All language subtitles for CIA Vs Bin Laden First In (2021) Web-Rip ENG SUB 1080p

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A lapse in intelligence.

There was a sense that
we had let the country down.

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A wounded nation hungry for justice.

Their objective was to attack
the United States and to destroy it.

(SPEAKS ARABIC)

There was a drive to strike back

against the enemies
that had struck us.

And the hunt
for Osama Bin Laden begins.

But where to find him?

We were getting lots of false
sighting all over the world.

Now for the first time,
the CIA reveals

previously classified details
of the mission to kill Bin Laden.

We have a way of getting inside
Al Qaeda's tent.

This was the best kept secret
in my 33 years working for the CIA.

For all the things we tried to do
to make sure this went right...

..something wrong was happening.

This is the inside story of the hunt
for the most wanted terrorist

on the planet
by one of the world's most secret

and powerful organisations,
the Central Intelligence Agency.

We're telling the story now
because it needs to be told

by people that were directly
involved in the hunt for Bin Laden.

It is a moment in history
that needs to be captured

while everybody is still here
to capture it.

A bright September morning, 2001.

The day the world
is plunged into horror

as America faces the worst attack
on its homeland in history.

Holy shit!

Terrorists hijack
four passenger jets.

Two hit the towers of the
World Trade Centre in New York.

One slams onto the west wing
of the Pentagon.

And a fourth crashes
in Pennsylvania.

US President George W Bush,
promoting education reform

in Florida at the time,
is immediately evacuated.

I was in his small office
on air force one.

President looked at me in the eye
and said "Michael, who did this?"

I said, "Mr. President,

"I have not seen any intelligence
that would take us to a perpetrator

"so you're going
to get my best guess.

"There are a couple of nation States
that have the capability to do this,

"Iran and Iraq,
but I don't think either one of them

"has anything to gain
from doing something like this.

"I think when we get
to the end of the trail,

"we're going to find Al Qaeda,

"and we're going
to find Osama Bin Laden."

A few hours later,
the flight manifests

of one of the planes reveal three
known operatives from Al Qaeda,

a terrorist organisation
led by Osama Bin Laden

and his number two
Ayman Al Zawahiri.

This wasn't their first attack
on America.

A bomb under
the World Trade Center in 1993.

Two simultaneous attacks on
US Embassies in Kenya

and Tanzania in 1998.

And a small boat suicide strike
in Yemen

against the destroyer
USS COLE in 2000.

Years before 9/11, Al Qaeda
was tracked by CIA analysts

to anticipate
this ongoing threat.

They really began to conclude

there's a threshold somewhere,

but they hadn't reached it yet,

where they could hit
the United States,

kill Americans and there'd be
essentially no retaliation.

Their objective was to attack
the United States and to destroy it.

Pretty grandiose plan. It was like
an expanding terrorist universe.

Their propaganda
and their recruitment drives

were having some effect.

They were getting recruits
from all over the world,

including the United States,
Britain, France.

We had an innate feel
that this train was running over us.

We were preparing for something
like this, we expected it.

For us, it wasn't a question of
if it's going to happen,

it's when it's
going to happen.

Though the CIA attempted
to alert the policy makers

about the imminent threat
of a terrorist attack on US soil,

they failed to thwart
the 9/11 attack.

We had been able to warn,
at a strategic level,

clearly in the summer
of 2001.

Al Qaeda was getting prepared
for something,

but that very elusive
tactical threat,

specifically what and where,
we were unable to do.

There was a sense
that we had let the country down.

For CIA officers at the time,
it was a humiliation.

This was a very emotional moment,

besides the fact
the country had been hit,

but that the CIA
had not been able to prevent it.

There was a drive to strike back
against the enemies

that had struck us, and to deliver
vengeance and justice

to those that had killed so many.

It was highly personal
for many people.

The day after the attack,

President Bush
gathers his closest advisers.

He wants to strike back
fast and hard.

He needs to quickly decide
who will lead America's response

to the Al Qaeda attack...

..and the hunt for its leader
Osama Bin Laden.

President goes around the room
and says, "What do we do?"

And nobody has any answers
except CIA.

We were ready to go
and nobody else was.

Two men present the CIA plan
to the President...

..George Tenet,
director of the CIA,

and Cofer Black, director
of the Counterterrorism Center.

The strategy is to send
a few officers to Afghanistan,

where the Taliban had created
a haven for Al Qaeda.

The officers will recruit
Northern Alliance fighters,

opponents of the regime,

to help the United States defeat
the Taliban and find Osama Bin Laden.

We had to convince the President
that we could do this.

We're a civilian
intelligence agency.

We're not exactly known for leading
the nation's counterattack

into a remote corner of the world
against an entrenched enemy.

The order of battle
is something like 400 to one.

I underscored that, you know,

this is not going
to be a bloodless activity.

But by the time we're done,
enemy's going to have flies

walking across
their eyeballs.

I had to make absolutely sure
he understands

that there's going to be
casualties in this.

People are gonna die.

And he stared ahead
for like 10 seconds.

And he just said, "Cofer,
can you really do this?"

And I said, "There's no doubt
in my mind."

And he said, "That's what
I'm talking about. Go get him."

The Directorate of Operations,

which runs the CIA's
most sensitive covert campaigns,

recruits the key players
for this high-risk assignment.

Two days after the 9/11 attacks,
the CIA set up

a makeshift headquarters in Langley
for this top-secret mission.

Seven members are selected.

The team is called "Jawbreaker"

and comes under the direct authority

of the CIA
Counterterrorism Center.

Team leaders are Gary Schroen, 59,

one of the best
Afghanistan experts of the CIA,

and Phil Reilly,
former US Army special forces,

one of the most respected
CIA paramilitary officers.

Gary Schroen spoke
the language of the area,

he had been there before.

He had also had a relationship
with the Northern Alliance,

and we then identified
other teammates to come on board,

including one of the best field
medics in the CIA

and the best field communicator.

Besides gear and food,
the team is equipped with AK 47s,

9mm automatic pistols,

and $3,000,000 in cash in $100 bills,
packed in three boxes.

The money will ultimately be used
to recruit allies on the ground.

After a last meeting in Camp David
with the National Security Council,

President Bush
greenlights the CIA plan...

..declaring war against Al Qaeda
and the Taliban regime.

In Langley,
the Jawbreaker team assembles.

