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May 1, 2011,

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Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind
of the 9/11 attack on America,

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is at last within the sights of
United States special forces.

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There was a real sense of
deep anxiety in the room.

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It was totally silent.

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The fears about
what could possibly go wrong,

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suddenly all of those fears
are coming true.

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As Bin Laden's
terror attacks

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spiral across the world,

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a superpower struggles for years
to find and eliminate

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the world's most wanted man.

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The world's only
remaining superpower

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didn't have the ability
to get one guy.

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Now, through
the memories of the people

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who led the mission
to get Bin Laden,

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this film tells the inside story

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of the most intensive manhunt
in history.

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"Find Bin Laden,
kill him, cut off his head,

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and I'm going to take it down
and show the president."

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It's a story of
presidential frustrations

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and missed opportunities.

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I want justice.

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There's an old poster out west,
as I recall,

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that said,
"wanted dead or alive!"

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The president
got to the point

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where at every single
intelligence briefing,

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the first question was,

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where is Bin Laden and
what are we doing to find him?

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A story of
military confusions

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and vicious turf wars.

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The CIA has a bunch of bad guys

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that are coming to the U.S.

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We know their flight
information, for Christ's sakes!

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And you don't tell the FBI?

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All the intelligence agencies

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focused on Bin Laden.

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And the task
was to find him.

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And, of course, his task
was to not be found.

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You can run,
and you can hide,

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but we will never stop looking,

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and eventually,
we will find you.

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For most of the world,

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September 11, 2001, is
a catastrophe without warning.

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But for a handful of insiders

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who've spent the previous decade
pursuing Osama Bin Laden,

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the signals had been
alarmingly clear.

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We worried that
Bin Laden would carry out

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an attack in the United States.

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We were the far enemy,

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he said the far enemy
should be attacked.

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It wasn't like,
oh, my gosh, look what happened.

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It was a consummation
of everything

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that we had reported
about osama Bin Laden.

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For a small group
of counter-terrorism specialists

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from the CIA, the FBI,
and the white house

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for whom Bin Laden
has become an obsession,

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9/11 is the bleakest moment
in a manhunt unlike any other.

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They are now more driven
than ever to get him.

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Terrorism consumes you.

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You don't see your family,
you miss birthdays,

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you miss holidays.

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If you don't let it consume you,
it'll destroy you.

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What if I'd stayed
five minutes later

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in my office tonight?

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What if I'd made
that one phone call?

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What if I did that one link

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between that person
and that person?

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What am I missing
to get Bin Laden,

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bring him to justice,
or kill him?

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I had a "wanted"
poster in my house for Bin Laden

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that was six feet tall.

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It was in my bedroom.

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I wanted
to kill him myself.

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I didn't want somebody else
to do it.

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Watch out, watch out!

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February 26, 1993,
eight years before 9/11.

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A truck bomb explodes underneath
the world trade center

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in New York.

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It is the first attempt to
take down the twin towers...

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And a shocking message
that Islamist terror

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has reached
the American heartland.

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Six people are killed.

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It's a lucky escape
for thousands.

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As FBI specialists
begin to investigate,

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one name keeps coming up...

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Osama Bin Laden.

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That first bombing
of the world trade center

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was really the eye-opener
for radical extremism

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and their activities
in the United States.

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An attack on our soil,
domestically,

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that event caused
all of the investigations

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being opened up
into osama Bin Laden.

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As the investigators
begin to piece together

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the trail of evidence about
the mysterious Bin Laden,

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they find an extraordinary
and disturbing story.

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Osama Bin Laden
is the 17th child

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of a billionaire
Saudi businessman.

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On his father's death
he inherits a fortune,

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and as a dedicated
student of Islam,

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Bin Laden travels in 1984
to Afghanistan.

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27-year-old Bin Laden joins
thousands of Islamic guerrillas

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in their jihad...

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A holy war against
the godless communist armies

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of the Soviet union
which have invaded Afghanistan.

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Bin Laden helps to fund
the jihad with his millions.

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The jihadists also have
an unlikely ally...

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America's CIA,

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which is supporting
the anti-communist fighters.

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CIA chief Gary schroen
is in Afghanistan,

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working with
the Islamic Mujahideen.

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There's a rumor
that Bin Laden

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was a great jihadist leader,
that he led his men in combat.

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But it looks like his commander
thought that his checkbook

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was much more important
than his use of a Kalashnikov.

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Bin Laden begins
to make an impression

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on his fellow fighters.

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He was very, very calm,

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and he was like
a unique individual, you know.

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Even when you are angry or you...

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Sometimes your action
may provoke him, you know.

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He was capable always
to remain calm and silent

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and he would give
a very wide smile, you know,

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as a message of peace.

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Bin Laden soon finds
his key role in jihad.

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With a handful of
other Islamic fighters,

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he drafts this founding document
for Al Qaeda..."The base,"

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an organization to rally and
coordinate terrorist groups

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from around the world.

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We knew nothing
about Al Qaeda at the time.

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We didn't even know the name
Al Qaeda at the time.

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I mean, Al Qaeda had
come into existence

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and had its basic documents
of incorporation

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and had meetings
and all of that,

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and the CIA had never noticed.

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February 15, 1989.

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The last Soviet forces
pull out of Afghanistan.

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Bin Laden has learned
a crucial lesson...

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Jihad can defeat a superpower.

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August 1990.

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U.S. forces are invited into
Bin Laden's Saudi homeland

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to fight the first Gulf war
against Iraq.

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Bin Laden is infuriated by the
arrival of American soldiers,

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and the event
will shape his life

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and ignite his rage against
the United States.

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He issues fierce denunciations
of the Saudi rulers

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for allowing infidel forces
onto the holy soil of Islam.

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I think since then,

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Bin Laden, he was like
100% committed to the idea

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of, like, fighting against the...
What he called the crusaders

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and the enemy of Islam,

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he was, I think, clear

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about exactly the vision
he should adopt.

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Bin Laden's vision
is nothing less

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than a new world order.

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He is determined
to free Palestine,

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and to bring fundamentalist
Islamic rule around the world

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to counter western imperialism
and American power.

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Following his bitter
denunciations

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of the Saudi rulers,

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Bin Laden is expelled
from his homeland.

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In April 1991,
he arrives in Sudan

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and begins to turn Al Qaeda
into a force of global terror.

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Bin Laden is welcomed
by the regime in Khartoum,

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which is a refuge for
international terrorists.

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For the first time,
America begins to pay attention.

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What he was doing
was preserving his Afghan army

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by bringing the veterans
down to Sudan,

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and then he was using Khartoum
as a staging base

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to bring radical terrorist types
from all over the Islamic world.

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October 1993,

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eight months after
the world trade center bombing.

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Bin Laden strikes in Africa...

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But once again, the target
is the United States.

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In the incident that becomes
known as "black hawk down,"

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two U.S. helicopters are brought
down by Somali terrorists.

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The images of dead U.S. soldiers

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dragged through the streets
of Mogadishu

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will burn into
American memories.

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The terrorists have been trained
by Bin Laden's Afghan veterans.

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They began to
shoot down American helicopters

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using a technique that the
people had used in Afghanistan,

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are rocket-propelled grenades
fired from tall buildings.

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That's not intuitive,

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you don't know to do it
unless you're taught.

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18 American soldiers
and hundreds of Somalis

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are killed.

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I, William Jefferson Clinton,
do solemnly swear...

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President Bill Clinton is urged
by some advisors

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to consider a radical idea...

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Snatching Bin Laden
from his base in Khartoum.

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But there are obstacles,
both practical and legal.

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The problem of
getting him in Khartoum

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was the CIA told us they had
no capability to do snatches.

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We were flabbergasted.

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The CIA station chief
in Khartoum

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insists his hands are tied.

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It's very important
to remember

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that at that time
there was no warrant

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for osama Bin Laden's arrest.

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Covert action to degrade them
as a terrorist group

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was not approvable at that time.

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So a big question was,

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even if we did our hands on him,
what would happen next?

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It's almost like the dog
who catches the car

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that he's always chasing.

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What do you do
when you finally catch him?

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What the white house was told

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was the world's only remaining
superpower, the United States...

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Had just won the cold war...

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Didn't have the ability
to get one guy in Khartoum.

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Soon after
black hawk down,

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President Clinton withdraws
U.S. troops from Somalia.

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We didn't follow up,
we left.

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So as a consequence,
Al Qaeda took the position

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that you kill enough Americans,
and they'll run away.

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Once again,
Bin Laden learns

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that he can challenge
a superpower.

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And the United States is
learning how complex it is

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to take on Bin Laden.

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In my mind,
the Mogadishu situation

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should have been sufficient
to justify going to get him.

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But it wasn't,
it wasn't allowed.

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At the time,
despite these first attacks,

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Bin Laden still seems
a distant threat.

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And America is becoming
caught in the dilemma

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that will haunt Bin Laden's
hunters all the way to 9/11.

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Is he a criminal to be
brought to justice

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through the legal system?

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Or a mortal enemy to be targeted
by any means necessary?

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For now, the focus is
on gathering intelligence

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to uncover the true scale
of Bin Laden's threat.

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A picture emerges
of Bin Laden

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00:14:06,915 --> 00:14:10,884
as really the head
of a terrorist group

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that we need to worry about
a great deal.

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By the mid 1990s,

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America's counter-terrorist
specialists realize

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that Al Qaeda is rapidly
expanding cells and influence

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from west Africa right across
to the Indian subcontinent.

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Bin Laden's ambition
to confront and defeat

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American power around the world
is building.

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Al Qaeda is almost like
an organized crime family,

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in which you basically had
Bin Laden as the godfather.

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Far more sophisticated
than we thought,

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00:14:54,307 --> 00:14:55,515
it would have been foolish

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to make fun of Bin Laden
and Al Qaeda

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to think it was just some
sort of harebrained idea

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of a radical Islamist
who had no future.

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It was an organization
top to bottom,

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Bin Laden the CEO.

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Soon acts of terror
erupt across the middle east.

251
00:15:18,193 --> 00:15:23,060
November 1995,
five Americans killed in Riyadh.

252
00:15:25,786 --> 00:15:32,138
June 1996, 19 U.S. airmen die
in the Khobar towers bombing.

253
00:15:32,172 --> 00:15:36,487
There's even a plot to
assassinate President Clinton.

254
00:15:39,110 --> 00:15:41,009
Finally, in 1996,

255
00:15:41,043 --> 00:15:44,840
fearing Bin Laden's mayhem will
bring international sanctions,

256
00:15:44,874 --> 00:15:51,536
Sudan expels its increasingly
uncontrollable guest.

257
00:15:51,571 --> 00:15:55,644
Bin Laden flees to
his old refuge in Afghanistan.

258
00:15:57,508 --> 00:16:01,167
He might as well have moved
to the other side of the moon

259
00:16:01,201 --> 00:16:02,823
for all our ability

260
00:16:02,858 --> 00:16:05,447
to do anything with him
in Afghanistan.

261
00:16:08,829 --> 00:16:11,315
Building his new base
in Afghanistan,

262
00:16:11,349 --> 00:16:18,011
Bin Laden has put himself beyond
the reach of his pursuers.

263
00:16:18,046 --> 00:16:20,565
He makes an alliance
with the Taliban,

264
00:16:20,600 --> 00:16:22,705
fanatical Islamic tribesmen

265
00:16:22,740 --> 00:16:24,604
who are mounting
a remorseless attack

266
00:16:24,638 --> 00:16:26,675
on the government in Kabul

267
00:16:26,709 --> 00:16:30,782
and enforcing their
repressive rule as they advance.

268
00:16:39,895 --> 00:16:41,828
In August 1996,

269
00:16:41,862 --> 00:16:44,693
through a radical Islamic
newspaper in London,

270
00:16:44,727 --> 00:16:48,179
Bin Laden issues a fatwa,
an Islamic decree,

271
00:16:48,214 --> 00:16:52,597
against America for occupying
places holy to Islam.

272
00:16:58,086 --> 00:17:01,813
It amounts to
a declaration of war.

273
00:17:04,609 --> 00:17:06,301
This is a very bad man.

274
00:17:06,335 --> 00:17:07,681
This guy has got to be stopped

275
00:17:07,716 --> 00:17:11,720
before he becomes
what he becomes.

276
00:17:11,754 --> 00:17:13,653
At a base
near the CIA headquarters

277
00:17:13,687 --> 00:17:15,310
at Langley, Virginia,

278
00:17:15,344 --> 00:17:17,829
the CIA and FBI combine

279
00:17:17,864 --> 00:17:21,074
to form a special unit,
the Alex station,

280
00:17:21,109 --> 00:17:25,837
dedicated to pursuing Bin Laden
and bringing him to justice.

281
00:17:28,116 --> 00:17:31,878
"All Bin Laden, all the time"
was the desired attitude,

282
00:17:31,912 --> 00:17:36,848
and it was the attitude of
the people working there.

283
00:17:36,883 --> 00:17:39,230
But Bin Laden
remains a remote figure

284
00:17:39,265 --> 00:17:43,027
pulling the strings
behind the scenes.

285
00:17:43,062 --> 00:17:48,032
It's hard to find evidence
to mount a criminal case.

286
00:17:48,067 --> 00:17:51,104
President Clinton secretly
authorizes the CIA

287
00:17:51,139 --> 00:17:54,038
to seize him without
an arrest warrant.

288
00:17:54,073 --> 00:17:57,421
But they can't kill him.

289
00:17:57,455 --> 00:17:59,043
The president
literally signs his name

290
00:17:59,078 --> 00:18:02,633
to a piece of paper
and says, "go do this."

291
00:18:02,667 --> 00:18:07,638
And so we had authority
to go and try and capture him.

292
00:18:07,672 --> 00:18:09,536
But on several occasions,

293
00:18:09,571 --> 00:18:13,057
CIA intelligence about
Bin Laden's location

294
00:18:13,092 --> 00:18:16,164
is judged to be unreliable.

295
00:18:16,198 --> 00:18:17,717
We were asking the CIA

296
00:18:17,751 --> 00:18:20,237
to try to snatch him
in Afghanistan.

297
00:18:20,271 --> 00:18:22,480
And CIA went through
a whole series

298
00:18:22,515 --> 00:18:25,690
of sort of
keystone cops-like episodes

299
00:18:25,725 --> 00:18:30,143
where they hired
what they called "tribals."

300
00:18:30,178 --> 00:18:32,697
The Afghan group
came up with a plan

301
00:18:32,732 --> 00:18:37,012
to go in at night
and kidnap him,

302
00:18:37,046 --> 00:18:40,533
and they provided photographs,
maps, sketches.

