schizophrenic lifestyle. and he s made important, surprising connections with al qaeda leaders. according to counterterrorism expert magnus ranstorp. he had been to the many place, he had met all the right people. reporter: he s almost a forrest gump of radical islamism. i don t think there s many people like him that have all those different dimensions. he was the real deal. reporter: the real deal. a larger than life personality who reveels 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.
he sees a book, the life of the prophet muhammad. 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. it changed me. it spoke to me. that book. this is the truth. the truth. i found the truth. he takes the name murad storm, travels to yemen, attends a seminary, learns arabic and a strict uncompromising interpretation of islam. i was taught everyone else is wrong. as simple as that, black and white. you have the truth, they re wrong? that s right.
i would go to the clubs with immigrant good 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, adult you know, big-sized men with one punch. and i became feared. at age 19, he joined a banditos, the notorious biker gang. storm says he was their toughest enforcer, raw muscle. boxing, biking with the banditos, armed robbery, whatever storm is doing, he s always doing it to the max. his life is descending into criminality and chaos. storm craves sanity, stability. comes here, his local library. drawn to the tiny religion section. he sees a book, the life of the prophet muhammad. 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. it changed me. it spoke to me. that book. this is the truth. the truth. i found the truth. he takes the name murad storm, travels to yemen, attends a seminary, learns arabic and a strict uncompromising interpretation of islam. i was taught everyone else is wrong. as simple as that, black and white. you have the truth, they re wrong?
expert magnus ranstorp. he had been to the many place, he had met all the right people. reporter: he s almost a forrest gump of radical islamism. i don t think there s many people like him that have all those different dimensions. he was the real deal. reporter: the real deal. a larger than life personality who reveals his journey 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. i was invited by osama bin laden to join up with him in the training camp in afghanistan.