All language subtitles for Americas.Book.Of.Secrets.S01E10_English

[narrator] It is the epicenter
of America's military operations.

A five-sided fortress
with a single purpose:

to defend the United States
and its citizens.

But behind the concrete walls
and reinforced windows

of the Pentagon are secrets.

Secrets so guarded...

[Ray Dubois] The country's
most sensitive secrets

are held within this building
and within certain minds.

[narrator]
...so incredible...

She crawled out with people
hanging onto her legs to get out.

[narrator]
...so alarming...

We are already experiencing
our 9/11 in cyberspace.

[narrator] ...that they must
be kept hidden from the public

until now.

There are those who believe
in the existence of a book.

A book that contains
the most highly guarded secrets

of the United States of America.

A book whose very existence

is known to only a select few.

But if such a book exists,

what would it contain?

Secret histories?

Secret plans?

Secret lies?

Does there really exist

America's Book of Secrets?

[narrator] It proudly stands
on the west bank of the Potomac River

on the edge of Washington, DC.

A building, an institution,

a symbol of America's military might.

The Pentagon.

Here, headquartered under one roof,
is the Department of Defense,

the Joint Chiefs of Staff

and the five branches
of the U.S. military.

Commands issued
from behind these walls

direct the actions of U.S. forces
around the world.

The Pentagon is the heart,
the soul, the brain

of our national military community.

[Oliver North]
It does house the entire top

of the defense establishment
of the United States.

It is regarded as an icon, if you will,
for enemies and allies.

[Wesley Clark]
I was always excited in the Pentagon.

It was always a place where things
could happen or be made to happen,

or they happened to you.

But it was never dull.
There was always adventure.

[narrator] Perhaps most famous
for its unique design,

the Pentagon is the largest low-rise
office building in the world.

It occupies more than six million
square feet of floor space

and spans an area
equal to five city blocks.

Called The Puzzle Palace
by insiders,

the labyrinth of hallways and corridors
that run through the building

measure 17-and-a-half miles
in length.

Yet despite its vast size,
the Pentagon's unusual design

allows for quick access
to any of its five equal sides.

This design allows someone
to get from any point in the building,

the furthest spot you might imagine,
from corridor ten

all the way around to corridor two,
three or five in seven minutes or less.

[narrator] But for many,
the Pentagon

is much more
than a monumental building,

it is a living entity.

It's one of the few buildings
that you could say that speaks.

You see it in the newspaper quite often,
"The Pentagon said..."

If there were an American Book
of Secrets, I think what it would say

about the Pentagon
is this really is

where the nation's
defenses really begin.

[narrator]
Approximately 23,000 people,

both military and civilian,

work at the Pentagon every day.

The building is fully
operational around the clock,

and includes
an infrastructure of transportation,

food services and retail shops enlisted
to support the enormous staff.

But what is the secret to keeping
the Pentagon operational 24/7?

[Erin Mahan] I think what would surprise
most people, and it certainly did me

when I came to work at the Pentagon,
is that it's not just an office building.

It's really a city unto itself.

The amenities that are available,

I doubt very many people realize
that there's a drugstore,

there's a shoe store,
there's a Best Buy.

It really is a secret city.

[narrator] The daily operation
of this unofficial city

are handled by a civilian administrator
appointed by the Secretary of Defense,

a role insiders refer to as "the mayor."

[Dubois] When you have 23,000 people
who come to work here every day,

probably another 3,000
to 5,000 visitors every day,

you are essentially
managing a small city.

We have hospitals,
clinics, restaurants.

We have a Pentagon
conference center and library.

We have the Pentagon
athletic center.

We have police force,
a firefighting unit.

This is quite a complex organism,
as all cities are.

[narrator] For those who work
at the Pentagon,

the main entrance to the building
is on the southeast side.

But for the military's top brass
and the nation's leaders,

there are special VIP entrances.

[Dubois] We're at the Grand Ceremonial
River Entrance to the Pentagon.

This is the entrance
where the Secretary of Defense

goes to work every morning.
That's his office up there.

This is where the President
of the United States comes

when he visits the Pentagon,
as well as other ministers of defense

and chiefs of defense staff
from around the world

greeted in a parade
on that parade field there.

Called the River Entrance
because, of course,

there is the Potomac River.

This is the second ceremonial entrance
of the Pentagon called the Mall Entrance.

