The Triple Agent

In December 2009, a group of the CIA's top terrorist hunters gathered at a secret base in Khost, Afghanistan, to greet a rising superspy: Humam Khalil al-Balawi, a Jordanian who had infiltrated the upper ranks of al-Qaeda. For months, he had sent shocking revelations from inside the terrorist network and now promised to help the CIA assassinate Osama bin Laden's top deputy. Instead, as he stepped from his car, he detonated a thirty-pound bomb strapped to his chest, instantly killing seven CIA operatives and giving the agency its worst loss of life in decades. In The Triple Agent, Warrick takes us deep inside the CIA's war against al-Qaeda and the mind of a young man with extraordinary gifts who managed to win the confidence of hardened terrorists as well as veteran spymasters.