All language subtitles for Historys.Greatest.Mysteries.S07E20.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

- [Laurence] Tonight,
the attack that

struck the heart of America

and the relentless hunt to
finally find the man behind it.

- [Kevin] It's an
audacious attack.

To hijack airplanes and

fly them into buildings

exploited all of our weaknesses.

- [Nick] Between
Shanksville, the Pentagon,

and the World Trade Center,

nearly 3,000 Americans
lost their lives.

- Suspicion soon
turns to one man.

- [Dina] The world found out
that Osama bin Laden

was behind 9/11 pretty

quickly after it happened.

- [Juliette] The hunt for
bin Laden begins.

The United States will get him

either dead or alive.

- [Paul] All of the resources
of the American military

and intelligence agencies are

deployed to destroy one man.

And for 10 years, they can't
find him, they can't kill him.

- Now, we explore
the top theories

in the hunt for bin Laden,

leading to his
unforgettable takedown.

- [Kavitha] He might be headed
toward his old stomping ground,

the mountains in Tora Bora,

the tribal areas of Pakistan,

or a highly fortified compound.

- [Martin] SEAL Team 6
awaits their go order,

but no one will know if Osama
bin Laden is in that compound

till those walls are breached.

- Where is the world's most
wanted terrorist hiding?

[dramatic music]

[eerie music]

It' early afternoon
on September 11, 2001,

Americans are in shock from
the morning's deadly attacks.

President George W. Bush,
flying on Air Force One,

summons his CIA briefer
for a private conversation

to discuss who might
be responsible.

- [Martin] This is the deadliest
terrorist attack

on American soil, and it
is a blatant act of war.

As the president is briefed,

He is told that the attack
is carried out by 19 members

of the terrorist
organization, al-Qaeda,

the leader of which
is Osama bin Laden.

- [Laurence] Before 2001,
Osama bin Laden is already

one of the most dangerous
terrorists in the world,

dedicated to committing
deadly strikes

against American targets.

44-year-old bin Laden is now
the world's most wanted man.

- [Kavitha] Osama bin Laden was
born in Saudi Arabia.

He's the 17th of 52 children,

and his father is a billionaire

construction mogul with
connections to the Saudi royals.

- Bin Laden had a
privileged childhood.

He grew up attending
the most elite schools

in his country,
studying economics.

He could have gone on to be a
billionaire like his father,

but he was also driven by
devout Sunni Muslim beliefs.

- [Paul] Even as a young man,

bin Laden was pretty
religiously rigid.

[missiles booming]

Then, in 1979

the Soviet Union
invaded Afghanistan.

And Afghanistan resistance
fighters essentially portrayed

this throughout the
Muslim world as a fight

between godless communism
and Islam itself.

- [Nick] Bin Laden starts
to get radicalized

by what he's seeing the
Soviets do in Afghanistan,

so much so that he joins
the Islamic resistance

and he starts fighting
the Soviets himself,

until 1988, when the
Soviets are defeated.

- [Paul] Initially, bin Laden
goes back to Saudi Arabia

and fears that
Western influences

are corrupting the youth

and pulling them away
from the ideals of Islam.

- The formation of al-Qaeda

was sort of a
natural progression.

He wanted some sort of group
that he could be in control of

to drive Westerners
out of Muslim lands

as they had done
for the Soviets.

In 1998, during an interview

with an ABC News correspondent
named John Miller,

[Osama speaking in Arabic]

Osama bin Laden
declared war on camera

against the United States.

Two months after that interview,

the embassy bombings happened.

- [Kavitha] On the morning of
August 7th, 1998,

in nearly simultaneous attacks,

suicide bombers detonate
trucks full of explosives

at the US embassies in
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

and Nairobi, Kenya.

224 people are killed and
more than 4,000 are injured.

- [Lis] Two years later in
Yemen, the USS Cole,

a US naval destroyer,
is also attacked.

Two terrorists drove up
alongside in their boat

filled with explosives,
blowing a massive hole

in the side of the boat
and killing 17 sailors.

- [Nick] With this string of
successful suicide attacks,

al-Qaeda is only growing more
confident and more powerful.

And it's in the summer of
2001 that President Bush

gets a briefing from the CIA

that al-Qaeda is
planning another attack.

- [Dina] There were little red
flags that were coming up,

but the CIA is not supposed
to be investigating

on American soil,

and the FBI is supposed to
be more law enforcement.