It's the entrance
for the Secretary of the Army

and the Secretary of the Navy,
whose offices are behind me

on the third and fourth floors.

[narrator] With its five sides,
five floors and five concentric rings,

the original plans
for a military headquarters

were nearly scrapped
in favor of something more traditional.

The five-sided shape of the Pentagon
is an accident of history.

The initial spot that they'd chosen
for the building

up near Memorial Bridge
was five-sided.

It eventually ended up moving
to a different spot of land

that was not five-sided.

So when they moved the building
from the first site

to the second site,

they could have changed
the five sides.

But the architects
had come to realize

a five-sided shape
worked better than a big rectangle.

[narrator] Although the Pentagon
was first conceived

as a temporary structure,

were the original plans redrawn

and the design rapidly repurposed

for a more secret reason?

Why was the construction
of the Pentagon begun

on September 11, 1941,

three months before the Japanese
bombed Pearl Harbor?

Were the nation's leaders
secretly preparing America for war?

A war that they knew was inevitable?

[Vogel] The War Department
was scattered in 17 buildings

all around Washington.

It was horribly decentralized.

And General George C. Marshall,
the army Chief of Staff,

gave orders to his chief of construction
to come up with some sort of plan

that would allow them to consolidate
this War Department.

President Roosevelt,

when he approved the plans
for this huge building in secret,

had a vision of this building being
used after the war as an archives

for all the paperwork
that was filling up Washington.

- [siren wailing]
- [narrator] December 7, 1941.

The Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor.

A date which will live in infamy.

[narrator]
The United States goes to war,

and the pace of construction
of the Pentagon picked up.

A centralized location
for the War Department

now became a matter
of national urgency and public pride.

At that point, they had about 4,000 people
working on it up until Pearl Harbor.

When Pearl Harbor came,
all stops were off.

We will gain the inevitable triumph,
so help us God.

[applause]

[Goldberg] The sky
was the limit at that point.

More people were added
so that, at the peak,

it reached about 15,000 people.

The Pentagon
was built in a race against time.

The architects and draftsmen

were, literally, sometimes
just one step ahead of the pile drivers.

There was this incredible surge
of patriotism and panic

to get this building ready.

[narrator]
Completed in only 16 months,

the home
of the War Department

has remained
the central command post

of the U.S. Military
for nearly 70 years.

[Dalessandro] We're standing
in the center courtyard of the Pentagon.

Behind me, they erected a gazebo.
And you can see it

in its present iteration.
It's a snack bar.

And on top
of that gazebo is a little owl.

When the people were here
during the Cold War period,

and, actually, my service began
in the Pentagon during that period,

this area quickly gained
the nickname of Ground Zero.

People that worked
in the Pentagon were convinced

that there was a nuclear bomb
with its crosshairs

right on that owl at the gazebo.

So I have to tell you,
as a young officer working here,

as I worked my way
through the corridors,

sometimes I took a shortcut
through the courtyard.

And I have to tell you,
when I got to the center,

the hair
on the back of my neck stood up.

I was sure that a nuclear round

was going to drop
on me at any moment.

[narrator] But what military strategies
and war games

are played out
at a 21st century Pentagon?

Much of it is really
an office building.

A lot of the work that goes on there is,
you know, fairly routine, fairly mundane.

But a lot of the more secretive things,
a lot of the planning,

a lot of the operational elements,
intelligence analysis,

the high-level meetings, strategy,

all of that is going to be
well out of public view.

But it is all happening right there.

[Rick Newman] Probably more
than any place else in the United States,

the Pentagon is a clearinghouse

for every important decision
that gets made in the U.S. military.

[narrator] As the home
to America's military masterminds,

the Pentagon has also proven
to be a five-sided target for terrorism.

[North] It's a target
because it's the symbol

of American military power.

And that five-sided building does have

the home of the Department of Defense

and every senior service leader
of the armed forces of the United States.

[narrator]
September 11, 2001.

Al-Qaeda operatives
execute a terrorist plot

to attack the U.S. using
commercial aircraft as their weapons.

Their targets:

places of strategic economic,

political

and military importance.

[John Yates]
On the morning of September 11,

I was just going around a normal day,

when about, I don't know,
9:15-ish or so,

one of my coworkers came over to me

and asked me
if I knew what was going on in New York.

And so I said, "No."

She said,
"Well, you have to come see."

We were watching what was going on
in New York at that time,

so we knew
something was going on.

