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The Middle East has been torn apart by conflict for over a century. And in an increasingly connected world, the violence that started there has spread right to our own doorsteps.

We are all potential combatants in a war that few of us understand. Conflicted, a new podcast, explores the complex questions of history, religion, and politics in the Middle East, and makes sense of them for a general audience.

Conflicted is hosted by Thomas Small, a former monk-in-training and Middle East expert, and Aimen Dean, a one-time al-Qaeda bomb-maker and jihadist turned British double agent.

As one of al-Qaeda’s most respected bomb-makers, Aimen rubbed shoulders with the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks himself, Osama bin Laden – and swore allegiance to him.

(Image: Conflicted)

After four years in service to the wrong side, Aimen began working for MI6 for eight years trying to take down al-Qaeda down from the inside.

Aimen spoke to Daily Star Online about the dark and dangerous world of bomb-making. He explained that it’s incredibly dangerous work: “I still remember the ominous words of warning I received on my first training day in Afghanistan in 1997 – ‘Remember, when you’re making and assembling bombs, your first mistake is your last!

“‘You’re dealing with angry chemicals here, not potato and onions.’”

Aimen told us that bomb-makers generally work in small teams for safety’s sake.

“We worked in two rooms made of mud and straws in a valley in Afghanistan,” he said.

“If a health and safety inspector from the UK saw the conditions in which we stored and worked with chemicals, they would have had a heart attack on the spot.”

(Image: Conflicted)

The facilities are basic, and when it comes to terror, the right attitude of mind is important.

“The reality is," says Aimen, "if you master your fear, calm your nerves, and follow the instructions carefully, then you can adapt any kitchen into a bomb-making factory, provided you were trained by a competent instructor, rather than reading bomb-making materials online.”

Even the most skilled bomb-makers can make deadly mistakes, Aimen says. ‘Lone Wolf’ terrorists who try to download instructions using Google are generally going to blow themselves up, not their targets: “Reading the instructions does not prepare you for the angry sounds from mixing chemicals together, which is why learning with a competent instructor is vital, and I have seen competent instructors make their last mistakes before my own eyes, though from a safe distance.”

(Image: BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP via Getty Images)

He added: “I witnessed myself, four different accidents with deadly consequences while preparing devices. The Barcelona terror attacks [in August 2017] were supposed to include explosive devices but the two men working on preparing the devices using TATP explosives must have made a mistake and blew up the house they were working in, killing them both.”

(Image: Conflicted)

Given how dangerous bomb-making is, why do people get involved in it? The big question about ISIS, the Taliban, or any of a dozen similar groups has to be: What do they want that is worth so many innocent lives?

(Image: Scott Nelson/Getty Images))

Aimen says there is a mixture of overlapping motivations: “The Muslim world is divided between those who believe in the Modern Nation State as a concept as well as an institution, and those who want to bring down the Modern Nation State and replace it with an imperial religious vision based on Sunni Islam

(Image: Wali Sabawoon/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Ultimately, he concludes, at the heart of it all is a death cult: “The forces of darkness want to create an empire based on dubious Islamic eschatological texts and build it on mountains of skulls and oceans of blood, therefore they must be stopped.”

Conflicted Season 2 launches through Apple, Google, Spotify and most other podcast platforms on February 12 – new episodes will available each Wednesday fortnight

Get more info here.