So there were suspects that
one or the other knew about,

but they weren't
connecting the dots.

The memo went to
President Bush that said,

"Osama bin Laden is determined
to attack on American soil."

But no one anticipated
that what they would do

is take airplanes and
fly them into buildings.

- [Juliette] September 11th
comes, a beautiful morning,

with most people none the wiser.

By the evening of
September 11th,

it's clear that America

is going to war.

- I've directed the full
resources of our intelligence

and law enforcement communities

to find those responsible
and to bring them to justice.

- [Paul] The American public
demands an aggressive response

and wants revenge after 9/11.

But the idea of capturing
or killing Osama bin Laden

is easier said than done.

- [Kavitha] While the
US knows that he's

somewhere in Afghanistan,

he's effectively undetectable.

Bin Laden is a master
at living off the grid.

Back in 1997, he
stopped using all forms

of electronic communication,

and he's protected
by the Taliban,

an Islamic
fundamentalist movement

that serves as the country's
de facto government.

- The United States of
America will not permit

the world's most
dangerous regimes

to threaten us with the world's
most destructive weapons.

[congress applauding]

- [Laurence] On September
20, President Bush issues

an ultimatum to the Taliban

to hand over bin Laden
and the terrorists

or share in their fate.

The Taliban refuses to comply.

- [Juliette] Just two weeks
after September 11,

President Bush authorizes
a small elite team

of CIA operatives to go into
Afghanistan and kill bin Laden.

- [Kavitha] Within the CIA,
the instructions are

a bit more explicit.

They are to kill him
and bring back his head

in a box of dry ice.

But first, they
have to find him.

- [Paul] Osama bin Laden
stands out in a crowd.

He's 6'4", he absolutely

towers over the average Afghan,

so you'd think it would be
easier to track this man down.

But bear in mind
that this is the area

from which Osama
bin Laden fought off

the Soviet invasion
of Afghanistan.

The terrain is an
absolute nightmare.

The Hindu Kush Mountains
range over 20,000 feet

in a lot of places.

It's riddled with tunnels
and caves and fortifications.

- [Dina] It's hard to find a
needle in that kind of haystack,

and that's essentially what
they were being asked to do.

So instead, a bunch of CIA guys

with big suitcases full of money

came in to see if
somebody would tell them

where Osama bin
Laden actually was.

- [Martin] They have
$3 million in cash,

which is intended to gather
intelligence information,

and they quickly realize
that he is probably located

somewhere near the spiritual
heart of the country,

the city of Kandahar.

[tense music fading]

It would make sense
for Osama bin Laden

to be in hiding
somewhere near Kandahar

because after all, it was there
that he established al-Qaeda

and it was also there
where he established

a training facility at a
place called Tarnak Farms.

- [Paul] Tarnak Farms was an

old abandoned
agricultural collective

about three miles
outside of the city.

Bin Laden had converted it

into an al-Qaeda
militant training camp.

In September of 2000,

an unarmed American predator
drone flying over Kandahar

picks up the image of a tall
man in a pure white robe

who appears to be walking
surrounded by a security detail.

US intelligence thinks
that this footage

was actually bin Laden,

and he was living
with four wives

and multiple children
at Tarnak Farms.

[tense music]

- [Juliette] Tarnak Farms
becomes a focus

of the United States military
missions by mid-October 2001,

when Operation Enduring
Freedom begins,

and US and British troops launch

an aggressive air
bombing campaign.

[bomb booming]

- The overall objective of
Operation Enduring Freedom

was to destroy al-Qaeda,

to remove the Taliban from power

and guarantee that the
country of Afghanistan

could no longer
function as a safe haven

for terrorist organizations.

It was expected that because
of the overwhelming strength

of the American military, this
operation would be concluded

in a matter of weeks.

But that is not what happened.

- [Laurence] As the
bombing campaign begins,

Tarnak Farms is one
of the first targets.

The hope is that bin Laden
is quickly eliminated.

- Bin Laden is not just
a successful terrorist

because he launches attacks.

What made him successful is
that he also was an expert

at controlling a narrative

as Operation Enduring
Freedom begins.

He releases a
video that confirms

the United States' worst fear,

that the aerial assault over
Kandahar has not succeeded

and bin Laden has escaped.

- [Nick] It's actually the
first time that we hear

from bin Laden since
the attacks of 9/11.

