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These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:03,470 --> 00:00:05,739 Anybody know what the smoke is in Lower Manhattan? 2 00:00:06,940 --> 00:00:07,841 I'm sorry, say again? 3 00:00:08,075 --> 00:00:09,443 ‐ It's coming outta the top 4 00:00:09,676 --> 00:00:10,344 of the World Trade Center building, 5 00:00:10,577 --> 00:00:12,579 a major fire. 6 00:00:15,816 --> 00:00:18,418 ‐ If you do us harm, 7 00:00:18,652 --> 00:00:20,721 justice will be done. 8 00:00:20,954 --> 00:00:24,291 ‐ The number one priority was finding bin Laden. 9 00:00:24,525 --> 00:00:27,861 ‐ Over ten years, every possible lead led nowhere. 10 00:00:28,095 --> 00:00:31,131 ‐ This was the best lead they'd had. 11 00:00:31,365 --> 00:00:34,001 ‐ How could he have lived there in that compound 12 00:00:34,234 --> 00:00:35,836 without anybody knowing? 13 00:00:36,069 --> 00:00:38,238 ‐ Every one of you have wished you were the man 14 00:00:38,472 --> 00:00:40,440 going on the mission to get bin Laden. 15 00:00:40,674 --> 00:00:42,743 Well, you are the men, and this is the mission. 16 00:00:42,976 --> 00:00:45,212 ‐ Obviously it was a very dangerous operation. 17 00:00:45,445 --> 00:00:48,882 ‐ If Pakistani forces got there, they had to fight their way out. 18 00:00:49,116 --> 00:00:50,217 ‐ We probably wouldn't be making it back 19 00:00:50,450 --> 00:00:51,485 ‐ This is what I was born for. 20 00:00:51,718 --> 00:00:53,453 This is it. We're doing this for 9/11. 21 00:01:08,802 --> 00:01:11,438 In many ways, it was just a normal day. 22 00:01:11,672 --> 00:01:14,841 It was a Tuesday morning and I was standing at my desk. 23 00:01:17,277 --> 00:01:18,579 And so when my young assistant came in 24 00:01:18,812 --> 00:01:20,781 and said that a plane had hit the World Trade Center, 25 00:01:21,014 --> 00:01:22,883 I thought, my God, that's a strange accident. 26 00:01:23,116 --> 00:01:27,287 And I talked to President Bush and he said, keep me informed. 27 00:01:31,358 --> 00:01:33,760 I was the deputy director of naval intelligence. 28 00:01:33,994 --> 00:01:36,730 In the OP center conducting our morning meeting, 29 00:01:36,964 --> 00:01:41,234 we, like the rest of the world, thought it was an accident. 30 00:01:41,468 --> 00:01:44,538 ‐ My SEAL team had just finished work in Kosovo. 31 00:01:44,771 --> 00:01:46,707 We saw the North Tower was hit and it was smoking. 32 00:01:46,940 --> 00:01:50,577 And the television analysts were saying that it sounds like 33 00:01:50,811 --> 00:01:52,846 a small plane hit the North Tower. 34 00:01:53,080 --> 00:01:54,648 We're like, that's a huge hole with a lot of smoke, 35 00:01:54,881 --> 00:01:56,149 that's not a small plane. 36 00:01:56,383 --> 00:01:57,584 And we were sitting there discussing it, 37 00:01:57,818 --> 00:02:00,220 a handful of Navy SEALs and a few intelligence people. 38 00:02:00,454 --> 00:02:03,824 And then we‐‐ we saw the second plane. 39 00:02:04,057 --> 00:02:05,892 And I saw the South Tower be hit. 40 00:02:06,126 --> 00:02:09,496 And I said, that's al‐Qaeda. That's Osama bin Laden. 41 00:02:09,730 --> 00:02:13,300 I thought to myself, my God, how could we have been so wrong? 42 00:02:13,533 --> 00:02:14,935 How could we have missed so much? 43 00:02:15,168 --> 00:02:19,172 ‐ And went back up to my office, 44 00:02:19,406 --> 00:02:21,208 and about ten minutes later, 45 00:02:21,441 --> 00:02:23,343 the plane hit the Pentagon. 46 00:02:23,577 --> 00:02:25,812 Right where I had been, 47 00:02:26,046 --> 00:02:29,816 right where I left my folks. 48 00:02:30,050 --> 00:02:34,054 And naval intelligence lost eight people that day, 49 00:02:34,287 --> 00:02:36,189 eight of our finest. 50 00:02:36,423 --> 00:02:38,925 ‐ United 93, have you got information on that yet? 51 00:02:39,159 --> 00:02:40,894 ‐ Yeah, he's down. ‐ He's down? 52 00:02:41,128 --> 00:02:42,763 ‐ Yes. ‐ Why didn't she land? 53 00:02:42,996 --> 00:02:45,265 ‐ She did‐‐ she did not land. 54 00:02:45,499 --> 00:02:47,501 ‐ Oh, she's down? 55 00:02:47,734 --> 00:02:48,669 ‐ Nobody knew what was happening. 56 00:02:48,902 --> 00:02:50,170 Nobody could have imagined 57 00:02:50,404 --> 00:02:53,573 four aircraft attacking... 58 00:02:56,343 --> 00:02:58,011 US cities. 59 00:02:58,245 --> 00:02:59,680 I remember watching the Twin Towers go down 60 00:02:59,913 --> 00:03:01,848 in the library of my high school. 61 00:03:04,084 --> 00:03:06,920 It definitely strengthened my belief in what I wanted to do 62 00:03:07,154 --> 00:03:09,189 to join the military and serve my country. 63 00:03:11,992 --> 00:03:14,194 This was of an order of magnitude the country 64 00:03:14,428 --> 00:03:17,464 hadn't seen anything equivalent to since Pearl Harbor. 65 00:03:20,734 --> 00:03:22,636 These people did not hesitate to kill 66 00:03:22,869 --> 00:03:25,472 almost 3,000 people in 9/11. 67 00:03:28,208 --> 00:03:31,511 It called into question 68 00:03:31,745 --> 00:03:33,580 who we were. 69 00:03:33,814 --> 00:03:36,550 And how strong we really were. 70 00:03:36,783 --> 00:03:40,220 America does not forget 71 00:03:40,454 --> 00:03:41,722 that we are resilient, 72 00:03:41,955 --> 00:03:47,661 that if you do us harm, justice will be done. 73 00:03:54,334 --> 00:03:57,270 ‐ This nation stands with the good people 74 00:03:57,504 --> 00:03:59,005 of New York City, 75 00:03:59,239 --> 00:04:03,577 and New Jersey and Connecticut as we mourn the loss of 76 00:04:03,810 --> 00:04:06,012 thousands of our citizens. 77 00:04:06,246 --> 00:04:07,380 We can't hear you. 78 00:04:07,614 --> 00:04:09,716 ‐ I can hear you. 79 00:04:15,722 --> 00:04:17,057 I can hear you, 80 00:04:17,290 --> 00:04:19,392 the rest of the world hears you, 81 00:04:19,626 --> 00:04:21,661 and the people who... 82 00:04:24,397 --> 00:04:27,134 And the people who knocked these buildings down 83 00:04:27,367 --> 00:04:29,136 will hear all of us soon. 84 00:04:31,705 --> 00:04:34,674 USA! USA! USA! 85 00:05:04,204 --> 00:05:09,309 Bin Laden was unusual among terrorists in that 86 00:05:09,543 --> 00:05:11,645 his top priority was major attacks 87 00:05:11,878 --> 00:05:14,815 in and against the United States. 88 00:05:15,048 --> 00:05:17,317 When 9/11 happened, there was the horrible feeling 89 00:05:17,551 --> 00:05:19,452 that something else could be coming right down the pike. 90 00:05:19,686 --> 00:05:21,054 And we knew, we had intelligence, 91 00:05:21,288 --> 00:05:22,422 we knew the enemy was indeed trying 92 00:05:22,656 --> 00:05:24,491 to generate additional attacks. 93 00:05:26,726 --> 00:05:29,563 On September 26, 2001, 94 00:05:29,796 --> 00:05:34,868 a small team of CIA officers arrived in Afghanistan. 95 00:05:35,101 --> 00:05:37,637 They are the first Americans deployed in what will become 96 00:05:37,871 --> 00:05:39,906 a long war against al‐Qaeda 97 00:05:40,140 --> 00:05:42,676 and the Taliban‐led Afghan government 98 00:05:42,909 --> 00:05:45,679 which was harboring Osama bin Laden. 99 00:05:45,912 --> 00:05:48,014 The number one priority was finding bin Laden, 100 00:05:48,248 --> 00:05:51,284 destroying al‐Qaeda and other terrorist associates. 101 00:05:51,518 --> 00:05:53,987 My job there was to try to collect intelligence. 102 00:05:54,221 --> 00:05:55,188 Where were they hiding? 103 00:05:55,422 --> 00:05:57,490 There was battlefield intelligence. 104 00:06:05,632 --> 00:06:08,768 Soon after, a US‐led military coalition launches 105 00:06:09,002 --> 00:06:12,572 a massive assault to bring down the ruling Taliban government 106 00:06:12,806 --> 00:06:14,641 which refused to hand over bin Laden. 107 00:06:16,543 --> 00:06:19,479 As ground forces advance in Afghanistan, 108 00:06:19,713 --> 00:06:23,650 American intelligence picks up bin Laden's trail. 109 00:06:23,884 --> 00:06:26,186 We knew he had fled Kandahar, 110 00:06:26,419 --> 00:06:30,824 and then we had reporting he was in Kabul and Jalalabad. 111 00:06:31,057 --> 00:06:35,662 By December 2001, the hunt moves to the Tora Bora cave complex 112 00:06:35,896 --> 00:06:38,732 in the White Mountains, an area where bin Laden 113 00:06:38,965 --> 00:06:45,438 had taken refuge years before during the Soviet Afghan war. 114 00:06:45,672 --> 00:06:48,541 And then we heard bin Laden leading a prayer 115 00:06:48,775 --> 00:06:52,412 in Tora Bora with his leaders when he was there. 116 00:06:56,650 --> 00:06:59,085 ‐ The geography in the White Mountains, 117 00:06:59,319 --> 00:07:01,421 the Tora Bora mountains, is just‐‐ 118 00:07:01,655 --> 00:07:05,525 you have to set foot on it to understand the enormity of it, 119 00:07:05,759 --> 00:07:07,060 the scale, the depth of it, 120 00:07:07,294 --> 00:07:11,564 and the ability for people to disappear in that mass. 121 00:07:11,798 --> 00:07:15,035 I mean, there are literally more caves here 122 00:07:15,268 --> 00:07:16,770 than we are capable of counting. 123 00:07:25,111 --> 00:07:27,113 ‐ The trail went cold. 124 00:07:27,347 --> 00:07:29,416 By February, it had gotten very chilly, 125 00:07:29,649 --> 00:07:32,819 and by early March, it was cold. 126 00:07:34,254 --> 00:07:36,523 With no leads left to follow, 127 00:07:36,756 --> 00:07:40,193 intelligence agencies take up the hunt. 128 00:07:46,633 --> 00:07:47,968 We had about 129 00:07:48,168 --> 00:07:51,004 40 or 50 analysts devoted full‐time 130 00:07:51,237 --> 00:07:54,374 to working al Qaeda and the hunt for bin Laden. 131 00:07:57,310 --> 00:08:00,714 They were all sorts of imagery analysts, CIA officers. 132 00:08:00,947 --> 00:08:04,250 We involved, people from NSA, people from DIA, 133 00:08:04,484 --> 00:08:07,587 people from NGA. 134 00:08:07,821 --> 00:08:09,055 We had a lot of rumors, 135 00:08:09,289 --> 00:08:11,658 a lot of clandestine reporting that was not accurate. 136 00:08:11,891 --> 00:08:14,294 ‐ There were a number of bin Laden sightings, 137 00:08:14,527 --> 00:08:16,229 and you were always really required 138 00:08:16,463 --> 00:08:17,430 to kind of run that to ground. 139 00:08:17,664 --> 00:08:19,833 ‐ We called it a Bigfoot sighting. 140 00:08:20,066 --> 00:08:22,268 You know, a supposed bin Laden sighting. 141 00:08:22,502 --> 00:08:25,171 Some people were just making up stories 142 00:08:25,405 --> 00:08:26,673 and telling us that I saw 143 00:08:26,906 --> 00:08:29,275 bin Laden at such and such place. 144 00:08:29,509 --> 00:08:31,177 And we had to follow all the leads, 145 00:08:31,411 --> 00:08:34,214 although we knew that probably it's nothing. 146 00:08:34,447 --> 00:08:37,017 ‐ The source would just say anything in order to get paid. 147 00:08:37,250 --> 00:08:39,552 ‐ George W. Bush didn't want another memo saying 148 00:08:39,786 --> 00:08:41,054 we really don't know where he is, 149 00:08:41,287 --> 00:08:44,424 but we have some reporting that suggests he may be there. 150 00:08:44,657 --> 00:08:46,993 And I can understand the president in his frustration. 151 00:08:49,763 --> 00:08:53,566 Various policymakers at various times in this cycle 152 00:08:53,800 --> 00:08:57,270 would be ruffled about the fact that there was nothing new. 153 00:08:57,504 --> 00:08:58,872 That's the same thing you told me last month, 154 00:08:59,105 --> 00:09:01,408 six months ago, and a year ago. 155 00:09:01,641 --> 00:09:03,243 How can there be nothing new? 156 00:09:03,476 --> 00:09:04,577 And that feedback comes back 157 00:09:04,811 --> 00:09:07,380 to the interagency analytic team, 158 00:09:07,614 --> 00:09:10,016 well, we can't tell you what we don't know. 159 00:09:10,250 --> 00:09:12,852 While intelligence analysts press for new leads, 160 00:09:13,086 --> 00:09:16,556 bin Laden's organization, al‐Qaeda, orchestrates a series 161 00:09:16,790 --> 00:09:18,625 of brutal attacks around the world. 162 00:09:39,045 --> 00:09:40,914 For the intelligence community, 163 00:09:41,147 --> 00:09:43,850 the hunt for bin Laden becomes part of a deeper effort 164 00:09:44,084 --> 00:09:46,386 to understand the inner workings of al‐Qaeda 165 00:09:46,619 --> 00:09:49,823 and disrupt their deadly planning. 166 00:09:50,056 --> 00:09:52,092 ‐ Our goal wasn't just to get Osama bin Laden, 167 00:09:52,325 --> 00:09:54,461 it wasn't just to get al‐Qaeda, 168 00:09:54,694 --> 00:09:58,865 it was to do that in such an intense fashion that we were not 169 00:09:59,099 --> 00:10:02,135 going to take another 9/11 along the way. 170 00:10:02,368 --> 00:10:05,905 ‐ So the goal was basically put al‐Qaeda on the run 171 00:10:06,139 --> 00:10:09,476 so that they can no longer generate those major operations. 172 00:10:09,709 --> 00:10:12,579 They're focused more on their survival. 173 00:10:12,812 --> 00:10:15,582 The intelligence community moves their analysts 174 00:10:15,815 --> 00:10:18,852 to the front lines, integrating with military units, 175 00:10:19,085 --> 00:10:21,154 leading the fight against al‐Qaeda. 176 00:10:21,387 --> 00:10:24,324 The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, 177 00:10:24,557 --> 00:10:28,161 or NGA, plays a key role. 178 00:10:28,394 --> 00:10:31,364 ‐ So what does NGA provide? 179 00:10:31,598 --> 00:10:35,068 They provide the imagery of the battlefield. 180 00:10:35,301 --> 00:10:37,904 If a compound is going to be raided, 181 00:10:38,138 --> 00:10:39,806 what's the compound look like? 182 00:10:40,039 --> 00:10:42,208 Are there blind spots in the compound? 183 00:10:42,442 --> 00:10:46,079 So when the assault team, or when the troops go in, 184 00:10:46,312 --> 00:10:48,815 what are they going to be expecting? 185 00:10:49,048 --> 00:10:50,316 ‐ You go conduct the operation, 186 00:10:50,550 --> 00:10:51,985 you collect all the intel you can, 187 00:10:52,218 --> 00:10:53,653 you come back, you turn over 188 00:10:53,887 --> 00:10:57,190 all of that information to your intelligence team. 189 00:10:57,423 --> 00:10:59,159 They start putting all that together, 190 00:10:59,392 --> 00:11:00,693 connecting all the dots. 191 00:11:00,927 --> 00:11:02,362 ‐ If the analysts didn't have the information there, 192 00:11:02,595 --> 00:11:05,298 they would reach back to Langley, FBI headquarters, 193 00:11:05,532 --> 00:11:07,300 NSA or wherever they needed to 194 00:11:07,534 --> 00:11:10,136 to get the information and make it readily available to us. 195 00:11:10,370 --> 00:11:12,438 ‐ We understood how they operated, 196 00:11:12,672 --> 00:11:16,142 their up tempo, and we fit right into that. 197 00:11:16,376 --> 00:11:17,810 The sooner you can hit the next target, 198 00:11:18,044 --> 00:11:20,013 you can catch them when they're not prepared for it 199 00:11:20,246 --> 00:11:22,115 and just keep going that way, start building your web, 200 00:11:22,348 --> 00:11:24,184 getting to the higher level enemy. 201 00:11:30,690 --> 00:11:33,226 In pulling them out and detaining them, 202 00:11:33,459 --> 00:11:35,562 you're neutering bin Laden's organization by taking out 203 00:11:35,795 --> 00:11:38,464 his most seasoned, competent lieutenants. 204 00:11:38,698 --> 00:11:42,101 ‐ We knew that we had to generate an onslaught 205 00:11:42,335 --> 00:11:47,540 against the enemy, to take the initiative. 206 00:11:47,774 --> 00:11:49,409 The forces on the ground were working 207 00:11:49,642 --> 00:11:51,110 generally 20 hours a day, 208 00:11:51,344 --> 00:11:54,614 sometimes 24 hours a day, several days in a row. 209 00:11:54,847 --> 00:11:56,416 When you're running that many missions, 210 00:11:56,649 --> 00:11:59,519 the ground forces are just very, very good at what they do. 211 00:12:04,224 --> 00:12:05,458 In spite of these efforts, 212 00:12:05,692 --> 00:12:08,661 al‐Qaeda's leader remains at large. 213 00:12:08,895 --> 00:12:12,498 Seven years, four months, and nine days after 9/11, 214 00:12:12,732 --> 00:12:15,034 a new president takes up the hunt. 215 00:12:15,268 --> 00:12:18,204 ‐ I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear... 216 00:12:18,438 --> 00:12:22,175 I had committed to reinvigorating 217 00:12:22,408 --> 00:12:26,412 what appeared to have been a stalled approach 218 00:12:26,646 --> 00:12:28,848 to getting bin Laden. 