Morten Storm (born January 2, 1976 in
Korsør
Korsør is a town on Zealand, Denmark. It is located in Slagelse Municipality. Until 2007 Korsør was the seat of Korsør Municipality. The town is located west of Slagelse, north-west of Skælskør and connects to Nyborg through the Great Bel ...
), alias Murad Storm and Murad Storm Al-Denmarki, is a
Danish
Danish may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark
People
* A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark
* Culture of Denmark
* Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...
, former convert to Islam and a former Islamic radical, who became disenchanted with
Islamism
Islamism (also often called political Islam or Islamic fundamentalism) is a political ideology which posits that modern states and regions should be reconstituted in constitutional, economic and judicial terms, in accordance with what is ...
after 10 years and went to work as an agent of the
Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) operating in
Islamic militant
''Mujahideen'', or ''Mujahidin'' ( ar, مُجَاهِدِين, mujāhidīn), is the plural form of ''mujahid'' ( ar, مجاهد, mujāhid, strugglers or strivers or justice, right conduct, Godly rule, etc. doers of jihād), an Arabic term th ...
circles.
His identity became public knowledge in 2012 when he came forward in the newspaper ''
Jyllands-Posten''.
Background
Storm grew up with his mother and
stepfather in Korsør, a working class coastal town. Early in life his alcoholic father left home, and his step-father beat him. He made friends with
Arabs
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Wester ...
in his apartment complex. In school, Storm was unruly and was eventually sent to a
Tvind
Tvind is the informal name of a confederation of private schools, humanitarian organizations, and businesses, founded as an alternative education school in Denmark circa 1970. The organization is controversial in Denmark, where it runs a numb ...
school, where he befriended a number of criminals. He committed his first robbery at age 13, and went to
jail
A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...
several times for violent behavior. After jail, Storm was expelled from schools multiple times and went to special schools. In his youth, his criminal activities earned him upwards of
DKK 10,000 a week. He spent the money on
alcohol
Alcohol most commonly refers to:
* Alcohol (chemistry), an organic compound in which a hydroxyl group is bound to a carbon atom
* Alcohol (drug), an intoxicant found in alcoholic drinks
Alcohol may also refer to:
Chemicals
* Ethanol, one of sev ...
and
drugs
A drug is any chemical substance that causes a change in an organism's physiology or psychology when consumed. Drugs are typically distinguished from food and substances that provide nutritional support. Consumption of drugs can be via inhalat ...
. At age 21, he was a trial member of the
Bandidos
The Bandidos Motorcycle Club, also known as the Bandido Nation, is an outlaw motorcycle club with a worldwide membership. Formed in San Leon, Texas in 1966, the Bandidos MC is estimated to have between 2,000 and 2,500 members and 303 chapters, l ...
in Korsør during the
Great Nordic Biker War
The Nordic Biker War was a gang war that began in January 1994 and continued until September 1997 in parts of Scandinavia and Finland, involving the Hells Angels and Bandidos outlaw motorcycle clubs. The conflict is also known as the Great Nord ...
.
Storm was also a talented
soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
player and
boxed Boxed may refer to:
* Boxed.com, a wholesale on-line shopping site.
* ''Boxed'' (Eurythmics), an eight album box set
* ''Boxed'' (Mike Oldfield album)
* Boxed warning
In the United States, a boxed warning (sometimes "black box warning", colloq ...
at a local boxing club.
Involvement with Islamic militants
Storm became a member of the motorcycle gang the Bandidos at an early age. Storm later became interested in
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
after reading a biography of
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...
, and later converted with a friend at 19. He nevertheless continued his partying lifestyle until his arrest on June 28, 1997. While in
custody, he met a Danish Muslim convert named Sulaiman. After his release, Storm moved with Sulaiman to Sulaiman's residence in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
to avoid angry former members of the Bandidos. During his time there, Storm began praying five times daily and grew a beard.
Storm visited the
Regent's Park Mosque
The London Central Mosque (also known as the Regent's Park Mosque) is an Islamic place of worship located on the edge of Regent's Park in central London.
Design and location
It was designed by Sir Frederick Gibberd, completed in 1977, and h ...
in London and was offered a scholarship to study Arabic and Islam at a religious,
Salafi
The Salafi movement or Salafism () is a reform branch movement within Sunni Islam that originated during the nineteenth century. The name refers to advocacy of a return to the traditions of the "pious predecessors" (), the first three generat ...
school in Yemen. Storm accepted and moved to the religious seminaries in Sanaa and Damaaj in Yemen. His faith moved in a militant direction, and he corresponded with some individuals who were later convicted of
terrorism
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
. Storm claimed to have become close with
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 ...
leader
Anwar al-Awlaki.
After 9 months in Yemen, Storm returned to London in late 1998. He then moved to
Brixton
Brixton is a district in south London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Brixton experienced a rapid rise in population during the 19th ce ...
, where he met
Zacarias Moussaoui
Zacarias Moussaoui (Arabic: زكريا موسوي, '; born May 30, 1968) is a French member of al-Qaeda who pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court to conspiring to kill citizens of the United States as part of the September 11 attacks. He is serv ...
(the "wannabe" 9/11 hijacker) and "Shoe-bomber"
Richard Reid. He became friends with Omar Bakri Muhammad Fostok, leader of the al-Muhajiroun group. ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' reported that while in London, "Storm and his associates inhabited a world of overstayed visas, violent online videos, idolized preachers, frustration and alienation.".
Storm and the Islamic radicals he lived with were amateurish but threatening and connected to a global network of contacts who shared ideology and purpose. In London Storm became friends with
Anwar al-Awlaqi
Anwar Nasser al-Awlaki (also spelled al-Aulaqi, al-Awlaqi; ar, أنور العولقي, Anwar al-‘Awlaqī; April 21 or 22, 1971 – September 30, 2011) was an American imam who was killed in 2011 in Yemen by a U.S. government drone stri ...
