The following is taken from Michael Scheuer’s book, ‘Marching Toward Hell: America and Islam after Iraq’. It has been carefully transcribed by ‘Abdullah al-Irhabi. Michael intended to show America what the reality of this war would look like from the perspective of al-Qa’idah. In his book, he quotes Robert E. Lee on page 215 as saying, “The better rule is to judge our adversaries from their standpoint, not from our own”. Ten pages later, Michael decides to write a letter to Usamah bin Ladin to make American citizens more aware of how al-Qa’idah members think and the necessity in looking at how they view the world.

To: Al-qaeda’s headquarters
From: Al-qaeda, Washington.
Subject: Assessing the Jihad Against America

Brothers Osama and Ayman,

First, I give all praise and thanks to Allah for His grace and mercies, and then to our prophet, peace be upon him, for the soundest advice and the truest guidance.

Next, brothers, I give thanks for your messages this year to the American people, especially Osama’s recent speeches, offering Americans another chance to embrace Islam.

Your statements are clear and practical. You spoke directly to Americans and not to their arrogant leaders. You warned them that our Al Qaeda brothers are nearly ready to again attack inside the United States, and that they will do so unless US policies in the Islamic world are changed.

All Muslims now know that you have gone many extra miles to warn the American people, and thereby, you have fully obeyed the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, and followed the honorable practices of Saladdin, Islam’s first great defender against the Medieval Christian Crusaders.

But sadly, dear brothers, I do not believe the Americans will heed your words. Though you spoke directly to them, they have heard President Bush and Vice-President Cheney describe your warnings as words of desperation, and contemptuously reject your truce offer by flippantly proclaiming, “We don’t negotiate with terrorists, we put them out of business.” Brothers, many Americans are going to die because of their leaders’ arrogance, and while regrettable, this arrogance is good news for Al-Qaeda and its allies. It means the government of the world’s richest and most powerful nation still does not understand the motivation of the Mujahideen, the goals for which we fight, or God’s promise of victory that makes us steadfast.

To begin, brothers, let me just say that I have rigorously followed your directions. As a white American Muslim covert, I and my family have lived an ordinary life here in the suburbs outside Washington. After more than a decade, and on the eve of Al Qaeda’s next attack on America, I thought it best to send you my assessment of what I see as the downside and the upside of our fighting the United States, and on which side the balance of advantage currently stands in the war Brother Osama calls the “Bleed America to Bankruptcy Struggle.”

Brothers, we must always keep focused on the huge downside of this war. We are being hunted and attacked by the most powerful nation in history. And despite the heavy personnel losses, Al-Qaeda and its allies have suffered, may God accept them as martyrs; the United States has not yet made its full power felt. The American leaders appear to believe that we are afraid of and intimidated by their military power.

Brothers, these are not the Americans who annihilated their enemies in Germany and Japan. These are the Americans of Vietnam, but even weaker in terms of resolve and ferocity.

Still, the American people hate us intensely for the September raid of the Blessed 19, may God reward them. And their efforts against us are powered by an amazingly productive economy that has recovered much of what was lost from that blow. With this in mind, brothers, we should rejoice over the 2006 US election results and falling public support for the war in Iraq. But we should not deceive ourselves into believing that the American people hate us with any less venom. Indeed, it is my view that the American people are far more bloody-minded than their leaders, and would have supported and applauded a far more aggressive and destructive war against us than Washington has waged.

Another problem for us, brothers, is that American society, although far from perfectly equitable, is on the whole tolerant, including toward its Muslim citizens. At this time, brothers, we do not have in America the advantage provided by the racist and anti-Islamic policies followed by the European Union countries. We therefore have hard and dangerous organizational work to do in the United States because we cannot wait for the demographic victory that will occur in Europe, where, as Brother Ayman has said, Allah is ensuring that the cradles of Muslim homes will ultimately return Spain and all of Europe to the Muslim Ummah.

The upside is that God has given His enemy incompetent leaders. Believe me, the American leaders are either soundly asleep, unwilling to face reality, or fundamentally stupid. Based on my experiences, observations, discussions, and studies, US leaders do not have a clue as to what their war with us is about. This is, thanks to God, our greatest advantage. As examples, I cite the following for your consideration:

a) They do not understand our motivation. As Brother Al-Amreeki would put it, they have not figured out what “makes us tick”. Their political leaders of both parties, as well as their media, military, economic, and academic elites continue to claim Al Qaeda hates America for what it believes and how it lives and not for what the United States does in the Islamic world. Only God’s love for Muslim believers could have kept our enemies deceiving themselves for so long.

b) The Americans are ham-strung by what some here call “political correctness”, which is a refusal to discuss matters of serious danger to their country because such debate might upset domestic politics.

Brothers, the indictment of the US policy in the Muslim World, that you have so clearly outlined, has put them at a disadvantage. For to publicly debate the policies you have identified as a tax on Islam would be to ignite a firestorm in US politics.

For each policy is a political poison.

First, US support for Israel.

Second, US support for nations that oppress Muslims.

Third, US energy policy.

Fourth, US support for Muslim tyrannies.