219 00:12:29,082 --> 00:12:32,518 I assigned Leon Panetta, our CIA director, 220 00:12:32,752 --> 00:12:38,691 to mobilize all the assets that had already worked on it 221 00:12:38,925 --> 00:12:40,827 and take a fresh look at it. 222 00:12:41,060 --> 00:12:45,331 ‐ The president made clear to me 223 00:12:45,565 --> 00:12:48,434 the importance of going after bin Laden 224 00:12:48,668 --> 00:12:50,803 and I not only agreed with him, 225 00:12:51,037 --> 00:12:55,842 but I said that effort was in many ways responsible 226 00:12:56,075 --> 00:13:00,246 for my desire to become head of the CIA. 227 00:13:00,480 --> 00:13:02,682 ‐ Finding bin Laden was always a priority 228 00:13:02,915 --> 00:13:05,351 for both President Bush and President Obama. 229 00:13:05,585 --> 00:13:08,855 They never let us forget that it was a high priority. 230 00:13:09,088 --> 00:13:11,624 But in truth, not much was going on. 231 00:13:11,858 --> 00:13:14,060 You know, CIA was trying to find him, 232 00:13:14,294 --> 00:13:17,830 but we weren't having much luck. 233 00:13:18,064 --> 00:13:19,666 When President Obama came in, 234 00:13:19,899 --> 00:13:24,137 he obviously wanted a more intensified search. 235 00:13:24,370 --> 00:13:26,105 Frankly, I thought it was a little bit like 236 00:13:26,339 --> 00:13:28,875 asking Michelangelo to paint faster. 237 00:13:31,644 --> 00:13:33,613 I'd been working al‐Qaeda for several years, 238 00:13:33,846 --> 00:13:36,449 working on threats mostly to the homeland 239 00:13:36,683 --> 00:13:39,285 and US interests overseas, trying to disrupt plots. 240 00:13:39,519 --> 00:13:42,522 Working threats every day that there wasn't an attack 241 00:13:42,755 --> 00:13:43,923 was success, right? 242 00:13:44,157 --> 00:13:47,360 You knew you had done your job. 243 00:13:47,593 --> 00:13:49,395 I started working on bin Laden specifically, 244 00:13:49,629 --> 00:13:51,230 right around 2007. 245 00:13:51,464 --> 00:13:53,599 When you're moving into a manhunt scenario, 246 00:13:53,833 --> 00:13:56,669 every day that nothing happens is a failure. 247 00:13:56,903 --> 00:14:01,107 Driven by the potential costs of the failure to find bin Laden, 248 00:14:01,341 --> 00:14:04,043 intelligence officers accept greater personal risk 249 00:14:04,277 --> 00:14:06,279 in the intensifying hunt. 250 00:14:06,512 --> 00:14:07,880 ‐ You have to have the human intelligence. 251 00:14:08,114 --> 00:14:10,983 If you don't, your war is going to be longer, much more costly, 252 00:14:11,217 --> 00:14:15,555 the outcome much less certain, which means at some point 253 00:14:15,788 --> 00:14:19,826 you are gonna have to put your people in the company 254 00:14:20,059 --> 00:14:23,162 of members of a terrorist organization. 255 00:14:23,396 --> 00:14:25,665 Towards the end of 2009, 256 00:14:25,898 --> 00:14:27,834 the intelligence community mobilizes around 257 00:14:28,034 --> 00:14:30,169 a possible lead to bin Laden. 258 00:14:30,403 --> 00:14:36,976 ‐ The Jordanians had suggested that they had their hands on 259 00:14:37,210 --> 00:14:42,181 a possible spy who had some medical training, 260 00:14:42,415 --> 00:14:46,986 and that they thought there was a good chance you might be able 261 00:14:47,220 --> 00:14:50,690 to go into Afghanistan, but also Pakistan, 262 00:14:50,923 --> 00:14:53,760 and see if he could locate Zawahiri, 263 00:14:53,993 --> 00:14:56,429 who was bin Laden's second in command. 264 00:14:56,662 --> 00:14:59,599 ‐ We sent about a dozen of our best officers out to a base 265 00:14:59,832 --> 00:15:02,668 in eastern Afghanistan so that we could vet him. 266 00:15:02,902 --> 00:15:05,872 On December 30th, 2009, 267 00:15:06,105 --> 00:15:09,108 the CIA sets up a meeting with the possible spy, 268 00:15:09,342 --> 00:15:10,977 Dr. Humam al Balawi, 269 00:15:11,210 --> 00:15:13,679 at Forward Operating Base Chapman, 270 00:15:13,913 --> 00:15:16,215 named for Sergeant Nathan Chapman, 271 00:15:16,449 --> 00:15:20,286 the first American soldier to die in Afghanistan. 272 00:15:20,520 --> 00:15:22,955 ‐ Chapman sits in kind of a bowl. 273 00:15:23,189 --> 00:15:25,191 Some people call it the coast bowl, 274 00:15:25,425 --> 00:15:27,126 where you have mostly mountains around you, 275 00:15:27,360 --> 00:15:29,862 and in the middle there's the city. 276 00:15:30,096 --> 00:15:33,566 This is literally the end of the line. 277 00:15:33,800 --> 00:15:35,501 ‐ Director Panetta had briefed the president, 278 00:15:35,735 --> 00:15:37,403 had briefed the National Security Council 279 00:15:37,637 --> 00:15:39,906 about this important, tantalizing lead. 280 00:15:40,139 --> 00:15:42,041 And we all waited for that meeting to occur. 281 00:15:47,213 --> 00:15:49,849 At a remote base on the front lines in Afghanistan, 282 00:15:51,217 --> 00:15:52,618 American intelligence officers wait to meet a man 283 00:15:52,852 --> 00:15:55,988 they believe might lead them to the highest levels of al‐Qaeda. 284 00:15:58,458 --> 00:16:00,626 ‐ The day of, we're all grouped together, 285 00:16:00,860 --> 00:16:02,728 waiting for the arrival. 286 00:16:02,962 --> 00:16:07,033 Everybody's excited to do the job that they needed to do 287 00:16:07,266 --> 00:16:09,769 and to get the information they needed to get. 288 00:16:10,002 --> 00:16:12,772 The car pulled up, and this individual, 289 00:16:13,005 --> 00:16:15,708 instead of getting out on the side where people 290 00:16:15,942 --> 00:16:19,712 were all standing, got out on the other side. 291 00:16:19,946 --> 00:16:21,380 That spooked the security officers 292 00:16:21,614 --> 00:16:23,883 who immediately went up to him, 293 00:16:24,116 --> 00:16:28,321 and they noticed that he had a hand inside of his cloak. 294 00:16:28,554 --> 00:16:31,591 ‐ With any sensitive operation like this, 295 00:16:31,824 --> 00:16:33,493 there's already risk involved. 296 00:16:33,726 --> 00:16:36,696 And that's the nature of that business. 297 00:16:36,929 --> 00:16:38,898 Unfortunately, to learn about bad people, 298 00:16:39,131 --> 00:16:40,399 you have to meet with bad people. 299 00:16:40,633 --> 00:16:42,268 ‐ And they told him, get your hands up, 300 00:16:42,502 --> 00:16:47,106 get your hands out of your robe, and he refused to do that. 301 00:16:47,340 --> 00:16:50,910 But by the time they had a chance to do anything, 302 00:16:51,143 --> 00:16:54,180 he had pulled the pin on a suicide vest 303 00:16:54,413 --> 00:16:56,082 that was extremely powerful. 304 00:17:05,291 --> 00:17:08,895 ‐ It sent metal shrapnel. 305 00:17:09,128 --> 00:17:12,098 And not to mention the rocks that were under his feet 306 00:17:12,331 --> 00:17:14,967 became shrapnel, it just sent it all out. 307 00:17:15,167 --> 00:17:19,205 And I ended up with eight‐‐ 308 00:17:19,438 --> 00:17:20,973 eight shrapnel wounds in my legs, 309 00:17:21,207 --> 00:17:23,142 but one in the forehead. 310 00:17:23,376 --> 00:17:24,911 And the last thing I remember 311 00:17:25,144 --> 00:17:28,180 is being loaded onto the helicopter. 312 00:17:28,414 --> 00:17:31,717 And then I woke up maybe a week later in Bethesda, Maryland. 313 00:17:33,452 --> 00:17:37,823 ‐ That vest killed seven of our CIA officers 314 00:17:38,057 --> 00:17:41,027 and security individuals, 315 00:17:41,260 --> 00:17:44,497 it wounded at least another four or five others. 316 00:17:44,730 --> 00:17:46,399 The bombing at FOB Chapman 317 00:17:46,632 --> 00:17:49,402 was one of the most terrible days 318 00:17:49,635 --> 00:17:52,838 we've had a long time. 319 00:17:53,072 --> 00:17:58,077 Personal friends of mine, people that I loved died there. 320 00:17:58,311 --> 00:18:00,880 I believe that had a real impact for all 321 00:18:01,113 --> 00:18:03,182 of the intelligence community, 322 00:18:03,416 --> 00:18:07,320 While all of us certainly knew theoretically 323 00:18:07,553 --> 00:18:10,790 that this could occur as folks are deployed forward, 324 00:18:11,023 --> 00:18:14,994 until it actually happens, it's not real. 325 00:18:15,227 --> 00:18:21,334 And, that said, we still had volunteers lining up 326 00:18:21,567 --> 00:18:23,235 to deploy forward. 327 00:18:27,340 --> 00:18:30,610 I've heard people say there's no piece of intelligence 328 00:18:30,843 --> 00:18:34,046 that's worth the life of one of our officers. 329 00:18:34,280 --> 00:18:36,382 I disagree. 330 00:18:36,616 --> 00:18:39,885 I think there are times when you, a single person, 331 00:18:40,119 --> 00:18:44,624 can get intelligence that might save another person 332 00:18:44,857 --> 00:18:48,194 another two people, a car full of people, 333 00:18:48,427 --> 00:18:49,362 an embassy full of people, 334 00:18:49,595 --> 00:18:50,696 an airplane full of people, 335 00:18:50,930 --> 00:18:52,431 a city full of people. 336 00:18:54,734 --> 00:18:57,837 ‐ It was tragic what happened, 337 00:18:58,070 --> 00:19:01,307 and the lives that were lost, 338 00:19:01,540 --> 00:19:06,078 but that incident created an even greater impetus 339 00:19:06,312 --> 00:19:07,480 within the CIA, 340 00:19:07,713 --> 00:19:11,851 particularly those involved with the hunt for bin Laden. 341 00:19:12,084 --> 00:19:17,923 ‐ Something that I noticed in CIA is when we suffer a loss, 342 00:19:18,157 --> 00:19:22,294 you know, in the line of duty, there is always, every time, 343 00:19:22,528 --> 00:19:25,297 an increase in resolve on the part of everyone 344 00:19:25,531 --> 00:19:27,900 to do their job better. 345 00:19:28,100 --> 00:19:29,802 And I think people realize 346 00:19:30,036 --> 00:19:32,405 that you can grieve while you work. 347 00:19:32,638 --> 00:19:36,375 You can grieve while you work harder. 348 00:19:45,051 --> 00:19:47,853 Nine years have now passed. 349 00:19:48,087 --> 00:19:51,357 In that time, we have shed 350 00:19:51,590 --> 00:19:54,694 more tears than we will ever know. 351 00:19:54,927 --> 00:19:57,096 And though it must seem some days as though the world 352 00:19:57,329 --> 00:20:02,768 has moved on to other things, I say to you today, 353 00:20:03,002 --> 00:20:07,139 that your loved ones endure in the heart of our nation 354 00:20:07,373 --> 00:20:09,542 now and forever. 355 00:20:14,714 --> 00:20:16,849 ‐ The question that people were constantly asking us was, 356 00:20:17,083 --> 00:20:19,018 where's bin Laden? 357 00:20:19,251 --> 00:20:21,620 So we were constantly looking for locations. 358 00:20:23,522 --> 00:20:24,890 As time goes on, you start to realize, well, 359 00:20:25,124 --> 00:20:27,193 there's an infinite number of possibilities on 360 00:20:27,426 --> 00:20:28,894 where bin Laden could be. 361 00:20:29,128 --> 00:20:31,831 We have to be smarter about how we approach it. 362 00:20:32,064 --> 00:20:34,033 We flipped the question and the strategy from, you know, 363 00:20:34,266 --> 00:20:38,304 where's bin Laden to who is harboring bin Laden, 364 00:20:38,537 --> 00:20:40,906 because that's a more limited number of possibilities. 365 00:20:41,140 --> 00:20:42,374 You don't have millions of people 366 00:20:42,608 --> 00:20:43,743 who could be harboring bin Laden, 367 00:20:43,976 --> 00:20:47,113 you've really got, you know, two dozen at best. 368 00:20:47,346 --> 00:20:49,882 ‐ We had already sort of understood that 369 00:20:50,116 --> 00:20:53,385 he would be likely to be with his family. 370 00:20:53,619 --> 00:20:56,622 And so, you know, that sensationalized story 371 00:20:56,856 --> 00:21:00,426 that he's with 100 fighters in a cave in Afghanistan 372 00:21:00,659 --> 00:21:04,296 really doesn't start to look very likely. 373 00:21:04,530 --> 00:21:07,666 ‐ We had a strategy where we had individuals on a list, 374 00:21:07,900 --> 00:21:09,135 and these are the people that we need to go after 375 00:21:09,368 --> 00:21:10,870 in order to find bin Laden. 376 00:21:12,805 --> 00:21:15,441 Abu Ahmed was in many ways qualitatively different 377 00:21:15,674 --> 00:21:17,243 than some of the other leads we would get. 378 00:21:17,476 --> 00:21:19,078 It just made a lot of sense. 379 00:21:19,311 --> 00:21:20,579 He was a Pashtun, 380 00:21:20,813 --> 00:21:23,549 he was a Pakistani who grew up in Kuwait. 381 00:21:23,783 --> 00:21:27,052 So he spoke native Pashto and he spoke native Arabic. 382 00:21:27,286 --> 00:21:29,688 He also, as we would learn very quickly into the hunt, 383 00:21:29,922 --> 00:21:31,190 he worked for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, 384 00:21:31,423 --> 00:21:33,392 who was the gatekeeper for bin Laden. 385 00:21:33,626 --> 00:21:37,463 He can operate in Pakistan as a Pakistani, 386 00:21:37,696 --> 00:21:39,899 but he has kind of an Arab mindset, right? 387 00:21:40,132 --> 00:21:41,500 That's somebody that, you know, 388 00:21:41,734 --> 00:21:44,036 would be a great harborer for bin Laden. 389 00:21:44,270 --> 00:21:49,008 Ibrahim Saeed Ahmed, known as Abu Ahmed al‐Kuwaiti, 390 00:21:49,241 --> 00:21:53,379 had a history of working for senior al‐Qaeda leaders. 391 00:21:53,612 --> 00:21:57,616 In August 2010, American intelligence locks on 392 00:21:57,850 --> 00:22:00,119 to the cell phones of al‐Kuwaiti and his brother 393 00:22:00,352 --> 00:22:02,955 in the Pakistani city of Peshawar. 394 00:22:03,189 --> 00:22:06,192 Their movements indicate they may be acting as couriers. 395 00:22:08,394 --> 00:22:10,362 ‐ The couriers were taking their cell phones 396 00:22:10,596 --> 00:22:12,765 well away from the compound then activating them, 397 00:22:12,998 --> 00:22:15,501 then making the calls home, then turning them off 398 00:22:15,734 --> 00:22:16,969 and then going back to the compound. 399 00:22:17,203 --> 00:22:21,874 ‐ The couriers were talking discreet. 400 00:22:22,107 --> 00:22:25,744 It was not open talking, like normal talking. 401 00:22:25,978 --> 00:22:29,748 ‐ One phone call was from a friend who basically said, 402 00:22:29,982 --> 00:22:32,518 "what are you doing" to the courier. 403 00:22:32,751 --> 00:22:34,520 And the courier kept ignoring it, 404 00:22:34,753 --> 00:22:36,222 trying to dodge the question. 405 00:22:36,455 --> 00:22:38,324 And he said, "No, no, tell me what you're doing. 406 00:22:38,557 --> 00:22:39,725 "I haven't seen you in a long time. 407 00:22:39,959 --> 00:22:41,393 What are you doing?" 408 00:22:41,627 --> 00:22:43,295 And there was a pause, and he said, 409 00:22:43,529 --> 00:22:46,465 "I'm doing the same thing I did before." 410 00:22:46,699 --> 00:22:49,335 And there was suddenly silence, 411 00:22:49,568 --> 00:22:51,503 and the person on the other end of the line said, 412 00:22:51,737 --> 00:22:53,672 "Go with God." 413 00:22:55,774 --> 00:22:58,043 Surveillance tracked these couriers 414 00:22:58,277 --> 00:23:00,746 who had a little white SUV, 415 00:23:00,980 --> 00:23:04,049 and they tracked this little white SUV 416 00:23:04,283 --> 00:23:08,020 from Peshawar to a place called Abbottabad, 417 00:23:08,254 --> 00:23:10,089 which is near the capital. 418 00:23:16,862 --> 00:23:18,697 ‐ There was an understanding 419 00:23:18,931 --> 00:23:21,567 that this was far more real 420 00:23:21,800 --> 00:23:25,070 than anything else that we had been presented with in the years 421 00:23:25,304 --> 00:23:28,307 since I had been working it. 422 00:23:28,540 --> 00:23:32,578 ‐ I remember the meeting in August of 2010. 423 00:23:32,811 --> 00:23:36,015 An officer who we call Gary 424 00:23:36,248 --> 00:23:37,416 opened the binder and he said, 425 00:23:37,650 --> 00:23:40,552 "Director, we have something new to report." 426 00:23:40,786 --> 00:23:44,657 And he said, we have been tracking two brothers 427 00:23:44,890 --> 00:23:47,426 who historically were couriers for bin Laden, 428 00:23:47,660 --> 00:23:48,827 and we have followed them. 429 00:23:49,061 --> 00:23:50,663 We have located them, and we have followed them 430 00:23:50,896 --> 00:23:52,998 up to a town called Abbottabad, 431 00:23:53,232 --> 00:23:55,134 which is north of Islamabad, 432 00:23:55,367 --> 00:23:58,203 down the end of a dead end street. 433 00:23:58,437 --> 00:24:00,072 And at the end of that dead end street, 434 00:24:00,306 --> 00:24:03,409 there's a large home there that looks like a fortress. 435 00:24:03,642 --> 00:24:05,945 And I'll never forget, Director Panetta looked up 436 00:24:06,178 --> 00:24:09,648 from his briefing materials and he said, "A fortress? 437 00:24:09,882 --> 00:24:11,050 Tell me about that fortress." 438 00:24:11,283 --> 00:24:13,218 ‐ It had 18 foot walls on one side, 439 00:24:13,452 --> 00:24:17,056 12 foot walls on the other side, 440 00:24:17,289 --> 00:24:19,658 barbed wire at the top of these walls. 