[siren wailing]

[narrator] Amidst the chaos,
American Airlines Flight 77,

which had taken off
from Dulles International Airport

earlier that morning,
had been hijacked over Ohio.

What those at the military
headquarters could not predict

was that the Boeing 757
was heading straight for the Pentagon.

As it was getting close to the Pentagon,
it actually did a 360.

So it flew basically over
the Pentagon, flew around once,

and while it was doing that,
it was descending.

[Jester] I just walked in the door
to my office.

It was like a low rumbling noise
for a few seconds.

And then the light fixtures
in the room were just vibrating.

[narrator] At 9:37 a.m.,
the plane carrying six crew,

53 passengers
and five hijackers

hit the Pentagon's western wall.

The aircraft tore through the Pentagon
at an estimated 530 miles per hour.

With thousands of gallons of fuel
onboard, it exploded on impact.

[siren wailing]

In an instant, the western side
of the building was engulfed in flames.

[Yates] I'm standing there when there
was just this tremendous explosion,

like nothing I'd ever heard before.

I remember a ball of fire coming
from behind me and from my left

as it rolled across the ceiling.

And then there was just this--
this intense heat,

like nothing I've ever--
I've ever felt before.

And I had no idea
what was going on.

[Dubois] This building shook.

This mammoth hunk
of concrete and steel

absolutely shook
with the impact of that airplane.

The plane was boring
through three of the five rings.

It was just basically shredded
by the concrete columns.

So you had thousands of gallons
of fuel that were exploding

at the same time and sending
fireballs down the hallway,

just blowing offices up.

[Yates] I remember
being blown through the air,

and I didn't know where I landed.
Didn't have a clue.

It's like somebody picked up
the room and just shook it

like a dollhouse.

So I just started reaching out
with my hands

'cause I can't see anything,

and everything
I touched burned me.

Even the floor

was hot from the fire.

I just started crawling around,
trying to find my way out.

[narrator] As firefighters
battled to control the raging inferno,

rescue workers raced to find survivors
amid the maze of rubble.

There were guys that went in,
got blown over by a fireball

and got up burned,
and went to drag people out.

There was a lady who was safe

and went back in to get people
and got burned.

And she crawled out with people
hanging on to her legs to get out.

There were people that saw
people banging on glass

to try and get out and they went in
to try to help them,

but there were insufficient tools,
and they used their bare hands.

[Dubois] Secretary Rumsfeld

came all the way
to the other side of the building,

much to the chagrin
of his security detail,

and helped pick up litters
and gurneys.

And it was

pretty extraordinary.

[Jester] It was one
of the greatest sights in the world,

was watching the workers
who had evacuated,

then go back to the building
to rescue their fellow employees.

And, in many cases,
they would just have to yell to them,

you know, "Follow my voice,"
because they couldn't see them.

And this voice said go out
through this one particular door.

Which was at the far end of the room.

And I really wasn't sure
where I was at the time,

but I just started crawling
towards that voice.

And I knew I was going
in the right direction

because the farther I crawled,
the less hot it got.

So I just crawled
until I ran headfirst into a wall,

and I just turned right
and made my way

through all of the little aisleways
and everything until I got out

into the corridor.

I was standing
in the middle of five people,

and I'm the only one
that walked out.

[siren wailing]

[narrator]
Firefighters and emergency workers

battled heavy smoke and intense heat
as they began the search

for the estimated 800 missing personnel
who worked in the area.

[Newman] It was very difficult
for this fire to vent

because of the unusual structure

of going into such a wide
and such a low building.

The fire in many parts
of the building, for hours,

was hotter than firefighting equipment
is designed to handle.

Usually it's very easy
to persuade people to leave a fire

and stay away from a fire,
but at the Pentagon,

firefighters encountered
lots of service members

who were determined
to get back in.

They treated this like it was a war.

Had the fire commanders
had their way,

they would have
ordered everybody out

of the National Military
Command Center,

but they got into a minor standoff
with officers there who said,

"We're not leaving.
The nation's under attack.

It is imperative to keep
this part of the Pentagon operating."

So firefighters had to do something
that they're not accustomed to doing,

which is putting out a fire
in one part of the building

while keeping another part
of the building operational.

[narrator] But just how perilous was
the situation inside the building?

And what dangers did the destruction
really pose to national security?

