[9] During his mid-career, Morell managed the staff that produced the president's daily brief, and was the executive assistant to DCI George Tenet.

When asked by Bush who was responsible for the attacks that day, Morell said, "I have no doubt that the trail will lead to the doorstep of Bin Laden and al-Qa’ida.

[12] Morell was awarded the Distinguished Intelligence Medal, the agency's second highest honor, for his role in the bin Laden operation.

[3] From July 1, 2011, to September 6, 2011, Morell did his first stint as acting director of the CIA, replacing Leon Panetta after he was confirmed as secretary of defense.

A New York Times bestseller, the book traces his three-decade-long career at the CIA, with a focus on the agency's counterterrorism missions both before and after the September 11 attacks.

In response to claims from Morell and others in the Obama administration about limited civilian casualties, drone strike survivors in Pakistan and Yemen in 2016 recounted how the bombings killed and maimed their friends and family members.

In a separate book written by a group of former CIA senior officials, Morell critiqued the media's coverage of the Senate report.

[31] Also in his book, Morell apologized to former Secretary of State Colin Powell for the CIA's erroneous assessments of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs.

[35] In a subsequent Q&A article with The New York Times, Morell responded to allegations that his current employer, Beacon Global Strategies, was co-founded by "former associates" of Hillary Clinton, by saying it was a non-partisan firm and that he had spoken out "entirely on [my] own, with no other consideration given any thought.

The two told the press that the aim of the book was to provide a basis of fact and analysis as campaigns developed their foreign policy positions and as they debated the issues.

In the exhibit, Morell leads participants through a red-teaming exercise of the intelligence that pointed to Osama bin Laden hiding at a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

[41] In October 2020, Morell signed an open letter stating that the Biden laptop story “has the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.

[48] In a February interview at the Michael Hayden Center at George Mason University, Morell said he was never formally considered for the post of CIA director.

[58] On May 19, 2015, during his book tour, Morell stated on MSNBC that what Vice President Dick Cheney said publicly about Iraq's nuclear weapons program before the war in 2003 was inconsistent with the views of the intelligence community.

[59][60] MSNBC host Chris Matthews said, "Here on Hardball last night, the top CIA official, the man who briefed President Bush on a daily basis, said that what Cheney said was not true.

"[61] In an interview with Charlie Rose in August 2016, Morell blamed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Russia, and Iran for the extremely high civilian death toll in Syria.

[63] He also called on the United States to conduct limited, precision bombings of Syrian government targets in order to bring Assad to the negotiating table.

[67] He added that President Obama should retaliate imminently with harsh sanctions, in spite of president-elect Donald Trump's doubts about the allegations of Russian influence.

"[69] In April 2019, Morell, along with Stanford professor Amy Zegart, wrote a piece in Foreign Affairs titled "Spies, Lies, and Algorithms: Why the Intelligence Community Must Adapt or Fail".

[70] In the article, Morell and Zegart argue that the intelligence community is falling further behind in the technology race, a development that poses a significant risk to the country.

The authors say that this lag has already caused a significant intelligence breakdown, the failure of the community to see in a timely manner Russia's weaponization of social media during the 2016 presidential election.

[71] He serves on the advisory boards of the Alliance for Securing Democracy at the German Marshall Fund, the American Media Abroad group, and the University of Chicago's Institute of Politics.

[75] He served on the advisory board of the Committee to Investigate Russia,[76] a group organized by Hollywood director Rob Reiner and The Atlantic senior editor David Frum.