When undercover CIA agent “Anthony Lagunas” was granted an audience with President George W. Bush, it should have been a proud moment for the star agent.
It’s an honor rarely bestowed on ordinary spies, but Lagunas (not his real name) was given the honor in recognition of the extraordinary efforts he made to infiltrate murderous Al Qaeda cells in the aftermath of 9/11.
Instead, the notorious “womanizer” appeared distant, disillusioned and only cared about getting “a seat next to a sexy girl on the flight,” former colleagues said. Rolling Stone.
In retrospect, officers believe Lagunas’ ambivalence was one of the first signs that he was losing his bearings. He had been desensitized by his years in the field and pushed to the limit by his handlers.
It was the beginning, they said, of his ultimately tragic battle with PTSD and depression, which culminated in his death under mysterious circumstances in a hotel room in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Deep cover CIA operative ‘Anthony Lagunas’ was a star agent during the post-9/11 war on terror, when spies were sent to embed themselves within jihadist terror groups. Pictured: Fighters from Al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate Al Nusra Front drive through the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, waving Islamist flags as they head towards a front line, on May 26, 2015.
Lagunas was among a new generation of CIA agents who came into contact with radical Islam after 9/11.
His legacy has divided opinion, hailed by some as a ‘hero’, but dismissed by others as a man who spent his time ‘fucking around’, ‘smoking and joking’, ‘chasing women’.
But most who knew him say his tragic death is now a “cautionary tale” about the stresses faced by undercover CIA agents. If they are not killed by the enemy they are supposed to be friends with, they are left at the mercy of their deepest demons.
More than two dozen former CIA officials spoke on condition of anonymity to unravel an extraordinary story and ask whether anything was really achieved at the cost of one man’s life.
Lagunas lived undercover in the Middle East for about five years as a radical Islamist, hiding in extremist groups and sporting a characteristic bushy beard and a scar on one arm from an old barracuda bite.
He was among the first group of covert agents thrown into the arms of terrorists by the CIA as part of a groundbreaking shift in strategy after 9/11.
Rather than stealing secrets from foreign governments, the security services realized that they had to conduct their operations “outside the embassy” in order to infiltrate terrorist groups.
Lagunas was just an intern at the agency when the plane hit the towers.
But shortly after the attacks, he and a few others were pulled from the CIA’s regular training program.
At first, others within the service were unsure whether he had been transferred to a top-secret initiative or simply removed from the service.
“It was fifty-fifty,” a former agency official said. Rolling Stone.
Lagunas was known as something of a wild man at the time, he said. He was a heavy drinker, “a bit of a womanizer — very much a womanizer,” the former official recalled.
Lagunas may have spoken some Arabic, but it was perhaps his unique, personal qualities that his superiors were interested in.
President George W. Bush speaks as former National Security Agency Director General Michael Hayden looks on during a staff announcement on May 8, 2006 in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC. Both men were integral in leading America’s War on Terror in the aftermath of 9/11
“He had the ability to distance himself from himself,” recalled another former senior agency official.
“I don’t want to say it’s a split personality or anything. But the ability to disconnect from one reality and take on a second reality to the point where you’re not playing it, you are it, that’s a skill you can’t teach.”
Lagunas’ ability to dissociate was “extraordinary,” the former official added. But his strength was also his weakness. It also became the root of his struggle to define where his undercover persona ended and his real life began, as he delved deeper into the world of jihadist terror.
It is not clear where exactly Lagunas spent most of his time, but during part of his mission he stayed at a madrassa in Cairo and in Saudi Arabia, where he studied the Qur’an.
He wasn’t the only undercover agent to delve into radical Islamism, but former officials say he stayed undercover longer and had fewer breaks.
Lagunas looked good too.
He “looked like he came out of a Hollywood casting call,” recalled a former senior agency official.
“An Arabic-speaking Salafist with a killer beard, dressed in traditional garb, a typical Midwestern white boy turned jihadist,” wrote Rolling Stone.
But as much as he embraced his role, there is no consensus about whether the information he gathered was actually useful.
One section of the CIA believed that the only useful information was information that could help them capture or kill the leaders of Al Qaeda and other terrorists.
For them, the “legend” of Lagunas was based partly on “the fact that he was a white man” living undercover as a radical Muslim, rather than on the actual intelligence he had uncovered.
Lagunas was just CIA showboating, another former official said. “They had a map of the world with pushpins of where people were stationed, and that was one of their big, proud briefing moments of, ‘Look where we have people stationed,’” the former agency official told Rolling Stone. “Oh, we have a guy in the Maldives? Why? ‘I don’t know, but we have a guy in the Maldives.’”
The legacy of ‘Lagunas’ has divided opinion. Hailed by some as a ‘hero’, dismissed by others as a man who spent his time ‘fucking around’, ‘smoking and joking’, ‘chasing women’
According to four former officials, Lagunas did infiltrate Al Qaeda, but only the broader network, not the leadership.
Three other former officials said that while Lagunas did get involved in radical Islamist circles, he never actually penetrated al Qaeda.
Some CIA sources, however, called his achievements downright impressive.
“He was very, very talented and very adept at obtaining information that was incredibly useful to the United States government,” said another former senior official.
The details of what he provided are unknown. Former agency officials declined to provide specifics.
Eventually his work took its toll.
Former colleagues said the CIA would never take proactive measures to protect agents like Lagunas. “They would never say ‘stop’ for you,” said one.
Lagunas was increasingly unable to distinguish between his own life and his own.
The warning signs weren’t just in his indifferent response to his audience with the president. In the late 2000s, CIA officials decided it was time to bring him home.
But this only made the situation worse.
Former colleagues said the CIA would never take proactive measures to protect agents like Lagunas. Pictured: View of the main entrance to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia
Lagunas got a job as a housekeeper in Los Angeles, still working as a deep-cover intelligence officer, but this time in the entertainment industry.
It is unclear what kind of work he did in Hollywood, but former colleagues said he was “never the same” after returning to the United States.
Although they were unaware of the details of his deployment abroad, they knew that ‘it was tough, that he got into trouble, that it was bad, that it was hard for him, [and] “He was completely distraught,” said one former official.
He “came in from the cold and had no reception,” said another. “Oh, what did you do? Well, that’s great. Make sure you log in at nine, mate.”
In the fall of 2016, colleagues received the news that Lagunas had suddenly died in a hotel room in Kuala Lumpur.
The circumstances are unclear.
According to Rolling Stone, drug and alcohol abuse likely contributed to the onset of this condition, as did extreme depression and PTSD.
It was ‘stress’ [that] translated to cause of death,’ said one former official. ‘The stress of life, what he’s been through.’
“Without commenting on specific claims made by individuals, I can say that the CIA takes the mental, physical, and professional health of our agents very seriously. In recent years, we have significantly expanded the resources we have available to our employees,” a CIA spokesperson told Rolling Stone.
“We have no higher obligation than to ensure the safety and well-being of our employees.”