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.

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".

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.

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."

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."

Affiliations

Organisations

• Investigative Project on Terrorism: Founder
• Counterterrorism Blog: Contributor
• International Analyst Network
• Obsession Interviewee in this Islamophobic film

Individuals

• Richard Clarke
• Evan Kohlmann
• Rita Katz

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