“The power of the presidency is nothing compared to the power of the people.” —Sen. Jon Ossoff
I infiltrated al-Qaeda for the CIA. This month, I was arrested by ICE
Blerim Skoro, a Kosovan refugee who spent a decade helping the US stop terror attacks after 9/11, is being held in a New Jersey cell. He doesn’t know why
A former spy who infiltrated al-Qaeda and Isis for the CIA has been detained by ICE and is now facing deportation, The Times can reveal.
Blerim Skoro, 55, a Kosovan refugee, played a crucial role in intercepting terror plots in the wake of the September 11 attacks. He worked for America for almost a decade, risking his life to infiltrate al-Qaeda camps in Pakistan during the hunt for Osama bin Laden.
A prized informant of the American intelligence services whose work took him to some of the most dangerous parts of the Middle East, he passed on vital information that prevented al-Qaeda from supplying weapons to jihadists.
After ending his career as an informant in 2010, Skoro claims the intelligence services promised him US residency. Yet on August 3 this year he was detained by officers from Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) while attending a routine biometrics appointment in New Jersey to renew his work permit.
The father of three, who works as a taxi driver, was granted leave to remain in 2022 under the United Nations Convention against Torture. Skoro successfully argued that, if he was to be deported to Kosovo, his life would be in danger as a result of his undercover work with jihadist groups.
“I worked for the CIA and did all these things for this nation and now I’m here,” Skoro told The Times from the ICE detention facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey. “I went to the office for my scheduled appointment, I handed them my work permit and driver’s licence and suddenly they were handcuffing me. It makes no sense.
“My nature is very strong, I’ve been in wars, I have military training, but this time it feels like I’ve been hit with a hammer,” he said.
“If they think I will be silent, they are wrong. I cannot accept this is happening to me. What message does this send to people thinking of working with the CIA? It shows you will not be protected, you will not be looked after or given safe haven. I was betrayed.”
He was recruited by the CIA a day after the 9/11 attacks while serving a seven-year sentence for drug trafficking at FCI Allenwood in Pennsylvania. Skoro, who fled to the US in 1994 claiming asylum after deserting the then-Yugoslav Army. He said he trafficked narcotics briefly in the late 1990s to support his young children and refugee parents who had just fled the Kosovan conflict.
Speaking to The Times in November 2024, when this newspaper first covered his story, he said: “I didn’t give it a second’s thought. I considered myself a patriot of America first and a Muslim second. I wanted to pay back this country.”
Agents saw him as the perfect recruit. As a Kosovar Muslim, his handlers believed his background and religious knowledge would be useful in infiltrating jihadist networks. Skoro, meanwhile, felt a huge sense of gratitude to the US for its support for Kosovans in their fight against Serbia.
Spy stories, by their nature, are difficult to verify. But much of Skoro’s account of those years has been corroborated by other evidence, including video footage he shot while undercover and meticulous book-keeping of his correspondence with handlers. The footage was used in a 2024 documentary, The Accidental Spy. Details of his espionage work also emerged in legal documents filed in Canadian and US immigration courts.
While still serving his sentence, he began sharing information with the FBI and CIA on his cellmates, including Mokhtar Haouari, an Algerian behind the so-called Millennium Plot to bomb Los Angeles airport.
Skoro believed he would receive a reduced sentence for his work, but was instead deported to Kosovo in 2007. His role as an informant took him on missions spanning Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and across the Balkans.
He infiltrated al-Qaeda camps in Pakistan during the hunt for bin Laden and intercepted Isis terror plots in Syria — all under a promise from his handlers, he claims, that he would be welcomed to live legally with his wife, Susan, and their daughters and son, who are all US citizens.
He said he provided intelligence on bin Laden, terrorist plots, weapons and financing networks. Skoro never got close to the al-Qaeda chief despite various promises of a meeting.
However, he gained the trust of senior leaders in al-Qaeda who tasked Skoro with procuring and smuggling weapons — anti-aircraft missiles, stingers and rocket launchers — to the growing legion of jihadists in the Balkans. Skoro alerted the CIA, which managed to intercept the delivery.
Skoro claims he also helped intercept shipments of uranium to Kosovo, preventing a possible “dirty bomb” plot.
Skoro said he was travelling to a CIA safe house in Macedonia in 2010 when he was ambushed and shot. Instead of being flown to the US for his safety, he was given a cash payment in an envelope and told to cross back into Kosovo.
Skoro decided he had had enough of waiting for the CIA to help him acquire a green card and travelled on his own to Canada. From Canada, he smuggled himself across the border into the US in 2015 to join his family.
He was arrested by immigration agents after using his daughter’s Metro card on the subway. He spent six months in federal detention before he was released in 2016.
After a six-year legal fight in the immigration courts, Skoro was granted leave to remain in 2022 under the UN convention after stating he would be tortured, or possibly even killed, if he was to be sent back home because of his time undercover. It means he cannot be sent back to Kosovo, however could be sent to a safe third country, such as Albania or another European country willing to accept him.
ICE officers are under pressure to meet daily arrest targets, reported to be between 2,000-3,000 a day, raising concerns that people who were not the intended targets will be detained. “They have to arrest a certain number a day and I was just a random pick-up,” Skoro told The Times. “I am one million per cent clean, I have not committed any crimes since [the 2022 verdict], I have filed tax returns every year.”
The Department for Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, did not respond to a request for comment.
Skoro, who has at times during his detention been held in a room with more than 50 others, said he tried to explain his identity and his work with the CIA to the arresting agents.
“I’m telling the officer, ‘Google my name and see who I am, I am a public person’. He said, ‘I see who you are but I’m sorry I just have to do my job’. I heard one supervisor tell other agents: ‘I don’t see how the president would want to put in prison someone who has served our nation for a decade’.”
Skoro’s lawyers have filed a habeas corpus petition in federal court on his behalf, requesting his immediate release from detention and a stay on any deportation. The petition claims he was promised residency after years of significant work as a “CIA agent”.
In a filing to the New Jersey district court on August 17, Skoro wrote: “The United States government failed to honor its obligations and grant me the immigration relief I had been promised: lawful status in the United States with my United States-born wife and three children.”
Skoro wrote to the judge: “I have lived very productively and happily in the United States. I am a driver and work very hard, up to 70 hours per week to support my family. I believe I will be killed if I am removed to any third country based on my work infiltrating global terrorist networks. Against this background, I seek my immediate release from ICE custody.”
Renee Kathawala, Skoro’s pro-bono lawyer, said: “Blerim is the face of why immigration is such a positive force in our country — he is patriotic, he sacrificed his life for ours, and he dedicated himself to the most challenging job possible.”
