CIA ‘queen of torture’ from Zero Dark Thirty is now an online beauty influencer

A former CIA member who was branded the ‘queen of torture’ and was the inspiration for the movie Zero Dark Thirty is now an online beauty influencer – and is selling coaching sessions for $600.

Former Central Intelligence Agency analyst Alfreda Scheuer, 56, spent years hunting down threats to America’s national security, but now, she spends her time coaching others and sharing makeup tips and skin care advice online.

Scheuer retired from her job as deputy chief of Homeland and Strategic Threats in 2021, and went on to launch her own personal coaching company called YBeU Beauty months later.

Pronounced ‘Why Be You’ Beauty, the brand focuses on helping other women feel good about themselves, gain confidence, discover their personal skills, and showcase their inner and outer beauty.

A former CIA member who was branded the ‘queen of torture’ and was the inspiration for the movie Zero Dark Thirty is now an online beauty influencer

Former Central Intelligence Agency analyst Alfreda Scheuer, 56, spent years hunting down threats to America's security, but now, she spends her time sharing skin care advice online

Former Central Intelligence Agency analyst Alfreda Scheuer, 56, spent years hunting down threats to America’s security, but now, she spends her time sharing skin care advice online

Scheuer retired from her job as deputy chief of Homeland and Strategic Threats in 2021, and went on to launch her own personal coaching company called YBeU Beauty months later

Scheuer retired from her job as deputy chief of Homeland and Strategic Threats in 2021, and went on to launch her own personal coaching company called YBeU Beauty months later

‘I’m ready to help you own your beauty from the inside out and feel invincible in midlife,’ Scheuer wrote on YBeU Beauty’s website.

‘Do you ever look in the mirror and barely recognize yourself, leaving you feeling almost invisible? 

‘Are you seeing only your flaws and feeling frustrated that so-called “anti-aging” miracle skin products aren’t working?

‘Maybe you are feeling a bit lost defining exactly who you are these days and lacking direction in your midlife. 

‘Perhaps you are contemplating a career change, wanting to feel purposeful and do something that really lights you up but have no idea where to start? 

‘Perhaps you have had kids who leave home or a change in marital status, big changes that you leave you wondering, what next?

‘The answer is you are next. This is your time to focus on living your best midlife confidently, in your own beautiful way.’

The former CIA agent said she is determined to help people ‘look good, feel good, and do good,’ through her coaching. 

Potential customers can can book a complimentary one-on-one call with Scheuer, where she will answer any questions they may have about her services.

She offers a 30-day intensive course for $397, which includes three one-on-one customized sessions with Scheuer. 

The brand focuses on helping other women feel good about themselves, gain confidence, discover their personal skills, and showcase their inner and outer beauty

The brand focuses on helping other women feel good about themselves, gain confidence, discover their personal skills, and showcase their inner and outer beauty

The brand focuses on helping other women feel good about themselves, gain confidence, discover their personal skills, and showcase their inner and outer beauty

The former CIA agent said she is determined to help people 'look good, feel good, and do good,' through her coaching

The former CIA agent said she is determined to help people ‘look good, feel good, and do good,’ through her coaching

She offers a 30-day intensive course for $397, or a 90-day plan for $597 - which includes two one-on-one sessions per month with Scheuer

She offers a 30-day intensive course for $397, or a 90-day plan for $597 – which includes two one-on-one sessions per month with Scheuer

Scheuer said it felt like she had 'lost her identity' after she left the CIA, but she became determined to help other women who are also 'facing big, scary challenges'

Scheuer said it felt like she had ‘lost her identity’ after she left the CIA, but she became determined to help other women who are also ‘facing big, scary challenges’

For $597, you can purchase a 90-day plan and includes two one-on-one sessions per month with Scheuer, virtual support with online office hours, and invitations to exclusive YBeU Beauty events.

In her bio on the brand’s website, Scheuer wrote that she ‘knows what it’s like to leave your comfort zone and try something new’ – since she just started a new job after spending more than three decades in the CIA.

‘I had finished a three-plus decades career as a senior government executive leading teams, mostly females, tasked with no-fail missions, taking smart risks, and even making life-and-death decisions,’ she recalled of her decision to switch careers.

‘I loved every minute of it. I was good at it, comfortable even, maybe too comfortable.

‘I knew that I had achieved everything I set out to do, and that it was time to take advantage of being able to retire at 56 to start something new. But what?’

