: Former Aide (Early 1980s)
Education
Brown University: BA, MA
|
