Synopsis
Triple Cross: How bin Laden’s Master Spy Penetrated the CIA, the Green Berets, and the FBI by Peter Lance is a gripping investigative account that unravels the extraordinary story of Ali Mohamed, an al Qaeda operative who successfully infiltrated major U.S. intelligence and military institutions while orchestrating terrorist activities that culminated in the 9/11 attacks. Lance, a five-time Emmy-winning investigative journalist, presents Mohamed as the most dangerous triple agent in U.S. history, a former Egyptian army commando who lived a brazen double life for nearly two decades. The book, the final installment of Lance’s trilogy on the failures leading to 9/11, exposes systemic incompetence, bureaucratic cover-ups, and missed opportunities within the FBI, CIA, and Department of Justice, particularly highlighting the inability of senior officials, including U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, to stop Mohamed before the catastrophic events of September 11, 2001. Through meticulous research and a detailed narrative, Lance reveals how Mohamed exploited gaping holes in America’s security net, raising unsettling questions about what the government knew, when, and why it failed to act.
Ali Mohamed’s journey, as chronicled by Lance, begins with his early career as an Egyptian military officer, where his skills as a commando and linguist made him an asset to extremist networks. In the late 1980s, Mohamed arrived in the United States, swiftly marrying an American woman and becoming a naturalized citizen, which granted him access to sensitive institutions. He infiltrated the CIA in Europe, posing as an operative, and later joined the U.S. Army, serving at the JFK Special Warfare Center at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where he trained Green Berets. Simultaneously, he worked as an FBI informant in California, feeding selective information to the Bureau while concealing his true allegiance to al Qaeda. Lance details how Mohamed’s audacity allowed him to move freely, even taking leave from the Army to fight alongside mujahideen in Afghanistan against the Soviets, all while maintaining his cover. His al Qaeda codename, “Ali the American,” reflected his ability to blend into U.S. society and security structures, making him a trusted advisor to Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. Mohamed’s activities included brokering terror summits, training jihadists in bomb-making, financing attacks like the 1993 Black Hawk helicopter downing in Somalia, and establishing secret al Qaeda cells, including the Brooklyn cell that supported the 9/11 hijackers.
Lance’s narrative delves into Mohamed’s terrorist operations, which extended beyond 9/11 to include the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania and the USS Cole bombing. Despite being on the FBI’s radar as early as 1989 for training Islamic extremists on Long Island, Mohamed evaded scrutiny through charm, deception, and the FBI’s misplaced trust in him as an informant. Lance argues that Mohamed’s presence in the Pentagon’s Able Danger database 18 months before 9/11, alongside figures like Mohammed Atta and Ramzi Yousef, should have raised alarms, yet inter-agency rivalries and incompetence allowed him to slip through. The book critiques the FBI’s I-49 task force, the CIA’s Alec Station, and the Pentagon’s Able Danger program for failing to connect critical dots. Lance also examines the role of Patrick Fitzgerald, who interviewed Mohamed but failed to recognize his duplicity, later threatening to sue Lance for his revelations. Mohamed’s eventual arrest came in 1998 after the embassy bombings, but his guilty plea in October 2000, where he admitted to five counts of terrorist activities, did little to undo the damage. Lance suggests that Mohamed’s case was swept under the rug, possibly to conceal embarrassing intelligence failures.
The book’s strength lies in its exhaustive documentation, including a 23-page terrorism timeline, and Lance’s ability to weave a complex web of connections without resorting to conspiracy theories. He portrays the failures as a mix of incompetence, careerism, and bureaucratic infighting rather than a deliberate plot, though he leaves room for speculation about deeper cover-ups, especially given the silencing of rank-and-file agents who raised concerns. Lance also connects Mohamed’s story to broader intelligence scandals, such as the collapse of the Brooklyn murder trial of FBI agent Lin DeVecchio, which could have shed light on 9/11’s background. The narrative is dense, requiring readers to track numerous names and events, but Lance’s clarity and urgency make it compelling. He concludes with a call to reopen the “cold case” of 9/11, arguing that the truth about Mohamed’s penetration and the government’s lapses is essential for justice and national security. Triple Cross stands as a chilling indictment of systemic flaws and a testament to Lance’s relentless pursuit of truth, offering a sobering look at how one man’s deception exposed America’s vulnerabilities.