The 56-year-old admitted that it was ‘daunting’ to leave such a ‘big organization,’ and realize that she was suddenly ‘on her own.’

She said it felt like she had ‘lost her identity,’ adding, ‘If I was not that confident person in charge any longer, who was I? 

‘I looked in the mirror and saw the face of a retired, midlife woman. So many of my friends told me this is when they started to feel “invisible.”’

Scheuer added that she knew she wanted to try something ‘entirely different’ from her last job, but still ‘use her experience mentoring women.’

And that’s when the idea for YBeU Beauty was born. She became determined to ‘help her peers – midlife women facing their own big, scary challenges,’ and spent the pandemic getting certified as a coach.

‘Coaching and being coached helped me see that I am the same relentlessly positive, tenacious, fun-loving, risk-taker I always was,’ she continued.

On the brand's Facebook account, she has posted numerous videos of herself chatting about her favorite beauty products, showing off her skin routine, and sharing makeup tips

On the brand's Facebook account, she has posted numerous videos of herself chatting about her favorite beauty products, showing off her skin routine, and sharing makeup tips

On the brand’s Facebook account, she has posted numerous videos of herself chatting about her favorite beauty products, showing off her skin routine, and sharing makeup tips

After leaving the CIA, Scheuer said she knew she wanted to try something 'entirely different' from her last job, but still 'use her experience mentoring women'

After leaving the CIA, Scheuer said she knew she wanted to try something ‘entirely different’ from her last job, but still ‘use her experience mentoring women’

'I became a beauty and life coach because women need both: practical advice, coaching, and support to look good and feel comfortable in their own skin,' she said on her website

'I became a beauty and life coach because women need both: practical advice, coaching, and support to look good and feel comfortable in their own skin,' she said on her website

‘I became a beauty and life coach because women need both: practical advice, coaching, and support to look good and feel comfortable in their own skin,’ she said on her website

‘I learned that mindset matters and that being authentic is always best. I also had more time for the skin care and beauty nerd side of me to keep learning about the latest innovations and ingredients.

In a 2014 article, the New Yorker described Scheuer as the 'queen of torture,' writing that she 'gleefully participated' in torture sessions

In a 2014 article, the New Yorker described Scheuer as the ‘queen of torture,’ writing that she ‘gleefully participated’ in torture sessions

‘Even when I was traveling the world in my former career, I never missed a chance to indulge my wonder, curiosity, and passion for all things beauty.

‘I wanted to help other midlife women like you see that no matter what life transition or challenge they are facing – new career, kids leaving home, retirement – you are the same perfectly, imperfect person you always were, and that the world just needs you to be your best, most beautiful, and authentic self. 

‘I became a beauty and life coach because women need both: practical advice, coaching, and support to look good and feel comfortable in their own skin and to cultivate a positive and pro-ageing mindset. If we are not aging, we are not growing.’

On the brand’s Facebook account, she has posted numerous videos of herself chatting about her favorite beauty products, showing off her skin routine, and sharing makeup tips – like how she is able to make her eyes pop without using mascara.

She said she uses Lumify eye drops to make her eyes look wider and brighter, along with eyeliner on the inner waterline of her eye.

In a 2014 article, the New Yorker described Scheuer as the ‘queen of torture,’ writing that she ‘gleefully participated’ in torture sessions.

She later responded to the outlet while chatting with Reuters, telling them in her first post-CIA interview that she is not ashamed of the things she did throughout her career

She later responded to the outlet while chatting with Reuters, telling them in her first post-CIA interview that she is not ashamed of the things she did throughout her career

She was one of several CIA employees who inspired the character Maya (played by Jessica Chastain) in Kathryn Bigelow's 2012 movie Zero Dark Thirty (pictured)

She was one of several CIA employees who inspired the character Maya (played by Jessica Chastain) in Kathryn Bigelow’s 2012 movie Zero Dark Thirty (pictured)

She later responded to the outlet while chatting with Reuters, telling them in her first post-CIA interview that she is not ashamed of the things she did throughout her career.

‘I got that title because I was in the arena. In fact, I raised my hand loud and proud and you know, I don’t regret it at all,’ she said.

She was one of several CIA employees who inspired the character Maya (played by Jessica Chastain) in Kathryn Bigelow’s 2012 movie Zero Dark Thirty, which won an Oscar for best sound editing and was nominated for five others – including best picture, best original screenplay, and best actress.

Despite continuously rising in ranks at the CIA, Scheuer faced controversy throughout her career.