441 00:24:19,892 --> 00:24:23,896 And on the third floor of this compound, 442 00:24:24,129 --> 00:24:26,365 there was an eight foot wall. 443 00:24:26,598 --> 00:24:29,601 ‐ If you're on the third floor, you'd kind of like a view. 444 00:24:29,835 --> 00:24:32,604 There was a privacy wall that was constructed 445 00:24:32,838 --> 00:24:34,773 that limited the view, 446 00:24:35,007 --> 00:24:38,143 or was it to limit the view into the compound? 447 00:24:38,377 --> 00:24:41,080 And my eyes lit up because I said, 448 00:24:41,313 --> 00:24:46,819 well, this is probably the best piece of evidence 449 00:24:47,052 --> 00:24:48,988 we've ever had since Tora Bora. 450 00:24:49,221 --> 00:24:52,458 ‐ The land and the compound was registered to two brothers. 451 00:24:52,691 --> 00:24:55,561 And though the value of the compound 452 00:24:55,794 --> 00:24:59,898 was $1 million, they had no visible source of income. 453 00:25:00,199 --> 00:25:02,101 No one really left the compound. 454 00:25:02,334 --> 00:25:05,070 The children didn't leave the compound for schooling. 455 00:25:05,304 --> 00:25:06,505 Everything was done on site. 456 00:25:06,739 --> 00:25:10,642 ‐ We looked for a cell phone, we looked for Wi‐Fi. 457 00:25:10,876 --> 00:25:13,645 We looked for other emanations, there were none. 458 00:25:13,879 --> 00:25:18,050 We looked at whether there was a local telephone we could find. 459 00:25:18,283 --> 00:25:20,119 We looked at, also, to the degree that we could, 460 00:25:20,352 --> 00:25:21,487 all local records. 461 00:25:21,720 --> 00:25:24,023 ‐ The residents here burned their trash. 462 00:25:24,256 --> 00:25:25,457 No one else burned their trash. 463 00:25:25,691 --> 00:25:28,293 They put it at the side of the road like we do here 464 00:25:28,527 --> 00:25:29,528 in the United States. 465 00:25:29,762 --> 00:25:33,532 ‐ There was a vehicle garage 466 00:25:33,766 --> 00:25:35,601 and it was double‐gate secured, 467 00:25:35,834 --> 00:25:38,303 which essentially means that you would be able to 468 00:25:38,537 --> 00:25:42,374 pull a vehicle in from the street without exposing 469 00:25:42,608 --> 00:25:44,109 the interior view of the compound 470 00:25:44,343 --> 00:25:46,845 to anyone who might just be happening to peer in. 471 00:25:50,482 --> 00:25:51,784 There was an individual 472 00:25:52,017 --> 00:25:55,521 who would come out sometimes, you know, every other day 473 00:25:55,754 --> 00:25:59,224 and go into a yard, and walk in circles 474 00:25:59,458 --> 00:26:02,027 very quickly like a prisoner in a prison yard. 475 00:26:02,261 --> 00:26:06,331 Walk in circles, probably about 10, 12, 20 times, 476 00:26:06,565 --> 00:26:08,834 and then immediately go back in. 477 00:26:09,034 --> 00:26:10,636 And I remember telling our people 478 00:26:10,869 --> 00:26:13,605 that could be bin Laden. 479 00:26:13,839 --> 00:26:15,441 It was an older gentleman. 480 00:26:15,674 --> 00:26:19,445 I said, let's get some cameras on the walls. 481 00:26:19,678 --> 00:26:22,247 Let's get some telescopes on the mountains. 482 00:26:22,481 --> 00:26:23,582 I mean, you've got to give me 483 00:26:23,816 --> 00:26:27,086 an ID of this person who's doing that. 484 00:26:27,319 --> 00:26:29,388 We thought about putting cameras up 485 00:26:29,621 --> 00:26:33,325 in the trees that surrounded the compound, 486 00:26:33,559 --> 00:26:35,727 but then they cut down the trees. 487 00:26:35,961 --> 00:26:38,397 Obviously, they, too, were worried about security. 488 00:26:39,932 --> 00:26:42,167 We knew it was a high value individual. 489 00:26:42,401 --> 00:26:45,838 We knew it was someone of deference. 490 00:26:46,071 --> 00:26:48,740 There was a level of frustration 491 00:26:48,974 --> 00:26:51,944 that we could never see Osama bin Laden. 492 00:26:52,177 --> 00:26:54,780 We‐‐ we just couldn't. 493 00:27:03,355 --> 00:27:05,858 In September 2010, CIA director Leon Panetta 494 00:27:05,991 --> 00:27:09,695 goes to the White House to inform President Barack Obama 495 00:27:09,928 --> 00:27:13,966 about a suspicious compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. 496 00:27:14,199 --> 00:27:16,768 It was around 5:00 pm, and Leon Panetta 497 00:27:17,002 --> 00:27:18,370 taps me on the shoulder and says we need 498 00:27:18,604 --> 00:27:20,506 to go upstairs to brief the old man. 499 00:27:20,739 --> 00:27:23,108 Now, as I walked into the Oval that evening, 500 00:27:23,342 --> 00:27:27,813 I had no idea what topic we were updating the old man on. 501 00:27:28,046 --> 00:27:30,682 One of the analysts rolled out 502 00:27:30,916 --> 00:27:34,686 a very large format photograph. 503 00:27:34,920 --> 00:27:36,922 A satellite image 504 00:27:37,156 --> 00:27:40,592 of a facility I had never seen before. 505 00:27:40,826 --> 00:27:43,162 I recall the president asking a few questions, you know, 506 00:27:43,395 --> 00:27:45,497 clarifying ones, you know, how do we know this, 507 00:27:45,731 --> 00:27:47,900 how do we not know that, et cetera? 508 00:27:48,133 --> 00:27:51,236 I don't feel the meeting went longer than 15 minutes or so. 509 00:27:51,470 --> 00:27:54,573 It was pretty short. 510 00:27:54,806 --> 00:27:56,341 And I remember the president thanking the team. 511 00:27:56,575 --> 00:27:58,243 He said, okay, come back when you have more. 512 00:27:59,678 --> 00:28:01,079 Over years of hunting, 513 00:28:01,313 --> 00:28:03,415 intelligence analysts produced a checklist 514 00:28:03,649 --> 00:28:04,850 for the kinds of conditions 515 00:28:05,083 --> 00:28:08,053 they thought bin Laden would want in a hideout. 516 00:28:08,287 --> 00:28:11,723 The more they learn about the Abbottabad compound, 517 00:28:11,957 --> 00:28:13,392 the more confident they become 518 00:28:13,625 --> 00:28:16,695 that this is a critical location. 519 00:28:16,929 --> 00:28:19,731 ‐ You would find, no matter who you talked to on this team, 520 00:28:19,965 --> 00:28:24,203 that we were very certain that we were on a place 521 00:28:24,436 --> 00:28:27,206 that required our attention. 522 00:28:27,439 --> 00:28:29,241 None of us believed at any point in time that we were 523 00:28:29,474 --> 00:28:32,978 overestimating the potential importance of this location. 524 00:28:33,212 --> 00:28:36,949 ‐ We would press them and we would say, okay, 525 00:28:37,182 --> 00:28:41,853 what's your honest evaluation 526 00:28:42,087 --> 00:28:46,525 of the odds that bin Laden is in that compound? 527 00:28:46,758 --> 00:28:48,860 And among the different analysts, 528 00:28:49,094 --> 00:28:53,031 it ranged from 40% to 80%. 529 00:28:53,265 --> 00:28:54,199 ‐ It didn't matter to me too much 530 00:28:54,433 --> 00:28:57,502 what the seniors thought, 531 00:28:57,736 --> 00:28:59,004 what I was more interested in 532 00:28:59,238 --> 00:29:00,639 and what influenced me much more 533 00:29:00,872 --> 00:29:03,408 is what the confidence level 534 00:29:03,642 --> 00:29:06,979 of the working level analysts 535 00:29:07,212 --> 00:29:08,981 that had been working this problem 536 00:29:09,214 --> 00:29:10,616 and what their confidence level was, 537 00:29:10,849 --> 00:29:12,451 which was pretty high. 538 00:29:12,684 --> 00:29:14,620 And so I put a lot of faith in that. 539 00:29:14,853 --> 00:29:18,957 Military planners develop options for the president. 540 00:29:19,191 --> 00:29:21,093 Bombing risks extensive civilian deaths 541 00:29:21,326 --> 00:29:23,028 in adjoining homes. 542 00:29:23,262 --> 00:29:26,098 Even if bin Laden is in the compound when it's hit, 543 00:29:26,331 --> 00:29:28,533 how will the US know? 544 00:29:28,767 --> 00:29:32,237 The only way to be sure is to send troops to find him. 545 00:29:35,040 --> 00:29:37,876 ‐ I initially favored the raid 546 00:29:38,110 --> 00:29:39,878 if it could be pulled off, 547 00:29:40,112 --> 00:29:44,716 because I thought we would never know if bin Laden were there 548 00:29:44,950 --> 00:29:46,985 if we had used a bomb. 549 00:29:47,219 --> 00:29:50,389 I was in favor of a raid 550 00:29:50,622 --> 00:29:53,458 simply because I thought it'd be better to have 551 00:29:53,692 --> 00:29:57,296 thinking people on the ground who could observe 552 00:29:57,529 --> 00:29:59,464 and make judgments about what to do. 553 00:29:59,698 --> 00:30:00,966 And then there was still ambiguity 554 00:30:01,199 --> 00:30:02,567 as to whether he was there or not. 555 00:30:02,801 --> 00:30:05,170 ‐ I mean, I wanted bin Laden as bad as anybody, 556 00:30:05,404 --> 00:30:08,373 but my primary responsibility, 557 00:30:08,607 --> 00:30:12,911 as I saw it, was the war in Afghanistan. 558 00:30:13,145 --> 00:30:18,950 And my worry was that if we flew into Abbottabad, 559 00:30:19,184 --> 00:30:23,488 blew a bunch of stuff up and got back out, 560 00:30:23,722 --> 00:30:26,024 the violation of Pakistani sovereignty 561 00:30:26,258 --> 00:30:29,961 and the embarrassment to their military would be so severe 562 00:30:30,195 --> 00:30:33,699 that they would cut our supply line from Karachi to Afghanistan 563 00:30:33,932 --> 00:30:36,601 and we would lose the war overnight. 564 00:30:36,835 --> 00:30:38,804 Obviously it was a very dangerous operation. 565 00:30:39,037 --> 00:30:42,607 There was the diplomatic risks 566 00:30:42,841 --> 00:30:48,280 of going into a foreign country 567 00:30:48,513 --> 00:30:49,948 without their permission. 568 00:30:50,182 --> 00:30:52,417 And we considered the possibility 569 00:30:52,651 --> 00:30:57,155 of tipping off the Pakistani government ahead of time. 570 00:30:57,389 --> 00:31:00,192 But there were also factions within the Pakistani government 571 00:31:00,425 --> 00:31:03,895 that were not as trustworthy, 572 00:31:04,129 --> 00:31:08,066 and we thought it was too risky to give them a heads up. 573 00:31:08,300 --> 00:31:10,902 ‐ I had gotten to know Admiral McRaven, 574 00:31:11,136 --> 00:31:17,876 and was not surprised that he made a very compelling case 575 00:31:18,110 --> 00:31:21,980 that he could mount a successful raid. 576 00:31:22,214 --> 00:31:24,783 ‐ I wrote my thesis at the Naval Postgraduate School 577 00:31:25,016 --> 00:31:26,518 on special operations. 578 00:31:26,752 --> 00:31:28,920 And what you saw on the successful mission 579 00:31:29,154 --> 00:31:31,089 was simplicity was key. 580 00:31:31,323 --> 00:31:34,159 So as I looked at this, it became pretty simple. 581 00:31:34,393 --> 00:31:37,629 I just decided we will fly directly to the target, 582 00:31:37,863 --> 00:31:41,099 you know, take down the target, get bin Laden and fly back. 583 00:31:41,333 --> 00:31:44,136 Now, that‐‐ when we went to do the detailed planning, 584 00:31:44,369 --> 00:31:45,937 I knew it would not be that easy. 585 00:31:46,171 --> 00:31:47,472 I had an opportunity to brief the president 586 00:31:47,706 --> 00:31:49,508 before bringing in the planners. 587 00:31:49,741 --> 00:31:51,476 And at one point in time, the president asked me, 588 00:31:51,710 --> 00:31:53,445 so can you do this mission? 589 00:31:53,678 --> 00:31:54,646 And I was very candid with him. 590 00:31:54,880 --> 00:31:56,081 I said, Mr. President, I don't know. 591 00:31:56,314 --> 00:31:57,749 ‐ We had to worry about the possibilities 592 00:31:57,983 --> 00:32:01,653 of interception by Pakistani Air Forces. 593 00:32:01,887 --> 00:32:05,056 Landing, we had to take into account the possibility 594 00:32:05,290 --> 00:32:08,727 that they would cause a commotion when a bunch 595 00:32:08,960 --> 00:32:11,329 of helicopters land in a community like that. 596 00:32:11,563 --> 00:32:13,799 This is a residential community 597 00:32:14,032 --> 00:32:17,936 just a few miles from a military college. 598 00:32:18,170 --> 00:32:21,606 This is a town in which you have 599 00:32:21,840 --> 00:32:24,476 a whole lot of Pakistani military there. 600 00:32:24,709 --> 00:32:27,179 And so, 601 00:32:27,412 --> 00:32:30,949 could we get in and out safely? 602 00:32:31,183 --> 00:32:33,051 ‐ I said I haven't had a chance to bring in 603 00:32:33,285 --> 00:32:35,821 the aviation planners and the SEALs. 604 00:32:36,054 --> 00:32:39,324 I need to do that first before I can come back and tell you 605 00:32:39,558 --> 00:32:41,760 with 100% certainty that we can do this. 606 00:32:41,993 --> 00:32:43,094 And he said, how much time do you need? 607 00:32:43,328 --> 00:32:45,464 Recognizing that we were up against the clock, 608 00:32:45,697 --> 00:32:46,798 I told him I needed three weeks. 609 00:32:47,032 --> 00:32:48,667 ‐ We were under a time pressure 610 00:32:48,900 --> 00:32:52,471 just not knowing what bin Laden would do. 611 00:32:52,704 --> 00:32:54,673 If he were there, how long would he be there? 612 00:32:54,906 --> 00:32:58,109 ‐ Another factor we considered is, you know, 613 00:32:58,343 --> 00:32:59,778 we delay this, it's bound to leak. 614 00:33:00,078 --> 00:33:02,047 ‐ There was a lot of concern that if some action 615 00:33:02,280 --> 00:33:06,451 wasn't taken quickly, we'd be back to square one. 616 00:33:11,289 --> 00:33:12,290 In January 2011, 617 00:33:13,558 --> 00:33:15,360 Admiral McRaven begins organizing the raid. 618 00:33:15,594 --> 00:33:17,095 To heightened secrecy, 619 00:33:17,329 --> 00:33:20,932 the mission, known as Operation Neptune Spear, 620 00:33:21,166 --> 00:33:24,369 will be carried out under CIA authority. 621 00:33:24,603 --> 00:33:27,405 ‐ The inclusion, if you will, of the special operations forces 622 00:33:27,639 --> 00:33:29,674 to the agency really wasn't anything unusual. 623 00:33:29,908 --> 00:33:32,644 We have for decades, when the time was required, 624 00:33:32,878 --> 00:33:36,381 essentially been secunded to the agency for various missions. 625 00:33:36,615 --> 00:33:39,484 I had one other person that was part of my planning element 626 00:33:39,718 --> 00:33:42,854 for the first several months because the list of people that 627 00:33:43,088 --> 00:33:45,323 the president agreed could be part of this with very small. 628 00:33:45,557 --> 00:33:48,193 ‐ Admiral McRaven told me to go over to the agency 629 00:33:48,426 --> 00:33:50,262 and go get a brief. 630 00:33:50,495 --> 00:33:54,065 So that next day, I drove over to CIA headquarters. 631 00:33:54,299 --> 00:33:57,502 They pointed me back to a side closet, 632 00:33:57,736 --> 00:33:59,237 and there were some desks in there, 633 00:33:59,471 --> 00:34:01,540 and there were three guys sitting in there. 634 00:34:01,773 --> 00:34:03,675 And I walked in, I knew two of them, 635 00:34:03,909 --> 00:34:05,377 and they handed me a binder. 636 00:34:05,610 --> 00:34:07,245 They said, go ahead and read through that 637 00:34:07,479 --> 00:34:08,580 and then we can talk. 638 00:34:08,813 --> 00:34:11,182 And upon flipping the binder open, 639 00:34:11,416 --> 00:34:13,552 the first picture that I saw was UBL. 640 00:34:13,785 --> 00:34:15,287 And that's the first time 641 00:34:15,520 --> 00:34:17,889 that I knew that that's what this was about. 642 00:34:18,123 --> 00:34:19,224 As soon as I read through everything, 643 00:34:19,457 --> 00:34:20,625 it just all made sense. 644 00:34:20,859 --> 00:34:22,727 And I bought it, you know, hiding in plain sight. 645 00:34:22,961 --> 00:34:26,298 The measures that were taken by those that were at the facility 646 00:34:26,531 --> 00:34:29,067 were extraordinary, would not have been happening 647 00:34:29,301 --> 00:34:32,203 were there not something very interesting there. 648 00:34:32,437 --> 00:34:34,639 So once we got the direction from the president that, 649 00:34:34,873 --> 00:34:36,875 yes, I want to see more on 650 00:34:37,108 --> 00:34:40,011 what a unilateral military raid would look like‐‐ 651 00:34:40,245 --> 00:34:43,848 you know, again, I had been driving this solo, but obviously 652 00:34:44,082 --> 00:34:46,685 we were going to have to call more folks in to do that. 653 00:34:46,918 --> 00:34:49,754 ‐ I knew the senior leadership of the raid force. 654 00:34:49,988 --> 00:34:53,658 These were folks that I had worked with off and on, 655 00:34:53,892 --> 00:34:57,162 and I think very positively, since 9/11. 656 00:34:57,395 --> 00:35:00,899 And I knew that they were finest of the finest. 657 00:35:01,132 --> 00:35:04,402 ‐ The ground force commander was an experienced operator, 658 00:35:04,636 --> 00:35:06,237 and he had been in command 659 00:35:06,471 --> 00:35:08,740 of his squadron for a while, and had done a couple 660 00:35:08,974 --> 00:35:10,675 of operational deployments with them. 661 00:35:10,909 --> 00:35:14,546 ‐ I had exceptional confidence in this particular officer. 