, an American-born Yemeni, who at one time was regarded only second to
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi-born extremist militant who founded al-Qaeda and served as its leader from 1988 until Killing of Osama bin Laden, his death in 2011. Ideologically a Pan-Islamism ...
in the
al-Qaeda network.
Storm traveled to Yemen for the second time in 2006. At this time Storm started to doubt the message of radical militancy. He had problems with the incoherence within Islam in free will and predestination. Most importantly Storm had issues with the indiscriminate killing of civilians. In Storm's book, called ''Agent Storm: My Life Inside al-Qaeda'', he wrote: "Now I thought of the Twin towers, Bali, Madrid in 2005, London in 2005...If they were part of Allah's preordained plan, I now wanted no part of it. My loss of faith was as frightening as it was sudden."
PET agent
In the past, Storm had been contacted by
MI5 and PET (''Politiets Efterretningstjeneste,'' or
Danish Security and Intelligence Service
Politiets Efterretningstjeneste (PET) (literally: Police Intelligence Service, official name in English: Danish Security and Intelligence Service, or DSIS) is the national security and intelligence agency of Denmark. The agency focuses solely o ...
), but he had refused their offers of collaboration. However, in 2006, as he became increasingly dissatisfied with militant Islam, Storm contacted the European domestic intelligence agencies. The CIA later got involved as well, in the United States' War on Terror. According to Storm, he left Islam in 2006 and was recruited by
PET as an agent, leading a double life until 2011. He further claimed to have initiated contact with PET. While working as an agent, he established
front companies which ostensibly organized wilderness trips. These companies allowed him to leave for long periods of time and explain his source of income.
During the course of his undercover work, Storm was involved in a mission to track Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen and pass on al-Awlaki’s whereabouts to the
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
. Storm claims that the plan involved bringing al-Awlaki a wife. According to Storm, a
Croatian woman was selected and given a tracking device to carry in her suitcase, which would reveal al-Awlaki’s residence on her arrival there. Storm’s story is supported by a
text message, supposedly sent by the lead officer at PET, reading “Congratulations brother, you’ve just become rich, very rich”. The story is additionally supported by a picture Storm took of the $250,000 reward offered for his
intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...
.
Danish documentary filmmaker
Nagieb Khaja had planned to film a documentary about an Islamist
training camp in 2006 with Storm's help. The film was later abandoned. A second documentary fell through in 2009 when Storm left the project.
On September 30, 2011, having been located, al-Awlaki was killed by an
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
drone
Drone most commonly refers to:
* Drone (bee), a male bee, from an unfertilized egg
* Unmanned aerial vehicle
* Unmanned surface vehicle, watercraft
* Unmanned underwater vehicle or underwater drone
Drone, drones or The Drones may also refer to:
...
strike. The significance of Storm’s intel in finding al-Awlaki is disputed.
In August 2012, PET offered Storm DKK 25,000 per month tax-free for five years in return for his silence.
In October 2012, Storm came forward in a series of articles published by Jyllands-Posten. When his story became public, PET issued a press release stating that they neither confirmed nor denied Storm’s story. They wrote, in part:
''Normalt udtaler vi os jo ikke om målene for vores operative arbejde. Det kommer dog næppe bag på nogen, at PET som andre vestlige efterretningstjenester har haft fokus på al-Awlaki, og at PET's operative indsats i forhold til al-Awlaki har været rettet mod at afdække konkrete terrortrusler mod Danmark eller danske interesser i udlandet, herunder eventuel kontakt mellem al-Awlaki og terrorrelaterede personer, grupper eller netværk i Danmark.''
(English) Normally, we do not give statements regarding the goals of our operational work. However, it will come as no surprise that PET has, along with other Western intelligence agencies, been focusing on al-Awlaki, and that PET's operational actions in regards to al-Awlaki have been aimed at uncovering specific terror threads against Denmark or Danish interests abroad, including possible correspondence between al-Awlaki and terror-affiliated individuals, groups or networks within Denmark.
At a July 2014 political event on
Bornholm
Bornholm () is a Danish island in the Baltic Sea, to the east of the rest of Denmark, south of Sweden, northeast of Germany and north of Poland.
Strategically located, Bornholm has been fought over for centuries. It has usually been ruled by ...
, Storm participated in a debate arranged by the
International Free Press Society
The International Free Press Society (IFPS), founded on 1 January 2009, is a creation of the Danish Free Press Society. The stated purpose of IFPS "is to defend freedom of expression wherever and by whomever it is threatened".
It has been describe ...
.
Personal life
Storm converted to Islam 1997, and married his first wife in 2000.
Storm has two children from his first marriage; Osama, born in 2002, and Sarah, born in 2003.
Storm and his first wife separated in 2005; he married his second wife in 2006.
Publications
In 2002, he published a
Danish
Danish may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark
People
* A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark
* Culture of Denmark
* Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...
translation of the
Islamic fundamentalist book ''The Islamic Creed: Questions and Answers'' by
Muhammad bin Jamil Zeno.
In August 2014, ''Agent Storm: My Life Inside al-Qaeda'' by Morten Storm with CNN reporters Tim Lister and Paul Cruickshank was published by
Atlantic Monthly Press
Grove Atlantic, Inc. is an American independent publisher, based in New York City. Formerly styled "Grove/Atlantic, Inc.", it was created in 1993 by the merger of Grove Press and Atlantic Monthly Press. As of 2018 Grove Atlantic calls itself "A ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Storm, Morten
1976 births
21st-century Danish non-fiction writers
Danish former Muslims
Living people
People from Korsør
Danish spies
Converts to Islam