None of them were nervous.

They came in to make sure that
their insurance forms were done,

that their records are up to date,

wills were processed.
There weren't a big party.

There wasn't a farewell speech.

They just left and went to do
what they're supposed to do.

We deployed initially
to Germany and from there,

we then moved forward
on CIA air assets

in Tashkent, Uzbekistan
and then Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

We used a Soviet helicopter,
it was the only airlift we had

that had been used previously
to go into Afghanistan.

So, we had the means to get in.

CIA has many ways
to infiltrate people,

and we could have used other things,
but this was perfect.

It had a large internal
auxiliary fuel tank.

It was packed with all the gear
that we would need,

as well as $3 million
that we brought with us.

Two weeks after 9/11,
the Jawbreaker team deploys.

Next stop, Afghanistan.

We had to fly in
over what was called

the Anjuman Pass,
about 15,000 altitude.

It was a large, heavy helicopter.

You breathe a sigh of relief when
you were able to clear that pass

as to descend
into the Panjshir Valley.

One of the benefits of flying
in the Russian helicopter

was that the Taliban also had
some Russian airframes.

As we flew in,
we flew over a Taliban patrol,

and they looked up at us.

They didn't raise their weapons,
and I have to assume

they were thinking, "We're not
sure whose helicopter that is."

Had it been a Black Hawk or an
obvious US military helicopter,

they would have engaged it.

So, they didn't take a shot at us,

and that's fine
and we were able to get in.

As soon as they land in the middle
of the Panjshir Valley,

the team starts its mission,
meeting new allies

against the Taliban and funding them
to conduct the fight.

The Northern Alliance needed funds
to do certain things,

and that's what
the cash was for.

In addition, we were making contact
with other Afghan allies

that we thought
we could deal with.

Be it Uzbeks, be it
other Pashtuns in the South.

Part of the message was,
"You're on our team now."

It was also to say,
"You're now going to accept

"additional CIA personnel and us
military personnel into your ranks."

After Jawbreaker paves the way,
the US military enters the fight.

The US Army Green Berets
5th special forces group,

also called the 5th Legion,

is selected to bring
the fight to Afghanistan.

My mission was
to destroy the Taliban regime

and render Afghanistan unsafe
as sanctuary for Al-Qaeda.

It was both daunting
and intimidating,

and it was also like, "Wow, this is
a classic Green beret mission."

I mean, how many times do you get
told, "Go take down a country"?

By the end of October,
100 special ops

and CIA officers
are on the ground,

trying to raise thousands
of local soldiers

to fight alongside the US forces.

You're in the middle
of hundreds of people

that you've never seen before,
that all have AK's or RPGs.

You don't know how many of them
would just as soon cut your throat,

or maybe this warlord
will accept a bunch of money

from Bin Laden,
and they'll turn on us.

We were dressing like locals.

Everybody started
growing their beards.

I have the blanket on that
covered up my military equipment.

If you are someone far off,
trying to do an ambush or a sniper,

it would take you longer
to figure who I was.

So, it'd give me that little bit
more time and survivability.

In October, President Bush launches
operation Enduring Freedom,

deploying the power of the United
States Air Force to the region.

Bombers and fighter aircrafts

stand ready to blitz
the Taliban positions.

On the ground,
the Special Forces and CIA teams

identify targets one by one,

using advanced laser designators
to identify GPS coordinates.

It was a bit of Mad Max
meets Star Wars.

We were fighting, in some cases,
very primitive battle

on the ground,
and yet we're using

state-of-the-art technology
in other areas,

and our ability to bring
air power decisively

and very precisely was critical.

F14's, F16's, F15's, B52's, B1's,
everything in the US arsenal

that was available
that was dedicated to the fight

could drop a bomb.

In the White House,

George Bush's intelligence briefer
Michael Morrel

keeps the President informed
of the state of the mission.

I started showing the President,
you know,

these large military maps where
the Northern Alliance forces were,

where the Taliban forces were,
what's the intelligence

on where Bin Laden is.

And I remember,
the president's frustration

with how slow it was going.

So, the president would push
George Tenet almost every morning.

"George what's going on here?
How come these guys aren't moving?"

But once they did start moving,

they just cut through
the Taliban like butter.

The CIA's plan
is extremely effective.

The Northern Alliance takes
all the main cities of Afghanistan.

The campaign in many ways
came together

almost like water
flowing around a stream bed

on how the teams could inform us,
like a stain spreading.

Once that air campaign started,
they really did start to evaporate.

The enemy just dissipated,
just went away.

Those that stayed in fight died.

For Osama Bin Laden,
the end of the Taliban regime

leaves only one safe place,
the mountains.

In November,
the CIA intercepts a radio message

identifying
Osama Bin Laden's voice

coming from a cave complex
named Tora Bora,

located south
of the city of Jalalabad

and less than 10 miles
from the Pakistani border.

We knew that
it was almost impregnable,

but everyone was super excited.

I mean, this was the whole purpose.

This was the man behind 9/11.

In the final week of November,
a few Americans,

supported by Afghan guides,

leave Jalalabad to creep
into the mountains around Tora Bora.

These were the steepest mountains
I'd ever seen. And it was brutal.

And here we were
on this knife ridge,

and we knew we were, at that time,
the closest Americans

to where we thought Bin Laden was.

We were going to try
to soften up Al Qaeda

and get them to hole up
in their caves.

We hoped we might be able to get
some caves to collapse on them

and to kind of pin them in
so that the main force of Afghans

with some Americans
could come up the valley

and then go search the caves
and kill or capture

whoever was in the caves.

During the first two weeks
of December,

up to 100 airstrikes a day
are called in by troops

on the ground.

With reinforcements of special
forces and local fighters,

the net around
Tora Bora tightens.

The Pakistani government
deploys 4,000 frontier troops

to the border to intercept
anyone trying to flee.

Osama Bin Laden
and his closest associates

seem trapped
in their stronghold.

But a ground assault
on Tora Bora is risky.

The US wasn't in position
to suddenly fly

over battalions or brigades
worth of US Marines

or soldiers to come into
Tora Bora and take it.

And to plan that
would have taken forever.

It really looked, initially,
like that

if Bin Laden was going to make
his final stand,

that it was going to be very bloody
and very costly in US lives.

General Tommy Franks, commander
of operation Enduring Freedom,

decides on airstrikes
to decimate the Al Qaeda forces.

