Morten Storm converted to Islam in his native Denmark, after a life of petty crime left him feeling hollow, he writes in a new book, Agent Storm: My Life Inside al Qaeda and the CIA. His extreme personality and adrenaline-seeking led him to embrace Islamist jihad. And being denied a chance to fight for al Qaeda in Somalia led him to question his decisions and his faith, which vanished with a little internet research.
On Tuesday night, CNN aired an interview with Storm, one of his book's co-authors, Paul Cruickshank, and CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson. Storm says in his book that he contacted the Danish intelligence service to offer to become a double agent, and his work with them led to spying on al Qaeda for the CIA. He fell out with the CIA, he says, after the agency refused to pay him $5 million he thought he deserved for information on where to find (and kill) American-born al Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki.
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