1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:03,640 --> 00:00:05,440 A lapse in intelligence. 3 00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:09,240 There was a sense that we had let the country down. 4 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 5 00:00:09,960 --> 00:00:12,360 A wounded nation hungry for justice. 6 00:00:12,920 --> 00:00:17,680 Their objective was to attack the United States and to destroy it. 7 00:00:17,760 --> 00:00:19,400 (SPEAKS ARABIC) 8 00:00:20,680 --> 00:00:22,920 There was a drive to strike back 9 00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:24,280 against the enemies that had struck us. 10 00:00:25,680 --> 00:00:28,360 And the hunt for Osama Bin Laden begins. 11 00:00:30,880 --> 00:00:32,840 But where to find him? 12 00:00:34,280 --> 00:00:38,360 We were getting lots of false sighting all over the world. 13 00:00:39,120 --> 00:00:41,840 Now for the first time, the CIA reveals 14 00:00:41,920 --> 00:00:45,760 previously classified details of the mission to kill Bin Laden. 15 00:00:47,360 --> 00:00:49,760 We have a way of getting inside Al Qaeda's tent. 16 00:00:51,440 --> 00:00:56,440 This was the best kept secret in my 33 years working for the CIA. 17 00:00:57,840 --> 00:01:01,040 For all the things we tried to do to make sure this went right... 18 00:01:01,120 --> 00:01:02,920 ..something wrong was happening. 19 00:01:04,840 --> 00:01:08,800 This is the inside story of the hunt for the most wanted terrorist 20 00:01:08,880 --> 00:01:11,760 on the planet by one of the world's most secret 21 00:01:11,840 --> 00:01:16,800 and powerful organisations, the Central Intelligence Agency. 22 00:01:17,480 --> 00:01:20,520 We're telling the story now because it needs to be told 23 00:01:20,600 --> 00:01:23,200 by people that were directly involved in the hunt for Bin Laden. 24 00:01:23,960 --> 00:01:26,560 It is a moment in history that needs to be captured 25 00:01:26,640 --> 00:01:28,720 while everybody is still here to capture it. 26 00:01:38,360 --> 00:01:41,200 A bright September morning, 2001. 27 00:01:43,080 --> 00:01:45,480 The day the world is plunged into horror 28 00:01:45,560 --> 00:01:49,880 as America faces the worst attack on its homeland in history. 29 00:01:53,800 --> 00:01:55,800 Holy shit! 30 00:01:59,360 --> 00:02:02,080 Terrorists hijack four passenger jets. 31 00:02:02,960 --> 00:02:05,640 Two hit the towers of the World Trade Centre in New York. 32 00:02:08,080 --> 00:02:10,320 One slams onto the west wing of the Pentagon. 33 00:02:11,520 --> 00:02:14,960 And a fourth crashes in Pennsylvania. 34 00:02:17,800 --> 00:02:21,400 US President George W Bush, promoting education reform 35 00:02:21,480 --> 00:02:24,840 in Florida at the time, is immediately evacuated. 36 00:02:28,880 --> 00:02:32,320 I was in his small office on air force one. 37 00:02:32,400 --> 00:02:34,960 President looked at me in the eye and said "Michael, who did this?" 38 00:02:36,480 --> 00:02:37,840 I said, "Mr. President, 39 00:02:37,920 --> 00:02:41,120 "I have not seen any intelligence that would take us to a perpetrator 40 00:02:41,200 --> 00:02:43,400 "so you're going to get my best guess. 41 00:02:44,680 --> 00:02:48,240 "There are a couple of nation States that have the capability to do this, 42 00:02:48,320 --> 00:02:51,280 "Iran and Iraq, but I don't think either one of them 43 00:02:51,360 --> 00:02:54,440 "has anything to gain from doing something like this. 44 00:02:55,240 --> 00:02:57,400 "I think when we get to the end of the trail, 45 00:02:57,480 --> 00:02:59,480 "we're going to find Al Qaeda, 46 00:02:59,560 --> 00:03:01,480 "and we're going to find Osama Bin Laden." 47 00:03:03,320 --> 00:03:06,520 A few hours later, the flight manifests 48 00:03:06,600 --> 00:03:10,480 of one of the planes reveal three known operatives from Al Qaeda, 49 00:03:10,560 --> 00:03:14,360 a terrorist organisation led by Osama Bin Laden 50 00:03:14,440 --> 00:03:18,480 and his number two Ayman Al Zawahiri. 51 00:03:20,520 --> 00:03:23,000 This wasn't their first attack on America. 52 00:03:25,320 --> 00:03:28,520 A bomb under the World Trade Center in 1993. 53 00:03:29,640 --> 00:03:32,440 Two simultaneous attacks on US Embassies in Kenya 54 00:03:32,520 --> 00:03:35,040 and Tanzania in 1998. 55 00:03:36,440 --> 00:03:38,920 And a small boat suicide strike in Yemen 56 00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:41,760 against the destroyer USS COLE in 2000. 57 00:03:44,640 --> 00:03:48,640 Years before 9/11, Al Qaeda was tracked by CIA analysts 58 00:03:48,720 --> 00:03:51,160 to anticipate this ongoing threat. 59 00:03:54,680 --> 00:03:57,240 They really began to conclude 60 00:03:57,320 --> 00:03:59,840 there's a threshold somewhere, 61 00:03:59,920 --> 00:04:01,040 but they hadn't reached it yet, 62 00:04:01,120 --> 00:04:02,240 where they could hit the United States, 63 00:04:02,320 --> 00:04:05,280 kill Americans and there'd be essentially no retaliation. 64 00:04:08,480 --> 00:04:13,080 Their objective was to attack the United States and to destroy it. 65 00:04:13,160 --> 00:04:19,280 Pretty grandiose plan. It was like an expanding terrorist universe. 66 00:04:20,040 --> 00:04:22,040 Their propaganda and their recruitment drives 67 00:04:22,120 --> 00:04:24,040 were having some effect. 68 00:04:24,120 --> 00:04:26,200 They were getting recruits from all over the world, 69 00:04:26,280 --> 00:04:29,080 including the United States, Britain, France. 70 00:04:30,600 --> 00:04:35,120 We had an innate feel that this train was running over us. 71 00:04:36,120 --> 00:04:41,400 We were preparing for something like this, we expected it. 72 00:04:43,280 --> 00:04:46,720 For us, it wasn't a question of if it's going to happen, 73 00:04:46,800 --> 00:04:48,160 it's when it's going to happen. 74 00:04:50,160 --> 00:04:52,560 Though the CIA attempted to alert the policy makers 75 00:04:52,640 --> 00:04:56,040 about the imminent threat of a terrorist attack on US soil, 76 00:04:56,120 --> 00:04:59,040 they failed to thwart the 9/11 attack. 77 00:05:00,240 --> 00:05:03,560 We had been able to warn, at a strategic level, 78 00:05:03,640 --> 00:05:06,360 clearly in the summer of 2001. 79 00:05:06,440 --> 00:05:08,880 Al Qaeda was getting prepared for something, 80 00:05:08,960 --> 00:05:11,160 but that very elusive tactical threat, 81 00:05:11,240 --> 00:05:13,720 specifically what and where, we were unable to do. 82 00:05:15,000 --> 00:05:18,160 There was a sense that we had let the country down. 83 00:05:20,640 --> 00:05:24,480 For CIA officers at the time, it was a humiliation. 84 00:05:24,560 --> 00:05:27,760 This was a very emotional moment, 85 00:05:27,840 --> 00:05:29,760 besides the fact the country had been hit, 86 00:05:29,840 --> 00:05:32,240 but that the CIA had not been able to prevent it. 87 00:05:33,840 --> 00:05:36,200 There was a drive to strike back against the enemies 88 00:05:36,280 --> 00:05:40,200 that had struck us, and to deliver vengeance and justice 89 00:05:40,280 --> 00:05:42,520 to those that had killed so many. 90 00:05:43,480 --> 00:05:45,560 It was highly personal for many people. 91 00:05:52,200 --> 00:05:54,120 The day after the attack, 92 00:05:54,200 --> 00:05:57,040 President Bush gathers his closest advisers. 93 00:05:58,640 --> 00:06:01,560 He wants to strike back fast and hard. 94 00:06:05,800 --> 00:06:08,760 He needs to quickly decide who will lead America's response 95 00:06:08,840 --> 00:06:10,800 to the Al Qaeda attack... 96 00:06:12,320 --> 00:06:14,960 ..and the hunt for its leader Osama Bin Laden. 97 00:06:16,640 --> 00:06:19,960 President goes around the room and says, "What do we do?" 98 00:06:20,040 --> 00:06:22,480 And nobody has any answers except CIA. 99 00:06:25,640 --> 00:06:28,560 We were ready to go and nobody else was. 100 00:06:30,840 --> 00:06:34,480 Two men present the CIA plan to the President... 101 00:06:35,880 --> 00:06:39,560 ..George Tenet, director of the CIA, 102 00:06:39,640 --> 00:06:43,480 and Cofer Black, director of the Counterterrorism Center. 103 00:06:44,800 --> 00:06:48,480 The strategy is to send a few officers to Afghanistan, 104 00:06:48,560 --> 00:06:51,640 where the Taliban had created a haven for Al Qaeda. 105 00:06:51,720 --> 00:06:54,640 The officers will recruit Northern Alliance fighters, 106 00:06:54,720 --> 00:06:56,440 opponents of the regime, 107 00:06:56,520 --> 00:07:00,640 to help the United States defeat the Taliban and find Osama Bin Laden. 108 00:07:04,600 --> 00:07:07,640 We had to convince the President that we could do this. 109 00:07:07,720 --> 00:07:10,160 We're a civilian intelligence agency. 110 00:07:10,240 --> 00:07:15,120 We're not exactly known for leading the nation's counterattack 111 00:07:15,200 --> 00:07:21,200 into a remote corner of the world against an entrenched enemy. 112 00:07:22,040 --> 00:07:26,320 The order of battle is something like 400 to one. 113 00:07:27,080 --> 00:07:29,720 I underscored that, you know, 114 00:07:29,800 --> 00:07:31,640 this is not going to be a bloodless activity. 115 00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:37,400 But by the time we're done, enemy's going to have flies 116 00:07:37,480 --> 00:07:39,240 walking across their eyeballs. 117 00:07:40,120 --> 00:07:44,520 I had to make absolutely sure he understands 118 00:07:44,600 --> 00:07:46,200 that there's going to be casualties in this. 119 00:07:47,480 --> 00:07:49,040 People are gonna die. 120 00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:53,520 And he stared ahead for like 10 seconds. 121 00:07:54,760 --> 00:07:58,000 And he just said, "Cofer, can you really do this?" 122 00:07:59,880 --> 00:08:02,080 And I said, "There's no doubt in my mind." 123 00:08:05,360 --> 00:08:07,920 And he said, "That's what I'm talking about. Go get him." 124 00:08:11,160 --> 00:08:12,760 The Directorate of Operations, 125 00:08:12,840 --> 00:08:16,200 which runs the CIA's most sensitive covert campaigns, 126 00:08:16,280 --> 00:08:19,200 recruits the key players for this high-risk assignment. 127 00:08:25,360 --> 00:08:28,600 Two days after the 9/11 attacks, the CIA set up 128 00:08:28,680 --> 00:08:32,040 a makeshift headquarters in Langley for this top-secret mission. 129 00:08:32,960 --> 00:08:35,200 Seven members are selected. 130 00:08:35,960 --> 00:08:38,000 The team is called "Jawbreaker" 131 00:08:38,080 --> 00:08:39,920 and comes under the direct authority 132 00:08:40,000 --> 00:08:41,920 of the CIA Counterterrorism Center. 133 00:08:42,640 --> 00:08:45,160 Team leaders are Gary Schroen, 59, 134 00:08:45,240 --> 00:08:48,640 one of the best Afghanistan experts of the CIA, 135 00:08:48,720 --> 00:08:52,360 and Phil Reilly, former US Army special forces, 136 00:08:52,440 --> 00:08:55,800 one of the most respected CIA paramilitary officers. 137 00:08:56,880 --> 00:08:59,440 Gary Schroen spoke the language of the area, 138 00:08:59,520 --> 00:09:01,360 he had been there before. 139 00:09:01,440 --> 00:09:03,880 He had also had a relationship with the Northern Alliance, 140 00:09:03,960 --> 00:09:08,240 and we then identified other teammates to come on board, 141 00:09:08,320 --> 00:09:10,320 including one of the best field medics in the CIA 142 00:09:10,400 --> 00:09:12,160 and the best field communicator. 143 00:09:17,320 --> 00:09:21,800 Besides gear and food, the team is equipped with AK 47s, 144 00:09:21,880 --> 00:09:24,640 9mm automatic pistols, 145 00:09:24,720 --> 00:09:29,720 and $3,000,000 in cash in $100 bills, packed in three boxes. 146 00:09:30,360 --> 00:09:33,840 The money will ultimately be used to recruit allies on the ground. 147 00:09:38,920 --> 00:09:42,720 After a last meeting in Camp David with the National Security Council, 148 00:09:42,800 --> 00:09:46,440 President Bush greenlights the CIA plan... 149 00:09:47,880 --> 00:09:51,880 ..declaring war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban regime. 150 00:09:56,240 --> 00:09:59,000 In Langley, the Jawbreaker team assembles. 151 00:10:00,280 --> 00:10:01,880 None of them were nervous. 152 00:10:01,960 --> 00:10:04,440 They came in to make sure that their insurance forms were done, 153 00:10:04,520 --> 00:10:06,560 that their records are up to date, 154 00:10:06,640 --> 00:10:10,000 wills were processed. There weren't a big party. 155 00:10:10,080 --> 00:10:11,760 There wasn't a farewell speech. 