Terror expert foresaw bin Laden
Michael Sheehan, who has died aged 63, directed United States Special Forces units and drone programmes, and warned about the dangers of Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda almost a year before 9/11. ‘‘What’s it going to take to get them to hit al Qaeda?’’ he reportedly asked in 2000. ‘‘Does al Qaeda have to attack the Pentagon?’’ Sheehan, who began his career as an Army Ranger, first took part in clandestine operations in Panama in 1979. Later, he was part of drug-interdiction and counterterrorism operations in Colombia, El Salvador and Honduras, scaling buildings and jumping out of helicopters as a ‘‘real-life Rambo’’, in the words of a New York Daily News profile. He helped investigate the 1993 ‘‘Black Hawk Down’’ incident in Somalia, in which two US helicopters were shot down, killing 18 service members. After the 9/11 attacks, he spent two years as an assistant secretary general of the United Nations, coordinating anti-terror efforts around the world. In 2003, he joined the New York City police as a deputy commissioner and directed what was widely recognised as one of the country’s foremost counterterrorism units. He trained thousands of police officers in how to deal with potential threats, from car bombs to nuclear weapons. Sheehan’s 2008 book, Crush the Cell: How to Defeat Terrorism Without Terrorising Ourselves, spelled out his sometimes unorthodox theories. He believed the most effective way to prevent terrorist cells from attacking the US and other countries was to stop them from forming in the first place, through diplomacy and what he called a ‘‘small-footprint’’ and low-cost presence in countries that gave rise to militants. He recommended that US spy services and military forces ‘‘drain the swamps’’ through strategic operations to eliminate training camps for terrorists. ‘‘It is important to understand that terrorism is an instrument of the weak,’’ he said, ‘‘and that the terrorist depends on a psychological overreaction to an attack on an innocent civilian target.’’
Some of his harshest criticism was directed towards Congress and the geyser of cash pumped into the fight against terrorism – much of which did little but line the pockets of contractors. ‘‘Since 9/11,’’ he said in 2008, ‘‘the US Government has spent hundreds of billions on activities I consider a complete waste of time and money, or on activities that have a very marginal impact on our safety.’’ Security checkpoints at airports did little to deter terrorism, he said, and served only to annoy the ‘‘white-haired grandma’’ whose life was ‘‘turned upside down by overzealous airport inspectors’’. Instead, he believed the war on terror should be carried out primarily by joint efforts of diplomats, military officials, the CIA and the FBI. From 2011 to 2013, Sheehan was able to put his ideas into practice as the assistant secretary of defence for special operations and lowintensity conflict. In that role, he directed all special operations branches of the military, including drone strikes that targeted terrorist leaders overseas. Michael Andrew Sheehan was born and raised in New Jersey, and entered the Special Forces after graduating from the military academy at West Point, New York, in 1977. He retired from the military as a lieutenant colonel 20 years later. His first marriage, to Maria Eitel, ended in divorce. Survivors include his wife of 18 years, Sita Graham Vasan, a daughter from his first marriage, and a son from his second. –