Michael Scheuer spent twenty-two years in the CIA. From 1996 to 1999 he was head of the Agency’s bin Laden unit. This was called ‘Alec Station’, after Scheuer’s son. During these years bin Laden embarked on his exodus from Sudan, and established himself in Jalalabad and Kandahar among the Afghan Taleban loyal to Mullah Omar. When Alec Station was closed down and its staff reassigned, Scheuer resigned from the CIA to become a private-sector expert on US foreign policy and Islamist terrorism.

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