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Downloaded from
YTS.MX

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(man on radio)
<i>Anybody know what the smoke is</i>
<i>in Lower Manhattan?</i>

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(man 2)
<i>I'm sorry, say again?</i>

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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

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<i>‐ It's coming outta the top</i>

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<i>of the World Trade Center</i>
<i>building,</i>

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<i>a major fire.</i>

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‐ If you do us harm,

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justice will be done.

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‐ The number one priority
was finding bin Laden.

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‐ Over ten years, every possible
lead led nowhere.

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‐ This was
the best lead they'd had.

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‐ How could he have lived
there in that compound

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without anybody knowing?

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‐ Every one of you have
wished you were the man

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going on the mission
to get bin Laden.

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Well, you are the men,
and this is the mission.

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‐ Obviously it was
a very dangerous operation.

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‐ If Pakistani forces got there,
they had to fight their way out.

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‐ We probably wouldn't
be making it back

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‐ This is what I was born for.

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This is it.
We're doing this for 9/11.

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♪

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(Condoleezza Rice)
In many ways, it was
just a normal day.

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It was a Tuesday morning
and I was standing at my desk.

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And so when
my young assistant came in

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and said that a plane had hit
the World Trade Center,

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I thought, my God,
that's a strange accident.

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And I talked to President Bush
and he said, keep me informed.

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(Letitia Long)
I was the deputy director
of naval intelligence.

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In the OP center conducting
our morning meeting,

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we, like the rest of the world,
thought it was an accident.

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‐ My SEAL team had just finished
work in Kosovo.

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We saw the North Tower was hit
and it was smoking.

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And the television analysts
were saying that it sounds like

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a small plane hit
the North Tower.

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We're like, that's a huge hole
with a lot of smoke,

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that's not a small plane.

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And we were sitting there
discussing it,

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a handful of Navy SEALs
and a few intelligence people.

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And then we‐‐ we saw
the second plane.

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(Charles Allen) And I saw
the South Tower be hit.

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And I said, that's al‐Qaeda.
That's Osama bin Laden.

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I thought to myself, my God,
how could we have been so wrong?

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How could we have
missed so much?

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‐ And went back up to my office,

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and about ten minutes later,

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the plane hit
the Pentagon.

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Right where I had been,

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right where I left my folks.

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And naval intelligence
lost eight people that day,

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eight of our finest.

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<i>‐ United 93, have you got</i>
<i>information on that yet?</i>

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<i>‐ Yeah, he's down.</i>
<i>‐ He's down?</i>

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<i>‐ Yes.</i>
<i>‐ Why didn't she land?</i>

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‐ <i>She did‐‐ she did not land.</i>

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‐ <i>Oh, she's down?</i>

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‐ Nobody knew what
was happening.

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Nobody could have imagined

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four aircraft attacking...

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US cities.

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(SEAL #2) I remember watching
the Twin Towers go down

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in the library of
my high school.

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It definitely strengthened my
belief in what I wanted to do

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to join the military
and serve my country.

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(Robert Gates)
This was of an order
of magnitude the country

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hadn't seen anything equivalent
to since Pearl Harbor.

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(Leon Panetta) These people
did not hesitate to kill

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almost 3,000 people in 9/11.

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(Robert Cardillo)
It called into question

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who we were.

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And how strong we really were.

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America does not forget

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that we are resilient,

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that if you do us harm,
justice will be done.

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<i>‐ This nation stands</i>
<i>with the good people</i>

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<i>of New York City,</i>

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<i>and New Jersey and Connecticut</i>
<i>as we mourn the loss of</i>

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<i>thousands of our citizens.</i>

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(man)
We can't hear you.

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‐ <i>I can hear you.</i>

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(laughter, cheering)

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<i>I can hear you,</i>

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<i>the rest of the world</i>
<i>hears you,</i>

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<i>and the people who...</i>
(cheers and applause)

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<i>And the people who</i>
<i>knocked these buildings down</i>

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<i>will hear all of us soon.</i>

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(cheers and applause)

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(chanting)
USA! USA! USA!

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♪

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(Redacted) Bin Laden was
unusual among terrorists in that

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his top priority was
major attacks

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in and against
the United States.

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When 9/11 happened,
there was the horrible feeling

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that something else could
be coming right down the pike.

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And we knew,
we had intelligence,

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we knew the enemy
was indeed trying

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to generate additional attacks.

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(narrator)
On September 26, 2001,

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a small team of CIA officers
arrived in Afghanistan.

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They are the first Americans
deployed in what will become

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a long war against al‐Qaeda

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and the Taliban‐led
Afghan government

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which was harboring
Osama bin Laden.

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(Redacted) The number one
priority was finding bin Laden,

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destroying al‐Qaeda and other
terrorist associates.

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My job there was to
try to collect intelligence.

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Where were they hiding?

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There was battlefield
intelligence.

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(narrator) Soon after, a US‐led
military coalition launches

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a massive assault to bring down
the ruling Taliban government

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which refused to
hand over bin Laden.

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As ground forces advance
in Afghanistan,

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American intelligence picks up
bin Laden's trail.

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(Charles Allen)
We knew he had fled Kandahar,

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and then we had reporting
he was in Kabul and Jalalabad.

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(narrator)
By December 2001, the hunt moves
to the Tora Bora cave complex

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in the White Mountains,
an area where bin Laden

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had taken refuge years before
during the Soviet Afghan war.

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And then we heard
bin Laden leading a prayer

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in Tora Bora with his leaders
when he was there.

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♪

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‐ The geography in
the White Mountains,

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the Tora Bora mountains,
is just‐‐

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you have to set foot on it to
understand the enormity of it,

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the scale, the depth of it,

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and the ability for people
to disappear in that mass.

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I mean, there are
literally more caves here

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than we are capable
of counting.

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‐ The trail went cold.

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By February, it had
gotten very chilly,

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and by early March,
it was cold.

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(narrator)
With no leads left to follow,

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intelligence agencies
take up the hunt.

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♪

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(Charles)
We had about

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40 or 50 analysts
devoted full‐time

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to working al Qaeda
and the hunt for bin Laden.

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They were all sorts of
imagery analysts, CIA officers.

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We involved, people from
NSA, people from DIA,

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people from NGA.

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We had a lot of rumors,

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a lot of clandestine reporting
that was not accurate.

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‐ There were a number
of bin Laden sightings,

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and you were always
really required

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to kind of run that to ground.

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‐ We called it
a Bigfoot sighting.

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You know, a supposed
bin Laden sighting.

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(Government Interpreter)
Some people were just
making up stories

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and telling us that I saw

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bin Laden at
such and such place.

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And we had to follow
all the leads,

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although we knew
that probably it's nothing.

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‐ The source would just say
anything in order to get paid.

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‐ George W. Bush didn't want
another memo saying

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we really don't know
where he is,

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but we have some reporting that
suggests he may be there.

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And I can understand the
president in his frustration.

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(NGI Analyst)
Various policymakers at
various times in this cycle

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would be ruffled about the fact
that there was nothing new.

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That's the same thing you
told me last month,

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six months ago,
and a year ago.

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How can there be nothing new?

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And that feedback comes back

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to the interagency
analytic team,

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well, we can't tell you
what we don't know.

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(narrator)
While intelligence analysts
press for new leads,

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bin Laden's organization,
al‐Qaeda, orchestrates a series

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of brutal attacks
around the world.

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For the intelligence community,

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the hunt for bin Laden
becomes part of a deeper effort

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to understand the inner workings
of al‐Qaeda

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and disrupt
their deadly planning.

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‐ Our goal wasn't just to
get Osama bin Laden,

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it wasn't just to get al‐Qaeda,

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it was to do that in such an
intense fashion that we were not

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going to take another
9/11 along the way.

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‐ So the goal was basically
put al‐Qaeda on the run

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so that they can no longer
generate those major operations.

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They're focused more
on their survival.

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(narrator)
The intelligence community
moves their analysts

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to the front lines,
integrating with military units,

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leading the fight
against al‐Qaeda.

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The National Geospatial
Intelligence Agency,

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or NGA, plays a key role.

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‐ So what does NGA provide?

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They provide the imagery
of the battlefield.

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If a compound is going
to be raided,

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what's the compound look like?

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Are there blind spots
in the compound?

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So when the assault team,
or when the troops go in,

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what are they going
to be expecting?

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‐ You go conduct the operation,

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you collect
all the intel you can,

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you come back, you turn over

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all of that information
to your intelligence team.

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They start putting
all that together,

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connecting all the dots.

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‐ If the analysts didn't have
the information there,

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they would reach back
to Langley, FBI headquarters,

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NSA or wherever they needed to

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to get the information and make
it readily available to us.

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‐ We understood
how they operated,

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their up tempo, and we fit
right into that.

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(SEAL #1) The sooner you
can hit the next target,

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you can catch them when
they're not prepared for it

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and just keep going that way,
start building your web,

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getting to
the higher level enemy.

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(Tina) In pulling them out
and detaining them,

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you're neutering bin Laden's
organization by taking out

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his most seasoned,
competent lieutenants.

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‐ We knew that we had to
generate an onslaught

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against the enemy,
to take the initiative.

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(Adm. McRaven) The forces on
the ground were working

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generally 20 hours a day,

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sometimes 24 hours a day,
several days in a row.

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When you're running
that many missions,

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the ground forces are just
very, very good at what they do.

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(narrator)
In spite of these efforts,

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al‐Qaeda's leader
remains at large.

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Seven years, four months,
and nine days after 9/11,

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a new president
takes up the hunt.

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‐ I, Barack Hussein Obama,
do solemnly swear...

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I had committed to
reinvigorating

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what appeared to have
been a stalled approach

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to getting bin Laden.

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I assigned Leon Panetta,
our CIA director,

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to mobilize all the assets
that had already worked on it

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and take a fresh look at it.

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‐ The president made clear to me

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the importance of going
after bin Laden

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and I not only
agreed with him,

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but I said that effort
was in many ways responsible

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for my desire to become
head of the CIA.

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‐ Finding bin Laden
was always a priority

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for both President Bush
and President Obama.

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They never let us forget that
it was a high priority.

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But in truth,
not much was going on.

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You know, CIA was
trying to find him,

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but we weren't having much luck.

241
00:13:18,064 --> 00:13:19,666
When President Obama
came in,

242
00:13:19,899 --> 00:13:24,137
he obviously wanted
a more intensified search.

243
00:13:24,370 --> 00:13:26,105
Frankly, I thought it was
a little bit like

244
00:13:26,339 --> 00:13:28,875
asking Michelangelo
to paint faster.

245
00:13:31,644 --> 00:13:33,613
(Tina) I'd been working
al‐Qaeda for several years,

246
00:13:33,846 --> 00:13:36,449
working on threats
mostly to the homeland

247
00:13:36,683 --> 00:13:39,285
and US interests overseas,
trying to disrupt plots.

248
00:13:39,519 --> 00:13:42,522
Working threats every day
that there wasn't an attack

249
00:13:42,755 --> 00:13:43,923
was success, right?

250
00:13:44,157 --> 00:13:47,360
You knew you had
done your job.

251
00:13:47,593 --> 00:13:49,395
I started working on
bin Laden specifically,

252
00:13:49,629 --> 00:13:51,230
right around 2007.

253
00:13:51,464 --> 00:13:53,599
When you're moving into
a manhunt scenario,

254
00:13:53,833 --> 00:13:56,669
every day that nothing happens
is a failure.

255
00:13:56,903 --> 00:14:01,107
(narrator)
Driven by the potential costs of
the failure to find bin Laden,

256
00:14:01,341 --> 00:14:04,043
intelligence officers accept
greater personal risk

257
00:14:04,277 --> 00:14:06,279
in the intensifying hunt.

258
00:14:06,512 --> 00:14:07,880
‐ You have to have
the human intelligence.

259
00:14:08,114 --> 00:14:10,983
If you don't, your war is going
to be longer, much more costly,

260
00:14:11,217 --> 00:14:15,555
the outcome much less certain,
which means at some point

261
00:14:15,788 --> 00:14:19,826
you are gonna have to put your
people in the company

262
00:14:20,059 --> 00:14:23,162
of members of
a terrorist organization.

263
00:14:23,396 --> 00:14:25,665
(narrator)
Towards the end of 2009,

264
00:14:25,898 --> 00:14:27,834
the intelligence community
mobilizes around

265
00:14:28,034 --> 00:14:30,169
a possible lead to bin Laden.

266
00:14:30,403 --> 00:14:36,976
‐ The Jordanians had suggested
that they had their hands on

267
00:14:37,210 --> 00:14:42,181
a possible spy who had
some medical training,

268
00:14:42,415 --> 00:14:46,986
and that they thought there was
a good chance you might be able

269
00:14:47,220 --> 00:14:50,690
to go into Afghanistan,
but also Pakistan,

270
00:14:50,923 --> 00:14:53,760
and see if he could
locate Zawahiri,

271
00:14:53,993 --> 00:14:56,429
who was bin Laden's second
in command.

272
00:14:56,662 --> 00:14:59,599
‐ We sent about a dozen of our
best officers out to a base

273
00:14:59,832 --> 00:15:02,668
in eastern Afghanistan
so that we could vet him.

274
00:15:02,902 --> 00:15:05,872
(narrator)
On December 30th, 2009,

275
00:15:06,105 --> 00:15:09,108
the CIA sets up a meeting
with the possible spy,

276
00:15:09,342 --> 00:15:10,977
Dr. Humam al Balawi,

277
00:15:11,210 --> 00:15:13,679
at Forward Operating
Base Chapman,

278
00:15:13,913 --> 00:15:16,215
named for Sergeant
Nathan Chapman,

279
00:15:16,449 --> 00:15:20,286
the first American soldier
to die in Afghanistan.

280
00:15:20,520 --> 00:15:22,955
‐ Chapman sits in
kind of a bowl.

281
00:15:23,189 --> 00:15:25,191
Some people call it
the coast bowl,

282
00:15:25,425 --> 00:15:27,126
where you have mostly
mountains around you,

283
00:15:27,360 --> 00:15:29,862
and in the middle
there's the city.

284
00:15:30,096 --> 00:15:33,566
This is literally the end
of the line.

285
00:15:33,800 --> 00:15:35,501
‐ Director Panetta had
briefed the president,

286
00:15:35,735 --> 00:15:37,403
had briefed
the National Security Council

287
00:15:37,637 --> 00:15:39,906
about this important,
tantalizing lead.

288
00:15:40,139 --> 00:15:42,041
And we all waited for that
meeting to occur.

289
00:15:47,213 --> 00:15:49,849
(narrator)
At a remote base on
the front lines in Afghanistan,

290
00:15:51,217 --> 00:15:52,618
American intelligence officers
wait to meet a man

291
00:15:52,852 --> 00:15:55,988
they believe might lead them to
the highest levels of al‐Qaeda.

292
00:15:58,458 --> 00:16:00,626
‐ The day of,
we're all grouped together,

293
00:16:00,860 --> 00:16:02,728
waiting for the arrival.

294
00:16:02,962 --> 00:16:07,033
Everybody's excited to do
the job that they needed to do

295
00:16:07,266 --> 00:16:09,769
and to get the information
they needed to get.

296
00:16:10,002 --> 00:16:12,772
(Panetta) The car pulled up,
and this individual,

297
00:16:13,005 --> 00:16:15,708
instead of getting out
on the side where people

298
00:16:15,942 --> 00:16:19,712
were all standing,
got out on the other side.

299
00:16:19,946 --> 00:16:21,380
That spooked
the security officers

300
00:16:21,614 --> 00:16:23,883
who immediately went up to him,

301
00:16:24,116 --> 00:16:28,321
and they noticed that he
had a hand inside of his cloak.

302
00:16:28,554 --> 00:16:31,591
‐ With any sensitive
operation like this,

303
00:16:31,824 --> 00:16:33,493
there's already risk involved.

304
00:16:33,726 --> 00:16:36,696
And that's the nature
of that business.

305
00:16:36,929 --> 00:16:38,898
Unfortunately, to learn
about bad people,

306
00:16:39,131 --> 00:16:40,399
you have to meet with
bad people.

307
00:16:40,633 --> 00:16:42,268
‐ And they told him,
get your hands up,

308
00:16:42,502 --> 00:16:47,106
get your hands out of your robe,
and he refused to do that.

309
00:16:47,340 --> 00:16:50,910
But by the time they had
a chance to do anything,

310
00:16:51,143 --> 00:16:54,180
he had pulled the pin
on a suicide vest

311
00:16:54,413 --> 00:16:56,082
that was extremely powerful.

312
00:17:01,787 --> 00:17:05,057
♪

313
00:17:05,291 --> 00:17:08,895
‐ It sent metal shrapnel.

314
00:17:09,128 --> 00:17:12,098
And not to mention the rocks
that were under his feet

315
00:17:12,331 --> 00:17:14,967
became shrapnel,
it just sent it all out.

316
00:17:15,167 --> 00:17:19,205
And I ended up with eight‐‐

317
00:17:19,438 --> 00:17:20,973
eight shrapnel wounds
in my legs,

318
00:17:21,207 --> 00:17:23,142
but one in the forehead.

