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[click]
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[click]
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[click]
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[click]
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[airplane engine whooshing]
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[man] Holy shit!
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Shit!
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Holy shit!
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[eerie music playing]
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[man] I was the president's
daily intelligence briefer
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from January 4th, 2001
to January 4th, 2002.
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I briefed him six days a week.
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No matter where he was in the world,
I was with him.
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[camera shutter clicking]
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Stand and recognize
the President of the United States.
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- Good morning. How are you?
- Good morning, Mr. President.
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[Morell] And I was with President Bush
on the morning of September 11th.
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The president and I were told
about this plane
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hitting the World Trade Center.
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The assumption was,
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this must've been a small-plane accident.
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Thank you for standing up.
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The president was reading a story
about a pet goat.
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- Are you ready, my butterflies?
- [students] Yes.
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LLP position, eyes on me. One, two, three.
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- Get ready.
- [students] "Park."
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[teacher] Yes, "park."
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- What do these two letters say?
- [students] "R."
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[teacher] Yes, "R." Sound it out.
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- Get ready. What word?
- [students] "Park." "Park."
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Yes, "park." Read this word the fast way.
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- Get ready.
- [students] "Sound."
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[sirens wailing]
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Oh my God!
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[reporter] Clearly something…
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[Morell] I called
the CIA operations center,
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and they did have
one piece of information for us,
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which was that it was
a large commercial jet.
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[clicking]
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[man] 9/11 is almost like
one of these novels when they start,
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"It was a beautiful, sunny day."
You know, it started out like that.
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Well, for me,
it was yet another day, uh, you know,
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of spending all night thinking about
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what you're gonna do the next day.
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You know,
don't really sleep that well, ever.
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[tense music playing]
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[reporter] Some reports are
that it was a small commuter plane
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that crashed into the upper floors
of one of the Twin Towers.
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I had a TV screen
up in the corner of my room.
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I was looking at it,
and it was a beautiful day, blue sky.
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And there was this black hole
in the tower.
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[reporter 2] …90s. Have you…
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I thought, "Wow, that must be
the world's worst pilot, right?"
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I mean, it's a beautiful day.
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[phone ringing]
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The phone rings on my desk.
I pick it up, recognize the guy's voice.
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He was an intelligence officer,
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and we had been in
the Angolan War together.
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He started up,
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"Hey, Chief, we have a problem."
He says, "I'm in the World Trade Center."
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He was in the other tower.
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He said, "A 737-like commercial airliner
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flew into the tower."
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He said, "The problem is,
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I was watching
the control surfaces of the aircraft."
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"The pilot purposefully flew the plane
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into the tower."
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And then he said,
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"We've been struck.
I'm evacuating my position."
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[clicking]
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[indistinct chatter]
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- [man 2] Oh my God!
- [woman] No!
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[clamoring]
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- [man] Oh my God!
- [screaming]
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- [sirens wailing]
- [fire engine horns blaring]
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[reporter] That's on purpose, Alfred.
Somebody is doing this on purpose.
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Oh my goodness. [gasps]
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[Morell] The White House chief of staff
went into the room with the President
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and whispered in his ear
that a second plane has hit.
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America is under attack.
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[heartbeat thumping]
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[Morell] The president sat there
for a few moments,
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I think, not knowing quite what to do.
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[teacher] Now, get ready.
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[students] "The pet goat."
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[teacher] Yes, the pet goat.
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Get ready to read the story
the fast way. Get ready.
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[students] "The girl had a…"
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[Morell] You can see him
being stunned by it,
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but also see his composure.
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Later, he would say
he didn't wanna scare the kids.
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[students] "Fred says we will try…"
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I'm standing there wondering
if somebody's gonna fly a plane
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into the school.
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[boom, clicking]
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[man] Director Tenet stated
that we had threat intelligence
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that terrorists wanted to fly a plane
into CIA headquarters.
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And I said, "That's fine,
but we're not evacuating."
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He said, "You have to evac."
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"How about the people
up in the… in the control center?"
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"They could all die. People in CTC."
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I said, "Well, they're all
just gonna have to die."
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[tense music playing]
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[Black] Now we have to respond
to a crisis, and, you know, like soldiers,
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some of us aren't gonna be there
at some point in the future.
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[siren wailing]
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[overlapping chatter]
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[music intensifies]
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[siren wails]
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[Bennett] I remember our manager
bringing us together and just saying,
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"The director has ordered
an evacuation of the building
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except for the counterterrorist center."
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"We know what we have to do,
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and we're gonna do it."
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[mysterious music playing]
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[Storer] I turned to my colleagues
and I said,
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"Call the people in your life
to take care of your dog
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and lock up your house
'cause we're going to war."
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"We're gonna have to go 24-7 immediately."
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[Walder] There wasn't time
to, like, process how you felt.
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I remember some person crying
and then kicking that person out
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because they don't wanna listen
to you cry and we have things to do.
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So, like, at that moment,
I really wasn't processing.
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I was just, "Whatever I'm told to do,
like, let's do it."
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[clicking]
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[man over radio] American 77
American, Indy radio check.
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How do you read?
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You never assume that's it.
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This was not it. There was more.
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The next attack. The next attack.
When is the next attack?
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How is the next attack gonna happen?
Is it gonna look like this or different?
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[man on radio] Trying to get ahold
of American 77.
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[man 2] They lost radar with him.
They lost contact with him.
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They lost everything, and they don't have
any idea where he is or what happened.
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[man] We could have another loose aircraft
out there somewhere.
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We're racing to see
what else might be the target.
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At the same time,
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the FAA is trying to figure out
what's going on with this aircraft.
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[man] …everybody, know this now,
American 77 may have been hijacked.
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{\an8}[Walder] It doesn't take long before we're
hearing reports of another hijacking,
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{\an8}and we're trying to immediately figure out
where is it going.
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{\an8}[man on radio] Third aircraft hijacked
heading towards Washington.
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- [siren wailing]
- It's the real thing. Let's go!
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[man on radio] This is
Dulles Approach Control.
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We're tracking a fast-moving primary
heading towards the White House.
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The White House has been advised.
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[tense music playing]
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We were looking
at all the threat reporting
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that you've ever looked at
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that you just thought
was flaky or aspirational,
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now assuming any one of these things
might come true.
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[grim music playing]
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[Storer] We were literally worried
that terrorists were gonna
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attack CIA headquarters
and we were all gonna die.
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I mean, I wasn't scared
like I was a coward or anything.
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It was just… it was a fact.
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[mysterious music playing]
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[Bennett] I was pregnant
with my fourth child,
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and I was in the bathroom throwing up.
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My colleague was there.
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She wanted to go to the bathroom
in case we were blown up,
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the building was blown up.
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And I was just like, "Oh God."
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[clicking]
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[indistinct radio chatter]
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[eerie music playing]
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[man] Did you get ahold
of American 77 by chance?
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- [man 2] The guy hit the Pentagon.
- [man] Jesus Christ!
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[woman] Oh my God.
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[man] Shut down all arrivals
into National Airport.
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[Shaeffer] Never did any one of us
inside the Pentagon think
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that our location was at risk.
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To us, it was a fortress.
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I felt the blast come from behind.
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Immediately, I sensed that I was on fire.
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[eerie music continues]
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[siren wailing]
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[Shaeffer] Everything
was burning all around me.
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I was clawing my way through.
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I could finally see
some glimpses of daylight.
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And my adrenaline surged.
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And I stood up, and I walked out
what was a big punch-out hole.
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00:09:06,837 --> 00:09:08,839
[sirens wailing in distance]
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[reporter] Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness.
185
00:09:11,926 --> 00:09:14,387
There is smoke
pouring out of the Pentagon.
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[foreboding music playing]
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I had been burned on over 47% of my body,
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and I had inhaled
so much jet fuel and smoke,
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I flatlined twice.
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[siren wailing]
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Among my branch,
I was the only, sole survivor.
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[clicking]
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[suspenseful music playing]
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[Morell] The president was, at that point,
a prime target for terrorists.
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The Secret Service decided
it was not safe to go back to Washington,
196
00:10:00,349 --> 00:10:02,351
but it wasn't clear
where we were gonna go.
197
00:10:04,186 --> 00:10:06,314
We needed to get in the air immediately.
198
00:10:06,397 --> 00:10:08,691
We needed to get
the President out of danger.
199
00:10:11,068 --> 00:10:14,030
Early in that morning,
somebody had called the White House,
200
00:10:14,113 --> 00:10:17,033
said that there was a bomb
on Air Force One.
201
00:10:18,451 --> 00:10:22,413
What concerned the Secret Service the most
was that the caller knew the call sign
202
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for Air Force One, "Angel."
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00:10:27,418 --> 00:10:28,753
When we got to the airport,
204
00:10:28,836 --> 00:10:30,838
Air Force One was ringed
205
00:10:30,921 --> 00:10:33,799
by Secret Service agents
with their automatic weapons out.
206
00:10:35,051 --> 00:10:37,470
They were searching
anything that anybody was carrying,
207
00:10:37,553 --> 00:10:38,929
no matter who you were.
208
00:10:39,013 --> 00:10:42,767
They searched my briefcase
filled with top-secret documents.
209
00:10:42,850 --> 00:10:44,143
I didn't fight them.
210
00:10:47,980 --> 00:10:51,233
It was an extraordinarily steep takeoff.
211
00:10:51,317 --> 00:10:53,694
[suspenseful music intensifies]
212
00:11:02,995 --> 00:11:05,706
[Morell] We learned we were gonna be
flying around the Gulf of Mexico
213
00:11:05,790 --> 00:11:07,124
for quite some period of time.
214
00:11:10,586 --> 00:11:13,381
FAA just shut down all aircraft takeoffs…
215
00:11:15,758 --> 00:11:18,094
[Morell] As we were heading
to Andrews Air Force Base,
216
00:11:18,177 --> 00:11:21,097
I got up, and I looked out the windows,
217
00:11:21,180 --> 00:11:25,601
and there was a jet fighter on the wingtip
of Air Force One.
218
00:11:27,019 --> 00:11:31,148
Should someone shoot
a surface-to-air missile at Air Force One,
219
00:11:32,650 --> 00:11:36,278
the job of those fighters
was to put themselves between that missile
220
00:11:36,362 --> 00:11:38,364
and the President of the United States.