And it shows him
in broad daylight,

wearing military fatigues,
he's dressed in a headdress,

he looks healthy,
he looks strong,

and the timing of this
is clearly very tactical.

- [Dina] Osama bin Laden must
have known that Tarnak Farms

would be an early
target, so he was gone.

That particular attack really
didn't do anything more

than put a giant
hole in the ground

where there had been
a training field.

- [Paul] It's very clear
that bin Laden

and his top lieutenants

have not only survived
the aerial assault,

but he might have
been tipped off

even before the bombs
started to fall.

Bin Laden is one step
ahead of the United States

and has probably
already fled the area.

- [Martin] The CIA is intent
on finding and killing

Osama bin Laden.

Toward that end, they
interrogate al-Qaeda operatives

who were found in the
area around Kandahar.

They review satellite
information

that might give them clues

about his location.

Overall, the hunt is on for
Osama bin Laden, dead or alive.

- In the weeks after 9/11,

the first attempts to
eliminate Osama bin Laden

seem to have failed, and
he remains on the run.

The United States
invades Afghanistan

in the hope of finding
and killing him.

- [Juliette] By November 2001,

two months after the
attacks on September 11th,

the United States'
efforts are dependent

on a ragtag group of
anti-Taliban warlords

known generally as
the Northern Alliance.

- [Paul] The Northern Alliance
has been trying

to essentially restore
a democratic government

to Afghanistan, but it's
been a losing effort.

Operation Enduring Freedom

inserted small teams of
special operations forces

into Afghanistan.

Those individuals
were able to call upon

an almost unprecedented
amount of aerial firepower,

which allowed the
Northern Alliance troops

to repeatedly defeat much
larger Taliban armies.

- [Kavitha] When Enduring
Freedom kicked off,

CIA operatives spent weeks
interrogating Taliban

and al-Qaeda prisoners
desperate for any information.

In early November, US
intelligence believes

that they may have picked
up bin Laden's trail

a little over 300 miles
away from Kandahar

in the city of Kabul.

[tense music]

- [Paul] Although the Taliban
movement started

in the southern
city of Kandahar,

Kabul is still really
seen as the key

to the conquest of Afghanistan.

The United States and its allies

have been bombing Taliban
strongholds in the area,

softening it up for an assault

by the elements of
the Northern Alliance.

- [Dina] From Kandahar to Kabul
is not a big drive.

It's only about eight hours.

Osama bin Laden was
thought in the beginning

to be going back and forth

between those two places

as he was trying to organize
what would happen next.

- [Lis] Kabul is a city
of 3 million people,

so the US can't just go in
indiscriminately dropping bombs.

If Osama bin Laden
is living amongst

the civilian population,

they need to figure out
exactly where he is.

- [Nick] On November 8th, the
US learns of an interview

that Bin Laden has had

with a Pakistani
journalist, Hamid Mir.

He's taken blindfolded to a
safe house, basically, in Kabul.

- [Dina] As he was talking to
this Pakistani journalist,

Osama bin Laden admits to

actually being behind 9/11,

but he wouldn't put it on tape.

He was worried that if
the Taliban actually knew

that he'd admitted to it,

that they might kick
him out of Afghanistan.

- [Juliette] This interview
is interesting

because bin Laden,
with a lot of bravado,

discloses that
al-Qaeda is not done.

They are planning
chemical attacks,

potentially nuclear attacks.

He's suggesting, "Oh, you
think September 11th was bad?

You haven't seen
the worst of it."

- [Laurence] The
interview ends abruptly

when bin Laden's security guards
suddenly rush everyone out.

Minutes later, bombs
destroy the safe house.

[bombs bursting]

- [Paul] At about the same time,
the Northern Alliance,

backed up by American
special forces,

successfully
assaulted and captured

the northern city
of Mazar-i-Sharif.

This means there's really
nothing between them

and the capital city of Kabul.

- [Martin] On November 12, 2001,
Northern Alliance forces,

with the assistance of
the American military,

enter the city of Kabul after

having defeated Taliban forces

on the city's outskirts.

As they move into the
center of the city,

they're greeted with applause

because the people of Kabul
are excited at the idea

of the Taliban finally
having been overthrown.

- [Juliette] But the United
States' mission is not done.

On that day, CIA operatives see

a massive caravan leaving Kabul,

cars and cars.

This is clearly a
high-value target.