303
00:18:40,567 --> 00:18:44,502
They had a cave where
they would hold him for 30 days.

304
00:18:44,537 --> 00:18:46,642
They came up
with a sort of goofy plan

305
00:18:46,677 --> 00:18:52,545
for a frontal assault
on Bin Laden's walled compound,

306
00:18:52,579 --> 00:18:54,133
a walled compound
that was defended

307
00:18:54,167 --> 00:18:56,825
by tanks and machine guns.

308
00:18:56,859 --> 00:18:58,792
Unfortunately,
we didn't know for sure

309
00:18:58,827 --> 00:19:02,175
which house he would be in
on any given night,

310
00:19:02,210 --> 00:19:06,317
and so the odds of
the raid being successful

311
00:19:06,352 --> 00:19:09,148
were even less than 20%.

312
00:19:09,182 --> 00:19:10,632
And it was canceled.

313
00:19:12,875 --> 00:19:15,878
As the hunt for
Bin Laden becomes more intense,

314
00:19:15,913 --> 00:19:20,297
the FBI tracks down
two crucial witnesses.

315
00:19:20,331 --> 00:19:25,336
Both had been close to Bin Laden
since the 1980s.

316
00:19:25,371 --> 00:19:28,891
The things that started
coming out were incredible.

317
00:19:28,926 --> 00:19:32,032
The psychological games
that are played,

318
00:19:32,067 --> 00:19:35,588
I have to tell you,
I never had more fun in my life.

319
00:19:38,625 --> 00:19:43,354
Their interrogations
will go on for years.

320
00:19:43,389 --> 00:19:45,977
But the witnesses start
to give vivid details

321
00:19:46,012 --> 00:19:51,120
of Bin Laden's operations
and his personality.

322
00:19:51,155 --> 00:19:54,158
He was a hypochondriac.

323
00:19:54,193 --> 00:19:57,092
He was a mama's boy.

324
00:19:57,126 --> 00:19:59,439
He was very close
to his birth mother.

325
00:19:59,474 --> 00:20:01,614
It's extremely organized.

326
00:20:01,648 --> 00:20:06,481
There are membership lists,
there are employment contracts.

327
00:20:06,515 --> 00:20:08,448
He slept
two or three hours a night,

328
00:20:08,483 --> 00:20:10,933
he was very careful
about what he ate.

329
00:20:10,968 --> 00:20:16,939
There are benefits,
there are agreements,

330
00:20:16,974 --> 00:20:18,527
there are committees.

331
00:20:18,562 --> 00:20:22,704
Does Bin Laden
wear disguises? Yes.

332
00:20:22,738 --> 00:20:25,465
Does Bin Laden ever
dress as a woman? Yes.

333
00:20:28,882 --> 00:20:34,578
Would he fight if cornered?
Would he commit suicide?

334
00:20:37,512 --> 00:20:39,755
On and on and on.

335
00:20:44,173 --> 00:20:46,866
May 1998.

336
00:20:48,833 --> 00:20:50,939
Bin Laden summons reporters

337
00:20:50,973 --> 00:20:55,150
to hear him issue a new
and more extreme fatwa.

338
00:20:55,184 --> 00:20:57,566
It authorizes
indiscriminate killing

339
00:20:57,601 --> 00:21:01,121
of Americans
and Jews everywhere.

340
00:21:26,146 --> 00:21:27,493
Two days later,

341
00:21:27,527 --> 00:21:31,082
Bin Laden agrees to meet
John Miller of ABC news

342
00:21:31,117 --> 00:21:33,533
at a secret hideout.

343
00:21:33,568 --> 00:21:35,742
Mr. Bin Laden,
you've issued a fatwa

344
00:21:35,777 --> 00:21:38,435
calling on Muslims
to kill Americans,

345
00:21:38,469 --> 00:21:40,678
where they can, when they can.

346
00:21:40,713 --> 00:21:44,993
He uses the interview
to issue menacing threats.

347
00:21:55,244 --> 00:21:57,350
What Bin Laden
had done...

348
00:21:57,385 --> 00:22:01,527
Master manipulator that he was,
very smart individual...

349
00:22:01,561 --> 00:22:03,943
He summoned the press
because he felt

350
00:22:03,977 --> 00:22:06,980
it was the cheapest, easiest way
to get his message out.

351
00:22:09,983 --> 00:22:11,468
Over the next decade,

352
00:22:11,502 --> 00:22:14,574
Bin Laden will use TV
with increasing skill

353
00:22:14,609 --> 00:22:17,405
to spread his message.

354
00:22:17,439 --> 00:22:19,510
He needs his time
on the air.

355
00:22:19,545 --> 00:22:22,513
He needs his time in the columns
of the newspaper,

356
00:22:22,548 --> 00:22:25,861
because that's what they use
in order to recruit people,

357
00:22:25,896 --> 00:22:28,381
people who feel, you know,

358
00:22:28,416 --> 00:22:31,488
that there is a big conspiracy
against Islam.

359
00:22:33,628 --> 00:22:34,905
That's Bin Laden.

360
00:22:34,939 --> 00:22:36,389
He was like one of the masters,

361
00:22:36,424 --> 00:22:38,115
you know,
in the Islamic movement,

362
00:22:38,149 --> 00:22:42,188
you know, in terms of branding.

363
00:22:42,222 --> 00:22:43,983
He was responsible, like,
personally, you know,

364
00:22:44,017 --> 00:22:45,985
for branding Al Qaeda.

365
00:22:56,133 --> 00:23:00,862
August 7, 1998.

366
00:23:00,896 --> 00:23:03,382
The gathering storm of
Bin Laden's threats

367
00:23:03,416 --> 00:23:06,764
breaks with devastating force
in Africa.

368
00:23:10,423 --> 00:23:12,770
Bombs rip apart
America’s embassies

369
00:23:12,805 --> 00:23:16,602
in the cities of Nairobi
and Dar es Salaam.

370
00:23:19,501 --> 00:23:26,405
258 people die,
more than 4,000 are injured.

371
00:23:28,027 --> 00:23:29,304
Why?

372
00:23:34,620 --> 00:23:36,242
Why would you do that?

373
00:23:45,251 --> 00:23:46,839
We had no doubt
in our minds

374
00:23:46,873 --> 00:23:49,048
that Bin Laden was
behind the attack,

375
00:23:49,082 --> 00:23:50,567
we had no doubt in our mind

376
00:23:50,601 --> 00:23:53,846
that Al Qaeda strike
the United States.

377
00:23:59,161 --> 00:24:01,094
We saw that as "uh-oh,"

378
00:24:01,129 --> 00:24:04,546
we are now in some sort
of global conflict here

379
00:24:04,581 --> 00:24:07,307
with a person who's out
to do us serious damage,

380
00:24:07,342 --> 00:24:09,931
and this is probably
just the beginning.

381
00:24:09,965 --> 00:24:13,244
That was the, the real pivot
out of the '98 bombings,

382
00:24:13,279 --> 00:24:15,246
was "we are at war."

383
00:24:21,598 --> 00:24:24,601
But the hunt is still
being pursued by America

384
00:24:24,635 --> 00:24:27,707
not as a war,
but as a criminal case.

385
00:24:31,021 --> 00:24:33,575
Mark Rossini
flies out to Nairobi

386
00:24:33,610 --> 00:24:38,304
as part of the FBI
investigating team.

387
00:24:38,338 --> 00:24:39,685
I can't wait
to get on the ground

388
00:24:39,719 --> 00:24:41,134
and start investigating this.

389
00:24:41,169 --> 00:24:42,826
I've got to see the crime scene,
I've got to get there,

390
00:24:42,860 --> 00:24:45,276
I've got to feel it,
I've got to touch it.

391
00:24:48,901 --> 00:24:51,904
FBI investigators
track down a terrorist

392
00:24:51,938 --> 00:24:56,736
who was in the bomb truck,
Mohammed Al Wali.

393
00:24:56,771 --> 00:25:00,050
Astonishingly,
the 21-year-old Al Wali,

394
00:25:00,084 --> 00:25:03,812
a well-educated Saudi from
a prominent merchant family,

395
00:25:03,847 --> 00:25:06,712
has survived
the suicide bombing.

396
00:25:06,746 --> 00:25:10,060
He began running away
and was hit by the blast

397
00:25:10,094 --> 00:25:13,166
and had all kinds of lacerations
and cuts on his back.

398
00:25:15,134 --> 00:25:18,827
We had conducted investigations
at all the hospitals.

399
00:25:18,862 --> 00:25:22,762
That led to the capture
of Al Wali.

400
00:25:25,213 --> 00:25:30,563
He's asked, "you killed
a lot of Muslims

401
00:25:30,598 --> 00:25:35,534
and Kenyans in the street
rather than Americans.

402
00:25:35,568 --> 00:25:40,124
And you did it on a Friday,
the holy day."

403
00:25:40,159 --> 00:25:43,611
And he said,
"well, all those good Muslims

404
00:25:43,645 --> 00:25:46,510
should have been in the mosque,

405
00:25:46,545 --> 00:25:49,340
so I did them a favor,
essentially, by killing them,

406
00:25:49,375 --> 00:25:51,308
and they actually
deserved to die."

407
00:25:55,139 --> 00:25:56,451
He didn't want
to look at the pictures

408
00:25:56,485 --> 00:25:58,626
of the innocent civilians
that were killed at first,

409
00:25:58,660 --> 00:26:02,526
he wouldn't look at them.

410
00:26:02,561 --> 00:26:04,942
Finally we got him
to look at that,

411
00:26:04,977 --> 00:26:07,255
and that's when he confessed.

412
00:26:09,637 --> 00:26:12,191
The FBI investigators
discover that Bin Laden

413
00:26:12,225 --> 00:26:17,023
began planning the embassy
bombings as far back as 1993

414
00:26:17,058 --> 00:26:19,716
when he sent an Al Qaeda spy
to Nairobi

415
00:26:19,750 --> 00:26:24,341
to take photographs
and draw up plans.

416
00:26:24,375 --> 00:26:27,516
Bin Laden then personally
approved the attack,

417
00:26:27,551 --> 00:26:32,591
but delayed the operation until
he had left neighboring Sudan.

418
00:26:35,248 --> 00:26:37,768
The planning
for the embassy bombing

419
00:26:37,803 --> 00:26:40,426
was done five years
before the fact,

420
00:26:40,460 --> 00:26:44,741
which is just shows you
how insidious they are.

421
00:26:44,775 --> 00:26:47,260
That's when
my eyes were opened

422
00:26:47,295 --> 00:26:53,232
as to how vast
and structured this was.

423
00:26:54,958 --> 00:26:57,339
Al Qaeda operatives
are now proliferating

424
00:26:57,374 --> 00:26:59,652
beyond Africa
and the middle east,

425
00:26:59,687 --> 00:27:01,447
right across Europe.

426
00:27:01,481 --> 00:27:05,934
Anti-terrorism specialists
struggle to keep track of them.

427
00:27:18,706 --> 00:27:20,431
And then of course
you get angry and say,

428
00:27:20,466 --> 00:27:23,607
"someone's got to be brought
to justice, this cannot go on.

429
00:27:23,642 --> 00:27:26,127
Someone must go to jail
for this behavior,"

430
00:27:26,161 --> 00:27:30,338
and that's what drives you,
to right the wrong.

431
00:27:36,896 --> 00:27:39,554
No matter what it takes,

432
00:27:39,588 --> 00:27:43,765
we must find those responsible
for these evil acts

433
00:27:43,800 --> 00:27:46,665
and see that justice is done.

434
00:27:52,049 --> 00:27:53,464
The people who
perpetrated those acts

435
00:27:53,499 --> 00:27:55,363
were a new type of enemy,

436
00:27:55,397 --> 00:27:58,090
so how do we go after them,
was the real question.

437
00:28:03,371 --> 00:28:06,305
A few days after
the embassy bombings in Africa,

438
00:28:06,339 --> 00:28:08,859
there's a sudden and
unexpected opportunity

439
00:28:08,894 --> 00:28:12,104
to strike at Bin Laden.

440
00:28:12,138 --> 00:28:14,175
An urgent CIA briefing reports

441
00:28:14,209 --> 00:28:16,384
that he will be meeting
Al Qaeda leaders

442
00:28:16,418 --> 00:28:20,560
in an Afghan training camp.

443
00:28:20,595 --> 00:28:24,150
The United States now moves
from criminal investigation

444
00:28:24,185 --> 00:28:27,326
to military action.

445
00:28:27,360 --> 00:28:29,052
Today I ordered
our armed forces

446
00:28:29,086 --> 00:28:31,571
to strike at
terrorist-related facilities

447
00:28:31,606 --> 00:28:35,265
in Afghanistan and Sudan.

448
00:28:35,299 --> 00:28:38,509
President Clinton orders
operation infinite reach...

449
00:28:38,544 --> 00:28:40,615
The firing of scores
of cruise missiles

450
00:28:40,649 --> 00:28:42,721
at Bin Laden's training camps.

451
00:28:45,689 --> 00:28:48,657
He also targets a suspected
chemical weapons factory

452
00:28:48,692 --> 00:28:50,659
in Sudan.

453
00:28:50,694 --> 00:28:55,457
Our target was terror,
our mission was clear...

454
00:28:55,492 --> 00:28:57,494
To strike at osama Bin Laden,

455
00:28:57,528 --> 00:29:00,048
perhaps the preeminent
organizer and financier

456
00:29:00,083 --> 00:29:03,603
of international terrorism
in the world today.

457
00:29:06,779 --> 00:29:08,539
Unfortunately,
we learned

458
00:29:08,574 --> 00:29:10,093
from intelligence later on

459
00:29:10,127 --> 00:29:12,474
that we missed him
by about two hours.

460
00:29:12,509 --> 00:29:14,787
It was close, but no cigar.

461
00:29:14,822 --> 00:29:18,032
Down, down, USA!
Down, down, USA!

462
00:29:18,066 --> 00:29:19,585
Down, down, USA!

463
00:29:19,619 --> 00:29:23,244
The price of failure is immense.

464
00:29:23,278 --> 00:29:28,283
In Pakistan and Sudan, furious
crowds rage against America.

465
00:29:31,977 --> 00:29:35,014
President Clinton is
bombarded with accusations

466
00:29:35,049 --> 00:29:37,534
that he ordered the strike
to distract attention

467
00:29:37,568 --> 00:29:41,434
from his affair with white house
intern Monica Lewinsky.

468
00:29:45,645 --> 00:29:48,648
And the suspected Khartoum
chemical weapons plant

469
00:29:48,683 --> 00:29:51,928
proves to be an innocent
pharmaceutical factory.

