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by the public.

It was shot 20 years ago
by FBI surveillance specialist

Rick Sutton from the 25th floor
of the Bureau's

New York headquarters.

The voices are those
of Specialist Sutton

and other FBI personnel.

At this point,
Specialist Sutton is forced

to evacuate
along with the entire Bureau.

The FBI office
at 26 Federal Plaza,

the largest in the nation,
empties.

It is 9:12 AM.

Despite losing
their command center

and virtually
all their resources,

these FBI agents must mobilize.
Now.

September 11th, 2001

is primary day
in New York City.

Public schools
are just starting a new year.

The Yankees are on a roll

and will host
the White Sox that night.

I was driving down
through the city,

and I was singing along
to the radio.

I was just approaching
to enter the Lincoln Tunnel.

I was sitting at my desk
at 26 Federal Plaza.

I heard a huge explosion.

My secretary started screaming,
"World Trade Center!"

I saw this black smoke
billowing from the north tower.

They interrupted the music
to say a jetliner

had just crashed
into the World Trade Center.

New York has seen nothing like
this since 1945 when a B25

Bomber accidently flew
into the Empire State Building.

And I was like, hit the siren,

throw the light up on the roof
and jet down Broadway.

My phone rang in the car.
It was my boss, Barry Mawn,

who was the assistant director
of New York at the time,

and he said,
"I'm going to the scene.

Meet me there."
So, I made record time.

Going down
the West Side Highway.

Red lights and siren.

The streets are teaming with
panic and people evacuating.

It was a very chaotic scene.

My purpose was to get into
the lobby of tower one

because that's where I was told
the police department

and fire department

were meeting as the kind
of initial mustering point.

I grab the first police officer
I could.

I remember saying to him,
"Hey, guy.

Where is
the mobilization point?"

He said, "Pal, I have
no fucking idea."

One note of concern here
at the FBI already,

their field office in New York

is located very, very close
to the World Trade Center.

I saw a huge Ryder
yellow rental truck

parked in front of the building

and I said, "Oh, my God."

And we know the history
or Ryder rental trucks

when it comes to truck bombs,
and you know, IEDs.

It was a Ryder truck

that exploded
in the underground garage

of the World Trade Center
eight years earlier.

26th Federal Plaza is not safe
at this time.

They did not know
if it was a target.

If it was being targeted.

We all had the same goal,
and that is to get out.

Everyone in the FBI office
is immediately forced

to abandon their desks,

leaving behind computers,
files, secure phone lines.

Virtually every tool
they have to do their jobs.

And all the agents
are unnerved.

What did we miss?
Could we have prevented this?

And from all directions
were your peers,

your FBI colleagues.

It was at that point
we were instructed

to go to the playground
in Chinatown

and that was our rally point
for headcount.

The FBI has only a loose
contingency plan for disasters

and the New York Office
is already facing huge demands.

Locate and organize its agents,

rescue as many people
as possible from the towers

and launch what they know will
become a massive investigation.

But as they try to do
all three, simultaneously,

minutes are ticking by.

The building was groaning
louder and louder.

It was like the building
was crying.

As you looked at it,

it kind of rumble,
rumble, rumble,

rumble after it made
it's left sway, right sway.

(groans)

Then it got louder and louder
and the ground was moving.

And it made a slight
like heave up.

Almost as if it was taking
its last breath.

And all of a sudden, you can
just hear this huge kaboom!

(yelling and screaming)

And I could just hear
each floor dropping.

(shushing noises)

The ground just began to shake.

(yelling)

Oh, shit! Run! Run!

If the New York Office
hadn't done a rollcall

that took the time it had...

the agents easily could have
been inside the crash area,

if not inside the tower itself.

(yelling)

Is there an exit here?

Shut the gate!
Turn off the gas!

(coughing)

What happened?

It collapsed.
The top floors collapsed down.

I saw it blow,
and then ran like hell.

Thank God, 69,
but I can still run.

There's got to be firemen
trapped back there, though.

I just remember staring at it
and all I could say was,

the World Trade Center's gone.

Both of them, gone.
It was empty space.

(blowing nose)

When it settled, you could hear
in the background

the chirping that was so loud
from the World Trade Center.

Almost like cicadas
in the summer.

Except with
a mechanical pitch.

