I'm very pleased this afternoon to be joined on the warning podcast by somebody that I regard as an American hero, the former FBI agent, Ali Sufant, the chair and CEO of the Sufant group.

And he is generous enough to join us from Doha Cutter,

where he has just landed and is a little bit jet lagged, but nevertheless, good afternoon or good morning or good evening, Ali, whatever time it is in Doha.

Good evening, Steve. It's a great honor to be with you. Thank you very much.

There may be many people who don't know about your career, and I want to let you unfold it in your words.

I imagine when the calendar turned let you unfold it in your words.

I imagine when the calendar turns to September,

it brings you back to 22 years ago this month.

The clock was ticking.

Why you tell us where you were 22 years ago,

what you were doing, and what you had spent your previous years

obsessed about,

focused on, and trying to stop.

22 years ago, September 11, 2001, I was in Yemen.

And the reason I was in Yemen, I was leading the FBI team investigating the USS Cole.

Somebody like me, I never thought in a million years I will be an FBI agent, I guess

only in America.

I came from Lebanon, which was really suffering, you know, during the Civil War. And I went to school in the U.S.

I graduated undergrad from a school in Pennsylvania, Mansfield University. It's in rural Pennsylvania.

And then I went to graduate school in Villanelva.

And by the time I finished my graduate work, the FBI offered me a position as a special agent.

At the time, you know, the only reason I applied, it was a bet with some friends to see how long I will last in the process. I was interested in national

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