Kenneth Glad
One man’s account of danger and betrayal is being brought into public view. The case raises difficult questions about secret work, official silence and personal risk.
A former informant who says he infiltrated Al-Qaeda-linked circles for US agencies claims the mission ended with an assassination attempt and abandonment.
Blerim Skoro, a Kosovo-born former drug courier, gave his account to The Sun. His story is also central to The Accidental Spy, an Amazon Prime Video documentary about his claimed undercover work after the September 11 attacks, when Al-Qaeda killed nearly 3,000 people in the United States.
Skoro says his path began inside Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, where he mixed with terrorism suspects and passed information to US authorities.
He said the environment gave him access to people who discussed extremist networks, past contacts and possible operations.
“The best university for terrorism is prison,” Skoro said to the newspaper. “People were admitting they met Bin Laden, admitting there were Al Qaeda foot soldiers. I was becoming a spy.”
A prison role became a wider mission
After serving his sentence, Skoro was deported to Kosovo, despite saying he had been promised protection and a shorter term. He later claimed he resumed undercover work abroad because he wanted help returning to his family in the United States.
Skoro says he travelled through several countries while posing as a committed extremist. His alleged assignment involved collecting intelligence and buying weapons so they could be removed from circulation.
“I bought weapons from radical Islamists ‘for Al-Qaeda’ – but they were taken by the CIA, who destroyed them,” he said.
According to The Sun, Skoro claimed his background made him useful to extremists who believed he could help build training operations in the Balkans.
The documentary presents his account through interviews, personal records, messages, images and legal material, though many of the most dramatic details remain based on his own testimony.
His alleged cover began to collapse after he received a message reading: “WE KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. DEAD MAN!!!”
The case turned on official silence
Months later, Skoro said two gunmen were waiting near a safehouse and opened fire as he arrived. He survived the attack, but claimed the danger did not end there.
Instead of being moved into lasting protection, he said he was given a stark message: “You’re on your own, you need to survive yourself.”
“It was like a second shot in the head,” he said.
The claim is central to Skoro’s accusation that the agencies he says he helped ultimately failed to protect him. According to The Sun, the FBI confirmed to Skoro’s lawyers that he worked with the Bureau as an informant. The CIA did not respond.
Skoro later fought to stay in the United States, arguing that returning him to Kosovo would put his life at risk.
He was eventually allowed to remain under the UN Convention Against Torture, which can protect people from removal to countries where they may face torture or death.
Today, Skoro works as a New York taxi driver, far from the dangerous informant life of his past.
Sources: The Sun, The Accidental Spy documentary