221
00:11:40,950 --> 00:11:42,159
[clicking]
222
00:11:43,869 --> 00:11:45,996
[eerie music playing]
223
00:11:46,080 --> 00:11:48,958
I was on the phone to the FAA.
224
00:11:49,041 --> 00:11:51,335
[man] We got a phone call
that came down to us saying
225
00:11:53,212 --> 00:11:55,464
[Storer] We heard
all air traffic was grounded,
226
00:11:55,548 --> 00:11:58,718
but there was still some plane
up in the air that wasn't accounted for.
227
00:11:58,801 --> 00:12:00,386
[man] United 93, Cleveland.
228
00:12:02,304 --> 00:12:03,222
[beep]
229
00:12:03,305 --> 00:12:05,224
[man 2] We have a bomb on board.
230
00:12:06,308 --> 00:12:09,562
I really can only express
what was almost like an air of panic.
231
00:12:10,271 --> 00:12:13,566
We realized there's more coming.
There's another attack coming.
232
00:12:13,649 --> 00:12:16,944
[man 3] He's reversing course over Akron.
He's heading eastbound.
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00:12:17,027 --> 00:12:20,740
[man 4] About 25 miles
out of Washington, D.C.,
234
00:12:20,823 --> 00:12:23,242
headed in this general direction.
235
00:12:24,034 --> 00:12:29,415
[Morell] People on flight 93 were getting
reports about planes being hijacked.
236
00:12:29,498 --> 00:12:33,836
Passengers didn't want flight 93
to become a weapon.
237
00:12:33,919 --> 00:12:35,045
[beep]
238
00:12:35,129 --> 00:12:36,380
[woman] Honey, are you there?
239
00:12:36,964 --> 00:12:39,091
We're having a little problem
on the plane.
240
00:12:39,175 --> 00:12:40,968
[tense music playing]
241
00:12:41,051 --> 00:12:43,095
[woman 2] Apparently, they've flown
a couple of planes
242
00:12:43,179 --> 00:12:44,597
into the World Trade Center already.
243
00:12:44,680 --> 00:12:46,974
It looks like they're
gonna take this one down as well.
244
00:12:47,057 --> 00:12:49,477
[man 3 on radio] United 93,
waving his wings.
245
00:12:49,560 --> 00:12:51,729
They don't quite know what it means.
246
00:12:51,812 --> 00:12:56,442
[Morell] The passengers on flight 93,
they charged the terrorists
247
00:12:56,525 --> 00:13:01,071
and had a fight
in the cockpit with the hijackers…
248
00:13:01,739 --> 00:13:03,532
[tense music continues]
249
00:13:06,660 --> 00:13:11,665
…preventing it from becoming a weapon
to be used against the US Capitol.
250
00:13:14,335 --> 00:13:16,712
[woman on radio] United 93,
have you got information on that?
251
00:13:16,796 --> 00:13:19,006
- [man] Yeah, he's down.
- [woman] When did he land?
252
00:13:19,089 --> 00:13:21,425
[man] He… he did… he did not land.
253
00:13:22,593 --> 00:13:24,303
[helicopter blades pulsing]
254
00:13:29,308 --> 00:13:30,476
[clicking]
255
00:13:32,228 --> 00:13:34,230
[somber music playing]
256
00:13:39,652 --> 00:13:42,196
[Morell] I joined a small group of people
257
00:13:42,279 --> 00:13:45,407
in the senior staff compartment
of Air Force One,
258
00:13:45,991 --> 00:13:47,618
and we were watching television.
259
00:13:48,244 --> 00:13:50,955
Take two. Take two in two, one.
260
00:13:51,038 --> 00:13:53,749
This is as close as we can get
to the base of the World Trade Center.
261
00:13:53,833 --> 00:13:57,670
You can see the firemen assembled here,
the police officers, FBI agents,
262
00:13:57,753 --> 00:14:00,047
and you can see the two towers.
263
00:14:00,130 --> 00:14:03,467
A huge explosion now
raining debris on all of us.
264
00:14:03,551 --> 00:14:05,678
- We better get out of the way!
- [screaming]
265
00:14:09,557 --> 00:14:11,475
[woman] Oh my God! No!
266
00:14:11,559 --> 00:14:13,561
[clamoring]
267
00:14:16,605 --> 00:14:17,898
[sirens wailing]
268
00:14:26,115 --> 00:14:27,950
[Morell] The president
looked me in the eye,
269
00:14:28,033 --> 00:14:30,494
and he said, "Michael, who did this?"
270
00:14:31,078 --> 00:14:33,497
[foreboding music playing]
271
00:14:33,998 --> 00:14:37,418
As an intelligence officer,
you always have to know
272
00:14:37,501 --> 00:14:40,421
what do you really know?
What don't you know?
273
00:14:41,046 --> 00:14:42,923
And based on those two things,
what do you think?
274
00:14:47,970 --> 00:14:49,221
Who was responsible?
275
00:14:49,305 --> 00:14:52,016
Let's put everything on the table
that we know about this
276
00:14:52,099 --> 00:14:54,643
and whatever anyone wants to say.
277
00:14:54,727 --> 00:14:55,936
[keyboard clacking]
278
00:14:56,687 --> 00:15:00,691
[Storer] I was working with the FAA,
trying to track some of the conspirators.
279
00:15:01,358 --> 00:15:05,654
I really tried to focus
on that information that was coming in.
280
00:15:05,738 --> 00:15:07,948
- [beeping]
- [man] American Airlines, flight 11.
281
00:15:08,032 --> 00:15:10,659
[Storer] The team was able to receive
the flight manifests.
282
00:15:10,743 --> 00:15:11,911
[man] Flight 93.
283
00:15:11,994 --> 00:15:15,122
[Storer] Those are the documents
that show who was on the plane.
284
00:15:15,623 --> 00:15:20,085
[Bennett] You know the terrorists
are going to be on the plane manifests.
285
00:15:20,169 --> 00:15:25,382
So we started trying to identify anyone
with a name that we would recognize.
286
00:15:25,466 --> 00:15:27,593
[man] Fifty-eight passengers
and a crew of…
287
00:15:27,676 --> 00:15:30,721
[man 2] Flight 11 with 81 passengers,
nine flight attendants, and two pilots.
288
00:15:30,804 --> 00:15:34,391
[Bennett] Do name checks with passports
as they were scanned
289
00:15:35,225 --> 00:15:39,605
and researching them
against known terrorist groups,
290
00:15:39,688 --> 00:15:42,524
narrowing down the likely suspects.
291
00:15:44,568 --> 00:15:46,612
[tense music playing]
292
00:15:47,196 --> 00:15:50,324
All of a sudden,
an analyst burst into the room
293
00:15:50,407 --> 00:15:52,159
holding a piece of paper and waving it
294
00:15:52,242 --> 00:15:55,079
and saying, "I have a manifest
from one of the airplanes."
295
00:15:55,829 --> 00:15:59,500
[Storer] There was a name on that manifest
that was suspected of being
296
00:15:59,583 --> 00:16:01,543
a pretty major al-Qaida operative.
297
00:16:02,586 --> 00:16:07,341
For years, that is the terrorist group
that we knew was determined
298
00:16:07,424 --> 00:16:09,301
to attack the United States.
299
00:16:09,843 --> 00:16:15,015
That name, that moment,
there's just no way that's a coincidence.
300
00:16:15,849 --> 00:16:21,313
We knew immediately
this was Osama bin Laden.
301
00:16:23,941 --> 00:16:26,026
Okay, case closed.
302
00:16:26,110 --> 00:16:27,987
This is an al-Qaida operation.
303
00:16:33,075 --> 00:16:35,369
The president had been informed,
of course.
304
00:16:35,452 --> 00:16:37,454
Michael Morell was with him as a briefer.
305
00:16:39,623 --> 00:16:43,168
And I told him, "Mr. President,
I believe it is a non-state actor."
306
00:16:43,669 --> 00:16:45,587
"I believe it is al-Qaida."
307
00:16:45,671 --> 00:16:47,464
"I believe it is bin Laden,
308
00:16:47,548 --> 00:16:50,384
and I would bet
my children's future on that."
309
00:16:50,467 --> 00:16:52,678
[McLaughlin] We had
a video conversation with him
310
00:16:52,761 --> 00:16:57,474
in which we gave our initial impressions
of what had happened, who was responsible.
311
00:16:58,434 --> 00:17:02,187
He said, "Rally a worldwide coalition."
312
00:17:02,271 --> 00:17:04,231
"We will find them and destroy them."
313
00:17:04,773 --> 00:17:06,400
[tense music continues]
314
00:17:08,360 --> 00:17:10,195
And now it starts.
315
00:17:10,863 --> 00:17:12,573
[mysterious music playing]
316
00:17:18,704 --> 00:17:20,497
[suspenseful music playing]
317
00:17:20,581 --> 00:17:22,207
[birds chirping]
318
00:17:22,791 --> 00:17:24,626
[Bennett] As a kid, I loved puzzles,
319
00:17:24,710 --> 00:17:28,213
especially
the five-minute mystery kind of puzzles
320
00:17:28,881 --> 00:17:31,884
{\an8}where you had a little story
and a handful of clues,
321
00:17:31,967 --> 00:17:34,511
and you had to figure it out
in, like, five minutes.
322
00:17:35,721 --> 00:17:37,347
I liked the pressure.
323
00:17:37,431 --> 00:17:41,226
Little did I know that that would be
very helpful many years later.
324
00:17:43,520 --> 00:17:46,440
[Storer] It does seem weird that I wanted
to join the CIA after Vietnam.
325
00:17:46,523 --> 00:17:49,359
There was protesting.
People didn't think the CIA was cool.
326
00:17:50,986 --> 00:17:53,614
But I knew that the analysts at the CIA
did a lot more
327
00:17:53,697 --> 00:17:55,616
than was the public perception.
328
00:17:56,366 --> 00:17:59,495
They were trying to understand the world
to really help the nation,
329
00:17:59,578 --> 00:18:01,080
and I wanted to do that.