- [Laurence] Two months after
9/11, operatives are hopeful

they're finally closing
in on Osama bin Laden.

- [Martin] As the convoy
escapes from Kabul,

it's being shadowed
by a predator drone,

but this one's different
than the predator

that had been over Tarnak Farms,

because this is
an armed predator.

- [Paul] When the convoy stops

and its occupants move
into the building,

the remote pilot fires

an AGM Hellfire missile
into that building.

The high-value target is
killed in the airstrike,

but it's not Osama bin Laden.

It's his number
three, Mohammed Atef.

He's the operational
commander of al-Qaeda.

- As Kabul falls and
Afghanistan is liberated,

there is a hope that bin
Laden actually was killed,

but eventually the CIA
comes to understand

in their intelligence gathering

that bin Laden
has escaped again.

- [Paul] Nobody is certain
where he might have gone,

but there's the very
real possibility

that he's still out there and
planning the next big attack,

one that will dwarf 9/11 and
cause catastrophic damages.

- [Laurence] December 2001,

three months after
the 9/11 attacks,

Operation Enduring Freedom has
scored a number of successes

in Afghanistan, dismantling
the Taliban regime,

destroying al-Qaeda's
training camps,

and taking out many
of their leaders.

But no one can call it
mission accomplished

until Osama bin Laden
is killed or captured.

And while he may be on the run,

he's headed for one of the best
hiding places on the planet.

- [Kevin] The Taliban, at this
point, were bleeding out

of the urban areas and
into the rural areas

where they were
finding safe haven

in the mountains in Afghanistan,

one of the more difficult
battlefields in the world.

It's easy to fortify them.

You have to be equipped
to fight in the cold

and the altitude will
limit your ability

to fly helicopters.

- [Paul] US operatives are
combing through Kabul,

trying to find any clues
as to where bin Laden

might have gone.

They begin to realize that
he's almost certainly fled

the city and it appears
he's headed towards

the mountainous cave
complex known as Tora Bora.

- [Laurence] The Tora
Bora cave complex

is an extensive series
of fortifications built

with the help of the CIA

during the fight
against the Soviets.

It was then further
expanded by someone

with a lifetime of
construction experience

and unlimited funds,
Osama bin Laden.

- [Kavitha] It's hard to
fathom just how vast

and inhospitable Tora Bora is.

The terrain is
treacherous and steep,

and it's almost impossible

to conduct traditional
warfare here.

Bin Laden widened and fortified
all the underground tunnels,

basically making Tora Bora
into a mountain fortress.

It makes sense that he might
be headed toward a stronghold

that he's quite familiar with.

- [Martin] In December 2001,

the US is able to
narrow down the search

for Osama bin Laden when a group

of Army Special Forces operators

and Northern Alliance
fighters climb into

the mountains near Tora Bora

and overhear a shortwave
radio broadcast

that features a familiar voice,

the voice of Osama bin Laden.

- [Paul] Knowing that bin
Laden and al-Qaeda

are effectively
trapped in Tora Bora,

the United States and its allies

commence an enormous
aerial campaign,

dropping thousands of pounds
of bombs on the tunnel complex.

But it's a mountain fortress
that's almost impervious

to any form of airstrike.

- [Kevin] The US knew
they needed something

to counteract these
tunnel systems.

Tora Bora is a perfect
place to hold up,

but the US has a massive
bomb in its arsenal

that they're confident
will end this manhunt.

- [Paul] On December 9th, 2001,

an American transport
cargo aircraft

drops a 15,000-pound fuel-air
explosive thermobaric bomb,

dubbed the Daisy Cutter.

- [Martin] The Daisy Cutter

is the largest conventional
explosive device

in American arsenals.

And when it lands, it
creates a kill zone

that's a radius of 900 feet.

Anything within that kill zone

is vaporized by the explosion.

So they drop Daisy
Cutters in the mountains

around Tora Bora,

forever changing the
landscape of the area.

It's complete silence afterward.

Nothing is moving.

They think they got him.

- They can't prove it because
it's near impossible

to get the DNA evidence

given how big the bomb was.

But the United States
believes the mission is over

until the CIA picks up an
intercept from bin Laden

to al-Qaeda that
he has survived.

- [Nick] On December 11th, the
US intercepts a message

from bin Laden
directly to his troops,

saying if they
can't get out alive,

they have his
blessing to surrender.

- [Laurence] Little
do they know,

bin Laden and his entourage
have another plan in mind.

