25

The Mole

2012 . . . A call from the DEA . . . Constructing the ruse . . . A deal with the Colombians . . . A sudden request

On a warm evening in February 2012, Felix Klaussen was at a beer hall in Dubai with his fiancée when his phone rang. He glanced down and saw a number he didn't recognize. "I never pick up numbers that I don't know," he said later; but for some reason his curiosity got the better of him, and he answered. On the other end was a friendly American accent.

"Hi, how are you, this is Tom," the man said. "I work for the U.S. government."

It had been a year since Klaussen sent his email to a generic ad- dress he'd found on the CIA's website. In the intervening time, he'd managed to put his life as "Jack Anderson," who worked for Paul Le Roux and ran a militia-protected operation in Somalia, behind him. He'd even burned his fake passport in front of his fiancée to prove that there was no going back. After a stint managing a hotel, he'd recently been running his own personal fitness training com- pany. But he was considering swapping careers again. His fiancée was growing uncomfortable with his one-on-one training sessions