330
00:18:01,914 --> 00:18:05,209
I was lucky as an undergrad
to get an interview with the CIA,
331
00:18:05,292 --> 00:18:06,835
and they accepted me.
332
00:18:06,919 --> 00:18:07,878
[click]
333
00:18:08,879 --> 00:18:09,963
[click]
334
00:18:11,048 --> 00:18:12,424
[suspenseful music playing]
335
00:18:14,176 --> 00:18:16,637
[Storer] In 1993, there was a small group
336
00:18:16,720 --> 00:18:19,181
in the CIA focusing on bin Laden.
337
00:18:19,890 --> 00:18:21,183
Mostly women.
338
00:18:23,227 --> 00:18:26,105
[Bennett] When we first stumbled upon
Osama bin Laden,
339
00:18:26,688 --> 00:18:28,190
we learned that he was related
340
00:18:28,273 --> 00:18:32,111
to a very wealthy and influential family
in Saudi Arabia.
341
00:18:33,070 --> 00:18:34,613
Throughout the 1980s,
342
00:18:34,696 --> 00:18:36,949
he was this rich benefactor
343
00:18:37,533 --> 00:18:41,411
helping the Afghans
in resisting the Soviets.
344
00:18:41,495 --> 00:18:43,372
[in Arabic] Allah has blessed us,
345
00:18:43,455 --> 00:18:47,918
and we came to support
our brothers in Afghanistan.
346
00:18:48,836 --> 00:18:52,881
[Storer in English] This legend grew
about these dedicated fighters
347
00:18:52,965 --> 00:18:57,052
in the cave in Afghanistan
trying to protect their country
348
00:18:57,136 --> 00:18:59,179
from the evil Soviet Union, which invaded.
349
00:18:59,847 --> 00:19:03,225
And the United States was also fighting
against the Soviet Union.
350
00:19:03,809 --> 00:19:07,980
So the feeling
was that these are noble fighters.
351
00:19:08,564 --> 00:19:12,276
[reporter] US support for the rebels
totaled hundreds of millions of dollars,
352
00:19:12,359 --> 00:19:15,696
one of the largest covert operations
ever run by the CIA.
353
00:19:16,864 --> 00:19:17,906
Allahu Akbar!
354
00:19:17,990 --> 00:19:19,074
[reporter 2] It's over.
355
00:19:19,158 --> 00:19:21,034
[reporter 3] The day
no one thought would come.
356
00:19:21,118 --> 00:19:23,120
[reporter 4] The era
of Soviet military intervention
357
00:19:23,203 --> 00:19:25,455
in other countries is now over.
358
00:19:27,207 --> 00:19:31,253
[Bennett] Bin Laden was coming off
this high of having won in Afghanistan
359
00:19:31,336 --> 00:19:34,006
with this idea that this is the way
360
00:19:34,089 --> 00:19:37,634
we're going to change
the regimes in the Middle East.
361
00:19:40,012 --> 00:19:45,017
He wanted to usher in
a new Islamic empire.
362
00:19:45,642 --> 00:19:48,687
He said he wanted to get
the Western influence out of the region.B
363
00:19:50,105 --> 00:19:53,233
[Bennett] Bin Laden hated America
for intervening in the Muslim world
364
00:19:53,317 --> 00:19:57,362
and for propping up these infidel leaders.
365
00:19:57,446 --> 00:19:59,740
[Storer] Bin Laden saw the United States
366
00:19:59,823 --> 00:20:02,993
as supporting everything
that they believed was wrong.
367
00:20:03,076 --> 00:20:06,747
Liberal democracy,
that you don't have to be religious,
368
00:20:06,830 --> 00:20:09,458
that women should have an equal role
in society.
369
00:20:10,042 --> 00:20:13,420
These are all things that were anathema
to that fundamentalist movement
370
00:20:13,503 --> 00:20:15,505
where bin Laden and his friends were.
371
00:20:16,590 --> 00:20:20,469
So they had a meeting, and out of that,
372
00:20:20,552 --> 00:20:21,970
bin Laden formed al-Qaida.
373
00:20:22,679 --> 00:20:23,972
And that was 1988.
374
00:20:25,891 --> 00:20:28,143
[Bennett] We followed this progression.
375
00:20:28,977 --> 00:20:32,898
We had known that bin Laden was operating
training camps and safe houses
376
00:20:32,981 --> 00:20:34,316
against the Soviet Union.
377
00:20:35,234 --> 00:20:37,069
When the war was over,
378
00:20:37,152 --> 00:20:40,364
we discovered that he turned those camps
379
00:20:40,447 --> 00:20:43,659
into training camps for Islamic militants
380
00:20:44,409 --> 00:20:47,079
to go out and attack other countries.
381
00:20:48,664 --> 00:20:50,874
We knew they had terrorist capabilities,
382
00:20:51,458 --> 00:20:53,043
but we didn't know
383
00:20:53,126 --> 00:20:55,879
to what extent they
were gonna come directly after the US.
384
00:20:58,966 --> 00:21:00,050
[click]
385
00:21:04,137 --> 00:21:08,183
{\an8}In 1992, there was an attack
against US servicemen in Yemen.
386
00:21:09,393 --> 00:21:11,103
We did some investigation,
387
00:21:11,937 --> 00:21:15,065
and the little breadcrumbs
led back to bin Laden.
388
00:21:15,148 --> 00:21:16,692
[eerie music playing]
389
00:21:17,985 --> 00:21:21,363
[Storer] And that's when I personally
came to understand
390
00:21:22,155 --> 00:21:24,116
that he was coming after us.
391
00:21:24,825 --> 00:21:25,742
[clicking]
392
00:21:25,826 --> 00:21:27,911
[reporter] Four Americans
have been killed this morning
393
00:21:27,995 --> 00:21:29,788
in explosions in Saudi Arabia.-
394
00:21:29,871 --> 00:21:33,250
{\an8}[reporter 2] It was a name that was
surfacing from the CIA, Osama bin Laden.
395
00:21:33,959 --> 00:21:37,504
210 people died in bomb attacks
on US embassies.
396
00:21:37,587 --> 00:21:40,632
[reporter 3] The worst acts
of anti-US terrorism in years.
397
00:21:40,716 --> 00:21:44,886
Osama bin Laden, possible mastermind
of the East Africa bombings.
398
00:21:44,970 --> 00:21:46,763
[reporter 4] Five American sailors
were killed.
399
00:21:46,847 --> 00:21:51,018
[reporter 5] The worst terrorist attack
against a US ship in modern history.
400
00:21:51,101 --> 00:21:53,729
[reporter 6] The prime suspect
named Osama bin Laden.
401
00:21:54,313 --> 00:21:57,482
I put dots on a map, and you could see it
like in a belt all across the world.
402
00:21:57,566 --> 00:21:59,318
[suspenseful music playing]
403
00:21:59,401 --> 00:22:01,570
[Storer] It was almost everywhere.
404
00:22:02,362 --> 00:22:06,825
It seemed to us the beginning
of a new wave of terrorism.
405
00:22:06,908 --> 00:22:09,578
[clicking]
406
00:22:12,956 --> 00:22:15,709
[Black] In the months leading up to 9/11,
407
00:22:15,792 --> 00:22:17,294
we had intelligence reporting
408
00:22:17,377 --> 00:22:21,006
that al-Qaida had a threat
against American targets.
409
00:22:22,674 --> 00:22:25,177
We'd not seen
a spike in reporting like this before.
410
00:22:25,260 --> 00:22:28,138
All of the indicators
were that something big was happening.
411
00:22:29,639 --> 00:22:32,642
[Storer] We got reporting
that people in bin Laden's network
412
00:22:32,726 --> 00:22:34,770
were calling their mothers
and telling them goodbye
413
00:22:34,853 --> 00:22:35,854
and stuff like that.
414
00:22:35,937 --> 00:22:38,774
I mean, something very serious
was about to happen.
415
00:22:39,775 --> 00:22:43,403
People we were following in Afghanistan
were leaving the camps.
416
00:22:43,487 --> 00:22:48,075
{\an8}There was a public statement by bin Laden
saying there would be a big surprise.
417
00:22:48,158 --> 00:22:52,371
{\an8}[in Arabic] Wherever you are,
death will come for you.
418
00:22:52,454 --> 00:22:55,457
[in English] They're talking Armageddon.
This is gonna be bad.
419
00:22:56,291 --> 00:22:59,294
[McLaughlin] We sent
in the vicinity of 100 messages
420
00:22:59,378 --> 00:23:02,464
to the FAA, Customs and Border Patrol
421
00:23:02,547 --> 00:23:06,426
about potential for trouble
with airlines and terrorists.
422
00:23:07,177 --> 00:23:08,762
[Morell] Over the past five years,
423
00:23:08,845 --> 00:23:11,473
we warned
that the most likely targets would be
424
00:23:11,556 --> 00:23:15,852
"national symbols
such as the White House and the Capitol
425
00:23:16,561 --> 00:23:18,397
and symbols of US capitalism."
426
00:23:19,773 --> 00:23:23,652
"Terrorists are developing new ways
to attack aviation targets."
427
00:23:24,736 --> 00:23:26,738
Morning July 10th,
the head of the al-Qaida section
428
00:23:26,822 --> 00:23:29,699
walked into my office, and he said,
"Chief, the roof's fallen in."
429
00:23:29,783 --> 00:23:32,494
"Threat indicators
are just off the chart."
430
00:23:32,994 --> 00:23:35,622
"This country's gotta go
on a war footing now."
431
00:23:36,623 --> 00:23:38,291
[Morell] I briefed the president
432
00:23:38,375 --> 00:23:42,129
about bin Laden
planning multiple operations.
433
00:23:42,712 --> 00:23:45,257
"Bin Laden attacks may be imminent."
434
00:23:45,882 --> 00:23:47,759
"Spectacular attacks."
435
00:23:47,843 --> 00:23:50,387
"History-changing attacks."
436
00:23:51,596 --> 00:23:55,058
[Black] I remember walking
into the head of the al-Qaida unit.
437
00:23:55,642 --> 00:23:58,061
Against one wall were piles of paper,
438
00:23:58,895 --> 00:24:01,481
and they were all stacked
right next to each other.