662 00:35:14,779 --> 00:35:16,948 He had worked for me for many years, 663 00:35:17,182 --> 00:35:18,984 had a tremendous amount of combat experience, 664 00:35:19,217 --> 00:35:21,753 very heroic in combat, 665 00:35:21,987 --> 00:35:25,390 very level‐headed, would not rush to failure. 666 00:35:25,624 --> 00:35:30,228 ‐ The aviation lead is very quiet, 667 00:35:30,462 --> 00:35:34,099 but he had a tremendous amount of flying experience 668 00:35:34,332 --> 00:35:36,568 and had been involved in a number of operations 669 00:35:36,801 --> 00:35:38,069 and had flown me a number of places 670 00:35:38,303 --> 00:35:40,038 and flown all of us a number of places. 671 00:35:40,271 --> 00:35:43,541 You needed somebody who not only knew how to fly the bird, 672 00:35:43,775 --> 00:35:47,112 but understood everything else about terrain masking 673 00:35:47,345 --> 00:35:49,547 and enemy radars. 674 00:35:49,781 --> 00:35:52,951 ‐ I was brought into this small room of less than 675 00:35:53,184 --> 00:35:57,455 a dozen individuals and was given a piece of imagery 676 00:35:57,689 --> 00:35:59,524 in Abbottabad, Pakistan. 677 00:35:59,758 --> 00:36:01,292 And I'm looking at a ground force commander 678 00:36:01,526 --> 00:36:06,931 who I have risked my life for, for him and his teams. 679 00:36:07,165 --> 00:36:10,769 And when they told me that we're going after bin Laden, 680 00:36:11,002 --> 00:36:13,338 my only reaction is like, let's go. 681 00:36:13,571 --> 00:36:17,642 And I looked at the map, and I looked at the distance 682 00:36:17,876 --> 00:36:20,011 on the map, I looked at the capability, 683 00:36:20,245 --> 00:36:22,814 and my first reaction is absolutely, we can do this. 684 00:36:23,048 --> 00:36:25,984 But there's going to be risk and we need to reduce that risk. 685 00:36:26,217 --> 00:36:28,853 ‐ It looked like an awful lot of other raids we have done 686 00:36:29,087 --> 00:36:32,257 except the the distance was a long way. 687 00:36:32,490 --> 00:36:34,826 So the helicopter piece was very complicated. 688 00:36:35,060 --> 00:36:39,631 ‐ You're still trying to fly at 130, 150 miles an hour, 689 00:36:39,864 --> 00:36:42,067 you know, 100 or 200 feet off the ground, 690 00:36:42,300 --> 00:36:44,169 looking for wires, looking for birds, 691 00:36:44,402 --> 00:36:46,304 looking for antennas and towers. 692 00:36:46,538 --> 00:36:50,341 Looking for the terrain, you're still flying the aircraft 693 00:36:50,575 --> 00:36:53,078 while you're managing the electronic spectrum 694 00:36:53,311 --> 00:36:54,846 that's trying to search and find you. 695 00:36:55,080 --> 00:36:56,347 Anything we asked for, we got. 696 00:36:56,581 --> 00:37:00,385 If we needed an analysis of all of the radars 697 00:37:00,618 --> 00:37:02,687 in the entire region, then we got that. 698 00:37:02,921 --> 00:37:05,790 We got the best analysts for whatever radars were required. 699 00:37:06,024 --> 00:37:07,192 ‐ Am I gonna be heard, 700 00:37:07,425 --> 00:37:10,729 am I going to be seen visually, electronically? 701 00:37:10,962 --> 00:37:12,931 How noisy am I in that country? 702 00:37:13,164 --> 00:37:16,267 But radar's not the only concern. 703 00:37:16,501 --> 00:37:19,304 If the American helicopters are discovered, 704 00:37:19,537 --> 00:37:23,308 can the Pakistani Air Force track and shoot them down? 705 00:37:23,541 --> 00:37:24,976 ‐ For example, the training 706 00:37:25,210 --> 00:37:28,413 of those that are flying F‐16s 707 00:37:28,646 --> 00:37:32,016 or other helicopters in a specific country, 708 00:37:32,250 --> 00:37:34,919 you would want to know how proficient are they. 709 00:37:35,153 --> 00:37:36,521 Even though they have the equipment 710 00:37:36,755 --> 00:37:39,491 on board that airframe, do they know how to use it? 711 00:37:39,724 --> 00:37:42,560 Do they know how to operate it in day 712 00:37:42,794 --> 00:37:44,763 and equally as proficient at night? 713 00:37:44,996 --> 00:37:46,297 Given the geography 714 00:37:46,531 --> 00:37:49,868 of the part of the country where the mission was going to be, 715 00:37:50,101 --> 00:37:52,504 we had learned over the years operating that 716 00:37:52,737 --> 00:37:58,009 the MH‐47 Chinooks were the best platform for the elevation 717 00:37:58,243 --> 00:37:59,410 and for the types of weather 718 00:37:59,644 --> 00:38:00,879 that we would need to fly through. 719 00:38:01,112 --> 00:38:03,414 Their ability to carry a larger number of people 720 00:38:03,648 --> 00:38:04,816 was also important. 721 00:38:05,049 --> 00:38:07,952 So from the beginning, we saw it as a 47 mission, 722 00:38:08,186 --> 00:38:09,721 as a mission for the Chinooks. 723 00:38:09,954 --> 00:38:11,156 The Chinook is very loud. 724 00:38:11,389 --> 00:38:14,926 It's very big, it's visible across all spectrums. 725 00:38:15,160 --> 00:38:17,796 ‐ As the briefs went through the chain of command, 726 00:38:18,029 --> 00:38:23,668 there was a sensitivity expressed on exposure to radars 727 00:38:23,902 --> 00:38:27,338 and discovery of the helicopters as the force was infiltrating. 728 00:38:27,572 --> 00:38:31,242 And that shifted the conversation to using 729 00:38:31,476 --> 00:38:34,813 the Black Hawks that had some of the capabilities 730 00:38:35,046 --> 00:38:36,714 to defeat radar. 731 00:38:36,948 --> 00:38:41,853 And that assuaged the concerns at the national level. 732 00:38:42,086 --> 00:38:43,421 ‐ Black Hawks can get in and out 733 00:38:43,655 --> 00:38:45,723 of certain areas quicker than a Chinook can. 734 00:38:45,957 --> 00:38:47,725 Though the Black Hawks are more maneuverable 735 00:38:47,959 --> 00:38:49,928 and better shielded from radar detection, 736 00:38:50,161 --> 00:38:53,164 they cannot carry enough fuel for the round trip, 737 00:38:53,398 --> 00:38:57,302 and will need to be refueled inside Pakistan. 738 00:38:57,535 --> 00:39:01,306 ‐ The contingent part of the planning was that 739 00:39:01,539 --> 00:39:03,575 we would need refueling helicopters. 740 00:39:03,808 --> 00:39:09,881 We would need the 47s to fly in and park on the way back out 741 00:39:10,114 --> 00:39:11,749 so that the Black Hawks could refuel. 742 00:39:11,983 --> 00:39:14,519 And they would set up a ground refueling site, 743 00:39:14,752 --> 00:39:16,654 Black Hawks would land, take fuel on, 744 00:39:16,888 --> 00:39:19,090 and then everybody would fly out. 745 00:39:19,324 --> 00:39:23,995 ‐ I'd been in the White House almost exactly 30 years earlier 746 00:39:24,229 --> 00:39:28,433 for the Iranian hostage rescue mission, 747 00:39:28,666 --> 00:39:32,837 which failed due to problems with helicopters. 748 00:39:33,071 --> 00:39:38,710 So in those discussions about the raid on Abbottabad, I said, 749 00:39:38,943 --> 00:39:41,779 I think you need to add another helicopter or two 750 00:39:42,013 --> 00:39:46,684 to your plan just in case something goes south. 751 00:39:46,918 --> 00:39:48,920 Ultimately, two Black Hawks 752 00:39:49,153 --> 00:39:52,390 carrying the primary assault force will lead the way, 753 00:39:52,624 --> 00:39:54,392 followed by two larger Chinooks 754 00:39:54,626 --> 00:39:58,963 with a fuel supply and a contingency force of SEALs. 755 00:39:59,197 --> 00:40:03,534 ‐ It was in the end the president that added 756 00:40:03,768 --> 00:40:06,070 the extra helicopters to the force 757 00:40:06,304 --> 00:40:09,007 to be able to give them the possibility of fighting out. 758 00:40:09,240 --> 00:40:11,910 I mean, part of our worst nightmare would have been 759 00:40:12,143 --> 00:40:13,344 one, we don't get him, 760 00:40:13,578 --> 00:40:16,214 and two, we have US military personnel 761 00:40:16,447 --> 00:40:18,683 who are captured inside Pakistan. 762 00:40:26,291 --> 00:40:27,892 For all the detailed planning involved 763 00:40:28,126 --> 00:40:31,529 in sending Navy SEALs after Osama bin Laden, 764 00:40:31,763 --> 00:40:33,331 nothing can change the greatest risk of 765 00:40:33,564 --> 00:40:36,301 Operation Neptune Spear. 766 00:40:36,534 --> 00:40:39,337 American forces will be deep inside Pakistan 767 00:40:39,570 --> 00:40:42,573 without permission. 768 00:40:42,807 --> 00:40:46,878 To improve the odds of success, the SEALs focus on the ways 769 00:40:47,111 --> 00:40:51,382 the mission could fail and how to prevent a disastrous outcome. 770 00:40:51,616 --> 00:40:53,051 Normally on a compound this size, 771 00:40:53,284 --> 00:40:57,989 we probably would have had a SEAL force of, 772 00:40:58,222 --> 00:41:02,026 you know, 25 guys, just the assault element, 773 00:41:02,260 --> 00:41:05,830 and then probably another 30 or more Rangers 774 00:41:06,064 --> 00:41:08,399 that would be kind of the outer security element. 775 00:41:08,633 --> 00:41:11,936 Well, I had to make do with just the 24 SEALs 776 00:41:12,170 --> 00:41:15,273 and our one interpreter and the dog. 777 00:41:15,506 --> 00:41:18,509 That was the maximum I could fit on the helicopters based on 778 00:41:18,743 --> 00:41:21,346 the altitude of Abbottabad, and the heat at the time. 779 00:41:21,579 --> 00:41:23,014 The hotter it gets, 780 00:41:23,247 --> 00:41:24,782 the higher the density altitude is 781 00:41:25,016 --> 00:41:26,951 and the less people we can bring to an objective. 782 00:41:27,185 --> 00:41:29,087 That's really what it boils down to. 783 00:41:29,320 --> 00:41:32,156 So May really was the last comfort zone. 784 00:41:32,390 --> 00:41:33,992 Beyond that, we were gonna start incurring more risk, 785 00:41:34,225 --> 00:41:37,695 'cause June, it gets very hot, it's in the hundreds for a high. 786 00:41:37,929 --> 00:41:40,098 ‐ Everybody who was on that mission was handpicked. 787 00:41:40,331 --> 00:41:42,133 Everyone on that mission had combat experience, 788 00:41:42,367 --> 00:41:43,534 a lot of combat experience. 789 00:41:43,768 --> 00:41:46,571 ‐ It was the three of us, me, the squadron commander, 790 00:41:46,804 --> 00:41:49,774 and the squadron master chief sitting and going through. 791 00:41:50,008 --> 00:41:52,443 And the primary criteria we used 792 00:41:52,677 --> 00:41:55,079 was could the operator 793 00:41:55,313 --> 00:41:59,150 snap right in and just do the op? 794 00:41:59,384 --> 00:42:02,020 And that doesn't necessarily have to do with your seniority, 795 00:42:02,253 --> 00:42:05,556 your experience level, what we wanted was temperament. 796 00:42:05,790 --> 00:42:07,025 ‐ There's multiple teams at home 797 00:42:07,258 --> 00:42:08,860 and different levels of readiness 798 00:42:09,093 --> 00:42:11,362 on standby and preparation. 799 00:42:11,596 --> 00:42:14,999 We were kind of the most off the grid squadron 800 00:42:15,233 --> 00:42:17,001 because we had just got home, it shouldn't have been our time 801 00:42:17,235 --> 00:42:20,405 to rotate back over for many more months. 802 00:42:20,638 --> 00:42:23,608 ‐ We'd finished a few weeks of leave with our families, 803 00:42:23,841 --> 00:42:25,943 and then we started training again. 804 00:42:26,177 --> 00:42:28,780 So guys split up in the typical training cycle. 805 00:42:29,013 --> 00:42:32,984 ‐ I got recalled when I was at Free‐Fall Jumpmaster School. 806 00:42:33,217 --> 00:42:35,987 ‐ I think we were in lock picking school or something. 807 00:42:36,220 --> 00:42:37,822 All of a sudden things started spinning up, 808 00:42:38,056 --> 00:42:40,124 they said, hey, we need these people back. 809 00:42:40,358 --> 00:42:41,859 ‐ You know, there's obviously luck involved, 810 00:42:42,093 --> 00:42:43,394 but they picked the most experienced guys 811 00:42:43,628 --> 00:42:46,364 of the available guys in the search spot they wanted. 812 00:42:46,597 --> 00:42:47,932 ‐ Nobody knew where these guys were, they just assumed 813 00:42:48,166 --> 00:42:49,267 they were on leave with their family, 814 00:42:49,500 --> 00:42:51,602 or Disneyland or someplace. 815 00:42:51,836 --> 00:42:54,539 So that gave me three weeks of kind of cover for action. 816 00:42:56,974 --> 00:42:58,609 We actually brought these 25 guys in 817 00:42:58,843 --> 00:43:00,445 to this undisclosed location 818 00:43:00,678 --> 00:43:02,113 and briefed them. 819 00:43:02,346 --> 00:43:04,315 ‐ We're traditionally set up in different troops, 820 00:43:04,549 --> 00:43:10,021 and they pulled the 24 most senior guys from the squadron. 821 00:43:10,254 --> 00:43:12,723 So it's a little different, but, okay. 822 00:43:12,957 --> 00:43:14,492 ‐ I wasn't a very senior guy. 823 00:43:14,725 --> 00:43:16,094 The reason I got chosen for the mission was because 824 00:43:16,327 --> 00:43:17,995 I was a dog handler and I had Cairo. 825 00:43:18,229 --> 00:43:19,497 The dog would be very valuable in smelling 826 00:43:19,730 --> 00:43:22,166 any sort of explosive, finding any escape tunnels, 827 00:43:22,400 --> 00:43:24,469 safe rooms, crowd control. 828 00:43:24,702 --> 00:43:26,003 ‐ We were just talking about why are we back? 829 00:43:26,237 --> 00:43:28,005 What kind of stupid training exercise 830 00:43:28,239 --> 00:43:29,841 did they just come up with us to do? 831 00:43:30,074 --> 00:43:31,209 And they brought us in a room 832 00:43:31,442 --> 00:43:34,312 and they told us it wasn't a training exercise, 833 00:43:34,545 --> 00:43:37,682 this is definitely real, but we just have to go get something 834 00:43:37,915 --> 00:43:40,218 and bring it back to them so they can see it. 835 00:43:40,451 --> 00:43:41,719 ‐ It was pretty vague 836 00:43:41,953 --> 00:43:43,354 to say that they needed us for something. 837 00:43:43,588 --> 00:43:44,956 A couple rumors were flying around. 838 00:43:45,189 --> 00:43:46,124 ‐ Then we just started assuming 839 00:43:46,357 --> 00:43:47,458 what it could be around the world, 840 00:43:47,692 --> 00:43:49,427 but no one thought bin Laden off the bat. 841 00:43:49,660 --> 00:43:52,296 They drove us down to a base south of Virginia, 842 00:43:52,530 --> 00:43:55,566 and the boss came in and just said, all right, guys, 843 00:43:55,800 --> 00:43:58,069 the reason that you're here is because this is as close as 844 00:43:58,302 --> 00:44:00,171 we've ever been to Osama bin Laden. 845 00:44:00,404 --> 00:44:02,673 ‐ And immediately, game faces were on 846 00:44:02,907 --> 00:44:06,010 and they began to to plan and rehearse the mission. 847 00:44:06,244 --> 00:44:07,311 We only had three weeks to do that. 848 00:44:07,545 --> 00:44:10,381 ♪ 849 00:44:14,018 --> 00:44:16,487 As part of any operation, 850 00:44:16,721 --> 00:44:20,525 NGA develops three dimensional models 851 00:44:20,758 --> 00:44:23,828 that you can fly through to, you know, make you think 852 00:44:24,061 --> 00:44:25,630 like you are actually there, 853 00:44:25,863 --> 00:44:28,599 and we also developed a scale model. 854 00:44:28,833 --> 00:44:32,637 And then that scale model was used to develop 855 00:44:32,870 --> 00:44:34,172 a full scale model. 856 00:44:34,405 --> 00:44:36,174 ‐ Whether it's SEALS, whether Delta Force, 857 00:44:36,407 --> 00:44:37,842 we all do this kinda the same way, 858 00:44:38,075 --> 00:44:38,943 everyone gets a say. 859 00:44:39,177 --> 00:44:40,378 Everyone looked at that target. 860 00:44:40,611 --> 00:44:43,447 Everyone had access to the information. 861 00:44:43,681 --> 00:44:45,016 ‐ We spent all morning standing around the model, 862 00:44:45,249 --> 00:44:46,350 and everybody chalk talking, 863 00:44:46,584 --> 00:44:48,686 hey, how we would tactically take this down? 864 00:44:48,920 --> 00:44:50,755 ‐ If you were going to fast rope here, here, here, here. 865 00:44:50,988 --> 00:44:52,423 ‐ The plan was straightforward. 866 00:44:52,657 --> 00:44:55,426 Two helicopters flying to the target. 867 00:44:55,660 --> 00:44:58,262 One helicopter would hover 868 00:44:58,496 --> 00:45:02,266 over the roof of the three‐story building, 869 00:45:02,500 --> 00:45:05,970 and a small force would fast rope down onto the roof, 870 00:45:06,204 --> 00:45:08,206 get right down to the balcony, 871 00:45:08,439 --> 00:45:10,007 and come right in on the third floor 872 00:45:10,241 --> 00:45:12,543 where everybody assessed that's where he lived. 873 00:45:12,777 --> 00:45:17,281 The second helicopter would be hovering over the courtyard 874 00:45:17,515 --> 00:45:21,118 and fast rope the majority of the force down onto the ground, 875 00:45:21,352 --> 00:45:24,689 where they would set up sniper positions on the walls 876 00:45:24,922 --> 00:45:27,992 and clear the second building in the compound 877 00:45:28,226 --> 00:45:31,596 and then clear the main building from the ground up. 878 00:45:31,829 --> 00:45:33,264 Training for the mission moves 879 00:45:33,497 --> 00:45:35,266 to a facility in North Carolina 880 00:45:35,499 --> 00:45:39,437 where the ground force runs through their raid assignments. 