It was the trackers
on the firemen.

(Coughing)

It's the sound that
the protection gear

makes when the fireman
stops moving.

(coughing)

You got a spare mask?

Yeah. Come inside so
I can look at your head.

I'm fine, really.
You sure?

Thank you, yeah.
Thank you, very much.

The world is in shock.

New York is paralyzed
and the FBI,

whose mission has only become
more urgent, is in disarray.

Agents are unable
to communicate with

or even locate each other.

Instinctively, I turned
and started running up

Vesey Street and I
rand to where my office was.

My secretary, I don't think
she recognized me.

Like everyone else,
we look like,

you know, zombies,
with little white dust on us.

I went into the bathroom
and cleared my airways

and tried to clean up my face
and hands the best I could.

A group of FBI agents
had commandeered,

you know, a brokerage.

I think it was Morgan Stanley
or somebody,

had an office across the street
from the Trade Center.

Why don't you come with us,
too.

This is
no place to be now, pal.

Recognize the technology then,

telecommunication technology
was much different.

There's a phone bank
of six or seven payphones.

Had a cop stand by the phones
so no one used them.

(yelling)

I'll find the other brother!
Let's go!

Get these guys down
to fresh air.

We opened the blinds,

I'm talking to Washington,
and I said,

"What's going on there?"
And they had the bad report

that the Supreme Court
had just been hit.

It is becoming apparent no one
anywhere

knows what's happening.

The only thing that's clear
is the New York office

of the FBI
must find out who did this.

Debris is falling from the sky.

All of the buildings
in the immediate

area were being evacuated.

You have to have
a nerve center.

We had to have a location

and we had to have one
very quickly,

so I was given the assignment

to find a suitable forward
command post.

We're not going to go anyplace
which is identifiable

as being a law enforcement
or the FBI.

And I said, it had to be
large enough

to house a lot of people.

I want it secured

and I want it
fairly close to ground zero.

The agents,
they reluctantly said,

"Well, we could go to
the 26th Street Garage."

At first, I was actually
thinking

how the hell
is this gonna work?

I was a little bit skeptical.

It's not going to be ideal.

The 26th Street Garage is the
greatest untold story of 9/11.

Both, both Twin Tower buildings
came down.

We made the decision to walk
to the 26th Street Garage

and as we're walking
over there,

we're still seeing hundreds,

if not thousands of people,
still moving their way north.

But also,
we saw hundreds of boats

coming from New Jersey
over towards Manhattan,

trying to help people get off,
and it looked Dunkirk.

That's when we first started
hearing the military jets.

I knew it was war.

When we first got there,

SWAT was setting up
command and control

and securing the area
with razor wire.

They were arming those of us
that were outside

to set up a perimeter.

We were given long arms,
so shot guns and MP5s

and MP10s which looks like
a little machine gun.

I remember walking up the ramp.

You know, you can smell oil
and small brake fluid.

Opening the door
to this massive space.

It wasn't so much the smells
that bothered you.

It was the visual.

The garage where the cars are,
where you get your oil changed,

where fenders hanging off,

you get the side light
replaced.

It was hard to imagine
this was going to be

the epicenter
of the investigation.

As agents arrive on foot
by the hundreds,

FBI logistic teams make space
by towing out 500 cars.

It was a grease monkey location
but, you know, ugly's okay.

No one is looking
for the Waldorf Historia

in the middle of a crisis.

FBI teams are scouring the city
for office equipment

and even buying it
on their own credit cards.

People trying to put tables up
so people

would have somewhere to work,
get computers in there.

They had a number of tables
lined up with folding chairs.

They set up the computers.
They ran the lines.

Banks of telephones.
Miles and miles of wire.

And it actually looked like
a big hall of spaghetti.

I mean, there are wires hanging
from all over the place,

but they were necessary because
regular phones weren't working.

It was just logistically
an overwhelming undertaking.

As were now seeing the 26th
Street Garage take its form,

it was almost like an FBI baby
being made in the womb

because everything
that the full-grown

FBI mechanism had Downtown
was now coming to form.

It was getting legs,
it was getting arms,

it was breathing,
it was starting to stretch out.

There were different areas
for the bosses to sit,

for management to sit,
for the case agents to sit.

Incredibly,
within just a few hours,

the garage begins to function
as an FBI command post.