439
00:24:02,065 --> 00:24:04,776
I said, "What is
all that paper on the floor?"
440
00:24:05,569 --> 00:24:06,695
He said, "Oh."
441
00:24:07,279 --> 00:24:11,116
"That's when we have the disaster
and thousands of Americans are dead."
442
00:24:11,199 --> 00:24:13,285
"We made a copy of every briefing,
443
00:24:13,368 --> 00:24:15,912
every threat report,
everything that we gave."
444
00:24:15,996 --> 00:24:18,290
I said, "That's a lot of paper."
445
00:24:18,373 --> 00:24:19,916
He said, "Yes, it is."
446
00:24:20,000 --> 00:24:23,628
The frustrating thing
about all of this reporting
447
00:24:24,129 --> 00:24:26,715
was it was not clear about when,
448
00:24:27,799 --> 00:24:29,968
where, or how.
449
00:24:30,051 --> 00:24:32,679
[clicking]
450
00:24:35,348 --> 00:24:37,976
[reporter] The second tower
in the World Trade Center is teetering--
451
00:24:38,059 --> 00:24:40,979
[man] Oh, there it goes! There it goes!
There it goes! There it goes!
452
00:24:41,062 --> 00:24:43,607
[reporter 2] The other tower
of the World Trade Center
453
00:24:43,690 --> 00:24:45,442
has just collapsed.
454
00:24:46,193 --> 00:24:48,487
[siren wailing in distance]
455
00:24:50,989 --> 00:24:54,284
It's no exaggeration to say
that we woke up every day thinking,
456
00:24:54,367 --> 00:24:55,368
"It's on us."
457
00:24:57,037 --> 00:25:00,624
[Storer] You can't not feel responsibility
458
00:25:00,707 --> 00:25:03,710
for not stopping an attack
that occurred on your watch.
459
00:25:04,211 --> 00:25:06,922
And so you can't help
but, like, question yourself.
460
00:25:07,464 --> 00:25:09,049
You know, just question yourself a lot.
461
00:25:09,132 --> 00:25:10,634
[somber music playing]
462
00:25:11,885 --> 00:25:14,137
[Morell] I got in my car
and started driving home.
463
00:25:14,221 --> 00:25:18,475
And it was on that drive
that I broke down, and I started to cry.
464
00:25:19,059 --> 00:25:20,602
And I cried all the way home.
465
00:25:23,939 --> 00:25:25,148
It was our job.
466
00:25:26,816 --> 00:25:27,817
Our number one job.
467
00:25:29,319 --> 00:25:30,362
And we failed.
468
00:25:31,613 --> 00:25:33,865
[in Arabic] Here is America,
469
00:25:34,366 --> 00:25:37,118
struck by God Almighty
470
00:25:37,619 --> 00:25:40,705
in one of its vital organsB
471
00:25:41,831 --> 00:25:45,377
so that its greatest buildings
are destroyed.
472
00:25:46,044 --> 00:25:47,796
Praise be to Allah.
473
00:25:48,505 --> 00:25:50,173
[somber music continues]
474
00:25:51,341 --> 00:25:52,717
[siren wailing]
475
00:25:52,801 --> 00:25:56,388
And I remember the thought I had was,
"Nothing will ever be the same."
476
00:25:58,974 --> 00:26:00,684
And it turns out it wasn't.
477
00:26:00,767 --> 00:26:02,561
[tense music playing]
478
00:26:04,771 --> 00:26:06,940
[Morell] We knew
the Taliban government in Afghanistan
479
00:26:07,023 --> 00:26:08,900
provided a safe haven to bin Laden.
480
00:26:10,068 --> 00:26:14,656
I said something to the effect of,
"Look, we just need to tell the Taliban
481
00:26:14,739 --> 00:26:18,201
to give us bin Laden,
or we will rain hell on them."
482
00:26:19,828 --> 00:26:24,583
We did give the Taliban an opportunity
to turn bin Laden over, and they refused.
483
00:26:25,250 --> 00:26:27,168
[clicking]
484
00:26:30,797 --> 00:26:35,010
On Saturday, President Bush wants to have
a meeting of his war cabinet.
485
00:26:36,803 --> 00:26:38,847
I walk up to the president,
486
00:26:38,930 --> 00:26:41,891
who is talking to somebody
from State Department,
487
00:26:41,975 --> 00:26:45,437
encouraging him
to give diplomacy a chance.
488
00:26:45,520 --> 00:26:48,773
And the president said,
"Fuck diplomacy. We're going to war."
489
00:26:49,733 --> 00:26:53,445
I've asked the highest levels
of our government to come to discuss,
490
00:26:53,528 --> 00:26:56,656
uh, the current tragedy.
We'll find those who did it.
491
00:26:56,740 --> 00:26:58,825
We will smoke 'em out of their holes.
492
00:26:59,534 --> 00:27:03,204
We will get 'em running,
and we'll bring 'em to justice.
493
00:27:03,288 --> 00:27:04,289
We're at war.
494
00:27:04,372 --> 00:27:07,917
- [woman] How long do you visualize--
- [man] Thank you. We're stepping out now.
495
00:27:08,668 --> 00:27:11,004
[Bush] The definition is,
"Whatever it takes."
496
00:27:11,504 --> 00:27:16,009
The meeting that followed
was to decide what are we gonna do.
497
00:27:16,635 --> 00:27:20,347
I didn't know
whether CIA would be in the lead
498
00:27:20,430 --> 00:27:23,058
or whether it would be
the Defense Department.
499
00:27:24,017 --> 00:27:27,479
The Department of Defense
has military plans for almost everything.
500
00:27:27,562 --> 00:27:29,856
That's what they do. They plan for war.
501
00:27:29,939 --> 00:27:32,025
[man] The president
turned to Donald Rumsfeld and said,
502
00:27:32,108 --> 00:27:35,028
"How long, Don,
before we can invade Afghanistan?"
503
00:27:35,111 --> 00:27:37,864
And his response was,
"Approximately six months."
504
00:27:39,407 --> 00:27:43,995
Cofer Black, chief of counterterrorism,
was sitting behind George Tenet.
505
00:27:44,079 --> 00:27:47,123
He didn't have a place at the table,
but Cofer's not afraid to speak up.
506
00:27:48,750 --> 00:27:51,211
If you ever read much
about General George Patton,
507
00:27:51,836 --> 00:27:54,047
he will tell you
half of leadership is theater.
508
00:27:54,798 --> 00:27:57,509
I slid my chair
a little closer to the table,
509
00:27:57,592 --> 00:27:59,177
put my elbows on the table.
510
00:27:59,886 --> 00:28:02,931
He turned to me.
He looked me right in the eye.
511
00:28:04,683 --> 00:28:06,935
I stared at him for five seconds,
512
00:28:07,477 --> 00:28:10,980
and then I said very simply,
"Mr. President…"
513
00:28:14,192 --> 00:28:16,194
And I will not tell you what I said next,
514
00:28:16,277 --> 00:28:20,281
but it very succinctly
and graphically would translate to…
515
00:28:20,365 --> 00:28:23,910
"If you'll let me do it,
I'll have flies walking on their eyeballs
516
00:28:23,993 --> 00:28:25,412
in six weeks."
517
00:28:25,495 --> 00:28:27,372
He goes, "That's what I'm talking about."
518
00:28:29,416 --> 00:28:33,545
And Bush said,
"You're in charge," to Cofer.
519
00:28:34,462 --> 00:28:38,842
[Berntsen] Donald Rumsfeld
almost shit his pants.
520
00:28:38,925 --> 00:28:42,178
The worst attack
on the United States since Pearl Harbor,
521
00:28:42,762 --> 00:28:45,515
he was supposed to be
his big boy defending America,
522
00:28:46,182 --> 00:28:50,645
and the whole thing just got handed off
to an intelligence officer
523
00:28:50,729 --> 00:28:54,315
who wasn't even a cabinet member
seven seats away.
524
00:28:54,399 --> 00:28:56,192
I want… I want justice.
525
00:28:56,818 --> 00:29:00,071
And, uh, uh,
there's an old poster out West,
526
00:29:00,155 --> 00:29:03,533
as I recall, that said,
"Wanted, dead or alive."
527
00:29:04,576 --> 00:29:07,162
Close curtain, end of game.
528
00:29:11,291 --> 00:29:14,169
[Berntsen] Cofer Black
called me on the phone and said,
529
00:29:14,252 --> 00:29:15,712
"They're going to invade Afghanistan,
530
00:29:15,795 --> 00:29:18,882
and your name has been presented
as the person that's gonna lead
531
00:29:18,965 --> 00:29:20,216
the biggest part of it."
532
00:29:20,300 --> 00:29:22,427
{\an8}[mysterious music playing]
533
00:29:22,510 --> 00:29:25,722
{\an8}[Berntsen] I went home that night
and I told my spouse
534
00:29:25,805 --> 00:29:28,475
{\an8}that I would be leaving for Afghanistan.
535
00:29:29,267 --> 00:29:30,518
She didn't want me to go.
536
00:29:31,102 --> 00:29:33,104
Her response had been,
537
00:29:33,688 --> 00:29:35,356
"Let someone else do this one."
538
00:29:37,275 --> 00:29:38,485
"No, I'm going."
539
00:29:39,360 --> 00:29:40,904
"I will go no matter what."
540
00:29:42,489 --> 00:29:43,656
"No matter what."
541
00:29:46,117 --> 00:29:46,951
[tense music playing]
542
00:29:47,035 --> 00:29:48,661
[clicking]
543
00:29:49,162 --> 00:29:51,873
[Berntsen] I go to the office,
and there was Hank Crumpton,
544
00:29:52,373 --> 00:29:55,418
who was tasked to organize
the deployment to Afghanistan.
545
00:29:56,544 --> 00:29:59,130
We used the code name "Jawbreaker."
546
00:29:59,214 --> 00:30:04,093
{\an8}There were only about a half a dozen
of us in what was a new unit.♠
547
00:30:04,844 --> 00:30:06,846
[man] We started to assemble small teams.
548
00:30:06,930 --> 00:30:10,642
{\an8}Case officers, paramilitary officers,
linguists, communicators.