- [Paul] On December 12th,

a group of more than two
dozen al-Qaeda fighters

are spotted heading across
the border with Pakistan.

This is brutal terrain
that they're moving across,

and they're doing it
in the depth of winter.

They're at extremely
high elevations.

There are very deep ravines.

They're relying on
little-known smugglers' trails

that allow them to
evade detection.

- [Kavitha] The group makes it
to the Pakistan border,

but after they cross
into the country,

they're arrested and
handed over to the US.

- [Laurence] Once again,

high hopes for bin Laden's
capture are dashed.

Though the group contains a
number of his known bodyguards,

bin Laden himself is
nowhere to be found.

- [Paul] It's possible that
bin Laden had used a group

of his bodyguards essentially

as a decoy to draw
attention away.

He stayed in Tora Bora
for a few extra days

before quietly slipping
away via a different route.

- [Nick] Two weeks afterwards,
a tape is released,

and it shows bin Laden
looking very gaunt, very frail.

the left side of
his body is rigid,

almost as if, though,
he's been injured

in that Tora Bora battle.

It's in this video that he says,

even if he dies,

the war against
the US will go on.

- [Dina] That was twice in a
very short amount of time

where the Americans think,
"We got him," and they didn't.

- [Paul] President Bush is
furious when he discovers

that bin Laden has
slipped the net

and escaped from
American forces.

It's clear at the end of 2001

that the United States does
not have an actionable plan

about how to find the man

that has eluded
capture for months.

- [Kavitha] It soon
becomes crystal clear

that the world's most wanted man

has once again gone
completely off the grid.

- By early 2002,

the Taliban has been
driven out of the cities

and into the countryside
of Afghanistan.

But al-Qaeda and its
leader, Osama bin Laden,

seem to have disappeared
from the country entirely.

- [Paul] Months go by and bin
Laden is nowhere to be seen.

No new communications
prove to the world

that he's still alive,

and people begin to wonder
if he might have died.

- [Nick] Where is he?

Did he get injured in Tora Bora?

And then an audio tape emerges

that shows that bin
Laden is very much alive,

and he takes credit for a

string of suicide attacks.

A bombing against a French
vessel in the port of Yemen,

a synagogue in Tunisia,

and a Bali nightclub
that kills 200 people.

- [Dina] What Osama bin Laden
was trying to indicate

in these audio tapes

is that you don't know
where he's going to strike.

And it was incredibly
frustrating

to US intelligence people,

because every time they thought,

"Maybe we've got him.
Maybe it's done,"

he would pop up again.

- The CIA is under a
great deal of pressure

to find and kill
Osama bin Laden,

but these attacks and
the recordings suggest

that he might not even

be in Afghanistan anymore.

He could be anywhere.

[tense music]

- [Nick] The US is
grasping at straws.

They put out images of
what he may look like

if he loses his iconic beard,

as if he may be trying
to blend in in the West.

But ever since Tora Bora,
bin Laden has gone dark,

and it's been nearly
impossible to track him down.

- The United States has
placed a $25 million bounty

on bin Laden's head,

and not surprisingly,

that's causing tips
to come pouring in.

A lot of them are very unlikely,

like the woman who claims

that she saw bin Laden

at her local library
in Washington State,

or the man who says that
he was at a carnival

in Mexico City.

The CIA start to jokingly refer
to these types of wild tips

as Elvis sightings.

- [Dina] They decide
to find the people

who were around Osama bin Laden

and use them as a way to try
and figure out where he is.

They saw that there were
lots of members of al-Qaeda

using a safe house in a
lawless town in Pakistan.

[metal door clanking]

So they break into
the safe house and

they find Khalid Sheikh
Mohammed, also known as KSM.

- [Paul] Khalid Sheikh
Mohammed's arrest

is major international news.

This is the first time
that an important figure

within al-Qaeda has
been captured alive

and potentially subjected
to interrogation.

The CIA get their hands
on his laptop computer

And it's clear that
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

is within bin
Laden's inner circle.

- [Laurence] But just three
weeks after KSM's arrest,

the US widens its war on terror

by turning its attention
to another enemy, Iraq.

- [Paul] The Bush administration
has become convinced

that Saddam Hussein has
very close ties to al-Qaeda,

and he might provide them

with substantial biological

and chemical weapons.

- [Kavitha] On March 20th, 2003,

the US invades Iraq.

