Douglas Laux (born January 20, 1983) is a former case officer for the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

, having served undercover in the Middle East and Afghanistan for eight years. Upon leaving the CIA, Laux wrote a New York Times Bestselling memoir, '' Left of Boom'', which details his experiences serving after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Service with CIA

Laux attended

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

, earning a bachelor's degree in political science and East Asian studies with a focus on the Japanese language. He joined the CIA after a short stint working for the shipping company

DHL DHL is an American founded, German logistics company providing courier, package delivery and express mail service, which is a division of the German logistics firm Deutsche Post. The company group delivers over 1.8 billion parcels per year. DHL ...

following his graduation from IU. Laux was an officer in the Near East Division and served multiple tours in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

and the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

. Frustrated with the bureaucratic handling of the Syrian Civil War, Laux resigned from the Agency in February 2013. Upon his departure, Laux served with Joint Special Operations Command until 2016.

Career after CIA

Media

In April 2016, Laux published his New York Times Bestselling memoir, '' Left of Boom: How A Young CIA Case Officer Penetrated the

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...

and

Al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...

''. A year later, Laux appeared in six episodes of the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...

series ''Finding Escobar's Millions'', which debuted on November 3, 2017. He is also credited as the executive producer and creator of the series. In September 2017, Laux's photography was featured in a

Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. K ...

Magazine article entitled, "In The Path of the Totality: Notes of a Veteran Chasing the Eclipse." Debuting on January 20, 2020, Laux appeared in eight episodes of the Bravo Channel series '' Spy Games''. Laux's role was as an "Assessor" responsible for building challenges for contestants and then critiquing them on their performance.

Community

In the fall of 2019, Laux founded the non-profit organization CVLSRVNT to better support active duty Ohioans deployed overseas.https://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/displayPub78.do?dispatchMethod=displayPub78Info&ein=843207924&country=US&deductibility=all&dispatchMethod=searchCharities&isDescending=false&city=Coldwater&ein1=&postDateFrom=&exemptTypeCode=&submitName=Search&sortColumn=ein&totalResults=17&names=&resultsPerPage=25&indexOfFirstRow=0&postDateTo=&state=OH

Publications

Laux, Douglas (2016). ''Left of Boom: How A Young CIA Case Officer Penetrated the Taliban and Al-Qaeda''. New York: St. Martin's Press. .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laux, Douglas 1983 births Living people People of the Central Intelligence Agency Indiana University alumni American non-fiction writers Discovery Channel people American spies