Scott Shane (born May 22, 1954 in Augusta, Georgia) is an American journalist and author, employed by The New York Times until 2023, reporting principally about the United States intelligence community.

This book tells the story of Anwar al-Awlaki, who won fame as an imam outside Washington after the 9/11 attacks but eventually joined Al Qaeda in Yemen and was killed by a drone strike in 2011 on the orders of the then President Obama.

Apart from his role as a reporter of the news, Shane became part of the news himself for his contact with former CIA officer John Kiriakou, who was sentenced to 30 months in prison on January 25, 2013, after entering into a plea-bargain agreement in which he accepted conviction for violation of one count of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, in return for all other charges against him by the government being dropped.

Kiriakou's attorneys had sought to depose Shane (named as "Journalist B" in the indictment) as part of his defense, but withdrew their subpoena to do so.

Shane wrote about his relationship with Kiriakou in a rare, first-person account published by The New York Times of a reporter's role in a story involving national security and secrecy.