It marks a significant
shift away from bin Laden

and towards Saddam
Hussein and Iraq.

It's undeniable that it
did take some of the heat

off of al-Qaeda and
allowed them to regroup.

[guns firing]

- [Juliette] There's
growing concern

within the
counterterrorism community

that the United States
has become distracted

from its mission
to get bin Laden.

- [Laurence] By the
end of October 2004,

18 months after the
invasion of Iraq,

Bin Laden re-emerges on
video for the first time

in three years.

- [Kavitha] Bin Laden releases
his video message

just days before the
presidential election,

and for the first time, he
takes full responsibility

for the 9/11 attacks.

- [Martin] Every one of
Osama bin Laden's videos

is combed over
by CIA analysts

looking for clues

about where his
location might be.

If there is a rock
outcropping in the background,

geologists are brought in to
analyze where in the world

those rocks might be located.

If there's a bird chirping
at the audio track,

ornithologists are brought in

to determine what bird
species it is with the hope

that that might point an
arrow at his location.

- [Juliette] Bin Laden knows how
the United States works.

This video gives no clues.

The background is bare.

There are no outside sounds,
no hints of where he could be.

He's like this phantom who's
appearing out of nowhere

to remind the United States
that he is still alive

and that he promises
more attacks.

- [Laurence] Nearly
a year later,

bin Laden follows
through on his threat

by unleashing al-Qaeda
on America's allies.

- [Paul] On July 7th, 2005,
al-Qaeda militants launched

a coordinated campaign
of suicide bombings

throughout London.

52 British citizens are killed

and more than 700 are wounded.

It's the deadliest terror
attack in British history.

Now, the US is
absolutely desperate

to uncover bin Laden's
whereabouts and is terrified

that al-Qaeda will
continue to launch attacks

against its allies and

drive those allies away

from the war on terror.

- [Laurence] Following
2005 London bombings,

investigators discovered
that two British nationals

who carried out the attacks

had attended al-Qaeda
training camps

in a remote area in Pakistan.

- [Kevin] The region between
Pakistan and Afghanistan

is called the tribal areas,

and it's known as somewhat
of a lawless land,

an area where the Taliban

and al-Qaeda could
find safe haven.

- [Kavitha] The
region is not only

mountainous and
difficult to reach,

but local tribes have
sheltered al-Qaeda members

throughout the years.

Intelligence experts
begin to theorize

that if al-Qaeda has regrouped
in Pakistan's tribal areas,

then perhaps bin Laden is
hiding out there as well.

[tense music]

- [Paul] The CIA devotes
substantial resources

to the tribal region in
the pursuit of al-Qaeda

and in particular, in the
search for Osama bin Laden.

[bomb exploding]

- [Juliette] The United States
begins to aggressively take out

dozens of high-level
leaders of al-Qaeda,

but not bin Laden.

- [Laurence] In 2009, President
Barack Obama is inaugurated.

One of his early
campaign promises

was the elimination
of Osama bin Laden.

- President Obama
instructed his CIA chief

to double the operations
in the hunt for Bin Laden.

In the summer of 2009,

Jordanian intelligence
comes to the US

with some invaluable
information.

Earlier that year, they arrested

a pediatrician turned jihadist
named Humam al-Balawi.

And in exchange
for a ton of money,

al-Balawi has agreed to spy on

al-Qaeda in the tribal lands.

- Shortly after the Jordanians
expose him to the CIA,

he actually sends in a video
of himself sitting next

to one of al-Qaeda's
chief lieutenants.

and perhaps he's going to be
the key to finding bin Laden.

The CIA calls for a face-to-face
meeting with al-Balawi.

They want to verify that
he's actually the real deal.

[suspenseful music]

- The CIA is set to meet
al-Balawi in Camp Chapman,

which is their base
in Afghanistan.

He gets there.

He's in a car, he pulls up.

And as he walks
towards the agents,

he pulls inside of
his coat and boom.

- [Martin] Seven agents are
killed in the blast.

It's the deadliest attack
against the CIA in 25 years.

But if bin Laden thought

that this would somehow
discourage the agency,

he was dead wrong.

Because all it did was
cement the agency's resolve

to find him and kill him.

- It is here where the
CIA begins to rethink

how they are going to find
out where Bin Laden is.

Bin Laden is off the grid.

He's not using phones.

The only way he's able
to get his message out

is through courier.