156 00:10:11,840 --> 00:10:14,000 They just left and went to do what they're supposed to do. 157 00:10:16,920 --> 00:10:19,440 We deployed initially to Germany and from there, 158 00:10:19,520 --> 00:10:22,240 we then moved forward on CIA air assets 159 00:10:22,320 --> 00:10:26,400 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan and then Dushanbe, Tajikistan. 160 00:10:27,880 --> 00:10:30,760 We used a Soviet helicopter, it was the only airlift we had 161 00:10:30,840 --> 00:10:34,400 that had been used previously to go into Afghanistan. 162 00:10:34,480 --> 00:10:36,560 So, we had the means to get in. 163 00:10:37,280 --> 00:10:39,520 CIA has many ways to infiltrate people, 164 00:10:39,600 --> 00:10:41,280 and we could have used other things, but this was perfect. 165 00:10:41,360 --> 00:10:44,840 It had a large internal auxiliary fuel tank. 166 00:10:44,920 --> 00:10:47,000 It was packed with all the gear that we would need, 167 00:10:47,080 --> 00:10:49,640 as well as $3 million that we brought with us. 168 00:10:51,440 --> 00:10:55,640 Two weeks after 9/11, the Jawbreaker team deploys. 169 00:10:57,840 --> 00:11:00,000 Next stop, Afghanistan. 170 00:11:05,880 --> 00:11:07,880 We had to fly in over what was called 171 00:11:07,960 --> 00:11:10,200 the Anjuman Pass, about 15,000 altitude. 172 00:11:11,520 --> 00:11:13,440 It was a large, heavy helicopter. 173 00:11:13,520 --> 00:11:16,240 You breathe a sigh of relief when you were able to clear that pass 174 00:11:16,320 --> 00:11:18,720 as to descend into the Panjshir Valley. 175 00:11:19,960 --> 00:11:22,680 One of the benefits of flying in the Russian helicopter 176 00:11:22,760 --> 00:11:25,720 was that the Taliban also had some Russian airframes. 177 00:11:26,760 --> 00:11:30,040 As we flew in, we flew over a Taliban patrol, 178 00:11:30,120 --> 00:11:31,560 and they looked up at us. 179 00:11:31,640 --> 00:11:33,680 They didn't raise their weapons, and I have to assume 180 00:11:33,760 --> 00:11:36,840 they were thinking, "We're not sure whose helicopter that is." 181 00:11:36,920 --> 00:11:39,880 Had it been a Black Hawk or an obvious US military helicopter, 182 00:11:39,960 --> 00:11:41,560 they would have engaged it. 183 00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:46,160 So, they didn't take a shot at us, 184 00:11:46,240 --> 00:11:47,920 and that's fine and we were able to get in. 185 00:11:56,240 --> 00:11:59,160 As soon as they land in the middle of the Panjshir Valley, 186 00:11:59,240 --> 00:12:03,840 the team starts its mission, meeting new allies 187 00:12:03,920 --> 00:12:07,360 against the Taliban and funding them to conduct the fight. 188 00:12:10,040 --> 00:12:13,280 The Northern Alliance needed funds to do certain things, 189 00:12:13,360 --> 00:12:14,560 and that's what the cash was for. 190 00:12:15,400 --> 00:12:20,080 In addition, we were making contact with other Afghan allies 191 00:12:20,160 --> 00:12:21,720 that we thought we could deal with. 192 00:12:23,600 --> 00:12:26,440 Be it Uzbeks, be it other Pashtuns in the South. 193 00:12:26,520 --> 00:12:29,600 Part of the message was, "You're on our team now." 194 00:12:29,680 --> 00:12:31,920 It was also to say, "You're now going to accept 195 00:12:32,000 --> 00:12:36,120 "additional CIA personnel and us military personnel into your ranks." 196 00:12:37,320 --> 00:12:42,920 After Jawbreaker paves the way, the US military enters the fight. 197 00:12:46,160 --> 00:12:49,280 The US Army Green Berets 5th special forces group, 198 00:12:49,360 --> 00:12:51,080 also called the 5th Legion, 199 00:12:51,160 --> 00:12:54,760 is selected to bring the fight to Afghanistan. 200 00:12:58,560 --> 00:13:01,200 My mission was to destroy the Taliban regime 201 00:13:01,280 --> 00:13:05,520 and render Afghanistan unsafe as sanctuary for Al-Qaeda. 202 00:13:06,480 --> 00:13:10,160 It was both daunting and intimidating, 203 00:13:10,240 --> 00:13:14,560 and it was also like, "Wow, this is a classic Green beret mission." 204 00:13:14,640 --> 00:13:17,840 I mean, how many times do you get told, "Go take down a country"? 205 00:13:23,880 --> 00:13:26,600 By the end of October, 100 special ops 206 00:13:26,680 --> 00:13:29,160 and CIA officers are on the ground, 207 00:13:29,240 --> 00:13:31,600 trying to raise thousands of local soldiers 208 00:13:31,680 --> 00:13:34,040 to fight alongside the US forces. 209 00:13:38,080 --> 00:13:40,680 You're in the middle of hundreds of people 210 00:13:40,760 --> 00:13:45,200 that you've never seen before, that all have AK's or RPGs. 211 00:13:45,280 --> 00:13:48,760 You don't know how many of them would just as soon cut your throat, 212 00:13:48,840 --> 00:13:52,040 or maybe this warlord will accept a bunch of money 213 00:13:52,120 --> 00:13:54,600 from Bin Laden, and they'll turn on us. 214 00:13:56,840 --> 00:13:59,240 We were dressing like locals. 215 00:13:59,320 --> 00:14:01,440 Everybody started growing their beards. 216 00:14:01,520 --> 00:14:06,120 I have the blanket on that covered up my military equipment. 217 00:14:08,280 --> 00:14:12,840 If you are someone far off, trying to do an ambush or a sniper, 218 00:14:12,920 --> 00:14:15,800 it would take you longer to figure who I was. 219 00:14:15,880 --> 00:14:20,040 So, it'd give me that little bit more time and survivability. 220 00:14:22,600 --> 00:14:27,720 In October, President Bush launches operation Enduring Freedom, 221 00:14:27,800 --> 00:14:31,400 deploying the power of the United States Air Force to the region. 222 00:14:33,000 --> 00:14:35,360 Bombers and fighter aircrafts 223 00:14:35,440 --> 00:14:37,960 stand ready to blitz the Taliban positions. 224 00:14:40,920 --> 00:14:43,920 On the ground, the Special Forces and CIA teams 225 00:14:44,000 --> 00:14:46,240 identify targets one by one, 226 00:14:46,320 --> 00:14:50,160 using advanced laser designators to identify GPS coordinates. 227 00:14:55,280 --> 00:14:58,120 It was a bit of Mad Max meets Star Wars. 228 00:14:58,200 --> 00:15:00,960 We were fighting, in some cases, very primitive battle 229 00:15:01,040 --> 00:15:03,000 on the ground, and yet we're using 230 00:15:03,080 --> 00:15:05,200 state-of-the-art technology in other areas, 231 00:15:05,280 --> 00:15:08,120 and our ability to bring air power decisively 232 00:15:08,200 --> 00:15:11,520 and very precisely was critical. 233 00:15:12,440 --> 00:15:16,960 F14's, F16's, F15's, B52's, B1's, everything in the US arsenal 234 00:15:17,040 --> 00:15:18,840 that was available that was dedicated to the fight 235 00:15:18,920 --> 00:15:20,760 could drop a bomb. 236 00:15:25,400 --> 00:15:26,960 In the White House, 237 00:15:27,040 --> 00:15:29,440 George Bush's intelligence briefer Michael Morrel 238 00:15:29,520 --> 00:15:32,640 keeps the President informed of the state of the mission. 239 00:15:34,760 --> 00:15:38,200 I started showing the President, you know, 240 00:15:38,280 --> 00:15:42,080 these large military maps where the Northern Alliance forces were, 241 00:15:42,160 --> 00:15:44,520 where the Taliban forces were, what's the intelligence 242 00:15:44,600 --> 00:15:46,600 on where Bin Laden is. 243 00:15:46,680 --> 00:15:49,920 And I remember, the president's frustration 244 00:15:50,000 --> 00:15:51,920 with how slow it was going. 245 00:15:53,360 --> 00:15:57,800 So, the president would push George Tenet almost every morning. 246 00:15:57,880 --> 00:16:01,480 "George what's going on here? How come these guys aren't moving?" 247 00:16:01,560 --> 00:16:03,520 But once they did start moving, 248 00:16:03,600 --> 00:16:05,440 they just cut through the Taliban like butter. 249 00:16:08,760 --> 00:16:12,040 The CIA's plan is extremely effective. 250 00:16:14,000 --> 00:16:17,520 The Northern Alliance takes all the main cities of Afghanistan. 251 00:16:20,000 --> 00:16:22,320 The campaign in many ways came together 252 00:16:22,400 --> 00:16:26,000 almost like water flowing around a stream bed 253 00:16:26,080 --> 00:16:32,280 on how the teams could inform us, like a stain spreading. 254 00:16:33,520 --> 00:16:36,560 Once that air campaign started, they really did start to evaporate. 255 00:16:36,640 --> 00:16:39,880 The enemy just dissipated, just went away. 256 00:16:39,960 --> 00:16:41,600 Those that stayed in fight died. 257 00:16:45,200 --> 00:16:48,720 For Osama Bin Laden, the end of the Taliban regime 258 00:16:48,800 --> 00:16:51,920 leaves only one safe place, the mountains. 259 00:16:54,600 --> 00:16:57,960 In November, the CIA intercepts a radio message 260 00:16:58,040 --> 00:17:00,400 identifying Osama Bin Laden's voice 261 00:17:00,480 --> 00:17:05,400 coming from a cave complex named Tora Bora, 262 00:17:05,480 --> 00:17:08,120 located south of the city of Jalalabad 263 00:17:08,200 --> 00:17:11,120 and less than 10 miles from the Pakistani border. 264 00:17:13,640 --> 00:17:16,200 We knew that it was almost impregnable, 265 00:17:16,280 --> 00:17:19,360 but everyone was super excited. 266 00:17:19,440 --> 00:17:21,680 I mean, this was the whole purpose. 267 00:17:21,760 --> 00:17:23,840 This was the man behind 9/11. 268 00:17:24,800 --> 00:17:27,960 In the final week of November, a few Americans, 269 00:17:28,040 --> 00:17:29,840 supported by Afghan guides, 270 00:17:29,920 --> 00:17:33,800 leave Jalalabad to creep into the mountains around Tora Bora. 271 00:17:37,760 --> 00:17:42,760 These were the steepest mountains I'd ever seen. And it was brutal. 272 00:17:44,840 --> 00:17:47,160 And here we were on this knife ridge, 273 00:17:47,240 --> 00:17:50,640 and we knew we were, at that time, the closest Americans 274 00:17:50,720 --> 00:17:53,600 to where we thought Bin Laden was. 275 00:17:54,760 --> 00:17:56,880 We were going to try to soften up Al Qaeda 276 00:17:56,960 --> 00:18:00,040 and get them to hole up in their caves. 277 00:18:00,120 --> 00:18:03,600 We hoped we might be able to get some caves to collapse on them 278 00:18:03,680 --> 00:18:09,760 and to kind of pin them in so that the main force of Afghans 279 00:18:09,840 --> 00:18:13,280 with some Americans could come up the valley 280 00:18:13,360 --> 00:18:16,200 and then go search the caves and kill or capture 281 00:18:16,280 --> 00:18:17,800 whoever was in the caves. 282 00:18:20,760 --> 00:18:22,840 During the first two weeks of December, 283 00:18:22,920 --> 00:18:25,560 up to 100 airstrikes a day are called in by troops 284 00:18:25,640 --> 00:18:27,040 on the ground. 285 00:18:28,840 --> 00:18:31,920 With reinforcements of special forces and local fighters, 286 00:18:32,000 --> 00:18:35,080 the net around Tora Bora tightens. 287 00:18:36,720 --> 00:18:39,960 The Pakistani government deploys 4,000 frontier troops 288 00:18:40,040 --> 00:18:42,720 to the border to intercept anyone trying to flee. 289 00:18:44,600 --> 00:18:46,840 Osama Bin Laden and his closest associates 290 00:18:46,920 --> 00:18:49,080 seem trapped in their stronghold. 291 00:18:50,160 --> 00:18:53,040 But a ground assault on Tora Bora is risky. 292 00:18:54,720 --> 00:18:58,080 The US wasn't in position to suddenly fly 293 00:18:58,160 --> 00:19:02,840 over battalions or brigades worth of US Marines 294 00:19:02,920 --> 00:19:06,240 or soldiers to come into Tora Bora and take it. 295 00:19:06,320 --> 00:19:08,600 And to plan that would have taken forever. 296 00:19:09,440 --> 00:19:11,600 It really looked, initially, like that 297 00:19:11,680 --> 00:19:14,280 if Bin Laden was going to make his final stand, 298 00:19:14,360 --> 00:19:18,000 that it was going to be very bloody and very costly in US lives. 299 00:19:19,920 --> 00:19:23,760 General Tommy Franks, commander of operation Enduring Freedom, 300 00:19:23,840 --> 00:19:27,040 decides on airstrikes to decimate the Al Qaeda forces. 301 00:19:29,520 --> 00:19:32,240 But by mid-December 2001, 302 00:19:32,320 --> 00:19:35,640 the radio signals from Osama Bin Laden stop. 303 00:19:36,480 --> 00:19:39,000 The leader of Al Qaeda has escaped. 304 00:19:44,600 --> 00:19:48,120 They were there, in this very constrained area, 305 00:19:48,200 --> 00:19:52,960 and if you don't block them and engage them, they can escape. 306 00:19:54,120 --> 00:19:58,080 It would have been really an elegant end to this 307 00:19:58,160 --> 00:20:00,000 if we had ended it right there. 308 00:20:00,080 --> 00:20:02,960 We should have. I'm bothered by that. 309 00:20:03,040 --> 00:20:06,480 But you know, I'm an intelligence officer. 