But by mid-December 2001,

the radio signals
from Osama Bin Laden stop.

The leader of Al Qaeda has escaped.

They were there,
in this very constrained area,

and if you don't block them
and engage them, they can escape.

It would have been really
an elegant end to this

if we had ended it right there.

We should have.
I'm bothered by that.

But you know,
I'm an intelligence officer.

I'm not a four-star general.

It's kind of like an end piece.

He was there and from that point,
he was gone.

I was the first person
to tell the president

that Bin Laden had escaped
from Tora Bora.

The president said, "Is there
anything new this morning?"

And I told him
that Bin Laden has escaped.

And he shot the messenger.
And he was very angry.

He said, "How could you
have let this happen?

"What is your plan going forward?"

After the failure of Tora Bora,

Al Qaeda operatives
who were hiding with Osama Bin Laden

escaped to Pakistan, Iran,

Yemen, or South-East Asia.

Coordinated by the CIA
and backed by allies

from foreign intelligence services,
the new war on terror goes global.

This infrastructure
was far more sophisticated

than we would have suspected.

It was chilling to see what was
being planned and organised.

New arrivals
in the camps were registered

and had to fill in a form.

They had to say
what they were prepared to do

and give details
of their background.

They had pooled on communities
in Europe, to find recruits

who had been brought
to those training camps

and essentially weaponised.

(SPEAKING FRENCH)

"There were French people
in Bin Laden's organisation.

"We discovered that these people
were more than ready

"to take action.

"And we knew that they would be
used primarily to strike

"in their own country, France.

"So, all the intelligence services
focused on learning

"new techniques apart
from traditional espionage.

"They had to neutralise the people
who had been involved

"in September 11,
and they also had to anticipate

"new acts of terror."

This was the birth
of a sort of industrialisation

of counter-terrorism techniques,
focused on developing

the intelligence that might disrupt
whatever was going to come next.

All of the allied services will have
been contributing into that effort.

In a period of 12 months,

we quadrupled the size
of the Counterterrorism Center.

It was the biggest entity
in the directorate

of operations within one year.

We were carrying weapons more than
we ever have in our history.

Our budget went through the roof,
over a billion dollars.

We needed to restructure
the Counterterrorism Center

and we needed to go after
the Al Qaeda leadership

one at a time,
wherever they may have gone.

For the US administration,
the fight against this new

and unpredictable enemy
becomes priority number one.

Military leaders and intelligence
leaders were saying,

"We need to bring
all parts of the government

"to bear on this, putting them
into a combined joint task force

"effort against Al Qaeda
and the highest targets."

The FBI agents wanted
to contribute so, we really brought

our forensic skills,
our investigative skills,

and we were looking
for information and intelligence

that would lead us
to high value targets.

The incident on
the American Airlines flight

is prompting
a new FAA security directive

to all airlines, ordering them
to take specific precautions.

By the end of 2001,
a second wave of attacks

on American soil
seemed imminent.

On December the 22nd, Richard Reid,

member of Al Qaeda, is arrested,
attempting to detonate a bomb

hidden in his shoe on a flight
from Paris to Miami.

Fear of another terrorist
strike grows.

Even worse,
intelligence suggests that Al Qaeda

has an Anthrax program in place,

and is developing weapons of mass
destruction, including dirty bombs.

The feeling in late 2001, 2002,

was that any day could be
the next attack.

And we would literally say
to each other,

"Is today the day
we get attacked again?"

We were at war.
There's no doubt about it.

The president of
the United States told us,

"Do not allow this
to happen again."

We were under tremendous pressure.

It's hard for us to imagine now
because the CIA leadership

had the weight of preventing
a future terrorist attack

on their shoulders.

And they were hearing it
from politicians,

from members of Congress who just
saying, "Whatever you have to do.

"Don't tell us, just stop another
attack from happening."

In March 2002, a joint operation

of the CIA and Pakistani
authorities captures Abu Zubaydah,

a potential high value target
within Al Qaeda

who could provide information
about future attacks

or about Osama Bin Laden.

This was someone that we needed
to interrogate ourselves.

Because nobody was going to
take care of our national security

as we were going to take care
of our national security.

We needed to actually
set aside the risks

and the political correctness

and interrogate him
away from the public light.

If we had brought him
to the US, he would lawyer up

and he would go through
the whole criminal procedure thing,

and we needed to get intelligence
on the plans and intentions

of Al-Qaeda for these different
threats that were coming at us.

Our interest was not
in building a case

so we could charge him
with a crime.

Our interest was to prevent another
major attack on the US.

The CIA brings Abu Zubaydah to what
will become known as a black site.

A secret prison in a foreign country

where prisoners can be interrogated
away from the US laws.

During this initial period,

he gave us a couple
of nuggets of information.

One of them, he confirmed
that Khalid Sheikh Muhammed

was the architect of 9/11.

But then, he stopped talking.
He would not talk anymore.

The president was asking us,

"What's he saying
about these other threats?"

Well, he wasn't saying anything.

And that's when we came up with
the enhanced interrogation program.

Enhanced interrogation program.

A list of authorised techniques

the CIA could use
to convince prisoners to talk.

Among them, dietary manipulation.

Slapping. Sleep deprivation.

And waterboarding,
which consists of pouring water

on the prisoner's
towel-covered face...

..to induce the perception
of drowning.

The whole objective
was to get them psychologically

to understand
that they had no hope.

They have no control
whatsoever of anything,

their sleep, their food, nothing.

And we would increase the pressure
until they finally agreed

to cooperate with us,
until they became compliant.

So, we went
to the Justice Department

and asked for a binding
legal opinion in writing

that said that the 10 techniques
that we were going to use

were legal, and we did not
move a finger until we get it.

These techniques
against Al Qaeda prisoners

will later raise endless debate
around the world,

launching dozens of commissions,

thousands of pages of reports
and scathing articles in the press.

For many people,

Enhanced Interrogation
is nothing less than torture.

Every meeting I was at, we said,
"This isn't gonna read well,

"it'll eventually leak out,"
but the mission had to be done.

We also knew that
there was no other option.

All the people
who were briefed in it,

and there was a significant number,
no one said, "Oh my gosh, stop it."

In 2002, the Bush administration

officially states that
the Geneva Convention

on the treatment of prisoners of war
does not apply

to the conflict with Al Qaeda.

