Former CIA analyst Freda Scheuer, once known as Alfreda Frances Bikowsky and portrayed as a relentless counter-terrorism operative in Hollywood, has reinvented herself as a life and leadership coach in Virginia.
Scheuer, 61, is understood to be living with her husband, former CIA officer Michael Scheuer, at a secluded property in the Shenandoah Valley after retiring from clandestine service in 2021.
Her new coaching business, YBeU Life Coaching, describes her as a certified coach helping women develop confidence, find purpose and advance their careers. The service is based in Virginia but offered online internationally.
The career change comes as the United States prepares to mark the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks on 11 September 2026 – the event that shaped Scheuer’s rise through the CIA and placed her at the centre of years of controversy.
Approached at her home, Scheuer declined to discuss her past. “I am afraid I must respectfully decline,” she said, referring to what she described as a history of critical media coverage.
Neighbours said the couple kept largely to themselves. One claimed they would not recognise either of them if they appeared at the door, while another questioned whether Scheuer could credibly offer self-help advice given the allegations surrounding her intelligence career.
From CIA analyst to life coach
Scheuer grew up in small-town Pennsylvania and was the first member of her family to attend university. She joined the CIA as a security analyst in the 1990s before moving to the agency’s Bin Laden Issue Station in 1999.
The unit had been established to pursue Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. Its founder, Michael Scheuer, later became her husband.
She rose rapidly, becoming deputy chief and then chief of the unit by 2003. She later led the CIA’s Global Jihad unit and retired with three of the agency’s highest honours.
Her record, however, has been scrutinised by congressional investigators, human rights groups and former detainees. Critics have accused her of failing to act on intelligence before the 9/11 attacks, supporting coercive interrogations and misrepresenting the effectiveness of those methods.
The 9/11 Commission examined the failure to pass information to the FBI about Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, two al-Qaeda operatives who entered the United States and later took part in the hijacking of American Airlines Flight 77, which struck the Pentagon.
Scheuer has denied withholding the information because of tensions between the CIA and the FBI. She has said she personally delivered the relevant visa information to the bureau, although the commission rejected her account.
In a podcast interview, she said she did not have time to feel guilty about the attacks, adding: “I did my best.”
Allegations over CIA interrogations
Senate investigators also identified an unnamed CIA analyst whose conduct matched accounts of Scheuer’s involvement in the agency’s secret detention programme.
According to the Senate’s inquiry into the CIA’s interrogation programme, an officer believed to be Scheuer watched the questioning of Abu Zubaydah in 2002. Zubaydah was repeatedly waterboarded and subjected to other harsh techniques, including prolonged sleep deprivation and confinement in a small box.
The Senate report said Zubaydah was not the senior al-Qaeda figure he was initially portrayed as being and was not a planner of the September 11 attacks.
A further account, published in Jane Mayer’s book The Dark Side, described an officer matching Scheuer’s profile travelling to a secret facility to watch Khalid Sheikh Mohammed being waterboarded.
The Senate investigation also described an interrogation in which Mohammed was forced to provide false information about recruiting black Muslim operatives in Montana. Investigators said the claim was untrue and led US agents to pursue a fictitious network.
Scheuer has rejected the characterisation of her work as torture. In a rare interview with Reuters in 2022, she said she had never seen anything that amounted to torture and maintained that the methods used had saved lives.
She has also objected to the nickname “Queen of Torture”, calling it sexist. “I got that title because I was in the arena,” she said. “In fact, I raised my hand loud and proud and you know, I don’t regret it at all.”
One of the most serious allegations concerned Khaled El-Masri, a German car salesman who was mistakenly identified as an extremist and detained by the CIA. Investigators said an analyst known as “Frances” pressed for his rendition and continued to support his detention after indications emerged that the agency had seized the wrong man.
The European Court of Human Rights later found that El-Masri’s account of his secret detention and ill-treatment had been established beyond reasonable doubt. The court held that Macedonian authorities were responsible for violations connected with his detention, torture and transfer to US custody.
Despite criticism from investigators, senior CIA officials decided that errors were to be expected in an intelligence operation marked by uncertainty. Scheuer was not dismissed and instead continued to receive promotions.
Hollywood portrayals
Scheuer’s career helped inspire fictional intelligence officers in two major productions. Jessica Chastain played the determined CIA operative Maya in the 2012 film Zero Dark Thirty, while Hulu’s miniseries The Looming Tower featured a character called Diane Marsh.
Scheuer has insisted that Zero Dark Thirty was not based on her life and said it took her years to watch the film.
After leaving government service, she first launched a beauty website, which has since disappeared. It was replaced by YBeU Life Coaching, whose promotional material draws on her experience leading teams of mostly women in a profession traditionally dominated by men.
The business encourages clients to challenge themselves, with online posts urging followers to do what frightens them and push beyond their comfort zones.
Human Rights Watch has criticised the lack of accountability for those involved in the CIA’s detention and interrogation programme. John Sifton, who has followed Scheuer’s career and worked with former detainees, said the record should be considered by anyone thinking of seeking her advice.
“That legacy will follow her,” he said.
