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CNN Live Event/Special
Double Agent: Inside Al-Qaeda for the CIA
Aired September 20, 2014 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Morten Storm, for half a decade, he says he moved back and forth between two worlds and two identities, where one misplaced sentence could have cost him his life.
MANGUS RANSTORP, COUNTER-TERRORISM EXPERT: You don't know what angle he's playing.
ROBERTSON: Traveling between atheism, hard-line Islam, English and Arabic.
RANSTORP: On one minute, he's 007. On the other side, he's now part of the militant circle.
ROBERTSON: Between being an agent for Western intelligence and a sworn member of al Qaeda, Storm says he was a double agent. So trusted by al Qaeda terror leaders, he even fixed one up with a blond European wife.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (FOREIGN LANGUAGE).
ROBERTSON: A unique, powerful weapon in the war on terror who says he got results.
MORTEN STORM, DOUBLE AGENT: I have been responsible of 30 kills.
ROBERTSON: Thirty terrorists killed?
In a race against time, trying to bring down the most dangerous terrorists before they can launch their next attack.
Double agent inside Al Qaeda for the CIA.
Driving deep in Yemen's lawless South, Morten Storm is at the wheel on a spy mission for the CIA. He's hoping this video may help lead his spy masters to the hideout of one of the world's most dangerous terrorists.
STORM: They would have followed my mobile phones, you know, the satellites and they can also see the time without being standing still and not moving around.
ROBERTSON: The CIA will get the video, Storm says, only if he survives the mission. The stakes could not be higher. STORM: If it were leaked or revealed that I was a spy, there's no way I could get out from that place because I'm there by myself and I would get executed.
ROBERTSON: How would they execute you?
STORM: In the worst possible way. Either they would slice your throat, behead you, or they shoot you and hang you up and crucify you.
ROBERTSON: Storm's target, one of the United States most wanted Al- Qaeda leaders, American born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, now, in Yemen, bursting with hate for the U.S.
ANWAR AL-AWLAKI, ISLAMIST MILITANT: We are not against Americans for just being Americans. We are against evil and America as a whole has turned into a nation of evil.
ROBERTSON: Al-Awlaki has many like-minded followers and there is a great concern that he is inspiring even helping them to plan and launch terror attacks inside the United States.
AL-AWLAKI: We will fight back and incite others to do the same.
ROBERTSON: It's late October 2008, the CIA is desperate to find Al- Qaeda leaders like al-Awlaki and Storm again is exactly what the CIA needs.
STORM: I had these different names. I had different personalities. I was Morten Storm, Murad Storm, Abu Osama, Abu Mujahid.
ROBERTSON: Polar Bear?
STORM: Yeah, Polar Bear. It's some kind of schizophrenic lifestyle.
ROBERTSON: And he has made importance surprising connections with Al- Qaeda leaders, according to counter terrorism expert Magnus Ranstorp.
RANSTORP: By almost sheer luck to some extent that he had been to the many places. He had met all the right people.
ROBERTSON: He's almost the Forrest Gump of sort of sort of radical Islamism.
RANSTORP: I don't think that there are many people like him that have all those different dimensions. He was the real deal.
ROBERTSON: The real deal, a larger than life personality, who reveals his journey from Jihad to James Bond in this book, "Agent Storm: My Life Inside Al-Qaeda and the CIA" co-authored by Paul Cruickshank and Tim Lister, both CNN Contributors.
Coming up, how Storm goes from boxer to holy warrior.
STORM: I was invited by Osama Bin Laden to join up with him in the training camp in Afghanistan.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTSON: Morten Storm's path to the CIA begins here in Denmark.
STORM: So I could play on the country side. I could play in the forest. I could play in the beach. There were plenty of facilities for sport and that's what I did.
ROBERTSON: Age seven, typical boy, loves laser tag but behind the smile there's trouble.
STORM: I grew up with no dad.
ROBERTSON: How did that affect you?
STORM: It affected me emotionally. You felt frustrated and angry.
ROBERTSON: Seemingly hard working, selling vegetables at market, age 13 but he is already committing armed robbery
Armed robbery.
STORM: Armed robbery.
ROBERTSON: What was going through your head?
STORM: Adrenaline, adrenaline, something excitement.
ROBERTSON: Adrenaline and anger become Morten Storm's trademarks. By Israeli teens, he was a boxer.
STORM: Boxing for me was a way of getting out of my aggressions.