The president approved the program,

and the National Security team
approve the program.

The congressional committees
are briefed.

Everybody was on board for this.

This enhanced interrogation program
was not just CIA's program.

This was America's program.

Today, the debate still rages.

A US Senate committee stated that
the CIA Interrogation Program

violated US law.

Didn't produce
any valuable intelligence.

And probably resulted
in false answers.

On the other side,
most of the officers involved

want to defend
enhanced interrogation

by declassifying
all the intelligence

gathered through the program.

They remain adamant,
they simply had no choice.

We were the ones in the arena.

We were the ones responsible
for protecting the country

and for saving American lives.

We did not hesitate to act,
we all recognised the risk involved.

I definitely believe
that at that moment,

that was the only move because these
people were not going to talk.

So, we needed this,
and we needed it urgently.

Somebody had to do this.

The CIA develops
its interrogation program

and establishes black sites
in six countries

to debrief
Al Qaeda detainees.

These became the little nodes
of information collection

where high-value targets would be
brought, so often blindfolded,

put in airplanes,
carried for long distances

and dropped into these places
where they could be pressured

to try to give up information.

Information is crucial
to preventing new attacks.

Working with
the Counterterrorism Center,

a new class of CIA analysts
called "targeters" join the hunt.

They collect intelligence
on every suspect.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,
Al Qaeda's number three man

and mastermind of the 9/11 attack
is arrested in 2003.

Abu Faraj Al-Libbi,
his successor in 2005.

The global hunt
for Al Qaeda leadership is on.

But while many Al Qaeda members
are eliminated,

the top leader
is still on the run.

Osama Bin Laden has simply vanished.

The analysts sat down and said,

"We think there's four vectors
to Bin Laden."

One is his family.

Maybe somebody
in his family will slip up

or we can follow someone
from his family.

The second was couriers.
Bin Laden was relying

on human beings to get those
letters to his lieutenants.

So maybe we can detect him,
you know, via a courier.

The third was his leadership.

Maybe they will know where he is
and won't be as careful as he is.

And the fourth one was,
he's making videos

and audio tapes.
Maybe with technology,

we can distil at least a location
that will narrow our search.

The CIA analysts use
advanced analytical software

to sift through the reams
of intelligence gathered.

Among the thousands
of names recorded

in the interrogation reports,
the analysts extract the name

of one individual who hasn't
been deeply investigated yet.

They believe he might hold the key.

His name, "Abu Ahmed Al-Kuwaiti",
an unidentified member of Al Qaeda.

We first hear about this guy
named Abu Ahmed Al-Kuwaiti in 2002

from a detainee
who's in the detention

of a North African country.

And this detainee says
that Abu Ahmed Al Kuwaiti

might be a courier for Bin Laden,
but he was a ghost.

We didn't know his true name.
We didn't know where he was.

We didn't know anything about him.

So now we ask every detainee,
both those in our own custody

and those in the custody
of other countries

about this guy named Abu Ahmed.

One of those individuals tells us

that not only might he be
a courier for Bin Laden,

but he might even be the kind of guy
who could be living with Bin laden.

So that took it up a notch.

Khalid Sheik Mohammed,

mastermind of 9/11, gets questioned
about Abu Ahmed Al-Kuwaiti.

We have all these
other detainees, saying,

"Yeah, we knew Abu Ahmed,"

and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed says,

"Never heard of the guy,
don't know him."

He was a tough guy.

All these people have huge egos,
and there are certain things

they're not going to tell you.

Khalid Sheik Mohammed
was not going to tell us anything

about where Bin Laden was.

But he had a system
of communicating

with the other prisoners
held at the black site.

He would pass messages hidden
in books that they were reading.

We discovered it, and we made
the decision to let it run

so we could read their mail.

And he told them to not say
anything about Al-Kuwaiti.

Nobody talk about the courier.

So now our interest
in Abu Ahmed goes sky high.

Later, Hassan Ghul,
another member of Al Qaeda,

gives valuable information
about Al Kuwaiti.

He basically said to us
that Al Kuwaiti

was the person that delivered
the letter to Abu Faraj Al-Libbi

from Bin Laden, appointing him
as the new chief of operations.

That's a big decision.

It's an executive decision,
coming from Osama Bin Laden.

So, we knew we were onto something.

For years, the CIA analysts
will work on the Al-Kuwaiti lead,

trying to determine his real name
and where they could find him.

But in the meantime, the war
against terrorism still rages.

And Al Qaeda is far from defeated.

The spectre of Osama Bin Laden's
call for jihad

brings a suicide bombing
in Madrid in 2004.

And in London in 2005.

There's been reports
of an explosion.

The latest we're hearing is that
several London Underground stations

have been evacuated.

(SPEAKING FRENCH)

"Terrorist groups need leaders,

"and the key strength of these
characters is their ability

"to recruit, to convince and
to gather followers to take action.

"Bin Laden was the supreme symbol
of Islamist violence

"against our societies."

On the 7th of July 2005,
when we were attacked,

it was lethal,
and it shocked us.

7/7 taught us a savage lesson.

You can't look at terrorism
as an isolated or domestic problem.

You've got to look at it
as a network.

People are streaming out
of Aldgate Tube station,

covered in blood.

That 2005/6/7 time period

was a period of resurgence
for Al Qaeda.

There was great concern
that there were going to be

another wave of attacks.

Analysts were working hand in glove
with the operational folks

who were working with their
foreign counterparts to drive

the specific operations that were
taking people off the battlefield.

Al Qaeda operatives
are targeted one by one.

And the death toll for the terrorist
organisation reaches a peak.

But the main target
defies detection...

..the untraceable
Osama Bin Laden.

We were getting lots of false
sightings all over the world.

There'd be these bits
and dribbles of intel coming in.

"Oh, we saw him
in a market in Peshawar.

"We saw him in Karachi."

We had a guy who said he knows him
and saw him in Africa.

"He was doing a deal in Africa."

All these leads have to be run down.

Osama bin Laden had phenomenal
operational security,

and he knew it.

In 2009,
the new President Barack Obama

appoints Leon Panetta
as the new director of the CIA.

By the time I became
director of the CIA,

all of the efforts that had been
involved in trying to locate

Bin Laden had led nowhere.

Every lead had gone cold,

there was just no real evidence
of where he might be located.