310 00:20:06,560 --> 00:20:08,400 I'm not a four-star general. 311 00:20:10,600 --> 00:20:12,200 It's kind of like an end piece. 312 00:20:12,280 --> 00:20:15,880 He was there and from that point, he was gone. 313 00:20:19,240 --> 00:20:21,920 I was the first person to tell the president 314 00:20:22,000 --> 00:20:23,920 that Bin Laden had escaped from Tora Bora. 315 00:20:27,440 --> 00:20:30,400 The president said, "Is there anything new this morning?" 316 00:20:30,480 --> 00:20:33,200 And I told him that Bin Laden has escaped. 317 00:20:33,280 --> 00:20:39,320 And he shot the messenger. And he was very angry. 318 00:20:40,480 --> 00:20:44,720 He said, "How could you have let this happen? 319 00:20:44,800 --> 00:20:48,240 "What is your plan going forward?" 320 00:20:51,240 --> 00:20:53,240 After the failure of Tora Bora, 321 00:20:53,320 --> 00:20:57,040 Al Qaeda operatives who were hiding with Osama Bin Laden 322 00:20:57,120 --> 00:21:02,000 escaped to Pakistan, Iran, 323 00:21:02,080 --> 00:21:04,600 Yemen, or South-East Asia. 324 00:21:08,680 --> 00:21:11,080 Coordinated by the CIA and backed by allies 325 00:21:11,160 --> 00:21:16,080 from foreign intelligence services, the new war on terror goes global. 326 00:21:17,520 --> 00:21:20,680 This infrastructure was far more sophisticated 327 00:21:20,760 --> 00:21:22,680 than we would have suspected. 328 00:21:23,640 --> 00:21:28,560 It was chilling to see what was being planned and organised. 329 00:21:29,840 --> 00:21:32,160 New arrivals in the camps were registered 330 00:21:32,240 --> 00:21:33,760 and had to fill in a form. 331 00:21:33,840 --> 00:21:35,840 They had to say what they were prepared to do 332 00:21:35,920 --> 00:21:37,080 and give details of their background. 333 00:21:38,520 --> 00:21:42,840 They had pooled on communities in Europe, to find recruits 334 00:21:42,920 --> 00:21:44,920 who had been brought to those training camps 335 00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:47,040 and essentially weaponised. 336 00:21:49,560 --> 00:21:51,320 (SPEAKING FRENCH) 337 00:21:51,400 --> 00:21:55,160 "There were French people in Bin Laden's organisation. 338 00:21:55,240 --> 00:21:57,480 "We discovered that these people were more than ready 339 00:21:57,560 --> 00:21:59,280 "to take action. 340 00:22:02,040 --> 00:22:04,320 "And we knew that they would be used primarily to strike 341 00:22:04,400 --> 00:22:07,120 "in their own country, France. 342 00:22:11,440 --> 00:22:14,400 "So, all the intelligence services focused on learning 343 00:22:14,480 --> 00:22:17,480 "new techniques apart from traditional espionage. 344 00:22:17,560 --> 00:22:20,480 "They had to neutralise the people who had been involved 345 00:22:20,560 --> 00:22:23,440 "in September 11, and they also had to anticipate 346 00:22:23,520 --> 00:22:25,120 "new acts of terror." 347 00:22:28,120 --> 00:22:31,960 This was the birth of a sort of industrialisation 348 00:22:32,040 --> 00:22:35,560 of counter-terrorism techniques, focused on developing 349 00:22:35,640 --> 00:22:39,360 the intelligence that might disrupt whatever was going to come next. 350 00:22:41,720 --> 00:22:45,560 All of the allied services will have been contributing into that effort. 351 00:22:47,520 --> 00:22:49,200 In a period of 12 months, 352 00:22:49,280 --> 00:22:51,520 we quadrupled the size of the Counterterrorism Center. 353 00:22:51,600 --> 00:22:54,240 It was the biggest entity in the directorate 354 00:22:54,320 --> 00:22:56,000 of operations within one year. 355 00:22:56,760 --> 00:22:59,520 We were carrying weapons more than we ever have in our history. 356 00:23:00,320 --> 00:23:04,240 Our budget went through the roof, over a billion dollars. 357 00:23:04,320 --> 00:23:08,600 We needed to restructure the Counterterrorism Center 358 00:23:08,680 --> 00:23:11,240 and we needed to go after the Al Qaeda leadership 359 00:23:11,320 --> 00:23:14,440 one at a time, wherever they may have gone. 360 00:23:18,400 --> 00:23:21,920 For the US administration, the fight against this new 361 00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:25,360 and unpredictable enemy becomes priority number one. 362 00:23:26,760 --> 00:23:29,880 Military leaders and intelligence leaders were saying, 363 00:23:29,960 --> 00:23:32,520 "We need to bring all parts of the government 364 00:23:32,600 --> 00:23:36,640 "to bear on this, putting them into a combined joint task force 365 00:23:36,720 --> 00:23:39,320 "effort against Al Qaeda and the highest targets." 366 00:23:40,440 --> 00:23:44,960 The FBI agents wanted to contribute so, we really brought 367 00:23:45,040 --> 00:23:47,560 our forensic skills, our investigative skills, 368 00:23:47,640 --> 00:23:49,840 and we were looking for information and intelligence 369 00:23:49,920 --> 00:23:52,160 that would lead us to high value targets. 370 00:23:53,880 --> 00:23:55,880 The incident on the American Airlines flight 371 00:23:55,960 --> 00:23:58,520 is prompting a new FAA security directive 372 00:23:58,600 --> 00:24:02,720 to all airlines, ordering them to take specific precautions. 373 00:24:02,800 --> 00:24:05,960 By the end of 2001, a second wave of attacks 374 00:24:06,040 --> 00:24:08,200 on American soil seemed imminent. 375 00:24:09,280 --> 00:24:11,440 On December the 22nd, Richard Reid, 376 00:24:11,520 --> 00:24:15,160 member of Al Qaeda, is arrested, attempting to detonate a bomb 377 00:24:15,240 --> 00:24:18,160 hidden in his shoe on a flight from Paris to Miami. 378 00:24:19,760 --> 00:24:22,720 Fear of another terrorist strike grows. 379 00:24:24,440 --> 00:24:27,400 Even worse, intelligence suggests that Al Qaeda 380 00:24:27,480 --> 00:24:30,680 has an Anthrax program in place, 381 00:24:30,760 --> 00:24:35,040 and is developing weapons of mass destruction, including dirty bombs. 382 00:24:37,240 --> 00:24:41,840 The feeling in late 2001, 2002, 383 00:24:41,920 --> 00:24:45,680 was that any day could be the next attack. 384 00:24:45,760 --> 00:24:48,080 And we would literally say to each other, 385 00:24:48,160 --> 00:24:50,320 "Is today the day we get attacked again?" 386 00:24:51,520 --> 00:24:54,440 We were at war. There's no doubt about it. 387 00:24:55,680 --> 00:24:58,360 The president of the United States told us, 388 00:24:58,440 --> 00:25:00,720 "Do not allow this to happen again." 389 00:25:01,680 --> 00:25:03,640 We were under tremendous pressure. 390 00:25:07,160 --> 00:25:09,880 It's hard for us to imagine now because the CIA leadership 391 00:25:09,960 --> 00:25:13,880 had the weight of preventing a future terrorist attack 392 00:25:13,960 --> 00:25:15,440 on their shoulders. 393 00:25:15,520 --> 00:25:17,400 And they were hearing it from politicians, 394 00:25:17,480 --> 00:25:19,920 from members of Congress who just saying, "Whatever you have to do. 395 00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:22,800 "Don't tell us, just stop another attack from happening." 396 00:25:25,840 --> 00:25:29,320 In March 2002, a joint operation 397 00:25:29,400 --> 00:25:33,600 of the CIA and Pakistani authorities captures Abu Zubaydah, 398 00:25:33,680 --> 00:25:36,760 a potential high value target within Al Qaeda 399 00:25:36,840 --> 00:25:40,040 who could provide information about future attacks 400 00:25:40,120 --> 00:25:42,400 or about Osama Bin Laden. 401 00:25:48,400 --> 00:25:52,400 This was someone that we needed to interrogate ourselves. 402 00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:56,320 Because nobody was going to take care of our national security 403 00:25:56,400 --> 00:25:58,600 as we were going to take care of our national security. 404 00:26:02,080 --> 00:26:05,040 We needed to actually set aside the risks 405 00:26:05,120 --> 00:26:07,960 and the political correctness 406 00:26:08,040 --> 00:26:11,080 and interrogate him away from the public light. 407 00:26:11,960 --> 00:26:15,680 If we had brought him to the US, he would lawyer up 408 00:26:15,760 --> 00:26:18,920 and he would go through the whole criminal procedure thing, 409 00:26:19,000 --> 00:26:24,680 and we needed to get intelligence on the plans and intentions 410 00:26:24,760 --> 00:26:27,760 of Al-Qaeda for these different threats that were coming at us. 411 00:26:29,480 --> 00:26:32,400 Our interest was not in building a case 412 00:26:32,480 --> 00:26:34,640 so we could charge him with a crime. 413 00:26:35,360 --> 00:26:38,520 Our interest was to prevent another major attack on the US. 414 00:26:41,800 --> 00:26:46,560 The CIA brings Abu Zubaydah to what will become known as a black site. 415 00:26:47,400 --> 00:26:49,840 A secret prison in a foreign country 416 00:26:49,920 --> 00:26:53,560 where prisoners can be interrogated away from the US laws. 417 00:26:57,840 --> 00:26:59,720 During this initial period, 418 00:26:59,800 --> 00:27:02,360 he gave us a couple of nuggets of information. 419 00:27:03,160 --> 00:27:07,360 One of them, he confirmed that Khalid Sheikh Muhammed 420 00:27:07,440 --> 00:27:09,440 was the architect of 9/11. 421 00:27:10,960 --> 00:27:15,600 But then, he stopped talking. He would not talk anymore. 422 00:27:16,800 --> 00:27:19,040 The president was asking us, 423 00:27:19,120 --> 00:27:21,120 "What's he saying about these other threats?" 424 00:27:21,200 --> 00:27:22,960 Well, he wasn't saying anything. 425 00:27:24,080 --> 00:27:27,120 And that's when we came up with the enhanced interrogation program. 426 00:27:29,960 --> 00:27:33,200 Enhanced interrogation program. 427 00:27:33,280 --> 00:27:35,400 A list of authorised techniques 428 00:27:35,480 --> 00:27:39,120 the CIA could use to convince prisoners to talk. 429 00:27:40,920 --> 00:27:44,040 Among them, dietary manipulation. 430 00:27:45,280 --> 00:27:49,960 Slapping. Sleep deprivation. 431 00:28:06,920 --> 00:28:10,080 And waterboarding, which consists of pouring water 432 00:28:10,160 --> 00:28:12,280 on the prisoner's towel-covered face... 433 00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:16,440 ..to induce the perception of drowning. 434 00:28:20,720 --> 00:28:24,440 The whole objective was to get them psychologically 435 00:28:24,520 --> 00:28:27,160 to understand that they had no hope. 436 00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:32,040 They have no control whatsoever of anything, 437 00:28:32,120 --> 00:28:34,440 their sleep, their food, nothing. 438 00:28:36,240 --> 00:28:41,280 And we would increase the pressure until they finally agreed 439 00:28:41,360 --> 00:28:44,280 to cooperate with us, until they became compliant. 440 00:28:54,520 --> 00:28:57,120 So, we went to the Justice Department 441 00:28:57,200 --> 00:29:01,440 and asked for a binding legal opinion in writing 442 00:29:01,520 --> 00:29:05,240 that said that the 10 techniques that we were going to use 443 00:29:05,320 --> 00:29:10,960 were legal, and we did not move a finger until we get it. 444 00:29:13,520 --> 00:29:16,160 These techniques against Al Qaeda prisoners 445 00:29:16,240 --> 00:29:19,280 will later raise endless debate around the world, 446 00:29:19,360 --> 00:29:21,200 launching dozens of commissions, 447 00:29:21,280 --> 00:29:25,320 thousands of pages of reports and scathing articles in the press. 448 00:29:28,360 --> 00:29:30,040 For many people, 449 00:29:30,120 --> 00:29:32,880 Enhanced Interrogation is nothing less than torture. 450 00:29:34,920 --> 00:29:38,880 Every meeting I was at, we said, "This isn't gonna read well, 451 00:29:38,960 --> 00:29:42,880 "it'll eventually leak out," but the mission had to be done. 452 00:29:45,120 --> 00:29:47,280 We also knew that there was no other option. 453 00:29:49,800 --> 00:29:52,080 All the people who were briefed in it, 454 00:29:52,160 --> 00:29:56,000 and there was a significant number, no one said, "Oh my gosh, stop it." 455 00:29:58,080 --> 00:30:00,760 In 2002, the Bush administration 456 00:30:00,840 --> 00:30:03,640 officially states that the Geneva Convention 457 00:30:03,720 --> 00:30:07,080 on the treatment of prisoners of war does not apply 458 00:30:07,160 --> 00:30:08,800 to the conflict with Al Qaeda. 459 00:30:13,960 --> 00:30:15,720 The president approved the program, 460 00:30:15,800 --> 00:30:18,320 and the National Security team approve the program. 461 00:30:20,040 --> 00:30:22,400 The congressional committees are briefed. 