Double agent for al Qaeda and the CIA comes out to tell his story

By Brett Gillin

Morten Storm has had what most would consider an interesting life. He has spent time as a boxer, as a convict, as muscle for a motorcycle gang, as a radical Islamist, and as a double agent for the Danish Government and CIA. Now, thanks to a new book called “Agent Storm: My Life Inside al Qaeda and the CIA,” and a special airing on CNN, his story is being told, and his life is in serious danger.

This article on CNN details the book and subsequent press junket by Morten Storm. Storm, who co-wrote the book with CNN contributors Paul Cruickshank and Tim Lister, recently sat down with another CNN reporter to speak of his time as a double agent.

“I had these different names. I had different personalities,” Storm explained to CNN. “I was Morten Storm, Murad Storm, Abu Osama, Abu Mujahid.” For years, Storm was dedicated to radical Islam and a very strict and unflinching view of the Quran. But a series of events that left him unable to fight for his Muslim brothers in Yemen ended up changing Storm’s life forever.

Storm was a troubled youth, often getting into fights and even committing armed robbery before his 18^th birthday. After getting out of jail at just 18 years old, Storm joined a biker gang. His life was spiraling down a dark path, when he happened into a book about the life of the Prophet Mohammed in a library.

“It changed me. It spoke to me, that book. This is the truth,” Storm told reporters. “I found the truth.”

Diving in with the gusto that characterized his life to this point, Storm traveled to Yemen and joined the radical Islam movement, going so far as to name his newborn son after Osama bin Laden. During his time as a jihadist, Storm befriended some of al Qaeda’s top leaders, including Anwar al-Awlaki, one of the most senior ranking officials in the terrorist group.

Things changed for Storm when al Qaeda refused to let him fight with jihadists in Somalia. Devastated by what he felt was a betrayal, Storm started questioning the very faith that had brought him to Islam. “I’m so deeply disappointed, and devastated,” Storm told CNN. “I felt betrayed.”

That was when Storm began researching the Quran on the internet and finding sites displaying the contradictions in the holy book. “It took some time to research them, but once I concluded that they were genuinely contradictions, that’s when it wiped totally away my faith,” Storm told CNN. “That’s when I stopped being a Muslim in my heart — in my belief.”

So Storm began working for Danish intelligence. Soon, he’d done enough to capture the attention of the CIA, who he also began working with and feeding information to.  After spending 5 years as a double agent, he soon began becoming disenfranchised with the CIA, after they refused a $5 million reward for the capture or death of al-Awlaki, which Storm felt he deserved.

So Storm decided to write his book and tell the story, knowing that the death treats will be pouring in from his former friends and jihadists. Evidence of such came when he saw video of ISIS fighters using a picture of him as target practice.