319
00:17:23,376 --> 00:17:24,911
And the last thing I remember

320
00:17:25,144 --> 00:17:28,180
is being loaded onto
the helicopter.

321
00:17:28,414 --> 00:17:31,717
And then I woke up maybe a week
later in Bethesda, Maryland.

322
00:17:33,452 --> 00:17:37,823
‐ That vest killed seven
of our CIA officers

323
00:17:38,057 --> 00:17:41,027
and security individuals,

324
00:17:41,260 --> 00:17:44,497
it wounded at least another
four or five others.

325
00:17:44,730 --> 00:17:46,399
(Redacted)
The bombing at FOB Chapman

326
00:17:46,632 --> 00:17:49,402
was one of the most
terrible days

327
00:17:49,635 --> 00:17:52,838
we've had a long time.

328
00:17:53,072 --> 00:17:58,077
Personal friends of mine,
people that I loved died there.

329
00:17:58,311 --> 00:18:00,880
(Letitia Long) I believe that
had a real impact for all

330
00:18:01,113 --> 00:18:03,182
of the intelligence community,

331
00:18:03,416 --> 00:18:07,320
While all of us certainly
knew theoretically

332
00:18:07,553 --> 00:18:10,790
that this could occur
as folks are deployed forward,

333
00:18:11,023 --> 00:18:14,994
until it actually happens,
it's not real.

334
00:18:15,227 --> 00:18:21,334
And, that said, we still
had volunteers lining up

335
00:18:21,567 --> 00:18:23,235
to deploy forward.

336
00:18:27,340 --> 00:18:30,610
(Redacted)
I've heard people say there's
no piece of intelligence

337
00:18:30,843 --> 00:18:34,046
that's worth the life
of one of our officers.

338
00:18:34,280 --> 00:18:36,382
I disagree.

339
00:18:36,616 --> 00:18:39,885
I think there are times
when you, a single person,

340
00:18:40,119 --> 00:18:44,624
can get intelligence that
might save another person

341
00:18:44,857 --> 00:18:48,194
another two people,
a car full of people,

342
00:18:48,427 --> 00:18:49,362
an embassy full of people,

343
00:18:49,595 --> 00:18:50,696
an airplane full of people,

344
00:18:50,930 --> 00:18:52,431
a city full of people.

345
00:18:54,734 --> 00:18:57,837
‐ It was tragic what happened,

346
00:18:58,070 --> 00:19:01,307
and the lives that were lost,

347
00:19:01,540 --> 00:19:06,078
but that incident created
an even greater impetus

348
00:19:06,312 --> 00:19:07,480
within the CIA,

349
00:19:07,713 --> 00:19:11,851
particularly those involved with
the hunt for bin Laden.

350
00:19:12,084 --> 00:19:17,923
‐ Something that I noticed in
CIA is when we suffer a loss,

351
00:19:18,157 --> 00:19:22,294
you know, in the line of duty,
there is always, every time,

352
00:19:22,528 --> 00:19:25,297
an increase in resolve on
the part of everyone

353
00:19:25,531 --> 00:19:27,900
to do their job better.

354
00:19:28,100 --> 00:19:29,802
And I think people realize

355
00:19:30,036 --> 00:19:32,405
that you can grieve
while you work.

356
00:19:32,638 --> 00:19:36,375
You can grieve while
you work harder.

357
00:19:36,609 --> 00:19:38,444
(military drumming)

358
00:19:45,051 --> 00:19:47,853
(Barack Obama)
Nine years have now passed.

359
00:19:48,087 --> 00:19:51,357
In that time, we have shed

360
00:19:51,590 --> 00:19:54,694
more tears than
we will ever know.

361
00:19:54,927 --> 00:19:57,096
And though it must seem
some days as though the world

362
00:19:57,329 --> 00:20:02,768
has moved on to other things,
I say to you today,

363
00:20:03,002 --> 00:20:07,139
that your loved ones endure in
the heart of our nation

364
00:20:07,373 --> 00:20:09,542
now and forever.

365
00:20:14,714 --> 00:20:16,849
‐ The question that people were
constantly asking us was,

366
00:20:17,083 --> 00:20:19,018
where's bin Laden?

367
00:20:19,251 --> 00:20:21,620
So we were constantly looking
for locations.

368
00:20:23,522 --> 00:20:24,890
As time goes on,
you start to realize, well,

369
00:20:25,124 --> 00:20:27,193
there's an infinite number
of possibilities on

370
00:20:27,426 --> 00:20:28,894
where bin Laden could be.

371
00:20:29,128 --> 00:20:31,831
We have to be smarter about
how we approach it.

372
00:20:32,064 --> 00:20:34,033
We flipped the question
and the strategy from, you know,

373
00:20:34,266 --> 00:20:38,304
where's bin Laden to who is
harboring bin Laden,

374
00:20:38,537 --> 00:20:40,906
because that's a more limited
number of possibilities.

375
00:20:41,140 --> 00:20:42,374
You don't have
millions of people

376
00:20:42,608 --> 00:20:43,743
who could be harboring
bin Laden,

377
00:20:43,976 --> 00:20:47,113
you've really got,
you know, two dozen at best.

378
00:20:47,346 --> 00:20:49,882
‐ We had already
sort of understood that

379
00:20:50,116 --> 00:20:53,385
he would be likely to be
with his family.

380
00:20:53,619 --> 00:20:56,622
And so, you know,
that sensationalized story

381
00:20:56,856 --> 00:21:00,426
that he's with 100 fighters
in a cave in Afghanistan

382
00:21:00,659 --> 00:21:04,296
really doesn't start
to look very likely.

383
00:21:04,530 --> 00:21:07,666
‐ We had a strategy where
we had individuals on a list,

384
00:21:07,900 --> 00:21:09,135
and these are the people
that we need to go after

385
00:21:09,368 --> 00:21:10,870
in order to find bin Laden.

386
00:21:12,805 --> 00:21:15,441
Abu Ahmed was in many ways
qualitatively different

387
00:21:15,674 --> 00:21:17,243
than some of the other leads
we would get.

388
00:21:17,476 --> 00:21:19,078
It just made a lot of sense.

389
00:21:19,311 --> 00:21:20,579
He was a Pashtun,

390
00:21:20,813 --> 00:21:23,549
he was a Pakistani
who grew up in Kuwait.

391
00:21:23,783 --> 00:21:27,052
So he spoke native Pashto
and he spoke native Arabic.

392
00:21:27,286 --> 00:21:29,688
He also, as we would learn very
quickly into the hunt,

393
00:21:29,922 --> 00:21:31,190
he worked for
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,

394
00:21:31,423 --> 00:21:33,392
who was the gatekeeper
for bin Laden.

395
00:21:33,626 --> 00:21:37,463
He can operate in
Pakistan as a Pakistani,

396
00:21:37,696 --> 00:21:39,899
but he has kind of
an Arab mindset, right?

397
00:21:40,132 --> 00:21:41,500
That's somebody that, you know,

398
00:21:41,734 --> 00:21:44,036
would be a great harborer
for bin Laden.

399
00:21:44,270 --> 00:21:49,008
(narrator)
Ibrahim Saeed Ahmed,
known as Abu Ahmed al‐Kuwaiti,

400
00:21:49,241 --> 00:21:53,379
had a history of working for
senior al‐Qaeda leaders.

401
00:21:53,612 --> 00:21:57,616
In August 2010,
American intelligence locks on

402
00:21:57,850 --> 00:22:00,119
to the cell phones of al‐Kuwaiti
and his brother

403
00:22:00,352 --> 00:22:02,955
in the Pakistani city
of Peshawar.

404
00:22:03,189 --> 00:22:06,192
Their movements indicate they
may be acting as couriers.

405
00:22:08,394 --> 00:22:10,362
‐ The couriers were taking
their cell phones

406
00:22:10,596 --> 00:22:12,765
well away from the compound
then activating them,

407
00:22:12,998 --> 00:22:15,501
then making the calls home,
then turning them off

408
00:22:15,734 --> 00:22:16,969
and then going back
to the compound.

409
00:22:17,203 --> 00:22:21,874
‐ The couriers were
talking discreet.

410
00:22:22,107 --> 00:22:25,744
It was not open talking,
like normal talking.

411
00:22:25,978 --> 00:22:29,748
‐ One phone call was from
a friend who basically said,

412
00:22:29,982 --> 00:22:32,518
"what are you doing"
to the courier.

413
00:22:32,751 --> 00:22:34,520
And the courier
kept ignoring it,

414
00:22:34,753 --> 00:22:36,222
trying to dodge the question.

415
00:22:36,455 --> 00:22:38,324
And he said, "No, no,
tell me what you're doing.

416
00:22:38,557 --> 00:22:39,725
"I haven't seen you
in a long time.

417
00:22:39,959 --> 00:22:41,393
What are you doing?"

418
00:22:41,627 --> 00:22:43,295
And there was
a pause, and he said,

419
00:22:43,529 --> 00:22:46,465
"I'm doing the same thing
I did before."

420
00:22:46,699 --> 00:22:49,335
And there was suddenly silence,

421
00:22:49,568 --> 00:22:51,503
and the person on the other end
of the line said,

422
00:22:51,737 --> 00:22:53,672
"Go with God."

423
00:22:55,774 --> 00:22:58,043
Surveillance tracked
these couriers

424
00:22:58,277 --> 00:23:00,746
who had a little white SUV,

425
00:23:00,980 --> 00:23:04,049
and they tracked this
little white SUV

426
00:23:04,283 --> 00:23:08,020
from Peshawar to
a place called Abbottabad,

427
00:23:08,254 --> 00:23:10,089
which is near the capital.

428
00:23:16,862 --> 00:23:18,697
‐ There was an understanding

429
00:23:18,931 --> 00:23:21,567
that this was
far more real

430
00:23:21,800 --> 00:23:25,070
than anything else that we had
been presented with in the years

431
00:23:25,304 --> 00:23:28,307
since I had been working it.

432
00:23:28,540 --> 00:23:32,578
‐ I remember the meeting
in August of 2010.

433
00:23:32,811 --> 00:23:36,015
An officer who we call Gary

434
00:23:36,248 --> 00:23:37,416
opened the binder
and he said,

435
00:23:37,650 --> 00:23:40,552
"Director, we have
something new to report."

436
00:23:40,786 --> 00:23:44,657
And he said, we have been
tracking two brothers

437
00:23:44,890 --> 00:23:47,426
who historically were couriers
for bin Laden,

438
00:23:47,660 --> 00:23:48,827
and we have followed them.

439
00:23:49,061 --> 00:23:50,663
We have located them,
and we have followed them

440
00:23:50,896 --> 00:23:52,998
up to a town called Abbottabad,

441
00:23:53,232 --> 00:23:55,134
which is north of Islamabad,

442
00:23:55,367 --> 00:23:58,203
down the end of
a dead end street.

443
00:23:58,437 --> 00:24:00,072
And at the end of
that dead end street,

444
00:24:00,306 --> 00:24:03,409
there's a large home there that
looks like a fortress.

445
00:24:03,642 --> 00:24:05,945
And I'll never forget,
Director Panetta looked up

446
00:24:06,178 --> 00:24:09,648
from his briefing materials
and he said, "A fortress?

447
00:24:09,882 --> 00:24:11,050
Tell me about that fortress."

448
00:24:11,283 --> 00:24:13,218
‐ It had 18 foot walls
on one side,

449
00:24:13,452 --> 00:24:17,056
12 foot walls
on the other side,

450
00:24:17,289 --> 00:24:19,658
barbed wire at the top
of these walls.

451
00:24:19,892 --> 00:24:23,896
And on the third floor
of this compound,

452
00:24:24,129 --> 00:24:26,365
there was an eight foot wall.

453
00:24:26,598 --> 00:24:29,601
‐ If you're on the third floor,
you'd kind of like a view.

454
00:24:29,835 --> 00:24:32,604
There was a privacy wall
that was constructed

455
00:24:32,838 --> 00:24:34,773
that limited the view,

456
00:24:35,007 --> 00:24:38,143
or was it to limit the view
into the compound?

457
00:24:38,377 --> 00:24:41,080
(Panetta)
And my eyes lit up
because I said,

458
00:24:41,313 --> 00:24:46,819
well, this is probably
the best piece of evidence

459
00:24:47,052 --> 00:24:48,988
we've ever had since Tora Bora.

460
00:24:49,221 --> 00:24:52,458
‐ The land and the compound was
registered to two brothers.

461
00:24:52,691 --> 00:24:55,561
And though the value
of the compound

462
00:24:55,794 --> 00:24:59,898
was $1 million, they had no
visible source of income.

463
00:25:00,199 --> 00:25:02,101
No one really left
the compound.

464
00:25:02,334 --> 00:25:05,070
The children didn't leave
the compound for schooling.

465
00:25:05,304 --> 00:25:06,505
Everything was done on site.

466
00:25:06,739 --> 00:25:10,642
‐ We looked for a cell phone,
we looked for Wi‐Fi.

467
00:25:10,876 --> 00:25:13,645
We looked for other emanations,
there were none.

468
00:25:13,879 --> 00:25:18,050
We looked at whether there was
a local telephone we could find.

469
00:25:18,283 --> 00:25:20,119
We looked at, also,
to the degree that we could,

470
00:25:20,352 --> 00:25:21,487
all local records.

471
00:25:21,720 --> 00:25:24,023
‐ The residents here
burned their trash.

472
00:25:24,256 --> 00:25:25,457
No one else burned
their trash.

473
00:25:25,691 --> 00:25:28,293
They put it at the side of
the road like we do here

474
00:25:28,527 --> 00:25:29,528
in the United States.

475
00:25:29,762 --> 00:25:33,532
‐ There was a vehicle garage

476
00:25:33,766 --> 00:25:35,601
and it was double‐gate secured,

477
00:25:35,834 --> 00:25:38,303
which essentially means that
you would be able to

478
00:25:38,537 --> 00:25:42,374
pull a vehicle in from
the street without exposing

479
00:25:42,608 --> 00:25:44,109
the interior view
of the compound

480
00:25:44,343 --> 00:25:46,845
to anyone who might just
be happening to peer in.

481
00:25:50,482 --> 00:25:51,784
(Panetta)
There was an individual

482
00:25:52,017 --> 00:25:55,521
who would come out sometimes,
you know, every other day

483
00:25:55,754 --> 00:25:59,224
and go into a yard,
and walk in circles

484
00:25:59,458 --> 00:26:02,027
very quickly like a prisoner
in a prison yard.

485
00:26:02,261 --> 00:26:06,331
Walk in circles, probably
about 10, 12, 20 times,

486
00:26:06,565 --> 00:26:08,834
and then immediately go back in.

487
00:26:09,034 --> 00:26:10,636
And I remember
telling our people

488
00:26:10,869 --> 00:26:13,605
that could be bin Laden.

489
00:26:13,839 --> 00:26:15,441
It was an older gentleman.

490
00:26:15,674 --> 00:26:19,445
I said, let's get
some cameras on the walls.

491
00:26:19,678 --> 00:26:22,247
Let's get some telescopes
on the mountains.

492
00:26:22,481 --> 00:26:23,582
I mean, you've got to give me

493
00:26:23,816 --> 00:26:27,086
an ID of this person
who's doing that.

494
00:26:27,319 --> 00:26:29,388
(Kelton)
We thought about
putting cameras up

495
00:26:29,621 --> 00:26:33,325
in the trees that
surrounded the compound,

496
00:26:33,559 --> 00:26:35,727
but then they cut down
the trees.

497
00:26:35,961 --> 00:26:38,397
Obviously, they, too,
were worried about security.

498
00:26:39,932 --> 00:26:42,167
(Letitia Long) We knew it was
a high value individual.

499
00:26:42,401 --> 00:26:45,838
We knew it was someone
of deference.

500
00:26:46,071 --> 00:26:48,740
There was a level of frustration

501
00:26:48,974 --> 00:26:51,944
that we could never see
Osama bin Laden.

502
00:26:52,177 --> 00:26:54,780
We‐‐ we just couldn't.

503
00:27:03,355 --> 00:27:05,858
In September 2010,
CIA director Leon Panetta

504
00:27:05,991 --> 00:27:09,695
goes to the White House
to inform President Barack Obama

505
00:27:09,928 --> 00:27:13,966
about a suspicious compound
in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

506
00:27:14,199 --> 00:27:16,768
(Cardillo)
It was around 5:00 pm,
and Leon Panetta

507
00:27:17,002 --> 00:27:18,370
taps me on the shoulder
and says we need

508
00:27:18,604 --> 00:27:20,506
to go upstairs
to brief the old man.

509
00:27:20,739 --> 00:27:23,108
Now, as I walked into the Oval
that evening,

510
00:27:23,342 --> 00:27:27,813
I had no idea what topic
we were updating the old man on.

511
00:27:28,046 --> 00:27:30,682
One of the analysts rolled out

512
00:27:30,916 --> 00:27:34,686
a very large
format photograph.

513
00:27:34,920 --> 00:27:36,922
A satellite image

514
00:27:37,156 --> 00:27:40,592
of a facility
I had never seen before.

