Islamist, Scholar, Bomb-maker… Spy

As one of al-Qaeda’s most respected bomb-makers, Aimen Dean rubbed shoulders with the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and swore allegiance to Osama bin Laden.

As a double agent at the heart of al-Qaeda’s chemical weapons programme, he foiled attacks on civilians and saved countless lives, brushing with death so often that his handlers began to call him their spy with nine lives.

This is the story of how a young Muslim, determined to defend his faith, found himself fighting on the wrong side – and his fateful decision to work undercover for his sworn enemy. From the killing fields of Bosnia to the training camps of Afghanistan, from running money and equipment in Britain to dodging barrel bombs in Syria, we discover what life is like inside the global jihad, and what it will take to stop it once and for all.

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‘Nerve-shredding.’

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‘It is rare that Western secret services place an agent within an organisation such as al-Qaida… It is unprecedented that any such individual publishes a detailed memoir of more than a decade of his activity at very nearly the highest possible levels of Islamist militancy.’

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‘A major contribution to the literature of espionage, and a rare book to say something original about contemporary jihadism.’

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‘An endlessly fascinating portrayal of al-Qaeda and the jihadist movement before and after 9/11…a thrill ride of an autobiography…Nine Lives is also an exquisite portrait of what it is like to be a secret agent caught in limbo between the West and the Middle East… A must-read for anyone who seriously wants to end the scourge of jihadi terrorism in the West and the East.’