470
00:29:54,378 --> 00:29:57,899
The hunt for Bin Laden
loses its focus.

471
00:29:57,934 --> 00:30:01,213
Military action is shelved.

472
00:30:01,247 --> 00:30:03,802
At the very moment
America understands

473
00:30:03,836 --> 00:30:06,252
the scale of Bin Laden's threat,

474
00:30:06,287 --> 00:30:10,187
it has become much more
difficult to stop him.

475
00:30:10,222 --> 00:30:12,086
I think it led Bin Laden
to believe

476
00:30:12,120 --> 00:30:16,331
that we weren't serious
about this so-called war

477
00:30:16,366 --> 00:30:19,058
that had been declared
by our adversary.

478
00:30:21,336 --> 00:30:24,132
New York, November 1998.

479
00:30:24,167 --> 00:30:26,100
The hunt for Bin Laden reverts

480
00:30:26,134 --> 00:30:29,241
to being primarily
a criminal investigation.

481
00:30:29,275 --> 00:30:30,587
The superseding indictment

482
00:30:30,621 --> 00:30:33,245
charges osama Bin Laden...

483
00:30:33,279 --> 00:30:36,006
Following
interrogations by the FBI

484
00:30:36,041 --> 00:30:37,974
of two captured embassy bombers,

485
00:30:38,008 --> 00:30:40,908
at last, American authorities
have the evidence

486
00:30:40,942 --> 00:30:44,670
to indict Bin Laden
for mass murder.

487
00:30:44,704 --> 00:30:47,190
...Maximum sentences
of life in prison

488
00:30:47,224 --> 00:30:51,090
without the possibility
of parole or death.

489
00:30:51,125 --> 00:30:54,059
Bin Laden is beyond
the reach of the indictment,

490
00:30:54,093 --> 00:30:59,305
secure in Afghanistan.

491
00:30:59,340 --> 00:31:01,756
What changed
after the 1998 bombings

492
00:31:01,790 --> 00:31:05,380
was Bin Laden no longer
stayed in one place.

493
00:31:05,415 --> 00:31:09,212
He started moving
around Afghanistan.

494
00:31:09,246 --> 00:31:11,455
And so one of the difficulties

495
00:31:11,490 --> 00:31:14,424
was to try to keep track
of where he was.

496
00:31:20,844 --> 00:31:26,781
By 1999, the Taliban
are ruling Afghanistan,

497
00:31:26,815 --> 00:31:30,060
and Bin Laden is more
protected than ever.

498
00:31:34,754 --> 00:31:37,136
Amid the chaos of tribal war,

499
00:31:37,171 --> 00:31:39,656
CIA chief Gary schroen meets up

500
00:31:39,690 --> 00:31:43,280
with the leader of the
anti-Taliban northern alliance,

501
00:31:43,315 --> 00:31:47,560
Ahmad shah Massoud.

502
00:31:47,595 --> 00:31:50,805
He was probably
the most charismatic

503
00:31:50,839 --> 00:31:54,188
and brilliant
military commander.

504
00:31:54,222 --> 00:32:00,125
He was a poet
and a great strategist.

505
00:32:00,159 --> 00:32:02,817
Schroen seeks the help
of commander Massoud

506
00:32:02,851 --> 00:32:05,613
and his closest advisor,
Massoud Khalili,

507
00:32:05,647 --> 00:32:09,444
in tracking down Bin Laden.

508
00:32:09,479 --> 00:32:11,895
Commander massoud was saying

509
00:32:11,930 --> 00:32:16,072
my message to America
is "help us."

510
00:32:16,106 --> 00:32:19,178
Osama Bin Laden and others
are coming.

511
00:32:19,213 --> 00:32:22,078
"America, wake up."

512
00:32:22,112 --> 00:32:26,979
It was as clear as the light
of the morning.

513
00:32:30,534 --> 00:32:33,986
We ended up
sending in CIA teams

514
00:32:34,021 --> 00:32:36,644
into the northern alliance.

515
00:32:36,678 --> 00:32:40,406
We were interested because
Bin Laden was reported to travel

516
00:32:40,441 --> 00:32:42,926
and frequently did
come close to places

517
00:32:42,961 --> 00:32:45,411
where they might have
been able to get him.

518
00:32:45,446 --> 00:32:48,104
The northern alliance
tracked Bin Laden

519
00:32:48,138 --> 00:32:51,141
to a desert hunting camp.

520
00:32:56,146 --> 00:32:58,424
And so some people
in the CIA

521
00:32:58,459 --> 00:33:01,013
said, "so let's blow up
the desert camp."

522
00:33:01,048 --> 00:33:03,153
This is where we
began to get these questions

523
00:33:03,188 --> 00:33:06,122
of where is Bin Laden
actually sleeping?

524
00:33:06,156 --> 00:33:08,400
Well, you know, ok,
then it got down to,

525
00:33:08,434 --> 00:33:12,231
well, when does he go to
the bathroom and where?

526
00:33:12,266 --> 00:33:13,750
The Arab Gulf expert

527
00:33:13,784 --> 00:33:17,029
said royal families
from the Gulf

528
00:33:17,064 --> 00:33:21,309
fly into these places
to go hunting this time of year.

529
00:33:21,344 --> 00:33:23,070
They could be members
of the royal family,

530
00:33:23,104 --> 00:33:25,762
they could be
very wealthy businessmen.

531
00:33:25,796 --> 00:33:27,074
If we kill a lot of them,

532
00:33:27,108 --> 00:33:30,560
this could damage
our relationship with them.

533
00:33:30,594 --> 00:33:32,113
The CIA director said,

534
00:33:32,148 --> 00:33:34,978
"well, we're not blowing up
a hunting camp,"

535
00:33:35,013 --> 00:33:37,601
and that was that.

536
00:33:37,636 --> 00:33:40,225
My first reaction was anger,

537
00:33:40,259 --> 00:33:42,537
because I thought
now this is a chance,

538
00:33:42,572 --> 00:33:46,196
we really have a chance
to kill this guy.

539
00:33:46,231 --> 00:33:48,164
I'm convinced that he was there

540
00:33:48,198 --> 00:33:50,614
and we missed
a good opportunity.

541
00:33:50,649 --> 00:33:53,169
We should have just gone in
and blasted the whole place,

542
00:33:53,203 --> 00:33:55,792
you know,
and made sure we got him.

543
00:33:57,966 --> 00:34:01,073
The desert camp incident
raises critical questions

544
00:34:01,108 --> 00:34:07,459
about the means America can use
to eliminate Bin Laden.

545
00:34:07,493 --> 00:34:12,291
What is an assassination
and what is military action?

546
00:34:12,326 --> 00:34:16,744
And we got the sort of
bizarre legal opinion

547
00:34:16,778 --> 00:34:20,403
from justice department
and the white house lawyers

548
00:34:20,437 --> 00:34:22,025
that said if we knew

549
00:34:22,060 --> 00:34:25,270
where Bin Laden and
the Al Qaeda leadership were,

550
00:34:25,304 --> 00:34:28,756
we could fly a bomber overhead
and bomb them.

551
00:34:28,790 --> 00:34:31,276
Or we could have a submarine
off the Pakistani coast,

552
00:34:31,310 --> 00:34:35,521
fire cruise missiles and blow up
the facility they were in.

553
00:34:35,556 --> 00:34:39,215
But we couldn't put a bullet
through their head

554
00:34:39,249 --> 00:34:41,907
from a sniper,
because that was assassination.

555
00:34:43,840 --> 00:34:45,669
Following
the embassy bombings

556
00:34:45,704 --> 00:34:47,464
and the indictment of Bin Laden,

557
00:34:47,499 --> 00:34:50,502
President Clinton makes
a crucial decision

558
00:34:50,536 --> 00:34:54,126
which, effectively,
is a license to kill.

559
00:34:56,749 --> 00:34:59,925
Eventually, and through
a long, laborious process,

560
00:34:59,959 --> 00:35:03,170
the president got a document
and signed it

561
00:35:03,204 --> 00:35:08,347
that authorized the CIA
to snatch him,

562
00:35:08,382 --> 00:35:10,970
but if that didn't work,
to kill him.

563
00:35:11,005 --> 00:35:14,560
That was a watershed.

564
00:35:14,595 --> 00:35:17,287
While the United States
hunts for Bin Laden,

565
00:35:17,322 --> 00:35:22,327
an Al Qaeda video finds him
in his Afghan compound.

566
00:35:22,361 --> 00:35:26,020
In 2000, Bin Laden invites
scores of jihadists

567
00:35:26,054 --> 00:35:31,025
to come and discuss the next
stage of the war on the west.

568
00:35:31,059 --> 00:35:33,752
Bin Laden is continuing
to attack the west,

569
00:35:33,786 --> 00:35:36,168
even though at this time
his protector,

570
00:35:36,203 --> 00:35:40,345
the Taliban leader mullah Omar,
to whom he's sworn obedience,

571
00:35:40,379 --> 00:35:45,108
is trying to improve relations
with the United States.

572
00:35:45,143 --> 00:35:49,181
Noman Benotman
confronts Bin Laden.

573
00:35:49,216 --> 00:35:51,873
Okay, how come
you disobey his order

574
00:35:51,908 --> 00:35:54,048
when he ordered you
to stop fighting

575
00:35:54,082 --> 00:35:56,913
and provoking
United States of America?

576
00:35:56,947 --> 00:35:59,260
I faced him with this,
face to face.

577
00:35:59,295 --> 00:36:04,265
And he failed to give me
an answer. He failed.

578
00:36:04,300 --> 00:36:07,268
He said to me, "look, I will
consider all these arguments,

579
00:36:07,303 --> 00:36:09,374
and you're right.

580
00:36:09,408 --> 00:36:12,929
But there's only one mission
I can't cancel, you know,

581
00:36:12,963 --> 00:36:14,862
because it's almost there,

582
00:36:14,896 --> 00:36:18,969
and if we order the cancellation
of this operation,

583
00:36:19,004 --> 00:36:24,182
it will ruin my organization
and demoralize the whole group."

584
00:36:24,216 --> 00:36:25,562
I don't think it's like
rocket science

585
00:36:25,597 --> 00:36:28,427
to figure it out, you know.

586
00:36:28,462 --> 00:36:30,395
It was the 11th of September,
definitely.

587
00:36:32,811 --> 00:36:35,952
On the video of
Bin Laden's jihadi gathering,

588
00:36:35,986 --> 00:36:40,681
two young men are laughing
and sharing ideas.

589
00:36:40,715 --> 00:36:43,373
They are Ziad Jarrah
and Mohammed Atta,

590
00:36:43,408 --> 00:36:49,310
two of the pilots
of the 9/11 planes.

591
00:36:49,345 --> 00:36:52,727
But Bin Laden has a more
immediate shock in store

592
00:36:52,762 --> 00:36:54,522
for America.

593
00:36:58,354 --> 00:37:00,666
October 12, 2000.

594
00:37:00,701 --> 00:37:03,876
An Al Qaeda video proclaims
Bin Laden's latest assault

595
00:37:03,911 --> 00:37:07,604
on America.

596
00:37:07,639 --> 00:37:10,952
Suicide bombers attack
the U.S.S. Cole,

597
00:37:10,987 --> 00:37:14,266
an American destroyer
patrolling the Arabian sea

598
00:37:14,301 --> 00:37:16,889
that has put into harbor
in Yemen.

599
00:37:19,375 --> 00:37:24,794
17 sailors are killed
and 39 injured.

600
00:37:24,828 --> 00:37:26,416
We can see
the African embassy bombings

601
00:37:26,451 --> 00:37:31,076
and the Cole as opening acts
of a very bad play

602
00:37:31,110 --> 00:37:32,733
that occurs on 9/11.

603
00:37:37,185 --> 00:37:40,119
An FBI team is
sent out to investigate,

604
00:37:40,154 --> 00:37:43,606
led by Ali Soufan.

605
00:37:43,640 --> 00:37:47,126
You smell death, literally.

606
00:37:47,161 --> 00:37:50,682
Bodies were still
wrapped in the metal.

607
00:37:50,716 --> 00:37:55,307
The explosion created
such a force

608
00:37:55,342 --> 00:37:59,932
that the floor literally
folded like a carpet.

609
00:37:59,967 --> 00:38:06,042
And many of the sailors
were still trapped.

610
00:38:06,076 --> 00:38:08,596
If you look who we sent
in to look at the aftermath,

611
00:38:08,631 --> 00:38:14,775
the Cole, a heavy FBI presence,
and this is a crime.

612
00:38:14,809 --> 00:38:16,190
We didn't view that as war.

613
00:38:16,224 --> 00:38:17,433
If we had viewed it as war,
we'd have probably had

614
00:38:17,467 --> 00:38:20,090
a different approach
and a response.

615
00:38:21,782 --> 00:38:24,612
To the criminal
investigators on the ground,

616
00:38:24,647 --> 00:38:27,063
it's clear that war
should have been declared

617
00:38:27,097 --> 00:38:31,067
on Bin Laden long ago.

618
00:38:31,101 --> 00:38:34,415
What was the military
response to Mogadishu?

619
00:38:34,450 --> 00:38:35,727
We pulled out.

620
00:38:41,422 --> 00:38:46,220
What was the military response
to Nairobi and Dar es Salaam?

621
00:38:49,119 --> 00:38:50,914
We fired a couple of
cruise missiles

622
00:38:50,949 --> 00:38:53,158
and killed a couple of bums
on the ground.

623
00:38:53,192 --> 00:38:54,780
Nobody important.

624
00:38:54,815 --> 00:38:58,543
What was the military response
to the Cole? None.

625
00:38:58,577 --> 00:39:01,442
None, zero.

626
00:39:01,477 --> 00:39:04,687
That was an act of war.

627
00:39:04,721 --> 00:39:07,621
Bin Laden had declared war
on the United States

628
00:39:07,655 --> 00:39:12,039
in August of 1996,
and he meant it.

629
00:39:12,073 --> 00:39:14,041
And we knew,
the ones that worked on it,

630
00:39:14,075 --> 00:39:16,008
knew that he meant it.

631
00:39:16,043 --> 00:39:19,667
And nobody else believed us,

632
00:39:19,702 --> 00:39:23,326
but after the Cole,
they didn't believe us.

633
00:39:23,361 --> 00:39:28,158
They treated the Cole like
somebody had done a carjacking.

634
00:39:30,954 --> 00:39:33,543
The Cole
was a quagmire,

635
00:39:33,578 --> 00:39:37,340
because it involved a tremendous
commingling of agencies

636
00:39:37,375 --> 00:39:41,275
in the U.S. government
having their own little battle.