462 00:30:22,480 --> 00:30:25,240 Everybody was on board for this. 463 00:30:25,800 --> 00:30:30,040 This enhanced interrogation program was not just CIA's program. 464 00:30:30,120 --> 00:30:31,640 This was America's program. 465 00:30:37,400 --> 00:30:40,040 Today, the debate still rages. 466 00:30:40,840 --> 00:30:44,600 A US Senate committee stated that the CIA Interrogation Program 467 00:30:44,680 --> 00:30:47,200 violated US law. 468 00:30:47,280 --> 00:30:49,760 Didn't produce any valuable intelligence. 469 00:30:50,480 --> 00:30:53,360 And probably resulted in false answers. 470 00:30:53,440 --> 00:30:56,920 On the other side, most of the officers involved 471 00:30:57,000 --> 00:30:59,480 want to defend enhanced interrogation 472 00:30:59,560 --> 00:31:01,520 by declassifying all the intelligence 473 00:31:01,600 --> 00:31:03,600 gathered through the program. 474 00:31:04,520 --> 00:31:07,520 They remain adamant, they simply had no choice. 475 00:31:10,200 --> 00:31:12,200 We were the ones in the arena. 476 00:31:12,280 --> 00:31:15,000 We were the ones responsible for protecting the country 477 00:31:15,080 --> 00:31:17,080 and for saving American lives. 478 00:31:17,960 --> 00:31:23,360 We did not hesitate to act, we all recognised the risk involved. 479 00:31:24,880 --> 00:31:28,040 I definitely believe that at that moment, 480 00:31:28,120 --> 00:31:31,160 that was the only move because these people were not going to talk. 481 00:31:33,640 --> 00:31:36,800 So, we needed this, and we needed it urgently. 482 00:31:36,880 --> 00:31:39,080 Somebody had to do this. 483 00:31:44,040 --> 00:31:47,000 The CIA develops its interrogation program 484 00:31:47,080 --> 00:31:49,360 and establishes black sites in six countries 485 00:31:49,440 --> 00:31:52,600 to debrief Al Qaeda detainees. 486 00:31:54,200 --> 00:31:57,840 These became the little nodes of information collection 487 00:31:57,920 --> 00:32:01,240 where high-value targets would be brought, so often blindfolded, 488 00:32:01,320 --> 00:32:03,160 put in airplanes, carried for long distances 489 00:32:03,240 --> 00:32:06,080 and dropped into these places where they could be pressured 490 00:32:06,160 --> 00:32:08,280 to try to give up information. 491 00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:15,640 Information is crucial to preventing new attacks. 492 00:32:16,560 --> 00:32:18,640 Working with the Counterterrorism Center, 493 00:32:18,720 --> 00:32:23,040 a new class of CIA analysts called "targeters" join the hunt. 494 00:32:24,200 --> 00:32:26,480 They collect intelligence on every suspect. 495 00:32:27,880 --> 00:32:30,840 Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Al Qaeda's number three man 496 00:32:30,920 --> 00:32:34,920 and mastermind of the 9/11 attack is arrested in 2003. 497 00:32:36,720 --> 00:32:40,400 Abu Faraj Al-Libbi, his successor in 2005. 498 00:32:41,880 --> 00:32:44,360 The global hunt for Al Qaeda leadership is on. 499 00:32:46,880 --> 00:32:49,320 But while many Al Qaeda members are eliminated, 500 00:32:49,400 --> 00:32:51,720 the top leader is still on the run. 501 00:32:53,280 --> 00:32:55,680 Osama Bin Laden has simply vanished. 502 00:32:58,400 --> 00:33:00,560 The analysts sat down and said, 503 00:33:00,640 --> 00:33:02,800 "We think there's four vectors to Bin Laden." 504 00:33:04,880 --> 00:33:06,800 One is his family. 505 00:33:07,720 --> 00:33:10,040 Maybe somebody in his family will slip up 506 00:33:10,120 --> 00:33:12,240 or we can follow someone from his family. 507 00:33:14,160 --> 00:33:17,720 The second was couriers. Bin Laden was relying 508 00:33:17,800 --> 00:33:21,240 on human beings to get those letters to his lieutenants. 509 00:33:21,320 --> 00:33:24,880 So maybe we can detect him, you know, via a courier. 510 00:33:25,720 --> 00:33:28,440 The third was his leadership. 511 00:33:29,640 --> 00:33:33,160 Maybe they will know where he is and won't be as careful as he is. 512 00:33:34,760 --> 00:33:37,520 And the fourth one was, he's making videos 513 00:33:37,600 --> 00:33:41,400 and audio tapes. Maybe with technology, 514 00:33:41,480 --> 00:33:45,280 we can distil at least a location that will narrow our search. 515 00:33:49,560 --> 00:33:52,480 The CIA analysts use advanced analytical software 516 00:33:52,560 --> 00:33:55,560 to sift through the reams of intelligence gathered. 517 00:33:56,400 --> 00:33:58,320 Among the thousands of names recorded 518 00:33:58,400 --> 00:34:02,360 in the interrogation reports, the analysts extract the name 519 00:34:02,440 --> 00:34:05,120 of one individual who hasn't been deeply investigated yet. 520 00:34:06,200 --> 00:34:08,240 They believe he might hold the key. 521 00:34:09,800 --> 00:34:15,680 His name, "Abu Ahmed Al-Kuwaiti", an unidentified member of Al Qaeda. 522 00:34:19,680 --> 00:34:24,760 We first hear about this guy named Abu Ahmed Al-Kuwaiti in 2002 523 00:34:24,840 --> 00:34:29,320 from a detainee who's in the detention 524 00:34:29,400 --> 00:34:30,960 of a North African country. 525 00:34:31,040 --> 00:34:34,920 And this detainee says that Abu Ahmed Al Kuwaiti 526 00:34:35,000 --> 00:34:39,720 might be a courier for Bin Laden, but he was a ghost. 527 00:34:39,800 --> 00:34:43,520 We didn't know his true name. We didn't know where he was. 528 00:34:43,600 --> 00:34:44,680 We didn't know anything about him. 529 00:34:47,360 --> 00:34:51,520 So now we ask every detainee, both those in our own custody 530 00:34:51,600 --> 00:34:53,120 and those in the custody of other countries 531 00:34:53,200 --> 00:34:54,800 about this guy named Abu Ahmed. 532 00:35:01,440 --> 00:35:04,160 One of those individuals tells us 533 00:35:04,240 --> 00:35:08,440 that not only might he be a courier for Bin Laden, 534 00:35:08,520 --> 00:35:12,440 but he might even be the kind of guy who could be living with Bin laden. 535 00:35:15,040 --> 00:35:16,840 So that took it up a notch. 536 00:35:19,400 --> 00:35:21,040 Khalid Sheik Mohammed, 537 00:35:21,120 --> 00:35:25,880 mastermind of 9/11, gets questioned about Abu Ahmed Al-Kuwaiti. 538 00:35:27,800 --> 00:35:29,640 We have all these other detainees, saying, 539 00:35:29,720 --> 00:35:31,400 "Yeah, we knew Abu Ahmed," 540 00:35:31,480 --> 00:35:34,000 and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed says, 541 00:35:34,080 --> 00:35:37,120 "Never heard of the guy, don't know him." 542 00:35:42,040 --> 00:35:43,720 He was a tough guy. 543 00:35:45,920 --> 00:35:49,280 All these people have huge egos, and there are certain things 544 00:35:49,360 --> 00:35:51,240 they're not going to tell you. 545 00:35:51,320 --> 00:35:54,040 Khalid Sheik Mohammed was not going to tell us anything 546 00:35:54,120 --> 00:35:56,400 about where Bin Laden was. 547 00:35:57,640 --> 00:35:59,880 But he had a system of communicating 548 00:35:59,960 --> 00:36:02,680 with the other prisoners held at the black site. 549 00:36:04,240 --> 00:36:08,000 He would pass messages hidden in books that they were reading. 550 00:36:21,800 --> 00:36:25,640 We discovered it, and we made the decision to let it run 551 00:36:25,720 --> 00:36:28,440 so we could read their mail. 552 00:36:33,240 --> 00:36:36,560 And he told them to not say anything about Al-Kuwaiti. 553 00:36:39,400 --> 00:36:41,400 Nobody talk about the courier. 554 00:36:41,480 --> 00:36:45,240 So now our interest in Abu Ahmed goes sky high. 555 00:36:50,560 --> 00:36:53,720 Later, Hassan Ghul, another member of Al Qaeda, 556 00:36:53,800 --> 00:36:56,720 gives valuable information about Al Kuwaiti. 557 00:37:01,680 --> 00:37:04,520 He basically said to us that Al Kuwaiti 558 00:37:04,600 --> 00:37:07,720 was the person that delivered the letter to Abu Faraj Al-Libbi 559 00:37:07,800 --> 00:37:11,240 from Bin Laden, appointing him as the new chief of operations. 560 00:37:16,200 --> 00:37:18,560 That's a big decision. 561 00:37:18,640 --> 00:37:22,040 It's an executive decision, coming from Osama Bin Laden. 562 00:37:23,600 --> 00:37:25,480 So, we knew we were onto something. 563 00:37:29,960 --> 00:37:34,080 For years, the CIA analysts will work on the Al-Kuwaiti lead, 564 00:37:34,160 --> 00:37:38,440 trying to determine his real name and where they could find him. 565 00:37:42,680 --> 00:37:46,440 But in the meantime, the war against terrorism still rages. 566 00:37:47,240 --> 00:37:49,440 And Al Qaeda is far from defeated. 567 00:37:52,520 --> 00:37:56,120 The spectre of Osama Bin Laden's call for jihad 568 00:37:56,200 --> 00:37:59,440 brings a suicide bombing in Madrid in 2004. 569 00:37:59,520 --> 00:38:01,840 And in London in 2005. 570 00:38:03,200 --> 00:38:05,760 There's been reports of an explosion. 571 00:38:05,840 --> 00:38:09,360 The latest we're hearing is that several London Underground stations 572 00:38:09,440 --> 00:38:11,240 have been evacuated. 573 00:38:12,120 --> 00:38:15,000 (SPEAKING FRENCH) 574 00:38:15,080 --> 00:38:17,360 "Terrorist groups need leaders, 575 00:38:17,440 --> 00:38:20,160 "and the key strength of these characters is their ability 576 00:38:20,240 --> 00:38:24,680 "to recruit, to convince and to gather followers to take action. 577 00:38:26,160 --> 00:38:29,920 "Bin Laden was the supreme symbol of Islamist violence 578 00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:32,400 "against our societies." 579 00:38:35,520 --> 00:38:40,120 On the 7th of July 2005, when we were attacked, 580 00:38:40,200 --> 00:38:42,680 it was lethal, and it shocked us. 581 00:38:43,320 --> 00:38:46,120 7/7 taught us a savage lesson. 582 00:38:46,760 --> 00:38:50,840 You can't look at terrorism as an isolated or domestic problem. 583 00:38:51,440 --> 00:38:53,680 You've got to look at it as a network. 584 00:38:53,760 --> 00:38:55,720 People are streaming out of Aldgate Tube station, 585 00:38:55,800 --> 00:38:57,960 covered in blood. 586 00:38:59,080 --> 00:39:02,400 That 2005/6/7 time period 587 00:39:02,480 --> 00:39:04,760 was a period of resurgence for Al Qaeda. 588 00:39:06,680 --> 00:39:10,040 There was great concern that there were going to be 589 00:39:10,120 --> 00:39:11,360 another wave of attacks. 590 00:39:13,280 --> 00:39:16,640 Analysts were working hand in glove with the operational folks 591 00:39:16,720 --> 00:39:19,760 who were working with their foreign counterparts to drive 592 00:39:19,840 --> 00:39:23,080 the specific operations that were taking people off the battlefield. 593 00:39:25,440 --> 00:39:28,240 Al Qaeda operatives are targeted one by one. 594 00:39:29,000 --> 00:39:32,200 And the death toll for the terrorist organisation reaches a peak. 595 00:39:34,160 --> 00:39:37,000 But the main target defies detection... 596 00:39:38,640 --> 00:39:41,400 ..the untraceable Osama Bin Laden. 597 00:39:44,200 --> 00:39:48,160 We were getting lots of false sightings all over the world. 598 00:39:48,240 --> 00:39:52,200 There'd be these bits and dribbles of intel coming in. 599 00:39:52,280 --> 00:39:54,600 "Oh, we saw him in a market in Peshawar. 600 00:39:54,680 --> 00:39:56,480 "We saw him in Karachi." 601 00:39:56,560 --> 00:39:59,080 We had a guy who said he knows him and saw him in Africa. 602 00:39:59,160 --> 00:40:00,920 "He was doing a deal in Africa." 603 00:40:01,000 --> 00:40:02,600 All these leads have to be run down. 604 00:40:03,920 --> 00:40:07,520 Osama bin Laden had phenomenal operational security, 605 00:40:07,600 --> 00:40:08,600 and he knew it. 606 00:40:10,480 --> 00:40:13,840 In 2009, the new President Barack Obama 607 00:40:13,920 --> 00:40:17,280 appoints Leon Panetta as the new director of the CIA. 608 00:40:21,480 --> 00:40:25,320 By the time I became director of the CIA, 609 00:40:25,400 --> 00:40:28,440 all of the efforts that had been involved in trying to locate 610 00:40:28,520 --> 00:40:30,800 Bin Laden had led nowhere. 611 00:40:31,520 --> 00:40:33,680 Every lead had gone cold, 612 00:40:33,760 --> 00:40:38,400 there was just no real evidence of where he might be located. 613 00:40:40,600 --> 00:40:42,360 Some thought he might be dead. 614 00:40:45,480 --> 00:40:47,320 The analysts won't give up. 615 00:40:48,040 --> 00:40:52,200 As they work on identifying Bin Laden's courier, Al-Kuwaiti, 616 00:40:52,280 --> 00:40:54,280 a new asset catches their attention. 617 00:40:57,800 --> 00:41:02,040 A mysterious blogger using the pen name of Abu Dujana Al-Khorasani. 618 00:41:07,640 --> 00:41:09,680 He was a doctor. 