ROBERTSON: But your fighting just wasn't limited to the ring though?
STORM: It wasn't limited to the ring.
ROBERTSON: Nagieb Khaja is a few years younger living in the same hood.
NAGIEB KHAJA, AUTHOR, FILMMAKER AND JOURNALIST: First time I met him, he was kind of a crazy person and he talked a lot.
ROBERTSON: What was he talking about?
KHAJA: Fights, draws that he's been into.
STORM: I would go to the clubs with immigrant friends I had. They were hated because they looked different, and I felt the need to stand up for them. I would knock out big adults, you know, big-sized men with one punch and I became feared.
ROBERTSON: At age 19, he joins the Bandidos, a notorious fighter gang. Storm says he was their toughest enforcer, raw muscle.
Boxing, biking with the Bandidos, armed robbery, whatever Storm is doing, he's always doing it to the max. His life is descending into criminality and chaos.
Storm crave sanity, stability comes here, his local library, drawn to the tiny religion section. He sees a book, The "Life of the Prophet Mohammed".
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is the moment when his life changes forever. He pulls the book from the shelf, finds somewhere to sit down, begins reading. Six hours, hundreds of pages within weeks, he is converting to Islam.
STORM: It changed me. It spoke to me, that book. This is the truth. The truth, I found the truth.
ROBERTSON: He takes the name, Murad Storm, travels to Yemen, attends a seminary, learns Arabic and a strict uncompromising interpretation of Islam.
STORM: I was told everyone else is wrong.
ROBERTSON: The simplest act, black and white, you have the truth, they're wrong?
STORM: That's right.
ROBERTSON: And those who are wrong, Storm believes, are the enemy. All he can think about is training for Jihad. Storm is white and European, traits that might help a terrorist living in the west avoid detection. He says, he soon catches the eye of Al-Qaeda's leader.
STORM: I was invited by Osama bin Laden to join up with him in the training camps in Afghanistan.
ROBERTSON: Storm, won't make it to Afghanistan but he names his son Osama in honor of Bin Laden.
STORM: He was a person who dare to challenge the America.
ROBERTSON: Next time Nagieb sees him in Denmark, Storm is a different man.
KHAJA: The things that he was saying was so extreme that some of the (inaudible), they couldn't cope with it to stop what he was saying. So he was hanging out on the street and preaching a lot.
ROBERTSON: Preaching what?
KHAJA: He was preaching actually Jihad.
ROBERTSON: That's him, smiling in 2005, heart of a radical Islamist demonstration and flag burning outside the American embassy and London. Storm is hungry for real action, the Jihad.
KHAJA: He's been in a -- maybe hot kind of environment.
ROBERTSON: He sees his opportunity when Nagieb Khaja, now a journalist, says he wants to shoot a film about t mujahedeen in Yemen. KHAJA: The access that he had gave me in Yemen was maybe unique. It was crazy, you know, some of the persons that he introduced me to.
ROBERTSON: Including the radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.
AL-AWLAKI: Jihad against America is binding upon myself...
KHAJA: They talk a lot about Jihad, for example. And again, Storm was an extreme guy. Storm was being taught down by Anwar al-Awlaki.
ROBERTSON: Taught down from an extreme view?
KHAJA: Yes. Awlaki was telling Storm to chill out.
ROBERTSON: Yet, Storm won't be calm. He decides to join jihadist in Somalia.
STORM: And I had to join that. I had to join that according to my religious belief.
ROBERTSON: He returns to Denmark where he says he gathers military supplies preparing himself for war.
STORM: I did provide to my children, to my family.
ROBERTSON: Then, at the last minute, a phone call from Somalia.
STORM: He said, "Murad, we've lost the airport."
ROBERTSON: In Mogadishu.
STORM: In Mogadishu.
ROBERTSON: What does that mean?
STORM: He said, "You can't come." "You can't come. It's too dangerous for you."
ROBERTSON: What was going through your mind then?
STORM: So obviously it's Allah's will that I don't go and I'm so deeply disappointed and devastated. I felt betrayed, you know.
ROBERTSON: Betrayed by his God, unable to fight for his religion, he says. Just as fast as this Islam had taken hold, doubt and questions enter.
STORM: I sit down in front of the laptop and I typed "Contradiction in the Quran." I'm daring to ask this question. I hit the "enter" and I saw plenty of websites talking about contradictions in the Quran. It took some time to research them. But once I concluded that they were genuinely contradictions, that's when it wiped totally away my faith.
