Former top CIA official has book deal

Michael J. Morell's book scheduled for 2015 release

Then-acting CIA Director Michael Morell walks in the hallway of the Capitol Hill in Washington in November, 2012.

NEW YORK  — A former top CIA official whose 33 years of service included the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the death of Osama bin Laden has a book deal.

The publisher Twelve has acquired Michael J. Morell’s “The Great War of Our Time: An Insider’s Account of the CIA’s Fight Against al-Qaida.” Twelve, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, announced today that the book was scheduled for release in spring 2015.

Morell, who retired last summer, had been the deputy director. He briefed President George W. Bush on the day of the 2001 attacks and was with President Obama in 2011 when bin Laden was killed in Pakistan. Morell was also involved in the deadly 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, and the use of harsh interrogation techniques.