515
00:27:40,826 --> 00:27:43,162
I recall the president asking
a few questions, you know,

516
00:27:43,395 --> 00:27:45,497
clarifying ones, you know,
how do we know this,

517
00:27:45,731 --> 00:27:47,900
how do we not know that,
et cetera?

518
00:27:48,133 --> 00:27:51,236
I don't feel the meeting went
longer than 15 minutes or so.

519
00:27:51,470 --> 00:27:54,573
It was pretty short.

520
00:27:54,806 --> 00:27:56,341
And I remember the president
thanking the team.

521
00:27:56,575 --> 00:27:58,243
He said, okay, come back
when you have more.

522
00:27:59,678 --> 00:28:01,079
(narrator)
Over years of hunting,

523
00:28:01,313 --> 00:28:03,415
intelligence analysts
produced a checklist

524
00:28:03,649 --> 00:28:04,850
for the kinds of conditions

525
00:28:05,083 --> 00:28:08,053
they thought bin Laden
would want in a hideout.

526
00:28:08,287 --> 00:28:11,723
The more they learn about
the Abbottabad compound,

527
00:28:11,957 --> 00:28:13,392
the more confident they become

528
00:28:13,625 --> 00:28:16,695
that this is
a critical location.

529
00:28:16,929 --> 00:28:19,731
‐ You would find, no matter who
you talked to on this team,

530
00:28:19,965 --> 00:28:24,203
that we were very certain
that we were on a place

531
00:28:24,436 --> 00:28:27,206
that required our attention.

532
00:28:27,439 --> 00:28:29,241
None of us believed at
any point in time that we were

533
00:28:29,474 --> 00:28:32,978
overestimating the potential
importance of this location.

534
00:28:33,212 --> 00:28:36,949
‐ We would press them
and we would say, okay,

535
00:28:37,182 --> 00:28:41,853
what's your honest evaluation

536
00:28:42,087 --> 00:28:46,525
of the odds that bin Laden
is in that compound?

537
00:28:46,758 --> 00:28:48,860
And among
the different analysts,

538
00:28:49,094 --> 00:28:53,031
it ranged from 40% to 80%.

539
00:28:53,265 --> 00:28:54,199
‐ It didn't matter to me
too much

540
00:28:54,433 --> 00:28:57,502
what the seniors thought,

541
00:28:57,736 --> 00:28:59,004
what I was
more interested in

542
00:28:59,238 --> 00:29:00,639
and what influenced me much more

543
00:29:00,872 --> 00:29:03,408
is what the confidence level

544
00:29:03,642 --> 00:29:06,979
of the working level analysts

545
00:29:07,212 --> 00:29:08,981
that had been working
this problem

546
00:29:09,214 --> 00:29:10,616
and what their
confidence level was,

547
00:29:10,849 --> 00:29:12,451
which was pretty high.

548
00:29:12,684 --> 00:29:14,620
And so I put
a lot of faith in that.

549
00:29:14,853 --> 00:29:18,957
(narrator)
Military planners develop
options for the president.

550
00:29:19,191 --> 00:29:21,093
Bombing risks extensive
civilian deaths

551
00:29:21,326 --> 00:29:23,028
in adjoining homes.

552
00:29:23,262 --> 00:29:26,098
Even if bin Laden is in
the compound when it's hit,

553
00:29:26,331 --> 00:29:28,533
how will the US know?

554
00:29:28,767 --> 00:29:32,237
The only way to be sure
is to send troops to find him.

555
00:29:35,040 --> 00:29:37,876
‐ I initially
favored the raid

556
00:29:38,110 --> 00:29:39,878
if it could be pulled off,

557
00:29:40,112 --> 00:29:44,716
because I thought we would never
know if bin Laden were there

558
00:29:44,950 --> 00:29:46,985
if we had used a bomb.

559
00:29:47,219 --> 00:29:50,389
(Clapper)
I was in favor of a raid

560
00:29:50,622 --> 00:29:53,458
simply because I thought
it'd be better to have

561
00:29:53,692 --> 00:29:57,296
thinking people on the ground
who could observe

562
00:29:57,529 --> 00:29:59,464
and make judgments about
what to do.

563
00:29:59,698 --> 00:30:00,966
And then there was
still ambiguity

564
00:30:01,199 --> 00:30:02,567
as to whether
he was there or not.

565
00:30:02,801 --> 00:30:05,170
‐ I mean, I wanted bin Laden
as bad as anybody,

566
00:30:05,404 --> 00:30:08,373
but my primary responsibility,

567
00:30:08,607 --> 00:30:12,911
as I saw it,
was the war in Afghanistan.

568
00:30:13,145 --> 00:30:18,950
And my worry was that if
we flew into Abbottabad,

569
00:30:19,184 --> 00:30:23,488
blew a bunch of stuff up
and got back out,

570
00:30:23,722 --> 00:30:26,024
the violation of
Pakistani sovereignty

571
00:30:26,258 --> 00:30:29,961
and the embarrassment to their
military would be so severe

572
00:30:30,195 --> 00:30:33,699
that they would cut our supply
line from Karachi to Afghanistan

573
00:30:33,932 --> 00:30:36,601
and we would lose the war
overnight.

574
00:30:36,835 --> 00:30:38,804
(Obama) Obviously it was
a very dangerous operation.

575
00:30:39,037 --> 00:30:42,607
There was the diplomatic risks

576
00:30:42,841 --> 00:30:48,280
of going into
a foreign country

577
00:30:48,513 --> 00:30:49,948
without their permission.

578
00:30:50,182 --> 00:30:52,417
And we considered
the possibility

579
00:30:52,651 --> 00:30:57,155
of tipping off the Pakistani
government ahead of time.

580
00:30:57,389 --> 00:31:00,192
But there were also factions
within the Pakistani government

581
00:31:00,425 --> 00:31:03,895
that were not as trustworthy,

582
00:31:04,129 --> 00:31:08,066
and we thought it was too risky
to give them a heads up.

583
00:31:08,300 --> 00:31:10,902
‐ I had gotten to know
Admiral McRaven,

584
00:31:11,136 --> 00:31:17,876
and was not surprised that
he made a very compelling case

585
00:31:18,110 --> 00:31:21,980
that he could mount
a successful raid.

586
00:31:22,214 --> 00:31:24,783
‐ I wrote my thesis at
the Naval Postgraduate School

587
00:31:25,016 --> 00:31:26,518
on special operations.

588
00:31:26,752 --> 00:31:28,920
And what you saw on
the successful mission

589
00:31:29,154 --> 00:31:31,089
was simplicity was key.

590
00:31:31,323 --> 00:31:34,159
So as I looked at this,
it became pretty simple.

591
00:31:34,393 --> 00:31:37,629
I just decided we will
fly directly to the target,

592
00:31:37,863 --> 00:31:41,099
you know, take down the target,
get bin Laden and fly back.

593
00:31:41,333 --> 00:31:44,136
Now, that‐‐ when we went
to do the detailed planning,

594
00:31:44,369 --> 00:31:45,937
I knew it would not
be that easy.

595
00:31:46,171 --> 00:31:47,472
I had an opportunity
to brief the president

596
00:31:47,706 --> 00:31:49,508
before bringing in the planners.

597
00:31:49,741 --> 00:31:51,476
And at one point in time,
the president asked me,

598
00:31:51,710 --> 00:31:53,445
so can you do this mission?

599
00:31:53,678 --> 00:31:54,646
And I was very candid with him.

600
00:31:54,880 --> 00:31:56,081
I said, Mr. President,
I don't know.

601
00:31:56,314 --> 00:31:57,749
‐ We had to worry about
the possibilities

602
00:31:57,983 --> 00:32:01,653
of interception by
Pakistani Air Forces.

603
00:32:01,887 --> 00:32:05,056
Landing, we had to take into
account the possibility

604
00:32:05,290 --> 00:32:08,727
that they would cause
a commotion when a bunch

605
00:32:08,960 --> 00:32:11,329
of helicopters land in
a community like that.

606
00:32:11,563 --> 00:32:13,799
This is a residential community

607
00:32:14,032 --> 00:32:17,936
just a few miles from
a military college.

608
00:32:18,170 --> 00:32:21,606
This is a town in which you have

609
00:32:21,840 --> 00:32:24,476
a whole lot of Pakistani
military there.

610
00:32:24,709 --> 00:32:27,179
And so,

611
00:32:27,412 --> 00:32:30,949
could we get
in and out safely?

612
00:32:31,183 --> 00:32:33,051
‐ I said I haven't had
a chance to bring in

613
00:32:33,285 --> 00:32:35,821
the aviation planners
and the SEALs.

614
00:32:36,054 --> 00:32:39,324
I need to do that first before
I can come back and tell you

615
00:32:39,558 --> 00:32:41,760
with 100% certainty
that we can do this.

616
00:32:41,993 --> 00:32:43,094
And he said,
how much time do you need?

617
00:32:43,328 --> 00:32:45,464
Recognizing that we were
up against the clock,

618
00:32:45,697 --> 00:32:46,798
I told him I needed three weeks.

619
00:32:47,032 --> 00:32:48,667
‐ We were under
a time pressure

620
00:32:48,900 --> 00:32:52,471
just not knowing what
bin Laden would do.

621
00:32:52,704 --> 00:32:54,673
If he were there,
how long would he be there?

622
00:32:54,906 --> 00:32:58,109
‐ Another factor we considered
is, you know,

623
00:32:58,343 --> 00:32:59,778
we delay this,
it's bound to leak.

624
00:33:00,078 --> 00:33:02,047
‐ There was a lot of concern
that if some action

625
00:33:02,280 --> 00:33:06,451
wasn't taken quickly,
we'd be back to square one.

626
00:33:11,289 --> 00:33:12,290
(narrator)
In January 2011,

627
00:33:13,558 --> 00:33:15,360
Admiral McRaven begins
organizing the raid.

628
00:33:15,594 --> 00:33:17,095
To heightened secrecy,

629
00:33:17,329 --> 00:33:20,932
the mission, known
as Operation Neptune Spear,

630
00:33:21,166 --> 00:33:24,369
will be carried out under
CIA authority.

631
00:33:24,603 --> 00:33:27,405
‐ The inclusion, if you will,
of the special operations forces

632
00:33:27,639 --> 00:33:29,674
to the agency really
wasn't anything unusual.

633
00:33:29,908 --> 00:33:32,644
We have for decades,
when the time was required,

634
00:33:32,878 --> 00:33:36,381
essentially been secunded to
the agency for various missions.

635
00:33:36,615 --> 00:33:39,484
I had one other person that was
part of my planning element

636
00:33:39,718 --> 00:33:42,854
for the first several months
because the list of people that

637
00:33:43,088 --> 00:33:45,323
the president agreed could be
part of this with very small.

638
00:33:45,557 --> 00:33:48,193
‐ Admiral McRaven told me
to go over to the agency

639
00:33:48,426 --> 00:33:50,262
and go get a brief.

640
00:33:50,495 --> 00:33:54,065
So that next day, I drove over
to CIA headquarters.

641
00:33:54,299 --> 00:33:57,502
They pointed me back
to a side closet,

642
00:33:57,736 --> 00:33:59,237
and there were
some desks in there,

643
00:33:59,471 --> 00:34:01,540
and there were three guys
sitting in there.

644
00:34:01,773 --> 00:34:03,675
And I walked in,
I knew two of them,

645
00:34:03,909 --> 00:34:05,377
and they handed me a binder.

646
00:34:05,610 --> 00:34:07,245
They said, go ahead
and read through that

647
00:34:07,479 --> 00:34:08,580
and then we can talk.

648
00:34:08,813 --> 00:34:11,182
And upon flipping
the binder open,

649
00:34:11,416 --> 00:34:13,552
the first picture that
I saw was UBL.

650
00:34:13,785 --> 00:34:15,287
And that's the first time

651
00:34:15,520 --> 00:34:17,889
that I knew that that's
what this was about.

652
00:34:18,123 --> 00:34:19,224
(Redacted) As soon as
I read through everything,

653
00:34:19,457 --> 00:34:20,625
it just all made sense.

654
00:34:20,859 --> 00:34:22,727
And I bought it, you know,
hiding in plain sight.

655
00:34:22,961 --> 00:34:26,298
The measures that were taken by
those that were at the facility

656
00:34:26,531 --> 00:34:29,067
were extraordinary,
would not have been happening

657
00:34:29,301 --> 00:34:32,203
were there not something
very interesting there.

658
00:34:32,437 --> 00:34:34,639
So once we got the direction
from the president that,

659
00:34:34,873 --> 00:34:36,875
yes, I want to see more on

660
00:34:37,108 --> 00:34:40,011
what a unilateral military raid
would look like‐‐

661
00:34:40,245 --> 00:34:43,848
you know, again, I had been
driving this solo, but obviously

662
00:34:44,082 --> 00:34:46,685
we were going to have to call
more folks in to do that.

663
00:34:46,918 --> 00:34:49,754
‐ I knew the senior leadership
of the raid force.

664
00:34:49,988 --> 00:34:53,658
These were folks that I had
worked with off and on,

665
00:34:53,892 --> 00:34:57,162
and I think very positively,
since 9/11.

666
00:34:57,395 --> 00:35:00,899
And I knew that they
were finest of the finest.

667
00:35:01,132 --> 00:35:04,402
‐ The ground force commander
was an experienced operator,

668
00:35:04,636 --> 00:35:06,237
and he had been in command

669
00:35:06,471 --> 00:35:08,740
of his squadron for a while,
and had done a couple

670
00:35:08,974 --> 00:35:10,675
of operational deployments
with them.

671
00:35:10,909 --> 00:35:14,546
‐ I had exceptional confidence
in this particular officer.

672
00:35:14,779 --> 00:35:16,948
He had worked for me
for many years,

673
00:35:17,182 --> 00:35:18,984
had a tremendous amount
of combat experience,

674
00:35:19,217 --> 00:35:21,753
very heroic in combat,

675
00:35:21,987 --> 00:35:25,390
very level‐headed,
would not rush to failure.

676
00:35:25,624 --> 00:35:30,228
‐ The aviation lead
is very quiet,

677
00:35:30,462 --> 00:35:34,099
but he had a tremendous amount
of flying experience

678
00:35:34,332 --> 00:35:36,568
and had been involved
in a number of operations

679
00:35:36,801 --> 00:35:38,069
and had flown me
a number of places

680
00:35:38,303 --> 00:35:40,038
and flown all of us
a number of places.

681
00:35:40,271 --> 00:35:43,541
You needed somebody who not only
knew how to fly the bird,

682
00:35:43,775 --> 00:35:47,112
but understood everything else
about terrain masking

683
00:35:47,345 --> 00:35:49,547
and enemy radars.

684
00:35:49,781 --> 00:35:52,951
‐ I was brought into this
small room of less than

685
00:35:53,184 --> 00:35:57,455
a dozen individuals and
was given a piece of imagery

686
00:35:57,689 --> 00:35:59,524
in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

687
00:35:59,758 --> 00:36:01,292
And I'm looking at
a ground force commander

688
00:36:01,526 --> 00:36:06,931
who I have risked my life for,
for him and his teams.

689
00:36:07,165 --> 00:36:10,769
And when they told me that
we're going after bin Laden,

690
00:36:11,002 --> 00:36:13,338
my only reaction is
like, let's go.

691
00:36:13,571 --> 00:36:17,642
And I looked at the map,
and I looked at the distance

692
00:36:17,876 --> 00:36:20,011
on the map, I looked
at the capability,

693
00:36:20,245 --> 00:36:22,814
and my first reaction
is absolutely, we can do this.

694
00:36:23,048 --> 00:36:25,984
But there's going to be risk and
we need to reduce that risk.

695
00:36:26,217 --> 00:36:28,853
‐ It looked like an awful lot
of other raids we have done

696
00:36:29,087 --> 00:36:32,257
except the the distance
was a long way.

697
00:36:32,490 --> 00:36:34,826
So the helicopter piece
was very complicated.

698
00:36:35,060 --> 00:36:39,631
‐ You're still trying to fly
at 130, 150 miles an hour,

699
00:36:39,864 --> 00:36:42,067
you know, 100 or 200 feet
off the ground,

700
00:36:42,300 --> 00:36:44,169
looking for wires,
looking for birds,

701
00:36:44,402 --> 00:36:46,304
looking for antennas and towers.

702
00:36:46,538 --> 00:36:50,341
Looking for the terrain,
you're still flying the aircraft

703
00:36:50,575 --> 00:36:53,078
while you're managing
the electronic spectrum

704
00:36:53,311 --> 00:36:54,846
that's trying to
search and find you.

705
00:36:55,080 --> 00:36:56,347
(Lead Planner)
Anything we asked for, we got.

706
00:36:56,581 --> 00:37:00,385
If we needed an analysis
of all of the radars

707
00:37:00,618 --> 00:37:02,687
in the entire region,
then we got that.

708
00:37:02,921 --> 00:37:05,790
We got the best analysts for
whatever radars were required.