549
00:30:10,725 --> 00:30:13,895
[Crumpton] None of the CIA teams
was bigger than eight people.
550
00:30:13,978 --> 00:30:16,940
[McLaughlin] And we had
13 teams at the total.
551
00:30:17,023 --> 00:30:20,109
[Crumpton] We would be sending in teams
behind enemy lines
552
00:30:20,193 --> 00:30:22,111
to work with our Afghan allies,
553
00:30:22,195 --> 00:30:24,072
the Northern Alliance,
554
00:30:25,073 --> 00:30:29,828
who were already fighting the Taliban
to find, engage, and destroy al-Qaida.
555
00:30:31,204 --> 00:30:32,872
[Black] I briefed the teams.
556
00:30:32,956 --> 00:30:36,000
In a crisis like this,
you've gotta hammer through to people,
557
00:30:36,084 --> 00:30:37,585
"This is different."
558
00:30:37,669 --> 00:30:40,380
His orders were very clear and very blunt.
559
00:30:40,463 --> 00:30:44,592
Told us he wanted to have bin Laden's head
brought back in dry ice.
560
00:30:44,676 --> 00:30:46,553
He wanted bin Laden's head on a stick.
561
00:30:46,636 --> 00:30:49,347
Cut his head off and bring it back
in a box for the president.
562
00:30:49,430 --> 00:30:50,890
This isn't a Walt Disney movie.
563
00:30:51,766 --> 00:30:56,145
He could be specific, graphic,
and very clear in his message to us.
564
00:30:56,229 --> 00:30:58,481
[clicking]
565
00:31:00,358 --> 00:31:01,776
[phone ringing]
566
00:31:02,318 --> 00:31:04,654
[Storer] I was working
with the operations side
567
00:31:04,737 --> 00:31:07,490
on trying to track bin Laden
all day long, every day.
568
00:31:07,991 --> 00:31:10,451
And so, when he made an appearance
on television,
569
00:31:10,535 --> 00:31:12,287
it would be analyzed to death.
570
00:31:12,370 --> 00:31:13,705
[tense music playing]
571
00:31:13,788 --> 00:31:16,833
[Storer] Was this recently recorded?
Was the backdrop new?
572
00:31:16,916 --> 00:31:20,545
Is he saying something new?
Can we tell by the backdrop where he is?
573
00:31:20,628 --> 00:31:23,548
How did the recording get to Al Jazeera?
574
00:31:24,048 --> 00:31:25,425
Can we find the couriers?
575
00:31:25,508 --> 00:31:28,052
All that kind of analysis happened
every time he spoke.
576
00:31:28,887 --> 00:31:29,971
Where could he have gone?
577
00:31:30,763 --> 00:31:34,767
We were going to war,
full out, against bin Laden.
578
00:31:37,478 --> 00:31:38,646
[clicks]
579
00:31:39,731 --> 00:31:42,275
Tonight, we are a country
awakened to danger
580
00:31:43,776 --> 00:31:46,154
and called to defend freedom.
581
00:31:47,071 --> 00:31:49,699
Whether we bring our enemies to justice
582
00:31:50,783 --> 00:31:52,702
or bring justice to our enemies,
583
00:31:53,453 --> 00:31:55,288
justice will be done.
584
00:31:57,790 --> 00:32:01,544
[reporter] The president has clearly been
preparing the nation for war.
585
00:32:02,378 --> 00:32:04,631
[clicking]
586
00:32:07,175 --> 00:32:10,803
We flew in on one helicopter, very heavy.
587
00:32:10,887 --> 00:32:13,514
- There were ten of us.
- [camera shutter clicking]
588
00:32:13,598 --> 00:32:16,017
[Reilly] Just two weeks
after the events of 9/11.
589
00:32:16,100 --> 00:32:18,019
[tense music playing]
590
00:32:25,693 --> 00:32:28,988
[Berntsen] Hank said to me, "There's
an agreement between us and the military."
591
00:32:29,072 --> 00:32:31,407
"You will send a CIA team on the ground,
592
00:32:31,491 --> 00:32:34,202
and if they are alive after two weeks,
593
00:32:34,285 --> 00:32:37,205
a special forces team
will be permitted to join you."
594
00:32:37,789 --> 00:32:40,458
I said, "How about they come with me
when I set up?"
595
00:32:40,541 --> 00:32:43,127
You know?
"'Cause I'd like the additional guns."
596
00:32:43,211 --> 00:32:44,963
He said, "That's the deal."
597
00:32:45,046 --> 00:32:46,547
[tense music continues]
598
00:32:48,132 --> 00:32:50,426
From the beginning,
we're trying to find bin Laden,
599
00:32:50,510 --> 00:32:51,886
doing everything possible.
600
00:32:55,056 --> 00:32:59,435
We used a warlord to set up a meeting
between us and the leading Taliban.
601
00:32:59,519 --> 00:33:04,732
The Taliban were a radical Muslim movement
who governed Afghanistan.
602
00:33:05,400 --> 00:33:08,027
Their hatred of the West
aligned with bin Laden,
603
00:33:08,111 --> 00:33:11,322
so they gave al-Qaida safe harbor there.
604
00:33:11,406 --> 00:33:12,448
[crowd cheering]
605
00:33:12,532 --> 00:33:16,411
[Berntsen] In order to get bin Laden,
we had to go through the Taliban first.
606
00:33:17,495 --> 00:33:19,163
People from their intelligence service
607
00:33:19,247 --> 00:33:23,209
agreed to come to the meeting
under the principles of Pashtunwali.
608
00:33:23,292 --> 00:33:25,503
One warlord will have sanctuary,
609
00:33:25,586 --> 00:33:28,464
and both sides can come in
and have an equal meeting there
610
00:33:28,548 --> 00:33:30,008
and both be safe.
611
00:33:30,091 --> 00:33:32,760
So I sent a team forward to do that.
612
00:33:34,679 --> 00:33:36,222
Told them, "When you get there,
613
00:33:36,723 --> 00:33:39,308
if these Afghans are cooperative,
614
00:33:39,392 --> 00:33:40,935
do the deal with them."
615
00:33:41,019 --> 00:33:44,605
"If they're not,
kill them or kidnap them."
616
00:33:45,106 --> 00:33:46,190
"Your choice."
617
00:33:48,776 --> 00:33:50,111
Our guys asked them,
618
00:33:50,194 --> 00:33:52,030
"Where is Osama bin Laden?"
619
00:33:52,113 --> 00:33:54,365
And their answer was, "Osama who?"
620
00:33:55,074 --> 00:33:56,993
That was kind of a mistake on their part.
621
00:33:57,785 --> 00:34:00,371
Our guys drew weapons on everybody,
622
00:34:00,455 --> 00:34:02,915
tied them up, gagged them,
threw them in the vehicles,
623
00:34:02,999 --> 00:34:04,375
and drove away with them.
624
00:34:07,837 --> 00:34:09,047
[camera shutter clicks]
625
00:34:09,881 --> 00:34:10,798
[camera shutter clicks]
626
00:34:10,882 --> 00:34:12,258
[Crumpton] By November,
627
00:34:12,341 --> 00:34:16,804
there were approximately 410 Americans
on the ground throughout Afghanistan.
628
00:34:17,388 --> 00:34:20,141
The various teams
were heavily outnumbered.
629
00:34:21,392 --> 00:34:24,395
[Berntsen] I went over overhead
photography with Hank Crumpton,
630
00:34:24,479 --> 00:34:27,315
and we could see that at the Khyber Pass
631
00:34:27,398 --> 00:34:30,401
and at other places of entry
into Afghanistan,
632
00:34:30,485 --> 00:34:33,321
there were traffic jams
633
00:34:34,280 --> 00:34:36,824
of five and ten miles long.
634
00:34:36,908 --> 00:34:40,536
It looked like every jihadist
in the Middle East
635
00:34:40,620 --> 00:34:44,332
was trying to come in to join the fight
against the infidels,
636
00:34:44,415 --> 00:34:45,291
us.
637
00:34:46,876 --> 00:34:50,379
There was an inherent weakness
to what we were trying to do
638
00:34:50,463 --> 00:34:52,840
with the very limited resources
that we had.
639
00:34:53,508 --> 00:34:55,927
We were outnumbered by the enemy,
640
00:34:56,010 --> 00:34:57,595
but we had air power.
641
00:34:57,678 --> 00:34:59,097
[suspenseful music playing]
642
00:35:01,849 --> 00:35:06,104
[Walder] Just before September 11th,
I was briefed into an armed-drone program.
643
00:35:09,190 --> 00:35:12,151
I remember asking, you know, "Am I
gonna have to kill anyone with this?"
644
00:35:12,235 --> 00:35:14,320
I didn't know how I felt. I was 22, maybe.
645
00:35:14,403 --> 00:35:17,115
But I think after September 11th, um,
646
00:35:17,198 --> 00:35:20,785
obviously, uh,
I didn't feel as conflicted.
647
00:35:23,788 --> 00:35:27,667
I was a junior in college.
I went to a career fair,
648
00:35:27,750 --> 00:35:29,418
and the CIA was at a table there.
649
00:35:29,502 --> 00:35:30,837
Here's my resume.
650
00:35:32,421 --> 00:35:34,966
They really honed in
on this leadership position
651
00:35:35,049 --> 00:35:37,385
that I had in my sorority.
652
00:35:38,177 --> 00:35:40,555
I was a vice president in my house.
653
00:35:41,556 --> 00:35:43,349
Sometimes it would be really difficult.
654
00:35:43,432 --> 00:35:47,645
Sometimes you're expelling women
for making really poor choices.
655
00:35:49,605 --> 00:35:54,152
I was willing to sacrifice
popularity and being liked
656
00:35:54,235 --> 00:35:57,613
for the betterment
of the entirety of my sorority,
657
00:35:57,697 --> 00:36:00,366
and that spoke to sort of, I guess,
my moral turpitude.
658
00:36:00,449 --> 00:36:02,451
I don't know, but that's what they said.
659
00:36:04,453 --> 00:36:06,789
I was placed
in the counterterrorism center.
660
00:36:10,418 --> 00:36:14,463
So with Jawbreaker,
we started identifying targets,
661
00:36:14,547 --> 00:36:17,091
and we would rely on a lot of intelligence
662
00:36:17,175 --> 00:36:19,010
that we were getting
from the ground folks.
