Steven Emerson

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.

In January 2015 Emerson earned international ridicule, including from UK prime minister David Cameron, for claiming that Birmingham in the UK was a 'no-go zone' for non-Muslims.

Although Emerson has been repeatedly criticized for producing faulty analyses and having a distinctly anti-Islamic agenda, he has long been a frequent guest commentator on Fox News, MSNBC, and other US 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'.

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.

Jihad in America

According to Robert I. Friedman of The Nation:

Prior to its airing on PBS, Emerson screened Jihad in America for officials at the New York headquarters of a major national Jewish organization. He wanted their public endorsement of the film to increase pressure on Clinton for tougher laws to combat Arab terror. While the Jewish leaders weren't shy about using the film to press Clinton for laws to increase federal police powers, they didn't want to be publicly identified with the video, for fear of harming "intergroup relations," according to one official. "People were concerned then and now that it looked like all Arabs are blamed for a very small portion of Muslim fundamentalists who engage in terrorism, that it pointed the finger at the entire Arab community, that it made generalizations."

The Israeli government was less concerned about stereotyping Arabs. Emerson gave a sneak preview for Israeli officials in Washington, who had long complained that Hamas was being run from bases in America. Emerson's film not only helped them press their case with the Administration--that Islam is our common enemy--but it also helped to rehabilitate Emerson with the Labor government. Labor was angry with Emerson for helping Likud undermine the peace process. Yossi Ben-Aharon, Yoram Ettinger and Yigal Carmon are former high-ranking Likud government officials whom Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin dubbed the Gang of Three after the trio started lobbying Capitol Hill against the Israeli-P.L.O. accord and against sending U.S. peacekeepers to the Golan Heights "in order to undermine any chance for peace with Syria," says a prominent Israeli journalist. Carmon, who was Likud Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir's adviser on terrorism, and Ettinger, who was Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu's man in the Israeli Embassy, stay in Emerson's apartment on their frequent visits to Washington. Carmon was credited as an adviser on Emerson's documentary.

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.

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."

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.

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." According to Khan's lawyer, "Emerson was helpful in corroborating information and making scientific clarifications."

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."

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."

While Emerson maintains close ties to the Israeli intelligence and Jewish organizations in the US, he has been curiously sensitive about revealing what religion he is (his associates told the Washington Post he is Jewish).

Emerson is a Vice President of the Israel advocacy group StandWithUs.

'Muslim-only' Birmingham

In January 2015, appearing on Fox News in the wake of several murders in Paris including at the offices of the magazine Charlie Hebdo, Emerson said:

In Britain, it’s not just no-go zones, there are actual cities like Birmingham that are totally Muslim where non-Muslims just simply don’t go in. And, parts of London, there are actually Muslim religious police that actually beat and actually wound seriously anyone who doesn’t dress according to religious Muslim attire.

As a result of these comments, Emerson and Fox News became the subject of ridicule on Twitter, with users posting sarcastic 'information' about Birmingham, the UK and Muslims under the hashtag #FoxNewsFacts. The UK Prime Minister David Cameron also commented that Emerson was 'clearly a complete idiot'. Emerson apologised for the error.

Affiliations

Organisations

• MEMRI - Board of Directors
• Investigative Project on Terrorism: Founder
• SAE Productions - founder
• Counterterrorism Blog: Contributor
• International Analyst Network
• Obsession Interviewee in this Islamophobic film
• Center for Security Policy - Contributor to CSP front group Family Security Matters
• B'nai B'rith International - 2010 Conference Participant
• StandWithUs - Vice President

Individuals

• Richard Clarke
• Evan Kohlmann
• Rita Katz

Government service

U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee: Former Aide (Early 1980s)

Publications

• Jihad Incorporated: A Guide to Militant Islam in the U.S.
• American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us

Education

Brown University: BA, MA

External 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
• Steven Emerson, Pentagon Islam Expert Fired for Telling the Truth, Fox News, January 11 2008 Transcript
• 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
• Robert Parry, The CIA/Likud Sinking of Jimmy Carter (A Special Report), Consortiumnews.com, 24 June 2010
• Nathan Guttman and Larry Cohler-Esses, Terror Expert Emerson Feels His Own Heat Over Finances, Jewish Daily Forward, 26 November 2010.
• Peter Hart, Steve Emerson Gets It Wrong–Again, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, 17 April 2013.
• Alex Seitz-Wald, The right’s new Boston conspiracy theory, Salon.com, 18 April 2013.
• Robert Parry, The sorry record of a Muslim-basher, Consortium News, 12 January 2015.