709
00:37:06,024 --> 00:37:07,192
‐ Am I gonna be heard,

710
00:37:07,425 --> 00:37:10,729
am I going to be seen
visually, electronically?

711
00:37:10,962 --> 00:37:12,931
How noisy am I
in that country?

712
00:37:13,164 --> 00:37:16,267
(narrator)
But radar's not
the only concern.

713
00:37:16,501 --> 00:37:19,304
If the American helicopters
are discovered,

714
00:37:19,537 --> 00:37:23,308
can the Pakistani Air Force
track and shoot them down?

715
00:37:23,541 --> 00:37:24,976
‐ For example, the training

716
00:37:25,210 --> 00:37:28,413
of those that
are flying F‐16s

717
00:37:28,646 --> 00:37:32,016
or other helicopters
in a specific country,

718
00:37:32,250 --> 00:37:34,919
you would want to know
how proficient are they.

719
00:37:35,153 --> 00:37:36,521
Even though they have
the equipment

720
00:37:36,755 --> 00:37:39,491
on board that airframe,
do they know how to use it?

721
00:37:39,724 --> 00:37:42,560
Do they know how to
operate it in day

722
00:37:42,794 --> 00:37:44,763
and equally as proficient
at night?

723
00:37:44,996 --> 00:37:46,297
(Lead Planner)
Given the geography

724
00:37:46,531 --> 00:37:49,868
of the part of the country where
the mission was going to be,

725
00:37:50,101 --> 00:37:52,504
we had learned over
the years operating that

726
00:37:52,737 --> 00:37:58,009
the MH‐47 Chinooks were the best
platform for the elevation

727
00:37:58,243 --> 00:37:59,410
and for the types of weather

728
00:37:59,644 --> 00:38:00,879
that we would need
to fly through.

729
00:38:01,112 --> 00:38:03,414
Their ability to carry
a larger number of people

730
00:38:03,648 --> 00:38:04,816
was also important.

731
00:38:05,049 --> 00:38:07,952
So from the beginning,
we saw it as a 47 mission,

732
00:38:08,186 --> 00:38:09,721
as a mission for the Chinooks.

733
00:38:09,954 --> 00:38:11,156
(Aviation Planner)
The Chinook is very loud.

734
00:38:11,389 --> 00:38:14,926
It's very big, it's visible
across all spectrums.

735
00:38:15,160 --> 00:38:17,796
‐ As the briefs went through
the chain of command,

736
00:38:18,029 --> 00:38:23,668
there was a sensitivity
expressed on exposure to radars

737
00:38:23,902 --> 00:38:27,338
and discovery of the helicopters
as the force was infiltrating.

738
00:38:27,572 --> 00:38:31,242
And that shifted
the conversation to using

739
00:38:31,476 --> 00:38:34,813
the Black Hawks that had some
of the capabilities

740
00:38:35,046 --> 00:38:36,714
to defeat radar.

741
00:38:36,948 --> 00:38:41,853
And that assuaged the concerns
at the national level.

742
00:38:42,086 --> 00:38:43,421
‐ Black Hawks can get in and out

743
00:38:43,655 --> 00:38:45,723
of certain areas quicker
than a Chinook can.

744
00:38:45,957 --> 00:38:47,725
(narrator)
Though the Black Hawks are
more maneuverable

745
00:38:47,959 --> 00:38:49,928
and better shielded
from radar detection,

746
00:38:50,161 --> 00:38:53,164
they cannot carry enough
fuel for the round trip,

747
00:38:53,398 --> 00:38:57,302
and will need to be refueled
inside Pakistan.

748
00:38:57,535 --> 00:39:01,306
‐ The contingent part of
the planning was that

749
00:39:01,539 --> 00:39:03,575
we would need
refueling helicopters.

750
00:39:03,808 --> 00:39:09,881
We would need the 47s to fly in
and park on the way back out

751
00:39:10,114 --> 00:39:11,749
so that the Black Hawks
could refuel.

752
00:39:11,983 --> 00:39:14,519
And they would set up
a ground refueling site,

753
00:39:14,752 --> 00:39:16,654
Black Hawks would land,
take fuel on,

754
00:39:16,888 --> 00:39:19,090
and then everybody
would fly out.

755
00:39:19,324 --> 00:39:23,995
‐ I'd been in the White House
almost exactly 30 years earlier

756
00:39:24,229 --> 00:39:28,433
for the Iranian hostage
rescue mission,

757
00:39:28,666 --> 00:39:32,837
which failed due to problems
with helicopters.

758
00:39:33,071 --> 00:39:38,710
So in those discussions about
the raid on Abbottabad, I said,

759
00:39:38,943 --> 00:39:41,779
I think you need to add
another helicopter or two

760
00:39:42,013 --> 00:39:46,684
to your plan just in case
something goes south.

761
00:39:46,918 --> 00:39:48,920
(narrator)
Ultimately, two Black Hawks

762
00:39:49,153 --> 00:39:52,390
carrying the primary assault
force will lead the way,

763
00:39:52,624 --> 00:39:54,392
followed by two larger Chinooks

764
00:39:54,626 --> 00:39:58,963
with a fuel supply and
a contingency force of SEALs.

765
00:39:59,197 --> 00:40:03,534
‐ It was in the end
the president that added

766
00:40:03,768 --> 00:40:06,070
the extra helicopters
to the force

767
00:40:06,304 --> 00:40:09,007
to be able to give them
the possibility of fighting out.

768
00:40:09,240 --> 00:40:11,910
I mean, part of our worst
nightmare would have been

769
00:40:12,143 --> 00:40:13,344
one, we don't get him,

770
00:40:13,578 --> 00:40:16,214
and two, we have
US military personnel

771
00:40:16,447 --> 00:40:18,683
who are captured
inside Pakistan.

772
00:40:26,291 --> 00:40:27,892
(narrator)
For all the detailed
planning involved

773
00:40:28,126 --> 00:40:31,529
in sending Navy SEALs after
Osama bin Laden,

774
00:40:31,763 --> 00:40:33,331
nothing can change
the greatest risk of

775
00:40:33,564 --> 00:40:36,301
Operation Neptune Spear.

776
00:40:36,534 --> 00:40:39,337
American forces will be
deep inside Pakistan

777
00:40:39,570 --> 00:40:42,573
without permission.

778
00:40:42,807 --> 00:40:46,878
To improve the odds of success,
the SEALs focus on the ways

779
00:40:47,111 --> 00:40:51,382
the mission could fail and how
to prevent a disastrous outcome.

780
00:40:51,616 --> 00:40:53,051
(Adm. McRaven) Normally on
a compound this size,

781
00:40:53,284 --> 00:40:57,989
we probably would have
had a SEAL force of,

782
00:40:58,222 --> 00:41:02,026
you know, 25 guys,
just the assault element,

783
00:41:02,260 --> 00:41:05,830
and then probably another
30 or more Rangers

784
00:41:06,064 --> 00:41:08,399
that would be kind of
the outer security element.

785
00:41:08,633 --> 00:41:11,936
Well, I had to make do
with just the 24 SEALs

786
00:41:12,170 --> 00:41:15,273
and our one interpreter
and the dog.

787
00:41:15,506 --> 00:41:18,509
That was the maximum I could fit
on the helicopters based on

788
00:41:18,743 --> 00:41:21,346
the altitude of Abbottabad,
and the heat at the time.

789
00:41:21,579 --> 00:41:23,014
(Aviation Planner)
The hotter it gets,

790
00:41:23,247 --> 00:41:24,782
the higher
the density altitude is

791
00:41:25,016 --> 00:41:26,951
and the less people we can bring
to an objective.

792
00:41:27,185 --> 00:41:29,087
That's really what it
boils down to.

793
00:41:29,320 --> 00:41:32,156
So May really was
the last comfort zone.

794
00:41:32,390 --> 00:41:33,992
Beyond that, we were gonna
start incurring more risk,

795
00:41:34,225 --> 00:41:37,695
'cause June, it gets very hot,
it's in the hundreds for a high.

796
00:41:37,929 --> 00:41:40,098
‐ Everybody who was on that
mission was handpicked.

797
00:41:40,331 --> 00:41:42,133
Everyone on that mission
had combat experience,

798
00:41:42,367 --> 00:41:43,534
a lot of combat experience.

799
00:41:43,768 --> 00:41:46,571
‐ It was the three of us, me,
the squadron commander,

800
00:41:46,804 --> 00:41:49,774
and the squadron master chief
sitting and going through.

801
00:41:50,008 --> 00:41:52,443
And the primary criteria we used

802
00:41:52,677 --> 00:41:55,079
was could the operator

803
00:41:55,313 --> 00:41:59,150
snap right in and
just do the op?

804
00:41:59,384 --> 00:42:02,020
And that doesn't necessarily
have to do with your seniority,

805
00:42:02,253 --> 00:42:05,556
your experience level,
what we wanted was temperament.

806
00:42:05,790 --> 00:42:07,025
‐ There's multiple teams at home

807
00:42:07,258 --> 00:42:08,860
and different levels
of readiness

808
00:42:09,093 --> 00:42:11,362
on standby and preparation.

809
00:42:11,596 --> 00:42:14,999
We were kind of the most
off the grid squadron

810
00:42:15,233 --> 00:42:17,001
because we had just got home,
it shouldn't have been our time

811
00:42:17,235 --> 00:42:20,405
to rotate back over
for many more months.

812
00:42:20,638 --> 00:42:23,608
‐ We'd finished a few weeks
of leave with our families,

813
00:42:23,841 --> 00:42:25,943
and then we started
training again.

814
00:42:26,177 --> 00:42:28,780
So guys split up in
the typical training cycle.

815
00:42:29,013 --> 00:42:32,984
‐ I got recalled when I was at
Free‐Fall Jumpmaster School.

816
00:42:33,217 --> 00:42:35,987
‐ I think we were in lock
picking school or something.

817
00:42:36,220 --> 00:42:37,822
All of a sudden things
started spinning up,

818
00:42:38,056 --> 00:42:40,124
they said, hey, we need
these people back.

819
00:42:40,358 --> 00:42:41,859
‐ You know, there's
obviously luck involved,

820
00:42:42,093 --> 00:42:43,394
but they picked
the most experienced guys

821
00:42:43,628 --> 00:42:46,364
of the available guys in
the search spot they wanted.

822
00:42:46,597 --> 00:42:47,932
‐ Nobody knew where these guys
were, they just assumed

823
00:42:48,166 --> 00:42:49,267
they were on leave
with their family,

824
00:42:49,500 --> 00:42:51,602
or Disneyland or someplace.

825
00:42:51,836 --> 00:42:54,539
So that gave me three weeks of
kind of cover for action.

826
00:42:56,974 --> 00:42:58,609
We actually brought
these 25 guys in

827
00:42:58,843 --> 00:43:00,445
to this undisclosed location

828
00:43:00,678 --> 00:43:02,113
and briefed them.

829
00:43:02,346 --> 00:43:04,315
‐ We're traditionally set up
in different troops,

830
00:43:04,549 --> 00:43:10,021
and they pulled the 24 most
senior guys from the squadron.

831
00:43:10,254 --> 00:43:12,723
So it's a little different,
but, okay.

832
00:43:12,957 --> 00:43:14,492
‐ I wasn't a very senior guy.

833
00:43:14,725 --> 00:43:16,094
The reason I got chosen for
the mission was because

834
00:43:16,327 --> 00:43:17,995
I was a dog handler
and I had Cairo.

835
00:43:18,229 --> 00:43:19,497
The dog would be
very valuable in smelling

836
00:43:19,730 --> 00:43:22,166
any sort of explosive,
finding any escape tunnels,

837
00:43:22,400 --> 00:43:24,469
safe rooms, crowd control.

838
00:43:24,702 --> 00:43:26,003
‐ We were just talking about
why are we back?

839
00:43:26,237 --> 00:43:28,005
What kind of stupid
training exercise

840
00:43:28,239 --> 00:43:29,841
did they just come up
with us to do?

841
00:43:30,074 --> 00:43:31,209
And they brought us in a room

842
00:43:31,442 --> 00:43:34,312
and they told us it wasn't
a training exercise,

843
00:43:34,545 --> 00:43:37,682
this is definitely real, but we
just have to go get something

844
00:43:37,915 --> 00:43:40,218
and bring it back to them
so they can see it.

845
00:43:40,451 --> 00:43:41,719
‐ It was pretty vague

846
00:43:41,953 --> 00:43:43,354
to say that they needed us
for something.

847
00:43:43,588 --> 00:43:44,956
A couple rumors were
flying around.

848
00:43:45,189 --> 00:43:46,124
‐ Then we just started assuming

849
00:43:46,357 --> 00:43:47,458
what it could be around
the world,

850
00:43:47,692 --> 00:43:49,427
but no one thought
bin Laden off the bat.

851
00:43:49,660 --> 00:43:52,296
They drove us down to
a base south of Virginia,

852
00:43:52,530 --> 00:43:55,566
and the boss came in and just
said, all right, guys,

853
00:43:55,800 --> 00:43:58,069
the reason that you're here
is because this is as close as

854
00:43:58,302 --> 00:44:00,171
we've ever been
to Osama bin Laden.

855
00:44:00,404 --> 00:44:02,673
‐ And immediately,
game faces were on

856
00:44:02,907 --> 00:44:06,010
and they began to to plan
and rehearse the mission.

857
00:44:06,244 --> 00:44:07,311
We only had three weeks
to do that.

858
00:44:07,545 --> 00:44:10,381
♪

859
00:44:14,018 --> 00:44:16,487
(Long)
As part of any operation,

860
00:44:16,721 --> 00:44:20,525
NGA develops
three dimensional models

861
00:44:20,758 --> 00:44:23,828
that you can fly through to,
you know, make you think

862
00:44:24,061 --> 00:44:25,630
like you are actually there,

863
00:44:25,863 --> 00:44:28,599
and we also developed
a scale model.

864
00:44:28,833 --> 00:44:32,637
And then that scale model
was used to develop

865
00:44:32,870 --> 00:44:34,172
a full scale model.

866
00:44:34,405 --> 00:44:36,174
‐ Whether it's SEALS,
whether Delta Force,

867
00:44:36,407 --> 00:44:37,842
we all do this kinda
the same way,

868
00:44:38,075 --> 00:44:38,943
everyone gets a say.

869
00:44:39,177 --> 00:44:40,378
Everyone looked at
that target.

870
00:44:40,611 --> 00:44:43,447
Everyone had access
to the information.

871
00:44:43,681 --> 00:44:45,016
‐ We spent all morning
standing around the model,

872
00:44:45,249 --> 00:44:46,350
and everybody chalk talking,

873
00:44:46,584 --> 00:44:48,686
hey, how we would tactically
take this down?

874
00:44:48,920 --> 00:44:50,755
‐ If you were going to fast rope
here, here, here, here.

875
00:44:50,988 --> 00:44:52,423
‐ The plan was straightforward.

876
00:44:52,657 --> 00:44:55,426
Two helicopters flying
to the target.

877
00:44:55,660 --> 00:44:58,262
One helicopter would hover

878
00:44:58,496 --> 00:45:02,266
over the roof of
the three‐story building,

879
00:45:02,500 --> 00:45:05,970
and a small force would
fast rope down onto the roof,

880
00:45:06,204 --> 00:45:08,206
get right down to the balcony,

881
00:45:08,439 --> 00:45:10,007
and come right in on
the third floor

882
00:45:10,241 --> 00:45:12,543
where everybody assessed
that's where he lived.

883
00:45:12,777 --> 00:45:17,281
The second helicopter would be
hovering over the courtyard

884
00:45:17,515 --> 00:45:21,118
and fast rope the majority of
the force down onto the ground,

885
00:45:21,352 --> 00:45:24,689
where they would set up
sniper positions on the walls

886
00:45:24,922 --> 00:45:27,992
and clear the second building
in the compound

887
00:45:28,226 --> 00:45:31,596
and then clear the main building
from the ground up.

888
00:45:31,829 --> 00:45:33,264
(narrator)
Training for the mission moves

889
00:45:33,497 --> 00:45:35,266
to a facility in
North Carolina

890
00:45:35,499 --> 00:45:39,437
where the ground force runs
through their raid assignments.

891
00:45:39,670 --> 00:45:42,707
By mid‐April, the training
shifts to the mountains of

892
00:45:42,940 --> 00:45:46,477
the western United States,
where the weather and terrain

893
00:45:46,711 --> 00:45:50,114
are closer to flight conditions
in Pakistan.

894
00:45:50,348 --> 00:45:51,616
(Adm. McRaven)
One of the things that

895
00:45:51,849 --> 00:45:53,951
I wanted to do was to duplicate

896
00:45:54,185 --> 00:45:58,122
as best we could the entire
profile of the mission.

897
00:45:58,356 --> 00:45:59,790
And there were a number of
folks that said, sir,

898
00:46:00,091 --> 00:46:01,592
we know to fly a helicopter,
we know how to fly a helicopter

899
00:46:01,826 --> 00:46:03,594
for 169 miles,

900
00:46:03,828 --> 00:46:06,397
we just kind of fly
and come into the mockup.

