Douglas Laux is a former CIA operations officer who served multiple tours throughout the Middle East. He was in Afghanistan for the 2010 Afghan Surge, and in Kandahar during Operation Neptune Spear, which resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden. His final assignment was with a top secret task force assigned to removing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power.

On September 11, 2001, Doug Laux was a freshman in college, on the path to becoming a doctor, but with the fall of the Twin Towers came a turning point in his life. After graduating, he joined the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), determined to get himself to Afghanistan and into the center of the action. Dropped into a remote region of Afghanistan, he received his baptism by fire. Frustrated by bureaucratic red tape, a widespread lack of knowledge of the local customs and culture, and an attitude of complacency that hindered his ability to combat the local Taliban, Doug confounded his peers by dressing like a native and mastering the local dialect, making contact and building sources within several deadly terrorist networks.

In this talk based on his New York Times bestselling book, Left of Boom: How A Young CIA Case Officer Penetrated The Taliban and Al-Qaeda, Doug describes how his new approach resulted in unprecedented successes, including uncovering the largest IED network in the world, responsible for killing hundreds of US soldiers.

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