881 00:45:39,670 --> 00:45:42,707 By mid‐April, the training shifts to the mountains of 882 00:45:42,940 --> 00:45:46,477 the western United States, where the weather and terrain 883 00:45:46,711 --> 00:45:50,114 are closer to flight conditions in Pakistan. 884 00:45:50,348 --> 00:45:51,616 One of the things that 885 00:45:51,849 --> 00:45:53,951 I wanted to do was to duplicate 886 00:45:54,185 --> 00:45:58,122 as best we could the entire profile of the mission. 887 00:45:58,356 --> 00:45:59,790 And there were a number of folks that said, sir, 888 00:46:00,091 --> 00:46:01,592 we know to fly a helicopter, we know how to fly a helicopter 889 00:46:01,826 --> 00:46:03,594 for 169 miles, 890 00:46:03,828 --> 00:46:06,397 we just kind of fly and come into the mockup. 891 00:46:06,631 --> 00:46:09,533 I said, no, no, we are going to fly for 169 miles, 892 00:46:09,767 --> 00:46:12,937 we are gonna go through the exact profile as best we can. 893 00:46:13,170 --> 00:46:16,007 ‐ We are being observed by senior members of 894 00:46:16,240 --> 00:46:17,642 the US government military 895 00:46:17,875 --> 00:46:20,878 because they want to make sure that we, 896 00:46:21,112 --> 00:46:24,849 as one of their options, are capable. 897 00:46:25,082 --> 00:46:27,518 But they knew who we were, and I think that a lot of them 898 00:46:27,752 --> 00:46:29,820 just wanted to make sure that helicopters could fly 899 00:46:30,054 --> 00:46:31,322 the way they wanted them to. 900 00:46:31,555 --> 00:46:34,091 ‐ The number one contingency that was the most probable 901 00:46:34,325 --> 00:46:37,762 was an aircraft crashing in country. 902 00:46:37,995 --> 00:46:40,031 The Western rehearsals focus on 903 00:46:40,264 --> 00:46:42,199 how the Black Hawks will perform. 904 00:46:42,433 --> 00:46:44,468 Though they have been developed for situations 905 00:46:44,702 --> 00:46:46,003 just like this one, 906 00:46:46,237 --> 00:46:49,640 they have never before been flown on an actual mission. 907 00:46:49,874 --> 00:46:50,975 Very early on when 908 00:46:51,208 --> 00:46:52,643 we got out and saw them fly, 909 00:46:52,877 --> 00:46:56,080 they were unstable, particularly when they came in to hover. 910 00:46:56,314 --> 00:46:57,748 And I said, hey, you know, with all due respect, 911 00:46:57,982 --> 00:46:59,750 I don't think we should use these helicopters. 912 00:47:00,051 --> 00:47:02,286 The time to try something new is not on the most important raid 913 00:47:02,520 --> 00:47:04,822 arguably since World War Two. 914 00:47:05,056 --> 00:47:06,657 Another one of the factors 915 00:47:06,891 --> 00:47:08,492 we had to take into account was 916 00:47:08,726 --> 00:47:10,127 that the air crews flying 917 00:47:10,361 --> 00:47:12,963 the Black Hawks had been in a separate program 918 00:47:13,197 --> 00:47:15,700 and didn't have a lot of time flying overseas. 919 00:47:15,933 --> 00:47:19,270 ‐ The hot crews were less seasoned, 920 00:47:19,503 --> 00:47:21,005 just the true knowledge of that environment 921 00:47:21,238 --> 00:47:23,407 that those Hawker's just did not have. 922 00:47:23,641 --> 00:47:26,811 And those particular crews had been taken out of the fight 923 00:47:27,044 --> 00:47:29,980 for a while and really had been part of just research. 924 00:47:31,949 --> 00:47:34,151 ‐ The closer that we got to the day we're going to launch, 925 00:47:34,385 --> 00:47:36,320 they did decide to forward deploy us to Afghanistan 926 00:47:36,554 --> 00:47:37,888 and that's when it sunk in, like, they're serious about this 927 00:47:38,122 --> 00:47:39,357 and we're probably going to do it. 928 00:47:39,590 --> 00:47:41,726 They gave us a weekend off, 929 00:47:41,959 --> 00:47:45,096 and I'm in my neighborhood. 930 00:47:45,329 --> 00:47:47,398 There's like, kids running around collecting Easter eggs. 931 00:47:47,631 --> 00:47:49,500 I'm talking to my neighbor, he knows I'm a SEAL 932 00:47:49,734 --> 00:47:52,203 but clearly has no idea what's going on. 933 00:47:52,436 --> 00:47:53,537 And as the kids are running around, 934 00:47:53,771 --> 00:47:55,373 he's sitting there kind of complaining to me 935 00:47:55,606 --> 00:47:57,341 about how stressed he is at work. 936 00:47:57,575 --> 00:47:59,343 "I got this going on next week, and this going on next week. 937 00:47:59,577 --> 00:48:01,846 I'm so stressed," and I remember kind of chuckling 938 00:48:02,079 --> 00:48:04,248 in the back of my mind thinking 939 00:48:04,482 --> 00:48:06,016 you have no idea what I got going on next week. 940 00:48:06,250 --> 00:48:11,088 And a day later, we got the green light and we left. 941 00:48:15,860 --> 00:48:17,895 With the SEALs now deployed 942 00:48:18,028 --> 00:48:20,030 in Afghanistan waiting for a green light, 943 00:48:20,264 --> 00:48:24,001 President Obama faces a momentous decision. 944 00:48:24,235 --> 00:48:26,837 Will he send them into Pakistan without knowing 945 00:48:27,071 --> 00:48:30,741 whether Osama bin Laden is really there? 946 00:48:30,975 --> 00:48:35,279 On Thursday, April 28, 2011, the president meets with 947 00:48:35,513 --> 00:48:37,782 his National Security Council. 948 00:48:38,015 --> 00:48:40,117 ‐ We had pretty much gone through 949 00:48:40,351 --> 00:48:42,653 all the options, all the data. 950 00:48:42,887 --> 00:48:46,590 We had gone... 951 00:48:46,824 --> 00:48:49,293 at our basic premises and examined them 952 00:48:49,527 --> 00:48:53,364 and turned them over and did our best to break them down. 953 00:48:53,597 --> 00:48:56,233 The president then basically opened it up 954 00:48:56,467 --> 00:48:57,768 and said, what do you think? 955 00:48:58,002 --> 00:48:59,703 What do you think? 956 00:48:59,937 --> 00:49:02,339 I remember a lot of differences. 957 00:49:04,608 --> 00:49:07,111 I'd have to say just... 958 00:49:07,344 --> 00:49:09,547 thinking about this, I think a majority of the people there 959 00:49:09,780 --> 00:49:11,649 were concerned that it was too risky. 960 00:49:11,882 --> 00:49:15,152 ‐ There is no assurance that if we wait, 961 00:49:15,386 --> 00:49:18,956 we will get more positive information that he's there. 962 00:49:19,190 --> 00:49:23,060 And the longer it goes on, the more likely it is to leak. 963 00:49:23,294 --> 00:49:28,532 And so that kind of brought it to a head in terms of 964 00:49:28,766 --> 00:49:30,734 we're not gonna get any better information. 965 00:49:30,968 --> 00:49:32,970 So this is what we have, 966 00:49:33,204 --> 00:49:34,738 make your decision based on that. 967 00:49:34,972 --> 00:49:37,875 ‐ We thought it would be important to so‐called 968 00:49:38,108 --> 00:49:39,610 "red team" the issue, 969 00:49:39,844 --> 00:49:43,180 which meant having a group go in and ask nothing 970 00:49:43,414 --> 00:49:47,585 but the questions about what are other possibilities. 971 00:49:47,818 --> 00:49:50,387 And they did that, the red team did that. 972 00:49:50,621 --> 00:49:53,557 They basically said, look, you know, we've looked 973 00:49:53,791 --> 00:49:57,561 at the possibility, you know, that it's not bin Laden, 974 00:49:57,795 --> 00:49:59,230 but somebody else. 975 00:49:59,463 --> 00:50:00,564 But the question then becomes, 976 00:50:00,798 --> 00:50:03,234 why are bin Laden's couriers there? 977 00:50:03,467 --> 00:50:08,572 ‐ I think that all of us would say that 978 00:50:08,806 --> 00:50:14,011 it was maybe a 55‐45 call. 979 00:50:14,245 --> 00:50:17,948 Effectively, there was no way for us 980 00:50:18,182 --> 00:50:21,252 to absolutely confirm that it was bin Laden, 981 00:50:21,485 --> 00:50:24,421 at least not within a meaningful timeframe. 982 00:50:24,655 --> 00:50:25,956 So it was a judgment call. 983 00:50:26,190 --> 00:50:32,229 It's only after examining every single option militarily 984 00:50:32,463 --> 00:50:35,165 that finally I'm presented with the decision. 985 00:50:35,399 --> 00:50:38,836 And so I left the Situation Room saying, thank you very much. 986 00:50:39,069 --> 00:50:41,605 I'll be making a decision over the next 24 hours. 987 00:50:41,839 --> 00:50:45,009 ‐ I worked for President Obama for four years. 988 00:50:46,610 --> 00:50:47,778 And let me just tell you, 989 00:50:48,012 --> 00:50:49,680 I would never play poker with that guy. 990 00:50:52,516 --> 00:50:54,118 Impossible to read. 991 00:50:54,351 --> 00:50:59,790 ‐ I said to myself that if I have an opportunity 992 00:51:00,090 --> 00:51:02,426 to get bin Laden and we pass it up, 993 00:51:02,660 --> 00:51:08,699 then that is a huge blow to the cause of justice, 994 00:51:08,933 --> 00:51:12,937 to the families of 9/11 victims that I had met, 995 00:51:13,170 --> 00:51:16,574 and it was worth the risk. 996 00:51:16,807 --> 00:51:21,078 ‐ And the word came back in the morning through Tom Donnelly 997 00:51:21,312 --> 00:51:24,381 that it was a go for Saturday night, 998 00:51:24,615 --> 00:51:25,983 Sunday morning, Pakistan time. 999 00:51:26,216 --> 00:51:28,652 But it was pretty clear, I think, by noon 1000 00:51:28,886 --> 00:51:30,621 that Admiral McRaven was not comfortable 1001 00:51:30,854 --> 00:51:34,358 with the environmental conditions that night. 1002 00:51:34,592 --> 00:51:36,994 And so he decided to delay 24 hours. 1003 00:51:37,227 --> 00:51:41,165 ‐ It was a little bit foggy, and I was a little concerned 1004 00:51:41,398 --> 00:51:42,766 about the helicopters going through there. 1005 00:51:43,000 --> 00:51:45,903 Not tremendously concerned, but I wanted it to be, 1006 00:51:46,136 --> 00:51:47,371 you know, the best conditions I could get, 1007 00:51:47,605 --> 00:51:49,173 we knew Sunday would be better. 1008 00:51:49,406 --> 00:51:51,175 ‐ We're literally sitting in a brief. 1009 00:51:51,408 --> 00:51:53,277 Our master chief walks in the back door of the briefing room, 1010 00:51:53,510 --> 00:51:55,312 says, hey, guys, green light, we're going tomorrow. 1011 00:51:55,546 --> 00:51:58,382 ‐ So once that happens, you know, it is what it is. 1012 00:51:58,616 --> 00:51:59,883 And, you know, you're just making sure 1013 00:52:00,184 --> 00:52:02,186 all your gear's ready, making sure your guns are ready. 1014 00:52:02,419 --> 00:52:04,788 Just everything, you know, 1015 00:52:05,022 --> 00:52:07,591 your shoelaces don't have a tear in it or anything like that. 1016 00:52:07,825 --> 00:52:12,796 You got 24 hours to kind of prepare for what, I mean, 1017 00:52:13,030 --> 00:52:15,766 in essence, is probably the rest of your life. 1018 00:52:16,000 --> 00:52:17,401 And that's kind of how I felt. 1019 00:52:17,635 --> 00:52:19,403 ‐ Oh yeah, it was very clear 1020 00:52:19,637 --> 00:52:21,071 that we probably would be making it back. 1021 00:52:21,305 --> 00:52:24,541 It was‐‐ every guy that was chosen for the mission, 1022 00:52:24,775 --> 00:52:26,210 made sure their million dollar life insurance policy 1023 00:52:26,443 --> 00:52:29,680 was fulfilled. 1024 00:52:29,913 --> 00:52:31,749 I told my parents, or at least I told my father, 1025 00:52:31,982 --> 00:52:33,717 I probably would be making it back. 1026 00:52:33,951 --> 00:52:36,353 ‐ It was the first time I wrote a letter to, you know, 1027 00:52:36,587 --> 00:52:38,022 my kid and my wife. 1028 00:52:38,255 --> 00:52:39,757 I hadn't done that before. 1029 00:52:41,859 --> 00:52:44,561 ‐ We had a day, actually, to look over the plan, you know, 1030 00:52:44,795 --> 00:52:47,698 one final time, spent some time talking 1031 00:52:47,931 --> 00:52:49,767 to the ground force commander and the weather guys, 1032 00:52:49,967 --> 00:52:52,436 and we kind of went through our normal day on Saturday. 1033 00:52:52,670 --> 00:52:56,273 On Sunday, I actually had a congressional delegation in. 1034 00:52:56,507 --> 00:52:59,677 I didn't want to change any of my routine because most of 1035 00:52:59,910 --> 00:53:04,081 the people from my command, we were in Bagram, 1036 00:53:04,314 --> 00:53:05,616 had no idea we were doing this. 1037 00:53:05,849 --> 00:53:07,117 Went through the congressional delegation, 1038 00:53:07,351 --> 00:53:09,486 and then very quickly after that, 1039 00:53:09,720 --> 00:53:14,058 moved down to our small command center there in Jalalabad. 1040 00:53:16,160 --> 00:53:17,528 ‐ And the force is ready, 1041 00:53:17,761 --> 00:53:19,263 now you're waiting for the green light. 1042 00:53:25,402 --> 00:53:28,305 On May 1st, 2011, 1043 00:53:28,539 --> 00:53:31,842 Operation Neptune Spear sets off on a moonless night 1044 00:53:32,076 --> 00:53:35,579 for a residential compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. 1045 00:53:35,813 --> 00:53:38,649 Two Black Hawk helicopters, specially adapted to 1046 00:53:38,882 --> 00:53:42,152 avoid radar detection, carry 24 SEALS, 1047 00:53:42,386 --> 00:53:45,289 an interpreter, and a combat dog. 1048 00:53:45,522 --> 00:53:48,025 The helicopters are so tight on weight 1049 00:53:48,258 --> 00:53:49,526 that their standard weapons systems 1050 00:53:49,760 --> 00:53:51,895 are taken off and left behind. 1051 00:53:52,129 --> 00:53:54,465 ‐ We're all mingling, you know, saying hi to your friends 1052 00:53:54,698 --> 00:53:56,300 in the other helicopter, just saying, hey, 1053 00:53:56,533 --> 00:53:57,935 we'll see you in 90 minutes. 1054 00:53:58,168 --> 00:53:59,670 ‐ We had all of our stuff stripped. 1055 00:53:59,903 --> 00:54:02,072 No jewelry, nothing, no name tags. 1056 00:54:02,306 --> 00:54:04,475 ‐ There was a sense that this was historic. 1057 00:54:04,708 --> 00:54:07,845 What they were about to do was, to the best of their ability, 1058 00:54:08,078 --> 00:54:10,681 bring distinction on themselves, their unit and their country. 1059 00:54:10,914 --> 00:54:12,282 and they certainly felt that. 1060 00:54:12,516 --> 00:54:13,951 ‐ I was doing a video teleconference 1061 00:54:14,184 --> 00:54:17,221 back with Director Panetta and then the Situation Room. 1062 00:54:17,454 --> 00:54:19,556 At the appropriate point in time, 1063 00:54:19,790 --> 00:54:23,894 I turned to the SEAL commander, commanding officer, 1064 00:54:24,128 --> 00:54:26,130 and I told him, launch the assault force. 1065 00:54:28,866 --> 00:54:31,835 ♪ 1066 00:54:35,339 --> 00:54:38,375 The Black Hawks have 169 miles to cover 1067 00:54:38,609 --> 00:54:41,311 in a flight of about 90 minutes. 1068 00:54:41,545 --> 00:54:42,946 The routing was not direct 1069 00:54:43,180 --> 00:54:44,982 by design, the routing for 1070 00:54:45,215 --> 00:54:48,018 the Black Hawks was to take the least risked route, 1071 00:54:48,252 --> 00:54:50,654 and that's by terrain, population, 1072 00:54:50,888 --> 00:54:52,422 wires, cultural, whatever it may be. 1073 00:54:52,656 --> 00:54:56,393 It was for them to loop around to reduce the amount of risk 1074 00:54:56,627 --> 00:54:58,729 to gain the element of surprise on the objective. 1075 00:54:58,962 --> 00:55:00,464 ‐ The risk on the helicopter ride, I mean, 1076 00:55:00,697 --> 00:55:02,499 that's the one thing that we couldn't control. 1077 00:55:02,733 --> 00:55:03,967 I think that was definitely the one thing 1078 00:55:04,201 --> 00:55:05,636 I was more worried about. 1079 00:55:05,869 --> 00:55:07,504 ‐ And we just kinda reflect on everything's gonna happen. 1080 00:55:07,738 --> 00:55:10,340 And eventually at some point, it does sink in, though. 1081 00:55:10,574 --> 00:55:12,776 It's like, holy crap, we're here, this is us, 1082 00:55:13,010 --> 00:55:14,444 and we're doing this for‐‐ 1083 00:55:14,678 --> 00:55:16,346 we're doing this for Lower Manhattan. 1084 00:55:16,580 --> 00:55:17,948 We're doing this for 9/11. 1085 00:55:18,182 --> 00:55:20,517 We're doing this for the people who fought on Flight 93, 1086 00:55:20,751 --> 00:55:21,852 the first people to actually fight al‐Qaeda 1087 00:55:22,085 --> 00:55:23,120 in the War on Terror. 1088 00:55:23,353 --> 00:55:24,588 Doing this for the people in the Pentagon. 1089 00:55:24,822 --> 00:55:26,757 Stuff like that's kind of sinking in. 1090 00:55:26,990 --> 00:55:29,193 And it's‐‐ the fear is not there, 1091 00:55:29,426 --> 00:55:31,962 it's more of a, "This is it, 1092 00:55:32,196 --> 00:55:33,997 this is what I was born for." 1093 00:55:34,231 --> 00:55:35,999 Two Chinook helicopters 1094 00:55:36,233 --> 00:55:38,202 carrying fuel for the Black Hawks 1095 00:55:38,435 --> 00:55:43,640 and a backup force of SEALs leave 45 minutes later. 