Aimen Dean, co-host of the ‘Conflicted’ podcast that explores questions of history, religion, and politics in the Middle East, is a "former al-Qaeda* bomb-maker and jihadist", who worked personally with the terrorist group’s founder and leader, Osama Bin Laden, for four years before becoming a turncoat to the terrorists and serving MI6 for eight years, according to the Daily Star.
Dean said during a Tuesday interview with the newspaper that he taught MI6 about making kitchen bombs and other Al Qaeda tricks, while attempting to stymie the terrorist group from the inside.
“I still remember the ominous words of warning I received on my first training day in Afghanistan in 1997 – ‘Remember, when you’re making and assembling bombs, your first mistake is your last! You’re dealing with angry chemicals here, not potato and onions,’” Dean said, cited by the Daily Star.
The "former jihadist" described conditions in which he worked with chemicals to make and store bombs, as well as documenting mistakes during the bomb-making process while working in “rooms made of mud and straw in a valley in Afghanistan”.
“I witnessed myself, four different accidents with deadly consequences while preparing devices. The Barcelona terror attacks [in August 2017] were supposed to include explosive devices but the two men working on preparing the devices using TATP explosives must have made a mistake and blew up the house they were working in, killing them both,” Dean said.
Dean commented on the growing danger represented by terrorist groups including Daesh*, the Taliban* and others, declaring that “the forces of darkness want to create an empire based on dubious Islamic eschatological texts and build it on mountains of skulls and oceans of blood, therefore they must be stopped”.
*Al-Qaeda, Daesh and the Taliban are terrorist groups banned in Russia and many other countries.