About: Inside the Jihad

Inside the Jihad: My Life with al Qaeda, a Spy's Story is a book published by Basic Books, written by a Moroccan who has adopted the pen-name Omar Nasiri. In the novel, Nasiri describes moving to Europe, after being involved in petty crime in his homeland of Morocco. By 1996, however, he had been recruited by radical Islamic fundamentalists, and subsequently became an informant for European counter-terrorism agencies, such as the DGSE. He would later infiltrate the Khalden training camp in Afghanistan, where he would meet such influential al-Qaeda leaders as Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi. Upon returning to Europe, he continued his work as a spy in London, before moving to Germany and getting married.