Some thought he might be dead.

The analysts won't give up.

As they work on identifying
Bin Laden's courier, Al-Kuwaiti,

a new asset
catches their attention.

A mysterious blogger using the pen
name of Abu Dujana Al-Khorasani.

He was a doctor.

And he had a hobby on the side,
which was to be kind of

an online rabble rouser
for the cause of jihad...

..and became a very prominent voice

within the Jihadi community, with
many followers around the world.

He was urging them to do acts of
violence to attack American targets.

The Jordanian Intelligence services,
faithful ally of the CIA,

uncover the identity
of this online jihadist.

Humam Khalil Al-Balawi.

They arrest him and pressure him
to become a double agent.

They go to his house, pull him out,

take him to a cell,
interrogate him for several days.

And this doctor,
having never been arrested before,

flips fairly quickly
and agrees to become an informant

for the Jordanians,
and by extension for the Americans.

For several months, Al Balawi
gives information about Al Qaeda

to his Jordanian handlers, who pass
it to the CIA for assessment.

It was clear to the CIA
that the information

from this new informant was
best stuff they'd seen in years.

This unknown informant becomes
a rockstar because he starts

to deliver real-time information

that the CIA knows about
and can check.

And Balawi himself
actually raises the possibility

that he could go to
the tribal areas of Pakistan,

volunteers as a medical worker,
and perhaps learn things there.

The Federally Administrated Tribal
Area, or The FATA...

..is a region of Pakistan where
Al Qaeda has found a safe haven

and that the Pakistani government
doesn't even try to control anymore.

We were constantly
trying to figure out

how do we gain access
and insight into those regions,

and if you want
to understand and learn

what's happening
in a place like the FATA,

you have to find people that have
a reason to be in the FATA,

whether they live there,
they travel there,

they have family members there,
and all you need is one,

but the likelihood
that you're going to get that one

that has the direct access
that you need is really hard.

For the CIA, the chance to have
eyes and ears in this region

is invaluable
and impossible.

Until now.

It occurs to everyone at Langley

that we've got
a really important asset.

And this search for Bin Laden

that has gone so cold
for so long has new potential.

We have a way of getting
inside Al Qaeda's tent.

A plan was devised to bring Balawi
into a meeting with the Americans

because he had never met
any of the CIA officers at all.

So, it seemed imperative
to bring him to a place

where he could be debriefed,
examined, questioned.

And then give him a mission.

Once we find out
what his capabilities truly are,

then you can arm him,
do something important.

You can have him bring us
to Bin Laden himself.

The meeting will take place
in the CIA station

inside Camp Chapman,
a high security US military base

in the Afghan city of Khost,
10 miles from the Pakistani border.

The plan is for Al Balawi
to secretly drive across the border

to avoid being spotted
by Al Qaeda members.

Khost is a remote,
rugged, difficult place.

Everybody knows everybody
in that region.

And so, if you're new to that area,
you're going to stand out

and there's not too many reasons
to pop up in Khost Afghanistan.

Balawi said he was nervous.

He didn't want to be identified
by local informants.

And so, he set the terms
that he'd not be searched,

that no one manhandle him

as he was being escorted into
the base to meet his CIA handlers.

From the CIA's point of view,
he was a very vulnerable person.

They acknowledged that
the legitimacy of his worry

that he
might be recognised by someone.

There could be a Taliban informant

inside the base that would
see him and betray him.

That was a real concern.

And so, they were willing
to put aside

some of the normal protocols
and precautions

because this guy was so important,

and they really wanted
to protect him.

When you're developing
a relationship

with a potential source,
you always weigh risk versus gain.

The risk of course
is that source could lie to you.

But the urgency
of getting the information

when it looks as if you can
pinpoint a person like Bin laden

or Al Zawahiri, clearly propels you
to weigh on the side of gain.

The first meeting with AL Balawi
is set for the end of the afternoon.

The CIA Station officers,

protected by CIA
security personnel,

gather outside,
waiting for his car to arrive.

Our first meeting with
a potential source is critical.

You get a chance to look
at his body language,

to see how he talks,
how he responds to questions.

You also want to probe
his motivation a little bit.

How sincere is that motivation?

A crucial part of a meeting
with a source like that

is that you also want
to establish some rapport.

It's not a hostile interrogation.
It's a debriefing.

As the CIA agreed,
the director of base security

instructed his team to waive
the usual security protocols

for this unknown vehicle
entering the base.

He went through one checkpoint,

the guards turned the other way
and didn't look at him.

He went through a second one.

To a third one.

Got a pass to get
into the CIA inner sanctum.

And at no point was searched,

examined, questioned
until he was in the presence

of the large group of CIA officers
who were eager to meet him.

The intelligence officers
gathered around his car.

When he got out, the security people
noticed something wrong.

They told him to raise his hands.

And he set off a suicide vest.

It's believed to be
one the deadliest attacks

in the agency's history.

The bomber apparently just
walked up to them on the base

and detonated
his suicide vest.

How did this bomber
get past three layers of security?

The quiet doctor, online jihadist,

and new recruit to spy
on Al Qaeda for the CIA,

was in fact a triple agent,
ready to die for his cause.

The one thing you learn in this
business is that intelligence people

really do have to put
their lives on the line.

Of course, it's risky. Were mistakes
made in the security process?

Probably.

But bottom line is they had
the courage to basically go through

with that meeting, take
the chances that they had to take.

Every one of the families
of those who had died said,

"Please continue the mission that
our loved one was involved with."

They paid with their lives,
but in many ways,

they did not die in vain
because their death inspired others

to keep fighting for the mission.

The Camp Chapman ambush
must not go unpunished.

Al-Kuwaiti is the CIA's last hope
of finding Osama Bin Laden.

And the analysts are closing in.

Over the years,
they've gathered information

from detainees and foreign services

about the mysterious courier.
Al-Kuwaiti speaks Pashto.

He has seven brothers.

His nom de guerre refers
to the fact

that his parents have Pakistani
roots but now live in Kuwait.

By cross-referencing
this intelligence

with the gigantic database
on Al Qaeda members,

they have narrowed down the
identity of Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti.

The prime suspect now
has a name, Ibrahim Saeed.

Those people worked for years
to try to find the right lead.

Linking those two names together

based upon what CIA knew about
the courier was a work of art.

But no one knows
where to find Ibrahim Saeed.

