American journalist and communications consultant Dan Boylan has worked across the Muslim world over the last two decades as a reporter and then as an advisor to the U.S. State department, the Pentagon, and governments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He was in New York on September 11, 2001, when Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network launched their attacks on the World Trade Center and Washington, which led to a shift in direction and work with John Rendon, a fabled Democratic spin doctor.
Postings included Iraq where Boylan directed the Multi-National Forces Iraq Media Operations Center in Baghdad during the final days of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and the trial of Saddam Hussein.
In Afghanistan, he was an advisor to the Ministry of Interior with a specific focus on counternarcotics. His award-winning journalism career has included stints with the Associated Press and freelancing across Southeast Asia in the 1990s.
He spoke with Luke Hunt about 9/11 and the next 20 years which has culminated in an American evacuation of Afghanistan and the return of the Taliban.