619 00:41:09,760 --> 00:41:12,760 And he had a hobby on the side, which was to be kind of 620 00:41:12,840 --> 00:41:16,800 an online rabble rouser for the cause of jihad... 621 00:41:18,400 --> 00:41:20,280 ..and became a very prominent voice 622 00:41:20,360 --> 00:41:24,000 within the Jihadi community, with many followers around the world. 623 00:41:24,080 --> 00:41:27,200 He was urging them to do acts of violence to attack American targets. 624 00:41:30,040 --> 00:41:34,560 The Jordanian Intelligence services, faithful ally of the CIA, 625 00:41:34,640 --> 00:41:37,960 uncover the identity of this online jihadist. 626 00:41:41,200 --> 00:41:42,920 Humam Khalil Al-Balawi. 627 00:41:46,480 --> 00:41:50,000 They arrest him and pressure him to become a double agent. 628 00:41:58,840 --> 00:42:00,800 They go to his house, pull him out, 629 00:42:00,880 --> 00:42:03,400 take him to a cell, interrogate him for several days. 630 00:42:05,080 --> 00:42:08,120 And this doctor, having never been arrested before, 631 00:42:08,200 --> 00:42:10,880 flips fairly quickly and agrees to become an informant 632 00:42:10,960 --> 00:42:14,120 for the Jordanians, and by extension for the Americans. 633 00:42:17,560 --> 00:42:20,760 For several months, Al Balawi gives information about Al Qaeda 634 00:42:20,840 --> 00:42:24,920 to his Jordanian handlers, who pass it to the CIA for assessment. 635 00:42:28,520 --> 00:42:31,200 It was clear to the CIA that the information 636 00:42:31,280 --> 00:42:34,760 from this new informant was best stuff they'd seen in years. 637 00:42:34,840 --> 00:42:38,320 This unknown informant becomes a rockstar because he starts 638 00:42:38,400 --> 00:42:41,000 to deliver real-time information 639 00:42:41,080 --> 00:42:43,240 that the CIA knows about and can check. 640 00:42:44,160 --> 00:42:46,800 And Balawi himself actually raises the possibility 641 00:42:46,880 --> 00:42:49,840 that he could go to the tribal areas of Pakistan, 642 00:42:49,920 --> 00:42:53,040 volunteers as a medical worker, and perhaps learn things there. 643 00:42:56,920 --> 00:43:00,880 The Federally Administrated Tribal Area, or The FATA... 644 00:43:02,440 --> 00:43:06,920 ..is a region of Pakistan where Al Qaeda has found a safe haven 645 00:43:07,000 --> 00:43:11,400 and that the Pakistani government doesn't even try to control anymore. 646 00:43:13,160 --> 00:43:15,560 We were constantly trying to figure out 647 00:43:15,640 --> 00:43:19,480 how do we gain access and insight into those regions, 648 00:43:19,560 --> 00:43:22,200 and if you want to understand and learn 649 00:43:22,280 --> 00:43:24,240 what's happening in a place like the FATA, 650 00:43:24,320 --> 00:43:29,120 you have to find people that have a reason to be in the FATA, 651 00:43:29,200 --> 00:43:30,960 whether they live there, they travel there, 652 00:43:31,040 --> 00:43:34,080 they have family members there, and all you need is one, 653 00:43:34,160 --> 00:43:37,240 but the likelihood that you're going to get that one 654 00:43:37,320 --> 00:43:41,080 that has the direct access that you need is really hard. 655 00:43:44,960 --> 00:43:48,600 For the CIA, the chance to have eyes and ears in this region 656 00:43:48,680 --> 00:43:52,560 is invaluable and impossible. 657 00:43:53,800 --> 00:43:55,240 Until now. 658 00:43:56,520 --> 00:43:58,960 It occurs to everyone at Langley 659 00:43:59,040 --> 00:44:01,280 that we've got a really important asset. 660 00:44:01,960 --> 00:44:03,600 And this search for Bin Laden 661 00:44:03,680 --> 00:44:06,760 that has gone so cold for so long has new potential. 662 00:44:07,600 --> 00:44:10,400 We have a way of getting inside Al Qaeda's tent. 663 00:44:12,760 --> 00:44:18,280 A plan was devised to bring Balawi into a meeting with the Americans 664 00:44:18,360 --> 00:44:21,000 because he had never met any of the CIA officers at all. 665 00:44:21,080 --> 00:44:24,240 So, it seemed imperative to bring him to a place 666 00:44:24,320 --> 00:44:27,360 where he could be debriefed, examined, questioned. 667 00:44:27,440 --> 00:44:29,280 And then give him a mission. 668 00:44:29,360 --> 00:44:31,440 Once we find out what his capabilities truly are, 669 00:44:31,520 --> 00:44:33,880 then you can arm him, do something important. 670 00:44:33,960 --> 00:44:36,680 You can have him bring us to Bin Laden himself. 671 00:44:43,640 --> 00:44:46,360 The meeting will take place in the CIA station 672 00:44:46,440 --> 00:44:51,120 inside Camp Chapman, a high security US military base 673 00:44:51,200 --> 00:44:55,920 in the Afghan city of Khost, 10 miles from the Pakistani border. 674 00:44:59,560 --> 00:45:03,480 The plan is for Al Balawi to secretly drive across the border 675 00:45:03,560 --> 00:45:06,400 to avoid being spotted by Al Qaeda members. 676 00:45:11,720 --> 00:45:15,960 Khost is a remote, rugged, difficult place. 677 00:45:16,040 --> 00:45:19,560 Everybody knows everybody in that region. 678 00:45:19,640 --> 00:45:23,520 And so, if you're new to that area, you're going to stand out 679 00:45:23,600 --> 00:45:28,680 and there's not too many reasons to pop up in Khost Afghanistan. 680 00:45:35,320 --> 00:45:37,320 Balawi said he was nervous. 681 00:45:37,400 --> 00:45:39,480 He didn't want to be identified by local informants. 682 00:45:39,560 --> 00:45:42,200 And so, he set the terms that he'd not be searched, 683 00:45:42,280 --> 00:45:44,360 that no one manhandle him 684 00:45:44,440 --> 00:45:48,240 as he was being escorted into the base to meet his CIA handlers. 685 00:45:50,880 --> 00:45:54,600 From the CIA's point of view, he was a very vulnerable person. 686 00:45:54,680 --> 00:45:57,280 They acknowledged that the legitimacy of his worry 687 00:45:57,360 --> 00:45:59,240 that he might be recognised by someone. 688 00:45:59,320 --> 00:46:01,000 There could be a Taliban informant 689 00:46:01,080 --> 00:46:03,560 inside the base that would see him and betray him. 690 00:46:03,640 --> 00:46:05,120 That was a real concern. 691 00:46:06,520 --> 00:46:09,200 And so, they were willing to put aside 692 00:46:09,280 --> 00:46:11,560 some of the normal protocols and precautions 693 00:46:11,640 --> 00:46:13,880 because this guy was so important, 694 00:46:13,960 --> 00:46:15,480 and they really wanted to protect him. 695 00:46:17,760 --> 00:46:20,640 When you're developing a relationship 696 00:46:20,720 --> 00:46:25,400 with a potential source, you always weigh risk versus gain. 697 00:46:26,760 --> 00:46:29,480 The risk of course is that source could lie to you. 698 00:46:30,600 --> 00:46:32,600 But the urgency of getting the information 699 00:46:32,680 --> 00:46:36,080 when it looks as if you can pinpoint a person like Bin laden 700 00:46:36,160 --> 00:46:40,880 or Al Zawahiri, clearly propels you to weigh on the side of gain. 701 00:46:50,240 --> 00:46:53,520 The first meeting with AL Balawi is set for the end of the afternoon. 702 00:46:56,800 --> 00:46:58,880 The CIA Station officers, 703 00:46:58,960 --> 00:47:01,600 protected by CIA security personnel, 704 00:47:01,680 --> 00:47:05,720 gather outside, waiting for his car to arrive. 705 00:47:09,520 --> 00:47:12,880 Our first meeting with a potential source is critical. 706 00:47:16,240 --> 00:47:18,840 You get a chance to look at his body language, 707 00:47:18,920 --> 00:47:21,960 to see how he talks, how he responds to questions. 708 00:47:22,040 --> 00:47:25,240 You also want to probe his motivation a little bit. 709 00:47:25,320 --> 00:47:27,440 How sincere is that motivation? 710 00:47:30,800 --> 00:47:34,040 A crucial part of a meeting with a source like that 711 00:47:34,120 --> 00:47:37,400 is that you also want to establish some rapport. 712 00:47:40,760 --> 00:47:46,320 It's not a hostile interrogation. It's a debriefing. 713 00:47:49,000 --> 00:47:52,200 As the CIA agreed, the director of base security 714 00:47:52,280 --> 00:47:55,600 instructed his team to waive the usual security protocols 715 00:47:55,680 --> 00:47:58,800 for this unknown vehicle entering the base. 716 00:48:07,320 --> 00:48:09,920 He went through one checkpoint, 717 00:48:10,000 --> 00:48:11,960 the guards turned the other way and didn't look at him. 718 00:48:15,440 --> 00:48:17,480 He went through a second one. 719 00:48:20,520 --> 00:48:22,640 To a third one. 720 00:48:22,720 --> 00:48:25,160 Got a pass to get into the CIA inner sanctum. 721 00:48:30,520 --> 00:48:32,440 And at no point was searched, 722 00:48:32,520 --> 00:48:35,800 examined, questioned until he was in the presence 723 00:48:35,880 --> 00:48:38,840 of the large group of CIA officers who were eager to meet him. 724 00:48:46,240 --> 00:48:49,000 The intelligence officers gathered around his car. 725 00:48:58,800 --> 00:49:02,480 When he got out, the security people noticed something wrong. 726 00:49:05,280 --> 00:49:07,400 They told him to raise his hands. 727 00:49:09,000 --> 00:49:12,760 And he set off a suicide vest. 728 00:49:21,960 --> 00:49:24,000 It's believed to be one the deadliest attacks 729 00:49:24,080 --> 00:49:25,520 in the agency's history. 730 00:49:25,600 --> 00:49:28,680 The bomber apparently just walked up to them on the base 731 00:49:28,760 --> 00:49:31,400 and detonated his suicide vest. 732 00:49:31,960 --> 00:49:35,720 How did this bomber get past three layers of security? 733 00:49:37,760 --> 00:49:40,520 The quiet doctor, online jihadist, 734 00:49:40,600 --> 00:49:44,440 and new recruit to spy on Al Qaeda for the CIA, 735 00:49:44,520 --> 00:49:49,200 was in fact a triple agent, ready to die for his cause. 736 00:49:51,960 --> 00:49:56,160 The one thing you learn in this business is that intelligence people 737 00:49:56,240 --> 00:49:58,120 really do have to put their lives on the line. 738 00:49:59,880 --> 00:50:04,120 Of course, it's risky. Were mistakes made in the security process? 739 00:50:04,200 --> 00:50:05,400 Probably. 740 00:50:06,200 --> 00:50:11,280 But bottom line is they had the courage to basically go through 741 00:50:11,360 --> 00:50:14,800 with that meeting, take the chances that they had to take. 742 00:50:16,920 --> 00:50:20,640 Every one of the families of those who had died said, 743 00:50:20,720 --> 00:50:25,400 "Please continue the mission that our loved one was involved with." 744 00:50:27,000 --> 00:50:30,320 They paid with their lives, but in many ways, 745 00:50:30,400 --> 00:50:35,960 they did not die in vain because their death inspired others 746 00:50:36,040 --> 00:50:38,120 to keep fighting for the mission. 747 00:50:45,000 --> 00:50:48,720 The Camp Chapman ambush must not go unpunished. 748 00:50:49,800 --> 00:50:53,560 Al-Kuwaiti is the CIA's last hope of finding Osama Bin Laden. 749 00:50:54,160 --> 00:50:56,400 And the analysts are closing in. 750 00:50:59,040 --> 00:51:02,200 Over the years, they've gathered information 751 00:51:02,280 --> 00:51:04,200 from detainees and foreign services 752 00:51:04,280 --> 00:51:10,040 about the mysterious courier. Al-Kuwaiti speaks Pashto. 753 00:51:10,960 --> 00:51:12,560 He has seven brothers. 754 00:51:12,640 --> 00:51:15,080 His nom de guerre refers to the fact 755 00:51:15,160 --> 00:51:18,840 that his parents have Pakistani roots but now live in Kuwait. 756 00:51:20,960 --> 00:51:22,600 By cross-referencing this intelligence 757 00:51:22,680 --> 00:51:25,720 with the gigantic database on Al Qaeda members, 758 00:51:25,800 --> 00:51:29,400 they have narrowed down the identity of Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti. 759 00:51:31,040 --> 00:51:36,760 The prime suspect now has a name, Ibrahim Saeed. 760 00:51:39,800 --> 00:51:43,080 Those people worked for years to try to find the right lead. 761 00:51:43,840 --> 00:51:46,000 Linking those two names together 762 00:51:46,080 --> 00:51:50,680 based upon what CIA knew about the courier was a work of art. 763 00:51:52,800 --> 00:51:55,840 But no one knows where to find Ibrahim Saeed. 764 00:51:57,440 --> 00:52:00,920 The CIA keeps Saeed's family under constant surveillance in Kuwait. 765 00:52:03,080 --> 00:52:06,240 Phones are tapped. Conversations recorded. 766 00:52:07,480 --> 00:52:11,200 Saeed uses several phones which he randomly activates and deactivates. 767 00:52:13,320 --> 00:52:16,120 They are geolocated in Northern Pakistan, 768 00:52:16,200 --> 00:52:21,320 sometimes in Rawalpindi, other times in Peshawar. 