ROBERTSON: Is that when you stopped being a Muslim?
STORM: That's when I stopped being a Muslim in my heart, in my belief.
ROBERTSON: Years of radical brain washing strip away in seconds and Storm makes a stunning decision to switch sides.
STORM: I told them, "Guys, I'm not longer Muslim. I want to fight the war on terror."
ROBERTSON: The question now, would anyone believe him?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTSON: Morten Storm has lost his faith in Islam but not his desire to fight. Now, he wants to switch sides to work for the west as a double agent, targeting his former friends, the radical Islamists.
He tells us he reaches out the Danish intelligence agents. They meet immediately. The first order of business, room service and Storm orders what no devout Muslim would eat or drink.
STORM: I told him, "I want something with pork and bacon in it and I want the beer."
ROBERTSON: Beer and bacon for a Muslim?
STORM: They couldn't believe it. They couldn't really not believe their own ears. I told them, "Guys, I'm not longer Muslim. I decided to -- I want to fight the war on terror." And when I told them that I was on their side, he high-fived me. He said, "This is going to be great."
ROBERTSON: Storm is a spy master's dream.
RANSTORP: In here, you have someone who had so many different personas and are able to switch through the different personas in such rapid succession.
ROBERTSON: And he appears to have connections at the top levels of al-Qaeda.
HANS JORGEN BONNICHSEN: There's no doubt that he very bulletproofed agent and has access to sum up the -- this sort of man (ph). They really want to get access to.
ROBERTSON: Storm says Danish Intelligence waste no time and sets him up as an operative giving him a cell phone and about $2,000 a month.
STORM: I said, "Yeah, that would pay my bills." And I was happy about what I did. It wasn't for the money.
ROBERTSON: According to Storm, his early missions are successful.
In Lebanon, predicting a jihadi uprising. In Denmark, helping identify terror suspects. He quickly becomes a double agent in demand with other Western agencies including the British. RANSTORP: He was coming up with ideas for them and he was -- in terms of being able to improvise and being able to stay in character, he was perfect.
ROBERTSON: Storm says he's now on the CIA's radar.
They meet inside the Scandic Hotel in Copenhagen.
So the British want to use more than Storm then the CIA come on the scene. Is this heard off before in the spy wall like this?
RANSTORP: No, I think it's very unusual for everyone to sort of almost feed off Morten. I think that's quite unusual.
ROBERTSON: Storm says the CIA and the British exploit his terrorist links sending him on trips to Kenya to meet African jihadists.
This is one of the places they use to meet, a non-discreet wall in the heart of Nairobi in a hotel tucked away just inside right next door to Kenya's largest mosque.
Storm explains he delivered a bugged Blackberry destined for an Al- Qaeda operative, wanted for his suspected role in 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings that killed 224 people. Three months later, that terrorist was dead. Storm says, because of him.
But his most important mission is yet to come in Yemen.
STORM: There was just the time when Anwar al-Awlaki became an interesting person for them.
ROBERTSON: For the CIA?
STORM: For the CIA.
ROBERTSON: Anwar al-Awlaki, American educated cleric, Al-Qaeda leader. Storm calls him a personal friend from his days as a jihadist.
Awlaki has been inspiring terrorist attacks around the world.
The 2005 suicide bombings on London trains and a double-decker bus leaving 52 dead. Two foiled 2006 plots.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Threat level to the U.K is being raised to critical.
ROBERTSON: One, to blow up planes flying to the United States, the other to blow up buildings in Canada. And in 2008, a deadly attack on the U.S. Embassy in Yemen.
And Storm says he can provide the CIA something no one else can.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
ROBERTSON: Access to al- Awlaki himself. He tells us, the CIA sent him on this dangerous spy mission, October 2008, a month after the embassy attack to see al-Awlaki now hiding in a remote part of Yemen.
STORM: He's worried about security but he's also worried about that people are following me.
ROBERTSON: The mission, give al-Awlaki a laptop sow lap panels a night vision goggles he'd requested. Some secretly implanted with spy software.
Then Storm says, he gives al-Awlaki one more CIA gift, $500,000 cash.
STORM: He looked at me and he tapped his chest pocket, where the $5,000 were and he say, "Can we buy bullets and weapons?" I said, "Yeah, of course you can." And my handler, CIA handler in Denmark, he said, "You know what? You've just been tested and you just passed it." Because if I say no, he knew, Anwar, that this money was from the intelligence and he knew that they're not allowed to sponsor or to pay for weapons and bullets.
