Steven Emerson

Steven Emerson
Emerson at a convention in June 2008
Born	(1954-06-06) June 6, 1954 (age 62) United States
Occupation	Journalist, author, executive director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT)
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Brown University (B.A., 1976; M.A., 1977)
Subject	National security, terrorism, Islamic extremism
Notable works	Jihad in America
Notable awards	1994 George Polk Award for best television documentary; top prize for best investigative report from Investigative Reporters and Editors

Steven Emerson (born June 6, 1954) is an American journalist, author, and pundit on national security, terrorism, and Islamic extremism. Emerson is the author of six books, and co-author of two more. Emerson's credibility was challenged when he made claims on television concerning the city of Birmingham which led British Prime Minister David Cameron to say that Emerson is "clearly a complete idiot." The British broadcasting regulator Ofcom subsequently censured Fox News for airing the comments, which they characterised as "materially misleading" and "a serious breach for a current affairs programme".

Emerson has testified before Congressional committees on such topics including Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad. Some of Emerson's statements related to Muslims in the US and Europe have been criticized for inaccuracies, and he has been described as an "Islamophobe" and as a "discredited 'terrorism expert'".

Emerson received a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University in 1976, and a Master of Arts in sociology in 1977. He went to Washington, D.C., in 1977 with the intention of putting off his law school studies for a year. He worked on staff as an investigator for the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee until 1982, and as an executive assistant to Democratic Senator Frank Church of Idaho.

Emerson was a freelance writer for The New Republic, for whom he wrote a series of articles in 1982 on the influence of Saudi Arabia on U.S. corporations, law firms, public-relations outfits, and educational institutions. In their pursuit of large contracts with Saudi Arabia, he argued, U.S. businesses became unofficial, unregistered lobbyists for Saudi interests. He expanded this material in 1985 in his first book, The American House of Saud: The Secret Petrodollar Connection. Emerson has contributed commentaries to Newsmax since July 2009, covering terrorism-related topics.