769 00:52:22,680 --> 00:52:24,520 Until one day. 770 00:52:27,960 --> 00:52:31,040 During one of those conversations, he says something to the effect 771 00:52:31,120 --> 00:52:33,520 that "I'm working with people I used to work with before." 772 00:52:41,920 --> 00:52:44,480 That's when the lead starts to knit together 773 00:52:44,560 --> 00:52:47,160 that Ibrahim and Al-Kuwaiti are the same person. 774 00:52:50,120 --> 00:52:53,160 Ibrahim Saeed's short, innocuous comment 775 00:52:53,240 --> 00:52:56,520 might be the first mistake he's made in nine years. 776 00:52:58,400 --> 00:53:01,920 The CIA launches its full resources to find him. 777 00:53:04,960 --> 00:53:07,400 Teams deploy undercover in Pakistan 778 00:53:07,480 --> 00:53:09,720 where Al-Kuwaiti often makes his phone calls. 779 00:53:22,880 --> 00:53:26,320 A CIA surveillance team, now permanently stationed 780 00:53:26,400 --> 00:53:30,720 in Peshawar, patiently wait for Al-Kuwaiti to turn on his cellphone. 781 00:53:32,800 --> 00:53:35,400 It isn't easy just to just put people on the ground. 782 00:53:35,480 --> 00:53:37,040 They have to do it secretly, right? 783 00:53:37,120 --> 00:53:38,520 You don't want to be found. 784 00:53:38,600 --> 00:53:40,680 And you certainly don't want the target to see you. 785 00:53:44,760 --> 00:53:48,720 For several weeks, the CIA team lays low. Waiting. 786 00:53:51,800 --> 00:53:54,360 They didn't know exactly what Al Kuwaiti looked like. 787 00:53:54,440 --> 00:53:57,040 They didn't know what kind of vehicle they'd been. 788 00:54:03,040 --> 00:54:08,160 Until one day, Al Kuwaiti activates his phone very close to them. 789 00:54:17,800 --> 00:54:19,640 When the phone turns on of course, 790 00:54:19,720 --> 00:54:21,920 they try to get closer to the source of the phone. 791 00:54:22,000 --> 00:54:23,800 The issue was to find the signal 792 00:54:23,880 --> 00:54:26,200 and find somebody on the phone close to the signal. 793 00:54:32,440 --> 00:54:36,000 Nine years after 9/11, the CIA is finally about 794 00:54:36,080 --> 00:54:40,040 to identify the one man who might lead them to Osama Bin Laden. 795 00:54:50,560 --> 00:54:54,680 And ultimately, they identify the vehicle the target is using, 796 00:54:54,760 --> 00:54:58,000 a white Suzuki kind of Jeep thing. 797 00:55:06,160 --> 00:55:08,160 And Al-Kuwaiti was in the vehicle. 798 00:55:14,600 --> 00:55:17,120 The CIA now has a face to put with the name. 799 00:55:20,560 --> 00:55:25,400 They confirm that Ibrahim Saeed Ahmed is Al-Kuwaiti. 800 00:55:28,520 --> 00:55:30,640 And now they've got eyes on him. 801 00:55:32,400 --> 00:55:35,440 They followed this little white SUV with the courier 802 00:55:35,520 --> 00:55:38,760 from Peshawar to Abbottabad 803 00:55:38,840 --> 00:55:40,840 which is near the Capital in Pakistan. 804 00:55:48,040 --> 00:55:52,280 And the SUV pulled into a compound. 805 00:55:54,800 --> 00:55:57,120 Abbottabad is a city of two million people. 806 00:55:57,200 --> 00:56:00,200 The compound, in a residential area, 807 00:56:00,280 --> 00:56:04,160 is not even two miles from the Military Academy of Pakistan. 808 00:56:05,760 --> 00:56:08,000 The CIA sets up a surveillance team. 809 00:56:10,200 --> 00:56:14,480 It was clear that we had found something unique, 810 00:56:14,560 --> 00:56:16,000 in the existence of this compound. 811 00:56:17,840 --> 00:56:21,760 It involved the couriers who had served Bin Laden in the past. 812 00:56:21,840 --> 00:56:27,200 And it was clear that they were conducting their pattern of life 813 00:56:27,280 --> 00:56:29,240 each day with high security. 814 00:56:30,160 --> 00:56:34,040 They would travel 90 miles away in order to make a phone call. 815 00:56:39,200 --> 00:56:42,480 And as you piece together each of these elements, 816 00:56:43,600 --> 00:56:50,200 I think at that point, deep down, I felt just maybe, 817 00:56:50,280 --> 00:56:53,680 for the first time in over 10 years... 818 00:56:55,320 --> 00:56:59,080 ..we may be close to finding Bin Laden. 819 00:57:05,400 --> 00:57:07,480 The compound had 12-foot walls 820 00:57:07,560 --> 00:57:09,720 and in some places 18-foot-high walls. 821 00:57:12,440 --> 00:57:15,760 It had large field on one side of it, very open. 822 00:57:17,680 --> 00:57:20,360 The design of the compound itself had a driveway 823 00:57:20,440 --> 00:57:23,160 with walls on either side so if you were stood in 824 00:57:23,240 --> 00:57:25,120 even in the gate and looked in, 825 00:57:25,200 --> 00:57:27,880 you couldn't see laterally into the courtyards. 826 00:57:28,880 --> 00:57:33,120 It had balconies that had seven-foot-high walls on them, 827 00:57:33,200 --> 00:57:34,720 so if you're looking at the balconies, 828 00:57:34,800 --> 00:57:36,680 you couldn't see the people sitting on the balcony 829 00:57:36,760 --> 00:57:38,120 or standing on the balcony. 830 00:57:40,520 --> 00:57:42,960 They burn their trash inside the compound. 831 00:57:44,320 --> 00:57:47,080 Further collection against the target 832 00:57:47,160 --> 00:57:49,960 did not reveal any electronic signals coming off the target. 833 00:57:50,880 --> 00:57:55,160 And the compound itself cost a lot of money to build. 834 00:58:00,880 --> 00:58:03,040 The next step obviously was to continue surveillance 835 00:58:03,120 --> 00:58:07,640 on the compound try, to determine whether or not Bin Laden 836 00:58:07,720 --> 00:58:11,120 was really there, but it was important enough 837 00:58:11,200 --> 00:58:13,960 to ask for a meeting with the President. 838 00:58:14,760 --> 00:58:19,040 And we went to the White House and we described what we had found. 839 00:58:20,560 --> 00:58:25,400 And I remember the president giving us two very clear orders 840 00:58:25,480 --> 00:58:27,160 at the end of that meeting. 841 00:58:27,240 --> 00:58:30,640 Number one, "Leon, Michael, 842 00:58:30,720 --> 00:58:34,040 "find out what the hell is going on inside that compound. 843 00:58:34,120 --> 00:58:36,760 "Number two, don't tell anybody. 844 00:58:36,840 --> 00:58:39,600 "Nobody else knows about this, except us." 845 00:58:41,080 --> 00:58:44,640 It would take only one leak, only one, 846 00:58:44,720 --> 00:58:49,160 that we might be on to Bin Laden, and he'd be gone. 847 00:58:50,480 --> 00:58:55,840 This was the best kept secret in my 33 years working at CIA. 848 00:59:00,880 --> 00:59:05,320 For months, the CIA analysts struggle to collect 849 00:59:05,400 --> 00:59:07,840 more intelligence on who lives in the compound. 850 00:59:14,640 --> 00:59:16,920 At the end of 2010, 851 00:59:17,000 --> 00:59:20,800 overhead surveillance reveals an unidentified man. 852 00:59:21,720 --> 00:59:24,040 They nickname - the pacer. 853 00:59:27,560 --> 00:59:31,200 He would come into the yard, walk in circles, you know, 854 00:59:31,280 --> 00:59:32,560 maybe 10 or 12 times, 855 00:59:32,640 --> 00:59:34,920 and then go back inside like a prisoner. 856 00:59:36,080 --> 00:59:39,640 I said, "For goodness sakes, this could be Bin Laden. 857 00:59:39,720 --> 00:59:42,720 "It looked like an old gentleman, get me a picture, 858 00:59:42,800 --> 00:59:45,080 "a facial identification. 859 00:59:45,160 --> 00:59:47,480 "Give me a camera, give me a telescope, you know, 860 00:59:47,560 --> 00:59:49,200 "give me something." 861 00:59:50,280 --> 00:59:51,920 And I remember saying to them, 862 00:59:52,000 --> 00:59:55,200 "Look, I've seen movies where the CIA can do this." 863 00:59:55,280 --> 00:59:58,200 And we all laughed, but, to their credit, 864 00:59:58,280 --> 01:00:02,400 they tried everything they could to try to identify who this person was. 865 01:00:04,840 --> 01:00:09,400 We tried to get a fix on his height, and the answer that came back 866 01:00:09,480 --> 01:00:14,440 from the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency was, 867 01:00:14,520 --> 01:00:16,720 "He's somewhere between five and seven feet tall." 868 01:00:16,800 --> 01:00:18,440 So not exactly helpful. 869 01:00:21,520 --> 01:00:25,840 Despite the efforts, the pacer will never be clearly identified. 870 01:00:32,720 --> 01:00:37,400 It turns out though that we learned that there's a third family 871 01:00:37,480 --> 01:00:39,680 living in the compound, 872 01:00:39,760 --> 01:00:42,920 and that that third family never leaves the compound. 873 01:00:43,520 --> 01:00:45,800 How do you learn this? I can't tell you. 874 01:00:46,880 --> 01:00:52,960 We assess that that third family is what we would expect to be 875 01:00:53,040 --> 01:00:55,800 with Bin Laden at that point in his life, 876 01:00:55,880 --> 01:00:58,240 number of wives, age of the kids. 877 01:00:59,400 --> 01:01:05,160 We learn that Abu Ahmed is still working for Al-Qaeda. 878 01:01:05,240 --> 01:01:08,680 So one of our concerns was maybe this guy doesn't work 879 01:01:08,760 --> 01:01:10,720 for Al-Qaeda anymore, maybe this is a drug dealer 880 01:01:10,800 --> 01:01:12,880 who lives in this place, or an organised crime boss 881 01:01:12,960 --> 01:01:14,640 and Abu Ahmed is working for him. 882 01:01:14,720 --> 01:01:18,400 But we learn that Abu Ahmed is still working for Al Qaeda. 883 01:01:18,480 --> 01:01:20,280 And how do you learn that? I can't tell you. 884 01:01:22,680 --> 01:01:27,480 How the CIA collected this crucial intelligence is still classified. 885 01:01:28,320 --> 01:01:32,280 But for the analysts, it made the case more solid. 886 01:01:36,320 --> 01:01:39,520 We got enough information that it added a level of confidence 887 01:01:39,600 --> 01:01:41,520 that tipped the balance. 888 01:01:41,600 --> 01:01:44,240 Very seldom in intelligence you get perfect knowledge, 889 01:01:44,320 --> 01:01:45,800 in fact you'd never get perfect knowledge. 890 01:01:46,480 --> 01:01:51,480 How much more could we do without the risk of alerting the people 891 01:01:51,560 --> 01:01:54,840 in the compound to the fact that we were operating in this area? 892 01:01:55,760 --> 01:01:57,720 How long can you keep it secret? 893 01:02:03,760 --> 01:02:09,600 Ultimately inside CIA, we did a conference to ask for assessments. 894 01:02:09,680 --> 01:02:11,960 And they asked me, and I said, 895 01:02:12,040 --> 01:02:15,600 "Well, I'm 95% sure he's there, and we can't leave Hitler in his bunker. 896 01:02:15,680 --> 01:02:16,840 "We've got to take him." 897 01:02:16,920 --> 01:02:19,600 For me there was enough intelligence there to act. 898 01:02:22,720 --> 01:02:24,960 The CIA briefs the President. 899 01:02:26,760 --> 01:02:29,800 We said, "We think Bin Ladin is there." 900 01:02:29,880 --> 01:02:33,560 he asked us, "How would you go about getting this guy?." 901 01:02:36,600 --> 01:02:40,560 And we realised pretty quickly that we need the military's help here, 902 01:02:40,640 --> 01:02:46,000 and the president authorised us to bring the military in. 903 01:02:50,520 --> 01:02:54,760 I was asked to assist in developing operational options 904 01:02:54,840 --> 01:02:58,720 with some CIA planners, if we were to be asked for that 905 01:02:58,800 --> 01:02:59,960 from the president... 906 01:03:02,560 --> 01:03:07,360 ..and to bring in Admiral Bill McRaven, 907 01:03:07,440 --> 01:03:09,040 who would command the operation, 908 01:03:09,120 --> 01:03:12,840 a three-star Navy Admiral and a Navy seal by profession. 909 01:03:16,720 --> 01:03:21,160 The President and his closest advisors evaluate two main options, 910 01:03:21,240 --> 01:03:24,760 an airstrike on the compound, 911 01:03:24,840 --> 01:03:27,360 or a special forces raid by helicopter. 912 01:03:28,800 --> 01:03:33,600 The airstrike seems the safest choice but has major downsides. 913 01:03:35,640 --> 01:03:40,560 The challenge with a big air strike on the house 914 01:03:40,640 --> 01:03:43,520 was that there would be collateral damage. 915 01:03:43,600 --> 01:03:47,320 All the other occupants of that house would be killed too, 916 01:03:47,400 --> 01:03:51,040 and there were some 22 other women and children. 917 01:03:52,640 --> 01:03:54,760 The magnitude of the air strike 918 01:03:54,840 --> 01:04:00,440 would also kill people in immediately adjacent areas. 919 01:04:03,280 --> 01:04:05,520 And you don't know in the aftermath 920 01:04:05,600 --> 01:04:07,480 of whether you killed Bin Laden or not. 921 01:04:09,520 --> 01:04:12,120 The president rejects the airstrike, 922 01:04:12,200 --> 01:04:15,760 and chooses to send a team of commandos via helicopter. 