The purpose of the garage

is not only just to act
as a communications channel

but to digest all
the information coming in.

The manifest for the planes,

they were obtained fairly
quickly from the airlines

and started to be vetted out
both through agency files,

FBI files and getting multiple
hits on the subjects.

On 9/11, one of the passports
of one of the hijackers

was found a block or so from
one of the towers in the debris

and that was brought
into the command center,

so you were, fairly early on,
identifying

who the hijackers were
but you wanted everyone else.

You know, we photographed
everything,

including aerial mapping,

photographs of
all of Ground Zero.

All of that information was
funneled back to the garage.

I was involved
with a lead group.

Any information that they found
in the investigation,

whether it be the passport,
the flight manifest,

any information that the lead
investigators wanted

followed up on or needed,

the lead desk would
pass out a packet.

You know, like
"Mission: Impossible,"

you open it up and there's
a picture of an individual

and in it would be how they're
associated with the case.

They could have been
in Mohamed Atta's address book,

or it could have been this is
a number that one of hijackers

called 15 times
in the first week.

Uh, so we would go out and pay
a visit to that location.

The Boston office had found
a briefcase at the airport,

and it had some information as
to what they were going to do.

A handwritten letter
was contained

in Mohamed Atta's briefcase

that was basically
a declaration of,

"We who are about to die
for the cause

remain strong and resolved."

It was that type of rhetoric,
to sacrifice their own lives

for the purpose of freeing up
the Arabic world

from the great Satan,
the United States

and that same letter
was recovered in Shanksville

during the crime scene search

and there was a third copy
of that same letter found

so that was really a key piece
of evidence that,

you know, linked
all of them together as well.

Clues are coming in.

Names are going up.
Charts are being made.

Whiteboards are being drawn.
Lines are being connected.

And so that was broken down

initially in
a handwritten whiteboard

but then as information
was refined

and identified
more specifically,

then it was memorialized
in writing and charts

which served a very useful
purpose

in terms of comparison
of one flight against another.

Who was together?
Who wasn't together?

Once we had the connection
between the actual hijackers,

to now begin the process
of doing a complete vertical,

a dissection, if you will,
of that human being.

Their entire life.
You know, where they were born,

where they were raised.
Where they went to school.

When did they come
to the United States?

Where did they stay?
Pulling reams and reams

and reams of phone records
and financial records.

How did they operate
in the United States?

How long were they here?

You were able to see
the fruits of your labor.

You were able to see
all the information

that you were bringing actually
come to fruition and form.

You were seeing links
being made

based on work you had done.

The 9/11 investigation
is already becoming the largest

and most complex
in the Bureau's history.

It's all hand on deck,
around the clock.

At the same time,
the New York Office

is also responsible
for thousands of other cases,

and they can't be dropped.

It didn't matter if you were on
a Russian organized crime squad

or working the Gambino family

or you were following
Russian spies,

you had undercovers out there
whose lives were on the line

that you had to worry about.

You had handlers that needed
to be talked to.

You had victims
that needed justice.

It's very hard to tell
an FBI agent

you need to switch
this other thing off.

My shift, for example,
was 6am to 6pm.

Nobody got days off.
There were no days off.

We had a job to do,
and we were going to do it.

You didn't want to leave.

At first, you wanted
to just never pause

from the work
that you were doing,

and you got the greatest
comfort from being around

literally hundreds
and hundreds of people

who felt the same way.

They were doing the same thing
with that level of commitment.

After an 18-hour day,

I had a lot of difficulty
falling to sleep.

That is when I would stop
and think of what had occurred,

what the losses
were to firemen, police

and that caused me
a lot of anxiety, stress.

Just thinking about all that.

It's not the kind of work
you can walk away from.

A lot of people, for a time,
were working day and night

because the stakes were high
on both sides.

As agents frantically begin
to unravel the 9/11 plot,

another major threat emerges.

The second wave of attacks
may be coming.

You're thinking,
we've got to solve this case.

That synapse is firing,
years of habit.

That's what
they've been raised to do

but it was also crystal clear

that they had to stop
the next thing.

What was the next thing?
Where would the next thing be?

Is it possible that
it could be bigger or worse?

We're all concerned.

Was this the tip
of the iceberg?

