Terry McDermott -- The Hunt for KSM: Inside the Pursuit and Takedown of the Real 9/11 Ma

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is the most significant terrorist in captivity. On March 1, 2003, American and Pakistani intelligence agents captured KSM, ending one of the greatest manhunts in history.

Drawing on unprecedented access to key sources, many of whom have never spoken publicly—as well as jihadis and members of KSM’s family and support network—Terry McDermott and Josh Meyer give the first comprehensive account of the search for KSM and what happened after he was captured, including how his torture prompted false confessions that sent U.S. agents on a wild goose chase across four continents.

"On one level, McDermott and Meyer have given us a fact-filled inside account, in the voices of those on the job, of the failed decade-long American effort to find KSM before he could strike again. But there is a most important underlying message in this book—that the American intelligence community remains caught up in bureaucratic warfare and remains today incapable of working together...of sharing insights and information...even when all involved share the same goal. This, ultimately, is an account of an American tragedy."
-- Seymour M. Hersh, writer for The New Yorker


THE HUNT FOR KSM is a tour de force of investigative journalism as well as a gripping tale of international intrigue. It provides a window into the deep dysfunction that plagued—and continues to plague—the intelligence community in the years since 9/11.

"Terry McDermott and Josh Meyer have written a completely authoritative account … a deeply reported page-turner about the race to find the man who was the Chief Operating Officer of Al-Qaeda." -- Peter Bergen, author of The Longest War: The Enduring Conflict between America and Al-Qaeda


Terry McDermott’s work has appeared in The New Yorker, the Wilson Quarterly, the Columbia Journalism Review, the Los Angeles Times Magazine, and Pacific Magazine, ad he is the author of Perfect Soldiers and 101 Theory Drive. McDermott has worked at eight newspapers for more than thirty years, most recently for ten years at the Los Angeles Times, where he was a national correspondent.