And fifth, US military presence in the Arabian peninsula and other Muslim countries.

Brothers, as I have already said, God has made America blind to the hatred that the impact of their policies in the Islamic world is earning them. But they also seem blind to the impact on Muslims, of their behavior at Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib prison, toward the Holy Qur’an, their decision to burn the bodies of martyred Taliban Mujahideen, and their killing of Afghan and Iraqi civilians.

US leaders treat these issues as manageable public relations problems, and do not see, thanks to God for their blindness, that their behavior is causing some Muslims to hate Americans simply because they are Americans.

Brother Osama has said that that many Americans are good people, and wise people, and are therefore hard to hate. But now, may God be praised, their actions at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and toward God’s Holy Book are beginning to make them hated as a people. And, Brothers, the Americans are unknowingly sacrificing a precious asset; their reputation for fairness, decency, and as champions of freedom for all peoples. With God’s grace, many more believers will come to jihad when they learn to hate Americans as well as American policy.

To go on, and by God, Brothers, brace yourselves, I tell you that US leaders in both political parties continue to tell their people that Al Qaeda and its allies have nothing to do with our blessed religion, nothing to do with great Islam. The American leaders also call us criminals, gangsters, deviants, psychopaths, murderers. They tell their people that we represent only the lunatic fringe of the lunatic fringe of the Muslim world. And so important people like President Bush, Mayor Giuliani, Mrs. Clinton, and hundreds of others in their elite group claim that “we will hunt them down one at a time and bring them to justice”. Just last spring, for example, the Americans celebrated the death of our valiant Taliban brother Mullah Dadullah as if it would badly hurt the jihad in Afghanistan.

US and NATO leaders cited the death as proof that their goal of killing or capturing those that they call terrorists one at a time is working, ignoring that they have pursued this policy since 1995 and that there are many more Mujahideen now than then. Pray to God that this continues, for it ensures that they will not recognize our movement is large and growing. US leaders refuse to recognize that Al Qaeda’s 20 year campaign to instigate Muslims to jihad across the world is succeeding. With attacks in Madrid and London, the growth of Islamist networks in Europe, North America, Southeast Asia, in Central Asia, and, all praise to God, an increasing flow of Muslim men from around the world to fight as mujahideen in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those fighters who survive, and may God accept those who fall as martyrs, will return to their native lands with military skill to impart to others, and most important, an ardent faith in God and His promise of victory. For all this, pray God let the Americans continue to believe and loudly preach that we are just gangsters.

And, Brothers, the Americans have not found serious men to lead them. God has blessed us with this reality for nearly 20 years. 6 years after the 9/11 raids US leaders have not closed their borders or found out who is in their country. The American politicians lack the wisdom and moral courage to enforce the immigration laws they have passed. God is great. They refuse to stop illegal immigration because they loudly assert, “America is a beacon of liberty to the world that we do not want to dim.”

Our brothers now move unnoticed here in a pool of illegal immigrants that exceeds 11 million. Pray God that America long maintains this glow of liberty, which provides a light that warms, guides, and shelters Al-Qaeda fighters and the many members of other jihad groups based in the United States.

Because the incompetence I have just described is difficult to credit, let me tell you, Brothers, several items that the media are reporting about what America’s non-serious leaders have said and done during the year past. Notwithstanding the raids by the heroic nineteen, the US Department of Homeland Security has for the past two years significantly underfunded the defense of New York City and Washington. And other reports say virtually no US city is prepared to cope with another attack. More than a decade after Al Qaeda’s declaration of war, senior FBI officials have said their institution and officers do not need expertise about Muslims, Islam, and the Middle East.

Clearly, Brothers, the infidel’s police forces in Britain, Canada, and even Australia are gaining knowledge about Al-Qaeda’s activities, and they threaten our operations. We have no such worries in the United States, where the FBI revels in its ignorance of Islam. Since 2004, two US intelligence chiefs, Mr. Goss and Mr. Negroponte, have said that they have knowledge of the location of Al-Qaeda’s leaders, and even of Brother Osama’s location. They said that all are based in Pakistan, but that they would not hunt and attack them there because of respect for the country’s sovereignty. Then in December 2004, Mr. Goss proved himself a liar by ordering an attack inside Pakistan on Brother Ayman. In other words, Brothers, US leaders first said they were willing to let us kill Americans rather than upset, anger, and endanger the reign of their agent Musharraf. Then they changed their minds, tried to kill Brother Ayman, and almost wrecked their ties to the apostate Musharraf, who as you have written,

Brother Ayman, is the most important US ally in the war against us and the only one who has hurt Al Qaeda and impeded its operations. Inexplicably, President Bush followed this blow to Musharraf by traveling to India and agreeing to give US assistance to India’s nuclear program, thereby strengthening Pakistan’s mortal enemy and shaming Musharraf in front of the Pakistani General Officer Corps that put him in power and keep him there.

Brothers, it is with some embarrassment that I tell you that I cannot explain these counter-productive US actions, but we must thank Him for whom all things are possible for them.