Was there more to follow?

You had the Pentagon attack
and, of course,

the plane that went down
in Shanksville, Flight 93.

So that's four major,
major attacks all in one.

What's to say there aren't
five, six, ten, 12?

We have to find out whatever
there is that one can find out

so that if there is
another plot on the way,

whether today, tomorrow,
next week, next month.

We stop it.

The clear assumption
by federal lawmen

is that these terrorists
had help from accomplices

who may still be
in the United States.

What is not is clear
is whether those accomplices

were only bit players
in this historic assault

or whether they may still
have still

to be launched
terrorist plans of their own.

The dust was still rising.

There were two
different mindsets.

There was a brand-new
FBI director.

His name was Robert Mueller,

and he was
a very exacting manager.

He asked a million questions.

Right after the World
Trade Center attack,

Robert Mueller came
to the garage to see me.

The director of the FBI

who will subsequently
introduce the Attorney General,

but we are all very pleased
and honored

to have the director
of the FBI, Bob Mueller here.

A morning meeting with
Director Mueller

in the days after 9/11
was not just a meeting.

It was a cross examination.

This is a group that,
you can see,

turned this parking garage
into a huge command post.

So, when you kind of think
of that personality,

the ability to run that case
from headquarters

for somebody who wanted
to be that hands-on,

the way he was leaning.

You should know this is
a great, hardworking group

that have been doing it
every day

without a day off
working 12 to 16 hours.

And he said that he was going

to take the investigation
back to Washington.

With that,
ladies and gentlemen,

the director of the FBI.

(applause)

Despite the fact
that thousands of leads

are coming into the garage,

and agents are working them
as fast as they can.

Three weeks ago, we were
all doing something else.

The entire operation is one
administrative decision away

from being shut down.

And within 24 hours,
we all pulled together.

28 agencies.

I argued against that.

I said, "Director,
you cannot run an investigation

out of Washington.
You don't have investigators."

Disaster has produced
any number of heroes.

He said, "I am aware of that
so I'm going to take half

of your people down
to Washington, DC."

Which I argued against.

So many heroes out there
that we ought to applaud.

But he was the director.
He was my boss

and he said that's the way
it's going to happen.

He made that decision despite
our best effort

to convince him not to.

And we will, we will bring
these individuals to justice.

Now, let me introduce
the Attorney General

of the United States,
John Ashcroft.

New York had really
strong feelings about this.

There were too
many people dead.

There was too much history

and there had to be an element
of we feel responsible

for this as well
and we need to make it right.

When you think of
the New York office of the FBI,

we did the World Trade
Center Bomb.

We did the case
of the Blind Sheikh.

We prevented
all these other attacks.

We know all these players.
We've prosecuted them in court.

We've obtained conviction.
They're all doing life

and we don't want something
this important to be handed off

to a bunch of people
at headquarters.

By the morning
of September 13th,

the garage is fighting
two battles.

One against the terrorists.

Another to keep control
of the investigation

and it's determined
to win both.

They couldn't get together
between Fort Meade and Langley

and the J. Edgar Hoover
Building

but then when you went into
that space at the garage,

who was there?

NSA, CIA, FBI, NYPD,
the Defense Department.

Men and women from
16 intelligence agencies

and all the information
was on the table.

They could literally yell it

across the room
to the next guy,

all there, doing it the way
they were supposed to.

They couldn't get it
together in Washington,

but they could get it
together in that garage.

More than 25 agencies
begin working together.

They are outrunning Washington
and determined to keep going.

So many others want to
thank you

for the extraordinary response

to this extraordinary
act of terror.

FBI Director
Robert Mueller concedes.

The team in New York

will continue
to be a major driver

in what is becoming
an all-consuming investigation.

Let me introduce
the Attorney General.

I was pretty frightened

when I first saw the building
with the new occupancy.

Martha Stewart Studio and Test
Kitchens are on the 9th floor.

There was the razor wire.
I remember looking up

and seeing guns
hanging over the rooftop.

You could see the guns
clearly over the parapets.

This was warfare.

This was warfare.
I thought, well,
either we are a target,

I thought, well,
either we are a target,

or we are protected,
and it was a terrifying

and yet comforting
at the same time.

You knew who they were
when they got in the elevator.

They were packing a weapon.

