Scheuer became a public figure after being outed as the anonymous author of the book ''Imperial Hubris'' (2004), in which he criticized many of the United States' assumptions about Islamist insurgencies and particularly Osama bin Laden. Later in 2004, shortly after the "outing" of Scheuer's harsh criticism of America's close alliance with Israel, Scheuer resigned from his position at the CIA. In his book, Scheuer depicted bin Laden as a rational actor who was fighting to weaken the United States by weakening its economy, rather than merely combating and killing Americans.
Scheuer challenges the common assumption that terrorism is the threat facing the United States in the modern era, arguing rather that Islamist insurgency (and not "terrorism") is the core of the conflict between the U.S. and Islamist forces, who in places such as Kashmir, Xinjiang, and Chechnya are "struggling not just for independence but against institutionalized barbarism." Osama bin Laden acknowledged the book in a 2007 statement, suggesting that it revealed "the reasons for your losing the war against us".
In February 2009, Scheuer was fired from his position as a senior fellow of the Jamestown Foundation by the foundation's president. In December 2013 and January 2014, Scheuer was criticized for seeming to advise American citizens to seriously consider assassinating U.S. President Barack Obama. In September 2014, in addition to earlier "praise" received from Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State issued a press release quoting Scheuer in order to appeal to an American audience. By 2019, Scheuer was endorsing QAnon conspiracy theories and advocating violence against various perceived enemies of Donald Trump, including former president Barack Obama, whom Scheuer falsely claimed was "Kenya-born."
