Free Republic

From the beginning, the War on Terror has been characterized by intelligence failures. From the surprise attack on 9-11, to the inability to find Osama Bin Laden, to the politically disastrous misjudgement about Iraq’s WMDs, American intelligence has repeatedly come up a day late and a dollar short. One frequently made suggestion for fixing the problem is better human intelligence - in other words better spies. What would it take to accomplish this? For a partial answer to this question read Inside the Jihad. Omar Nasiri (Not his real name), is an Algerian who, in 1994, was recruited into a...

It is rare to get an insider's perspective on the emergence of al-Qaeda. It is also rare to get a glimpse of the world of spies and agents. To provide both is incredibly unusual. Omar Nasiri - not his real name but one chosen to protect his identity - says he spent seven years working as an agent for European intelligence services and as an al-Qaeda operative, part of the time in the UK. He provides a unique insight into how al-Qaeda was far more organised, coherent and determined in the 1990s than was appreciated at the time. Nasiri's story...

Omar Nasiri infiltrated the Islamist terrorist network for European intelligence agencies. He got to know terrorist leader Osama bin Laden's top lieutenants in Afghanistan. Today he lives in hiding in Germany. Nasiri knows what they say about people like him. He is familiar with the disparaging glances and the evasive promises of officials at Germany's domestic intelligence agency. Most of all, he knows that there is one sentiment shared by intelligence agents the world over: They love betrayal but not the betrayer. They were never fond of Omar Nasiri. But they valued him because, for years, he was one of...

It is rare to get an insider's perspective on the emergence of al-Qaeda. It is also rare to get a glimpse of the world of spies and agents. To provide both is incredibly unusual. Omar Nasiri - not his real name but one chosen to protect his identity - says he spent seven years working as an agent for European intelligence services and as an al-Qaeda operative, part of the time in the UK. He provides a unique insight into how al-Qaeda was far more organised, coherent and determined in the 1990s than was appreciated at the time. Jihad militants...

A senior al-Qaida operative deliberately planted information to encourage the US to invade Iraq, a double agent who infiltrated the network and spied for western intelligence agencies claimed last night. The claim was made by Omar Nasiri, a pseudonym for a Moroccan who says he spent seven years working for European security and intelligence agencies, including MI5. He said Ibn Sheikh al-Libi, who ran training camps in Afghanistan, told his US interrogators that al-Qaida had been training Iraqis. Libi was captured in November 2001 and taken to Egypt where he was allegedly tortured. Asked on BBC2's Newsnight whether Libi or...