663
00:36:19,093 --> 00:36:21,095
[suspenseful music continues]
664
00:36:23,890 --> 00:36:27,643
[Berntsen] Our team, the CIA team,
is working with the Northern Alliance,
665
00:36:27,727 --> 00:36:31,147
and we're running sources
across enemy lines.
666
00:36:32,273 --> 00:36:35,234
And I have people
with what look like cell phones,
667
00:36:35,318 --> 00:36:37,028
but, really, they're GPSs,
668
00:36:37,111 --> 00:36:40,198
and they walk up to a building,
they see it's a Taliban building,
669
00:36:40,281 --> 00:36:41,699
and they mark it.
670
00:36:41,782 --> 00:36:44,243
And then they mark another one.
Then they mark another one.
671
00:36:44,827 --> 00:36:50,917
And now, I send that report back to CIA
and say, "Okay, Taliban at this building."
672
00:36:51,000 --> 00:36:52,752
"Taliban in this facility."
673
00:36:53,336 --> 00:36:57,590
We are targeting those individuals
and taking them out.
674
00:36:57,673 --> 00:37:00,092
- [pilot on radio] Ready when you are.
- [pilot 2] Ready.
675
00:37:03,429 --> 00:37:06,641
I think al-Qaida was like,
"Does someone have a GPS up their ass?"
676
00:37:06,724 --> 00:37:09,185
"Like, why are we all dying?"
677
00:37:09,268 --> 00:37:13,439
I don't think they fully understood,
right, what this was.
678
00:37:13,522 --> 00:37:15,024
[suspenseful music continues]
679
00:37:17,318 --> 00:37:21,322
That probably made
the ground folks' jobs better.
680
00:37:22,740 --> 00:37:24,200
[explosions]
681
00:37:29,121 --> 00:37:31,207
[man on loudspeaker] Allahu Akbar! Allah!
682
00:37:32,166 --> 00:37:35,711
I had the zone in Afghanistan
which controlled the east,
683
00:37:35,795 --> 00:37:39,882
and probably 95% of the al-Qaida
in the country were in my area.
684
00:37:41,300 --> 00:37:45,012
We had Afghan forces on mountaintops
with radios all over the place
685
00:37:45,096 --> 00:37:46,430
looking for bin Laden.
686
00:37:47,723 --> 00:37:50,977
Finally, we got reporting
that bin Laden was in Kabul.
687
00:37:51,936 --> 00:37:56,315
We decided, "Okay,
we're gonna make a push on Kabul."
688
00:37:58,818 --> 00:38:01,237
We are outside of Kabul
on the Shomali Plains.
689
00:38:02,071 --> 00:38:04,365
Special forces teams came and joined us.
690
00:38:04,865 --> 00:38:07,743
There's about 25 CIA or special forces
691
00:38:07,827 --> 00:38:11,080
alongside 5,000 Northern Alliance
on the Shomali Plains
692
00:38:12,164 --> 00:38:17,253
{\an8}standing against 15,000 Taliban
and al-Qaida.
693
00:38:20,089 --> 00:38:23,092
They outnumber us at least three to one,
maybe four to one.
694
00:38:24,302 --> 00:38:28,681
[Crumpton] The synchronization
of the Northern Alliance with US air power
695
00:38:29,265 --> 00:38:32,226
really was crucial to executing the plan.
696
00:38:32,810 --> 00:38:35,146
[Berntsen] So we coordinated
for air support,
697
00:38:35,229 --> 00:38:36,355
set a date.
698
00:38:36,439 --> 00:38:37,648
It was the ninth.
699
00:38:38,399 --> 00:38:40,609
The Northern Alliance got ready to attack.
700
00:38:40,693 --> 00:38:42,320
[tense music playing]
701
00:38:45,031 --> 00:38:47,700
[Berntsen] At dusk,
you could see headlights
702
00:38:47,783 --> 00:38:49,493
of thousands of pickup vehicles.
703
00:38:49,577 --> 00:38:51,287
Eight guys in the back, armed,
704
00:38:51,370 --> 00:38:52,788
start coming out of the city
705
00:38:53,706 --> 00:38:55,833
and start to crowd in on us
706
00:38:55,916 --> 00:38:57,835
to be in a position to attack us.
707
00:38:59,003 --> 00:39:01,505
Their intention is to kill
everybody in the Northern Alliance
708
00:39:01,589 --> 00:39:03,924
and kill the Americans,
who they know are there.
709
00:39:06,802 --> 00:39:09,180
They had a very, very large force.
710
00:39:10,890 --> 00:39:13,601
But what we have that they don't have…
air power.
711
00:39:16,979 --> 00:39:19,273
[Reilly] Once the US air power
was introduced,
712
00:39:19,357 --> 00:39:21,817
having worked most of my career
with the US military,
713
00:39:21,901 --> 00:39:23,402
I knew what was coming.
714
00:39:23,486 --> 00:39:25,279
I knew what was coming.
715
00:39:26,197 --> 00:39:29,575
I pushed half of my team
to be right on the front line
716
00:39:29,658 --> 00:39:31,911
with the Northern Alliance to the assault.
717
00:39:32,995 --> 00:39:35,539
The Northern Alliance lined up
and got ready,
718
00:39:36,415 --> 00:39:38,042
and then the planes didn't come.-
719
00:39:39,251 --> 00:39:40,461
They didn't come.
720
00:39:40,544 --> 00:39:42,046
[gunshots]
721
00:39:42,129 --> 00:39:43,547
[machine guns firing]
722
00:39:43,631 --> 00:39:45,007
[tense music playing]
723
00:39:45,925 --> 00:39:48,386
- [machine guns firing]
- [Reilly] There was an artillery duel.
724
00:39:50,513 --> 00:39:53,057
The Taliban were in bunkers and trenches.
725
00:39:55,434 --> 00:39:57,061
They weren't well concealed.
726
00:40:01,190 --> 00:40:02,608
[machine gun firing]
727
00:40:03,275 --> 00:40:05,111
[Berntsen] There is no bases to go to.B
728
00:40:05,694 --> 00:40:08,489
There's no place to protect yourself.
You're exposed.
729
00:40:08,572 --> 00:40:09,532
[machine guns firing]
730
00:40:09,615 --> 00:40:13,202
Of course, I had to send messages back
saying, "What the hell's going on here?"
731
00:40:13,285 --> 00:40:16,247
Air assets are thousands of miles away.
732
00:40:17,289 --> 00:40:20,960
Now we got 15,000 people
right on top of us.
733
00:40:21,043 --> 00:40:23,587
[eerie music playing]
734
00:40:24,171 --> 00:40:27,800
I told our officers
no one was allowed to surrender.
735
00:40:28,467 --> 00:40:32,012
If you are going to be overwhelmed,
you save the last round for yourself.
736
00:40:32,763 --> 00:40:34,598
Because if not,
737
00:40:34,682 --> 00:40:36,809
al-Qaida would torture you on video,
738
00:40:37,309 --> 00:40:40,771
put that out all over the world,
and you would suffer horribly.
739
00:40:44,733 --> 00:40:47,736
And then unannounced comes all hell
from the Air Force.
740
00:40:47,820 --> 00:40:49,530
[suspenseful music playing]
741
00:40:54,201 --> 00:40:56,704
[Berntsen] B-52s are bombing
that front line.
742
00:40:57,746 --> 00:41:00,916
AC-130 gunships are coming.
Fighter aircraft are coming.
743
00:41:01,959 --> 00:41:04,962
The Taliban positions
couldn't withstand US air power.
744
00:41:05,838 --> 00:41:09,133
[Berntsen] They actually just abandoned
their positions and ran.
745
00:41:10,759 --> 00:41:12,761
And then, as they collapse,
746
00:41:12,845 --> 00:41:16,140
the Northern Alliance moves forward
against their positions.
747
00:41:20,352 --> 00:41:22,980
[clicking]
748
00:41:25,232 --> 00:41:28,027
Since launching
their breakout offensive last Friday,
749
00:41:28,110 --> 00:41:32,740
US-backed anti-Taliban forces
have made strikingly rapid progress.
750
00:41:32,823 --> 00:41:37,244
Yesterday alone, more than 400 bombs
were dropped on Afghanistan.
751
00:41:37,328 --> 00:41:40,873
[reporter] Their commanders claim
to have killed nearly 1,000 Taliban troops
752
00:41:40,956 --> 00:41:42,249
in just two days.
753
00:41:42,833 --> 00:41:45,669
We were all moving faster
than anyone thought.
754
00:41:45,753 --> 00:41:50,758
And so the Taliban, literally
on their own, began evacuating the city.
755
00:41:54,637 --> 00:41:58,516
I was told, "Look, the White House
wants you to hold everybody back."
756
00:41:58,599 --> 00:42:00,309
"We don't want you to go in."
757
00:42:00,809 --> 00:42:02,811
"Stop five miles outside the city."
758
00:42:03,938 --> 00:42:05,064
But we didn't do that.
759
00:42:06,607 --> 00:42:09,693
[reporter] A small number
of American troops is in Kabul tonight.
760
00:42:09,777 --> 00:42:12,530
[reporter 2] Following
a lightning-fast four-day advance,
761
00:42:12,613 --> 00:42:17,159
anti-Taliban rebel forces now control
the capital of Afghanistan.
762
00:42:17,243 --> 00:42:19,578
[reporter 3] The departure
of the Taliban could not have been
763
00:42:19,662 --> 00:42:21,121
a more welcome development.
764
00:42:21,205 --> 00:42:23,958
[Berntsen] People were accepting us,
cheering for us.
765
00:42:24,041 --> 00:42:25,501
The population turned on the Taliban.
766
00:42:25,584 --> 00:42:27,336
They were beating 'em up
and arresting them.
767
00:42:28,003 --> 00:42:30,965
The Taliban had treated them terribly.
They were monsters.
768
00:42:31,549 --> 00:42:32,967
[cheering]
769
00:42:33,050 --> 00:42:37,930
The expectation everyone had of this
turning into some sort of quagmire
770
00:42:38,013 --> 00:42:39,223
didn't come about.
