At the offset it’s important to note that Nine Lives is a non-fiction account of one of the few spies Western intelligence has had at the heart of al-Qaeda. As such it gives a rare glimpse into the intelligence world, but more than that, this book gives an intuitive insight into al-Qaeda and jihad more broadly (including its latest incarnation, ISIS) and is in my opinion one of the best titles so far on the subject.
Aimen Dean is that rarest of people. A jihadi, an al-Qaeda member who rose through the ranks of that organisation to become, while not one of the leaders or upper tiers, a highly respected and influential figure. Then came disillusion and the fateful decision to turn against his former comrades-in-arms. Some in that situation might have just gone home, others might have struck out alone, perhaps joining a rival jihadist group. But Dean chose another path altogether. Through accident, serendipity, and courage of convictions, he chose to spy for Britain’s intelligence service, MI6
The author started his journey in Bosnia. The Russian occupation of Afghanistan had drawn to a close, the jihad there having attracted thousands of Muslims from around the globe and radicalised a generation. In the years afterwards, those who had gone to fight either returned home or looked for fresh battles, while those coming of age who had missed the conflict, dreamed of glory. The massacre of Bosnia’s Muslims by the Serbs provided them with a fresh outlet and Dean, now sixteen, was determined not to miss it. He travelled to the Balkan battlefield dreaming of martyrdom and while disappointed not to be granted his wish, he did see combat.
But Bosnia also was where the first seed of doubt was planted. In one battle the jihadists captured a large number of Serb militia. There was debate as to what to do with them. In a sickening foretaste of ISIS atrocities to come decades later, the decision was made to behead them. This was done brutally and with relish. Dean refused to participate but was greatly disturbed by the bloodlust he saw in fellow fighters he considered friends.
While Dean was shaken by these events, he remained a committed jihadi and in years to come would travel to Afghanistan where he eventually joined Bin Laden. It was here though that his doubts concerning Jihad finally came into stark relief. The 1998 embassy bombings killed 224 people (213 in Nairobi and 11 in Dar es Salaam) while injuring over 4000 (4000 in Nairobi and 85 in Dar es Salaam). The vast majority of the casualties were ordinary Kenyan and Tanzanian citizens going about their business, a large proportion of whom were Muslim. Yet in the al Qaeda training camps the news was met with celebration the casualties dismissed as not proper Muslims. The bombings had been planned to coincide with Friday prayers, so according to al Qaeda’s logic, any Muslims caught up in the conflagration had turned their back on God.
Sickened by what he saw, Dean travelled abroad on the pretext of needing medical treatment. Detained at the airport in Bahrain, he first came to the attention of the Bahraini intelligence services, and finally, that of MI6 where he was persuaded to spy.
This book was written in conjunction with Paul Cruickshank and Tim Lister, respected journalists who helped Morten Storm, another al Qaeda militant who spied for the West, write his memoir, Agent Storm. At The outset of Nine Lives they assure the reader that they’ve verified much of Aimen Dean’s story with their sources in the intelligence world. This is a good thing because the revelations within these pages are eye-opening.
In the reviews of this book in the press, much attention has been given to the revelation that the ban on passengers carrying laptops onto certain flights in the Middle East was due to intelligence that Hamayan Tariq, a car mechanic from Dudley, and now master bomb maker for al Qaeda, had invented a technique for disguising bombs as laptop batteries. While interesting, to my mind there are starker disclosures than this within this title’s pages.
One of these is the author’s knowledge of al Qaeda’s efforts in chemical warfare. Aimen Dean was deeply involved in al-Qaeda’s chemical weapons programme when in the Afghan training camps (he was working for MI6 at this point and they asked him to continue with this work so that he could inform the intelligence services as to al-Qaeda’s progress). In particular, he describes how al-Qaeda succeeded with hydrogen cyanide and cyanogen chloride. They developed a crude but effective dispersal system, the mubtakkar. This was to be used in a 2003 plot against the New York subway that was called off by Ayman Zawahiri (then al-Qaeda’s number two). This device has never been used but it has come close to being so on a number of occasions and the author fears it is only a matter of time.
The biggest disclosures in this title however aren’t so much “big ticket items” – attacks thwarted, plots uncovered, etc – but an insight into the jihadi mindset. As someone educated and yet deeply imbued in jihadism, Dean shows how the logic of al-Qaeda, and later ISIS, is deeply rooted in perverted interpretations of the Quran and Hadith. This is an important revelation, because some of ISIS’s destructive, and seemingly self-defeating behaviour, can be explained once this is understood. Another aspect I found eye-opening is how accepted and normalised fighting jihad has become. In families such as Dean’s - normal, well-to-do Middle Eastern families - a family member’s decision to travel to Syria to fight is a perfectly acceptable life-choice, even something to be proud. Again, this is something we in the West ignore at our peril.
Nine Lives is an incredibly enlightening read and one that a book review cannot really do justice. Post-9/11, and now with ISIS on the rampage, bookshelves groan under the weight of titles analysing these events. I have read a fair few myself. I have to say that this is far and away one of the best and written by someone with real, first hand understanding of the phenomenon.
5 out of 5 stars
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