Only a few knew the true extent
of the damage caused by the attack:

The Army General Staff Office
as well as the Navy Command Center,

a critical intelligence facility,

were both completely obliterated
by the fuselage.

The National Military Command
Center was untouched,

but it was in jeopardy

as the blazing fire
threatened to shut it down.

To make matters worse,
a shift in the weather

would fuel the fire
to an even greater threat.

[Kilsheimer]
It was very windy,

and all of a sudden,
I looked up

and I saw flames
hooting out of the roof.

[Newman] The fire commanders
started to rush crews

up to the top,
up to the roof of the Pentagon.

So, they mounted
a kind of an all-hands effort

to get that fire out on the roof,

because now this had become
a national security issue to them.

[narrator]
The fire was moving towards satellite

and computer equipment on the roof.

If it continued to spread,

the Pentagon would lose
a vital communications link

to troops and commanders
throughout the world.

But how could an attack
such as 9/11

affect the Pentagon's top-secret
military operations?

The National Military
Command Center is a steel box,

in which you have
all the sensitive communications

that reach around the globe.

And 24 by 7, 365 days a year,
it is manned.

And from that command center,

the President of the United States
will be receiving,

as does the Secretary of Defense,

the information with respect
to the crisis of the moment,

and only the president

and the Secretary of Defense
can push the button.

It needed to remain functioning

for the sake of keeping
the U.S. military in operation,

and things like the cooling system
in the Pentagon, the electrical system.

If the fire interfered with those things,
the first thing it would do is,

it would shut down
all the computers.

Without computers,
there's no connectivity

and without communications,
you can't run a military.

The building operations people realized

that they needed to keep
water pressure in the building up

so that the fire department
would be able to fight the fire.

Some of the building
operation people

risked their lives to close off pipes

even as smoke was pouring down
into some of those areas,

so that they could keep
the command centers operating

despite the danger
from the fire and smoke.

[narrator] With critical military
missions underway around the world,

in the midst of the rescue efforts,
the Pentagon's Security Service

was urgently retrieving
top-secret information

now lying exposed
in the wreckage.

But what vital military information
were they trying to save?

The Security Service was trying
to just basically retrieve all the safes

and filing cabinets
that contain classified information.

Navy SEALs, for instance, said,

"Listen, we need
to get back to our office

because we've got stuff
in there that basically entails

how we operate,
intelligence that our troops

have gathered out in the field,
all sorts of things

that are essential
to the functioning of the Navy SEALs,

and it's sitting up there in an office
that nobody's guarding right now."

Firefighters who were in there

said they saw
documents labeled top-secret

literally floating
on wafts of smoky air.

[narrator] When the smoke cleared,
189 lives were lost

and hundreds injured.

Neither the Pentagon
or the United States

would ever be the same.

September 12, 2001.

As the sun rose
over the Pentagon

on the morning after
the terrorist attack,

the first of many extraordinary
events began to unfold.

The next day was a very unusual sight
watching people coming

from the Pentagon City Metro Station,
walking to work,

and the Pentagon is still on fire.

But people were coming to work.

[Dubois] Every person
who worked here came to work.

This building was still burning.

This side of the building
had collapsed.

Everyone came to work the next day.

[narrator] Forty eight hours
after the impact,

firefighters finally got the blaze
under control,

and the recovery effort could begin.

It took them a couple of days
to get the roof fire under control.

Eventually they did.

It was a very hazardous,
very difficult thing to do.

[narrator] Rows C, D and E
of the area known as Wedge One

were destroyed by the impact
and resulting fires.

But with an average daily work
force of 25,000 people at the Pentagon,

how was it possible
there weren't even more casualties?

The Pentagon
was undergoing a renovation program,

and Wedge One
was just being completed.

Had these planes
hit a month either way,

there would have been
a lot more people killed,

because there would have been
a lot more people in the building.

[Vogel] Where the aircraft hit
was the only part of the building

that had fire sprinklers
throughout the section.

It was the only part of the building
that had blast-resistant windows.

It was the only part of the building
that had structural support.

It was the only part that had
this Kevlar-type skin

that would protect against
fragments of glass and stone.

[narrator] Overnight, the existing
renovation work

turned to reconstruction.

But what was the secret
behind the rapid rebuild of the Pentagon?

[Newman] It was considered
a mission-critical thing

to get the Pentagon back online,

not to mention an extremely important
symbolic act

to completely rebuild the Pentagon
and make it better than it ever was.