771
00:42:39,306 --> 00:42:41,684
In fact, Kabul had fallen by November.
772
00:42:41,767 --> 00:42:42,935
It seemed to be working,
773
00:42:43,018 --> 00:42:46,814
particularly when Kabul has fallen
and no American troops are dead.
774
00:42:47,439 --> 00:42:50,609
[Reilly] We toppled the Taliban
with 300 soldiers on the ground.
775
00:42:50,693 --> 00:42:52,528
It may have been less,
to be honest with you.
776
00:42:52,611 --> 00:42:55,573
[chuckles] The Taliban
were crushed in 45 days, so…
777
00:42:56,323 --> 00:42:58,200
It was a pretty successful operation.
778
00:42:58,284 --> 00:42:59,952
[cheering and whistling]
779
00:43:03,372 --> 00:43:05,374
[clicking]
780
00:43:06,792 --> 00:43:08,460
[helicopter blades pulsing]
781
00:43:10,129 --> 00:43:12,381
- [static crackles]
- [man on radio] Now, I just talked to…
782
00:43:12,464 --> 00:43:13,924
[indistinct chatter]
783
00:43:14,592 --> 00:43:17,803
[reporter] One by one, the bodies
of more than a dozen firefighters
784
00:43:17,886 --> 00:43:21,056
are carried out of the rubble
that was once the World Trade Center.
785
00:43:21,640 --> 00:43:24,018
Three hundred forty-three
of New York's bravest
786
00:43:24,101 --> 00:43:25,728
are missing or confirmed dead.
787
00:43:26,520 --> 00:43:31,483
For me, 9/11 feels deeply personal
788
00:43:31,567 --> 00:43:33,235
because it happened at home.
789
00:43:33,902 --> 00:43:37,531
{\an8}The two towers were three blocks away
from my high school.
790
00:43:37,615 --> 00:43:39,908
I used to go
during high school lunch break
791
00:43:39,992 --> 00:43:42,119
to feel so cool and big
792
00:43:42,202 --> 00:43:45,289
and go to the shopping center
in the World Trade Center.
793
00:43:50,461 --> 00:43:51,879
{\an8}Many of the first responders
794
00:43:51,962 --> 00:43:55,174
{\an8}were the parents and siblings
of kids I grew up with.
795
00:43:57,801 --> 00:44:04,099
[Haq] We were still reeling
from the emotional disaster that is 9/11.
796
00:44:05,726 --> 00:44:07,936
Stories about recovered bodies.
797
00:44:08,520 --> 00:44:10,481
What do you do with the abandoned cars?
798
00:44:12,024 --> 00:44:16,236
But there's another piece of the puzzle
of what 9/11 means.
799
00:44:17,154 --> 00:44:21,450
In taking over Kabul, many civilians die.
800
00:44:22,034 --> 00:44:24,870
[reporter] Week three of the air wars
begun controversially.
801
00:44:24,953 --> 00:44:28,207
Bodies in coffins on a Kabul street
have led to fresh questions
802
00:44:28,290 --> 00:44:30,918
about the accuracy
of the American attacks.
803
00:44:31,001 --> 00:44:34,254
Pictures from the Afghan capital
are said to show the aftermath
804
00:44:34,338 --> 00:44:35,547
of the latest raids.
805
00:44:35,631 --> 00:44:38,717
Houses destroyed by a stray bomb.
Lives shattered.
806
00:44:39,301 --> 00:44:41,970
There was no room
for that piece of the story
807
00:44:42,054 --> 00:44:44,431
in the American conversation.
808
00:44:44,515 --> 00:44:46,975
[reporter 2] On the issue
of military involvement,
809
00:44:47,059 --> 00:44:48,477
fully 80% of Americans,
810
00:44:48,560 --> 00:44:50,896
according to most polls, favor it now.
811
00:44:50,979 --> 00:44:53,565
Should US retaliate
even if innocent people are killed?
812
00:44:53,649 --> 00:44:55,317
Yes, 66%.
813
00:44:55,401 --> 00:44:56,735
[somber music playing]
814
00:44:56,819 --> 00:45:01,615
[Haq] The civilian casualties
just disappear
815
00:45:02,908 --> 00:45:05,828
because Americans
were still wrestling with
816
00:45:05,911 --> 00:45:08,497
thousands of Americans having been killed.
817
00:45:11,750 --> 00:45:14,461
[Bush] We must defeat the evildoers.
818
00:45:14,545 --> 00:45:17,798
We must round 'em up,
and we must bring 'em to justice.
819
00:45:18,841 --> 00:45:21,427
And that's exactly what we're doing
in Afghanistan.
820
00:45:22,886 --> 00:45:26,014
The fundamental question is,
can you kill your way out of this?
821
00:45:26,765 --> 00:45:29,768
People ask that all the time.
"Can you kill your way out of this?"
822
00:45:30,477 --> 00:45:31,854
And the answer is no
823
00:45:31,937 --> 00:45:34,690
because some other people
in some other country are gonna go,
824
00:45:34,773 --> 00:45:36,775
"Did you just see what they did?"
825
00:45:36,859 --> 00:45:40,821
And then you're gonna have more terrorism.
Bombing more people isn't gonna stop that.
826
00:45:41,864 --> 00:45:45,159
Unfortunately, that's how
the US reacts to something like that.
827
00:45:45,242 --> 00:45:48,203
I mean, I'm an analyst.
I know what my country does.
828
00:45:48,287 --> 00:45:51,707
When there's a Pearl Harbor
or something like that, we go to war.
829
00:45:52,416 --> 00:45:54,626
Whether it's a good idea or not,
it's what we do.
830
00:45:54,710 --> 00:45:57,087
[clicking]
831
00:45:58,881 --> 00:46:00,507
[explosion]
832
00:46:00,591 --> 00:46:01,425
[soldier] Go!
833
00:46:01,508 --> 00:46:03,343
[tense music playing]
834
00:46:05,721 --> 00:46:07,181
[Crumpton] By early December,
835
00:46:07,264 --> 00:46:11,059
all the major cities in Afghanistan
had fallen.
836
00:46:11,143 --> 00:46:14,813
Al-Qaida really had no urban stronghold.
837
00:46:17,149 --> 00:46:19,818
[Reilly] We had accomplished
some aspects of the mission, no doubt,
838
00:46:19,902 --> 00:46:22,863
but we did not bring
bin Laden's head back on ice.
839
00:46:23,864 --> 00:46:27,159
[Berntsen] Bin Laden got away.
It's a big area.
840
00:46:27,242 --> 00:46:29,912
It's hard. I gotta find out where he is.
841
00:46:29,995 --> 00:46:31,622
[eerie music playing]
842
00:46:36,460 --> 00:46:38,670
[radio chatter]
843
00:46:38,754 --> 00:46:41,340
[Black] We had captured one of his radios,
844
00:46:41,423 --> 00:46:45,093
and we had an expert
familiar with Osama bin Laden's voice.
845
00:46:45,594 --> 00:46:47,930
So he was listening
to this short-range radio…
846
00:46:48,013 --> 00:46:49,598
[indistinct radio chatter]
847
00:46:49,681 --> 00:46:52,935
…and he heard Osama bin Laden
telling his men,
848
00:46:53,018 --> 00:46:56,396
"Hey, I'm sorry I brought you here.
This is a disaster. It's all my fault."
849
00:46:56,480 --> 00:46:59,483
This short-range radio had a range to it.
850
00:46:59,566 --> 00:47:01,485
In the mountains, the range was less.
851
00:47:03,153 --> 00:47:04,112
We got him.
852
00:47:05,239 --> 00:47:06,782
[Storer] They moved to the mountains.
853
00:47:06,865 --> 00:47:10,619
They had a stronghold in Tora Bora
from back in the Soviet-Afghan days.
854
00:47:11,537 --> 00:47:13,330
Whole tunnel network up there.
855
00:47:13,413 --> 00:47:16,375
That's where the intelligence
said that they had retreated to.
856
00:47:16,458 --> 00:47:18,794
[Berntsen] Just called
all my guys together and said,
857
00:47:18,877 --> 00:47:20,629
"We're gonna send
our people in there now."
858
00:47:21,129 --> 00:47:25,050
That four-man team starts going up
into the mountains with ten Afghans
859
00:47:25,133 --> 00:47:26,009
with donkeys.
860
00:47:26,093 --> 00:47:27,761
[tense music playing]
861
00:47:28,720 --> 00:47:31,473
[Berntsen] And they get
about half a day up,
862
00:47:31,557 --> 00:47:34,518
and one of those donkeys
was packed with an RPG.
863
00:47:35,185 --> 00:47:36,812
And the RPG round goes off,
864
00:47:36,895 --> 00:47:40,732
and it blows the donkey
into about 20 pieces.
865
00:47:40,816 --> 00:47:43,193
A couple Afghans died too,
so they had to bring 'em down,
866
00:47:43,277 --> 00:47:46,071
gotta bury them,
and we gotta start over again.
867
00:47:48,615 --> 00:47:49,825
They go back up the mountain,
868
00:47:51,702 --> 00:47:54,788
very, very high,
and they work their way in deep.
869
00:47:54,872 --> 00:47:56,415
And they get to a position,
870
00:47:56,498 --> 00:47:59,042
and they can see down
from up on top up there.
871
00:47:59,626 --> 00:48:01,670
[tense music continues]
872
00:48:03,422 --> 00:48:05,215
[Berntsen] They had spotted him.
873
00:48:06,633 --> 00:48:08,886
Bin Laden's got a thousand guys.
874
00:48:08,969 --> 00:48:11,138
Tanks, armored vehicles,
all sorts of stuff,
875
00:48:11,221 --> 00:48:13,307
and they were down below our guys.
876
00:48:15,684 --> 00:48:17,436
[Crumpton] We were outnumbered.
877
00:48:17,519 --> 00:48:19,688
There was just no way
that we could engage them
878
00:48:19,771 --> 00:48:23,483
with the idea of capturing and killing
all of them, including bin Laden.
879
00:48:24,943 --> 00:48:26,153
[Berntsen] You can't do this
880
00:48:26,236 --> 00:48:29,448
with small numbers of US forces
and Afghan irregulars.