637
00:39:41,309 --> 00:39:44,243
Information sharing,
compartmentalization,

638
00:39:44,278 --> 00:39:49,352
- turf, rules...
- All this went into play.

639
00:39:51,423 --> 00:39:55,116
Working inside the CIA
and FBI joint operation

640
00:39:55,151 --> 00:39:56,877
to hunt down Bin Laden,

641
00:39:56,911 --> 00:40:00,501
Mark Rossini is shocked to find
that investigations

642
00:40:00,536 --> 00:40:03,884
are becoming entangled
in bureaucratic reluctance

643
00:40:03,918 --> 00:40:07,853
to share information
between agencies.

644
00:40:07,888 --> 00:40:11,305
He gets a phone call
from FBI colleague Ali soufan

645
00:40:11,339 --> 00:40:16,724
who's in Aden
alongside the U.S.S. Cole.

646
00:40:16,759 --> 00:40:18,623
He's in the water
next to the boat

647
00:40:18,657 --> 00:40:19,796
with the hole in it.

648
00:40:19,831 --> 00:40:22,903
And he calls me
and I'm at my desk,

649
00:40:22,937 --> 00:40:29,565
and he says, "hey, Mark,
what do you have on so-and-so?"

650
00:40:29,599 --> 00:40:31,256
Rossini gives his colleague

651
00:40:31,290 --> 00:40:33,603
information about a suspect.

652
00:40:33,638 --> 00:40:38,884
He's careful to conceal details
that might be intercepted.

653
00:40:38,919 --> 00:40:40,507
I get a tap
on my shoulder.

654
00:40:40,541 --> 00:40:44,131
I had passed CIA information on
an undisclosed line to the FBI

655
00:40:44,165 --> 00:40:46,340
without authorization.

656
00:40:46,374 --> 00:40:48,894
And they wanted to remove me
from the building that moment,

657
00:40:48,929 --> 00:40:50,482
take me, escort me
out of the building,

658
00:40:50,517 --> 00:40:51,794
take my clearances away,

659
00:40:51,828 --> 00:40:55,867
and have me taken
out of the building.

660
00:40:55,901 --> 00:41:01,735
I'm calling an FBI agent
in the field

661
00:41:01,769 --> 00:41:04,565
Who is investigating an attack,

662
00:41:04,600 --> 00:41:06,705
and you want to shove
the rules up my

663
00:41:09,743 --> 00:41:11,710
There's a reason
for these turf wars

664
00:41:11,745 --> 00:41:14,299
that goes beyond
professional rivalry.

665
00:41:14,333 --> 00:41:16,197
It's known as "the wall"...

666
00:41:16,232 --> 00:41:16,266
It's known as "the wall"...

667
00:41:17,095 --> 00:41:18,579
An American policy
that prohibits

668
00:41:18,614 --> 00:41:21,582
the passing of information
collected by the CIA

669
00:41:21,617 --> 00:41:23,411
in foreign operations

670
00:41:23,446 --> 00:41:26,380
to the FBI, whose role
is to build a case

671
00:41:26,414 --> 00:41:30,418
on evidence that can be brought
before a U.S. court.

672
00:41:32,213 --> 00:41:33,836
Then they made me
sign a document

673
00:41:33,870 --> 00:41:37,011
that said that I cannot tell
the FBI anything

674
00:41:37,046 --> 00:41:39,220
about what I learned in the CIA

675
00:41:39,255 --> 00:41:42,914
without written explicit
permission from the CIA.

676
00:41:42,948 --> 00:41:46,607
I could not utter it,
I could not e-mail it,

677
00:41:46,642 --> 00:41:48,575
I could not even say it
in a passing conversation,

678
00:41:48,609 --> 00:41:51,094
anything I learned in the CIA
when I was working there.

679
00:41:53,234 --> 00:41:55,340
Bin Laden's
challenge to America

680
00:41:55,374 --> 00:42:00,310
is exposing basic dilemmas
at the heart of a democracy...

681
00:42:00,345 --> 00:42:05,868
Protecting individual Liberty
is weakening its defenses.

682
00:42:05,902 --> 00:42:09,872
The terrorist
target is a peculiar blend

683
00:42:09,906 --> 00:42:12,426
of foreign and domestic,

684
00:42:12,460 --> 00:42:17,396
of law enforcement and
intelligence-based information.

685
00:42:17,431 --> 00:42:19,606
We, historically,
in the United States

686
00:42:19,640 --> 00:42:21,435
have built up an approach

687
00:42:21,469 --> 00:42:23,506
that we're going to
protect our liberties

688
00:42:23,541 --> 00:42:26,682
by keeping those
Intel guys at the CIA

689
00:42:26,716 --> 00:42:30,617
away from these
law enforcement guys.

690
00:42:30,651 --> 00:42:32,826
Now we were playing
against an adversary

691
00:42:32,860 --> 00:42:34,517
who could only be defeated

692
00:42:34,552 --> 00:42:37,106
if we blended those streams
of information.

693
00:42:41,904 --> 00:42:44,251
I, George Walker bush,
do solemnly swear

694
00:42:44,285 --> 00:42:46,184
that I will faithfully
execute the office

695
00:42:46,218 --> 00:42:48,255
of president
of the United States.

696
00:42:48,289 --> 00:42:51,534
Three months after
the attack on the U.S.S. Cole,

697
00:42:51,569 --> 00:42:53,329
George W. Bush is sworn in

698
00:42:53,363 --> 00:42:56,539
as 43rd president
of the United States.

699
00:42:56,574 --> 00:42:58,403
So help me god.

700
00:43:02,683 --> 00:43:05,168
Outgoing
President Clinton tells bush

701
00:43:05,203 --> 00:43:08,586
that terrorism will be
his top priority.

702
00:43:11,036 --> 00:43:12,866
But for the new administration,

703
00:43:12,900 --> 00:43:18,423
Bin Laden and the threat of
Al Qaeda seem less urgent.

704
00:43:18,457 --> 00:43:19,804
Remember,
the word "terrorism"

705
00:43:19,838 --> 00:43:22,841
was not even in the president's
inaugural address.

706
00:43:22,876 --> 00:43:25,637
They were concerned about
ballistic missile defense.

707
00:43:25,672 --> 00:43:31,643
And terrorism was not
very well understood.

708
00:43:31,678 --> 00:43:33,818
The most
disturbing thing

709
00:43:33,852 --> 00:43:36,096
was the national security
advisor saying,

710
00:43:36,130 --> 00:43:39,893
you know, "I worked in
the white house eight years ago,

711
00:43:39,927 --> 00:43:42,861
and we didn't have this big
counter-terrorism office

712
00:43:42,896 --> 00:43:44,622
that you run now.

713
00:43:44,656 --> 00:43:47,970
Why is it here?"

714
00:43:48,004 --> 00:43:51,974
They had missed the growth
of this new set of threats.

715
00:43:58,118 --> 00:44:01,052
In 2000,
a new stealth technology

716
00:44:01,086 --> 00:44:04,814
enters the hunt for Bin Laden...
The predator drone...

717
00:44:04,849 --> 00:44:09,923
A pilotless spy plane controlled
from thousands of miles away.

718
00:44:13,409 --> 00:44:16,136
At last there is
the prospect of spotting

719
00:44:16,170 --> 00:44:20,588
America’s most wanted man
in time to take action.

720
00:44:22,314 --> 00:44:27,734
With the predator,
we could look in real time

721
00:44:27,768 --> 00:44:31,703
at a target in Afghanistan.

722
00:44:31,738 --> 00:44:32,946
And we could look,

723
00:44:32,980 --> 00:44:36,052
and actually on one occasion,
see Bin Laden.

724
00:44:39,297 --> 00:44:41,782
Bin Laden may
occasionally be visible,

725
00:44:41,817 --> 00:44:44,509
but he remains out of reach.

726
00:44:48,064 --> 00:44:51,619
In 2001, the hunters
grow more alarmed

727
00:44:51,654 --> 00:44:53,552
as the drumbeat intensifies

728
00:44:53,587 --> 00:44:58,212
of threats from Al Qaeda
and Bin Laden.

729
00:44:58,247 --> 00:45:01,146
As we approached
the summer of 2001,

730
00:45:01,181 --> 00:45:04,529
the spike in intelligence
we collected,

731
00:45:04,563 --> 00:45:10,362
the volume, the accuracy,
as well as the stridency,

732
00:45:10,397 --> 00:45:13,055
kept going up and up and up.

733
00:45:13,089 --> 00:45:15,713
Al Qaeda was
stepping up its tempo,

734
00:45:15,747 --> 00:45:17,715
it was getting bigger,

735
00:45:17,749 --> 00:45:19,613
it was getting more muscular,

736
00:45:19,647 --> 00:45:23,686
it could pull off attacks all
around the world simultaneously.

737
00:45:26,862 --> 00:45:29,036
I went to brief my boss,

738
00:45:29,071 --> 00:45:30,382
and it was his determination

739
00:45:30,417 --> 00:45:32,315
that we go to the white house
immediately.

740
00:45:32,350 --> 00:45:33,696
You know in the movies,
where you pick up the phone

741
00:45:33,731 --> 00:45:35,353
and call the white house,
"we're coming over."

742
00:45:35,387 --> 00:45:38,459
It was the first time
he'd ever done it.

743
00:45:38,494 --> 00:45:41,221
I do not think
I have participated

744
00:45:41,255 --> 00:45:45,812
in a more forceful,
more specific,

745
00:45:45,846 --> 00:45:49,229
more well sourced, clear
briefing of the threat picture

746
00:45:49,263 --> 00:45:52,439
that the United States faces.

747
00:45:52,473 --> 00:45:54,682
August 6th.

748
00:45:54,717 --> 00:45:57,168
The president's daily briefing
is headed,

749
00:45:57,202 --> 00:46:00,827
"Bin Laden determined
to strike in U.S."

750
00:46:04,037 --> 00:46:07,488
September 9th,
Ahmed shah massoud,

751
00:46:07,523 --> 00:46:10,698
America’s crucial ally
in the hunt for Bin Laden

752
00:46:10,733 --> 00:46:14,841
is assassinated
in an Al Qaeda suicide attack.

753
00:46:16,739 --> 00:46:18,499
Two Arabs came,

754
00:46:18,534 --> 00:46:20,398
pretending they were
journalists,

755
00:46:20,432 --> 00:46:24,678
I was there with him,
two, three, four people

756
00:46:24,712 --> 00:46:30,373
with the camera,
and the man had all bombs.

757
00:46:33,756 --> 00:46:37,553
And in five minutes,
he was out of this world.

758
00:46:37,587 --> 00:46:38,796
I thought, oh, my god,

759
00:46:38,830 --> 00:46:41,937
this is, you know,
a disaster for the country,

760
00:46:41,971 --> 00:46:44,940
it's a disaster for us, the U.S.

761
00:46:47,390 --> 00:46:49,945
That same day,
September 9th,

762
00:46:49,979 --> 00:46:52,533
the 9/11 hijackers' leader,
Mohammed Atta,

763
00:46:52,568 --> 00:46:54,742
writes to his team,

764
00:46:54,777 --> 00:46:58,470
"you are on your way
to everlasting paradise."

765
00:47:10,586 --> 00:47:12,830
The phone rang.
"Bad news chief."

766
00:47:12,864 --> 00:47:15,384
We just had a plane crash
into an upper floor

767
00:47:15,418 --> 00:47:17,455
of the world trade center.

768
00:47:17,489 --> 00:47:21,597
At that instant, I thought
this could be the start.

769
00:47:21,631 --> 00:47:24,462
It's just a huge explosion.

770
00:47:24,496 --> 00:47:27,120
And then
the second plane hit.

771
00:47:34,127 --> 00:47:35,922
The hair on
the back of my neck stood up,

772
00:47:35,956 --> 00:47:38,027
and I knew then,
this is a terrorist attack.

773
00:47:38,062 --> 00:47:39,477
This is Bin Laden.

774
00:47:39,511 --> 00:47:40,788
Mayday, mayday!

775
00:47:40,823 --> 00:47:45,276
There's another plane hit
the second tower, okay.

776
00:47:45,310 --> 00:47:47,934
Everybody
in the room said "Bin Laden."

777
00:48:01,050 --> 00:48:05,434
B-3, a major collapse
in one of the towers.

778
00:48:05,468 --> 00:48:07,608
What we all thought
on 9/11 was,

779
00:48:07,643 --> 00:48:10,611
in some very large extent,
we'd failed.

780
00:48:18,965 --> 00:48:20,759
In the back
of our minds that day,

781
00:48:20,794 --> 00:48:28,595
and certainly thereafter, was
a sense of desperation in a way,

782
00:48:28,629 --> 00:48:32,081
a sense that
this didn't have to be.

783
00:48:42,298 --> 00:48:45,646
It was because of
the imperfections

784
00:48:45,681 --> 00:48:48,960
of the American government.

785
00:48:48,995 --> 00:48:52,550
The government had been unable
to take in information,

786
00:48:52,584 --> 00:48:55,553
process it, and act on it,

787
00:48:55,587 --> 00:48:58,521
and because it had been
unable to do that,

788
00:48:58,556 --> 00:49:03,664
this awful event,
that was avoidable,

789
00:49:03,699 --> 00:49:05,149
had happened.

790
00:49:11,534 --> 00:49:13,985
The fact that
we had seen it coming

791
00:49:14,020 --> 00:49:15,745
made it all the more painful.

792
00:49:25,065 --> 00:49:28,103
For the investigators
who have been pursuing Bin Laden

793
00:49:28,137 --> 00:49:30,070
for almost a decade,

794
00:49:30,105 --> 00:49:34,557
the tragedy of 9/11 raises
anguished questions.

795
00:49:34,592 --> 00:49:39,769
I was really kind of,
what did we miss?

796
00:49:39,804 --> 00:49:42,634
What did we miss?

797
00:49:42,669 --> 00:49:46,086
Ali soufan is finally
allowed to see evidence

798
00:49:46,121 --> 00:49:48,226
linked to the 9/11 hijackers

799
00:49:48,261 --> 00:49:52,437
that has been held until now
by the CIA.

800
00:49:52,472 --> 00:49:54,439
It's basically
information

801
00:49:54,474 --> 00:49:58,374
that we had been asking for
since November of 2000.

802
00:50:01,205 --> 00:50:03,310
Then I start reading a report,

803
00:50:03,345 --> 00:50:07,797
and I...I'm like,
you have to be kidding me.

804
00:50:10,490 --> 00:50:14,459
I remember I just ran
from that office

805
00:50:14,494 --> 00:50:18,084
to a bathroom in the hallway.