- [Paul] The CIA
starts looking at

a number of potential prospects

for who might be bin
Laden's chief courier.

They start to focus
on an individual

named Ahmed Abdul al-Kuwaiti.

It's almost on luck that the
CIA intercepts a telephone call

in which al-Kuwaiti reports
that he's back to working

with the inner
circle of al-Qaeda.

- [Kevin] When they figured out

that al-Kuwaiti
was the messenger,

the CIA set up an

elaborate operation
to track him.

They followed him to a
compound in Abbottabad,

which was unlike anything
else in the city.

18-foot walls.

They weren't linked to
internet or telephone.

They were burning the trash.

And so at that point,

the CIA had a hunch

it might be Osama bin Laden.

- [Paul] Abbottabad is
not where you'd expect

to find a terrorist hideout.

It's in the foothills of
the Himalayas Mountains.

It's pretty remote, but
it's kind of a resort town.

Essentially, the CIA starts
turning all of its resources

towards this compound.

There are satellites
monitoring movements

in and out of the
compound from above.

There are human
agents on the ground.

They're keeping it under
constant observation.

- [Lis] The CIA, using
satellite imagery,

focuses in on a figure that
paces the courtyard every day,

and they give him the
nickname "The Pacer."

Now, they can't see his face,

so they can't
clearly identify him,

but they're pretty sure
it's Osama bin Laden.

- [Kevin] They were able
to use his shadow

to measure how tall he was,

and once his height matched

Osama bin Laden's
height of 6'4",

they decided to put together
plans to attack the target.

- [Juliette] President
Obama decides early on

he is not going to drop
a bomb on the complex.

He wants to have proof of
the death of bin Laden,

and he worries about
civilian losses.

But also a bomb being dropped

is going to have
unmanageable consequences

with the government of Pakistan.

So SEAL Team 6 is brought in.

- [Kevin] They selected
pretty much an

all-star team of operators

and get them ready to
execute the mission.

At that point, they'd
also figured out

the parameters of the compound

and built a mock-up
in North Carolina

that they could train on.

- [Lis] And what
they're doing there

is trying to figure
out things like,

how do they get from
point A to point B?

Where are the helicopters
going to land?

Where are their vulnerabilities?

- [Martin] This three-week
training operation

is one of the most
covert missions

to ever take place
on American soil.

No one knows what's
about to happen.

- [Paul] In late April
of 2011, SEAL Team 6

deploys to Afghanistan.

Even at that time,
no one can be certain

whether bin Laden is even
present in Abbottabad.

The only way to find out will
be to launch the assault.

- [Laurence] May 2nd,
2011 at 10:30 PM,

two Black Hawk helicopters
take off from Afghanistan

with 23 members of SEAL Team 6
and one interpreter on board.

The operation codenamed
Neptune Spear has begun.

They're heading towards
Abbottabad, 150 miles away.

[choppers whirring]

- [Martin] The mission's going
to infiltrate Pakistani airspace

without permission.

And because Pakistan
is a modern nation

with a modern military,

they have a robust
air defense system,

so there's the chance

that the mission might just
get shot out of the sky

before they can even
reach the objective.

However, the Blackhawks that
they're using for this mission

have been specially
modified to reduce sound

and radar signature.

So they're essentially
stealth helicopters.

- [Kevin] The SEALs had
stripped their gear down

to the bare essentials

because they were
concerned about weight.

And they wanted to make sure
they could get the whole team

into the two helicopters.

So going in, they didn't
have any heavy weapons.

They carried minimal ammunition.

They had their night vision,

and that was about it.

[helicopter whirring]

- [Paul] Inside the White House,

the president, the
vice president,

the secretary of defense,

they're all in there watching
the raid in real-time

while it's occurring.

But you've got to imagine
how bizarre it would be

knowing that the president
of the United States

and his closest advisors

are literally watching
over your shoulder.

- [Martin] At 12:30 AM,

the Army helicopters
transporting SEAL Team 6

reach the compound
in Abbottabad.

But as one of those
modified Blackhawks

maneuvers into
position to touch down,

it creates a vortex effect
that kills its lift,

and so the aircraft comes down
violently rather than gently.

- [Kevin] The element of
surprise was absolutely gone

at that point.

The helicopter looked like a
lawn dart inside the compound,

and anybody in the compound
knew now that this was

some sort of military
operation coming for them.