[Vogel] The workers themselves
came up with this plan

to restore the building
by the first anniversary of the attacks.

So within one year, they would have
the building back to its original state.

And they called it
the Phoenix Project.

[Kilsheimer]
It was a huge matter of pride

and patriotism for everybody there.

We had a total, at times,
of 4,000 people working there.

The way the majority of those people
felt was that we were going to show

people like these terrorists
what Americans could do

when you came
and did what they did to us.

A lot of people were working
the whole 20 or 22 hours.

I would leave for two or three hours,
I'd come back,

and there were guys
sleeping on the floor

or the heliport on the concrete

so they could talk me
as soon as I got back about things.

[narrator]
But while working around the clock

helped speed up their schedule,

it was not enough to make
their self-imposed, one-year deadline.

So what unconventional measures
did they take

to finish even sooner
than they had originally hoped?

[Kilsheimer] The first thing we did
was tell everybody what to build that day

and follow it up with drawings,
instead of doing drawings first.

There was one particular spot,

supposed to be a wall
and then some pipes in the wall.

Well, the pipes were going first,
the wall wasn't ready yet.

So the guys ran their pipes
and they had to build the wall

around the pipes,
which isn't the way it usually happens.

It's just everybody
stepped out of box at all times.

[beeping]

[narrator]
In addition to repairing the building,

new high-security safeguards
were also constructed,

ones that would prevent
or at least provide greater protection

for the Pentagon staff
in case of a similar attack or worse.

[Dubois] We moved Route 110
further to the east.

We reinforced
the west side of the building.

We got the berm over there
and the blast wall.

Suffice it to say
there are other defenses

that are now in place

that protect this building,
and were a plane to enter

into restricted airspace
and be determined to be hostile,

I don't think it would make it
to this building.

[Newman] They certainly incorporated
new security features into the building.

Many of those are not public
and they shouldn't be public,

because they could give
future terrorists ideas

about how to attack
the Pentagon again.

What you can see at the Pentagon
is the direct affect

of what happened on 9/11/01,

and the reality that there are people,
bad people,

who would do great damage
if they could.

[narrator]
Inside the Pentagon,

reconstruction also extended
to other areas of the building.

- [elevator bell dings]
-Areas hidden from the public.

and built according
to top-secret specifications.

[Sajeel Ahmed]
There are a number of areas

which need to support
the mission itself,

including the operation centers
and the regular tenant spaces itself.

That's all I can go there.

[Clark]
We don't always know about those.

And if we knew about them,

we probably couldn't tell you
everything about them.

[narrator]
Wedge One renovations

covered an area
of one million square feet of space.

Building improvements
included blast-resistant windows

and a new
communications infrastructure.

The Phoenix Project finished
one month ahead of schedule.

A fitting end
to what is globally considered

to be the most incredible
reconstruction project in history.

[Kilsheimer]
We actually rebuilt the building

and had butts in chairs
on September 11, 2002.

I don't think there's a person
that worked on that site

that wouldn't say that was
the most important thing

in at least their construction life.

The Pentagon Memorial:
We claim this ground

in remembrance
of the events of September 11, 2001.

The steps directly behind me
are where the impact took place.

And, of course,
the blackened limestone block,

now etched with that fateful day,
put into place after Project Phoenix

concluded one year to the day later,
September 11, 2002.

[narrator]
In the wake of the 9/11 attack,

improved security was initiated
to both the physical structure

and the surrounding area
of the Pentagon.

But within the walls
of the military compound,

security measures
were also upgraded.

- [police radio chatter]
- [Harris] Prior to 9/11, the Pentagon

did have essentially a police force,
a security guard force, if you like.

After 9/11, that group
became a new unit,

the Pentagon Force
Protection Agency.

[Newman] The Pentagon
Force Protection Agency,

otherwise known as the Pentagon police,
are an annoyance

to everybody who works there,
because they make it hard to get in.

If your badge is not in order,
they won't let you in.

But they're extremely important
to keeping the Pentagon secure.

The Pentagon uses
the most up-to-date technology

in terms of access control systems.

All the different technologies
are constantly changing.

They've gone to retina scan,
hand geometry scans,

to all kinds of devices.

[narrator] The Pentagon Force
Protection Agency

is tasked with being
an all-threats agency.

In addition to security,

the agency
is trained to handle chemical,

biological, radiological

and even nuclear threats.