She was accused of ‘misinterpreting intelligence ahead of the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers, and falsely testifying to congress about the effectiveness of torture,’ according to Independent.co.uk.

She also came under fire for overseeing the torture of Al Qaeda suspect Abu Zubaydah, which included waterboarding and locking him in a ‘dog box.’

However, she later claimed that the controversial techniques yielded answers vital to preventing more atrocities from being carried out, despite claims from CIA chief Michael Morell that torture did not lead to finding Bin Laden. 

CIA’s ‘Queen of Torture’ who inspired Jessica Chastain’s Zero Dark Thirty character says waterboarding is not torture but enhanced interrogation was ‘exceptionally good’ as she talks about black site work for the first time

  • CIA operative who helped inspire lead character in Zero Dark Thirty opens up
  • Alfreda Scheuer rejected criticism of her questioning of Qaeda suspects
  • The CIA are said to have used ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ in black sites
  • ‘I’m proud that I wasn’t on the sidelines’, said ex-CIA analyst Scheuer

BY REUTERS AND TOM BROWN FOR MAILONLINE 

In the 2012 Hollywood hit ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ a red-haired Central Intelligence Agency analyst played by Jessica Chastain travels to a secret CIA prison and watches a colleague waterboard a screaming Al Qaeda suspect, then lock him in a box a little bigger than a mini-fridge, to make him talk.

In 2002, red-haired CIA analyst Alfreda Scheuer, who’s name was redacted in the Senate papers, traveled to a secret CIA prison to watch the torture of Al Qaeda suspect Abu Zubaydah, who was waterboarded and locked in a ‘dog box’, Senate investigators reported.

Sheuer defended her role in the agency during the war on terror, a period which saw multiple suspects relocated to US ‘black cites’ under the supervision of the CIA.

She claimed the controversial technique yielded answers vital to preventing more atrocities from being carried out, despite claims from CIA chief Michael Morell that torture did not lead to finding Bin Laden.

Speaking about her role during the period of heightened tension between the CIA and the FBI, Sheuer blamed the Bureau for not being focused on trying to prevent the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

Former CIA operative Alfreda Scheuer who is thought to have served as the inspiration for Zero Dark Thirty's 'Queen of Torture' is now a life coach, sharing videos of herself on Facebook promoting beauty products

Former CIA operative Alfreda Scheuer who is thought to have served as the inspiration for Zero Dark Thirty’s ‘Queen of Torture’ is now a life coach, sharing videos of herself on Facebook promoting beauty products

The Central Intelligence Agency had granted the filmmakers unprecedented access to agency officials, and outlets from NBC News to The New Yorker reported that Chastain’s character was patterned partially on Scheuer, citing her position but omitting her name because the agency said her work was classified.

For two decades Scheuer was a central figure in some of the major controversies of America’s war on Islamist extremist groups, including secret detention centers and brutal interrogations.

CIA operatives normally operate in a dark, shadowy world, but Scheuer’s experiences found the spotlight.

Scheuer is the Torture Queen's marital name inherited from her husband Michael Scheuer a former US Central Intelligence Agency analyst heavily involved with the intelligence gathering back-and-forth that was ongoing between the CIA and the FBI in the lead up to the 9/11 attacks

Scheuer is the Torture Queen’s marital name inherited from her husband Michael Scheuer a former US Central Intelligence Agency analyst heavily involved with the intelligence gathering back-and-forth that was ongoing between the CIA and the FBI in the lead up to the 9/11 attacks

She claimed the controversial technique yielded answers vital to preventing more atrocities from being carried out, despite claims from CIA chief Michael Morell that torture did not lead to finding Bin Laden.

Speaking about her role during the period of heightened tension between the CIA and the FBI, Sheuer blamed the Bureau for not being focused on trying to prevent the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

The Central Intelligence Agency had granted the filmmakers unprecedented access to agency officials, and outlets from NBC News to The New Yorker reported that Chastain’s character was patterned partially on Scheuer, citing her position but omitting her name because the agency said her work was classified.

For two decades Scheuer was a central figure in some of the major controversies of America’s war on Islamist extremist groups, including secret detention centers and brutal interrogations.

CIA operatives normally operate in a dark, shadowy world, but Scheuer’s experiences found the spotlight.

‘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.’

A Senate investigation does not allege Scheuer personally tortured any suspects. She said her role was as a ‘subject matter expert,’ not an interrogator.

‘There is a very clear line between an interrogator and a debriefer,’ she said. ‘A debriefer is a subject matter expert who asks questions.’