1096 00:55:43,874 --> 00:55:47,711 Capable of flying faster speeds and a more direct route, 1097 00:55:47,945 --> 00:55:50,113 the Chinooks will be in position nearby 1098 00:55:50,347 --> 00:55:53,483 as the Black Hawks approach Abbottabad. 1099 00:55:53,717 --> 00:55:54,985 ‐ All of our checkpoints are on time, 1100 00:55:55,219 --> 00:55:57,187 we're just completely silent flying through the night. 1101 00:55:57,421 --> 00:55:59,790 No illumination, completely dark at 100 feet. 1102 00:56:00,090 --> 00:56:01,391 Flying the route to a T. 1103 00:56:01,625 --> 00:56:05,062 ‐ So in Afghanistan because of the lack of electricity, 1104 00:56:05,295 --> 00:56:07,097 it's a very dark country. 1105 00:56:07,331 --> 00:56:08,932 Pakistan is very well lit. 1106 00:56:09,166 --> 00:56:10,434 People are out and about. 1107 00:56:10,667 --> 00:56:12,903 The deeper you get into Pakistan, 1108 00:56:13,136 --> 00:56:15,539 it's more structured, much more advanced. 1109 00:56:15,772 --> 00:56:17,541 And that's power lines, 1110 00:56:17,774 --> 00:56:20,944 antennas, the lights, the densely populated areas. 1111 00:56:23,580 --> 00:56:24,848 The Blackhawks approached 1112 00:56:25,082 --> 00:56:28,118 the compound from the east, using the starker terrain 1113 00:56:28,352 --> 00:56:30,454 to muffle the sound of their arrival. 1114 00:56:30,687 --> 00:56:34,491 In planning, they had figured that they would be identifiable 1115 00:56:34,725 --> 00:56:37,227 for no more than the last two minutes of the flight. 1116 00:56:38,829 --> 00:56:40,864 The ten minute call is really 1117 00:56:41,098 --> 00:56:43,934 when everything starts kind of getting alive in the cabin. 1118 00:56:45,369 --> 00:56:47,104 You're double checking your optics, 1119 00:56:47,337 --> 00:56:48,538 you're double checking your night vision, 1120 00:56:48,772 --> 00:56:50,707 making sure your helmet gets tightened up. 1121 00:56:50,941 --> 00:56:52,376 ‐ Two minutes, you open the doors. 1122 00:56:52,609 --> 00:56:54,044 One minute, you swing your feet out 1123 00:56:54,278 --> 00:56:55,779 and let them hang in the breeze. 1124 00:56:56,013 --> 00:56:58,515 Um, you're getting your rope ready to go, right? 1125 00:56:58,749 --> 00:57:01,985 You're 30 seconds out, now you're in, you know? 1126 00:57:02,219 --> 00:57:03,787 At 30 seconds out, I can look out the door, 1127 00:57:04,021 --> 00:57:06,089 I can look up, I can see the compound coming. 1128 00:57:06,323 --> 00:57:08,191 Above the compound, 1129 00:57:08,425 --> 00:57:12,329 a drone feeds video back to the command center in Jalalabad, 1130 00:57:12,562 --> 00:57:14,865 the US embassy in Pakistan, 1131 00:57:15,098 --> 00:57:18,068 CIA headquarters, and the White House. 1132 00:57:18,302 --> 00:57:22,306 We were able to monitor it in real time. 1133 00:57:22,539 --> 00:57:26,843 The iconic picture that Pete Souza's taken 1134 00:57:27,077 --> 00:57:31,882 records, essentially, what the atmosphere was like. 1135 00:57:32,115 --> 00:57:35,218 We're stuffed into a pretty small room. 1136 00:57:35,452 --> 00:57:39,089 ‐ We're watching the helicopters come in, 1137 00:57:39,323 --> 00:57:42,793 and there is a point at which 1138 00:57:43,026 --> 00:57:47,431 I see one of these helicopters begin to shake. 1139 00:57:47,664 --> 00:57:51,268 And clearly, there's been a loss of control. 1140 00:57:53,170 --> 00:57:54,338 Immediately you can tell 1141 00:57:54,571 --> 00:57:56,340 something was was off, something was wrong. 1142 00:57:56,573 --> 00:57:59,242 We were not hovering like we did in training. 1143 00:57:59,476 --> 00:58:01,345 In my mind, it felt like about an hour, 1144 00:58:01,578 --> 00:58:03,246 in reality was probably about five seconds. 1145 00:58:03,480 --> 00:58:06,817 I'm sitting in the door waiting to push the rope out, 1146 00:58:07,050 --> 00:58:08,885 grab the rope, slide down and go to work. 1147 00:58:11,121 --> 00:58:13,156 Couldn't get stable, couldn't get stable. 1148 00:58:13,390 --> 00:58:15,225 Right then we kind of sunk just a little bit, 1149 00:58:15,459 --> 00:58:16,727 is what I felt, and then we kind of 1150 00:58:16,960 --> 00:58:18,929 turned the tail, kicked out to the left. 1151 00:58:19,162 --> 00:58:22,566 Once that happened, then we just started sideswiping left 1152 00:58:22,799 --> 00:58:24,534 and losing altitude. 1153 00:58:24,768 --> 00:58:26,169 Helicopters don't crash 1154 00:58:26,403 --> 00:58:28,005 like planes, come skidding in. 1155 00:58:28,238 --> 00:58:30,540 They're usually pretty ugly, and we're crashing to the side 1156 00:58:30,774 --> 00:58:32,943 at about 40 feet, and I'm in this door. 1157 00:58:33,176 --> 00:58:34,811 Now we're crashing, and everybody's wanting 1158 00:58:35,045 --> 00:58:37,814 back in and away from the open door. 1159 00:58:38,048 --> 00:58:40,317 Instinctually, that's when I started grabbing 1160 00:58:40,550 --> 00:58:43,086 the guys in front of me to make sure that they didn't fall out. 1161 00:58:43,320 --> 00:58:46,289 ‐ Here you are in probably the highest profile mission 1162 00:58:46,523 --> 00:58:48,925 in special operations history, maybe the military. 1163 00:58:49,159 --> 00:58:53,830 We might lose a whole helo full of tier one operators. 1164 00:58:54,064 --> 00:58:55,932 We're a sovereign nation. 1165 00:58:56,166 --> 00:58:59,336 The military academy's right across the way. 1166 00:58:59,569 --> 00:59:03,473 We're kind of screwed here if this is what we think it is. 1167 00:59:11,148 --> 00:59:13,050 Just before 1:00 am, 1168 00:59:13,283 --> 00:59:15,685 as the first of the two American Black Hawks moves 1169 00:59:15,919 --> 00:59:16,520 into position above the compound, 1170 00:59:16,753 --> 00:59:19,389 it starts losing lift. 1171 00:59:19,623 --> 00:59:22,692 ‐ During training, the mock compound had been surrounded by 1172 00:59:22,926 --> 00:59:24,361 a chain link fence, 1173 00:59:24,594 --> 00:59:29,566 but the actual compound is set inside tall, solid walls. 1174 00:59:29,800 --> 00:59:32,436 ‐ Chain link allows the wind to push through. 1175 00:59:32,669 --> 00:59:34,438 And so it gave a false sensation 1176 00:59:34,671 --> 00:59:37,908 of what the lift capability was for those air crews. 1177 00:59:38,141 --> 00:59:39,443 But another factor may also 1178 00:59:39,676 --> 00:59:42,079 have figured in the Black Hawk's problem. 1179 00:59:42,312 --> 00:59:44,214 Temperatures are substantially higher 1180 00:59:44,448 --> 00:59:46,083 than they had anticipated. 1181 00:59:46,316 --> 00:59:47,951 Every degree centigrade 1182 00:59:48,185 --> 00:59:49,352 does reduce a significant amount 1183 00:59:49,586 --> 00:59:51,621 of lift just based on their density. 1184 00:59:51,855 --> 00:59:54,791 And the Hawk crews were believing it was going to be 1185 00:59:55,025 --> 00:59:55,959 eight to ten degrees cooler. 1186 00:59:56,193 --> 00:59:58,261 ‐ They planned against nicer conditions 1187 00:59:58,495 --> 01:00:00,530 or lower temperatures, and they got out there 1188 01:00:00,764 --> 01:00:03,733 and the aircraft did what would naturally happen 1189 01:00:03,967 --> 01:00:05,268 when it doesn't have the ability to perform 1190 01:00:05,502 --> 01:00:07,504 under those conditions. 1191 01:00:07,737 --> 01:00:09,172 As the helicopter falters, 1192 01:00:09,406 --> 01:00:11,708 long hours of training kick in. 1193 01:00:11,942 --> 01:00:16,713 ‐ One of the contingencies we rehearsed numerous times was 1194 01:00:16,947 --> 01:00:20,851 if anything happened to that first helicopter, 1195 01:00:21,084 --> 01:00:23,587 if the pilot was able to, he would bump over 1196 01:00:23,820 --> 01:00:26,156 the enclosed driveway and into what we called the animal pen. 1197 01:00:28,158 --> 01:00:30,494 ‐ We impacted, there's a large wall 1198 01:00:30,727 --> 01:00:32,562 that circles the compound. 1199 01:00:32,796 --> 01:00:35,432 Our tail section hung up on the wall, 1200 01:00:35,665 --> 01:00:38,502 and we kind of look like a lawn dart stuck over the wall. 1201 01:00:38,735 --> 01:00:41,071 The tail section of the helicopter has a wheel 1202 01:00:41,304 --> 01:00:43,673 for the load‐bearing section of the Black Hawk. 1203 01:00:43,907 --> 01:00:46,409 That wheel landed on top of the wall. 1204 01:00:46,643 --> 01:00:49,179 Had that wheel bent eight inches this way or this way, 1205 01:00:49,412 --> 01:00:51,014 it would have broken the tail section. 1206 01:00:51,248 --> 01:00:53,150 We wouldn't be talking today. 1207 01:00:53,383 --> 01:00:56,286 I kind of waited for what I assumed would be next, 1208 01:00:56,520 --> 01:00:59,623 was some sort of explosion or something, but that never came. 1209 01:00:59,856 --> 01:01:01,758 And now the guys who were sitting behind me, 1210 01:01:01,992 --> 01:01:03,360 who were holding me in are now yelling at me, 1211 01:01:03,593 --> 01:01:04,728 telling me to hurry up and get out. 1212 01:01:04,961 --> 01:01:06,730 God, give me a second. 1213 01:01:06,963 --> 01:01:09,432 I gotta take a couple deep breaths here. 1214 01:01:09,666 --> 01:01:11,568 People are moving around the outside. 1215 01:01:11,801 --> 01:01:15,038 That says to me that at least some are uninjured 1216 01:01:15,272 --> 01:01:18,175 and the helo seems to be upright 'cause I saw people come out 1217 01:01:18,408 --> 01:01:20,177 from both sides of the helicopter. 1218 01:01:20,410 --> 01:01:21,378 So it hadn't rolled over because I could still 1219 01:01:21,611 --> 01:01:22,913 see the rotor blades. 1220 01:01:23,146 --> 01:01:26,082 ‐ That ground force and crew is living today because 1221 01:01:26,316 --> 01:01:28,952 of the expertise and the ability for that pilot to maneuver 1222 01:01:29,186 --> 01:01:30,787 that aircraft where it did. 1223 01:01:31,021 --> 01:01:35,058 ‐ When the helicopter went down at Abbottabad, 1224 01:01:35,292 --> 01:01:37,360 I thought I was gonna have a heart attack. 1225 01:01:37,594 --> 01:01:41,131 Oh no, not again, not 30 years later. 1226 01:01:41,364 --> 01:01:42,699 But the difference in the equipment, 1227 01:01:42,933 --> 01:01:45,068 the difference in the training, the difference in the caliber 1228 01:01:45,302 --> 01:01:49,439 of the people involved turned what could have been a disaster 1229 01:01:49,673 --> 01:01:51,408 into an inconvenience. 1230 01:01:51,641 --> 01:01:57,914 ‐ That doesn't mean that you didn't get a little knot inside 1231 01:01:58,148 --> 01:02:01,785 when we heard that there had been a problem with the tail 1232 01:02:02,018 --> 01:02:04,154 of the helicopter hitting the wall. 1233 01:02:04,387 --> 01:02:08,458 And we recognized it was going to make extraction 1234 01:02:08,692 --> 01:02:11,528 more complicated than originally planned. 1235 01:02:11,761 --> 01:02:13,863 Chalk two, he's coming in. 1236 01:02:14,097 --> 01:02:15,966 He has no idea if we'd been shot down, 1237 01:02:16,199 --> 01:02:18,602 a mechanical issue, has no idea what's happened. 1238 01:02:18,835 --> 01:02:21,938 In a second after witnessing our helo was down, 1239 01:02:22,172 --> 01:02:23,506 he didn't make a radio call, 1240 01:02:23,740 --> 01:02:25,675 he didn't try to push the envelope in the wrong way. 1241 01:02:25,909 --> 01:02:28,545 He simply hovered his helicopter out outside the compound, 1242 01:02:28,778 --> 01:02:30,380 landed him on the ground. 1243 01:02:30,614 --> 01:02:32,449 We jumped out, ran around the other side, 1244 01:02:32,682 --> 01:02:34,618 underside of the helo, linked up with the guys 1245 01:02:34,851 --> 01:02:36,286 on the other side of the bird, 1246 01:02:36,519 --> 01:02:39,122 explosively breached one gate, and within about a minute, 1247 01:02:39,356 --> 01:02:40,490 we were back into the location 1248 01:02:40,724 --> 01:02:42,859 where we would have fast roped into initially. 1249 01:02:43,093 --> 01:02:45,295 As soon as we funneled into the compound, 1250 01:02:45,528 --> 01:02:47,264 we knew exactly where we needed to go 1251 01:02:47,497 --> 01:02:50,467 and guys started breaking off and took their responsibilities. 1252 01:02:50,700 --> 01:02:53,670 ‐ The guy in the south guesthouse was one of theirs. 1253 01:02:53,903 --> 01:02:55,505 Go up to the guest house, check the door, right? 1254 01:02:55,739 --> 01:02:58,074 It's locked. When you're a bad guy's house 1255 01:02:58,308 --> 01:02:59,843 and you've just beat on his front door for about 1256 01:03:00,143 --> 01:03:02,412 a minute and a half, what you don't want to do 1257 01:03:02,646 --> 01:03:03,880 is stand in front of the door. 1258 01:03:04,114 --> 01:03:05,915 And so I was I was on my knee 1259 01:03:06,149 --> 01:03:07,851 as low as I could to the side of the door, 1260 01:03:08,084 --> 01:03:10,186 put a little explosive charge on it. 1261 01:03:10,420 --> 01:03:11,521 ‐ Immediately, as they began to move, 1262 01:03:11,755 --> 01:03:13,123 we got the call that shots were fired. 1263 01:03:13,356 --> 01:03:16,126 AK‐47 starts shooting right through the door. 1264 01:03:16,359 --> 01:03:18,595 Thankfully, I was on my knee. 1265 01:03:18,828 --> 01:03:21,564 My partner and I at the door returned fire through the door. 1266 01:03:22,932 --> 01:03:25,402 Everything goes quiet, okay, now what do we do? 1267 01:03:25,635 --> 01:03:26,736 Right, we still gotta get in the room, 1268 01:03:26,970 --> 01:03:28,104 still gotta figure out what's going on. 1269 01:03:28,338 --> 01:03:29,306 Did he take his gun and go into the back room 1270 01:03:29,539 --> 01:03:30,607 or did we kill him and is he laying 1271 01:03:30,840 --> 01:03:32,876 the other side of the door, I don't know. 1272 01:03:33,109 --> 01:03:35,278 This happened very, very quickly. 1273 01:03:35,512 --> 01:03:38,148 Door opens up, it was a female holding the little kid. 1274 01:03:38,381 --> 01:03:40,650 Like, two or three kids behind her holding her hand. 1275 01:03:40,884 --> 01:03:42,719 Her husband was laying there dead inside the door. 1276 01:03:47,190 --> 01:03:48,124 On the northeast corner, 1277 01:03:48,358 --> 01:03:49,759 there's a door we can get into. 1278 01:03:49,993 --> 01:03:52,128 One of the breachers went up with a big bomb 1279 01:03:52,362 --> 01:03:54,597 and put it on the door, and that one you heard. 1280 01:03:54,831 --> 01:03:56,700 The door did open but there's a brick wall behind it. 1281 01:03:56,933 --> 01:03:58,335 It was a fake door to fake out people 1282 01:03:58,568 --> 01:03:59,869 that might be looking at the compound. 1283 01:04:00,170 --> 01:04:02,472 That was the first indicator this is a high value target. 1284 01:04:02,706 --> 01:04:05,041 ‐ One of our team inside ran to the main gate, opened it up, 1285 01:04:05,275 --> 01:04:06,710 and let them in. 1286 01:04:06,943 --> 01:04:08,378 They came in and then everybody starts flooding 1287 01:04:08,611 --> 01:04:11,314 the main three‐story compound. 1288 01:04:11,548 --> 01:04:13,817 ‐ Once the SEALs went into the compound, 1289 01:04:14,050 --> 01:04:16,419 we no longer saw anything on our screens. 1290 01:04:16,653 --> 01:04:17,887 And so we were waiting. 1291 01:04:18,121 --> 01:04:19,222 ‐ We didn't have helmet cams, 1292 01:04:19,456 --> 01:04:21,124 so I wasn't seeing the action unfold. 1293 01:04:22,792 --> 01:04:24,461 ‐ There was the other Kuwaiti brother and his wife 1294 01:04:24,694 --> 01:04:26,296 killed on the first floor. 1295 01:04:26,529 --> 01:04:27,931 He was going for a gun and the female 1296 01:04:28,164 --> 01:04:30,934 was trying to protect him. 1297 01:04:31,134 --> 01:04:33,770 ‐ I was able to see the guys in front of me already 1298 01:04:34,003 --> 01:04:35,739 working problems, different breaching problems. 1299 01:04:35,972 --> 01:04:37,140 Nobody hesitated. 1300 01:04:37,374 --> 01:04:38,975 The entire thing could be rigged to blow up. 1301 01:04:39,209 --> 01:04:40,610 If anyone's gonna martyr himself and his whole family 1302 01:04:40,844 --> 01:04:43,146 it's Osama bin Laden, but we just continue to move forward. 1303 01:04:43,380 --> 01:04:45,882 ‐ To go up the stairs, there was a heavy metal door 1304 01:04:46,116 --> 01:04:47,450 built into the stairwell 1305 01:04:47,684 --> 01:04:51,621 that blocked the upstairs from downstairs. 1306 01:04:51,855 --> 01:04:53,957 That was a sign, hey, who has a metal door 1307 01:04:54,190 --> 01:04:55,458 at the bottom of their stairs? 