They were extremely serious
about their jobs but friendly.

There were lots of people
on that floor.

Very busy with computers
and telephones ringing

and you can imagine
what they had to,

they were trying to figure out
who the heck did this.

The viable leads coming in,
you know, trite expression,

drinking from a fire hose?

We were drinking
from fire hoses

from every fire department
in the nation, it felt like.

It was a flow
that would not stop.

Keep in mind it was coming in,
not only from New York,

but all over the country.
All over the world.

I thought, God, these poor
people working round the clock,

and I felt so sorry for them

because there was no place
to buy food.

New York was basically shut
down for a while after 9/11.

I thought, well maybe
they'll allow me to bring down

everything that we make
in the test kitchen.

Why not give it to these
hardworking people

who are basically living
on the second floor?

So, one day, Martha Stewart
is coming up the ramp

and she said,

"I just want you guys
to have something."

It was a standard size,
you know, round,

birthday type of cake,
layer cake.

And she said, "I just really
appreciate all you people,

what you're doing."

So, we would take down
food and,

and see the smiles and the,

and the weariness of the
workers there on that floor.

Everybody thanked her

and she didn't try to decorate
the garage either.

I would have loved to have made
over that garage.

I probably would have made them
some lounges

where they could have kitchens
where they could eat.

I would have probably
put better lighting in there.

It was a pretty dingy place.

You have to have some humor

to get your through
these awful events.

They keep you sane,

so Martha Stewart
was very, very nice.

As we were finding out about
all of the skyjackers.

Our thought at the time
was we have to identify

all of them and their links.

So, part of the installation
at the garage was these secure,

classified phonelines
and they proved to be vital.

It would ring
several times a day

and I'd be on the phone
with Ali Soufan,

one of the agents
who was assigned over in Yemen.

On 9/11,
I was in the embassy

in Sana'a
investigating the "USS Cole."

Less than a year before 9/11,
the "USS Cole,"

an American Destroyer,
is refueling in Yemen.

The bomb was carried
by a small boat

that helped the destroyer moor
in the harbor.

The tiny fishing boat, the men
on board waving and smiling

pulls up beside
the destroyer and explodes.

The bomb rips a hole
in the side of the warship,

killing 17 American sailors
and nearly sinking the "Cole."

You see the attack
on the "USS Cole."

This is critical because
you start to see a picture

come into richer focus.

Who are the people
who blew up the "Cole"?

Another one.
Another plane just hit!

Oh, my God.
Another plane has just hit.

It hit another building.

We were trying
to call headquarters

and see what was going on
in New York

and basically said
you need to stay,

and I was really annoyed.
I mean, you want us to stay.

The "USS Cole" can wait.
You know, we're under attack

and the answer
from headquarters

was it's not
about the "USS Cole."

It's about
what just happened here.

You go to the embassy
and so and so

will give you
what you need to know.

We started to identify a number
of the individuals

that were on
the various planes.

As we developed that,

we were able to send
those names over to Ali Soufan

who was dealing
with jailed extremists.

I went with my CIA colleague
in his car back to the embassy.

We go to his office,
and he gave me

a manilla envelope
and I opened it

and I could not believe
what I was seeing.

Khalid Mihdhar and Nawaf Hazmi,
who are connected to people

who are involved
in the "USS Cole,"

had been in the United States.

They were identified
as hijackers.

Two people
who were on the planes,

we're looking
for them in Yemen.

Our government knew
that they were in San Diego.

What Ali Soufan
has just learned

but no one in the garage
yet knows

is that the CIA has been
tracking two of the hijackers

for nearly a year.

The CIA, however, had yet to
process the information

and so failed to share it

with the FBI in time
to locate the hijackers.

I just threw the file back
on his desk.

The only thing I can do
is just get out of his office,

straight to the bathroom
across the hall

and puking my guts out

until one of my colleagues

came in and said,
"Buddy, you okay?"

I remember, I just looked at
him and said, "They knew.

They knew everything."

The CIA would also acknowledge
failing to put the Al Qaeda

operatives on the terrorist
watch list sooner.

Days after the attacks,
the Yemenis reveal

that they too are
hiding something extraordinary.

When he walked into the room,
he wouldn't even look at me.

He literally took his chair
and turned it towards the wall.