806
00:50:18,118 --> 00:50:21,121
And I just threw up.

807
00:50:21,156 --> 00:50:23,710
Soufan discovers
that the identities

808
00:50:23,744 --> 00:50:26,161
of two of the 9/11 hijackers,

809
00:50:26,195 --> 00:50:28,784
and the fact that they had
arrived in America,

810
00:50:28,818 --> 00:50:33,306
have been known by the CIA since
the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole

811
00:50:33,340 --> 00:50:38,000
but not released to the FBI.

812
00:50:38,035 --> 00:50:40,071
It's the culmination
of divisions

813
00:50:40,106 --> 00:50:43,764
that have so damaged
the hunt for Bin Laden.

814
00:50:43,799 --> 00:50:49,425
I still don't understand why
the information was not passed.

815
00:50:49,460 --> 00:50:52,842
I still don't understand
why our requests

816
00:50:52,877 --> 00:50:55,362
were repeatedly ignored.

817
00:50:58,400 --> 00:51:00,022
I don't understand it.

818
00:51:00,057 --> 00:51:02,818
I...I don't know.

819
00:51:04,095 --> 00:51:06,442
I do think
that we could have been

820
00:51:06,477 --> 00:51:08,099
right in the middle
of that conspiracy

821
00:51:08,134 --> 00:51:15,141
if we had, if several people had
done what I see to be their job.

822
00:51:15,175 --> 00:51:17,936
If information was shared,

823
00:51:17,971 --> 00:51:21,388
9/11 could have been
intercepted.

824
00:51:30,639 --> 00:51:34,021
On September 14, 2001,

825
00:51:34,056 --> 00:51:38,647
president bush comes
to ground zero.

826
00:51:38,681 --> 00:51:42,444
I can hear you, the rest
of the world hears you,

827
00:51:42,478 --> 00:51:45,067
and the people...

828
00:51:47,173 --> 00:51:50,555
And the people who knocked
these buildings down

829
00:51:50,590 --> 00:51:52,971
will hear all of us soon.

830
00:51:56,423 --> 00:52:00,496
USA! USA! USA!

831
00:52:00,531 --> 00:52:03,430
Four days after
the 9/11 attacks,

832
00:52:03,465 --> 00:52:05,777
president bush summons
his top officials

833
00:52:05,812 --> 00:52:09,678
to plan the nation's response.

834
00:52:09,712 --> 00:52:11,852
We went out
to camp David for a discussion

835
00:52:11,887 --> 00:52:16,305
on carrying out some type
of a military operation

836
00:52:16,340 --> 00:52:20,516
against the Taliban and
Bin Laden in Afghanistan.

837
00:52:20,551 --> 00:52:22,760
But in the middle of
all this discussion,

838
00:52:22,794 --> 00:52:24,693
we get a chiming in from,

839
00:52:24,727 --> 00:52:26,453
I think it was
secretary Wolfowitz,

840
00:52:26,488 --> 00:52:28,421
about going after Iraq,

841
00:52:28,455 --> 00:52:31,941
and that we ought to make this
part of our plan, as well.

842
00:52:31,976 --> 00:52:34,806
And the president said,
"let's wait on that, hold that,

843
00:52:34,841 --> 00:52:36,222
we're not going to do that."

844
00:52:36,256 --> 00:52:37,637
Gets a little bit irritated,

845
00:52:37,671 --> 00:52:41,019
and I call it firing
a high explosive round

846
00:52:41,054 --> 00:52:43,643
across the table
into Wolfowitz' chest,

847
00:52:43,677 --> 00:52:45,127
saying, forget it,

848
00:52:45,162 --> 00:52:48,095
we're going to concentrate
on the real enemy right now,

849
00:52:48,130 --> 00:52:50,477
which is the Taliban
and Bin Laden.

850
00:52:50,512 --> 00:52:53,239
And if he thinks
he can hide and run

851
00:52:53,273 --> 00:52:55,448
from the United States
and our allies,

852
00:52:55,482 --> 00:52:57,622
he will be sorely mistaken.

853
00:53:00,522 --> 00:53:05,389
From now on,
the hunt for Bin Laden is a war.

854
00:53:05,423 --> 00:53:07,943
A new law, the patriot act,

855
00:53:07,977 --> 00:53:11,843
will require all agencies
to share information.

856
00:53:14,674 --> 00:53:18,609
President bush agrees
to adopt a CIA plan.

857
00:53:18,643 --> 00:53:22,785
CIA paramilitaries will link up
with anti-Taliban guerrillas

858
00:53:22,820 --> 00:53:25,202
of the northern alliance.

859
00:53:27,756 --> 00:53:31,829
CIA veteran Gary schroen
finds his life transformed

860
00:53:31,863 --> 00:53:36,385
by president bush's promise
to pursue Bin Laden.

861
00:53:36,420 --> 00:53:38,801
I went home on 9/11

862
00:53:38,836 --> 00:53:41,079
thinking that
here I was retiring,

863
00:53:41,114 --> 00:53:43,116
and that I would, you know,
miss this fight

864
00:53:43,150 --> 00:53:47,327
that I had, in a sense,
been already fighting for years,

865
00:53:47,362 --> 00:53:48,984
that I was going to miss it.

866
00:53:49,018 --> 00:53:51,849
I got a call saying,
"come in to the office,"

867
00:53:51,883 --> 00:53:55,646
and I met Cofer black, who said,
"we want you to take a team in

868
00:53:55,680 --> 00:53:58,545
and link up with
the northern alliance,"

869
00:53:58,580 --> 00:54:00,823
and I said,
"thank you very much,

870
00:54:00,858 --> 00:54:03,136
I will be happy to do that."

871
00:54:03,170 --> 00:54:05,345
And so out of everybody
in the country

872
00:54:05,380 --> 00:54:06,967
who wanted to do something,

873
00:54:07,002 --> 00:54:11,731
I was the guy picked to start
this, you know, the fight back.

874
00:54:14,837 --> 00:54:20,291
Cofer told the president that
you're going to get this guy.

875
00:54:20,326 --> 00:54:26,677
He said, "ultimately, I want you
to find Bin Laden, kill him,

876
00:54:26,711 --> 00:54:29,611
and cut off his head,
put it on dry ice,

877
00:54:29,645 --> 00:54:31,371
and ship it back to me,

878
00:54:31,406 --> 00:54:34,201
and I am going to take it down
and show the president.

879
00:54:34,236 --> 00:54:37,308
And the other guys, kill them,
cut off their heads,

880
00:54:37,343 --> 00:54:39,379
and put them on pikes."

881
00:54:39,414 --> 00:54:43,694
And I said, "well, that's about
as clear an order

882
00:54:43,728 --> 00:54:46,904
as I've ever gotten
in the organization."

883
00:54:46,938 --> 00:54:51,080
And I said, "well, pikes
we can probably improvise,

884
00:54:51,115 --> 00:54:52,012
but I don't know
what we're going to do

885
00:54:52,047 --> 00:54:54,118
about dry ice, cofer."

886
00:54:55,878 --> 00:54:57,708
Arriving in Afghanistan,

887
00:54:57,742 --> 00:54:59,917
schroen contacts the man closest

888
00:54:59,951 --> 00:55:05,025
to America’s murdered northern
alliance ally, massoud khalili.

889
00:55:05,060 --> 00:55:08,753
And I said,
"Gary, thank you for coming,

890
00:55:08,788 --> 00:55:11,687
but you're late...
I lost my friend."

891
00:55:14,828 --> 00:55:17,279
In the mountains
of northern Afghanistan,

892
00:55:17,314 --> 00:55:21,318
the CIA's jawbreaker team
is ready to spearhead

893
00:55:21,352 --> 00:55:25,114
the hunt for Bin Laden.

894
00:55:25,149 --> 00:55:27,324
We sent the first
communication back

895
00:55:27,358 --> 00:55:31,604
that said jawbreaker's in place,
and we're open for business.

896
00:55:33,571 --> 00:55:36,367
For the jawbreaker team,
"business" includes

897
00:55:36,402 --> 00:55:38,714
handing out bags
full of dollar bills

898
00:55:38,749 --> 00:55:42,304
to win the support of their
northern alliance partners.

899
00:55:42,339 --> 00:55:46,377
The main motivation
for them is money.

900
00:55:46,412 --> 00:55:48,379
It's like a suitcase
full of money

901
00:55:48,414 --> 00:55:51,589
or a duffel bag full of money
that you had to tote around

902
00:55:51,624 --> 00:55:56,629
or drive around in a truck
and pass 'em over to them.

903
00:55:56,663 --> 00:55:58,285
What the CIA brought to it

904
00:55:58,320 --> 00:56:01,772
was the knowledge of the terrain
and the people,

905
00:56:01,806 --> 00:56:07,778
and to provide inducements
to tribals to work with us.

906
00:56:07,812 --> 00:56:09,745
What the military
was able to provide

907
00:56:09,780 --> 00:56:11,954
was lethal power that
we did not have,

908
00:56:11,989 --> 00:56:13,853
with the capacity
of special forces,

909
00:56:13,887 --> 00:56:16,269
to direct very lethal weaponry

910
00:56:16,303 --> 00:56:18,547
on to targets
that we could identify.

911
00:56:23,621 --> 00:56:27,314
The Taliban refuse
to hand over Bin Laden.

912
00:56:31,146 --> 00:56:32,768
On October 7th,

913
00:56:32,803 --> 00:56:36,841
America begins the bombing
of Taliban-controlled Kabul.

914
00:56:41,570 --> 00:56:45,263
We couldn't actually
see Kabul from where we were at,

915
00:56:45,298 --> 00:56:47,127
but you could see
the bomb flashes

916
00:56:47,162 --> 00:56:50,683
on the underside of the clouds.

917
00:56:50,717 --> 00:56:52,478
We'd just put up
a satellite dish

918
00:56:52,512 --> 00:56:55,342
that the guys had
built from scratch.

919
00:56:55,377 --> 00:56:57,068
CNN comes on,
and they turn it up,

920
00:56:57,103 --> 00:56:59,519
and it's like, "bombing has
started in Kabul."

921
00:56:59,554 --> 00:57:01,141
It was like,
oh, well, this is great,

922
00:57:01,176 --> 00:57:04,041
let's go down and watch it on
CNN where we can see it better.

923
00:57:04,075 --> 00:57:06,768
So modern war,
it's really great.

924
00:57:10,979 --> 00:57:12,359
On the same day,

925
00:57:12,394 --> 00:57:15,742
a pre-recorded statement
by Bin Laden is released.

926
00:57:15,777 --> 00:57:20,713
He supports the 9/11 attacks,
without claiming responsibility.

927
00:57:42,873 --> 00:57:46,152
After five weeks
of intensive American bombing,

928
00:57:46,186 --> 00:57:50,294
the northern alliance takes
Kabul on November 14th.

929
00:57:51,364 --> 00:57:53,504
But for Bin Laden's pursuers,

930
00:57:53,539 --> 00:57:57,474
there's only a faint hope
he'll still be there.

931
00:58:00,684 --> 00:58:02,962
By the time Kabul fell,

932
00:58:02,996 --> 00:58:05,758
I'm convinced Bin Laden
was long gone.

933
00:58:05,792 --> 00:58:07,794
I think he read
the handwriting on the wall

934
00:58:07,829 --> 00:58:09,555
and said, "I've got to
get out of here,"

935
00:58:09,589 --> 00:58:11,902
and had headed for Tora Bora.

936
00:58:11,936 --> 00:58:14,318
In early December 2001,

937
00:58:14,352 --> 00:58:18,667
the hunt for Bin Laden shifts
to the mountains of Tora Bora.

938
00:58:18,702 --> 00:58:21,567
Just a few miles from
the border with Pakistan,

939
00:58:21,601 --> 00:58:24,846
it's a daunting area of
narrow valleys and peaks

940
00:58:24,880 --> 00:58:28,194
reaching up to 14,000 feet.

941
00:58:28,228 --> 00:58:31,231
Bin Laden seems boxed in.

942
00:58:31,266 --> 00:58:35,684
Will this be his last stand?

943
00:58:35,719 --> 00:58:37,824
Tora Bora was
a place he knew well,

944
00:58:37,859 --> 00:58:41,276
and back in the jihad days,
I think he had a cave system,

945
00:58:41,310 --> 00:58:43,140
so he took shelter there.

946
00:58:43,174 --> 00:58:44,590
It's really going to be
hard for anybody

947
00:58:44,624 --> 00:58:48,179
to come and get Bin Laden
in there.

948
00:58:48,214 --> 00:58:51,597
Tora Bora will become
the most controversial episode

949
00:58:51,631 --> 00:58:56,256
in the long pursuit
of Bin Laden.

950
00:58:56,291 --> 00:58:59,639
Three years after the event,
general Tommy Franks,

951
00:58:59,674 --> 00:59:03,643
commander of American operations
in Afghanistan, will say,

952
00:59:03,678 --> 00:59:09,580
"we don't know to this day if
Mr. Bin Laden was at Tora Bora,"

953
00:59:09,615 --> 00:59:12,928
but the men on the ground
are sure.

954
00:59:12,963 --> 00:59:16,622
Gary Berntsen, a senior
CIA paramilitary commander

955
00:59:16,656 --> 00:59:19,970
replaces his old colleague
Gary schroen

956
00:59:20,004 --> 00:59:25,354
as the jawbreaker unit's top man
in the hunt for Bin Laden.

957
00:59:25,389 --> 00:59:26,563
We knew he was there.

958
00:59:26,597 --> 00:59:29,496
We had enough human intelligence

959
00:59:29,531 --> 00:59:32,672
that had tracked him all along
that we knew where he was.

960
00:59:32,707 --> 00:59:36,400
There was absolutely
no question at all.

961
00:59:36,434 --> 00:59:40,059
America's most
senior general also knows

962
00:59:40,093 --> 00:59:42,820
that this is a decisive moment.

963
00:59:42,855 --> 00:59:45,616
Hey, we think we've got
a chance to go after Bin Laden

964
00:59:45,651 --> 00:59:48,274
and some of his folks
held up in the hills,

965
00:59:48,308 --> 00:59:52,796
this place in the mountains,
this place we call Tora Bora.

966
00:59:52,830 --> 00:59:55,902
Bin Laden's hunters
seem tantalizingly close

967
00:59:55,937 --> 00:59:57,421
to their prey.

968
00:59:57,455 --> 01:00:00,389
But even before
the operation begins,

969
01:00:00,424 --> 01:00:04,290
senior CIA officials
in Washington are alarmed

970
01:00:04,324 --> 01:00:07,707
about the lack of troops
on the ground in Tora Bora

971
01:00:07,742 --> 01:00:12,781
to support a small unit
of delta special forces.