901
00:46:06,631 --> 00:46:09,533
I said, no, no, we are going
to fly for 169 miles,

902
00:46:09,767 --> 00:46:12,937
we are gonna go through the
exact profile as best we can.

903
00:46:13,170 --> 00:46:16,007
‐ We are being observed
by senior members of

904
00:46:16,240 --> 00:46:17,642
the US government military

905
00:46:17,875 --> 00:46:20,878
because they want
to make sure that we,

906
00:46:21,112 --> 00:46:24,849
as one of their options,
are capable.

907
00:46:25,082 --> 00:46:27,518
But they knew who we were,
and I think that a lot of them

908
00:46:27,752 --> 00:46:29,820
just wanted to make sure
that helicopters could fly

909
00:46:30,054 --> 00:46:31,322
the way they wanted them to.

910
00:46:31,555 --> 00:46:34,091
‐ The number one contingency
that was the most probable

911
00:46:34,325 --> 00:46:37,762
was an aircraft crashing
in country.

912
00:46:37,995 --> 00:46:40,031
(narrator)
The Western rehearsals focus on

913
00:46:40,264 --> 00:46:42,199
how the Black Hawks
will perform.

914
00:46:42,433 --> 00:46:44,468
Though they have been
developed for situations

915
00:46:44,702 --> 00:46:46,003
just like this one,

916
00:46:46,237 --> 00:46:49,640
they have never before been
flown on an actual mission.

917
00:46:49,874 --> 00:46:50,975
(Commander Master Chief)
Very early on when

918
00:46:51,208 --> 00:46:52,643
we got out and saw them fly,

919
00:46:52,877 --> 00:46:56,080
they were unstable, particularly
when they came in to hover.

920
00:46:56,314 --> 00:46:57,748
And I said, hey, you know,
with all due respect,

921
00:46:57,982 --> 00:46:59,750
I don't think we should use
these helicopters.

922
00:47:00,051 --> 00:47:02,286
The time to try something new is
not on the most important raid

923
00:47:02,520 --> 00:47:04,822
arguably since World War Two.

924
00:47:05,056 --> 00:47:06,657
(Lead Planner)
Another one of the factors

925
00:47:06,891 --> 00:47:08,492
we had to take into account was

926
00:47:08,726 --> 00:47:10,127
that the air crews flying

927
00:47:10,361 --> 00:47:12,963
the Black Hawks had been
in a separate program

928
00:47:13,197 --> 00:47:15,700
and didn't have a lot of time
flying overseas.

929
00:47:15,933 --> 00:47:19,270
‐ The hot crews
were less seasoned,

930
00:47:19,503 --> 00:47:21,005
just the true knowledge
of that environment

931
00:47:21,238 --> 00:47:23,407
that those Hawker's
just did not have.

932
00:47:23,641 --> 00:47:26,811
And those particular crews had
been taken out of the fight

933
00:47:27,044 --> 00:47:29,980
for a while and really had been
part of just research.

934
00:47:31,949 --> 00:47:34,151
‐ The closer that we got to
the day we're going to launch,

935
00:47:34,385 --> 00:47:36,320
they did decide to forward
deploy us to Afghanistan

936
00:47:36,554 --> 00:47:37,888
and that's when it sunk in,
like, they're serious about this

937
00:47:38,122 --> 00:47:39,357
and we're probably
going to do it.

938
00:47:39,590 --> 00:47:41,726
(Seal #4)
They gave us a weekend off,

939
00:47:41,959 --> 00:47:45,096
and I'm in my neighborhood.

940
00:47:45,329 --> 00:47:47,398
There's like, kids running
around collecting Easter eggs.

941
00:47:47,631 --> 00:47:49,500
I'm talking to my neighbor,
he knows I'm a SEAL

942
00:47:49,734 --> 00:47:52,203
but clearly has no idea
what's going on.

943
00:47:52,436 --> 00:47:53,537
And as the kids
are running around,

944
00:47:53,771 --> 00:47:55,373
he's sitting there kind of
complaining to me

945
00:47:55,606 --> 00:47:57,341
about how stressed
he is at work.

946
00:47:57,575 --> 00:47:59,343
"I got this going on next week,
and this going on next week.

947
00:47:59,577 --> 00:48:01,846
I'm so stressed,"
and I remember kind of chuckling

948
00:48:02,079 --> 00:48:04,248
in the back of my mind thinking

949
00:48:04,482 --> 00:48:06,016
you have no idea what
I got going on next week.

950
00:48:06,250 --> 00:48:11,088
And a day later, we got
the green light and we left.

951
00:48:15,860 --> 00:48:17,895
(narrator)
With the SEALs now deployed

952
00:48:18,028 --> 00:48:20,030
in Afghanistan waiting
for a green light,

953
00:48:20,264 --> 00:48:24,001
President Obama faces
a momentous decision.

954
00:48:24,235 --> 00:48:26,837
Will he send them into
Pakistan without knowing

955
00:48:27,071 --> 00:48:30,741
whether Osama bin Laden
is really there?

956
00:48:30,975 --> 00:48:35,279
On Thursday, April 28, 2011,
the president meets with

957
00:48:35,513 --> 00:48:37,782
his National Security Council.

958
00:48:38,015 --> 00:48:40,117
‐ We had pretty much
gone through

959
00:48:40,351 --> 00:48:42,653
all the options,
all the data.

960
00:48:42,887 --> 00:48:46,590
We had gone...

961
00:48:46,824 --> 00:48:49,293
at our basic premises
and examined them

962
00:48:49,527 --> 00:48:53,364
and turned them over and did
our best to break them down.

963
00:48:53,597 --> 00:48:56,233
(Panetta) The president
then basically opened it up

964
00:48:56,467 --> 00:48:57,768
and said, what do you think?

965
00:48:58,002 --> 00:48:59,703
What do you think?

966
00:48:59,937 --> 00:49:02,339
I remember a lot of differences.

967
00:49:04,608 --> 00:49:07,111
I'd have to say just...

968
00:49:07,344 --> 00:49:09,547
thinking about this, I think
a majority of the people there

969
00:49:09,780 --> 00:49:11,649
were concerned that
it was too risky.

970
00:49:11,882 --> 00:49:15,152
‐ There is no assurance
that if we wait,

971
00:49:15,386 --> 00:49:18,956
we will get more positive
information that he's there.

972
00:49:19,190 --> 00:49:23,060
And the longer it goes on,
the more likely it is to leak.

973
00:49:23,294 --> 00:49:28,532
And so that kind of brought it
to a head in terms of

974
00:49:28,766 --> 00:49:30,734
we're not gonna get
any better information.

975
00:49:30,968 --> 00:49:32,970
So this is what we have,

976
00:49:33,204 --> 00:49:34,738
make your decision
based on that.

977
00:49:34,972 --> 00:49:37,875
‐ We thought it would be
important to so‐called

978
00:49:38,108 --> 00:49:39,610
"red team" the issue,

979
00:49:39,844 --> 00:49:43,180
which meant having a group
go in and ask nothing

980
00:49:43,414 --> 00:49:47,585
but the questions about what
are other possibilities.

981
00:49:47,818 --> 00:49:50,387
And they did that,
the red team did that.

982
00:49:50,621 --> 00:49:53,557
They basically said, look,
you know, we've looked

983
00:49:53,791 --> 00:49:57,561
at the possibility, you know,
that it's not bin Laden,

984
00:49:57,795 --> 00:49:59,230
but somebody else.

985
00:49:59,463 --> 00:50:00,564
But the question then becomes,

986
00:50:00,798 --> 00:50:03,234
why are bin Laden's
couriers there?

987
00:50:03,467 --> 00:50:08,572
‐ I think that
all of us would say that

988
00:50:08,806 --> 00:50:14,011
it was maybe a 55‐45 call.

989
00:50:14,245 --> 00:50:17,948
Effectively,
there was no way for us

990
00:50:18,182 --> 00:50:21,252
to absolutely confirm that
it was bin Laden,

991
00:50:21,485 --> 00:50:24,421
at least not within
a meaningful timeframe.

992
00:50:24,655 --> 00:50:25,956
So it was a judgment call.

993
00:50:26,190 --> 00:50:32,229
It's only after examining
every single option militarily

994
00:50:32,463 --> 00:50:35,165
that finally I'm presented
with the decision.

995
00:50:35,399 --> 00:50:38,836
And so I left the Situation Room
saying, thank you very much.

996
00:50:39,069 --> 00:50:41,605
I'll be making a decision
over the next 24 hours.

997
00:50:41,839 --> 00:50:45,009
‐ I worked for President Obama
for four years.

998
00:50:46,610 --> 00:50:47,778
And let me just tell you,

999
00:50:48,012 --> 00:50:49,680
I would never play poker
with that guy.

1000
00:50:52,516 --> 00:50:54,118
Impossible to read.

1001
00:50:54,351 --> 00:50:59,790
‐ I said to myself that if
I have an opportunity

1002
00:51:00,090 --> 00:51:02,426
to get bin Laden
and we pass it up,

1003
00:51:02,660 --> 00:51:08,699
then that is a huge blow
to the cause of justice,

1004
00:51:08,933 --> 00:51:12,937
to the families of 9/11 victims
that I had met,

1005
00:51:13,170 --> 00:51:16,574
and it was worth the risk.

1006
00:51:16,807 --> 00:51:21,078
‐ And the word came back in
the morning through Tom Donnelly

1007
00:51:21,312 --> 00:51:24,381
that it was a go
for Saturday night,

1008
00:51:24,615 --> 00:51:25,983
Sunday morning, Pakistan time.

1009
00:51:26,216 --> 00:51:28,652
But it was pretty clear,
I think, by noon

1010
00:51:28,886 --> 00:51:30,621
that Admiral McRaven
was not comfortable

1011
00:51:30,854 --> 00:51:34,358
with the environmental
conditions that night.

1012
00:51:34,592 --> 00:51:36,994
And so he decided
to delay 24 hours.

1013
00:51:37,227 --> 00:51:41,165
‐ It was a little bit foggy,
and I was a little concerned

1014
00:51:41,398 --> 00:51:42,766
about the helicopters going
through there.

1015
00:51:43,000 --> 00:51:45,903
Not tremendously concerned,
but I wanted it to be,

1016
00:51:46,136 --> 00:51:47,371
you know, the best conditions
I could get,

1017
00:51:47,605 --> 00:51:49,173
we knew Sunday
would be better.

1018
00:51:49,406 --> 00:51:51,175
‐ We're literally sitting
in a brief.

1019
00:51:51,408 --> 00:51:53,277
Our master chief walks in the
back door of the briefing room,

1020
00:51:53,510 --> 00:51:55,312
says, hey, guys, green light,
we're going tomorrow.

1021
00:51:55,546 --> 00:51:58,382
‐ So once that happens,
you know, it is what it is.

1022
00:51:58,616 --> 00:51:59,883
And, you know,
you're just making sure

1023
00:52:00,184 --> 00:52:02,186
all your gear's ready,
making sure your guns are ready.

1024
00:52:02,419 --> 00:52:04,788
Just everything, you know,

1025
00:52:05,022 --> 00:52:07,591
your shoelaces don't have a tear
in it or anything like that.

1026
00:52:07,825 --> 00:52:12,796
You got 24 hours to kind of
prepare for what, I mean,

1027
00:52:13,030 --> 00:52:15,766
in essence, is probably
the rest of your life.

1028
00:52:16,000 --> 00:52:17,401
And that's kind of how I felt.

1029
00:52:17,635 --> 00:52:19,403
‐ Oh yeah, it was very clear

1030
00:52:19,637 --> 00:52:21,071
that we probably would
be making it back.

1031
00:52:21,305 --> 00:52:24,541
It was‐‐ every guy that was
chosen for the mission,

1032
00:52:24,775 --> 00:52:26,210
made sure their million dollar
life insurance policy

1033
00:52:26,443 --> 00:52:29,680
was fulfilled.

1034
00:52:29,913 --> 00:52:31,749
I told my parents,
or at least I told my father,

1035
00:52:31,982 --> 00:52:33,717
I probably would be
making it back.

1036
00:52:33,951 --> 00:52:36,353
‐ It was the first time I wrote
a letter to, you know,

1037
00:52:36,587 --> 00:52:38,022
my kid and my wife.

1038
00:52:38,255 --> 00:52:39,757
I hadn't done that before.

1039
00:52:41,859 --> 00:52:44,561
‐ We had a day, actually,
to look over the plan, you know,

1040
00:52:44,795 --> 00:52:47,698
one final time,
spent some time talking

1041
00:52:47,931 --> 00:52:49,767
to the ground force commander
and the weather guys,

1042
00:52:49,967 --> 00:52:52,436
and we kind of went through
our normal day on Saturday.

1043
00:52:52,670 --> 00:52:56,273
On Sunday, I actually had
a congressional delegation in.

1044
00:52:56,507 --> 00:52:59,677
I didn't want to change any of
my routine because most of

1045
00:52:59,910 --> 00:53:04,081
the people from my command,
we were in Bagram,

1046
00:53:04,314 --> 00:53:05,616
had no idea we were doing this.

1047
00:53:05,849 --> 00:53:07,117
Went through
the congressional delegation,

1048
00:53:07,351 --> 00:53:09,486
and then very quickly
after that,

1049
00:53:09,720 --> 00:53:14,058
moved down to our small command
center there in Jalalabad.

1050
00:53:16,160 --> 00:53:17,528
‐ And the force is ready,

1051
00:53:17,761 --> 00:53:19,263
now you're waiting for
the green light.

1052
00:53:25,402 --> 00:53:28,305
(narrator)
On May 1st, 2011,

1053
00:53:28,539 --> 00:53:31,842
Operation Neptune Spear sets off
on a moonless night

1054
00:53:32,076 --> 00:53:35,579
for a residential compound
in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

1055
00:53:35,813 --> 00:53:38,649
Two Black Hawk helicopters,
specially adapted to

1056
00:53:38,882 --> 00:53:42,152
avoid radar detection,
carry 24 SEALS,

1057
00:53:42,386 --> 00:53:45,289
an interpreter,
and a combat dog.

1058
00:53:45,522 --> 00:53:48,025
The helicopters
are so tight on weight

1059
00:53:48,258 --> 00:53:49,526
that their standard
weapons systems

1060
00:53:49,760 --> 00:53:51,895
are taken off and left behind.

1061
00:53:52,129 --> 00:53:54,465
‐ We're all mingling, you know,
saying hi to your friends

1062
00:53:54,698 --> 00:53:56,300
in the other helicopter,
just saying, hey,

1063
00:53:56,533 --> 00:53:57,935
we'll see you in 90 minutes.

1064
00:53:58,168 --> 00:53:59,670
‐ We had all of
our stuff stripped.

1065
00:53:59,903 --> 00:54:02,072
No jewelry, nothing,
no name tags.

1066
00:54:02,306 --> 00:54:04,475
‐ There was a sense that
this was historic.

1067
00:54:04,708 --> 00:54:07,845
What they were about to do was,
to the best of their ability,

1068
00:54:08,078 --> 00:54:10,681
bring distinction on themselves,
their unit and their country.

1069
00:54:10,914 --> 00:54:12,282
and they certainly felt that.

1070
00:54:12,516 --> 00:54:13,951
‐ I was doing
a video teleconference

1071
00:54:14,184 --> 00:54:17,221
back with Director Panetta
and then the Situation Room.

1072
00:54:17,454 --> 00:54:19,556
At the appropriate
point in time,

1073
00:54:19,790 --> 00:54:23,894
I turned to the SEAL commander,
commanding officer,

1074
00:54:24,128 --> 00:54:26,130
and I told him,
launch the assault force.

1075
00:54:26,363 --> 00:54:28,632
(helicopters powering up)

1076
00:54:28,866 --> 00:54:31,835
♪

1077
00:54:35,339 --> 00:54:38,375
(narrator) The Black Hawks
have 169 miles to cover

1078
00:54:38,609 --> 00:54:41,311
in a flight of about 90 minutes.

1079
00:54:41,545 --> 00:54:42,946
(Aviation Planner)
The routing was not direct

1080
00:54:43,180 --> 00:54:44,982
by design,
the routing for

1081
00:54:45,215 --> 00:54:48,018
the Black Hawks was to take
the least risked route,

1082
00:54:48,252 --> 00:54:50,654
and that's by terrain,
population,

1083
00:54:50,888 --> 00:54:52,422
wires, cultural,
whatever it may be.

1084
00:54:52,656 --> 00:54:56,393
It was for them to loop around
to reduce the amount of risk

1085
00:54:56,627 --> 00:54:58,729
to gain the element of surprise
on the objective.

1086
00:54:58,962 --> 00:55:00,464
‐ The risk on
the helicopter ride, I mean,

1087
00:55:00,697 --> 00:55:02,499
that's the one thing that
we couldn't control.

1088
00:55:02,733 --> 00:55:03,967
I think that was
definitely the one thing

1089
00:55:04,201 --> 00:55:05,636
I was more worried about.

1090
00:55:05,869 --> 00:55:07,504
‐ And we just kinda reflect on
everything's gonna happen.

1091
00:55:07,738 --> 00:55:10,340
And eventually at some point,
it does sink in, though.

