HUMINT, Informants and more (merged thread)

[davidbfpo]

Infiltration of an enemy is a well known tactic, it does have unintended consequences sometimes. The story of the Dane Morten Storm has been around awhile and in May 2013 Mark Stout, now JHU and then @ The International Spy Museum, conducted a recommended Q&A:http://www.spymuseum.org/multimedia/...ists-in-yemen/

Clints Watts provided a summary a week ago:http://selectedwisdom.com/?p=1185

No mention was made of a possible unintended result, which today was given a lurid headline in the Daily Mail, citing a CNN interview:

Was Kenya mall massacre 'mastermind' backed by CIA cash? Disturbing claims by 'double agent who worked with terror suspect for years'

Link:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz2nME8w2l5

[davidbfpo]

A Sunday NYT review of Morten Storm's book '‘Agent Storm: My Life Inside Al Qaeda and the CIA' by Scott Shane which ends with:

In the end, his loyalty to the intelligence agencies proved no more lasting than his allegiance to Al Qaeda. Nearly as fed up with the spies as with the jihadists, Storm decided to go public and says he turned down an offer of $400,000 to keep his mouth shut. The result is a valuable window on both sides in a lethal underground war.

Link:http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/bo...ten-storm.html

Jason Burke, of The Observer, hada review in July 2014:http://www.theguardian.com/books/201...n-storm-review

See for more reviews:http://www.amazon.co.uk/Agent-Storm-.../dp/0241003776 and http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...n%2Cstripbooks

[davidbfpo]

A new review of the book, it first appeared a month ago in The Washingon Times and now in the online journal Perspectives on Terrorism:http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/.../view/380/html

It ends with:

The drama of "Agent Storm" will no doubt attract Hollywood's attention (it's already an hour-long CNN documentary), but bright lights aside, the book is an indispensable guide to how the West can counter the appeal of violent jihadism and its al Qaeda terrorist groupings. Today, when so many young Western Muslims are flocking to Syria and Iraq to join the ranks of genocidal insurgents such as the al Nusra Front and ISIS/Islamic State, this book's insights could not be more important.

[davidbfpo]

A review on WoTR, which ends with:

Today, when so many young Western Muslims are flocking to Syria and Iraq to join the ranks of genocidal insurgents such as the al Nusra Front and the Islamic State, this book’s insights could not be more important.

Link:http://warontherocks.com/2014/11/joi...ow-to-guide/#_