ROBERTSON: Storm is loving his 007 life but as he drives away from this meeting with al-Awlaki, he is worried.
AL-AWLAKI: The tables have turned...
ROBERTSON: Al-Awlaki has grown more violent and the world should be afraid.
STORM: Anwar was wearing a green military camouflage jacket (inaudible) style over his robe. He had a Yemen ceremonial dagger and a revolver in his belt and a (inaudible) was slung over his shoulder. I tried not look surprised. The preacher had become a fighter.
ROBERTSON: He stays in touch with the radical cleric. They share an e-mail account, messages written saved as draft, read but never sent, avoiding al-Awlaki wrongly believes spy agents is reading them.
Storm says the next visit al-Awlaki is even more paranoid and tells him to tighten security.
STORM: When I met Anwar back in 2009, he instructed me to use encrypted message system called, Mujahedeen Secrets. It was invented to create the secure online communication between terrorists or al- Qaeda members all over the world.
ROBERTSON: The message can unscramble and read only by the person to whom the sender has given a code to unlock it.
Jihadi spy craft soon to be vital and Storm's most important mission yet.
Al-Awlaki is fast rising up, the CIA's most wanted list. And Storm believes he as the perfect plan to trap him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Brother, this is me without the head scarf. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Using a European blonde as bate.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I hope you will be pleased with it. God willing.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
AL-AWLAKI: The situation is dire with many of the Muslims around the world.
ROBERTSON: This is the voice of American born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, in audio obtained exclusively by CNN.'
AL-AWLAKI: The majority of the people around these are disbelievers.
ROBERTSON: He is talking to wealthy Muslim donors hoping they will give money to support al-Qaeda.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All their brothers are smiling.
ROBERTSON: But this guy call is much more than what it seems. This is spycraft in action.
Morten Storm says he's arranged this call to demonstrate allegiance to al-Awlaki and the militants.
What al-Awlaki doesn't know is that Storm is a double agent working for the other side, the Danish, British and American spies.
AL-AWLAKI: You should support the Islamic causes whether we're talking about Somalia or Afghanistan or (inaudible).
ROBERTSON: It's clear to the West that al-Awlaki is a growing danger infecting the minds of Muslims everywhere.
Just months after the Skype call, United States Army Major Nidal Hasan goes on a shooting rampage that is based in Forth Hood, Texas.
Hasan kills 13 fellow soldiers and calls al-Awlaki his inspiration. They'd exchanged e-mails.
The cleric turned terror leader takes credit. His website reads, "Nidal Hasan is a hero."
STORM: We all knew that he had to be killed. That was clearly stated.
ROBERTSON: Everyone knows this.
STORM: Yeah.
ROBERTSON: Very clearly.
STORM: Yeah.
ROBERTSON: Just one month later, al-Awlaki sends the so-called underpants bomber to blow up Northwest Flight 253 as it lands in Detroit, Christmas Day, 2009.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A passenger tried to detonate some kind of explosive.
ROBERTSON: The plot is foiled but CIA agents now know there is no time to lose.
Anwar al-Awlaki is waging a relentless bloody war against Americans more than ever Storm says the CIA is realizing they need him.
AL-AWLAKI: America as a whole has turned into a nation of evil.
ROBERTSON: Al-Awlaki must be eliminated but Storm says his bosses from American, British and Danish Intelligence agencies disagree about how to take out al-Awlaki controlling the plan means controlling Storm.
In a bizarre courtship, the spy agent set his lavish attention on Storm trying to win his loyalty. First up, the Danish wooing Storm on behalf of the CIA.
STORM: We went to Iceland up to the Blue Lagoon and there we spent some time up there.
ROBERTSON: You were kind to chilling out quite literally up there, right?
STORM: Yeah, we were. Yeah.
ROBERTSON: Danish agents break all the rules taking happy snaps with him.
Not be outdone, the British takes Storm to Sweden.
STORM: They booked a four days team-building trip at the Ice Hotel. We had extraordinary good team-building.
We went docks (ph) living.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In Sweden.
STORM: We went snow scootering.
I stayed in the very expensive room inside the Ice Hotel.
ROBERTSON: Storm says he ultimately chooses to work with the CIA which supports his plan to locate and assassinate al-Awlaki by using an unsuspecting woman as bait.