Brothers, there is one more great advantage Al Qaeda enjoys through God’s grace. And that is the practice of all US leaders to publicly define the status of our war against America only in terms of the detonation of explosives. May the Almighty God keep them mired in this dream. Brothers, as those who read history know, war is much more than detonating explosives. And the Mujahideen's non-explosive attacks on America, with God’s help, have continued with telling effect every day since 9/11. We are slowly changing the way of life of many everyday Americans. People here are upset and angry with the difficulties of air travel.

People here are also appalled by security that requires the children of grammar school classes to empty their pockets and clear metal detectors before entering an art museum. In the area where I live near Washington, people worry about the under-siege look of the city. One man said to me in wonder, “Roosevelt did not have this much protection in all of World War II.” I also have heard people express anger over what are at times invasive and militarized security procedures in the capital of the world’s most powerful nation, often citing the 2004 presidential inauguration as a graphic example. “We behave as if we are scared to death,” they said. Americans are worried, thanks to God, by the spiraling federal budget deficit. Brothers, it is impossible to imagine the amount of money the US government is spending on what it calls Homeland Security and on the wars it is waging to kill Muslims in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Somalia, and elsewhere.

A famous American economist and financier recently published a book saying, “The US government is in a weakened financial position to respond to another terrorist attack.” And so when Al Qaeda next strikes the United States, Americans will know that all this spending has been for naught, and that immense additional amounts will be required. We will then tear the heart out of their economy, and their morale as well.

As an indication of the future, the warning of more attacks issued by brother Osama in 2006 drove up the price of oil and gold and caused US stocks to drop by 200 points. Americans are frightened. More than half believe that another Al Qaeda attack is inevitable. Moreover, Americans are both angry and fearful that the erosion of their civil liberties is worsening because of President Bush’s eavesdropping on telephone conversations inside the United States, secretly assessing private bank records, and profiling each American air traveler. Because Americans have not experienced war on their soil since the 1860s, they regard necessary war measures as evidence of incipient dictatorship.

Brother Osama’s 2001 judgment has proven to be accurate. Al Qaeda needs to do nothing to terrorize Americans, because their leaders and the media will reliably perform that task. And nothing clarifies that reality more than the enhanced fears caused, not by a new Al Qaeda attack, but by the mid-2007 publication of the National Intelligence Estimate on our presence in the United States and the media’s reporting about it.

Before ending this message, Brothers, I want to specifically focus on Iraq, where the great and happy news is that God seems to have rendered US leaders ignorant of the wondrous opportunities they have opened for all Mujahideen by invading and occupying the country.

The Americans are now occupying the three most holy places in Islam; the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, and Jerusalem. Regarding Jerusalem, US leaders know but shield from Americans the fact that they are viewed by Muslims as interchangeable with Israelis. Muslim hatred for Israelis also accrues to Americans and will be increased by Washington’s recent gift of 30 billion dollars worth of US arms to Israel to help it murder Muslims. And by invading and occupying Iraq, the US government has created a magnet for Mujahideen even more powerful than that which Moscow created in Afghanistan, the first blessed land of jihad.

And, Brother Osama, by occupying Iraq, US leaders, through their disregard or ignorance of your words, have made your predictions come true in the eyes of the Muslim Ummah. You said America would destroy strong Muslim states, and it did. You said America would destroy strong Muslim regimes that threaten Israel, and it did. You said America would seize Muslim oil, and it did. You said America would try to destroy our religion and occupy our holy places, and it did. You said America will replace God’s law with blasphemous man-made law and secular governments, and it did. Praise to the Almighty God for showing you the truth, Brother Osama.

And, Brothers, God has now properly validated your call for a defensive jihad in accordance with the terms of His blessed religion. More important for our movement, US leaders do not appear to see that in Iraq they have opened the door for us to infiltrate our message and Mujahideen into Turkey, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Jordan.

Brothers, the Americans see Iraq as honey to attract the Mujahideen so they can be killed there, and  President Bush and his administration teach the American people that if the US military fights our brothers in Iraq, they will not have to be fought in the United States. Do they not know there are 1.4 billion Muslims? Brothers, American leaders have still failed to recognize that they have built a West-bound highway for the Mujahideen that leads from Afghanistan, through Iraq, to the Levant and beyond. It will be too late, God willing, when Washington discovers that the flow of non-Iraqi Mujahideen through Iraq into the Levant, Turkey, and the Arabian Peninsula, is far more dangerous to their interests than the Mujahideen entering Iraq from Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.

For now, Brothers, the good news for the Mujahideen outweighs the bad by a large measure. Our main advantage now lies in the failure of US leaders to understand their Islamist enemies. We also benefit from the paralyzing and contemptible fear that the US leaders have of fully employing America’s overwhelming military power. Overall, Brothers, it is my assessment, and God knows best, that the US leaders’ combination of historical ignorance and moral cowardice is, with God’s support, a potential war-winner for the Mujahideen.

As you know, Brothers, God told our beloved prophet, God’s peace and blessings me upon him, that He will only help those who do everything possible to help themselves. And so we must continue to carry this war to the Americans, while they remain asleep.

Our strategy must continue to be as the prophet, God’s peace and blessings be upon him, said to Satan, “I will give thee no respite.”

Brothers, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon you.