Carl Hammer is a former government agent who for many years worked for the secret intelligence service of a European country. He later became a security consultant, and in that capacity was involved in several police investigations concerning, among other things, art theft and organized crime. He was also one of the many Western intelligence officers, volunteers and journalists who visited the Afghan mujahidin, often for extended periods, during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan during the early 1980s. At that time he also met several of the Islamic extremists who currently look up to Usamah bin Ladin as their leader and role model. His experience in the region led to an official assignment to follow and report on both the developments in Afghanistan and the Islamic extremist movement.