Blerim Skoro is a Kosovo-born former CIA operative whose life took a dramatic turn after deserting the Yugoslav army in the 1990s. Arriving in New York as an asylum seeker, Skoro’s journey led him from a drug trafficking conviction to becoming a key informant for the FBI and CIA post-9/11. Posing as a radicalized Islamist, he infiltrated al-Qaeda networks in the Balkans, Middle East, and Pakistan, providing critical intelligence. His covert work ended after a 2010 shooting in Macedonia, when the CIA severed ties, leaving him with minimal compensation. Facing deportation in 2016, Skoro’s story, detailed in the documentary The Accidental Spy, highlights the perils of espionage and abandonment by his handlers. Shawn Ryan Show Sponsors: https://www.tryarmra.com/srs https://www.identityguard.com/srs https://www.betterhelp.com/srs This episode is sponsored by Better Help. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/srs and get on your way to being your best self. https://www.blackbuffalo.com https://www.boncharge.com/srs https://www.meetfabric.com/shawn https://www.shawnlikesgold.com https://www.helixsleep.com/srs https://www.hillsdale.edu/srs https://www.patriotmobile.com/srs https://www.rocketmoney.com/srs Blerim Skoro Links: Check out the documentary The Accidental Spy coming soon! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2xOkWvXkIQ (Film trailer) For sales or screening queries, please contact the film's producer, Johnny Howorth [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
How did Blerim Skoro escape the Yugoslav army?
I went in my city Kosovo that night. It was a 4 a.m. midnight in the morning. And I jumped from the wall. All my family thought I was dead. When I knocked the window, complete family was waiting for my dead body to send it from military. When they saw me live in my city, everybody thought I was dead. I got killed because I was arrested from the military police.
And then finally I received help from some family members and I left Yugoslavia in October of 14, 1991. I went in Switzerland, took me 10 days journey to enter Switzerland from Yugoslavia.
How did you get to Switzerland from Yugoslavia?
It was a long journey. I'll be very honest, not easy young guy to do like that. I guess my nature is a little bit like brave. They helped me to give me a fake passport. Not fake passport, fake my picture, but different name. I never traveled like that, but... I guess God gave me some kind of skills, my nature. That's how even I came out to CIA because I was capable. You know, I'm street smart.
Even I was not who knows what kind of education in a school, but I was a natural street smart. And I came out to use that passport. My name was... when I used that passport. I did use, at least in my life, maybe 10 or 13 different names by now. So I took that passport, I traveled from Macedonia to Bulgaria. From Bulgaria I flew to Italy, and in Italy I got arrested.
they was not letting me go through from Bulgaria to Italy. I had a little cash with me and they keep me one night in a prison in Italy and they send me back to Bulgaria. But now, if I don't come out with my ideas, To enter Switzerland, if I go in Yugoslavia, I was going to be in a military prison and life or death.
So when you have this kind of situation, then now you got to do whatever it takes to survive. It's not like you have experience, but experience you guys do is different because you have a strong support. When you have a US military or US government, you feel more strong, you know, it's a different feeling. But me, I don't have that support. My support is only me, how I'm going to survive.
So I was returning from Italy to Bulgaria, and I called from a couple of best friends and a family member to come and help me. So they smuggled me from Bulgaria to Romania illegally. And then from Romania, I did all my trips, Romania, Hungary, Germany, Germany, Belgium, Belgium, France, France, Switzerland. I entered Switzerland in October 26, 1991. Illegal.
And all that was, I mean, how did you fund that?
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