I developed a motto which is

"We Protect Those
Who Protect Our Nation,"

It makes the organization feel
that we're doing our part

in the overall mission
of the Department of Defense.

[narrator] But beyond the threat
of another physical attack,

the Pentagon must maintain
the highest level of security

to protect
the nation's greatest secret-keepers,

who work deep inside the compound.

Some of the country's most sensitive
secrets, as you can understand,

are held within this building.

And in some cases
they're held within certain minds.

[Harris] The Defense
Intelligence Agency, DIA,

is one of the other, sort of primary,
the big intelligence agencies

within the intelligence community.

And it's really focused
on missions pertaining

to the Defense Department's business,
so, fighting war.

[explosion]

And, really, in the past ten years,
particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan,

DIA has been the place to produce
or to handle the intelligence

that goes out to soldiers in the field.

[narrator] But the DIA is not
the only information-gathering agency

housed at the Pentagon.

The biggest
and most covert intelligence unit,

the National Security Agency,

also operates
within the military headquarters.

[Harris] National Security Agency,
or the NSA,

is the government's eavesdropper.

It collects what's called
signals intelligence,

which means phone calls,
fax transmissions,

e-mails, text messages.

If it goes over a wire,
or over a wavelength in the air,

NSA grabs it.

They have a global system
for electronic intelligence collection

that includes satellites,

wire taps,

monitoring of Internet networks.

Their job is if it's electronic,
if it's data and it's moving around,

they grab it.

If I had to put money on which agency
has the most secrets,

I would say it's the NSA.

The NSA is certainly collecting
the most information.

[narrator] But when secret information
must be shared inside the Pentagon,

what special protocols
are put into action?

And how is sensitive information
stored inside the Pentagon kept safe,

and accessed
only on a need to know basis?

Paper documents
are transferred by hand

by a cleared person, in some cases,
inside a locked briefcase.

[Yates] In a building
where 23,000 people work,

there are a lot of secret documents.

And part of my job is to keep
those documents safe and secure,

and out of the hands of people
that would do our nation harm.

There's different classifications
for different types of information.

And based upon your need to know

and your background
investigation level, you get access.

Your duties require
you to have access

in order
to get it accomplished.

There are levels
of classified documents

from "for official use only"
all the way up to "top secret"

SCI clearances,

Special Compartmentalized
Intelligence.

[narrator] Conversations
about classified information

are strictly forbidden
in the Pentagon.

But there is one place
that the military's ultimate top secrets

can be discussed openly.

In the steel box offices
known as SCIFs.

There are lots and lots
of classified spaces inside the Pentagon.

Some of them are known as

Sensitive Compartmented
Information Facilities.

The acronym for that is SCIF.

They're not just places
with limited access,

where people are cleared to discuss
classified information.

They're actually hardened
against electronic eavesdropping.

So there might be wire structure
built around those cages.

There might be materials in there

that are intended to defeat
any kind of electronic eavesdropping,

particularly audio devices that
somebody could point at the Pentagon.

[narrator] Even the disposing
of classified documents

leaves little room for secret information
to fall into the wrong hands.

[Yates] A burn bag is a specially
marked brown paper bag

that classified material,

or even sensitive,
unclassified material. is put into.

And then every day they have pickup
here at the building,

it's put into the back of a van,

it's taken out to the incinerator
plant that they have here,

and it's burned.

[narrator] Information is power
in the intelligence community,

and secrets are the most valuable
kind of information.

But what kinds of secrets

are the Pentagon's best military minds
ultimately trying to find?

I think what they're really after
in the intelligence world

is anything that can tell them
about what's going to happen next.

It's used in a way
almost like a crystal ball.

You look to data
to almost see the future.

[narrator] In July of 2011,

the Department of Defense
released its first official strategy

for operating in the digital age.

Traditionally tasked
with keeping America safe by land,

air and sea, the Pentagon
is now taking steps to investigate,

eliminate and annihilate threats
from cyberspace.

[North] The Pentagon has not only
been the target of physical attacks;

it's also been the target of hundreds
of cyber attacks

on a day-to-day basis.

It is target number one
for adversaries

who want to try to penetrate
our communications,

our computers, our hardware,
software and literally shut down

the national security apparatus
of the United States.

We are already experiencing our 9/11
in cyberspace.

It's already happening.