Ali Soufan is brought to meet
a secret prisoner.

A terrorist whose alias
is Abu Jandal.

He won't even recognize
that I'm a Muslim.

He didn't believe me but
a little bit by a little bit,

the relationship was
a little bit better.

He start lecturing us a lot
about Islam, about the world.

About Bin Laden.
About revolutions.

The reason the Yemenis
have been hiding Abu Jandal--

he is Osama Bin Laden's
bodyguard.

Soufan shows Abu Jandal photos

of the World Trade Center
attacks,

but he adds a lie--

that hundreds of Muslim Yemenis
died in the towers.

Those people
were on the planes that hit

the World Trade Center
and the Pentagon.

Those people murdered
all these Yemenis.

So, he was totally taken back.

He put his head
between his hands,

and he starts shaking
and he said,

"I need five minutes."

So, we went out of the room.

We left him in the room,
and I walked in again

and then he said, "I think the
Sheikh one's crazy.

What do you want to know?"

I said, "We have a photobook.
Some people probably you know,

some people I'm sure
you don't know."

He identified Mohamed Atta.

He identified
about seven people

who later were identified
all as hijackers,

giving us their nationality,

their alias, and a lot
of details about them.

That was significant.

This is the evidence we needed.

Bin Laden's bodyguard has now

given the FBI absolute proof,

connecting Al Qaeda to
the World Trade Center attack.

We understand that it's really
important to pass

this information to New York.

Kenny, it's Bin Laden.
100 percent.

When those first clues in Yemen

and Abu Jandal's
revelations to Ali Soufan

come into the garage, you know,

the people who are
piecing together

everything
from everywhere say, okay.

This is big.
This has meaning.

Seven of the hijackers

were identified as Qaeda
operatives by the bodyguard.

The breakthroughs that occurred
in those interviews

was really putting the key into
the lock of the secrets of 9/11

and turning it.

Abu Jandal was that.

- Turning to what's now
a sprawling

criminal investigation

of the coordinated suicide
attacks,

investigators
have made quick work

of identifying the skyjackers.

So, Abu Jandal was identifying
people left and right

and all the information
was coming straight to New York

and New York were acting
upon this information,

putting wanted posters
for some individuals

that we identified
and following

on a lot of the leads
that we were generating.

The board became a lot
more refined as time went on.

As more information
came in that

we could permanently affix
up there

in terms of a flow chart.

You wanted to get back
after you did your leads

and write up your investigation
and document it

so that the case squad

could have that information
as soon as possible

because something you're
holding may be a missing piece

and you don't know it.

You don't know what you have.
They know what they need.

This grind went on for, like,
60 days

before a day off, which is,
you know, it was okay for me

'cause I was in the zone.

I wanted to be with my peers.

I wanted to be
with other FBI agents.

The leads from 9/11

which is opening
entire new books into Al Qaeda

that had never been cracked
before

including the recruitment
of English-speaking people

to come to flight schools.

In terms of connecting
the dots,

who were these people
who flew the planes

and how did they learn to fly?

With whom were they associated
when they're in the country.

We realized pretty quickly

there's an awful lot
of flight schools

that can teach you
to fly a commercial airliner

and of those flight schools,

a lot of them had a lot of
Mideastern males as students.

We need to know
what else is happening.

Who else in involved?

Who else is a sleeper cell
somewhere,

waiting for
the instructions to attack?

Pull back, pull back.
All the way to the green bar.

The thing that struck me so odd
when I went into the garage

was that I smelled, like, gas
and oil and rubber

and all the things that,

you know, would typically find
in a garage

and you're among
all these computer terminals

and FBI people setting leads
and covering leads.

Leads are pouring in
from all over the world

but one of the most critical

comes
from inside the FBI itself.

We had been pushing to our
management in Minneapolis

to let New York know

we had a subject who had to be
connected to the attacks.

When I got to New York,

I immediately went to the
garage ready to brief agents

and prosecutors
on Mr. Moussaoui.

Zacarias Moussaoui
is a French citizen.

He has been
in flight school in Minnesota

until weeks before 9/11.

When the FBI is alerted
to his strange behavior,

agents arrest him
on immigration charges.

Zacarias Moussaoui was taking
flying lessons,

but it raised concern
by the instructor

is that he just wanted
to know how to fly.