Unbelievably, al-Awlaki has asked Storm to play matchmaker and find him a European gloom to be his third wife.
Storm search leads him to Irena Horak from Croatia, a recent convert to Islam who now calls herself Aminah. They chat on Facebook.
STORM: European blonde. Exactly what Anwar wanted. And she asked me if I knew Anwar al-Awlaki and if I could help her to get married.
ROBERTSON: Al-Awlaki's Mujahedeen Secrets encrypted e-mails to Storm show he is hooked "So far I'm interested. Please update me on the sister situation. If you could try to speed up her travel into Yemen."
Through Storm, al-Awlaki and Aminah exchange encrypted e-mails. It's a match. They agree to marry. Storm says the CIA sends him to Austria for a rendezvous with Aminah. They will meet at the bus station.
And Storm's most important spy mission so far, he can't afford any mistakes but almost immediately he's disobeying the CIA.
According to Storm the American agents have a very specific plan to walk pass this bakery, take Aminah to a specific cafe that they have under surveillance.
They want the first meeting with Aminah here in this cafe realizing it is selling beer, no place for a devout Muslim. Storm, without checking with his handlers changes the plan. He brings Aminah to a nearby McDonald's shows her al-Awlaki's note on his computer but the CIA agents are angry.
Storm says they think has gone rogue.
STORM: Again, I improvise for myself. I took control.
ROBERTSON: Aren't they are supposed to be running you rather than you running them?
STORM: In the ideal world, probably yes.
ROBERTSON: Bottom line, the CIA can't be picky to locate and eliminate al-Awlaki, they need Storm and they are willing to pay if his plan works.
ROBERTSON: You get a quarter of a million dollars from the CIA when Aminah crosses into Yemen?
STORM: That's correct.
ROBERTSON: After seventh weeks, Storm sent back to Vienna for another meeting with Aminah, the next step in the matchmaking.
He shows her this video from al-Awlaki.
AL-AWLAKI: This recording is done specifically for sister Aminah. The brother who's carrying this recording is a trustworthy brother.
ROBERTSON: What's her reaction when she is watching that video?
STORM: She is full of joy and tears. You do really know him, she said, you don't really know him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I hope you are well. ROBERTSON: Then Storm has her recorded video for al-Awlaki in return.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As-salaam-alaikum brother, it's me, Aminah, and I just want to tell you that right now I feel nervous and this is very awkward for me.
ROBERTSON: Al-Awlaki wants a blonde European wife. The plan has to work.
Storm convinces her to break Muslim taboo and take off her heard scarf.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Brother, this me without the head scarf so you can see my hair. I hope that you will be pleased with it.
ROBERTSON: Coming up.
STORM: James Bond, 007. Clink, clink, clink, clack, and, you know, it just -- it opened up.
ROBERTSON: Agent Storm's biggest pay day yet. But all does not go as planned.
STORM: The Americans refused to speak to me for six months.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTSON: Aminah, the cute, young, European is getting ready to go to Yemen to marry one of the world's mot wanted terrorist.
AL-AWLAKI: You choose what it better for you regarding this proposal.
ROBERTSON: The sexy blonde is bait, an unsuspecting sacrificial lamb in a plot to kill a lustful Al-Qaeda leader who's inspired terror attacks in America. Morten Storm says it is his plan backed by the CIA.
RANSTORP: It's unbelievable that he has been able to -- he's so trusted by one of the world's most hunted terrorist leaders that he would even become a matchmaker.
ROBERTSON: If all goes as planned, the unwitting bride to be will travel with a suitcase that has a hidden tracking device. Storm's scrolls mission notes finalizing plans getting her to Yemen.
Vienna meet McDonald's 10 a.m. She needs a cover story to get a visa at the embassy, buy the plane ticket and secret e-mail accounts to keep in touch. $3,000 cash sanctioned by the CIA. If she gets to Yemen, the CIA promises Storm $250,000.
He knows it could cost the blonde her life.
MORTEN STORM: How'd you reconcile her?
ROBERTSON: She's an innocent. STORM: Well, she wasn't according to my judgment of her, she was a ticking time bomb running around Europe and she was already convinced about what she wanted to do and if we can use her to be close on Anwar al-Awlaki and to hit him, well, that's the way it goes.