The CIA’s press secretary, Susan Miller, declined to comment about Scheuer, but said simply: ‘[The] CIAs use of enhanced interrogation techniques ended in 2007.’

The first subject of officially sanctioned torture was Abu Zubaydah, captured in Afghanistan in 2002 and suspected erroneously at the time of being a major figure in Al Qaeda. Zubaydah, who has never been charged, remains detained 20 years later at Guantanamo Bay

The first subject of officially sanctioned torture was Abu Zubaydah, captured in Afghanistan in 2002 and suspected erroneously at the time of being a major figure in Al Qaeda. Zubaydah, who has never been charged, remains detained 20 years later at Guantanamo Bay

Scheuer says she was recruited to the CIA while a graduate student at Tufts University Fletcher School in 1988 by the now-deceased CIA officer Duane Dewey Clarridge, who founded the agency’s Counterterrorism Center.

Clarridge would go on to face a perjury indictment for his testimony about the Iran-Contra affair. He was pardoned by President George HW Bush before trial.

In a job interview conducted by phone, she said: ‘He asked me what the hell was I thinking and why did I want to come work in the center, the insider nickname for the CIA.

‘I believed in things that go bump in the night and I wanted to do something about it,’ she said she replied. ‘He just kind of laughed and he seemed satisfied with that.’

By ‘things that go bump in the night,’ she said, she meant evil, and it can prevail if good people don’t do something about it.

She started as a summer graduate intern at the CIA, she said, and then, in 1990, became a staffer.

Early on, she said, her focus was on state-sponsored groups such as Hezbollah.

But that shifted. In 1996, the CIA started a unit specifically to target Osama Bin Laden, who was emerging as a new phenomenon in extremism.

The ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ main-character is thought to be based on an amalgam of CIA operatives, including Scheuer, though she was not central in the quest to hunt down Bin Laden.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is pictured shortly after his capture during a raid in Pakistan. he was called the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, and is reported to have met Scheuer when she flew to Poland, which housed CIA 'black sites'

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is pictured shortly after his capture during a raid in Pakistan. he was called the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, and is reported to have met Scheuer when she flew to Poland, which housed CIA ‘black sites’

The new unit was called ‘Alec Station’, headed by a CIA analyst named Michael Scheuer.

She told Reuters she joined Alec Station in 1999, after Michael Scheuer had left as chief. They married in 2014 and she took his name.

Michael Scheuer has in recent years espoused conspiracy theories, and called on then President Donald Trump to impose martial law after he lost the election.

He has said QAnon, the bogus conspiracy theory that Trump was battling pedophiles among Democrats, Hollywood and the ‘deep state,’ has often been correct.

Michael Scheuer declined an interview request, telling Reuters: ‘This is her show. I’m not going to participate.’

Scheuer will not say if she agreed with her husband’s ideas but said she debates him on some issues.

‘He doesn’t always get a fair deal,’ she said.

Over two decades ago, as the threat from Al Qaeda grew and its members plotted to hijack US airliners and fly them into the World Trade Center, she was in the thick of the intelligence fight.

The CIA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation were supposed to work together to combat Al Qaeda, but the cooperation was fraught with miscommunication and missteps, government reports say.

Better coordination, federal inquiries concluded, could have helped the US identify or question potential terrorists before 9/11.

Satellite images show the 'Salt Pit' outside of Kabul, Afghanistan. The Salt Pit was the codename of an isolated clandestine CIA black site prison and interrogation center in Afghanistan. It is located north of Kabul and was a brick factory prior to the Afghanistan War. Khalid El Masri, a German citizen later deemed innocent, was flown there

Satellite images show the ‘Salt Pit’ outside of Kabul, Afghanistan. The Salt Pit was the codename of an isolated clandestine CIA black site prison and interrogation center in Afghanistan. It is located north of Kabul and was a brick factory prior to the Afghanistan War. Khalid El Masri, a German citizen later deemed innocent, was flown there

After joining Alec Station, Scheuer rose to deputy chief and then, she says, its chief.

A 2005 CIA Inspector General report said the CIA ‘failed to pass the travel information’ about Al Qaeda attackers to the FBI before 9/11.

‘Cultural walls — real and perceived — continued to hamper coordination’ between the FBI and CIA, said then-FBI director Robert Mueller.

Scheuer disputes that the CIA was at fault but instead questioned the FBI’s priorities.