The CIA keeps Saeed's family under
constant surveillance in Kuwait.

Phones are tapped.
Conversations recorded.

Saeed uses several phones which he
randomly activates and deactivates.

They are geolocated
in Northern Pakistan,

sometimes in Rawalpindi,
other times in Peshawar.

Until one day.

During one of those conversations,
he says something to the effect

that "I'm working with people
I used to work with before."

That's when the lead starts
to knit together

that Ibrahim and Al-Kuwaiti
are the same person.

Ibrahim Saeed's short,
innocuous comment

might be the first mistake
he's made in nine years.

The CIA launches
its full resources to find him.

Teams deploy undercover in Pakistan

where Al-Kuwaiti
often makes his phone calls.

A CIA surveillance team,
now permanently stationed

in Peshawar, patiently wait for
Al-Kuwaiti to turn on his cellphone.

It isn't easy just to just
put people on the ground.

They have to do it secretly, right?

You don't want to be found.

And you certainly don't want
the target to see you.

For several weeks,
the CIA team lays low. Waiting.

They didn't know exactly
what Al Kuwaiti looked like.

They didn't know what kind
of vehicle they'd been.

Until one day, Al Kuwaiti activates
his phone very close to them.

When the phone turns on of course,

they try to get closer
to the source of the phone.

The issue was to find the signal

and find somebody on the phone
close to the signal.

Nine years after 9/11,
the CIA is finally about

to identify the one man who might
lead them to Osama Bin Laden.

And ultimately, they identify
the vehicle the target is using,

a white Suzuki
kind of Jeep thing.

And Al-Kuwaiti was in the vehicle.

The CIA now has a face
to put with the name.

They confirm that Ibrahim Saeed
Ahmed is Al-Kuwaiti.

And now they've got eyes on him.

They followed this little
white SUV with the courier

from Peshawar to Abbottabad

which is near the Capital
in Pakistan.

And the SUV pulled into a compound.

Abbottabad is a city
of two million people.

The compound, in a residential area,

is not even two miles from the
Military Academy of Pakistan.

The CIA sets up a surveillance team.

It was clear that we had
found something unique,

in the existence
of this compound.

It involved the couriers who had
served Bin Laden in the past.

And it was clear that they were
conducting their pattern of life

each day with high security.

They would travel 90 miles away
in order to make a phone call.

And as you piece together
each of these elements,

I think at that point,
deep down, I felt just maybe,

for the first time
in over 10 years...

..we may be close
to finding Bin Laden.

The compound had 12-foot walls

and in some places
18-foot-high walls.

It had large field
on one side of it, very open.

The design of the compound itself
had a driveway

with walls on either side
so if you were stood in

even in the gate and looked in,

you couldn't see laterally
into the courtyards.

It had balconies that had
seven-foot-high walls on them,

so if you're looking
at the balconies,

you couldn't see the people
sitting on the balcony

or standing on the balcony.

They burn their trash
inside the compound.

Further collection
against the target

did not reveal any electronic
signals coming off the target.

And the compound itself
cost a lot of money to build.

The next step obviously
was to continue surveillance

on the compound try, to determine
whether or not Bin Laden

was really there,
but it was important enough

to ask for a meeting
with the President.

And we went to the White House
and we described what we had found.

And I remember the president
giving us two very clear orders

at the end of that meeting.

Number one, "Leon, Michael,

"find out what the hell
is going on inside that compound.

"Number two, don't tell anybody.

"Nobody else knows
about this, except us."

It would take only one leak,
only one,

that we might be on to Bin Laden,
and he'd be gone.

This was the best kept secret
in my 33 years working at CIA.

For months, the CIA analysts
struggle to collect

more intelligence
on who lives in the compound.

At the end of 2010,

overhead surveillance
reveals an unidentified man.

They nickname - the pacer.

He would come into the yard,
walk in circles, you know,

maybe 10 or 12 times,

and then go back inside
like a prisoner.

I said, "For goodness sakes,
this could be Bin Laden.

"It looked like an old gentleman,
get me a picture,

"a facial identification.

"Give me a camera,
give me a telescope, you know,

"give me something."

And I remember saying to them,

"Look, I've seen movies
where the CIA can do this."

And we all laughed,
but, to their credit,

they tried everything they could to
try to identify who this person was.

We tried to get a fix on his height,
and the answer that came back

from the National Geospatial
Intelligence Agency was,

"He's somewhere between
five and seven feet tall."

So not exactly helpful.

Despite the efforts, the pacer
will never be clearly identified.

It turns out though that we learned
that there's a third family

living in the compound,

and that that third family
never leaves the compound.

How do you learn this?
I can't tell you.

We assess that that third family
is what we would expect to be

with Bin Laden
at that point in his life,

number of wives, age of the kids.

We learn that Abu Ahmed
is still working for Al-Qaeda.

So one of our concerns
was maybe this guy doesn't work

for Al-Qaeda anymore,
maybe this is a drug dealer

who lives in this place,
or an organised crime boss

and Abu Ahmed is working for him.

But we learn that Abu Ahmed
is still working for Al Qaeda.

And how do you learn that?
I can't tell you.

How the CIA collected this crucial
intelligence is still classified.

But for the analysts,
it made the case more solid.

We got enough information
that it added a level of confidence

that tipped the balance.

Very seldom in intelligence
you get perfect knowledge,

in fact you'd never get
perfect knowledge.

How much more could we do without
the risk of alerting the people

in the compound to the fact that
we were operating in this area?

How long can you keep it secret?

Ultimately inside CIA, we did a
conference to ask for assessments.

And they asked me, and I said,

"Well, I'm 95% sure he's there, and
we can't leave Hitler in his bunker.

"We've got to take him."

For me there was enough
intelligence there to act.

The CIA briefs the President.

We said, "We think
Bin Ladin is there."

he asked us, "How would you
go about getting this guy?."

And we realised pretty quickly that
we need the military's help here,

and the president authorised us
to bring the military in.

I was asked to assist
in developing operational options

with some CIA planners,
if we were to be asked for that

from the president...

..and to bring in Admiral
Bill McRaven,

who would command the operation,

a three-star Navy Admiral
and a Navy seal by profession.

The President and his closest
advisors evaluate two main options,

an airstrike on the compound,

or a special forces raid
by helicopter.

