ALI SOUFAN

From Lebanon to American dream, via the FBI and 9/11

In the TV mini-series “The Looming Tower,” he is the FBI agent who hunts down Al-Qaeda. But in real-life, Ali Soufan is just as extraordinary, a Muslim immigrant who fled war to live the American dream.
Being the only Arabic speaker on the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York, he was thrust onto the frontline in the hunt for Al-Qaeda after the 1998 US embassy bombings in East Africa and the 2000 USS Cole bombing in Yemen.

By Jennie Matthew | AFP · 11 May 2018