972
01:00:12,816 --> 01:00:17,061
Berntsen is told CIA chiefs
are going to the white house

973
01:00:17,096 --> 01:00:21,272
to request ranger
light infantry troops.

974
01:00:21,307 --> 01:00:22,239
They spoke
to the president,

975
01:00:22,273 --> 01:00:24,206
the vice president and Rumsfeld,

976
01:00:24,241 --> 01:00:27,347
and said, "we need more forces,
we need 800 rangers."

977
01:00:27,382 --> 01:00:29,798
And Rumsfeld's response was,

978
01:00:29,833 --> 01:00:32,559
"no, the Pakistanis
will cover the back side,

979
01:00:32,594 --> 01:00:35,114
and we're using delta force."

980
01:00:35,148 --> 01:00:38,980
General Franks also
rejects the CIA request

981
01:00:39,014 --> 01:00:42,190
to deploy ranger forces.

982
01:00:42,224 --> 01:00:45,089
He insists that helicopters
would have great difficulty

983
01:00:45,124 --> 01:00:48,783
landing rangers in Tora Bora.

984
01:00:48,817 --> 01:00:52,131
He's also been told by
Pakistan's president Musharraf

985
01:00:52,165 --> 01:00:54,685
that his frontier guards
can block escape routes

986
01:00:54,720 --> 01:00:58,240
across the border.

987
01:01:03,970 --> 01:01:05,834
But the murder of
commander massoud

988
01:01:05,869 --> 01:01:11,184
means the CIA has
lost a crucial ally.

989
01:01:11,219 --> 01:01:13,462
They hire two minor warlords,

990
01:01:13,497 --> 01:01:16,224
a former Taliban
and a drug smuggler,

991
01:01:16,258 --> 01:01:21,160
who bring around 2,000 of their
fighters to pursue Bin Laden.

992
01:01:21,194 --> 01:01:25,716
He has more than 1,000
Al Qaeda protectors.

993
01:01:25,751 --> 01:01:27,304
There are fewer than 100

994
01:01:27,338 --> 01:01:30,548
American and British
special forces.

995
01:01:32,999 --> 01:01:36,900
It soon becomes evident that
they and the Afghan mercenaries

996
01:01:36,934 --> 01:01:40,110
are stretched very thin.

997
01:01:40,144 --> 01:01:42,250
What could
we do to continue the fight?

998
01:01:42,284 --> 01:01:45,805
And as we worked our way through
the ability or inability

999
01:01:45,840 --> 01:01:48,566
to get American troops
on the ground,

1000
01:01:48,601 --> 01:01:50,154
it really transpired that

1001
01:01:50,189 --> 01:01:52,674
the only response that
we could make were with bombs.

1002
01:02:04,134 --> 01:02:05,549
In early December,

1003
01:02:05,583 --> 01:02:10,278
as many as 100 airstrikes a day
saturate Tora Bora with bombs.

1004
01:02:17,250 --> 01:02:19,563
In sight of Al Qaeda snipers,

1005
01:02:19,597 --> 01:02:24,395
special forces highlight
the targets with lasers.

1006
01:02:24,430 --> 01:02:27,813
Very risky.

1007
01:02:27,847 --> 01:02:29,815
They will paint an object
with a laser,

1008
01:02:29,849 --> 01:02:31,748
and a plane will throw
an explosive out,

1009
01:02:31,782 --> 01:02:34,336
and it will catch and ride
the light into the target.

1010
01:02:37,512 --> 01:02:39,686
As people are doing this,
and very bravely,

1011
01:02:39,721 --> 01:02:43,449
they are exposed.

1012
01:02:43,483 --> 01:02:47,108
The U.S. military
air capability

1013
01:02:47,142 --> 01:02:50,076
just pummeled
the Tora Bora area.

1014
01:02:50,111 --> 01:02:53,666
I mean, they couldn't have
dropped any more bombs.

1015
01:02:58,050 --> 01:02:59,499
On December 9th,

1016
01:02:59,534 --> 01:03:03,814
America drops
a 15,000-pound Daisy cutter,

1017
01:03:03,849 --> 01:03:07,576
the most powerful
non-nuclear bomb on earth,

1018
01:03:07,611 --> 01:03:11,511
last used in Vietnam.

1019
01:03:11,546 --> 01:03:13,962
The impact is unclear.

1020
01:03:13,997 --> 01:03:15,826
But on a captured radio,

1021
01:03:15,861 --> 01:03:20,141
Bin Laden is heard urging
his men to fight on.

1022
01:03:20,175 --> 01:03:23,144
And the uneasy alliance between
the allied pursuers

1023
01:03:23,178 --> 01:03:27,873
and their local fighters
is not going well.

1024
01:03:27,907 --> 01:03:28,977
You have limited forces,

1025
01:03:29,012 --> 01:03:31,014
and you have to count on
indigenous forces

1026
01:03:31,048 --> 01:03:33,879
that are more or less reliable.

1027
01:03:33,913 --> 01:03:35,915
Some are reliable,
some are not going to fight.

1028
01:03:35,950 --> 01:03:38,366
Some may fight for a while
and decide to do something else.

1029
01:03:45,683 --> 01:03:48,479
On December 10th,
special forces report

1030
01:03:48,514 --> 01:03:51,103
that they may have
spotted Bin Laden.

1031
01:03:55,141 --> 01:03:59,111
But the Afghan commander hired
to support them retreats,

1032
01:03:59,145 --> 01:04:02,355
and his fighters flee
under Al Qaeda fire.

1033
01:04:04,254 --> 01:04:07,119
The handful of American
and British special forces

1034
01:04:07,153 --> 01:04:11,192
are left alone
in Al Qaeda territory.

1035
01:04:11,226 --> 01:04:13,642
There were no more
than 60 Americans

1036
01:04:13,677 --> 01:04:15,437
fighting down in Tora Bora.

1037
01:04:18,164 --> 01:04:23,652
Bin Laden fled with about 1,000
into those mountains.

1038
01:04:23,687 --> 01:04:27,622
There were more journalists than
there were U.S. forces there.

1039
01:04:27,656 --> 01:04:30,659
We killed the translator.
We killed the translator.

1040
01:04:30,694 --> 01:04:33,455
And the challenge was
how to do all of this

1041
01:04:33,490 --> 01:04:37,356
before he got out.

1042
01:04:37,390 --> 01:04:39,047
Despite their limited numbers,

1043
01:04:39,082 --> 01:04:43,120
a delta force video camera
records Bin Laden's pursuers

1044
01:04:43,155 --> 01:04:45,985
closing in on
the main Al Qaeda base.

1045
01:04:49,678 --> 01:04:52,923
Special forces monitor
a Bin Laden radio message

1046
01:04:52,958 --> 01:04:55,305
saying he has let his men down,

1047
01:04:55,339 --> 01:04:59,274
and that they are permitted
to surrender.

1048
01:04:59,309 --> 01:05:01,828
We had Bin Laden
on intercept on the radio,

1049
01:05:01,863 --> 01:05:05,591
you know praying,
apologizing, dejected...

1050
01:05:08,594 --> 01:05:10,837
Telling his people he was sorry
he'd led them in this trap

1051
01:05:10,872 --> 01:05:15,118
and that the suffering
that they were having.

1052
01:05:15,152 --> 01:05:17,396
And of course, we kept it up,
kept it up, kept it up,

1053
01:05:17,430 --> 01:05:19,743
kept at him,
trying to end it.

1054
01:05:22,953 --> 01:05:25,093
One of the warlords
supporting the Americans

1055
01:05:25,128 --> 01:05:27,371
demands a ceasefire

1056
01:05:27,406 --> 01:05:31,720
to allow Al Qaeda fighters
to give themselves up.

1057
01:05:31,755 --> 01:05:33,653
The Americans fear a trick,

1058
01:05:33,688 --> 01:05:38,210
but are compelled to pause
their operations.

1059
01:05:38,244 --> 01:05:41,144
Around 800 Al Qaeda
disappear in the night

1060
01:05:41,178 --> 01:05:45,838
across the border into
the wild northwest of Pakistan,

1061
01:05:45,872 --> 01:05:48,358
a frontier region
of rival factions

1062
01:05:48,392 --> 01:05:50,981
with unlimited places to hide.

1063
01:05:54,571 --> 01:05:56,987
The Pakistanis
put some troops

1064
01:05:57,022 --> 01:05:59,162
to capture those
that were escaping.

1065
01:05:59,196 --> 01:06:01,060
And they did, at some point,
manage to capture

1066
01:06:01,095 --> 01:06:04,063
in excess of 100
coming out of Tora Bora.

1067
01:06:04,098 --> 01:06:07,446
But then miraculously, within
a very short period of time,

1068
01:06:07,480 --> 01:06:09,966
all of those managed to escape.

1069
01:06:13,659 --> 01:06:14,625
If we'd had more troops,

1070
01:06:14,660 --> 01:06:15,799
we might have been
more successful.

1071
01:06:15,833 --> 01:06:17,249
But we didn't.

1072
01:06:17,283 --> 01:06:20,493
I went in with
eight men initially,

1073
01:06:20,528 --> 01:06:25,291
and there were 1,000 Al Qaeda
in that area.

1074
01:06:25,326 --> 01:06:29,088
The problem was this...
Working with indigenous forces

1075
01:06:29,123 --> 01:06:32,954
had worked in all other parts of
the conflict up to that point.

1076
01:06:32,989 --> 01:06:36,716
We got down to the final piece
of killing Bin Laden,

1077
01:06:36,751 --> 01:06:38,684
and we needed to do that
on our own.

1078
01:06:41,859 --> 01:06:44,724
One day
in mid December 2001

1079
01:06:44,759 --> 01:06:47,589
osama Bin Laden
walks out of Tora Bora

1080
01:06:47,624 --> 01:06:50,351
and disappears into Pakistan.

1081
01:06:58,462 --> 01:07:02,087
His pursuers are left to
explore his abandoned caves

1082
01:07:02,121 --> 01:07:05,124
and reflect on why
his extraordinary escape

1083
01:07:05,159 --> 01:07:07,506
was ever allowed.

1084
01:07:15,893 --> 01:07:18,758
If I could get a bunch
of civilians in there to fight,

1085
01:07:18,793 --> 01:07:20,967
I figured that
the secretary of defense

1086
01:07:21,002 --> 01:07:22,762
could get some rangers
in there for me.

1087
01:07:26,249 --> 01:07:30,149
I never heard anyone
ask for more forces.

1088
01:07:32,462 --> 01:07:35,154
Not one person ever
up the chain of command

1089
01:07:35,189 --> 01:07:36,362
ever came to me and said,

1090
01:07:36,397 --> 01:07:41,229
"I've got people
asking for more troops."

1091
01:07:41,264 --> 01:07:44,508
Never once did anyone say that
there would be any advantage

1092
01:07:44,543 --> 01:07:47,891
in doing that.

1093
01:07:47,925 --> 01:07:51,377
It's very clear that
had the military attack plan

1094
01:07:51,412 --> 01:07:54,760
authorized a ranger unit
to go up

1095
01:07:54,794 --> 01:07:57,659
and reinforce
the special forces,

1096
01:07:57,694 --> 01:07:59,592
we could have not only
gotten Bin Laden,

1097
01:07:59,627 --> 01:08:02,837
we could have gotten
all the leadership of Al Qaeda

1098
01:08:02,871 --> 01:08:05,426
that was then about
to flee into Pakistan.

1099
01:08:05,460 --> 01:08:06,634
And we wouldn't
have had to suffer

1100
01:08:06,668 --> 01:08:09,947
the following 10 years
of Al Qaeda.

1101
01:08:12,605 --> 01:08:14,745
The questions
after Tora Bora,

1102
01:08:14,780 --> 01:08:18,266
from the disputed conversations
about American troop levels

1103
01:08:18,301 --> 01:08:20,130
to Pakistan's role,

1104
01:08:20,165 --> 01:08:23,823
remain unanswered to this day.

1105
01:08:23,858 --> 01:08:26,688
Tora Bora was a golden
opportunity that was missed.

1106
01:08:26,723 --> 01:08:29,795
The hunt for Bin Laden
would have ended,

1107
01:08:29,829 --> 01:08:31,590
would have ended it then.

1108
01:08:45,259 --> 01:08:47,916
After tora Bora,
the hunt for Bin Laden

1109
01:08:47,951 --> 01:08:52,783
drifts into a decade
of frustration.

1110
01:08:52,818 --> 01:08:58,893
A $27 million reward and a major
military operation in 2002

1111
01:08:58,927 --> 01:09:03,449
fail to produce any evidence
of the world's most wanted man.

1112
01:09:07,143 --> 01:09:10,318
Faced with uncomfortable
questions about Bin Laden,

1113
01:09:10,353 --> 01:09:14,115
the white house downplays
his importance.

1114
01:09:14,150 --> 01:09:15,841
George Bush
went from saying,

1115
01:09:15,875 --> 01:09:19,776
"I am going to get Bin Laden
dead or alive,"

1116
01:09:19,810 --> 01:09:22,468
to actually saying, "well,
he's not all that important."

1117
01:09:22,503 --> 01:09:23,849
I don't know where he is.

1118
01:09:23,883 --> 01:09:25,851
I just don't spend
that much time on him really,

1119
01:09:25,885 --> 01:09:27,093
to be honest with you.

1120
01:09:27,128 --> 01:09:28,371
The reason for that

1121
01:09:28,405 --> 01:09:32,582
was that they had no
intelligence on where he was.

1122
01:09:32,616 --> 01:09:35,447
For America’s
counter-terrorism specialists,

1123
01:09:35,481 --> 01:09:39,761
Bin Laden remains
an agonizing challenge.

1124
01:09:39,796 --> 01:09:41,763
Bin Laden hung over

1125
01:09:41,798 --> 01:09:45,698
the entire counter-terrorism
enterprise like a specter.

1126
01:09:45,733 --> 01:09:51,394
There was never a period where
counter-terrorism operatives

1127
01:09:51,428 --> 01:09:54,983
stopped looking for trails
to get to Bin Laden.

1128
01:09:55,018 --> 01:09:57,331
If you're trying to
catch a chicken in the barnyard,

1129
01:09:57,365 --> 01:09:59,712
and you're running after it,
are you close?

1130
01:09:59,747 --> 01:10:02,405
Not until you've caught it.
And we haven't.

1131
01:10:10,102 --> 01:10:12,104
October 2002.

