Inside the Jihad

by Omar Nasiri

Copyright 2006 by Omar Nasiri. All Rights Reserved.

Categories:  Contemporary  Memoir  Non-Fiction  Politics

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Description

Between 1994 and 2000, Omar Nasiri worked as a secret agent for Europe's top foreign intelligence services—including France's DGSE (Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure), and Britain's MI5 and MI6. From the netherworld of Islamist cells in Belgium, to the training camps of Afghanistan, to the radical mosques of London, he risked his life to defeat the emerging global network that the West would come to know as Al Qaeda. Now, for the first time, Nasiri shares the story of his life—a life balanced precariously between the world of Islamic jihadists and the spies who pursue them. As an Arab and a Muslim, he was able to infiltrate the rigidly controlled Afghan training camps, where he encountered men who would later be known as the most-wanted terrorists on earth: Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi, Abu Zubayda, and Abu Khabab al-Masri. Sent back to Europe with instructions to form a sleeper cell, Nasiri became a conduit for messages going back and forth between Al Qaeda's top recruiter in Pakistan and London's radical cleric Abu Qatada. A gripping and provocative insider's account of both Islamist terror networks and the intelligence services that spy on them, Inside the Jihad offers a completely original perspective on the ongoing battle against Al Qaeda.

Praise for Inside the Jihad

"A chillingly detailed portrait of life inside the Afghan training camps. Omar Nasiri's memoir offers a unique insider's perspective on the crucial years during which a loosely connected group of regional Islamist movements coalesced into Al Qaeda's global jihad."
—Ahmed Rashid, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Taliban

"A terrific book. Omara Nasiri offers a ground-breaking account of the process by which young men become mujahidin. His description of life inside the Afghan training camps is more complete than any intelligence we had available to us in the 1990s. It indicates a level of professionalism within the camps that we were only able to infer from the fragmentary accounts available to us—and which policymakers dismissed at the time as CIA scare-mongering. As a micro-level description of the whole training process within the camps, Nasiri's account has, I believe, no peer in the publications of the American intelligence community."
—Michael Scheuer, former head of the CIA's Osama bin Laden Unit and author of Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror

About the Author

Omar Nasiri (not his real name) was born in Morocco and currently resides in Germany with his wife.

Gordon Corera is security correspondent for the BBC, for which he has covered major terrorist attacks including 9/11, the Madrid bombings, and the London bombings. He is the author of Shopping for Bombs: Nuclear Proliferation, Global Insecurity, and the Rise and Fall of the A. Q. Khan Network.

Extended Copyright Information

Copyright 2006 by Omar Nasiri. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address Basic Books, 387 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016–8810.

Previously published by Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group.

In the course of this book, the names of several characters have been changed along with identifying details. A very small number of non-essential facts have also been altered. We have restricted these changes to only those cases in which their revelation would jeopardize the safety of the author, members of his family, secret service officers, as well as the secrecy of ongoing intelligence operations.

Cover design by PracherDesigns.
Cover photograph by Corbis.

Opening Lines (Experimental)

I heard about the 9/11 attacks on the radio. I was in my car, driving to pick up my wife from work. The reporters had thought an airplane had hit the first tower accidentally. My wife got in the car. She, too, believed the collision had been an accident.
But I knew it was no accident. Even before ...

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