ROBERTSON: Al-Awlaki's encrypted e-mail to Storm dictates she bring one carry-on bag, one medium suitcase. Storm says he picks a gray Samsonite, passes the measurements to the CIA, which hides the tracking device in the handle. As she arrives at the Vienna airport for her flight, the attractive blonde has no idea what she is carrying.
Aminah is getting on her plane for Yemen. Storm is hundreds of miles away in Denmark. The honey trap plot with the blonde is finally in play.
If the plan works, they will find one of the world's most wanted terrorist. Storm tells us, inside this seaside villa, with his Danish and CIA handlers, it's serious, eyes on laptops and blackberries. They are tracking every step of Aminah's travel to Yemen.
The atmosphere is electric but hanging over the operation questions, what happens if the European blonde dies? Collateral damage.
Aminah makes it to Yemen. Storm recalls receiving a text message from one of his Danish handlers.
STORM: Saying, "Congratulations, brother. You just became rich. Very rich."
ROBERTSON: Soon, he is in yet another meeting with intelligence agents. One from the CIA is anxious for Storm to open the briefcase they brought with them.
STORM: And he looked at me with a massive smile on his face, "What do you think the code is?" I said, "I have no clue." I didn't even think that there was three numbers on each, you know, sides. "Come on, come on," he said. "Come on, think about it." I said, "I don't know, I have no clue." He said, "Try 007." He told me like this.
ROBERTSON: James Bond?
STORM: James Bond. Zero, zero, seven he told me. And I did, clink, clink, clink and you know, it just clicked, it opened up.
ROBERTSON: So happy with the cash, he took this photo of the $250,000 inside. Then this, an encrypted message from Awlaki, an update, it's about Aminah. "We got married." Awlaki ironically adding, "Ma shalla. She turned out better than I expected and better than you described."
STORM: She's a very pretty girl.
ROBERTSON: And he was happy?
STORM: He was extremely happy, yeah. ROBERTSON: But there's also an e-mail from Aminah. A bombshell. Security conscious Awlaki had told Aminah to dump the suitcase before they meet, leaving behind it and the tracking device. CNN contacted Aminah's family who declined to comment. Storm says the CIA is furious his plan failed.
STORM: The Americans refused to speak to me for six months.
ROBERTSON: No U.S. official here in Denmark or anywhere else has ever acknowledged Storm's claims of a role with the CIA. The CIA itself declined our request for a comment.
The CIA keeps Storm's sideline even as Awlaki's killer crusade continues. Sophisticated printer bombs like this. On cargo planes headed to the U.S.A. Luckily, they are intercepted before they explode.
Storm says he gets a text message from the CIA which says they've lost all track of Awlaki. They are desperate and want Storm's help again.
STORM: One of my handler in Yespa (ph), he told me that there will be a bounty for this one and I will get rewarded with $5 million.
ROBERTSON: $5 million?
STORM: Yes. You will get paid for $5 million for this.
ROBERTSON: Next, Awlaki eliminated.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The man known as one of the top terrorist recruiters in the world has been killed.
ROBERTSON: And Storm in the crosshairs of Jihadists.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
AL-AWLAKI: (FOREIGN LANGUAGE).
ROBERTSON: Radical Islamist, Anwar al-Awlaki has caused terror attacks worldwide.
AL-AWLAKI: The greatest army of Islam.
ROBERTSON: London, Yemen, the U.S. Intelligence agencies are desperate to stop him. Morten Storm, who Awlaki believes is a friend, says he's tried but failed before to help locate the radical cleric. Now he tells of a new plan, one in which an unsuspecting Yemeni courier is handed Storm's thumb drive to take to Awlaki, an exchange that is under surveillance, according to Storm.
STORM: I informed the Danish government, they informed the Americans, who would sent people over there to watch, watch it.
ROBERTSON: What happens next, unclear. Then three weeks later.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We begin with the biggest blow to Al-Qaeda since the killing of Osama Bin Laden.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the top terrorist recruiters in the world.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To confirmed that Anwar al-Awlaki is dead.
ROBERTSON: Awlaki's death could mean a $5 million CIA bounty for Storm. Soon, he says he receives a text message. It's from a Danish agent code-named "Klang" saying, "I'm so sorry but it wasn't us." The CIA says Awlaki's death was not Storm's work.
STORM: I thought, well, it wasn't meant to happen," and Klang, he said, "Well, you know, I'm so sorry about it." And I said, "Don't worry about it. Just tell the Americans, tell Big Brother congratulations."