1132
01:10:12,138 --> 01:10:15,763
The bombing of a nightclub
in Bali is a shocking reminder

1133
01:10:15,797 --> 01:10:19,594
that Bin Laden and Al Qaeda
are a continuing threat.

1134
01:10:26,843 --> 01:10:30,260
It's only the first of many
attacks around the world

1135
01:10:30,295 --> 01:10:32,711
in the years that follow.

1136
01:10:41,340 --> 01:10:44,412
Bin Laden was
the galvanizing figure,

1137
01:10:44,447 --> 01:10:46,414
the charismatic character,

1138
01:10:46,449 --> 01:10:50,867
who actually drove, not only
the founding of Al Qaeda,

1139
01:10:50,901 --> 01:10:54,284
but its morphing into
most corners of the world.

1140
01:11:13,130 --> 01:11:16,410
As Al Qaeda terror
spills out around the world,

1141
01:11:16,444 --> 01:11:22,278
Bin Laden remains beyond
the reach of his pursuers.

1142
01:11:22,312 --> 01:11:25,384
Bin Laden himself
was very good

1143
01:11:25,419 --> 01:11:27,938
in terms of
operational security.

1144
01:11:27,973 --> 01:11:33,565
There was no use
of electronic media.

1145
01:11:33,599 --> 01:11:36,878
He did everything possible
to remain hidden,

1146
01:11:36,913 --> 01:11:39,018
not just from
western authorities

1147
01:11:39,053 --> 01:11:40,882
or counter-terrorism officials,

1148
01:11:40,917 --> 01:11:45,266
but also in many ways
from his own people.

1149
01:11:45,301 --> 01:11:48,304
Frustratingly, we were not close
to finding him.

1150
01:12:01,075 --> 01:12:03,457
Baghdad...

1151
01:12:03,491 --> 01:12:06,322
March 19, 2003.

1152
01:12:06,356 --> 01:12:08,807
The bush administration
turns its sights

1153
01:12:08,841 --> 01:12:13,743
towards its long-time enemy,
Saddam Hussein and Iraq.

1154
01:12:16,401 --> 01:12:20,577
The invasion distracts attention
from the hunt for Bin Laden.

1155
01:12:22,648 --> 01:12:24,409
There's no doubt
that the shift to Iraq

1156
01:12:24,443 --> 01:12:29,931
took a lot of the energy out of
the effort to capture Bin Laden.

1157
01:12:29,966 --> 01:12:31,174
From the CIA point of view,

1158
01:12:31,208 --> 01:12:32,969
we didn't have enough
of our best people

1159
01:12:33,003 --> 01:12:34,798
and most knowledgeable people

1160
01:12:34,833 --> 01:12:36,386
who were engaged
in the effort anymore.

1161
01:12:36,421 --> 01:12:40,079
They were being shifted to Iraq.

1162
01:12:40,114 --> 01:12:42,150
There was a sense that

1163
01:12:42,185 --> 01:12:43,393
we weren't looking
for Bin Laden anymore,

1164
01:12:43,428 --> 01:12:46,362
that we had lost focus,
that we had lost interest.

1165
01:12:48,812 --> 01:12:50,849
Bin Laden continues
to taunt America

1166
01:12:50,883 --> 01:12:53,127
with video pronouncements.

1167
01:12:54,956 --> 01:12:59,375
In 2004, he accepts
responsibility for 9/11

1168
01:12:59,409 --> 01:13:02,861
and condemns America’s response.

1169
01:13:10,869 --> 01:13:12,595
Frankly,
it was very frustrating.

1170
01:13:12,629 --> 01:13:14,942
I mean the president would say
to me, "so, Mike, where are we?"

1171
01:13:14,976 --> 01:13:16,426
"Mr. President, nothing new."

1172
01:13:16,461 --> 01:13:19,843
"Well, you are working on it?"
"Yes, sir, we really are."

1173
01:13:19,878 --> 01:13:21,535
And I knew exactly
what he meant.

1174
01:13:21,569 --> 01:13:23,744
Where are we on the hunt
for Bin Laden?

1175
01:13:23,778 --> 01:13:27,230
But the trail was cold.

1176
01:13:27,264 --> 01:13:30,371
When I say the trail was cold,
I mean the trail was cold.

1177
01:13:30,406 --> 01:13:33,719
There was a chart that
was prepared for the president

1178
01:13:33,754 --> 01:13:36,515
that basically showed
Al Qaeda's leadership.

1179
01:13:36,550 --> 01:13:38,759
The president took
to keeping that chart,

1180
01:13:38,793 --> 01:13:40,623
because it was a way
of keeping track

1181
01:13:40,657 --> 01:13:42,210
of who was still outstanding.

1182
01:13:42,245 --> 01:13:44,558
And he would just Mark off
as we went along

1183
01:13:44,592 --> 01:13:47,008
so that he knew
who we still had left.

1184
01:13:47,043 --> 01:13:49,252
And of course, the name
that was still on there

1185
01:13:49,286 --> 01:13:51,634
with no "x" through it
was Bin Laden.

1186
01:13:56,984 --> 01:13:59,400
It's at
the Guantanamo detention center

1187
01:13:59,435 --> 01:14:00,919
that the hunt for Bin Laden

1188
01:14:00,953 --> 01:14:03,439
finally makes
the crucial breakthrough.

1189
01:14:07,166 --> 01:14:10,238
Interrogations of
Al Qaeda suspects suggest

1190
01:14:10,273 --> 01:14:13,552
that a mysterious figure
known as "Al Kuwaiti"

1191
01:14:13,587 --> 01:14:16,313
who escaped from tora Bora
with Bin Laden

1192
01:14:16,348 --> 01:14:20,697
may be working as his courier.

1193
01:14:20,732 --> 01:14:23,528
Based on information
that we'd gotten from detainees,

1194
01:14:23,562 --> 01:14:25,391
folks came in to me in 2007

1195
01:14:25,426 --> 01:14:28,567
and said, "we think
we can go after Bin Laden

1196
01:14:28,602 --> 01:14:30,396
by tracing the courier network."

1197
01:14:33,365 --> 01:14:35,332
It had to be
a system of couriers

1198
01:14:35,367 --> 01:14:37,369
that was being used in order
to effect communications

1199
01:14:37,403 --> 01:14:39,198
between Bin Laden,
wherever he was,

1200
01:14:39,233 --> 01:14:40,752
and his organization.

1201
01:14:40,786 --> 01:14:42,547
There had to be
some sort of a system

1202
01:14:42,581 --> 01:14:43,996
that would permit him to get

1203
01:14:44,031 --> 01:14:46,412
audio tapes, video tapes,
out to his people,

1204
01:14:46,447 --> 01:14:50,693
and maybe engage in a little bit
more direct communication

1205
01:14:50,727 --> 01:14:53,489
with members of
his own organization.

1206
01:14:53,523 --> 01:14:55,525
Until we got
on the trail of the couriers,

1207
01:14:55,560 --> 01:14:59,736
any instinct that we had
a lead on Bin Laden,

1208
01:14:59,771 --> 01:15:03,499
in retrospect, looked a lot more
like Elvis sightings

1209
01:15:03,533 --> 01:15:05,501
than it does hard intelligence.

1210
01:15:07,917 --> 01:15:10,264
Bin Laden has
outlasted a succession

1211
01:15:10,298 --> 01:15:15,580
of American presidents, defying
every effort to track him down.

1212
01:15:22,448 --> 01:15:24,347
In October 2008,

1213
01:15:24,381 --> 01:15:27,764
as candidates campaign for
the election of a new president,

1214
01:15:27,799 --> 01:15:33,218
Barack Obama puts a special
focus on the hunt for Bin Laden.

1215
01:15:33,252 --> 01:15:37,463
If we have
osama Bin Laden in our sights,

1216
01:15:37,498 --> 01:15:39,811
then I think
that we have to act.

1217
01:15:39,845 --> 01:15:42,779
We will kill Bin Laden,
we will crush Al Qaeda.

1218
01:15:42,814 --> 01:15:46,058
That has to be our biggest
national security priority.

1219
01:15:46,093 --> 01:15:48,164
He basically said,

1220
01:15:48,198 --> 01:15:51,132
"I want you to go
after Bin Laden,

1221
01:15:51,167 --> 01:15:55,171
Bin Laden is number one enemy
of this country.

1222
01:15:55,205 --> 01:15:58,346
I want you to find him
and to bring him to justice."

1223
01:16:04,560 --> 01:16:07,183
In the crowded
border towns of Pakistan,

1224
01:16:07,217 --> 01:16:09,806
Bin Laden remains a hero.

1225
01:16:15,260 --> 01:16:18,401
For months, intensive
electronic investigations

1226
01:16:18,435 --> 01:16:24,718
try to track down any hint
of the courier Al Kuwaiti.

1227
01:16:24,752 --> 01:16:27,790
At last, in August 2010,

1228
01:16:27,824 --> 01:16:31,621
an intercepted phone call made
by Kuwaiti provides the clue

1229
01:16:31,656 --> 01:16:35,418
Bin Laden's pursuers
have been chasing for years.

1230
01:16:36,971 --> 01:16:41,942
"I am working with the people
I was with before," he says.

1231
01:16:41,976 --> 01:16:45,946
Now the trail to Bin Laden
is opening up.

1232
01:16:45,980 --> 01:16:47,844
There was this
very important lead

1233
01:16:47,879 --> 01:16:49,950
with regards to the couriers,

1234
01:16:49,984 --> 01:16:53,574
and almost immediately,
it raised great suspicions.

1235
01:16:58,268 --> 01:17:00,063
In August 2010,

1236
01:17:00,098 --> 01:17:03,584
CIA agents spot
Al Kuwaiti's car,

1237
01:17:03,619 --> 01:17:07,933
and it's driving
in an unexpected direction.

1238
01:17:10,522 --> 01:17:12,524
Rather than heading
for the wild territory

1239
01:17:12,558 --> 01:17:14,733
along the border
with Afghanistan

1240
01:17:14,768 --> 01:17:19,048
where Bin Laden's pursuers have
long suspected him to be hiding,

1241
01:17:19,082 --> 01:17:24,294
Al Kuwaiti heads for Abbottabad,
a prosperous regional town

1242
01:17:24,329 --> 01:17:28,022
and the base for a top
Pakistani military academy.

1243
01:17:30,093 --> 01:17:33,614
Bin Laden's courier drives
to a compound in the town

1244
01:17:33,649 --> 01:17:38,550
where a large three-story house
is protected behind high walls.

1245
01:17:40,759 --> 01:17:42,105
My first reaction

1246
01:17:42,140 --> 01:17:44,763
when they described
the compound in Abbottabad

1247
01:17:44,798 --> 01:17:50,251
was that we had something
very unusual.

1248
01:17:50,286 --> 01:17:52,115
Leon, and
a few others, CIA briefers,

1249
01:17:52,150 --> 01:17:54,290
came in and explained
to the president

1250
01:17:54,324 --> 01:17:57,603
that we now, we may in fact
have identified a location

1251
01:17:57,638 --> 01:17:59,157
where Bin Laden
might be holed up.

1252
01:18:02,678 --> 01:18:04,749
CIA agents
move into houses

1253
01:18:04,783 --> 01:18:07,372
overlooking
the mysterious compound,

1254
01:18:07,406 --> 01:18:11,341
observing how the occupants shun
all electronic communications

1255
01:18:11,376 --> 01:18:14,103
and burn their own garbage.

1256
01:18:17,071 --> 01:18:21,386
Even cricket balls hit over
the walls are kept and burned.

1257
01:18:23,491 --> 01:18:26,632
The number of people
that we saw in the compound

1258
01:18:26,667 --> 01:18:29,118
seemed to match the number
of family members

1259
01:18:29,152 --> 01:18:32,984
that might be with Bin Laden.

1260
01:18:33,018 --> 01:18:37,057
We had probably the best clue
as to the possibility

1261
01:18:37,091 --> 01:18:42,234
that Bin Laden would be there
since tora Bora.

1262
01:18:42,269 --> 01:18:44,340
The president is
briefed regularly,

1263
01:18:44,374 --> 01:18:49,448
but all information
is tightly controlled.

1264
01:18:49,483 --> 01:18:50,967
The number of people
that knew

1265
01:18:51,002 --> 01:18:52,313
about the Bin Laden compound

1266
01:18:52,348 --> 01:18:55,731
was incredibly small for
a very long period of time.

1267
01:18:55,765 --> 01:18:58,285
But there were additional
precautions taken.

1268
01:18:58,319 --> 01:19:00,874
The topic of the meeting
was never listed,

1269
01:19:00,908 --> 01:19:03,704
the cameras that are usually on
in the situation room

1270
01:19:03,739 --> 01:19:05,016
were turned off.

1271
01:19:05,050 --> 01:19:07,190
And it kept very tight,

1272
01:19:07,225 --> 01:19:09,952
I think in the neighborhood of,
you know, a dozen people

1273
01:19:09,986 --> 01:19:11,781
for a very long time.

1274
01:19:19,685 --> 01:19:22,309
As local agents
keep watch over the compound

1275
01:19:22,343 --> 01:19:24,311
for any sign of Bin Laden,

1276
01:19:24,345 --> 01:19:28,039
he is never detected.

1277
01:19:28,073 --> 01:19:29,419
We were hoping
that there would be

1278
01:19:29,454 --> 01:19:31,905
more definitive information
that Bin Laden was there,

1279
01:19:31,939 --> 01:19:33,803
and we never really
got that information.

1280
01:19:33,838 --> 01:19:35,563
Nobody was going to be able
to say, "ah-ha,

1281
01:19:35,598 --> 01:19:37,669
we have the piece of evidence
that can give us certainty

1282
01:19:37,703 --> 01:19:39,567
that he's there."

1283
01:19:47,990 --> 01:19:49,543
The most wanted man on earth

1284
01:19:49,577 --> 01:19:51,614
remains shut away in his room,

1285
01:19:51,648 --> 01:19:55,618
unaware that his pursuers are
tightening the net around him.

1286
01:20:00,485 --> 01:20:04,006
In Washington, the president's
advisors begin to explore

1287
01:20:04,040 --> 01:20:09,114
ways of mounting a mission to
get Bin Laden once and for all.

1288
01:20:10,115 --> 01:20:11,530
Once the intelligence

1289
01:20:11,565 --> 01:20:13,498
had reached a point
where there was at least

1290
01:20:13,532 --> 01:20:17,191
a higher confidence level
about the possibility,

1291
01:20:17,226 --> 01:20:23,128
the next question we asked was
what should we do operationally?

