''I have concluded that there has not been adequate national debate over the nature of the threat posed by Osama bin Laden and the force he leads and inspires, and the nature of the intelligence reform needed to address that threat,'' said Scheuer, whom the CIA banned from speaking publicly in July, in a statement issued by his publisher.

The agency allowed Scheuer to publish his book, Imperial Hubris, anonymously, and to conduct media interviews to promote it under the name Mike. The book became a best seller. He became a critic of the war in Iraq, saying it inflamed anti-American sentiment among Muslims, and eventually his name was published. After some White House officials and pundits asserted that the CIA had allowed Scheuer to act as its surrogate critic on the war, CIA officials forbade him from speaking publicly.

Scheuer told The Washington Post on Monday that he believes the agency silenced him after CIA officials realized he was blaming the CIA, not the administration, for mishandling terrorism. ''As long as the book was being used to bash the president, they gave me carte blanche to talk to the media,'' he said. ''But this is a story about the failure of the bureaucracy to support policy-makers.''

The statement said Scheuer criticized the CIA leadership for allowing ''the clandestine service to be scapegoated for pre-9-11 failures - failure more properly placed at the door of senior members of the U.S. intelligence community and senior policy-makers, for whom, in Scheuer's view, saving lives has seldom appeared to be the top priority.''

Scheuer was chief of the CIA's bin Laden station from 1996 to 1999, and remained a counterterrorism analyst after that. He could not be reached Thursday for comment.

A CIA spokeswoman declined to comment.