We've lost trillions of dollars
over the last two years

of intellectual property.

The hard thing
about cyber security

is you don't know
that the asset's gone.

If someone takes your data,
you're still using your data.

If someone takes your submarine,

you know the submarine's gone.

[narrator]
The most significant breach

of U.S. Military networks
occurred in 2008

when a foreign intelligence agent
inserted an infected flash drive

into one of the government's laptops
in the Middle East.

The malicious code spread undetected
through classified systems,

uploaded itself onto a network run
by the U.S. Central Command

and put its servers
under enemy control.

What we found in 2008
is that attacks can be launched

even when an agency
or a department

is offline
and not on the Internet.

It can happen through
malicious software being carried

from one place to another
and inserted onto an offline network

using such technology
as a USB drive.

This is really analogous to,
in the old days of the Cold War,

you would send a spy
into a government facility,

posing as a visitor,

who would then try
and physically steal the documents.

[narrator] Cyber Command
is the official unit

tasked with protecting
the country's digital infrastructure

in the 21st century.

While its mission
is to protect military assets,

has Cyber Command
already launched

any counterattacks of its own?

We saw something
very interesting happen in Iran

recently with this so-called
Stuxnet virus.

This apparently was a virus
that was able to effectively shut down

the nuclear program there,
and by some estimates,

set it back by one to three years.

That is a profound capability
if we do, in fact, have that capability.

[narrator]
But who are the secret stalkers

plotting to hack the servers
and systems at the Pentagon?

[Newman] I think it's widely believed
that the Chinese,

the Russians,
perhaps even some of our allies,

pay very close attention
to the Pentagon all the time.

[Harris] If you look at the people
who are trying to get

into military networks, it's going to be
everyone from foreign spies

to potentially even corporations

who are trying to get information
on their competitors.

But increasingly what the Pentagon
is really most worried about

are other governments,
militaries, foreign spies,

particularly in China,
which has been the source

of many of the attempted intrusions
and some of the successful ones.

And also in Russia,
where the intelligence services

are still very much interested
in what we are doing in our military.

[Ryan]
If the Internet is anonymous,

that means the attackers
have the full scope of the cyberspace

to be able to launch an attack

without being known
who they actually are.

So that's one of the big challenges
that we need to solve,

is know who the attacker is.

[narrator] As long as America
has enemies wishing to do it harm,

the Pentagon will be a tempting target
for a cyber or physical attack.

[Harris] It is a giant building.

It's very difficult to protect,
as 9/11 proved.

The military has put,
at various locations around Washington,

portable missile batteries
that are there in case

someone were to try and fly a plane
into the Pentagon or another building.

[narrator]
While the Pentagon

is the central headquarters
to the U.S. military,

are there secret outposts
that allow the armed forces

to operate
outside the Washington compound?

There are secure, undisclosed locations

that are in various places
that I will not tell you where they are.

[narrator] Some believe
there is a secret facility

built into the side of a mountain
in Raven Rock, Pennsylvania,

known as Site R.

Might this,
in fact, be a top secret location

of a second Pentagon?

It's a very sophisticated, big cave
that is built into the side of a mountain.

And this is the place where,
in the event of a nuclear war,

our country's leaders
were supposed to go

and continue running the country,
regardless of what had happened.

It is designed to withstand
a nuclear blast.

What you have inside
are all of the communications systems

that you need, that the president
and the defense secretary

would need
to give orders to the military.

The ability to launch
the strategic nuclear arsenal,

if necessary.

[narrator] For seven decades,

the Pentagon has been an icon
of American strength

and military excellence.

But for those who know
the structure best,

the secret to its national importance

extends far beyond the building itself.

The most extraordinary aspect
of this building is not the concrete.

It's not the limestone.

It's not the 17 and a half miles
of corridors.

It's the 23,000 people
who come to work here every day.

They are the most special part
of this building.

[Harris] This is where all
of the thinking about the future

of what threats look like occurs.

There probably is no more greater
collection of secrets

than what you have
within those five walls,

because, truly,
it is all about the preservation

of the national security
of the United States.

When people go to bed at nighttime
and go to sleep,

the Pentagon is always working.

There's people there
who are watching

what is going on around the world,

making sure our country is safe.

[narrator] While their methods
may be covert,

the men and women who work
at the Pentagon every day

are dedicated
to the building's core mission:

to defend and protect
the United States

from those
who would do America harm.