1292
01:20:23,163 --> 01:20:24,958
The president
was the one who said

1293
01:20:24,992 --> 01:20:28,478
start to pull together the
options that might be available.

1294
01:20:28,513 --> 01:20:29,755
"I don't want to wait,

1295
01:20:29,790 --> 01:20:31,965
because this could be, in fact,
a fleeting target."

1296
01:20:34,726 --> 01:20:37,487
The closer you got
to the operation,

1297
01:20:37,522 --> 01:20:39,110
the more you started
to contemplate

1298
01:20:39,144 --> 01:20:41,112
all the things
that could go wrong.

1299
01:20:42,492 --> 01:20:43,562
The terrible memory

1300
01:20:43,597 --> 01:20:45,944
of the black hawk down disaster
in Somalia

1301
01:20:45,979 --> 01:20:48,257
is impossible to avoid.

1302
01:20:51,294 --> 01:20:54,988
So is the failed attempt to
rescue U.S. hostages in Iran

1303
01:20:55,022 --> 01:21:01,408
in 1980, which fatally damaged
Jimmy Carter's presidency.

1304
01:21:01,442 --> 01:21:02,823
Leon panetta said, "look,

1305
01:21:02,858 --> 01:21:06,206
we've been trying to get
this guy for 15, 20 years, okay.

1306
01:21:06,240 --> 01:21:08,311
We missed him at tora Bora.

1307
01:21:08,346 --> 01:21:10,658
This is clearly the best
intelligence we've had

1308
01:21:10,693 --> 01:21:12,419
leading us to Bin Laden
since tora Bora.

1309
01:21:12,453 --> 01:21:13,834
We can't make the mistake

1310
01:21:13,869 --> 01:21:16,975
of not going full tilt
against it again."

1311
01:21:24,707 --> 01:21:27,227
On march 14, 2011,

1312
01:21:27,261 --> 01:21:29,574
President Obama
summons his advisors

1313
01:21:29,608 --> 01:21:32,163
to a meeting in the white house.

1314
01:21:35,200 --> 01:21:36,719
The president
went around the table

1315
01:21:36,753 --> 01:21:39,411
and asked every one of
his advisors for their advice

1316
01:21:39,446 --> 01:21:44,416
as to whether or not
to go into Abbottabad.

1317
01:21:44,451 --> 01:21:47,143
There were essentially
three options.

1318
01:21:47,178 --> 01:21:51,941
One option was to go forward
with a special forces raid.

1319
01:21:51,976 --> 01:21:56,946
Another option was to take a
missile strike at the compound.

1320
01:21:56,981 --> 01:22:00,708
The third option was to wait and
try to gather more intelligence.

1321
01:22:04,195 --> 01:22:07,025
The focus ultimately
fell on the raid option

1322
01:22:07,060 --> 01:22:10,684
in order to not only
be able to go in,

1323
01:22:10,718 --> 01:22:13,894
but to determine whether,
in fact, it was Bin Laden.

1324
01:22:17,656 --> 01:22:20,970
Seal team six
goes into intensive training

1325
01:22:21,005 --> 01:22:22,351
simulating an attack

1326
01:22:22,385 --> 01:22:25,699
on a replica of
the Abbottabad compound.

1327
01:22:28,115 --> 01:22:32,257
The seals still don't know
their target.

1328
01:22:32,292 --> 01:22:37,193
But their commanders have chosen
his code name...Geronimo.

1329
01:22:43,717 --> 01:22:46,133
The week leading up
to the actual operation,

1330
01:22:46,168 --> 01:22:50,448
every day we had meetings in
the white house situation room,

1331
01:22:50,482 --> 01:22:53,451
we had meetings
with the president.

1332
01:22:53,485 --> 01:22:55,211
It was almost a nonstop effort

1333
01:22:55,246 --> 01:22:57,973
from the morning
to late at night.

1334
01:22:58,007 --> 01:23:00,354
Finally,
President Obama must make

1335
01:23:00,389 --> 01:23:03,461
a momentous and politically
critical decision...

1336
01:23:03,495 --> 01:23:05,981
Go or not go.

1337
01:23:08,259 --> 01:23:09,846
The president said
he was going to go back

1338
01:23:09,881 --> 01:23:12,332
and think about it overnight.

1339
01:23:12,366 --> 01:23:17,889
He took this all on himself
that night.

1340
01:23:17,923 --> 01:23:21,375
He came down the next morning
and said just, "it's a go."

1341
01:23:22,652 --> 01:23:24,240
Please welcome
the president

1342
01:23:24,275 --> 01:23:26,484
of the United States of America,

1343
01:23:26,518 --> 01:23:28,762
Barack Obama.

1344
01:23:28,796 --> 01:23:30,074
The night before the raid

1345
01:23:30,108 --> 01:23:32,283
is the annual white house
correspondents dinner

1346
01:23:32,317 --> 01:23:33,870
in Washington.

1347
01:23:36,632 --> 01:23:39,531
The president's Bin Laden team
has to attend

1348
01:23:39,566 --> 01:23:42,569
to avoid arousing
awkward questions.

1349
01:23:44,502 --> 01:23:47,436
If suddenly the seniormost
national security officials

1350
01:23:47,470 --> 01:23:49,783
in the government
all canceled in unison

1351
01:23:49,817 --> 01:23:52,268
on the people who were supposed
to be taking them to this dinner

1352
01:23:52,303 --> 01:23:54,857
who happened to be the most
influential journalists in town,

1353
01:23:54,891 --> 01:23:56,376
that would raise suspicions,

1354
01:23:56,410 --> 01:23:58,654
and that would send people
chasing information.

1355
01:24:01,795 --> 01:24:03,003
The decision was

1356
01:24:03,038 --> 01:24:06,075
let's just go ahead
and play it straight.

1357
01:24:09,285 --> 01:24:10,976
It was very strange
to go to that dinner

1358
01:24:11,011 --> 01:24:13,358
and to look at the other people
in the room,

1359
01:24:13,393 --> 01:24:14,670
none of whom knew

1360
01:24:14,704 --> 01:24:16,948
this momentous thing was going
to happen the next day,

1361
01:24:16,982 --> 01:24:21,435
and to occasionally see
somebody who did know,

1362
01:24:21,470 --> 01:24:23,851
you kind of make eye contact,

1363
01:24:23,886 --> 01:24:26,475
and suddenly it hit you
like a ton of bricks

1364
01:24:26,509 --> 01:24:27,786
that tomorrow is, you know,

1365
01:24:27,821 --> 01:24:29,961
one of the most important
days of your life.

1366
01:24:29,995 --> 01:24:34,138
Meanwhile, you're at this
kind of absurd Washington party.

1367
01:24:34,172 --> 01:24:36,761
People think Bin Laden
is hiding in the Hindu kush,

1368
01:24:36,795 --> 01:24:38,832
but did you know that every day
from 4 to 5

1369
01:24:38,866 --> 01:24:40,799
he hosts a show on c-span?

1370
01:24:44,596 --> 01:24:46,219
But I have to tell you,

1371
01:24:46,253 --> 01:24:49,153
every time somebody made a joke
about Bin Laden,

1372
01:24:49,187 --> 01:24:50,671
I couldn't help but think,

1373
01:24:50,706 --> 01:24:54,744
"if only the people in this room
know what the hell I know."

1374
01:25:06,031 --> 01:25:09,380
We came in
Sunday morning,

1375
01:25:09,414 --> 01:25:13,901
we had to cancel all the tours
in the white house.

1376
01:25:13,936 --> 01:25:16,352
We ordered food for the day,

1377
01:25:16,387 --> 01:25:21,633
prepared for several hours
in the situation room.

1378
01:25:21,668 --> 01:25:23,911
And then
the president joined us,

1379
01:25:23,946 --> 01:25:27,225
and it was a period
of such intensity.

1380
01:25:27,260 --> 01:25:30,021
Many parts of that last day
are etched on my mind

1381
01:25:30,055 --> 01:25:32,092
and will be forever.

1382
01:25:32,127 --> 01:25:34,163
We waited,
and it was very tense,

1383
01:25:34,198 --> 01:25:37,235
because you want to be
doing something,

1384
01:25:37,270 --> 01:25:38,443
but we really realized

1385
01:25:38,478 --> 01:25:41,895
that it was out of our hands
at that point.

1386
01:25:41,929 --> 01:25:43,448
As the president's team waits

1387
01:25:43,483 --> 01:25:46,002
on that Sunday morning
in the white house,

1388
01:25:46,037 --> 01:25:49,178
it's evening in Abbottabad.

1389
01:25:49,213 --> 01:25:51,491
Since it was
a covert operation,

1390
01:25:51,525 --> 01:25:55,011
I was designated as the person
to oversee the operation,

1391
01:25:55,046 --> 01:25:59,361
so we basically set up
an operations center at the CIA,

1392
01:25:59,395 --> 01:26:04,159
and we maintained contact
with admiral Mccraven,

1393
01:26:04,193 --> 01:26:08,266
who was in Afghanistan
overseeing the operations.

1394
01:26:08,301 --> 01:26:10,510
And we were getting
regular reports,

1395
01:26:10,544 --> 01:26:13,098
and we were feeding those
back to the white house.

1396
01:26:25,732 --> 01:26:29,598
It was risky, because
it did involve an operation

1397
01:26:29,632 --> 01:26:32,842
that had to go a long way
into Pakistan.

1398
01:26:32,877 --> 01:26:35,776
We clearly had to track it
every step of the way.

1399
01:26:46,062 --> 01:26:49,031
When the helicopters
reached Abbottabad,

1400
01:26:49,065 --> 01:26:50,481
the first thing we heard

1401
01:26:50,515 --> 01:26:52,207
was that they had
a significant problem

1402
01:26:52,241 --> 01:26:54,105
with one of the helicopters,

1403
01:26:54,139 --> 01:26:56,107
it was essentially going down.

1404
01:27:03,528 --> 01:27:05,910
The thing that we all dreaded,

1405
01:27:05,944 --> 01:27:08,740
some kind of helicopter
incident, was happening.

1406
01:27:08,775 --> 01:27:11,640
That was the first piece
of information we had.

1407
01:27:11,674 --> 01:27:15,678
You see something
that involves some of the fears

1408
01:27:15,713 --> 01:27:18,543
about what could
possibly go wrong...

1409
01:27:18,578 --> 01:27:21,443
Suddenly, all of those fears
are coming true.

1410
01:27:21,477 --> 01:27:22,858
Suddenly we're thinking

1411
01:27:22,892 --> 01:27:25,619
that this operation
is going sideways,

1412
01:27:25,654 --> 01:27:27,966
there's going to be
potential U.S. casualties.

1413
01:27:28,001 --> 01:27:32,005
There was a real sense
of deep anxiety in the room.

1414
01:27:32,039 --> 01:27:33,696
It was totally silent,

1415
01:27:33,731 --> 01:27:36,906
people just hanging on every
word from bill Mccraven

1416
01:27:36,941 --> 01:27:39,737
or Leon panetta.

1417
01:27:39,771 --> 01:27:44,569
When admiral Mccraven
indicated a kind of, you know,

1418
01:27:44,604 --> 01:27:47,676
this is not a problem, these
guys are going to do the job,

1419
01:27:47,710 --> 01:27:50,989
it gave me a sense
of confidence.

1420
01:27:51,024 --> 01:27:53,578
We were very relieved
when it was reported

1421
01:27:53,613 --> 01:27:57,548
that everyone was off safely,
the operation is going forward.

1422
01:28:03,312 --> 01:28:05,349
There was a long period

1423
01:28:05,383 --> 01:28:08,110
after they'd gone
into the compound.

1424
01:28:12,183 --> 01:28:15,669
We had heard that
shots had been fired.

1425
01:28:15,704 --> 01:28:18,465
We really weren't quite sure
what was happening.

1426
01:28:32,893 --> 01:28:36,621
It was a good 15 or 20 minutes
of silence

1427
01:28:36,656 --> 01:28:40,453
in the sense of what exactly
was going on in there.

1428
01:28:46,113 --> 01:28:51,429
Those were very long
and torturous moments...

1429
01:28:51,464 --> 01:28:53,673
Waiting for the word.

1430
01:29:01,991 --> 01:29:05,443
And the code word Geronimo
came across.

1431
01:29:05,478 --> 01:29:08,929
I remember that being a moment
of extraordinary relief,

1432
01:29:08,964 --> 01:29:12,139
because we never knew
that this figure

1433
01:29:12,174 --> 01:29:15,660
that we had traced to this
compound was Bin Laden.

1434
01:29:15,695 --> 01:29:18,422
All of the months
of gathering intelligence,

1435
01:29:18,456 --> 01:29:20,355
all of the operations,

1436
01:29:20,389 --> 01:29:22,840
all of the questions
suddenly were answered

1437
01:29:22,874 --> 01:29:25,705
in that moment
when we heard Geronimo.

1438
01:29:30,365 --> 01:29:32,677
There was kind of
an audible exhaling

1439
01:29:32,712 --> 01:29:34,748
of everybody in the room.

1440
01:29:34,783 --> 01:29:38,442
And then the president just
said, "we got him, we got him."

1441
01:29:42,963 --> 01:29:45,138
The United States
has conducted an operation

1442
01:29:45,172 --> 01:29:47,243
that killed osama Bin Laden.

1443
01:29:51,040 --> 01:29:53,008
Justice has been done.

1444
01:30:01,568 --> 01:30:04,847
On February 25, 2012,

1445
01:30:04,882 --> 01:30:11,060
Pakistani security forces began
demolishing Bin Laden's house.

1446
01:30:11,095 --> 01:30:13,269
What was a surprise
was that

1447
01:30:13,304 --> 01:30:17,515
it frankly took as long as
it did to finally get Bin Laden.

1448
01:30:17,550 --> 01:30:20,415
You would have hoped that
we could have done it earlier.

1449
01:30:22,762 --> 01:30:26,697
My reaction was,
you know, if I ordered a pizza

1450
01:30:26,731 --> 01:30:29,147
and it came 10 years
after I ordered it,

1451
01:30:29,182 --> 01:30:30,735
I wouldn't be too delighted.

1452
01:30:33,497 --> 01:30:35,395
It really did
bring home the message

1453
01:30:35,430 --> 01:30:38,294
that we will come and get you.

1454
01:30:41,712 --> 01:30:43,955
You don't sleep better
because he's gone.

1455
01:30:43,990 --> 01:30:47,649
What you worry about
is who takes his place.

1456
01:30:49,582 --> 01:30:52,757
The fact that
he's dead, I think, is fine.

1457
01:30:52,792 --> 01:30:56,416
The world's a better place
with osama Bin Laden not here.