The airstrike seems the safest
choice but has major downsides.

The challenge with
a big air strike on the house

was that there would be
collateral damage.

All the other occupants of
that house would be killed too,

and there were some
22 other women and children.

The magnitude of the air strike

would also kill people
in immediately adjacent areas.

And you don't know in the aftermath

of whether you killed
Bin Laden or not.

The president rejects the airstrike,

and chooses to send a team
of commandos via helicopter.

The unit chosen by the
Joint Special Operations Command

to conduct the assault
is Seal Team 6.

Often considered
the best of the best.

The assault squadron
that was chosen to go

was Red Squadron
at Seal Team 6.

They showed up
and they realised that, hey,

they weren't there for an exercise,
they were there to go after

Bin Laden, and then we began
training immediately.

The plan
was two helicopters coming in.

The one that was hovering
between the main building

and the kind of ancillary building

where one of the couriers
was living,

that group of 12 guys,
half went to the bottom floor

of the main compound.

And the other half
went to deal with that courier.

The second bird came in fast
roped onto the roof.

And those guys were
to make their way down

where Bin Laden was, and they
would sandwich him if you will.

After three weeks of training,

Admiral Mac Raven
confirms to the President

and the CIA director
that the Squadron assault team

is "mission-ready."

The Seals are cleared to deploy
to the US military base

in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

In Washington DC, it's time
to make the final decision.

Pursuant to our constitution,
the President of the United States

at that time, Barack Obama
was the commander in chief.

So it was his decision
on whether or not

we were going to go forward
with the raid to hopefully bring

to justice the person who was
behind the attack at 9/11.

It's huge because
you don't want a world war,

you deal with other countries,
it could impact your allies.

We had to send US forces
across a nation state border,

into their country, armed,
to try to effectuate

an arrest of an
internationally known terrorist.

After the five months
of reviewing the information,

there really weren't
any more Republican

and Democrat ideas about this.

I'm a Republican,
the president was a Democrat.

To me it didn't matter.

We understood the weight
of this decision.

My best role was if something goes
wrong, I will stand next

to the president and say that I
thought this was the right decision.

Almost 10 years
after the 9/11 attack,

only a few people
in Washington know that the hunt

for Osama Bin Laden
might end in the next few hours.

Barack Obama
has made his crucial decision.

In the morning, Tom Donilon,
the National Security Advisor,

called Leon Panetta and said,

"The President
has approved the mission.

"It's a go. All the details
are in Admiral McRaven hands."

I got a phone call
from Panetta, and he said,

"You know, that thing
we've been working on,

"well, it's going
to happen this weekend. Goodbye."

That was it. I'll never forget
the phone call again.

The night has fallen on the US
military base in Jalalabad.

The Seals are ready
to launch this very special mission,

probably one of the most important
since World War 2.

The mission was a kill mission.

We were not supposed
to capture Bin laden.

It was the order from Bill McRaven,

but it was also signed off
by the President of United States.

At that level, the President's
got to agree to it.

Every other mission we do
is kill or capture,

and this time
we're going to tell them

it's essentially an assassination.

But it came down to,
do we want to take him back,

have him stand trial
and expose possibly the sources

and means that were used
to find him?

And that wasn't worth it.
And I totally agree with that.

President Obama
and his national security council

gather in the
White House situation room.

The CIA team monitors
the operation in Langley.

We had a direct connection
with Bill McRaven,

and he was giving us a blow
by blow of what was happening.

The helicopters from the 160th
Special Operations Regiment,

known as The Night Stalkers,

leave Jalalabad airbase
at 10 pm local time.

Two modified Black Hawks
with a very low radar signature

will carry the Seal Team,
while two larger chinooks

will serve as a quick reaction force
in case the Seals need backup.

The helicopters flew
to a ground lager site

where they dropped
the quick reaction force.

And from that point,
the helicopters made

that Southern leg
into the target.

And it was about two minutes out
when they came out

of the mountains, and at that point,
could be seen by Pakistani radar.

A few minutes before the helicopters
reach the target,

the CIA intercepts a signal.

In the compound, a cellphone
the CIA had not identified before

is activated.

We heard the communications
coming off of that.

And the last communication was one
brother calling another brother

and he said,
"They've come from above."

And those were effectively
his last words that were recorded.

They were now going to be awake.

So, it was more likely to be
a gunfight than anything else.

That was my concern.

The other concern as well
was if a call has gone

to wake up Bin Laden,
the Pakistani military

knew that something was going on
in their own backyard there.

The timer is on,
and from the time that call came,

we figured the guys had 30 minutes

until the Pakistanis
would mount a response.

The two helicopters
reach the target at midnight.

We were able to follow
those helicopters into Pakistan

and we had a surveillance
over the compound itself

when the helicopters arrived.

We actually saw
the helicopter kind of wobble.

As we're watching those birds
coming over the compound,

for me, in slow motion.

The one that was between those
two houses is supposed to stop.

You know, when you fast rope,
the helicopter stops,

out goes the ropes,
guys slide down the rope.

It never stopped.

There were walls, and it did
not allow the air to disperse.

It drove that dirty air,

as helicopter pilots call it,

back up into the rotors
and it lost power.

And, when it loses power,

it's just sliding off the target
and then turns slowly clockwise,

and then you see it
sit down there in the animal pen.

And I remember,
at that very moment,

you have that sense,
"What's happening?."

There was a shock
in everybody's face.

It's that moment
when you're thinking

for all the planning, for all
the work, for all of the things

we tried to do to make sure
this went right,

something wrong was happening.

Is it going to destroy the mission?

The pilot avoids a crash,
landing the helicopter

in the animal pen
near the main house.

The Black Hawk is destroyed,
but everyone is safe.

I asked McRaven,
who I was in radio contact with,

"What the hell
is going on, Bill?"

And he didn't miss a beat.
He said, "There's no problem.

"We're going to continue
with the mission.

"I've got backup helicopters
coming in, they're going to breach

"through the walls
and they're going to go in

"and complete the mission."

And I said, "God, bless you.
Let's go!"

There was no time to
be concerned

because the helicopter lands,

and the guys
are out of there instantly.

When the helicopter went down hard,

the neighbourhood woke up,
so people were turning on

their lights, people were coming
out wondering what's going on here.

So, it was a race
against time at that point.

