Agent Storm: My Life Inside al Qaeda and the CIA - Softcover

Storm, Morten; Lister, Tim; Cruickshank, Paul

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802124291 ISBN 13: 9780802124296

Publisher: Grove Press, 2015

Synopsis

Morten Storm was an unlikely jihadi. A six-foot-one red-haired Dane, Storm spent his teens in and out of trouble. A book about the Prophet Mohammed prompted his conversion to Islam, and Storm sought purpose in a community of believers. He attended a militant madrasah in Yemen, named his son Osama, and became close friends with Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born terrorist cleric. But after a decade of jihadi life, he not only repudiated extremism but, in a quest for atonement, became a double agent for the CIA and British and Danish intelligence.

Agent Storm takes readers inside the jihadist world like never before, showing the daily life of zealous men set on mass murder, from dodging drones with al Qaeda leaders in the Arabian desert to training in extremist gyms in Britain and performing supply drops in Kenya. The book also provides a tantalizing look at his dangerous life undercover, as Storm traveled the world for missions targeting its most dangerous terrorists, and into the most powerful spy agencies: their tradecraft, rivalries, and late-night carousing, as well as their ruthless use of a beautiful blonde in an ambitious honey trap. Agent Storm is a captivating, utterly unique, real-life espionage tale.

About this title

About the Author:

Morten Storm is a former radical Islamist born in Korsor, Denmark. After plunging deep inside the world of al Qaeda, he became a double agent employed by the American, British, and Danish intelligence agencies. He lives in an undisclosed location.

Paul Cruickshank is CNN's Terrorism Analyst, and the editor of Al Qaeda, a five-volume collection of key scholarly works on the terrorist network.

Tim Lister has worked for CNN and the BBC and has extensive experience of the Middle East.

Review:

A National Bestseller
One of the Guardian’s Top Ten Books About Spies

Highly credible. . . . Both a rollicking read and a rare insider’s account of Western spying in the age of al Qaeda, where the risk if exposed is not Cold War-style expulsion but gruesome execution. . . . A valuable window on both sides in a lethal underground war.”
New York Times Book Review

This book reads like a screenplay for a James Bond movie written by Joel and Ethan Coen. . . . Anyone interested in the saga of terrorist fanatics will find Agent Storm compelling.”
Washington Post

Morten Storm has done the Western world a great service. . . . And by the way, the CIA owes him 5 million dollars.”
Brian Kilmeade, Fox News

An extraordinary story, well told and convincing.”
Foreign Affairs

[A] gripping firsthand account . . . . Storm’s work provides valuable and fascinating insight into the quiet battle being waged between clandestine national agencies and various terrorist organizations.”
Christian Science Monitor

Agent Storm feels like a James Bond story or one of John Le Carre’s marvelous spy-thrillers. Yet, the story written by CNN’s Paul Cruickshank and Tim Lister is a true account. . . . First-rate.”
War on the Rocks

Morten Storm’s account of his nerve-wracking life spying on Al Qaeda for Western intelligence gives us the most detailed, compelling, and human look at modern espionage in the lethal world of jihadist terrorism that we are likely to get. This ground-level view of the shadowy struggle between these two clandestine groups is truly gripping.”
Mark Stout, former CIA officer and Director, MA in Global Security Studies, Johns Hopkins University

Picture Homeland’s Nicholas Brody getting jacked during his time as a POW and you’ll get an idea of Morten Storm, the 6’1”, red-haired Dane who went from unlikely jihadi to double agent. . . . Storm’s tale of dodging drones and navigating alliances may read like a great espionage thriller (complete with a blonde honey trap), but his deeply personal struggle with extremism and atonement is the real story.”
Maxim

Agent Storm is the remarkable memoir of a Danish convert-turned-extremist who managed not only to infiltrate al Qaeda’s ranks but would later become one of West’s most valued human intelligence assets in the war on terrorism. As a true spy-story, this book brings you incredibly close to what it actually takes to be an extremist and get into a terrorist group while balancing loyalty and treachery in the world of intelligence. Essential reading for everyone interested in how the war on terrorism is actually fought in the shadows.”
Dr. Magnus Ranstorp, a leading expert on international terrorism and Research Director of the Centre for Asymmetric Threat Studies at the Swedish National Defence College

Agent Storm opens a unique window onto bleak interlocking landscapes the radicalization of European Muslims that has now been energized by the Syrian civil war, the leadership and organization of global jihad, and the twilight struggle waged by western intelligence agencies against an elusive and implacable enemy.”
Steven Simon, bestselling co-author of The Age of Sacred Terror and The Next Attack

In Agent Storm, Morten Storm, Paul Cruickshank, and Tim Lister tell an astonishing and unknown tale of the exploits, change of allegiances, double crosses and inner workings of both al Qaeda terrorist groups and the Western intelligence agencies charged with stopping them. Storm's unlikely path puts him at the center of much of the al Qaeda activity and affiliated plots in Western Europe as well as in Somalia and Yemen since 9/11. Grounded in the necessary broader geopolitical context, Agent Storm is hard to put down.”
Mitch Silber, former Director of Intelligence Analysis at the NYPD and author of The Al Qaeda Factor

"Gripping."
Publishers Weekly

Probably the best account of a modern-day secret agent. Morten Storm, a convert to Islam, vividly recounts his work for the CIA and British intelligence, against extremists in Europe and al-Qaeda in the Yemen.”
Guardian ( Top Ten Books About Spies”)

Remarkable. . . . Morten Storm is the living embodiment of the theory that it is the bad boys at school who make the best spies. . . . Agent Storm is an astonishing expose not only of the world of jihadi, but also the workings of those who secretly protect us.”
Telegraph (UK)

Storm has been involved in many of the most critical terrorism cases since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. This means if the revelations in his newly released memoir, Agent Storm, are true, he is not only this decade’s most intriguing informant: he could also be the most important.”
Toronto Star

"[A] gripping story."
Daily Mail (UK)

Storm’s memoir is manna from heaven for counterterrorism experts.”
Sunday Times (UK)

[Storm’s] allegations have proved explosive.”
Independent (UK)

About this edition

• Publisher: Grove Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0802124291
• ISBN 13: 9780802124296
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416