He really didn't want to learn
everything there was

about manning an airplane.

This revelation about Moussaoui
is conveyed to Ali Soufan

over in Yemen.

Soufan runs it past
Bin Laden's bodyguard.

Abu Jandal
identified Moussaoui.

Basically, he gave us
a lot of things about him,

his involvement in Al Qaeda.
His alias in Al Qaeda.

Now we know that this person
wasn't only a crazy person

who said, "I wanna learn
how to fly,

"but I just wanna take off.

I don't care about landing."

This guy is actually
a member of Al Qaeda...

and worked for Osama Bin Laden
in Afghanistan.

Realizing the terrorist network
in the US

is larger than anyone imagined,

the FBI puts even more pressure
on Moussaoui.

Mr. Moussaoui was hostile.

We could tell
he didn't like us.

We were going to go for broke
on this interview

and so we said,

"We're aware that you're
a member of a group."

When he heard the word group,

that really
concerned Moussaoui.

His eyes kind of got wide.
His jaw dropped.

That also fit our concern as to
were there others out there?

Potential hijackers and/or
potential support elements

that would create
a second wave.

Or create other incidents.

I said, "Mr. Moussaoui,
you're here with us in custody

"and you're going to remain
in custody

"but your friends
who are out there

"who are going to carry out
this attack, they're not,

"and if people are hurt,
you're going to be held

accountable by the
United States government."

Everyone was in a high state
of alert.

When's the next attack?

Obviously, we didn't
prevent this one,

but can we prevent
the next one?

The urgency, for sure,

was identifying
co-conspirators,

was identifying anybody
who might have been working

with Moussaoui
to do the same thing.

Who might have been
financing him,

who might have trained him.

Was Moussaoui going to be used
in a terrorist plot after that?

I'm sure he was.

They didn't send him here
for tourism, right?

They sent him
for terrorism but again,

he was arrested
before that happened.

That was very,
very important in terms

of establishing a real concrete
connection between Bin Laden,

Al Qaeda,
and the hijackers as well.

We're working day and night.

We're interviewing people
left and right, you know?

We're getting significant
amount of information.

It's very important to pass it
to New York.

However,
some of this intelligence

is difficult to interpret.

In particular,
the agents struggle

with intercepted Al Qaeda
phone calls

about a mysterious figure
linked to the attacks,

but still at large.

And there was all this chatter,

and part of the chatter
was this guy, Mukhtar,

which was believed to be
somebody that was involved,

but we didn't know who he was.

To chase down this lead,

Ali Soufan flies
to a secret prison in Thailand.

He interrogates
a captured Bin Laden associate

named Abu Zubaydah

When hearing
about this Le Mukhtar,

the one who,
whose brain flew away.

All the time, Le Mukhtar,
Le Mukhtar

And I'm like, who is Le Mukhtar

who is this guy
whose brain flew away?

Maybe he's Bin Laden because
he went crazy after 9/11

doing something like this.

Soufan shows Zubaydah photos
of known terrorists,

trying to trace the Al Qaeda
network from the bottom up,

but Zubaydah is stunned.

So, he said, "Please, brother.
Don't play games with me.

This is Mukhtar.

This is the one
who did the plane operation."

The FBI analysts have been
mishearing the name.

Lee Mukhtar is actually
Mukhtar and Mukhtar

is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,

someone the FBI
thought they knew well.

I was like, whoa. Mukhtar.

Le Mukhtar.
I was totally shocked.

Totally shocked because,
honestly, at the time,

we didn't even know
he was a member of Al Qaeda.

In an instant, Soufan makes
a stunning connection.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
is the uncle of Ramzi Yousef.

The mastermind of the first
World Trade Center attack

in 1993.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,
before joining Al Qaeda,

came to Abu Zubaydah,

and he wanted to do an
operation in the United States,

targeting the
World Trade Center

to follow up with what Ramzi
Yousef started.

Destroying the buildings.

And his plot was to rent

Cessna planes and fly them
into the two buildings.

Abu Zubaydah's response
was like,

"So you break some windows.

"At least fill the Cessna
planes with explosives

so they can do some damage."

So, KSM liked the idea.

Abu Zubaydah told him
the only person

who will have a capability
like this is Osama Bin Laden.