881
00:48:29,531 --> 00:48:32,951
You need a battalion, 800 Rangers.
882
00:48:33,452 --> 00:48:35,037
We need to drop them in up there.
883
00:48:35,120 --> 00:48:37,289
I called Hank. He made the appeal.
884
00:48:37,873 --> 00:48:39,875
I briefed this up the chain,
885
00:48:39,958 --> 00:48:42,419
to Cofer, to the president, and I said,
886
00:48:42,502 --> 00:48:45,213
"We need to have reinforcements,
Rangers, Marines."
887
00:48:45,297 --> 00:48:47,507
"We need help in the mountains."
888
00:48:48,717 --> 00:48:52,721
I was very clear
that this was a matter of hours.
889
00:48:52,804 --> 00:48:54,973
Otherwise, we would lose a chance.
890
00:48:55,057 --> 00:48:59,811
I'm trying to tell the military,
"Okay, this is the time for you to come in
891
00:48:59,895 --> 00:49:02,230
with massive force and end this thing."
892
00:49:02,314 --> 00:49:04,942
And Secretary Rumsfeld reportedly said,
893
00:49:05,025 --> 00:49:08,737
"Well, this doesn't have anything
to do with us. This is a CIA operation."
894
00:49:12,032 --> 00:49:14,826
We were not getting ground support.
Where is the ground support?
895
00:49:14,910 --> 00:49:17,746
Where are ground troops?
Why are we not sending ground troops in?
896
00:49:17,829 --> 00:49:20,916
We're like, "If we're not sending
ground troops in, we're not gonna bomb."
897
00:49:20,999 --> 00:49:22,584
[indistinct radio chatter]
898
00:49:22,668 --> 00:49:24,544
[Walder] When you bomb something,
899
00:49:24,628 --> 00:49:27,881
people that survive run away.
900
00:49:28,382 --> 00:49:31,885
So you need more people there
to scoop them up.
901
00:49:31,969 --> 00:49:33,261
[indistinct radio chatter]
902
00:49:33,345 --> 00:49:37,516
So either we don't drop any bombs,
don't let them know we're there,
903
00:49:37,599 --> 00:49:42,145
or rain down everything and bring
the ground troops in at the same time.
904
00:49:42,229 --> 00:49:44,564
And so that's what we thought
the plan was going to be.
905
00:49:46,108 --> 00:49:48,235
[Crumpton] General Mattis at Kandahar
906
00:49:48,318 --> 00:49:50,737
with Marines, they could have deployed…
907
00:49:50,821 --> 00:49:51,780
[tuts]
908
00:49:52,364 --> 00:49:54,449
They just weren't willing to do that.
909
00:49:54,533 --> 00:49:56,868
There was just a tremendous reluctance
910
00:49:56,952 --> 00:49:59,538
to put in US military forces.
911
00:49:59,621 --> 00:50:02,541
So their solution was just bomb the place.
912
00:50:02,624 --> 00:50:04,793
No ground troops, we are gonna bomb.
913
00:50:04,876 --> 00:50:08,505
All of us did not agree
with what they were doing.
914
00:50:09,006 --> 00:50:12,175
But what am I supposed to do when
the orders are coming from the president?
915
00:50:12,259 --> 00:50:13,802
That's the commander-in-chief.
916
00:50:15,554 --> 00:50:18,056
[Crumpton] I really wasn't in a position
917
00:50:18,140 --> 00:50:22,769
to question the… the president
on… on the policy.
918
00:50:22,853 --> 00:50:25,022
That's not a CIA officer's job.
919
00:50:25,981 --> 00:50:28,483
And so I called Gary back
and explained to him
920
00:50:28,567 --> 00:50:30,110
that he has to go with what he's got.
921
00:50:30,193 --> 00:50:32,904
[clicking]
922
00:50:37,576 --> 00:50:39,244
[Berntsen] We had four Americans,
923
00:50:39,327 --> 00:50:41,371
a thousand enemy down below.
924
00:50:42,247 --> 00:50:44,541
If we didn't eliminate these people now,
925
00:50:44,624 --> 00:50:47,461
every one of 'em that escaped the country
was a potential pilot
926
00:50:47,544 --> 00:50:49,546
to fly another airline into a building.
927
00:50:52,549 --> 00:50:54,634
One of my guys was a combat controller.
928
00:50:55,218 --> 00:50:58,263
Combat controllers
call in airstrikes from the front.
929
00:50:58,889 --> 00:51:00,223
I said, "Do it."
930
00:51:00,307 --> 00:51:02,309
[eerie music playing]
931
00:51:03,852 --> 00:51:09,399
He gets up on the line.
He calls in B-52s, B-1s, F-15s.
932
00:51:10,442 --> 00:51:13,236
These four Americans by themselves
933
00:51:13,862 --> 00:51:17,157
did airstrikes for 56 hours.
934
00:51:17,240 --> 00:51:19,242
[tense music playing]
935
00:51:22,954 --> 00:51:24,498
[Reilly] They had a lot of cave systems.
936
00:51:24,581 --> 00:51:26,875
And it takes a lot of bombing
to close down a cave.
937
00:51:28,335 --> 00:51:31,338
It was some of the heaviest bombing
since World War II.
938
00:51:35,926 --> 00:51:40,430
[Bernstein] Every aircraft
in the US arsenal attacked those guys.
939
00:51:42,682 --> 00:51:44,142
[Black] They brought out a BLU-82,
940
00:51:44,226 --> 00:51:47,646
the largest conventional bomb
that the United States has.
941
00:51:47,729 --> 00:51:51,483
It's so big, they have to drop it off
the back of a transport plane.
942
00:51:51,566 --> 00:51:53,318
[tense music continues]
943
00:52:02,119 --> 00:52:04,121
[eerie music playing]
944
00:52:05,622 --> 00:52:09,251
After the BLU-82 and the bombings,
we didn't hear anything after that.
945
00:52:14,673 --> 00:52:17,008
If he's killed, cut off his head
946
00:52:17,092 --> 00:52:19,970
and send it back, or his hands,
947
00:52:20,053 --> 00:52:23,723
or if you can,
if you'd rather take a blood sample,
948
00:52:24,224 --> 00:52:25,684
then we can match DNA
949
00:52:25,767 --> 00:52:29,146
because we needed forensic evidence
that he was dead.
950
00:52:30,272 --> 00:52:33,441
[Berntsen] We had people up there
looking for pieces of him with Q-tips,
951
00:52:33,525 --> 00:52:34,526
trying to get DNA.
952
00:52:36,778 --> 00:52:38,363
We thought we had killed him.
953
00:52:41,741 --> 00:52:43,910
[reporter] It's over in Tora Bora.
954
00:52:43,994 --> 00:52:46,496
Al-Qaida's last stronghold has fallen.
955
00:52:46,580 --> 00:52:48,415
[reporter 2] The Afghan militia
were celebrating
956
00:52:48,498 --> 00:52:52,210
what they were calling the final defeat
of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida.
957
00:52:52,294 --> 00:52:53,378
[speaking foreign language]
958
00:52:53,461 --> 00:52:56,631
[interpreter] Our victories today
have been very decisive, very important.
959
00:52:56,715 --> 00:53:00,385
All the tunnels, all the caves of al-Qaida
up on the mountain of Tora Bora
960
00:53:00,468 --> 00:53:02,179
have been captured by our forces.
961
00:53:02,262 --> 00:53:04,598
We're still trying to sort out who we have
962
00:53:04,681 --> 00:53:07,559
and who we don't have
and who's been killed.
963
00:53:07,642 --> 00:53:09,895
Maybe he still is there.
Maybe he was killed.
964
00:53:09,978 --> 00:53:13,440
[reporter 3] The US is using
ground forces, so if bin Laden is killed,
965
00:53:13,523 --> 00:53:16,860
the Americans will be able
to bring back proof he is dead.
966
00:53:16,943 --> 00:53:19,988
[reporter 4] There are new
unconfirmed reports that he may be dead.
967
00:53:20,071 --> 00:53:22,741
[clicking]
968
00:53:23,450 --> 00:53:24,951
About six months after that,
969
00:53:25,035 --> 00:53:28,079
I was in the United States
at a friend of mine's home
970
00:53:28,163 --> 00:53:30,165
having dinner with him,
and the television was on.
971
00:53:30,248 --> 00:53:31,416
[eerie music playing]
972
00:53:44,262 --> 00:53:46,431
He surfaced. There he was.
973
00:53:46,514 --> 00:53:48,725
[in Arabic] We're almost close to 800.
974
00:53:50,352 --> 00:53:52,979
The number
of destroyed buildings and structures.
975
00:53:53,063 --> 00:53:55,523
[reporter in English] We now know
Osama bin Laden is alive.
976
00:53:55,607 --> 00:53:57,692
[reporter 2] The world's most wanted
is still around.
977
00:53:57,776 --> 00:54:00,320
[Berntsen] The last thing
the administration wanted to see.
978
00:54:00,403 --> 00:54:02,822
[Storer] Once bin Laden left Afghanistan,
979
00:54:03,406 --> 00:54:04,699
he could go anywhere.
980
00:54:05,492 --> 00:54:07,327
And now what is he up to?
981
00:54:08,870 --> 00:54:11,623
- [reporter] Attack in Madrid.
- [reporter 2] London's worst attack…
982
00:54:11,706 --> 00:54:13,500
[reporter 3] Deadly bombings in Bali.
983
00:54:13,583 --> 00:54:15,752
[Walder] Bin Laden franchised himself.
984
00:54:15,835 --> 00:54:18,255
You had branches of al-Qaida everywhere.
985
00:54:18,338 --> 00:54:21,800
[Black] Bin Laden was in search of,
"What's my next 9/11?"
986
00:54:22,968 --> 00:54:25,762
Al-Qaida's capabilities are rebounding.
987
00:54:25,845 --> 00:54:29,557
[in Arabic] I say
to the American people that,
988
00:54:29,641 --> 00:54:32,769
God willing, we will continue to kill you,
989
00:54:32,852 --> 00:54:35,939
and we will continue
the martyrdom operations.
990
00:54:37,941 --> 00:54:39,943
[tense music playing]