1092
00:55:10,574 --> 00:55:12,776
It's like, holy crap,
we're here, this is us,

1093
00:55:13,010 --> 00:55:14,444
and we're doing this for‐‐

1094
00:55:14,678 --> 00:55:16,346
we're doing this
for Lower Manhattan.

1095
00:55:16,580 --> 00:55:17,948
We're doing this for 9/11.

1096
00:55:18,182 --> 00:55:20,517
We're doing this for the people
who fought on Flight 93,

1097
00:55:20,751 --> 00:55:21,852
the first people to
actually fight al‐Qaeda

1098
00:55:22,085 --> 00:55:23,120
in the War on Terror.

1099
00:55:23,353 --> 00:55:24,588
Doing this for the people
in the Pentagon.

1100
00:55:24,822 --> 00:55:26,757
Stuff like that's
kind of sinking in.

1101
00:55:26,990 --> 00:55:29,193
And it's‐‐ the fear
is not there,

1102
00:55:29,426 --> 00:55:31,962
it's more of a,
"This is it,

1103
00:55:32,196 --> 00:55:33,997
this is what I was born for."

1104
00:55:34,231 --> 00:55:35,999
(narrator)
Two Chinook helicopters

1105
00:55:36,233 --> 00:55:38,202
carrying fuel for
the Black Hawks

1106
00:55:38,435 --> 00:55:43,640
and a backup force of SEALs
leave 45 minutes later.

1107
00:55:43,874 --> 00:55:47,711
Capable of flying faster speeds
and a more direct route,

1108
00:55:47,945 --> 00:55:50,113
the Chinooks will be
in position nearby

1109
00:55:50,347 --> 00:55:53,483
as the Black Hawks
approach Abbottabad.

1110
00:55:53,717 --> 00:55:54,985
‐ All of our checkpoints
are on time,

1111
00:55:55,219 --> 00:55:57,187
we're just completely silent
flying through the night.

1112
00:55:57,421 --> 00:55:59,790
No illumination,
completely dark at 100 feet.

1113
00:56:00,090 --> 00:56:01,391
Flying the route to a T.

1114
00:56:01,625 --> 00:56:05,062
‐ So in Afghanistan because
of the lack of electricity,

1115
00:56:05,295 --> 00:56:07,097
it's a very dark country.

1116
00:56:07,331 --> 00:56:08,932
Pakistan is very well lit.

1117
00:56:09,166 --> 00:56:10,434
People are out and about.

1118
00:56:10,667 --> 00:56:12,903
The deeper you get
into Pakistan,

1119
00:56:13,136 --> 00:56:15,539
it's more structured,
much more advanced.

1120
00:56:15,772 --> 00:56:17,541
And that's power lines,

1121
00:56:17,774 --> 00:56:20,944
antennas, the lights,
the densely populated areas.

1122
00:56:23,580 --> 00:56:24,848
(narrator)
The Blackhawks approached

1123
00:56:25,082 --> 00:56:28,118
the compound from the east,
using the starker terrain

1124
00:56:28,352 --> 00:56:30,454
to muffle the sound
of their arrival.

1125
00:56:30,687 --> 00:56:34,491
In planning, they had figured
that they would be identifiable

1126
00:56:34,725 --> 00:56:37,227
for no more than the last
two minutes of the flight.

1127
00:56:38,829 --> 00:56:40,864
(SEAL #5)
The ten minute call is really

1128
00:56:41,098 --> 00:56:43,934
when everything starts kind of
getting alive in the cabin.

1129
00:56:45,369 --> 00:56:47,104
You're double checking
your optics,

1130
00:56:47,337 --> 00:56:48,538
you're double checking
your night vision,

1131
00:56:48,772 --> 00:56:50,707
making sure your helmet
gets tightened up.

1132
00:56:50,941 --> 00:56:52,376
‐ Two minutes,
you open the doors.

1133
00:56:52,609 --> 00:56:54,044
One minute, you swing
your feet out

1134
00:56:54,278 --> 00:56:55,779
and let them hang in the breeze.

1135
00:56:56,013 --> 00:56:58,515
Um, you're getting your rope
ready to go, right?

1136
00:56:58,749 --> 00:57:01,985
You're 30 seconds out,
now you're in, you know?

1137
00:57:02,219 --> 00:57:03,787
At 30 seconds out,
I can look out the door,

1138
00:57:04,021 --> 00:57:06,089
I can look up, I can see
the compound coming.

1139
00:57:06,323 --> 00:57:08,191
(narrator)
Above the compound,

1140
00:57:08,425 --> 00:57:12,329
a drone feeds video back to
the command center in Jalalabad,

1141
00:57:12,562 --> 00:57:14,865
the US embassy in Pakistan,

1142
00:57:15,098 --> 00:57:18,068
CIA headquarters,
and the White House.

1143
00:57:18,302 --> 00:57:22,306
(Obama) We were able
to monitor it in real time.

1144
00:57:22,539 --> 00:57:26,843
The iconic picture that
Pete Souza's taken

1145
00:57:27,077 --> 00:57:31,882
records, essentially,
what the atmosphere was like.

1146
00:57:32,115 --> 00:57:35,218
We're stuffed into
a pretty small room.

1147
00:57:35,452 --> 00:57:39,089
‐ We're watching
the helicopters come in,

1148
00:57:39,323 --> 00:57:42,793
and there is a point at which

1149
00:57:43,026 --> 00:57:47,431
I see one of these helicopters
begin to shake.

1150
00:57:47,664 --> 00:57:51,268
And clearly, there's been
a loss of control.

1151
00:57:53,170 --> 00:57:54,338
(SEAL #4)
Immediately you can tell

1152
00:57:54,571 --> 00:57:56,340
something was was off,
something was wrong.

1153
00:57:56,573 --> 00:57:59,242
We were not hovering like
we did in training.

1154
00:57:59,476 --> 00:58:01,345
In my mind, it felt
like about an hour,

1155
00:58:01,578 --> 00:58:03,246
in reality was probably
about five seconds.

1156
00:58:03,480 --> 00:58:06,817
I'm sitting in the door
waiting to push the rope out,

1157
00:58:07,050 --> 00:58:08,885
grab the rope, slide down
and go to work.

1158
00:58:11,121 --> 00:58:13,156
Couldn't get stable,
couldn't get stable.

1159
00:58:13,390 --> 00:58:15,225
(SEAL #5) Right then we kind
of sunk just a little bit,

1160
00:58:15,459 --> 00:58:16,727
is what I felt,
and then we kind of

1161
00:58:16,960 --> 00:58:18,929
turned the tail,
kicked out to the left.

1162
00:58:19,162 --> 00:58:22,566
Once that happened, then we just
started sideswiping left

1163
00:58:22,799 --> 00:58:24,534
and losing altitude.

1164
00:58:24,768 --> 00:58:26,169
(SEAL #4)
Helicopters don't crash

1165
00:58:26,403 --> 00:58:28,005
like planes, come skidding in.

1166
00:58:28,238 --> 00:58:30,540
They're usually pretty ugly,
and we're crashing to the side

1167
00:58:30,774 --> 00:58:32,943
at about 40 feet,
and I'm in this door.

1168
00:58:33,176 --> 00:58:34,811
Now we're crashing,
and everybody's wanting

1169
00:58:35,045 --> 00:58:37,814
back in and away from
the open door.

1170
00:58:38,048 --> 00:58:40,317
Instinctually,
that's when I started grabbing

1171
00:58:40,550 --> 00:58:43,086
the guys in front of me to make
sure that they didn't fall out.

1172
00:58:43,320 --> 00:58:46,289
‐ Here you are in probably
the highest profile mission

1173
00:58:46,523 --> 00:58:48,925
in special operations history,
maybe the military.

1174
00:58:49,159 --> 00:58:53,830
We might lose a whole helo full
of tier one operators.

1175
00:58:54,064 --> 00:58:55,932
We're a sovereign nation.

1176
00:58:56,166 --> 00:58:59,336
The military academy's
right across the way.

1177
00:58:59,569 --> 00:59:03,473
We're kind of screwed here
if this is what we think it is.

1178
00:59:11,148 --> 00:59:13,050
(narrator)
Just before 1:00 am,

1179
00:59:13,283 --> 00:59:15,685
as the first of the two
American Black Hawks moves

1180
00:59:15,919 --> 00:59:16,520
into position above
the compound,

1181
00:59:16,753 --> 00:59:19,389
it starts losing lift.

1182
00:59:19,623 --> 00:59:22,692
‐ During training, the mock
compound had been surrounded by

1183
00:59:22,926 --> 00:59:24,361
a chain link fence,

1184
00:59:24,594 --> 00:59:29,566
but the actual compound is set
inside tall, solid walls.

1185
00:59:29,800 --> 00:59:32,436
‐ Chain link allows
the wind to push through.

1186
00:59:32,669 --> 00:59:34,438
And so it gave a false sensation

1187
00:59:34,671 --> 00:59:37,908
of what the lift capability
was for those air crews.

1188
00:59:38,141 --> 00:59:39,443
(narrator)
But another factor may also

1189
00:59:39,676 --> 00:59:42,079
have figured in
the Black Hawk's problem.

1190
00:59:42,312 --> 00:59:44,214
Temperatures are
substantially higher

1191
00:59:44,448 --> 00:59:46,083
than they had anticipated.

1192
00:59:46,316 --> 00:59:47,951
(Aviation Planner)
Every degree centigrade

1193
00:59:48,185 --> 00:59:49,352
does reduce
a significant amount

1194
00:59:49,586 --> 00:59:51,621
of lift just based on
their density.

1195
00:59:51,855 --> 00:59:54,791
And the Hawk crews were
believing it was going to be

1196
00:59:55,025 --> 00:59:55,959
eight to ten degrees cooler.

1197
00:59:56,193 --> 00:59:58,261
‐ They planned against
nicer conditions

1198
00:59:58,495 --> 01:00:00,530
or lower temperatures,
and they got out there

1199
01:00:00,764 --> 01:00:03,733
and the aircraft did
what would naturally happen

1200
01:00:03,967 --> 01:00:05,268
when it doesn't have
the ability to perform

1201
01:00:05,502 --> 01:00:07,504
under those conditions.

1202
01:00:07,737 --> 01:00:09,172
(narrator)
As the helicopter falters,

1203
01:00:09,406 --> 01:00:11,708
long hours of training kick in.

1204
01:00:11,942 --> 01:00:16,713
‐ One of the contingencies
we rehearsed numerous times was

1205
01:00:16,947 --> 01:00:20,851
if anything happened
to that first helicopter,

1206
01:00:21,084 --> 01:00:23,587
if the pilot was able to,
he would bump over

1207
01:00:23,820 --> 01:00:26,156
the enclosed driveway and into
what we called the animal pen.

1208
01:00:28,158 --> 01:00:30,494
‐ We impacted,
there's a large wall

1209
01:00:30,727 --> 01:00:32,562
that circles the compound.

1210
01:00:32,796 --> 01:00:35,432
Our tail section hung up
on the wall,

1211
01:00:35,665 --> 01:00:38,502
and we kind of look like
a lawn dart stuck over the wall.

1212
01:00:38,735 --> 01:00:41,071
The tail section of
the helicopter has a wheel

1213
01:00:41,304 --> 01:00:43,673
for the load‐bearing section
of the Black Hawk.

1214
01:00:43,907 --> 01:00:46,409
That wheel landed
on top of the wall.

1215
01:00:46,643 --> 01:00:49,179
Had that wheel bent eight inches
this way or this way,

1216
01:00:49,412 --> 01:00:51,014
it would have broken
the tail section.

1217
01:00:51,248 --> 01:00:53,150
We wouldn't be talking today.

1218
01:00:53,383 --> 01:00:56,286
I kind of waited for
what I assumed would be next,

1219
01:00:56,520 --> 01:00:59,623
was some sort of explosion or
something, but that never came.

1220
01:00:59,856 --> 01:01:01,758
And now the guys who were
sitting behind me,

1221
01:01:01,992 --> 01:01:03,360
who were holding me in
are now yelling at me,

1222
01:01:03,593 --> 01:01:04,728
telling me to hurry up
and get out.

1223
01:01:04,961 --> 01:01:06,730
(chuckling)
God, give me a second.

1224
01:01:06,963 --> 01:01:09,432
I gotta take a couple
deep breaths here.

1225
01:01:09,666 --> 01:01:11,568
(Adm. McRaven) People are moving
around the outside.

1226
01:01:11,801 --> 01:01:15,038
That says to me that
at least some are uninjured

1227
01:01:15,272 --> 01:01:18,175
and the helo seems to be upright
'cause I saw people come out

1228
01:01:18,408 --> 01:01:20,177
from both sides
of the helicopter.

1229
01:01:20,410 --> 01:01:21,378
So it hadn't rolled over
because I could still

1230
01:01:21,611 --> 01:01:22,913
see the rotor blades.

1231
01:01:23,146 --> 01:01:26,082
‐ That ground force and crew
is living today because

1232
01:01:26,316 --> 01:01:28,952
of the expertise and the ability
for that pilot to maneuver

1233
01:01:29,186 --> 01:01:30,787
that aircraft where it did.

1234
01:01:31,021 --> 01:01:35,058
‐ When the helicopter
went down at Abbottabad,

1235
01:01:35,292 --> 01:01:37,360
I thought I was gonna
have a heart attack.

1236
01:01:37,594 --> 01:01:41,131
Oh no, not again,
not 30 years later.

1237
01:01:41,364 --> 01:01:42,699
But the difference in
the equipment,

1238
01:01:42,933 --> 01:01:45,068
the difference in the training,
the difference in the caliber

1239
01:01:45,302 --> 01:01:49,439
of the people involved turned
what could have been a disaster

1240
01:01:49,673 --> 01:01:51,408
into an inconvenience.

1241
01:01:51,641 --> 01:01:57,914
‐ That doesn't mean that you
didn't get a little knot inside

1242
01:01:58,148 --> 01:02:01,785
when we heard that there had
been a problem with the tail

1243
01:02:02,018 --> 01:02:04,154
of the helicopter
hitting the wall.

1244
01:02:04,387 --> 01:02:08,458
And we recognized it was
going to make extraction

1245
01:02:08,692 --> 01:02:11,528
more complicated than
originally planned.

1246
01:02:11,761 --> 01:02:13,863
(SEAL #4)
Chalk two, he's coming in.

1247
01:02:14,097 --> 01:02:15,966
He has no idea if
we'd been shot down,

1248
01:02:16,199 --> 01:02:18,602
a mechanical issue,
has no idea what's happened.

1249
01:02:18,835 --> 01:02:21,938
In a second after witnessing
our helo was down,

1250
01:02:22,172 --> 01:02:23,506
he didn't make a radio call,

1251
01:02:23,740 --> 01:02:25,675
he didn't try to push
the envelope in the wrong way.

1252
01:02:25,909 --> 01:02:28,545
He simply hovered his helicopter
out outside the compound,

1253
01:02:28,778 --> 01:02:30,380
landed him on the ground.

1254
01:02:30,614 --> 01:02:32,449
We jumped out, ran around
the other side,

1255
01:02:32,682 --> 01:02:34,618
underside of the helo,
linked up with the guys

1256
01:02:34,851 --> 01:02:36,286
on the other side of the bird,

1257
01:02:36,519 --> 01:02:39,122
explosively breached one gate,
and within about a minute,

1258
01:02:39,356 --> 01:02:40,490
we were back into the location

1259
01:02:40,724 --> 01:02:42,859
where we would have
fast roped into initially.

1260
01:02:43,093 --> 01:02:45,295
(SEAL #5) As soon as we
funneled into the compound,

1261
01:02:45,528 --> 01:02:47,264
we knew exactly where
we needed to go

1262
01:02:47,497 --> 01:02:50,467
and guys started breaking off
and took their responsibilities.

1263
01:02:50,700 --> 01:02:53,670
‐ The guy in the south
guesthouse was one of theirs.

1264
01:02:53,903 --> 01:02:55,505
Go up to the guest house,
check the door, right?

1265
01:02:55,739 --> 01:02:58,074
It's locked. When you're
a bad guy's house

1266
01:02:58,308 --> 01:02:59,843
and you've just beat
on his front door for about

1267
01:03:00,143 --> 01:03:02,412
a minute and a half,
what you don't want to do

1268
01:03:02,646 --> 01:03:03,880
is stand in front of the door.

1269
01:03:04,114 --> 01:03:05,915
And so I was I was on my knee

1270
01:03:06,149 --> 01:03:07,851
as low as I could
to the side of the door,

1271
01:03:08,084 --> 01:03:10,186
put a little explosive
charge on it.

1272
01:03:10,420 --> 01:03:11,521
‐ Immediately,
as they began to move,

1273
01:03:11,755 --> 01:03:13,123
we got the call that
shots were fired.

1274
01:03:13,356 --> 01:03:16,126
(SEAL #4) AK‐47 starts shooting
right through the door.

1275
01:03:16,359 --> 01:03:18,595
Thankfully, I was on my knee.

1276
01:03:18,828 --> 01:03:21,564
My partner and I at the door
returned fire through the door.