923 01:04:22,320 --> 01:04:25,440 The unit chosen by the Joint Special Operations Command 924 01:04:25,520 --> 01:04:28,560 to conduct the assault is Seal Team 6. 925 01:04:28,640 --> 01:04:31,760 Often considered the best of the best. 926 01:04:33,040 --> 01:04:35,560 The assault squadron that was chosen to go 927 01:04:35,640 --> 01:04:37,160 was Red Squadron at Seal Team 6. 928 01:04:38,480 --> 01:04:40,280 They showed up and they realised that, hey, 929 01:04:40,360 --> 01:04:42,200 they weren't there for an exercise, they were there to go after 930 01:04:42,280 --> 01:04:45,720 Bin Laden, and then we began training immediately. 931 01:04:50,040 --> 01:04:52,400 The plan was two helicopters coming in. 932 01:04:53,760 --> 01:04:56,680 The one that was hovering between the main building 933 01:04:56,760 --> 01:04:58,760 and the kind of ancillary building 934 01:04:58,840 --> 01:05:01,160 where one of the couriers was living, 935 01:05:01,240 --> 01:05:06,680 that group of 12 guys, half went to the bottom floor 936 01:05:06,760 --> 01:05:08,440 of the main compound. 937 01:05:08,520 --> 01:05:10,720 And the other half went to deal with that courier. 938 01:05:13,480 --> 01:05:15,760 The second bird came in fast roped onto the roof. 939 01:05:15,840 --> 01:05:17,280 And those guys were to make their way down 940 01:05:17,360 --> 01:05:19,640 where Bin Laden was, and they would sandwich him if you will. 941 01:05:23,240 --> 01:05:25,080 After three weeks of training, 942 01:05:25,160 --> 01:05:27,480 Admiral Mac Raven confirms to the President 943 01:05:27,560 --> 01:05:30,320 and the CIA director that the Squadron assault team 944 01:05:30,400 --> 01:05:31,920 is "mission-ready." 945 01:05:35,200 --> 01:05:37,800 The Seals are cleared to deploy to the US military base 946 01:05:37,880 --> 01:05:39,840 in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. 947 01:05:42,360 --> 01:05:45,800 In Washington DC, it's time to make the final decision. 948 01:05:48,360 --> 01:05:51,640 Pursuant to our constitution, the President of the United States 949 01:05:51,720 --> 01:05:54,560 at that time, Barack Obama was the commander in chief. 950 01:05:54,640 --> 01:05:57,520 So it was his decision on whether or not 951 01:05:57,600 --> 01:06:02,160 we were going to go forward with the raid to hopefully bring 952 01:06:02,240 --> 01:06:06,080 to justice the person who was behind the attack at 9/11. 953 01:06:08,400 --> 01:06:11,120 It's huge because you don't want a world war, 954 01:06:11,200 --> 01:06:14,280 you deal with other countries, it could impact your allies. 955 01:06:16,640 --> 01:06:19,720 We had to send US forces across a nation state border, 956 01:06:19,800 --> 01:06:23,080 into their country, armed, to try to effectuate 957 01:06:23,160 --> 01:06:26,240 an arrest of an internationally known terrorist. 958 01:06:31,720 --> 01:06:34,840 After the five months of reviewing the information, 959 01:06:34,920 --> 01:06:36,840 there really weren't any more Republican 960 01:06:36,920 --> 01:06:39,120 and Democrat ideas about this. 961 01:06:40,720 --> 01:06:42,320 I'm a Republican, the president was a Democrat. 962 01:06:42,400 --> 01:06:43,480 To me it didn't matter. 963 01:06:43,560 --> 01:06:45,560 We understood the weight of this decision. 964 01:06:45,640 --> 01:06:50,400 My best role was if something goes wrong, I will stand next 965 01:06:50,480 --> 01:06:54,160 to the president and say that I thought this was the right decision. 966 01:06:57,600 --> 01:07:00,440 Almost 10 years after the 9/11 attack, 967 01:07:00,520 --> 01:07:03,080 only a few people in Washington know that the hunt 968 01:07:03,160 --> 01:07:06,040 for Osama Bin Laden might end in the next few hours. 969 01:07:08,560 --> 01:07:10,800 Barack Obama has made his crucial decision. 970 01:07:14,160 --> 01:07:16,760 In the morning, Tom Donilon, the National Security Advisor, 971 01:07:16,840 --> 01:07:19,080 called Leon Panetta and said, 972 01:07:19,160 --> 01:07:21,440 "The President has approved the mission. 973 01:07:21,520 --> 01:07:24,480 "It's a go. All the details are in Admiral McRaven hands." 974 01:07:25,720 --> 01:07:29,000 I got a phone call from Panetta, and he said, 975 01:07:29,080 --> 01:07:30,640 "You know, that thing we've been working on, 976 01:07:30,720 --> 01:07:33,240 "well, it's going to happen this weekend. Goodbye." 977 01:07:34,280 --> 01:07:37,720 That was it. I'll never forget the phone call again. 978 01:07:52,520 --> 01:07:55,800 The night has fallen on the US military base in Jalalabad. 979 01:07:56,480 --> 01:07:59,480 The Seals are ready to launch this very special mission, 980 01:07:59,560 --> 01:08:03,440 probably one of the most important since World War 2. 981 01:08:05,400 --> 01:08:06,840 The mission was a kill mission. 982 01:08:06,920 --> 01:08:08,840 We were not supposed to capture Bin laden. 983 01:08:09,640 --> 01:08:11,280 It was the order from Bill McRaven, 984 01:08:11,360 --> 01:08:13,360 but it was also signed off by the President of United States. 985 01:08:15,080 --> 01:08:17,600 At that level, the President's got to agree to it. 986 01:08:19,200 --> 01:08:22,560 Every other mission we do is kill or capture, 987 01:08:22,640 --> 01:08:24,240 and this time we're going to tell them 988 01:08:24,320 --> 01:08:26,560 it's essentially an assassination. 989 01:08:26,640 --> 01:08:29,080 But it came down to, do we want to take him back, 990 01:08:29,160 --> 01:08:32,280 have him stand trial and expose possibly the sources 991 01:08:32,360 --> 01:08:34,040 and means that were used to find him? 992 01:08:34,120 --> 01:08:36,720 And that wasn't worth it. And I totally agree with that. 993 01:08:49,360 --> 01:08:52,240 President Obama and his national security council 994 01:08:52,320 --> 01:08:54,760 gather in the White House situation room. 995 01:08:59,640 --> 01:09:02,600 The CIA team monitors the operation in Langley. 996 01:09:04,160 --> 01:09:06,720 We had a direct connection with Bill McRaven, 997 01:09:06,800 --> 01:09:09,640 and he was giving us a blow by blow of what was happening. 998 01:09:12,440 --> 01:09:16,440 The helicopters from the 160th Special Operations Regiment, 999 01:09:16,520 --> 01:09:18,960 known as The Night Stalkers, 1000 01:09:19,040 --> 01:09:21,600 leave Jalalabad airbase at 10 pm local time. 1001 01:09:22,960 --> 01:09:26,960 Two modified Black Hawks with a very low radar signature 1002 01:09:27,040 --> 01:09:29,720 will carry the Seal Team, while two larger chinooks 1003 01:09:29,800 --> 01:09:33,640 will serve as a quick reaction force in case the Seals need backup. 1004 01:09:36,880 --> 01:09:40,640 The helicopters flew to a ground lager site 1005 01:09:40,720 --> 01:09:42,800 where they dropped the quick reaction force. 1006 01:09:44,160 --> 01:09:45,840 And from that point, the helicopters made 1007 01:09:45,920 --> 01:09:48,400 that Southern leg into the target. 1008 01:09:49,960 --> 01:09:53,160 And it was about two minutes out when they came out 1009 01:09:53,240 --> 01:09:57,080 of the mountains, and at that point, could be seen by Pakistani radar. 1010 01:10:02,200 --> 01:10:05,240 A few minutes before the helicopters reach the target, 1011 01:10:05,320 --> 01:10:07,840 the CIA intercepts a signal. 1012 01:10:13,640 --> 01:10:16,800 In the compound, a cellphone the CIA had not identified before 1013 01:10:16,880 --> 01:10:18,560 is activated. 1014 01:10:20,600 --> 01:10:23,400 We heard the communications coming off of that. 1015 01:10:23,480 --> 01:10:26,920 And the last communication was one brother calling another brother 1016 01:10:27,000 --> 01:10:29,920 and he said, "They've come from above." 1017 01:10:30,800 --> 01:10:33,280 And those were effectively his last words that were recorded. 1018 01:10:41,720 --> 01:10:43,600 They were now going to be awake. 1019 01:10:43,680 --> 01:10:46,040 So, it was more likely to be a gunfight than anything else. 1020 01:10:47,320 --> 01:10:48,640 That was my concern. 1021 01:10:50,520 --> 01:10:53,320 The other concern as well was if a call has gone 1022 01:10:53,400 --> 01:10:54,880 to wake up Bin Laden, the Pakistani military 1023 01:10:54,960 --> 01:10:59,200 knew that something was going on in their own backyard there. 1024 01:11:01,240 --> 01:11:04,280 The timer is on, and from the time that call came, 1025 01:11:04,360 --> 01:11:05,800 we figured the guys had 30 minutes 1026 01:11:05,880 --> 01:11:08,360 until the Pakistanis would mount a response. 1027 01:11:12,920 --> 01:11:17,120 The two helicopters reach the target at midnight. 1028 01:11:18,240 --> 01:11:21,720 We were able to follow those helicopters into Pakistan 1029 01:11:21,800 --> 01:11:25,440 and we had a surveillance over the compound itself 1030 01:11:25,520 --> 01:11:27,920 when the helicopters arrived. 1031 01:11:32,920 --> 01:11:36,680 We actually saw the helicopter kind of wobble. 1032 01:11:43,520 --> 01:11:46,440 As we're watching those birds coming over the compound, 1033 01:11:46,520 --> 01:11:48,120 for me, in slow motion. 1034 01:11:48,200 --> 01:11:51,200 The one that was between those two houses is supposed to stop. 1035 01:11:51,280 --> 01:11:53,760 You know, when you fast rope, the helicopter stops, 1036 01:11:53,840 --> 01:11:56,040 out goes the ropes, guys slide down the rope. 1037 01:11:56,840 --> 01:11:58,160 It never stopped. 1038 01:12:00,520 --> 01:12:04,720 There were walls, and it did not allow the air to disperse. 1039 01:12:06,000 --> 01:12:07,600 It drove that dirty air, 1040 01:12:07,680 --> 01:12:09,240 as helicopter pilots call it, 1041 01:12:09,320 --> 01:12:11,440 back up into the rotors and it lost power. 1042 01:12:12,320 --> 01:12:13,920 And, when it loses power, 1043 01:12:14,000 --> 01:12:18,240 it's just sliding off the target and then turns slowly clockwise, 1044 01:12:18,320 --> 01:12:21,080 and then you see it sit down there in the animal pen. 1045 01:12:29,480 --> 01:12:32,160 And I remember, at that very moment, 1046 01:12:32,240 --> 01:12:35,040 you have that sense, "What's happening?." 1047 01:12:37,120 --> 01:12:39,400 There was a shock in everybody's face. 1048 01:12:40,080 --> 01:12:42,560 It's that moment when you're thinking 1049 01:12:42,640 --> 01:12:45,560 for all the planning, for all the work, for all of the things 1050 01:12:45,640 --> 01:12:48,440 we tried to do to make sure this went right, 1051 01:12:48,520 --> 01:12:50,200 something wrong was happening. 1052 01:12:50,280 --> 01:12:52,480 Is it going to destroy the mission? 1053 01:12:54,600 --> 01:12:57,360 The pilot avoids a crash, landing the helicopter 1054 01:12:57,440 --> 01:12:59,640 in the animal pen near the main house. 1055 01:13:01,840 --> 01:13:05,320 The Black Hawk is destroyed, but everyone is safe. 1056 01:13:07,400 --> 01:13:11,920 I asked McRaven, who I was in radio contact with, 1057 01:13:12,000 --> 01:13:13,720 "What the hell is going on, Bill?" 1058 01:13:15,640 --> 01:13:19,120 And he didn't miss a beat. He said, "There's no problem. 1059 01:13:19,200 --> 01:13:21,400 "We're going to continue with the mission. 1060 01:13:21,480 --> 01:13:23,800 "I've got backup helicopters coming in, they're going to breach 1061 01:13:23,880 --> 01:13:26,040 "through the walls and they're going to go in 1062 01:13:26,120 --> 01:13:27,680 "and complete the mission." 1063 01:13:27,760 --> 01:13:30,640 And I said, "God, bless you. Let's go!" 1064 01:13:32,720 --> 01:13:34,600 There was no time to be concerned 1065 01:13:34,680 --> 01:13:35,960 because the helicopter lands, 1066 01:13:36,040 --> 01:13:37,560 and the guys are out of there instantly. 1067 01:13:39,680 --> 01:13:41,400 When the helicopter went down hard, 1068 01:13:41,480 --> 01:13:44,160 the neighbourhood woke up, so people were turning on 1069 01:13:44,240 --> 01:13:47,040 their lights, people were coming out wondering what's going on here. 1070 01:13:47,640 --> 01:13:49,920 So, it was a race against time at that point. 1071 01:13:51,840 --> 01:13:54,160 The second helicopter basically sees his buddy 1072 01:13:54,240 --> 01:13:55,920 had issues and said, "Uh oh" and went immediately 1073 01:13:56,000 --> 01:13:59,400 to his alternate landing site which was outside the compound. 1074 01:14:00,240 --> 01:14:03,080 And the guys jumped out of the helicopter 1075 01:14:03,160 --> 01:14:05,680 and ran to the door that they were going to use 1076 01:14:05,760 --> 01:14:08,960 as an alternate entry point, then recognise that that door 1077 01:14:09,040 --> 01:14:10,960 had been blocked up from the inside. 