1308 01:04:55,692 --> 01:04:56,960 We explosively breached that, 1309 01:04:57,193 --> 01:04:59,963 and then made our way up to the second floor. 1310 01:05:00,263 --> 01:05:01,865 House is pitch black, right? 1311 01:05:02,098 --> 01:05:03,700 No electricity, no lights on, 1312 01:05:03,933 --> 01:05:05,668 they had coverings on all the windows. 1313 01:05:05,902 --> 01:05:07,237 There's a set of stairs that go up, 1314 01:05:07,470 --> 01:05:09,806 there's a landing, and then it goes up to the third floor. 1315 01:05:10,039 --> 01:05:11,875 ‐ Guys were moving upstairs the way we always had 1316 01:05:12,108 --> 01:05:14,477 in every shoot house that we'd work through. 1317 01:05:14,711 --> 01:05:17,414 ‐ By the time I got there, there was a SEAL in front of me 1318 01:05:17,647 --> 01:05:19,482 who'd just taken a couple shots. 1319 01:05:19,716 --> 01:05:22,419 He's calm enough in this situation to say, okay, well, 1320 01:05:22,652 --> 01:05:24,888 I just saw a head peek around the corner. 1321 01:05:25,121 --> 01:05:27,624 I'm betting it's Khalid, bin Laden's son. 1322 01:05:27,857 --> 01:05:29,559 I'm gonna whisper his name. 1323 01:05:29,793 --> 01:05:31,661 Nobody told him to do this, he just dreamed this all up 1324 01:05:31,895 --> 01:05:33,696 in the moment, in the middle of the raid, 1325 01:05:33,930 --> 01:05:37,100 three minutes after crashing the helicopter and almost dying. 1326 01:05:37,333 --> 01:05:39,269 Literally whispers his name. 1327 01:05:39,502 --> 01:05:41,070 Khalid pops around the corner and gets shot. 1328 01:05:43,973 --> 01:05:46,643 As we moved up the stairs and stepped over Khalid's body, 1329 01:05:46,876 --> 01:05:49,446 he had an AK‐47 there, locked and loaded, 1330 01:05:49,679 --> 01:05:53,516 round in the chamber, off safe and ready to go. 1331 01:05:53,750 --> 01:05:55,518 ‐ One guy goes this way, the other guy goes that way. 1332 01:05:55,752 --> 01:05:58,321 A handful of guys went over the top of Khalid, 1333 01:05:58,555 --> 01:06:01,124 moved to the second floor of the house. 1334 01:06:03,259 --> 01:06:04,594 Once the second floor was cleared, 1335 01:06:04,828 --> 01:06:06,663 the team moved up the stairs. 1336 01:06:11,401 --> 01:06:13,303 Shots fired. 1337 01:06:16,739 --> 01:06:18,741 ‐ They started going into that room. 1338 01:06:18,975 --> 01:06:21,077 ‐ You go to the door, you look through the door, 1339 01:06:21,311 --> 01:06:24,547 there's an adult male basically twitching 1340 01:06:24,781 --> 01:06:28,218 at the bottom of his bed, laying on the ground, done. 1341 01:06:28,451 --> 01:06:32,322 There are several females in the room. 1342 01:06:32,555 --> 01:06:33,823 Again, part of the Intel brief was, hey, 1343 01:06:34,057 --> 01:06:35,658 these women could wear suicide vests. 1344 01:06:35,892 --> 01:06:38,761 We'd seen aggressive females downstairs. 1345 01:06:38,995 --> 01:06:41,231 So the point man who had whispered Khalid's name 1346 01:06:41,464 --> 01:06:43,967 literally rushed into the room, pushed the two women up against 1347 01:06:44,200 --> 01:06:48,204 the back far wall in case they had a suicide vest. 1348 01:06:48,438 --> 01:06:51,674 He would have taken the blast and protected us. 1349 01:06:51,908 --> 01:06:54,544 Like, okay, wow, tha‐‐ that might be him, right? 1350 01:06:54,777 --> 01:06:58,615 His hair was‐‐ I remember the bridge of his nose. 1351 01:06:58,848 --> 01:07:01,084 I don't know, we all carried photos of him, right? 1352 01:07:01,317 --> 01:07:03,419 The photo I had, he had a very gray beard. 1353 01:07:03,653 --> 01:07:06,289 Looking down at him, his beard was pitch black. 1354 01:07:06,523 --> 01:07:08,691 When I searched his bathroom, guess what I found. 1355 01:07:08,925 --> 01:07:10,927 Just for Men hair dye 1356 01:07:11,160 --> 01:07:14,163 literally on his little shelf above his sink. 1357 01:07:16,799 --> 01:07:19,669 ‐ We're listening and a certain amount of time goes by, 1358 01:07:19,903 --> 01:07:22,005 and then the next call sign we got was 1359 01:07:22,238 --> 01:07:24,440 "Geronimo, Geronimo, Geronimo," 1360 01:07:24,674 --> 01:07:26,309 and that was from the ground force commander. 1361 01:07:26,543 --> 01:07:29,445 Geronimo had been the call sign for bin Laden. 1362 01:07:29,679 --> 01:07:30,613 ‐ They said it three times. 1363 01:07:30,847 --> 01:07:32,282 All he needed to do was say it once. 1364 01:07:32,515 --> 01:07:35,585 I could just tell when he called that he understood 1365 01:07:35,818 --> 01:07:38,187 what he was about to say was going to be momentous 1366 01:07:38,421 --> 01:07:40,890 and heard by a lot of people inside the US government. 1367 01:07:41,124 --> 01:07:44,661 ‐ I had to call back out and said, is Geronimo EKIA? 1368 01:07:44,894 --> 01:07:46,162 Of course, they came back quickly 1369 01:07:46,396 --> 01:07:48,197 and said EKIA, enemy killed in action. 1370 01:07:48,431 --> 01:07:51,534 Everybody in the command post just let out a shout, 1371 01:07:51,768 --> 01:07:53,169 and a jump and raised their fist in the air, 1372 01:07:53,403 --> 01:07:56,339 and then again, in a quarter of a second, they were back down 1373 01:07:56,573 --> 01:07:58,007 in their seats and it was silent and people were just 1374 01:07:58,241 --> 01:07:59,776 doing their jobs. 1375 01:08:00,076 --> 01:08:02,445 ‐ I remember looking at my co‐pilots like, they got him. 1376 01:08:02,679 --> 01:08:05,048 They called Geronimo, they got him. 1377 01:08:05,281 --> 01:08:07,050 ‐ In our particular vault, because there were no 1378 01:08:07,283 --> 01:08:10,253 senior policymakers, this was a much more 1379 01:08:10,486 --> 01:08:13,389 from the trenches‐‐ immediately celebratory, 1380 01:08:13,623 --> 01:08:17,493 but also a lot of just tears and overwhelmed people. 1381 01:08:17,727 --> 01:08:20,797 ‐ I had the sense, that everybody 1382 01:08:21,030 --> 01:08:24,801 was just taking a moment 1383 01:08:25,001 --> 01:08:28,705 to savor the fact that 1384 01:08:28,938 --> 01:08:32,275 all those people who had been killed on 9/11 1385 01:08:32,508 --> 01:08:34,577 had finally been avenged. 1386 01:08:34,811 --> 01:08:37,580 ‐ There was... 1387 01:08:37,814 --> 01:08:41,584 some sense of vindication, although, at that point, 1388 01:08:41,818 --> 01:08:43,586 these guys are in a dark building. 1389 01:08:43,820 --> 01:08:47,924 They can't be absolutely certain that it's bin Laden, 1390 01:08:48,157 --> 01:08:52,061 but there seems to be some confidence that it is. 1391 01:08:52,295 --> 01:08:55,365 At that point, immediately, my mind went to, all right, 1392 01:08:55,598 --> 01:08:58,801 get these guys out of here as fast as possible. 1393 01:09:03,539 --> 01:09:05,842 With one Black Hawk disabled, 1394 01:09:05,975 --> 01:09:07,877 the Chinook helicopters are no longer flying backup. 1395 01:09:08,111 --> 01:09:10,880 They now must lead the way home. 1396 01:09:11,114 --> 01:09:12,215 When we first heard 1397 01:09:12,448 --> 01:09:14,984 of the aircraft crashing, 1398 01:09:15,218 --> 01:09:19,255 it takes a few seconds for it to set in that this is reality. 1399 01:09:19,489 --> 01:09:22,659 That was the most rehearsed contingency 1400 01:09:22,892 --> 01:09:25,061 that we had planned for. 1401 01:09:25,294 --> 01:09:28,665 So it was no longer an unscripted plan. 1402 01:09:28,898 --> 01:09:32,101 It was now just the alternate ending to a story 1403 01:09:32,335 --> 01:09:34,270 that had already been scripted out. 1404 01:09:34,504 --> 01:09:37,840 ‐ Once I was told to execute. I mean, my you know, my call. 1405 01:09:38,074 --> 01:09:43,179 And we proceeded ourselves kind of back to the northwest 1406 01:09:43,413 --> 01:09:45,348 and went up this very large river valley. 1407 01:09:45,581 --> 01:09:47,550 It was about 30 miles or so to the northwest. 1408 01:09:47,784 --> 01:09:50,386 Though one of their helicopters has crashed, 1409 01:09:50,620 --> 01:09:52,889 it takes the SEALs only about ten minutes 1410 01:09:53,122 --> 01:09:57,060 to secure the compound, killing four men and one woman. 1411 01:09:57,293 --> 01:10:01,164 Next, they gather as much intelligence as possible. 1412 01:10:01,397 --> 01:10:03,166 Even with bin Laden dead, 1413 01:10:03,399 --> 01:10:08,671 the fight against al‐Qaeda will continue. 1414 01:10:08,905 --> 01:10:11,074 ‐ We're on the clock, right? 1415 01:10:11,307 --> 01:10:13,076 We know helos are running out of fuel, 1416 01:10:13,309 --> 01:10:14,410 we've got X amount of time 1417 01:10:14,644 --> 01:10:16,612 to wrap things up and get out of there. 1418 01:10:16,846 --> 01:10:19,348 People running around with bags just stuffing anything you can. 1419 01:10:19,582 --> 01:10:23,619 Computers, hard drives, paperwork, 1420 01:10:23,853 --> 01:10:25,555 anything you can find, you're stuff in bags. 1421 01:10:25,788 --> 01:10:28,391 ‐ I just fell into the forensic aspect of it. 1422 01:10:28,624 --> 01:10:32,261 Kind of wiped off the face a little bit, 1423 01:10:32,495 --> 01:10:34,597 get as much blood off it so we could get some pictures, 1424 01:10:34,831 --> 01:10:36,432 you know, get a really good look at 1425 01:10:36,666 --> 01:10:38,267 the positive identification of him. 1426 01:10:38,501 --> 01:10:40,103 ‐ At this point, you know, somebody on the radio 1427 01:10:40,336 --> 01:10:42,105 had asked for more time, our master chief was like, 1428 01:10:42,338 --> 01:10:44,607 nope, you don't have it, leave right now. 1429 01:10:44,841 --> 01:10:47,243 If we don't leave right now, we're gonna miss our ride. 1430 01:10:47,477 --> 01:10:49,579 So I remember we come running out, 1431 01:10:49,812 --> 01:10:52,915 everybody's carrying bags and bags of intel. 1432 01:10:53,149 --> 01:10:56,352 ‐ Black Hawk came back in, picked up 12 of the SEALs 1433 01:10:56,586 --> 01:10:58,688 without any extra equipment, and they departed 1434 01:10:58,921 --> 01:11:01,190 and headed straight up to receive fuel 1435 01:11:01,424 --> 01:11:03,159 before I came in to pick up the remaining SEALs 1436 01:11:03,392 --> 01:11:05,728 plus all the extra equipment they found on the compound. 1437 01:11:05,962 --> 01:11:09,799 ‐ As we kind of got finished with our duties 1438 01:11:10,032 --> 01:11:11,100 and our responsibilities 1439 01:11:11,334 --> 01:11:13,436 upstairs with the DNA collection, 1440 01:11:13,669 --> 01:11:17,340 we drug the body downstairs, 1441 01:11:17,573 --> 01:11:19,175 got him in a body bag in the courtyard. 1442 01:11:19,408 --> 01:11:21,878 ‐ We had planned for 30 minutes time on target. 1443 01:11:22,111 --> 01:11:23,079 Then we'd given ourselves 1444 01:11:23,312 --> 01:11:24,914 an extra ten‐minute window to spare. 1445 01:11:25,148 --> 01:11:29,619 ‐ Because of the commotion, the gunshots, the helicopter, 1446 01:11:29,852 --> 01:11:31,888 it's drawing a lot of attention from the community 1447 01:11:32,121 --> 01:11:34,791 regardless of the fact that it's the middle of the night there. 1448 01:11:35,024 --> 01:11:39,328 And so, there's also a lot of concern due to the proximity 1449 01:11:39,562 --> 01:11:42,498 of the compound to other military installations there. 1450 01:11:42,732 --> 01:11:45,034 And so we're monitoring those very, very closely. 1451 01:11:47,937 --> 01:11:50,807 ‐ I look, people coming out of the houses like they were 1452 01:11:51,040 --> 01:11:52,608 running towards us, all of them. 1453 01:11:52,842 --> 01:11:54,443 That was the time that I realized 1454 01:11:54,677 --> 01:11:56,112 that I have to do something. 1455 01:11:56,345 --> 01:11:57,647 So then I called them and I said, 1456 01:11:57,880 --> 01:11:59,448 this is a government business. 1457 01:11:59,682 --> 01:12:04,086 If you want to stay alive, don't come. 1458 01:12:04,320 --> 01:12:06,322 Go back to your house. Please go back to your house. 1459 01:12:06,556 --> 01:12:09,292 I was just talking, of course, in Pashto. 1460 01:12:09,525 --> 01:12:12,328 There are two guys, they tried to run towards us. 1461 01:12:12,562 --> 01:12:14,430 One of the SEALs who were very close to me 1462 01:12:14,664 --> 01:12:16,699 and he put dots on them. 1463 01:12:16,933 --> 01:12:18,601 So I tapped on the shoulder. 1464 01:12:18,835 --> 01:12:20,603 I said, wait, and then I curse them. 1465 01:12:20,837 --> 01:12:22,238 And I said, go back, why you are coming here? 1466 01:12:22,471 --> 01:12:23,573 And they went back. 1467 01:12:23,806 --> 01:12:25,308 They listened. That was the greatest thing. 1468 01:12:27,543 --> 01:12:29,979 ‐ You could see a lot of people moving in the courtyard. 1469 01:12:30,213 --> 01:12:31,814 There were a lot more women and children on the target 1470 01:12:32,048 --> 01:12:33,683 than we had estimated. 1471 01:12:33,916 --> 01:12:36,018 We have loaded the downed helicopter with demolition. 1472 01:12:36,252 --> 01:12:37,153 we were gonna blow it in place. 1473 01:12:37,386 --> 01:12:38,721 Any time we lose a helicopter, 1474 01:12:38,955 --> 01:12:41,791 we're prepared to destroy the, uh, the crypto gear on board 1475 01:12:42,024 --> 01:12:43,893 and the radios and some of the sensitive technology. 1476 01:12:44,126 --> 01:12:46,028 ‐ The word goes out, blow the helo. 1477 01:12:46,262 --> 01:12:47,363 They put it on a timer, 1478 01:12:47,597 --> 01:12:49,532 not a remote control detonate, but a timer. 1479 01:12:49,765 --> 01:12:51,434 Set the timer, let it click. 1480 01:12:51,667 --> 01:12:54,203 Helos, they'll land in one minute. 1481 01:12:54,437 --> 01:12:56,739 ‐ I was inbound from the southwest, 1482 01:12:56,973 --> 01:12:59,375 and that's when one of the soldiers got on the radio 1483 01:12:59,609 --> 01:13:01,277 and told me to break away. 1484 01:13:01,510 --> 01:13:03,579 The helicopter pilot banks a right. 1485 01:13:03,813 --> 01:13:05,581 Boom. 1486 01:13:05,815 --> 01:13:08,317 ‐ Not but 100 yards away from landing 1487 01:13:08,551 --> 01:13:11,888 to pick up the ground force, that aircraft blew up. 1488 01:13:12,121 --> 01:13:16,058 And it was a 150 foot, 200 foot mushroom cloud. 1489 01:13:16,292 --> 01:13:20,930 And so immediate 360 degree right turn to get up 1490 01:13:21,163 --> 01:13:24,233 underneath that cloud and debris 1491 01:13:24,467 --> 01:13:27,270 and then come in and land to pick them up. 1492 01:13:27,503 --> 01:13:28,938 ‐ We were so close that you could feel 1493 01:13:29,171 --> 01:13:31,040 the heat from inside the 47. 1494 01:13:31,274 --> 01:13:33,042 ‐ We were within ten seconds 1495 01:13:33,276 --> 01:13:35,711 of blowing our own helicopter out of the sky. 1496 01:13:35,945 --> 01:13:38,047 ‐ When they blew the helicopter, 1497 01:13:38,281 --> 01:13:40,249 then obviously all hell broke loose 1498 01:13:40,483 --> 01:13:42,919 and most of the villagers woke up. 1499 01:13:43,152 --> 01:13:46,022 The Pakistanis realized that something had happened. 1500 01:13:46,255 --> 01:13:47,924 They weren't quite sure what had happened, 1501 01:13:48,157 --> 01:13:52,094 but we knew that they had been put on alert. 1502 01:13:52,328 --> 01:13:55,631 ‐ And we were scared to death the Pakistanis would mobilize 1503 01:13:55,865 --> 01:13:58,467 their Air Force and shoot down our helicopters, 1504 01:13:58,701 --> 01:14:01,404 which is one reason why we put all that DNA from bin Laden 1505 01:14:01,637 --> 01:14:03,539 and the intelligence in one helicopter 1506 01:14:03,773 --> 01:14:05,841 and his remains in another helicopter. 1507 01:14:06,075 --> 01:14:07,343 So if one of them got shot down, 1508 01:14:07,576 --> 01:14:09,745 we still had the evidence that we've got. 1509 01:14:11,514 --> 01:14:15,785 ‐ The valley was now full of blue lights, 1510 01:14:16,018 --> 01:14:17,954 police lights all over the place. 1511 01:14:18,187 --> 01:14:19,455 And they were coming closer to the compound. 1512 01:14:19,689 --> 01:14:22,058 It was time to get them out of there. 1513 01:14:22,291 --> 01:14:25,094 I have a fuel tank, contingency assaulters, 1514 01:14:25,328 --> 01:14:28,130 primary SEALs, and I have the air crew 1515 01:14:28,364 --> 01:14:31,000 all crammed into an MH‐47. 1516 01:14:31,233 --> 01:14:34,003 We put that airframe to its max potential because of 1517 01:14:34,236 --> 01:14:36,806 the amount of weight and amount of people had on board, 1518 01:14:37,039 --> 01:14:38,474 we were just barely over rooftops. 1519 01:14:38,708 --> 01:14:41,978 Above the Pakistani military academy, 1520 01:14:42,211 --> 01:14:44,714 the original plan is that we were all going to link up 1521 01:14:44,947 --> 01:14:47,850 to refuel and then return home as a flight. 