1277
01:03:22,932 --> 01:03:25,402
Everything goes quiet,
okay, now what do we do?

1278
01:03:25,635 --> 01:03:26,736
Right, we still gotta
get in the room,

1279
01:03:26,970 --> 01:03:28,104
still gotta figure out
what's going on.

1280
01:03:28,338 --> 01:03:29,306
Did he take his gun
and go into the back room

1281
01:03:29,539 --> 01:03:30,607
or did we kill him
and is he laying

1282
01:03:30,840 --> 01:03:32,876
the other side of the door,
I don't know.

1283
01:03:33,109 --> 01:03:35,278
This happened
very, very quickly.

1284
01:03:35,512 --> 01:03:38,148
Door opens up, it was a female
holding the little kid.

1285
01:03:38,381 --> 01:03:40,650
Like, two or three kids
behind her holding her hand.

1286
01:03:40,884 --> 01:03:42,719
Her husband was laying there
dead inside the door.

1287
01:03:47,190 --> 01:03:48,124
(SEAL #1)
On the northeast corner,

1288
01:03:48,358 --> 01:03:49,759
there's a door we can get into.

1289
01:03:49,993 --> 01:03:52,128
One of the breachers went up
with a big bomb

1290
01:03:52,362 --> 01:03:54,597
and put it on the door,
and that one you heard.

1291
01:03:54,831 --> 01:03:56,700
The door did open but there's
a brick wall behind it.

1292
01:03:56,933 --> 01:03:58,335
It was a fake door
to fake out people

1293
01:03:58,568 --> 01:03:59,869
that might be looking
at the compound.

1294
01:04:00,170 --> 01:04:02,472
That was the first indicator
this is a high value target.

1295
01:04:02,706 --> 01:04:05,041
‐ One of our team inside ran to
the main gate, opened it up,

1296
01:04:05,275 --> 01:04:06,710
and let them in.

1297
01:04:06,943 --> 01:04:08,378
They came in and then
everybody starts flooding

1298
01:04:08,611 --> 01:04:11,314
the main three‐story compound.

1299
01:04:11,548 --> 01:04:13,817
‐ Once the SEALs went
into the compound,

1300
01:04:14,050 --> 01:04:16,419
we no longer saw anything
on our screens.

1301
01:04:16,653 --> 01:04:17,887
And so we were waiting.

1302
01:04:18,121 --> 01:04:19,222
‐ We didn't have helmet cams,

1303
01:04:19,456 --> 01:04:21,124
so I wasn't seeing
the action unfold.

1304
01:04:21,358 --> 01:04:22,559
(gunfire)

1305
01:04:22,792 --> 01:04:24,461
‐ There was the other
Kuwaiti brother and his wife

1306
01:04:24,694 --> 01:04:26,296
killed on the first floor.

1307
01:04:26,529 --> 01:04:27,931
He was going for a gun
and the female

1308
01:04:28,164 --> 01:04:30,934
was trying to protect him.

1309
01:04:31,134 --> 01:04:33,770
‐ I was able to see the guys
in front of me already

1310
01:04:34,003 --> 01:04:35,739
working problems,
different breaching problems.

1311
01:04:35,972 --> 01:04:37,140
Nobody hesitated.

1312
01:04:37,374 --> 01:04:38,975
The entire thing could be
rigged to blow up.

1313
01:04:39,209 --> 01:04:40,610
If anyone's gonna martyr
himself and his whole family

1314
01:04:40,844 --> 01:04:43,146
it's Osama bin Laden, but we
just continue to move forward.

1315
01:04:43,380 --> 01:04:45,882
‐ To go up the stairs,
there was a heavy metal door

1316
01:04:46,116 --> 01:04:47,450
built into the stairwell

1317
01:04:47,684 --> 01:04:51,621
that blocked the upstairs
from downstairs.

1318
01:04:51,855 --> 01:04:53,957
That was a sign,
hey, who has a metal door

1319
01:04:54,190 --> 01:04:55,458
at the bottom of their stairs?

1320
01:04:55,692 --> 01:04:56,960
We explosively
breached that,

1321
01:04:57,193 --> 01:04:59,963
and then made our way up
to the second floor.

1322
01:05:00,263 --> 01:05:01,865
House is pitch black, right?

1323
01:05:02,098 --> 01:05:03,700
No electricity, no lights on,

1324
01:05:03,933 --> 01:05:05,668
they had coverings on
all the windows.

1325
01:05:05,902 --> 01:05:07,237
There's a set of
stairs that go up,

1326
01:05:07,470 --> 01:05:09,806
there's a landing, and then it
goes up to the third floor.

1327
01:05:10,039 --> 01:05:11,875
‐ Guys were moving upstairs
the way we always had

1328
01:05:12,108 --> 01:05:14,477
in every shoot house
that we'd work through.

1329
01:05:14,711 --> 01:05:17,414
‐ By the time I got there,
there was a SEAL in front of me

1330
01:05:17,647 --> 01:05:19,482
who'd just taken a couple shots.

1331
01:05:19,716 --> 01:05:22,419
He's calm enough in this
situation to say, okay, well,

1332
01:05:22,652 --> 01:05:24,888
I just saw a head peek
around the corner.

1333
01:05:25,121 --> 01:05:27,624
I'm betting it's Khalid,
bin Laden's son.

1334
01:05:27,857 --> 01:05:29,559
I'm gonna whisper his name.

1335
01:05:29,793 --> 01:05:31,661
Nobody told him to do this,
he just dreamed this all up

1336
01:05:31,895 --> 01:05:33,696
in the moment,
in the middle of the raid,

1337
01:05:33,930 --> 01:05:37,100
three minutes after crashing
the helicopter and almost dying.

1338
01:05:37,333 --> 01:05:39,269
Literally whispers his name.

1339
01:05:39,502 --> 01:05:41,070
Khalid pops around
the corner and gets shot.

1340
01:05:43,973 --> 01:05:46,643
As we moved up the stairs
and stepped over Khalid's body,

1341
01:05:46,876 --> 01:05:49,446
he had an AK‐47 there,
locked and loaded,

1342
01:05:49,679 --> 01:05:53,516
round in the chamber,
off safe and ready to go.

1343
01:05:53,750 --> 01:05:55,518
‐ One guy goes this way,
the other guy goes that way.

1344
01:05:55,752 --> 01:05:58,321
A handful of guys went over
the top of Khalid,

1345
01:05:58,555 --> 01:06:01,124
moved to the second floor
of the house.

1346
01:06:03,259 --> 01:06:04,594
Once the second floor
was cleared,

1347
01:06:04,828 --> 01:06:06,663
the team moved up the stairs.

1348
01:06:11,401 --> 01:06:13,303
Shots fired.

1349
01:06:16,739 --> 01:06:18,741
‐ They started going
into that room.

1350
01:06:18,975 --> 01:06:21,077
‐ You go to the door,
you look through the door,

1351
01:06:21,311 --> 01:06:24,547
there's an adult male
basically twitching

1352
01:06:24,781 --> 01:06:28,218
at the bottom of his bed,
laying on the ground, done.

1353
01:06:28,451 --> 01:06:32,322
There are several females
in the room.

1354
01:06:32,555 --> 01:06:33,823
Again, part of
the Intel brief was, hey,

1355
01:06:34,057 --> 01:06:35,658
these women could wear
suicide vests.

1356
01:06:35,892 --> 01:06:38,761
We'd seen aggressive
females downstairs.

1357
01:06:38,995 --> 01:06:41,231
So the point man who had
whispered Khalid's name

1358
01:06:41,464 --> 01:06:43,967
literally rushed into the room,
pushed the two women up against

1359
01:06:44,200 --> 01:06:48,204
the back far wall
in case they had a suicide vest.

1360
01:06:48,438 --> 01:06:51,674
He would have taken the blast
and protected us.

1361
01:06:51,908 --> 01:06:54,544
Like, okay, wow, tha‐‐
that might be him, right?

1362
01:06:54,777 --> 01:06:58,615
His hair was‐‐ I remember
the bridge of his nose.

1363
01:06:58,848 --> 01:07:01,084
I don't know, we all carried
photos of him, right?

1364
01:07:01,317 --> 01:07:03,419
The photo I had,
he had a very gray beard.

1365
01:07:03,653 --> 01:07:06,289
Looking down at him, his beard
was pitch black.

1366
01:07:06,523 --> 01:07:08,691
When I searched his bathroom,
guess what I found.

1367
01:07:08,925 --> 01:07:10,927
Just for Men hair dye

1368
01:07:11,160 --> 01:07:14,163
literally on his little shelf
above his sink.

1369
01:07:16,799 --> 01:07:19,669
‐ We're listening and a certain
amount of time goes by,

1370
01:07:19,903 --> 01:07:22,005
and then the next call sign
we got was

1371
01:07:22,238 --> 01:07:24,440
"Geronimo, Geronimo, Geronimo,"

1372
01:07:24,674 --> 01:07:26,309
and that was from
the ground force commander.

1373
01:07:26,543 --> 01:07:29,445
Geronimo had been the call sign
for bin Laden.

1374
01:07:29,679 --> 01:07:30,613
‐ They said it three times.

1375
01:07:30,847 --> 01:07:32,282
All he needed to do
was say it once.

1376
01:07:32,515 --> 01:07:35,585
I could just tell when
he called that he understood

1377
01:07:35,818 --> 01:07:38,187
what he was about to say was
going to be momentous

1378
01:07:38,421 --> 01:07:40,890
and heard by a lot of people
inside the US government.

1379
01:07:41,124 --> 01:07:44,661
‐ I had to call back out
and said, is Geronimo EKIA?

1380
01:07:44,894 --> 01:07:46,162
Of course,
they came back quickly

1381
01:07:46,396 --> 01:07:48,197
and said EKIA,
enemy killed in action.

1382
01:07:48,431 --> 01:07:51,534
Everybody in the command post
just let out a shout,

1383
01:07:51,768 --> 01:07:53,169
and a jump and raised
their fist in the air,

1384
01:07:53,403 --> 01:07:56,339
and then again, in a quarter
of a second, they were back down

1385
01:07:56,573 --> 01:07:58,007
in their seats and it was
silent and people were just

1386
01:07:58,241 --> 01:07:59,776
doing their jobs.

1387
01:08:00,076 --> 01:08:02,445
‐ I remember looking at my
co‐pilots like, they got him.

1388
01:08:02,679 --> 01:08:05,048
They called Geronimo,
they got him.

1389
01:08:05,281 --> 01:08:07,050
‐ In our particular vault,
because there were no

1390
01:08:07,283 --> 01:08:10,253
senior policymakers,
this was a much more

1391
01:08:10,486 --> 01:08:13,389
from the trenches‐‐
immediately celebratory,

1392
01:08:13,623 --> 01:08:17,493
but also a lot of just tears
and overwhelmed people.

1393
01:08:17,727 --> 01:08:20,797
‐ I had the sense,
that everybody

1394
01:08:21,030 --> 01:08:24,801
was just taking a moment

1395
01:08:25,001 --> 01:08:28,705
to savor the fact that

1396
01:08:28,938 --> 01:08:32,275
all those people who
had been killed on 9/11

1397
01:08:32,508 --> 01:08:34,577
had finally been avenged.

1398
01:08:34,811 --> 01:08:37,580
‐ There was...

1399
01:08:37,814 --> 01:08:41,584
some sense of vindication,
although, at that point,

1400
01:08:41,818 --> 01:08:43,586
these guys are
in a dark building.

1401
01:08:43,820 --> 01:08:47,924
They can't be absolutely certain
that it's bin Laden,

1402
01:08:48,157 --> 01:08:52,061
but there seems to be
some confidence that it is.

1403
01:08:52,295 --> 01:08:55,365
At that point, immediately,
my mind went to, all right,

1404
01:08:55,598 --> 01:08:58,801
get these guys out of here
as fast as possible.

1405
01:09:03,539 --> 01:09:05,842
(narrator)
With one Black Hawk disabled,

1406
01:09:05,975 --> 01:09:07,877
the Chinook helicopters
are no longer flying backup.

1407
01:09:08,111 --> 01:09:10,880
They now must lead
the way home.

1408
01:09:11,114 --> 01:09:12,215
(Aviation Planner)
When we first heard

1409
01:09:12,448 --> 01:09:14,984
of the aircraft crashing,

1410
01:09:15,218 --> 01:09:19,255
it takes a few seconds for it
to set in that this is reality.

1411
01:09:19,489 --> 01:09:22,659
That was the most
rehearsed contingency

1412
01:09:22,892 --> 01:09:25,061
that we had planned for.

1413
01:09:25,294 --> 01:09:28,665
So it was no longer
an unscripted plan.

1414
01:09:28,898 --> 01:09:32,101
It was now just the alternate
ending to a story

1415
01:09:32,335 --> 01:09:34,270
that had already
been scripted out.

1416
01:09:34,504 --> 01:09:37,840
‐ Once I was told to execute.
I mean, my you know, my call.

1417
01:09:38,074 --> 01:09:43,179
And we proceeded ourselves
kind of back to the northwest

1418
01:09:43,413 --> 01:09:45,348
and went up this
very large river valley.

1419
01:09:45,581 --> 01:09:47,550
It was about 30 miles or so
to the northwest.

1420
01:09:47,784 --> 01:09:50,386
(narrator) Though one of their
helicopters has crashed,

1421
01:09:50,620 --> 01:09:52,889
it takes the SEALs only
about ten minutes

1422
01:09:53,122 --> 01:09:57,060
to secure the compound,
killing four men and one woman.

1423
01:09:57,293 --> 01:10:01,164
Next, they gather as much
intelligence as possible.

1424
01:10:01,397 --> 01:10:03,166
Even with bin Laden dead,

1425
01:10:03,399 --> 01:10:08,671
the fight against al‐Qaeda
will continue.

1426
01:10:08,905 --> 01:10:11,074
‐ We're on the clock, right?

1427
01:10:11,307 --> 01:10:13,076
We know helos are
running out of fuel,

1428
01:10:13,309 --> 01:10:14,410
we've got X amount of time

1429
01:10:14,644 --> 01:10:16,612
to wrap things up
and get out of there.

1430
01:10:16,846 --> 01:10:19,348
People running around with bags
just stuffing anything you can.

1431
01:10:19,582 --> 01:10:23,619
Computers, hard drives,
paperwork,

1432
01:10:23,853 --> 01:10:25,555
anything you can find,
you're stuff in bags.

1433
01:10:25,788 --> 01:10:28,391
‐ I just fell into
the forensic aspect of it.

1434
01:10:28,624 --> 01:10:32,261
Kind of wiped off the face
a little bit,

1435
01:10:32,495 --> 01:10:34,597
get as much blood off it
so we could get some pictures,

1436
01:10:34,831 --> 01:10:36,432
you know, get
a really good look at

1437
01:10:36,666 --> 01:10:38,267
the positive identification
of him.

1438
01:10:38,501 --> 01:10:40,103
‐ At this point, you know,
somebody on the radio

1439
01:10:40,336 --> 01:10:42,105
had asked for more time,
our master chief was like,

1440
01:10:42,338 --> 01:10:44,607
nope, you don't have it,
leave right now.

1441
01:10:44,841 --> 01:10:47,243
If we don't leave right now,
we're gonna miss our ride.

1442
01:10:47,477 --> 01:10:49,579
So I remember we come
running out,

1443
01:10:49,812 --> 01:10:52,915
everybody's carrying bags
and bags of intel.

1444
01:10:53,149 --> 01:10:56,352
‐ Black Hawk came back in,
picked up 12 of the SEALs

1445
01:10:56,586 --> 01:10:58,688
without any extra equipment,
and they departed

1446
01:10:58,921 --> 01:11:01,190
and headed straight up
to receive fuel

1447
01:11:01,424 --> 01:11:03,159
before I came in to pick up
the remaining SEALs

1448
01:11:03,392 --> 01:11:05,728
plus all the extra equipment
they found on the compound.

1449
01:11:05,962 --> 01:11:09,799
‐ As we kind of got finished
with our duties

1450
01:11:10,032 --> 01:11:11,100
and our responsibilities

1451
01:11:11,334 --> 01:11:13,436
upstairs with
the DNA collection,

1452
01:11:13,669 --> 01:11:17,340
we drug the body downstairs,

1453
01:11:17,573 --> 01:11:19,175
got him in a body bag
in the courtyard.

1454
01:11:19,408 --> 01:11:21,878
‐ We had planned for
30 minutes time on target.

1455
01:11:22,111 --> 01:11:23,079
Then we'd given ourselves

1456
01:11:23,312 --> 01:11:24,914
an extra ten‐minute window
to spare.

1457
01:11:25,148 --> 01:11:29,619
‐ Because of the commotion,
the gunshots, the helicopter,

1458
01:11:29,852 --> 01:11:31,888
it's drawing a lot of attention
from the community

1459
01:11:32,121 --> 01:11:34,791
regardless of the fact that it's
the middle of the night there.

1460
01:11:35,024 --> 01:11:39,328
And so, there's also a lot
of concern due to the proximity

1461
01:11:39,562 --> 01:11:42,498
of the compound to other
military installations there.