ROBERTSON: But two days later, he learns more when he picks up a copy of the British newspaper, The Telegraph. Sprawled across the front page how America finally caught up with Anwar al-Awlaki. The capture of a low-level errand-runner was the key breakthrough that led to the Al-Qaeda leader's death.
STORM: I froze when I read it. I was like I had that ice in my stomach. I said, "That's my mission. The dates, the time period that he was arrested, "young courier" marches the young courier that I met.
ROBERTSON: Storm believes he was key in leading the CIA to al-Awlaki. He feels cheated and he lets the intelligence agencies know he is furious.
According to Storm, they set up a meeting at the Marienlyst Hotel in Denmark. Inside the lobby, Storm says he starts secretly recording as Danish agents approach.
STORM: I put my iPhone in my pocket and I recorded the conversation.
ROBERTSON: Then inside a private room, Storm says he continues recording as he comes face to face with a man he says is CIA agent Michael.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Either you trust us or you don't. In this case, I guess you don't.
STORM: I don't.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had our team. We had our whole project going forward of which you play the highest role.
STORM: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. The president of the United States, OK? He knows about you.
ROBERTSON: The CIA's attempt to placate Storm fails. Tempers are rising.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not sure why you think we would -- you. Why do you think that?
STORM: First of all, it's about honor as well.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So now we don't have any honor? Come on.
STORM: No, no, no, you asked me, and I want to answer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
STORM: I went to Yemen again. I established the contact with Anwar. And I was the only one, Anwar, he trusted to deliver or give him anything. I even sent Anwar a wife. Did any of your agents manage to send him a wife?
ROBERTSON: CNN has not authenticated the recordings, the meeting ends when Michael leaves without saying goodbye. Storm believes his spying career is over.
That must have been an incredibly hot moment.
STORM: Yes, it was hard because I like these people quite a lot and what I did.
ROBERTSON: Three years later, this is so hard.
STORM: It's very hard.
ROBERTSON: The blowup here is a turning point. Trust between Morten and the CIA, if it ever existed, will never be the same again.
The very next day, a defiant Morten Storm pulls into this roadway rest stop near Copenhagen. He is bitter and has arranged to meet newspaper reporter.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And Morten Storm was...
ROBERTSON: Carsten Ellegaard at sunset.
CARSTEN ELLEGAARD, JYLLANDS POSTEN REPORTER: And he said that, "Well, take your mobile phone and what you got and put it in your car."
ROBERTSON: Storm doesn't want to be recorded. He is still thinking like a spy, yet he is about to blow his cover.
STORM: I showed him my passports. He looked at them. I told him, "This is what happened."
ROBERTSON: Storm wants Ellegaard to tell the world that the CIA is double-crossing him.
ELLEGAARD: He was angry and he was upset and maybe he also was a little bit nervous because it was the very first time that he'd tell anybody that he has been living a double life.
ROBERTSON: Ellegaard warns Storm that going public has consequences. ELLEGAARD: I tell Morten, it can be dangerous for him and it will change his life for good. The last thing I said to him, "Go home. Think about this."
STORM: He does and decides he's not ready to reveal his spy story to the world.
Soon, he gets this e-mail from Aminah. Al-Awlaki's blonde bride and widow, she writes, "I want to do a martyrdom operation" and join her husband in paradise. She asks if Storm can check, "Am I on the CIA wanted list or no fly list?" In fact, a European counterterrorism official has told CNN that a threat bulletin was issued warning that Aminah could be dangerous.
Many months later, Storm contacts Ellegaard again. This time, the newspaper Jyllands Posten jumps on the story and it becomes a sensation in Denmark. And Storm becomes a marked man.
Jihadists in Syria released these videos. Faces of their enemies lined up on a wall, including a photo of Morten Storm.
STORM: By going public, I knew that groups like al-Musra and those Jihadists in Syria and the like-minded people in Europe or anywhere in the world would like to see me dead.
ROBERTSON: The American British and Danish spy agencies all decline CNN's request for comment on Morten Storm.
To date, Storm story and his value to those agencies has never been publicly contradicted.
STORM: My agenda was to do a change to save people's life. And now I've done so I was a bad spy, able of creating good results.
ROBERTSON: Multiple identities, shifting loyalties, a life of extremes, from radical Islam to top-level secret agent. Now Morten Storm has emerged from the shadows taking his chances in the spotlight. Left with what he says a few allies but plenty of deadly enemies.