- [Paul] It could have
been a catastrophe,

but ironically,

the crash probably got them

on the ground quicker.

The first task for them
is to basically secure

all of the surrounding
environs around the house.

Then an assault team
storms the building itself.

[C2 bomb bangs]

- [Dina] Obama, Clinton,

all these people who
are sitting in the room,

they have a drone that's
watching all of this,

but they have no idea
what's happening inside.

Obama said it was the longest
40 minutes of his life.

[tense music]

- [Paul] As the SEALs are
moving up through the house,

they encounter one of
Bin Laden's adult sons,

and they shoot him dead
on one of the landings.

Adult males in the
compound are presumed

to be al-Qaeda fighters.

And the women and children
are basically zip-tied

and herded together.

They're not offering any
significant resistance,

but it is taking time to
secure these noncombatants.

- [Dina] And what they had
figured is that Osama bin Laden

was probably with his
family on the top floor,

and they start making
their way up the stairs.

They have no idea

what the inside of the
house looks like, right?

They've only seen
it on the outside.

They don't know if it's
gonna be booby-trapped,

so there was a concern that
every time you opened a door,

they'd blow themselves up.

- [Martin] The SEALs make
their way up the staircase

to the third floor,

it's the most fortified
part of the compound,

so anyone inside has had minutes

to prepare their defense.

As they enter, they see
a man peering at them

from one of the doorways,
and they open fire.

- [Kevin] The SEALs
get to the doorway.

The door opens, and on the
ground is a man, wounded.

And there are women in the
room that rush towards him.

The point man shields the
women, and the SEALs behind him

get to the side of
the man on the ground,

and they shoot him.

[gunshot]

At that point, they then
secure the rest of this room,

and they're trying
to identify who it is

that they've just shot.

- The SEALs only have 40
minutes on the ground,

so they're in a
race against time,

and they don't know
whether or not the man

that they have just killed
is actually their target.

He has gunshot
wounds to his face,

so they can't tell
by looking at him.

However, then one of
the women in the room

confirms that, yes, they have
indeed killed Osama bin Laden.

- [Kevin] They also find
a treasure trove

of al-Qaeda
intelligence material,

which they try to gather
up as much as they can.

- [Juliette] But they've lost
lost one helicopter.

The other one only
has about 40 minutes

of capacity to wait around.

A backup helicopter
has been sent in,

but time is short.

- [Paul] They evacuate bin
Laden's dead body

and some of the SEALs

on the remaining
stealth helicopter.

They bring in a Chinook to
pick up the rest of them.

That's the big, heavy
transport utility helicopter.

They're loud, they're enormous,

and now they've given
up any possibility

of secrecy or surprise.

- As they're flying away,
they receive reports

that the Pakistani Air Force

may be scrambling
fighter interceptors

to come and shoot them down.

And so every single minute
feels like a lifetime.

For 90 minutes, they
fly towards safety,

and then eventually,

when they enter
Afghani airspace,

they are finally safe.

- They take the body, they
perform some DNA tests

to make sure it's
Osama bin Laden.

And then it's flown
to an aircraft carrier

where they conduct
a Muslim funeral

and bury Osama bin Laden at sea.

[dramatic music]

- [Laurence] Osama bin
Laden's reign of terror

is finally over.

- Tonight-

- [Laurence] President
Obama reveals

the news with a
public announcement.

- The United States has
conducted an operation

that killed Osama bin Laden,
the leader of al-Qaeda.

[crowd chanting]

- It was such a jubilant
moment for the country

that people drove
hours and hours

just to celebrate outside
of the White House.

It was a chapter closing
for a lot of Americans.

- Shortly after the successful
conclusion of the raid,

the members of SEAL
Team 6 redeployed back

to the United States
for a secret meeting

with President Obama,

who awarded each of the
raiders the Silver Star.

- [Martin] Finally, after 10
years of missed opportunities,

false leads, and dead
ends, Osama bin Laden,

the most wanted man
on planet Earth,

the man who killed over 3,000
Americans on September 11th,

and the man who's
responsible for the deaths

of thousands of other
people worldwide,

he has finally been killed,
and justice has been served.

- It's the end of one of
the most intense manhunts

in history, and while bin
Laden's death doesn't end

the threat of terror,

it does prove that even the
world's most elusive fugitive

can't escape justice forever.

I'm Laurence Fishburne.

Thank you for watching
this case-closed episode