1522 01:14:48,084 --> 01:14:50,553 Now that we are in two separate locations 1523 01:14:50,786 --> 01:14:53,489 at two separate points in time, 1524 01:14:53,723 --> 01:14:56,993 there was no sense in us trying to focus on 1525 01:14:57,226 --> 01:15:00,396 consolidating and the return. 1526 01:15:00,629 --> 01:15:01,664 The first Chinook takes 1527 01:15:01,897 --> 01:15:04,567 a direct route back towards Afghanistan. 1528 01:15:04,800 --> 01:15:06,635 The surviving Black Hawk heads north 1529 01:15:06,869 --> 01:15:10,139 to get fuel from the second Chinook. 1530 01:15:10,373 --> 01:15:12,708 ‐ I remember all the lights in the helicopter blinking, 1531 01:15:12,942 --> 01:15:14,610 and knowing we were low on fuel. 1532 01:15:16,879 --> 01:15:18,381 ‐ Before the Black Hawk got there, 1533 01:15:18,614 --> 01:15:21,117 I don't think we're on the ground more than 15 minutes, 1534 01:15:21,350 --> 01:15:23,519 he had to transfer most of his ground force to me 1535 01:15:23,753 --> 01:15:26,355 because he took on the fuel he needed to get back. 1536 01:15:26,589 --> 01:15:29,658 He absolutely needed the gas to get back to Afghanistan. 1537 01:15:29,892 --> 01:15:31,293 But because of the weight that the ground force, 1538 01:15:31,527 --> 01:15:32,995 he couldn't climb out of the valley. 1539 01:15:33,229 --> 01:15:35,898 ‐ Took us about 19 minutes on the ground. 1540 01:15:36,132 --> 01:15:38,801 That was probably the longest 19 months of that mission. 1541 01:15:39,035 --> 01:15:40,469 Refueling complete, 1542 01:15:40,703 --> 01:15:42,972 the two helicopters fly back in tandem 1543 01:15:43,205 --> 01:15:45,141 with the Chinook in the lead. 1544 01:15:45,374 --> 01:15:47,843 ‐ When we fly as fast as he can fly, I can leave him, 1545 01:15:48,077 --> 01:15:50,513 so he's following me and electronic warfare displays 1546 01:15:50,746 --> 01:15:52,181 are very active at this point. 1547 01:15:52,415 --> 01:15:53,516 And I'm like, okay, well, we've got stuff out there 1548 01:15:53,749 --> 01:15:54,917 looking for us now. 1549 01:15:55,151 --> 01:15:56,419 ‐ They flew fairly a northern route 1550 01:15:56,652 --> 01:15:59,155 outside the populous area, the route we took was 1551 01:15:59,388 --> 01:16:02,892 a direct route through low land, populated areas. 1552 01:16:03,125 --> 01:16:04,994 If anybody was going to be seen, it was going to be us. 1553 01:16:05,227 --> 01:16:06,695 ‐ One of the team leaders comes in across radios says, 1554 01:16:06,929 --> 01:16:09,965 hey, Pakistan scrambled fighters after us. 1555 01:16:10,199 --> 01:16:12,668 ‐ So we were getting indications whether it be on the radio 1556 01:16:12,902 --> 01:16:15,638 or on board systems that radar systems were up 1557 01:16:15,871 --> 01:16:20,242 and we were seen and we're being tracked. 1558 01:16:20,476 --> 01:16:24,280 And then lo and behold, before you know it, we had an F‐16 that 1559 01:16:24,513 --> 01:16:28,350 was at a nearby base in Pakistan that was searching for us. 1560 01:16:28,584 --> 01:16:33,055 And three times, the F‐16 was searching for us, 1561 01:16:33,289 --> 01:16:35,458 and then through acquisition, 1562 01:16:35,691 --> 01:16:38,627 and the next step was target track. 1563 01:16:38,861 --> 01:16:40,463 ‐ Honestly, at that point, I started thinking about 1564 01:16:40,696 --> 01:16:43,799 my funeral because there's no way that this 1565 01:16:44,033 --> 01:16:47,670 ginormous flying bus was going to out‐speed, 1566 01:16:47,903 --> 01:16:49,338 outmaneuver a jet 1567 01:16:49,572 --> 01:16:52,374 that we probably sold them 30‐some years ago. 1568 01:16:52,608 --> 01:16:54,310 ‐ We just watched the clock and the maps, 1569 01:16:54,543 --> 01:16:58,013 just praying that they would get out of Pakistan airspace in time 1570 01:16:58,247 --> 01:17:00,683 before some type of clash ensued. 1571 01:17:00,916 --> 01:17:02,518 The returning helicopters 1572 01:17:02,751 --> 01:17:04,687 face one last hurdle. 1573 01:17:04,920 --> 01:17:07,857 Operation Neptune Spear has been kept secret 1574 01:17:08,090 --> 01:17:10,493 from American commanders in Afghanistan. 1575 01:17:10,726 --> 01:17:14,063 That night, some US forces noticed the approach 1576 01:17:14,296 --> 01:17:17,266 of unknown aircraft from Pakistan. 1577 01:17:17,500 --> 01:17:19,468 ‐ There was an operation near the border, 1578 01:17:19,702 --> 01:17:21,337 which we did all the time. 1579 01:17:21,570 --> 01:17:23,572 Part of that element picked up 1580 01:17:23,806 --> 01:17:25,574 our guys coming across that border. 1581 01:17:25,808 --> 01:17:28,611 ‐ They were actually escalating just one step shy of them 1582 01:17:28,844 --> 01:17:31,147 releasing weapons to shoot us down. 1583 01:17:31,380 --> 01:17:32,815 We were trying everything we could. 1584 01:17:33,048 --> 01:17:34,150 They finally just had to break radio silence 1585 01:17:34,383 --> 01:17:36,218 and tell them to stand down. 1586 01:17:38,521 --> 01:17:40,489 ‐ I never thought I'd enjoy hearing those words, 1587 01:17:40,723 --> 01:17:43,726 "Welcome to Afghanistan," but that was music to my ears. 1588 01:17:52,635 --> 01:17:54,470 Four hours after setting out, 1589 01:17:54,703 --> 01:17:56,839 all of the operators and air crews 1590 01:17:57,072 --> 01:17:59,141 who carried out Operation Neptune Spear 1591 01:17:59,375 --> 01:18:01,277 are back in Afghanistan. 1592 01:18:03,045 --> 01:18:05,948 The first order of business is confirming whose remains 1593 01:18:06,182 --> 01:18:08,517 they have brought back with them. 1594 01:18:08,751 --> 01:18:10,319 ‐ We had touched down in Jabat, 1595 01:18:10,553 --> 01:18:12,688 got off the helos, there was guys there 1596 01:18:12,922 --> 01:18:15,624 to grab the body, pulled them right into a hangar. 1597 01:18:15,858 --> 01:18:19,094 I remember McRaven showing up immediately after. 1598 01:18:19,328 --> 01:18:20,930 He's like, all right. let me see him. 1599 01:18:21,163 --> 01:18:22,431 ‐ I unzip the body bag, 1600 01:18:22,665 --> 01:18:24,600 and I pulled the remains out of the body bag. 1601 01:18:24,833 --> 01:18:27,570 And of course, we knew that bin Laden was about 6'4. 1602 01:18:27,803 --> 01:18:29,405 I saw a young SEAL standing by and I said, 1603 01:18:29,638 --> 01:18:31,207 hey, son, how tall are you? 1604 01:18:31,440 --> 01:18:32,408 And he looked at me kind of funny, he said, 1605 01:18:32,641 --> 01:18:34,076 "Well, sir, I'm 6'2." 1606 01:18:34,310 --> 01:18:35,244 Yeah, come here for a minute. 1607 01:18:35,477 --> 01:18:37,713 I want you to lie down right here. 1608 01:18:37,947 --> 01:18:39,682 And he said, "I'm sorry, sir, what?" 1609 01:18:39,915 --> 01:18:41,884 I said, I want you to lie down next to the remains. 1610 01:18:42,117 --> 01:18:43,552 So he lay down next the remains. 1611 01:18:43,786 --> 01:18:45,387 And sure enough, the remains were a couple of inches. 1612 01:18:45,621 --> 01:18:48,057 They put bin Laden's body back in, 1613 01:18:48,290 --> 01:18:50,893 and I went five months back‐‐ 1614 01:18:51,126 --> 01:18:54,363 back to my video teleconference with the president. 1615 01:18:54,597 --> 01:18:57,132 And the president asked, "Well, Bill, is it him?" 1616 01:18:57,366 --> 01:18:59,268 I said, well, sir, you know, without DNA, 1617 01:18:59,501 --> 01:19:03,906 I can't tell you 100%, but certainly looks like him. 1618 01:19:04,139 --> 01:19:06,275 You know, all the features are the same. 1619 01:19:06,508 --> 01:19:08,777 I said I even had somebody lie down next to him 1620 01:19:09,011 --> 01:19:11,447 and the remains were a little bit longer. 1621 01:19:11,680 --> 01:19:15,284 And there's a pause on the other end of the screen. 1622 01:19:15,517 --> 01:19:18,787 And of course, by this time, the boys are back safely. 1623 01:19:19,021 --> 01:19:20,723 The tension of the moment is down. 1624 01:19:20,956 --> 01:19:25,027 And the president says, "Okay Bill, let me get this straight." 1625 01:19:25,261 --> 01:19:27,696 "We had $60 million for a helicopter, 1626 01:19:27,930 --> 01:19:31,634 but you didn't have $10 for a tape measure?" 1627 01:19:33,369 --> 01:19:34,970 Back in The Situation Room, 1628 01:19:35,204 --> 01:19:36,805 President Obama awaits 1629 01:19:37,039 --> 01:19:40,242 DNA confirmation of the identity of the remains. 1630 01:19:40,476 --> 01:19:43,078 But will the news leak before the president is ready 1631 01:19:43,312 --> 01:19:46,582 to announce Osama bin Laden's death? 1632 01:19:46,815 --> 01:19:50,352 ‐ First reaction was we're gonna hold 1633 01:19:50,586 --> 01:19:53,022 We will not announce tonight. 1634 01:19:53,255 --> 01:19:56,825 I'm not going in front of 300 million Americans 1635 01:19:57,059 --> 01:20:00,696 with a one in 20 chance of being completely wrong. 1636 01:20:00,929 --> 01:20:02,164 This is too important. 1637 01:20:02,398 --> 01:20:04,466 People were saying this story is not going to hold. 1638 01:20:04,700 --> 01:20:08,070 If you wait till morning, it will come out somewhere else. 1639 01:20:08,304 --> 01:20:11,607 And the downside of that is bigger than this one. 1640 01:20:11,840 --> 01:20:14,176 And so he started to weigh, 1641 01:20:14,410 --> 01:20:16,712 do I go with this, do I go with that? 1642 01:20:16,945 --> 01:20:19,615 They were passing around photos at the table. 1643 01:20:19,848 --> 01:20:23,585 But when he looked at the photo, 1644 01:20:23,819 --> 01:20:26,822 I thought I saw a change in his demeanor 1645 01:20:27,056 --> 01:20:29,992 that he‐‐ I think he felt when he saw it himself 1646 01:20:30,225 --> 01:20:32,328 and he saw the similarities, 1647 01:20:32,561 --> 01:20:34,863 that the 95% became higher. 1648 01:20:35,097 --> 01:20:37,966 He said we'll go at 10:30 or something like that. 1649 01:20:38,200 --> 01:20:39,768 So the speechwriters get cranking, 1650 01:20:40,002 --> 01:20:42,071 everybody gets cranking and then we're all waiting 1651 01:20:42,304 --> 01:20:44,473 for the president's speech. 1652 01:20:49,845 --> 01:20:51,347 ‐ Good evening. 1653 01:20:51,580 --> 01:20:54,249 Tonight, I can report to the American people 1654 01:20:54,483 --> 01:20:56,752 and to the world that the United States 1655 01:20:56,985 --> 01:21:00,255 has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, 1656 01:21:00,489 --> 01:21:01,724 the leader of al‐Qaeda, 1657 01:21:01,957 --> 01:21:04,893 and a terrorist who's responsible for the murder 1658 01:21:05,127 --> 01:21:10,599 of thousands of innocent men, women and children. 1659 01:21:10,833 --> 01:21:12,368 It was nearly ten years ago 1660 01:21:12,601 --> 01:21:15,471 that a bright September day was darkened by the worst attack 1661 01:21:15,704 --> 01:21:17,973 on the American people in our history. 1662 01:21:18,207 --> 01:21:22,044 The images of 9/11 are seared into our national memory. 1663 01:21:24,113 --> 01:21:26,315 ‐ So we had left the White House and we were walking down 1664 01:21:26,548 --> 01:21:30,252 the open portico, and we heard this noise 1665 01:21:30,486 --> 01:21:34,223 before we went outside and none of us knew what it was. 1666 01:21:34,456 --> 01:21:38,694 USA, USA, USA, USA! 1667 01:21:38,927 --> 01:21:43,198 USA! USA! USA! USA! 1668 01:21:43,432 --> 01:21:47,669 ‐ "USA, USA, CIA, CIA." 1669 01:21:47,903 --> 01:21:52,341 I never thought I would ever hear a crowd yelling "CIA" 1670 01:21:52,574 --> 01:21:57,513 and I think everyone at the CIA 1671 01:21:57,746 --> 01:22:01,350 just felt a tremendous amount of pride 1672 01:22:01,583 --> 01:22:05,421 that we had been able to work on the operation 1673 01:22:05,654 --> 01:22:07,990 and do it successfully. 1674 01:22:08,223 --> 01:22:09,558 And it was thrilling. 1675 01:22:09,792 --> 01:22:14,062 And it was just the kind of response one would hope for, 1676 01:22:14,296 --> 01:22:17,699 particularly from young Americans who might not have 1677 01:22:17,933 --> 01:22:20,936 been born or were toddlers at the time of 9/11. 1678 01:22:23,939 --> 01:22:26,508 It was closure for the country, for the families, 1679 01:22:26,742 --> 01:22:29,311 certainly closure for the intelligence community. 1680 01:22:29,545 --> 01:22:31,180 I also think it had a profound impact 1681 01:22:31,413 --> 01:22:33,682 on al‐Qaeda as a movement, 1682 01:22:33,916 --> 01:22:40,856 just the symbolism of this almost semi‐mythical figure, 1683 01:22:41,089 --> 01:22:44,359 Osama bin Laden, 1684 01:22:44,593 --> 01:22:48,764 and his demise, hugely important message. 1685 01:22:52,501 --> 01:22:54,269 ‐ It was important for us to get bin Laden, 1686 01:22:54,503 --> 01:22:59,274 but not because we thought it would dramatically change 1687 01:22:59,508 --> 01:23:01,643 the nature of the war at the time. 1688 01:23:01,877 --> 01:23:06,415 I think what was important was this was about justice. 1689 01:23:06,648 --> 01:23:09,651 It wasn't revenge, it was about justice. 1690 01:23:13,522 --> 01:23:16,959 ‐ We had discussed this before the raid ever took place, 1691 01:23:17,192 --> 01:23:21,463 if we got him and he got his remains, what do we do with him? 1692 01:23:21,697 --> 01:23:24,299 We don't wanna... 1693 01:23:24,533 --> 01:23:28,170 have him some place that will become a shrine 1694 01:23:28,403 --> 01:23:33,909 for terrorists, there's an obligation to offer the remains 1695 01:23:34,142 --> 01:23:36,812 to his family back in Saudi Arabia. 1696 01:23:37,045 --> 01:23:39,314 And my recollection, I'm a little vague on this, 1697 01:23:39,548 --> 01:23:41,483 but my recollection is 1698 01:23:41,717 --> 01:23:43,719 they didn't want anything to do with it. 1699 01:23:43,952 --> 01:23:48,824 And so the decision was made that his remains would be taken 1700 01:23:49,057 --> 01:23:51,193 to a ship and buried at sea. 1701 01:23:51,426 --> 01:23:55,230 ‐ One of the clear discoveries from all of the information that 1702 01:23:55,464 --> 01:23:58,967 was gathered at the compound was that bin Laden was still very 1703 01:23:59,167 --> 01:24:05,440 active and trying to continue the planning effort on future 1704 01:24:05,674 --> 01:24:09,111 attacks in this country, that he continued to try 1705 01:24:09,344 --> 01:24:12,881 to exert leadership over al‐Qaeda. 1706 01:24:13,115 --> 01:24:17,352 ‐ I think that the bin Laden operation 1707 01:24:17,586 --> 01:24:22,024 is a good example of 1708 01:24:22,257 --> 01:24:26,595 government at its best, not just a military action at its best. 1709 01:24:26,828 --> 01:24:30,198 You've got all these different agencies who set egos aside. 1710 01:24:30,432 --> 01:24:33,068 You have people who are staying focused on mission, 1711 01:24:33,302 --> 01:24:37,806 a reminder that we're able to work together 1712 01:24:38,040 --> 01:24:40,475 for the common good when we put our minds to it. 1713 01:24:40,709 --> 01:24:44,546 And it's something we should try more often. 1714 01:24:49,885 --> 01:24:51,920 ‐ We jumped on a plane, 19 hours later, 1715 01:24:52,154 --> 01:24:54,056 you land back in the States. 1716 01:24:54,289 --> 01:24:56,858 I can remember turning on my phone for the first time 1717 01:24:57,092 --> 01:24:59,261 and I probably had a hundred text messages 1718 01:24:59,494 --> 01:25:02,130 from family and friends and everybody who'd seen the news. 1719 01:25:02,364 --> 01:25:05,467 And literally the next morning was trash day, 1720 01:25:05,701 --> 01:25:07,269 and I'm taking my trash out 1721 01:25:07,502 --> 01:25:09,504 and my neighbor lady across the street, 1722 01:25:09,738 --> 01:25:10,973 she knew I was a SEAL, 1723 01:25:11,206 --> 01:25:12,774 she didn't know what I did or what I was involved in, 1724 01:25:13,008 --> 01:25:14,343 but she had put two and two together 1725 01:25:14,576 --> 01:25:16,011 that I was out of town and now I'm back. 1726 01:25:16,244 --> 01:25:18,513 And I don't know if she knew I was involved or not. 1727 01:25:18,747 --> 01:25:20,882 I'm taking my trash out. I see her come out of her house, 1728 01:25:21,116 --> 01:25:23,719 no trash cans, but she's crying. 1729 01:25:23,952 --> 01:25:25,220 She walks all the way down her driveway, 1730 01:25:25,454 --> 01:25:27,189 walks across the street, gives him a bear hug, 1731 01:25:27,422 --> 01:25:28,657 looks at me in the eyes and says, "You never know 1732 01:25:28,890 --> 01:25:30,726 what your neighbors do for a living, do you?" 134152

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