What he had done is he had
taken all of Ramzi Yousef's

plans and kind of blown
the dust off them

and brought them to Bin Laden
and said,

"They're still good plans.
We can still do bad things.

They just need the money
behind them."

And that was the genesis
of 9/11.

You know, New York will be
very interested in KSM,

so I called on a secure line,
Kenny, and I said

Khaled Sheikh Mohammed
was identified

as the mastermind of 9/11.

In brief, Barry just hung up
with Ali,

and here's what he's provided.

Those details were put up
on the board.

The board is finally complete.

There is now a clear line
from the original

World Trade Center bombing

through Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

to Osama Bin Laden,

and the 2,978 murders on 9/11.

Our enemies are about to face
the consequences.

On my orders,

the United States military
has begun strikes

against Al Qaeda terrorist
training camps

and military installations

of the Taliban regime
in Afghanistan.

It was the best time
that I ever saw

where law enforcement
came together as one.

Good evening.
It's three months to the day

since the murderous attack
on America

and the US grand jury
has issued

the first formal
criminal charges in the case.

Attorney General
John Ashcroft calls

the 30-page indictment
of Zacarias Moussaoui quote,

"A chronical of evil."

That humble little building
on the west side highway

was housing the most complex,
important,

largest investigation
in FBI history.

An extraordinary confession

from the suspected mastermind
of 9/11 attacks.

According to the Pentagon,
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

admitted responsibility
for 9/11

and for a string
of attacks and plots,

including plans to kill
Presidents Clinton and Carter.

What was accomplished out of
that garage

was nothing short of amazing.

Tonight, I can report
to the American people

and to the world,
the United States

has conducted
an operation that killed

Osama Bin Laden,
the leader of Al Qaeda.

One by one, the United State

dealt with those
responsible for 9/11.

Zacarias Moussaoui
pleaded guilty

to conspiring to kill Americans
as part of the attacks.

He is currently serving
a life sentence without parole.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,

the mastermind of the attacks,
remains at Guantanamo Bay.

His trial has yet to happen.

What began as an improvised
response

to an emergency evacuation
yielded extraordinary results.

And that was not
just figuratively

but also quite literally
the start of something.

It was a new model.

The structure that evolved
in the 26th Street Garage

is known as the
Joint Operation Center

In FBI parlance, the JOC.

And it has become the template

for counterterrorism
activities.

Agencies cooperate closely,
intelligence is shared quickly,

and there
is constant vigilance.

I look at that warehouse

and I realize
its whispered role in history.

There's no sign,

and nobody really knows
what happened in there.

What went on after 9/11,
it should forever be here

that the largest investigation

in the history
of US law enforcement,

if not international
law enforcement,

was run from this
very rudimentary grease-lidden

on the floor,
oil-slicked garage.

It's just an incredible feat.
It really is.

In all the memories
of the garage,

both stressful but also
enlightened, like hopeful.

It was all the best
of everybody

was here in the garage.

It was the investigators,
support, the people.

And that's what was so great
about you know,

everything in the garage
was just work

and trying to solve this,

you know,
most heinous crime ever, right?

Just unspeakable, really,

but everybody just sort of put
aside the unspeakable

and got it done.

Putting aside the unthinkable
and getting it done

is what FBI agents
are trained to do.

Now, after two decades in
Afghanistan,

American troops are out.

The threat based
on history came true.

Government fell in an instant.

Taliban seized control.

We're never going to eliminate
terrorism in our lifetime.

Just like the FBI's mission
never ends.

They'll regroup,
find new sources

and stay ahead
of the terrorists

as they have
for the past 20 years.

Preserving our safety in an
increasingly complicated world.

One Sunday, I was walking up
the street near my house.

There was this little church
on the Upper East Side

and I remember walking
and they were singing hymns

and I was like, they're happy.
And they should be.

They should be not--
it's okay to be joyful

and sing in church.

And I remember
feeling like taking a minute

and sitting outside
and listening to the hymns.

'Cause it was,
I think the first time

I was reconnecting
with New York.

First time I was seeing
my fellow New Yorkers

you know, being New Yorkers,

and singing a hymn.

You know?

And they were joyful
inside the church,

so, for me, it was rewarding

'cause it was like,
it's okay, you know?

Humanity is here.

It's gonna be okay.