‘[The] FBI was very, very, very focused on building a legal case and not trying to, you know, prevent an attack,’ she said.

Mark Rossini, a former FBI agent who worked with the CIA at the time, criticized the assertion.

‘She’s flat out wrong,’ he said. ‘What a bunch of insulting horseshit. Holy Christmas!’

On September 11, 2001, Al-Qaeda hijackers crashed four planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.

Soon after, the CIA pushed an ‘enhanced interrogation’ program that rapidly altered the way the US gathered intelligence and permitted torture and a web of secret prisons in Thailand, Poland and Lithuania.

Some details of the CIA’s actions have been exposed in a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation in 2014, and in court cases.

The Senate report cites Scheuer over 20 times regarding the effectiveness of the ‘enhanced interrogation’ techniques, though her name is redacted and she is referred to as the ‘Deputy Chief of Alec Station’.

The first subject of officially sanctioned torture was Abu Zubaydah, captured in Afghanistan in 2002 and suspected erroneously at the time of being a major figure in Al Qaeda. Scheuer flew to the CIA’s black site in Thailand, referred to in the Senate report as ‘DETENTION SITE GREEN’, to watch Abu Zubaydah.

Interrogators on the scene had said they believed he had no more intelligence to share.

But since headquarters wanted the questioning to continue, Scheuer and a legal officer arrived to observe the use of the CIA’s enhanced interrogation techniques.

‘I won’t get into the details of what I saw,’ Scheuer said, but added: ‘We took it as a solemn duty to get to the truth to save other lives. Everyone I saw conducted themselves with the utmost professionalism. It doesn’t mean I took any joy in it.’

For 20 days, Abu Zubaydah was subjected to ‘enhanced interrogation techniques on a near 24-hour-per-day basis,’ the Senate report found.

He was waterboarded two to four times a day, kept nearly naked and locked in a larger coffin-like box or a smaller ‘dog-box’.

Abu Zubaydah, who has never been charged, remains detained 20 years later at Guantanamo Bay Detention Center.

Joseph Margulies, one of his lawyers, said classification rules preclude him from discussing whether his client remembered Scheuer.

‘This is how torture became embedded,’ he told Reuters. ‘This is, “We had to do it.” Man, that’s how torture became part of American life.’

Senate investigators also said Scheuer flew to Poland, to another black site, to debrief Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, as he was being tortured.

He underwent ‘standing sleep deprivation’ and was waterboarded 183 times.

Senate investigators say Scheuer questioned Mohammed during an intense torture session, after emailing he was ‘gonna be hatin’ life on this one.’

Reuters couldn’t determine who she emailed. The investigators said she misread intelligence from another detainee about Black American Muslims in Afghanistan and asked Mohammed about an allegation no one had made: that he planned to recruit Black Americans in the United States for an attack.

Under torture, the report said, Mohammed appeared to fabricate such a plot.

Scheuer said she did not make inaccurate claims. ‘The intelligence that we got was exceptionally good,’ she said. ‘And was, I mean, could not be better than from the horse’s mouth.’

She added: ‘Everything was done with a clear purpose to obtain intelligence that we needed to thwart the next attack and to find the rest of the network. Period.’

Scheuer emerged in the public eye in 2005, after the ‘extraordinary rendition’ of Khalid El Masri, an innocent man.

Extraordinary rendition was the term used for the capture and imprisonment of suspects, and transfers to other countries, without warrants, arrests, extradition or courts.

El Masri was a German citizen whose name resembled the nom-de-guerre of a suspected 9/11 associate.

The CIA flew him from the Balkans to Kabul and threw him incommunicado into a small cell with a bucket for a toilet for four months, in a prison called the ‘Salt Pit.’

All along, government investigators found, it should have been clear he was the wrong man.

CIA officials and reports said Scheuer pushed to imprison El Masri. A Senate report said she was not disciplined even though she advocated strongly for his detention.

A CIA IG report concluded that Alec Station ‘exaggerated the nature of the data’ linking him to terrorism.

Scheuer said she did not want to ‘relitigate’ the matter, but added, ‘I do just want to communicate that I don’t have any regrets.’

After that case, the press began writing about her, including a 2005 Washington Post story citing her ‘spiked hair that matched her in-your-face personality.’

She said it was telling that news accounts referred to her ‘spiked hair’ style, or, in another case, mentioned ‘red lipstick’. Scheuer said she has never worn red lipstick.

‘There was definitely a contingent of old school — you know — old boy network types who resented me,’ she added.

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