The second helicopter
basically sees his buddy

had issues and said, "Uh oh"
and went immediately

to his alternate landing site
which was outside the compound.

And the guys jumped
out of the helicopter

and ran to the door
that they were going to use

as an alternate entry point,
then recognise that that door

had been blocked up from the inside.

So, you had the team outside
and the team inside.

The team inside still had
to come over the wall

that separated the animal pen
from the, from the houses.

So, they came over to that wall.

The team outside, couldn't get in.

So, the senior operator on the
ground said, "Hey, I got you,"

walked right up
to those double doors,

opened the doors
from the inside.

And the guys came flooding in,
and then everybody of course

had to go through the ground floor
door and make their way to the top.

The one team
that went to the courier

that was living in the outside
house got into a gunfight.

Al-Kuwaiti is down.

Guest house secured.
One tango kilo.

The team enters the main house
from the ground floor.

On the first floor,
the second courier was there.

When the operator entered,
up came his gun,

his wife jumps in front of him,
and the wife took the first round.

And the courier
took the second round.

That is not the way
we like to do business,

but we recognise
that those things happen.

We're able to hear what's going on.
We hear gunfire.

They're breaching through the walls

and then going through the walls,
so we know something's going on.

It's obvious they've run
into opposition.

The guys then had
to breach the doors,

they would drop
off to cover dead spaces,

places that you can't see behind
where somebody might be hiding.

A heavy metal door
blocks the stairwell

between the ground floor
and the 2nd floor,

impeding access to the upper floors.

Khalid? Khalid?

Bin Laden's son came
down the steps.

They shot him there.

The Seals can now
secure the 2nd floor.

In the bedrooms,
they find children

and two women
who they search and detain.

2nd floor secured.

The seals approach the 3rd floor

where Osama Bin Laden
should be hiding.

Osama. Osama.

Bin Ladin came out onto a landing.

They took a shot at him
which hit him in the side.

They made their way up the steps.

The first guy entered the room,
did not engage Bin Ladin.

The second guy enters the room,

and Bin Laden
is just standing there,

There is an AK 47 close to him,

but he has no intention
of reaching for it.

And he took the shot
from just a few feet away.

Compound secured. Geronimo.

The people at CIA headquarters
in Langley

hear on the radio feed the
Seals declaring... Geronimo.

..the code word to indicate
that Bin Laden has been killed.

And then McRaven says,
"I think we have a Geronimo,"

and I'm not sure
what's going on then.

It's about 15 minutes,
the longest in my lifetime.

And I was waiting
and basically saying,

"Do we or don't we have Geronimo?"

And then McRaven came back
and said, "We have a Geronimo."

We had Bin Laden.

Target acquired.
Osama Bin Laden is dead.

But the mission isn't quite over.

On the ground,
the timer is ticking.

The seals need to leave before
the Pakistani Authorities show up.

Chinooks from the quick reaction
force race to the exfiltration site.

But first, the crashed helicopter
must be destroyed.

It was important
to blow up the helicopter

because it had the stealth
technology on the skin.

We did not want the Pakistanis
to hand it over to the Chinese.

The other part of the team

was gathering as much
information as they could,

digital information,
all the papers,

and stuff that they found.
As they were calling in

those helicopters to come
and get them for their extraction.

The two helicopters came in,

landed approximately
in the same place

where the helicopter
that didn't crash

landed outside the compound.

The guys made their way
out of the compound

and into those two helicopters
and then took off from there.

They actually stayed
on target, 38 minutes,

so eight minutes
longer than we had planned.

The Pakistani Airforce
won't react fast enough

to intercept the helicopters.

The Seal team can fly
back to Jalalabad airbase

without being targeted.

Once they're back in Afghanistan,
the Seals are safe.

And now the issue is,
was it Bin Laden or not?

You had a resemblance to Bin Laden,
but he was shot in the face.

Being shot in the face is not like
it is on TV with a small hole.

There's not much of the face left,
so you can't clearly identify him.

But the president wanted to be sure.

So, CIA did some facial recognition
and DNA analysis.

We were able, at that point,

to actually confirm
that it was Bin Laden.

So, at that point the President
felt confident enough

to go out and tell the nation.

Tonight, I can report
to the American people

and to the world that
the United States has conducted

an operation that killed
Osama Bin Laden,

the leader of Al Qaeda.

And a terrorist who's responsible
for the murder of thousands

of innocent men, women and children.

Honestly 10 years later,

any of us talking about this,
I can still feel

all of the ups and downs,
the nerves, the fears,

the elation that maybe
we had a lead,

the fact that, "Oh wow
they're actually going to do this."

Last August,
after years of painstaking work

by our intelligence community,

I was briefed on a possible lead
to Bin Laden.

A small team of Americans
carried out the operation

with extraordinary courage
and capability.

So that night, in my small way,
I was part of this.

I've done an awful lot in my career

and cool stuff and important stuff,
but rarely is it public.

Let us remember that we can do these
things not just because of wealth

or power, but because of who we are,
one nation, under God,

indivisible, with liberty
and justice for all.

Narrator: Right after
Barack Obama's announcement,

outside the White House and in cities
and towns across the United States,

people gathered to celebrate
this historic moment.

Everybody's shared this moment,

almost as we did
after the bombing of 9/11,

where the whole country,
coming together

and feeling that justice
had been served.

There had been a concluding chapter

to this terrible event
in American history.

To be able to walk outside
and hear people yelling "USA, USA",

the first
sense was tremendous pride,

in what the intelligence officers
and the military officers

had accomplished.

And that we had accomplished
something that I thought

was really important,
not only to the families

of all of those that had lost
their lives on 9/11,

but I thought
it was a really important message

to send the world -
that nobody attacks our country

and gets away with it.

This is probably
the greatest accomplishment

that the CIA has done
in its history.

I think in many ways,
it was not just healing

for the country,
it was also healing for the CIA.

The people at the CIA
are extremely resilient.

"Yes, we're going to mourn.

"Yes, we're going to bury our dead
and honour them,

"and then we're gonna honour them
by finishing the fight."

That's what CIA is
in business to do.

We take risks, steal secrets,

do things that other people
can't do.

But I'm not a hero.

I did my job and did it
as well as I could.

The heroes are the people
that died at Khost...

..the heroes are the people
that are on the wall at CIA.

Heroes died on 9/11.
They're heroes.

Captioned by Ai-Media
ai-media.tv