1078 01:14:12,320 --> 01:14:15,160 So, you had the team outside and the team inside. 1079 01:14:15,240 --> 01:14:17,400 The team inside still had to come over the wall 1080 01:14:17,480 --> 01:14:20,520 that separated the animal pen from the, from the houses. 1081 01:14:20,600 --> 01:14:22,040 So, they came over to that wall. 1082 01:14:22,120 --> 01:14:24,160 The team outside, couldn't get in. 1083 01:14:24,240 --> 01:14:27,080 So, the senior operator on the ground said, "Hey, I got you," 1084 01:14:27,160 --> 01:14:28,600 walked right up to those double doors, 1085 01:14:28,680 --> 01:14:30,240 opened the doors from the inside. 1086 01:14:30,320 --> 01:14:32,280 And the guys came flooding in, and then everybody of course 1087 01:14:32,360 --> 01:14:35,240 had to go through the ground floor door and make their way to the top. 1088 01:14:43,040 --> 01:14:45,280 The one team that went to the courier 1089 01:14:45,360 --> 01:14:47,200 that was living in the outside house got into a gunfight. 1090 01:14:52,440 --> 01:14:54,040 Al-Kuwaiti is down. 1091 01:14:56,520 --> 01:14:58,640 Guest house secured. One tango kilo. 1092 01:14:59,400 --> 01:15:02,320 The team enters the main house from the ground floor. 1093 01:15:06,720 --> 01:15:10,120 On the first floor, the second courier was there. 1094 01:15:15,640 --> 01:15:17,560 When the operator entered, up came his gun, 1095 01:15:17,640 --> 01:15:20,000 his wife jumps in front of him, and the wife took the first round. 1096 01:15:20,640 --> 01:15:22,200 And the courier took the second round. 1097 01:15:23,840 --> 01:15:26,040 That is not the way we like to do business, 1098 01:15:26,120 --> 01:15:27,600 but we recognise that those things happen. 1099 01:15:30,360 --> 01:15:33,840 We're able to hear what's going on. We hear gunfire. 1100 01:15:33,920 --> 01:15:36,040 They're breaching through the walls 1101 01:15:36,120 --> 01:15:39,560 and then going through the walls, so we know something's going on. 1102 01:15:43,600 --> 01:15:45,280 It's obvious they've run into opposition. 1103 01:15:49,080 --> 01:15:51,360 The guys then had to breach the doors, 1104 01:15:51,440 --> 01:15:53,720 they would drop off to cover dead spaces, 1105 01:15:53,800 --> 01:15:56,600 places that you can't see behind where somebody might be hiding. 1106 01:16:01,400 --> 01:16:03,760 A heavy metal door blocks the stairwell 1107 01:16:03,840 --> 01:16:05,640 between the ground floor and the 2nd floor, 1108 01:16:05,720 --> 01:16:08,440 impeding access to the upper floors. 1109 01:16:13,080 --> 01:16:16,840 Khalid? Khalid? 1110 01:16:19,800 --> 01:16:21,960 Bin Laden's son came down the steps. 1111 01:16:23,440 --> 01:16:24,920 They shot him there. 1112 01:16:35,640 --> 01:16:37,400 The Seals can now secure the 2nd floor. 1113 01:16:40,400 --> 01:16:42,440 In the bedrooms, they find children 1114 01:16:42,520 --> 01:16:45,440 and two women who they search and detain. 1115 01:16:48,160 --> 01:16:49,680 2nd floor secured. 1116 01:16:51,760 --> 01:16:53,800 The seals approach the 3rd floor 1117 01:16:53,880 --> 01:16:55,960 where Osama Bin Laden should be hiding. 1118 01:16:57,760 --> 01:16:59,880 Osama. Osama. 1119 01:17:01,520 --> 01:17:03,160 Bin Ladin came out onto a landing. 1120 01:17:03,240 --> 01:17:06,760 They took a shot at him which hit him in the side. 1121 01:17:07,760 --> 01:17:09,720 They made their way up the steps. 1122 01:17:11,480 --> 01:17:14,080 The first guy entered the room, did not engage Bin Ladin. 1123 01:17:17,480 --> 01:17:19,640 The second guy enters the room, 1124 01:17:19,720 --> 01:17:21,480 and Bin Laden is just standing there, 1125 01:17:21,560 --> 01:17:24,520 There is an AK 47 close to him, 1126 01:17:24,600 --> 01:17:27,040 but he has no intention of reaching for it. 1127 01:17:29,360 --> 01:17:31,520 And he took the shot from just a few feet away. 1128 01:17:35,320 --> 01:17:38,160 Compound secured. Geronimo. 1129 01:17:41,520 --> 01:17:44,280 The people at CIA headquarters in Langley 1130 01:17:44,360 --> 01:17:48,080 hear on the radio feed the Seals declaring... Geronimo. 1131 01:17:49,400 --> 01:17:52,600 ..the code word to indicate that Bin Laden has been killed. 1132 01:17:55,800 --> 01:18:00,480 And then McRaven says, "I think we have a Geronimo," 1133 01:18:00,560 --> 01:18:03,760 and I'm not sure what's going on then. 1134 01:18:03,840 --> 01:18:07,200 It's about 15 minutes, the longest in my lifetime. 1135 01:18:08,000 --> 01:18:11,080 And I was waiting and basically saying, 1136 01:18:11,160 --> 01:18:14,560 "Do we or don't we have Geronimo?" 1137 01:18:14,640 --> 01:18:18,600 And then McRaven came back and said, "We have a Geronimo." 1138 01:18:21,440 --> 01:18:23,200 We had Bin Laden. 1139 01:18:37,800 --> 01:18:40,640 Target acquired. Osama Bin Laden is dead. 1140 01:18:41,680 --> 01:18:44,040 But the mission isn't quite over. 1141 01:18:49,680 --> 01:18:51,880 On the ground, the timer is ticking. 1142 01:18:51,960 --> 01:18:55,960 The seals need to leave before the Pakistani Authorities show up. 1143 01:18:57,560 --> 01:19:01,160 Chinooks from the quick reaction force race to the exfiltration site. 1144 01:19:02,640 --> 01:19:06,000 But first, the crashed helicopter must be destroyed. 1145 01:19:12,760 --> 01:19:15,000 It was important to blow up the helicopter 1146 01:19:15,080 --> 01:19:17,600 because it had the stealth technology on the skin. 1147 01:19:17,680 --> 01:19:20,080 We did not want the Pakistanis to hand it over to the Chinese. 1148 01:19:22,240 --> 01:19:23,640 The other part of the team 1149 01:19:23,720 --> 01:19:25,720 was gathering as much information as they could, 1150 01:19:25,800 --> 01:19:28,120 digital information, all the papers, 1151 01:19:28,200 --> 01:19:30,200 and stuff that they found. As they were calling in 1152 01:19:30,280 --> 01:19:33,200 those helicopters to come and get them for their extraction. 1153 01:19:36,560 --> 01:19:38,000 The two helicopters came in, 1154 01:19:38,080 --> 01:19:40,280 landed approximately in the same place 1155 01:19:40,360 --> 01:19:42,520 where the helicopter that didn't crash 1156 01:19:42,600 --> 01:19:44,320 landed outside the compound. 1157 01:19:45,400 --> 01:19:47,080 The guys made their way out of the compound 1158 01:19:47,160 --> 01:19:49,520 and into those two helicopters and then took off from there. 1159 01:19:52,840 --> 01:19:55,040 They actually stayed on target, 38 minutes, 1160 01:19:55,120 --> 01:19:56,800 so eight minutes longer than we had planned. 1161 01:19:59,840 --> 01:20:02,520 The Pakistani Airforce won't react fast enough 1162 01:20:02,600 --> 01:20:04,360 to intercept the helicopters. 1163 01:20:06,240 --> 01:20:08,560 The Seal team can fly back to Jalalabad airbase 1164 01:20:08,640 --> 01:20:10,440 without being targeted. 1165 01:20:13,720 --> 01:20:16,080 Once they're back in Afghanistan, the Seals are safe. 1166 01:20:17,040 --> 01:20:19,360 And now the issue is, was it Bin Laden or not? 1167 01:20:20,880 --> 01:20:26,400 You had a resemblance to Bin Laden, but he was shot in the face. 1168 01:20:29,320 --> 01:20:33,080 Being shot in the face is not like it is on TV with a small hole. 1169 01:20:33,960 --> 01:20:37,000 There's not much of the face left, so you can't clearly identify him. 1170 01:20:38,360 --> 01:20:40,880 But the president wanted to be sure. 1171 01:20:46,040 --> 01:20:51,520 So, CIA did some facial recognition and DNA analysis. 1172 01:20:59,080 --> 01:21:00,840 We were able, at that point, 1173 01:21:00,920 --> 01:21:03,560 to actually confirm that it was Bin Laden. 1174 01:21:07,280 --> 01:21:09,360 So, at that point the President felt confident enough 1175 01:21:09,440 --> 01:21:11,520 to go out and tell the nation. 1176 01:21:12,680 --> 01:21:15,480 Tonight, I can report to the American people 1177 01:21:15,560 --> 01:21:18,640 and to the world that the United States has conducted 1178 01:21:18,720 --> 01:21:21,400 an operation that killed Osama Bin Laden, 1179 01:21:21,480 --> 01:21:23,800 the leader of Al Qaeda. 1180 01:21:23,880 --> 01:21:26,600 And a terrorist who's responsible for the murder of thousands 1181 01:21:26,680 --> 01:21:29,800 of innocent men, women and children. 1182 01:21:31,480 --> 01:21:33,000 Honestly 10 years later, 1183 01:21:33,080 --> 01:21:35,520 any of us talking about this, I can still feel 1184 01:21:35,600 --> 01:21:38,360 all of the ups and downs, the nerves, the fears, 1185 01:21:38,440 --> 01:21:41,120 the elation that maybe we had a lead, 1186 01:21:41,200 --> 01:21:43,840 the fact that, "Oh wow they're actually going to do this." 1187 01:21:44,400 --> 01:21:48,320 Last August, after years of painstaking work 1188 01:21:48,400 --> 01:21:50,200 by our intelligence community, 1189 01:21:50,280 --> 01:21:53,040 I was briefed on a possible lead to Bin Laden. 1190 01:21:53,120 --> 01:21:56,480 A small team of Americans carried out the operation 1191 01:21:56,560 --> 01:21:58,720 with extraordinary courage and capability. 1192 01:21:58,800 --> 01:22:02,600 So that night, in my small way, I was part of this. 1193 01:22:02,680 --> 01:22:05,080 I've done an awful lot in my career 1194 01:22:05,160 --> 01:22:09,840 and cool stuff and important stuff, but rarely is it public. 1195 01:22:09,920 --> 01:22:14,240 Let us remember that we can do these things not just because of wealth 1196 01:22:14,320 --> 01:22:20,080 or power, but because of who we are, one nation, under God, 1197 01:22:20,160 --> 01:22:24,560 indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 1198 01:22:27,240 --> 01:22:29,400 Narrator: Right after Barack Obama's announcement, 1199 01:22:29,480 --> 01:22:33,800 outside the White House and in cities and towns across the United States, 1200 01:22:33,880 --> 01:22:37,400 people gathered to celebrate this historic moment. 1201 01:22:43,040 --> 01:22:45,120 Everybody's shared this moment, 1202 01:22:45,200 --> 01:22:47,840 almost as we did after the bombing of 9/11, 1203 01:22:47,920 --> 01:22:49,440 where the whole country, coming together 1204 01:22:49,520 --> 01:22:51,640 and feeling that justice had been served. 1205 01:22:54,320 --> 01:22:55,880 There had been a concluding chapter 1206 01:22:55,960 --> 01:22:57,800 to this terrible event in American history. 1207 01:22:59,440 --> 01:23:05,760 To be able to walk outside and hear people yelling "USA, USA", 1208 01:23:05,840 --> 01:23:09,280 the first sense was tremendous pride, 1209 01:23:09,360 --> 01:23:13,200 in what the intelligence officers and the military officers 1210 01:23:13,280 --> 01:23:15,120 had accomplished. 1211 01:23:18,600 --> 01:23:22,560 And that we had accomplished something that I thought 1212 01:23:22,640 --> 01:23:25,200 was really important, not only to the families 1213 01:23:25,280 --> 01:23:28,680 of all of those that had lost their lives on 9/11, 1214 01:23:28,760 --> 01:23:32,480 but I thought it was a really important message 1215 01:23:32,560 --> 01:23:36,320 to send the world - that nobody attacks our country 1216 01:23:36,400 --> 01:23:38,320 and gets away with it. 1217 01:23:40,520 --> 01:23:43,040 This is probably the greatest accomplishment 1218 01:23:43,120 --> 01:23:46,400 that the CIA has done in its history. 1219 01:23:48,240 --> 01:23:51,000 I think in many ways, it was not just healing 1220 01:23:51,080 --> 01:23:54,680 for the country, it was also healing for the CIA. 1221 01:24:05,120 --> 01:24:07,000 The people at the CIA are extremely resilient. 1222 01:24:08,680 --> 01:24:10,440 "Yes, we're going to mourn. 1223 01:24:10,520 --> 01:24:13,080 "Yes, we're going to bury our dead and honour them, 1224 01:24:13,160 --> 01:24:15,920 "and then we're gonna honour them by finishing the fight." 1225 01:24:18,080 --> 01:24:20,320 That's what CIA is in business to do. 1226 01:24:21,000 --> 01:24:24,320 We take risks, steal secrets, 1227 01:24:24,400 --> 01:24:26,160 do things that other people can't do. 1228 01:24:29,640 --> 01:24:31,400 But I'm not a hero. 1229 01:24:31,480 --> 01:24:34,240 I did my job and did it as well as I could. 1230 01:24:35,360 --> 01:24:38,160 The heroes are the people that died at Khost... 1231 01:24:39,600 --> 01:24:42,000 ..the heroes are the people that are on the wall at CIA. 1232 01:24:43,440 --> 01:24:46,360 Heroes died on 9/11. They're heroes. 1233 01:24:51,240 --> 01:24:54,240 Captioned by Ai-Media ai-media.tv