1462
01:11:42,732 --> 01:11:45,034
And so we're monitoring those
very, very closely.

1463
01:11:47,937 --> 01:11:50,807
‐ I look, people coming out of
the houses like they were

1464
01:11:51,040 --> 01:11:52,608
running towards us,
all of them.

1465
01:11:52,842 --> 01:11:54,443
That was the time
that I realized

1466
01:11:54,677 --> 01:11:56,112
that I have to do something.

1467
01:11:56,345 --> 01:11:57,647
So then I called them
and I said,

1468
01:11:57,880 --> 01:11:59,448
this is a government business.

1469
01:11:59,682 --> 01:12:04,086
If you want to stay alive,
don't come.

1470
01:12:04,320 --> 01:12:06,322
Go back to your house.
Please go back to your house.

1471
01:12:06,556 --> 01:12:09,292
I was just talking,
of course, in Pashto.

1472
01:12:09,525 --> 01:12:12,328
There are two guys, they tried
to run towards us.

1473
01:12:12,562 --> 01:12:14,430
One of the SEALs
who were very close to me

1474
01:12:14,664 --> 01:12:16,699
and he put dots on them.

1475
01:12:16,933 --> 01:12:18,601
So I tapped on the shoulder.

1476
01:12:18,835 --> 01:12:20,603
I said, wait, and then
I curse them.

1477
01:12:20,837 --> 01:12:22,238
And I said, go back,
why you are coming here?

1478
01:12:22,471 --> 01:12:23,573
And they went back.

1479
01:12:23,806 --> 01:12:25,308
They listened.
That was the greatest thing.

1480
01:12:27,543 --> 01:12:29,979
‐ You could see a lot of people
moving in the courtyard.

1481
01:12:30,213 --> 01:12:31,814
There were a lot more women
and children on the target

1482
01:12:32,048 --> 01:12:33,683
than we had estimated.

1483
01:12:33,916 --> 01:12:36,018
We have loaded the downed
helicopter with demolition.

1484
01:12:36,252 --> 01:12:37,153
we were gonna blow it in place.

1485
01:12:37,386 --> 01:12:38,721
Any time we lose
a helicopter,

1486
01:12:38,955 --> 01:12:41,791
we're prepared to destroy the,
uh, the crypto gear on board

1487
01:12:42,024 --> 01:12:43,893
and the radios and some
of the sensitive technology.

1488
01:12:44,126 --> 01:12:46,028
‐ The word goes out,
blow the helo.

1489
01:12:46,262 --> 01:12:47,363
They put it on a timer,

1490
01:12:47,597 --> 01:12:49,532
not a remote control detonate,
but a timer.

1491
01:12:49,765 --> 01:12:51,434
Set the timer, let it click.

1492
01:12:51,667 --> 01:12:54,203
Helos, they'll land
in one minute.

1493
01:12:54,437 --> 01:12:56,739
‐ I was inbound from
the southwest,

1494
01:12:56,973 --> 01:12:59,375
and that's when one of
the soldiers got on the radio

1495
01:12:59,609 --> 01:13:01,277
and told me to break away.

1496
01:13:01,510 --> 01:13:03,579
The helicopter pilot
banks a right.

1497
01:13:03,813 --> 01:13:05,581
Boom.

1498
01:13:05,815 --> 01:13:08,317
‐ Not but 100 yards away
from landing

1499
01:13:08,551 --> 01:13:11,888
to pick up the ground force,
that aircraft blew up.

1500
01:13:12,121 --> 01:13:16,058
And it was a 150 foot,
200 foot mushroom cloud.

1501
01:13:16,292 --> 01:13:20,930
And so immediate 360 degree
right turn to get up

1502
01:13:21,163 --> 01:13:24,233
underneath that cloud and debris

1503
01:13:24,467 --> 01:13:27,270
and then come in and land
to pick them up.

1504
01:13:27,503 --> 01:13:28,938
‐ We were so close that
you could feel

1505
01:13:29,171 --> 01:13:31,040
the heat from inside the 47.

1506
01:13:31,274 --> 01:13:33,042
‐ We were within ten seconds

1507
01:13:33,276 --> 01:13:35,711
of blowing our own helicopter
out of the sky.

1508
01:13:35,945 --> 01:13:38,047
‐ When they blew the helicopter,

1509
01:13:38,281 --> 01:13:40,249
then obviously
all hell broke loose

1510
01:13:40,483 --> 01:13:42,919
and most of the villagers
woke up.

1511
01:13:43,152 --> 01:13:46,022
The Pakistanis realized that
something had happened.

1512
01:13:46,255 --> 01:13:47,924
They weren't quite sure
what had happened,

1513
01:13:48,157 --> 01:13:52,094
but we knew that they had
been put on alert.

1514
01:13:52,328 --> 01:13:55,631
‐ And we were scared to death
the Pakistanis would mobilize

1515
01:13:55,865 --> 01:13:58,467
their Air Force and shoot down
our helicopters,

1516
01:13:58,701 --> 01:14:01,404
which is one reason why we put
all that DNA from bin Laden

1517
01:14:01,637 --> 01:14:03,539
and the intelligence
in one helicopter

1518
01:14:03,773 --> 01:14:05,841
and his remains
in another helicopter.

1519
01:14:06,075 --> 01:14:07,343
So if one of them got shot down,

1520
01:14:07,576 --> 01:14:09,745
we still had the evidence
that we've got.

1521
01:14:11,514 --> 01:14:15,785
‐ The valley was now
full of blue lights,

1522
01:14:16,018 --> 01:14:17,954
police lights
all over the place.

1523
01:14:18,187 --> 01:14:19,455
And they were coming
closer to the compound.

1524
01:14:19,689 --> 01:14:22,058
It was time to get them
out of there.

1525
01:14:22,291 --> 01:14:25,094
I have a fuel tank,
contingency assaulters,

1526
01:14:25,328 --> 01:14:28,130
primary SEALs,
and I have the air crew

1527
01:14:28,364 --> 01:14:31,000
all crammed into an MH‐47.

1528
01:14:31,233 --> 01:14:34,003
We put that airframe to
its max potential because of

1529
01:14:34,236 --> 01:14:36,806
the amount of weight and amount
of people had on board,

1530
01:14:37,039 --> 01:14:38,474
we were just barely
over rooftops.

1531
01:14:38,708 --> 01:14:41,978
Above the Pakistani
military academy,

1532
01:14:42,211 --> 01:14:44,714
the original plan is that
we were all going to link up

1533
01:14:44,947 --> 01:14:47,850
to refuel and then
return home as a flight.

1534
01:14:48,084 --> 01:14:50,553
Now that we are in
two separate locations

1535
01:14:50,786 --> 01:14:53,489
at two separate points in time,

1536
01:14:53,723 --> 01:14:56,993
there was no sense in us
trying to focus on

1537
01:14:57,226 --> 01:15:00,396
consolidating and the return.

1538
01:15:00,629 --> 01:15:01,664
(narrator)
The first Chinook takes

1539
01:15:01,897 --> 01:15:04,567
a direct route
back towards Afghanistan.

1540
01:15:04,800 --> 01:15:06,635
The surviving Black Hawk
heads north

1541
01:15:06,869 --> 01:15:10,139
to get fuel from
the second Chinook.

1542
01:15:10,373 --> 01:15:12,708
‐ I remember all the lights
in the helicopter blinking,

1543
01:15:12,942 --> 01:15:14,610
and knowing we were low on fuel.

1544
01:15:16,879 --> 01:15:18,381
‐ Before the Black Hawk
got there,

1545
01:15:18,614 --> 01:15:21,117
I don't think we're on the
ground more than 15 minutes,

1546
01:15:21,350 --> 01:15:23,519
he had to transfer most
of his ground force to me

1547
01:15:23,753 --> 01:15:26,355
because he took on the fuel
he needed to get back.

1548
01:15:26,589 --> 01:15:29,658
He absolutely needed the gas
to get back to Afghanistan.

1549
01:15:29,892 --> 01:15:31,293
But because of the weight
that the ground force,

1550
01:15:31,527 --> 01:15:32,995
he couldn't climb out
of the valley.

1551
01:15:33,229 --> 01:15:35,898
‐ Took us about 19 minutes
on the ground.

1552
01:15:36,132 --> 01:15:38,801
That was probably the longest
19 months of that mission.

1553
01:15:39,035 --> 01:15:40,469
(narrator)
Refueling complete,

1554
01:15:40,703 --> 01:15:42,972
the two helicopters fly back
in tandem

1555
01:15:43,205 --> 01:15:45,141
with the Chinook in the lead.

1556
01:15:45,374 --> 01:15:47,843
‐ When we fly as fast as
he can fly, I can leave him,

1557
01:15:48,077 --> 01:15:50,513
so he's following me
and electronic warfare displays

1558
01:15:50,746 --> 01:15:52,181
are very active at this point.

1559
01:15:52,415 --> 01:15:53,516
And I'm like, okay, well,
we've got stuff out there

1560
01:15:53,749 --> 01:15:54,917
looking for us now.

1561
01:15:55,151 --> 01:15:56,419
‐ They flew fairly
a northern route

1562
01:15:56,652 --> 01:15:59,155
outside the populous area,
the route we took was

1563
01:15:59,388 --> 01:16:02,892
a direct route through
low land, populated areas.

1564
01:16:03,125 --> 01:16:04,994
If anybody was going to be seen,
it was going to be us.

1565
01:16:05,227 --> 01:16:06,695
‐ One of the team leaders
comes in across radios says,

1566
01:16:06,929 --> 01:16:09,965
hey, Pakistan scrambled
fighters after us.

1567
01:16:10,199 --> 01:16:12,668
‐ So we were getting indications
whether it be on the radio

1568
01:16:12,902 --> 01:16:15,638
or on board systems
that radar systems were up

1569
01:16:15,871 --> 01:16:20,242
and we were seen and
we're being tracked.

1570
01:16:20,476 --> 01:16:24,280
And then lo and behold, before
you know it, we had an F‐16 that

1571
01:16:24,513 --> 01:16:28,350
was at a nearby base in Pakistan
that was searching for us.

1572
01:16:28,584 --> 01:16:33,055
And three times, the F‐16
was searching for us,

1573
01:16:33,289 --> 01:16:35,458
and then through acquisition,

1574
01:16:35,691 --> 01:16:38,627
and the next step
was target track.

1575
01:16:38,861 --> 01:16:40,463
‐ Honestly, at that point,
I started thinking about

1576
01:16:40,696 --> 01:16:43,799
my funeral because
there's no way that this

1577
01:16:44,033 --> 01:16:47,670
ginormous flying bus
was going to out‐speed,

1578
01:16:47,903 --> 01:16:49,338
outmaneuver a jet

1579
01:16:49,572 --> 01:16:52,374
that we probably sold them
30‐some years ago.

1580
01:16:52,608 --> 01:16:54,310
‐ We just watched
the clock and the maps,

1581
01:16:54,543 --> 01:16:58,013
just praying that they would get
out of Pakistan airspace in time

1582
01:16:58,247 --> 01:17:00,683
before some type
of clash ensued.

1583
01:17:00,916 --> 01:17:02,518
(narrator)
The returning helicopters

1584
01:17:02,751 --> 01:17:04,687
face one last hurdle.

1585
01:17:04,920 --> 01:17:07,857
Operation Neptune Spear
has been kept secret

1586
01:17:08,090 --> 01:17:10,493
from American commanders
in Afghanistan.

1587
01:17:10,726 --> 01:17:14,063
That night, some US forces
noticed the approach

1588
01:17:14,296 --> 01:17:17,266
of unknown aircraft
from Pakistan.

1589
01:17:17,500 --> 01:17:19,468
‐ There was an operation
near the border,

1590
01:17:19,702 --> 01:17:21,337
which we did all the time.

1591
01:17:21,570 --> 01:17:23,572
Part of that element picked up

1592
01:17:23,806 --> 01:17:25,574
our guys coming across
that border.

1593
01:17:25,808 --> 01:17:28,611
‐ They were actually escalating
just one step shy of them

1594
01:17:28,844 --> 01:17:31,147
releasing weapons
to shoot us down.

1595
01:17:31,380 --> 01:17:32,815
We were trying
everything we could.

1596
01:17:33,048 --> 01:17:34,150
They finally just had to
break radio silence

1597
01:17:34,383 --> 01:17:36,218
and tell them to stand down.

1598
01:17:38,521 --> 01:17:40,489
‐ I never thought I'd enjoy
hearing those words,

1599
01:17:40,723 --> 01:17:43,726
"Welcome to Afghanistan,"
but that was music to my ears.

1600
01:17:52,635 --> 01:17:54,470
(narrator)
Four hours after setting out,

1601
01:17:54,703 --> 01:17:56,839
all of the operators
and air crews

1602
01:17:57,072 --> 01:17:59,141
who carried out
Operation Neptune Spear

1603
01:17:59,375 --> 01:18:01,277
are back in Afghanistan.

1604
01:18:03,045 --> 01:18:05,948
The first order of business
is confirming whose remains

1605
01:18:06,182 --> 01:18:08,517
they have brought back
with them.

1606
01:18:08,751 --> 01:18:10,319
‐ We had touched down in Jabat,

1607
01:18:10,553 --> 01:18:12,688
got off the helos,
there was guys there

1608
01:18:12,922 --> 01:18:15,624
to grab the body, pulled them
right into a hangar.

1609
01:18:15,858 --> 01:18:19,094
I remember McRaven showing up
immediately after.

1610
01:18:19,328 --> 01:18:20,930
He's like, all right.
let me see him.

1611
01:18:21,163 --> 01:18:22,431
‐ I unzip the body bag,

1612
01:18:22,665 --> 01:18:24,600
and I pulled the remains
out of the body bag.

1613
01:18:24,833 --> 01:18:27,570
And of course, we knew that
bin Laden was about 6'4.

1614
01:18:27,803 --> 01:18:29,405
I saw a young SEAL
standing by and I said,

1615
01:18:29,638 --> 01:18:31,207
hey, son, how tall are you?

1616
01:18:31,440 --> 01:18:32,408
And he looked at me
kind of funny, he said,

1617
01:18:32,641 --> 01:18:34,076
"Well, sir, I'm 6'2."

1618
01:18:34,310 --> 01:18:35,244
Yeah, come here for a minute.

1619
01:18:35,477 --> 01:18:37,713
I want you to lie down
right here.

1620
01:18:37,947 --> 01:18:39,682
And he said,
"I'm sorry, sir, what?"

1621
01:18:39,915 --> 01:18:41,884
I said, I want you to lie down
next to the remains.

1622
01:18:42,117 --> 01:18:43,552
So he lay down next the remains.

1623
01:18:43,786 --> 01:18:45,387
And sure enough, the remains
were a couple of inches.

1624
01:18:45,621 --> 01:18:48,057
They put bin Laden's
body back in,

1625
01:18:48,290 --> 01:18:50,893
and I went five months back‐‐

1626
01:18:51,126 --> 01:18:54,363
back to my video teleconference
with the president.

1627
01:18:54,597 --> 01:18:57,132
And the president asked,
"Well, Bill, is it him?"

1628
01:18:57,366 --> 01:18:59,268
I said, well, sir,
you know, without DNA,

1629
01:18:59,501 --> 01:19:03,906
I can't tell you 100%,
but certainly looks like him.

1630
01:19:04,139 --> 01:19:06,275
You know, all the features
are the same.

1631
01:19:06,508 --> 01:19:08,777
I said I even had somebody
lie down next to him

1632
01:19:09,011 --> 01:19:11,447
and the remains were
a little bit longer.

1633
01:19:11,680 --> 01:19:15,284
And there's a pause on
the other end of the screen.

1634
01:19:15,517 --> 01:19:18,787
And of course, by this time,
the boys are back safely.

1635
01:19:19,021 --> 01:19:20,723
The tension of the moment
is down.

1636
01:19:20,956 --> 01:19:25,027
And the president says, "Okay
Bill, let me get this straight."

1637
01:19:25,261 --> 01:19:27,696
"We had $60 million
for a helicopter,

1638
01:19:27,930 --> 01:19:31,634
but you didn't have $10
for a tape measure?"

1639
01:19:33,369 --> 01:19:34,970
(narrator)
Back in The Situation Room,

1640
01:19:35,204 --> 01:19:36,805
President Obama awaits

1641
01:19:37,039 --> 01:19:40,242
DNA confirmation of
the identity of the remains.

1642
01:19:40,476 --> 01:19:43,078
But will the news leak before
the president is ready

1643
01:19:43,312 --> 01:19:46,582
to announce
Osama bin Laden's death?

1644
01:19:46,815 --> 01:19:50,352
‐ First reaction was
we're gonna hold

1645
01:19:50,586 --> 01:19:53,022
We will not announce tonight.

1646
01:19:53,255 --> 01:19:56,825
I'm not going in front of
300 million Americans

1647
01:19:57,059 --> 01:20:00,696
with a one in 20 chance
of being completely wrong.

1648
01:20:00,929 --> 01:20:02,164
This is too important.

1649
01:20:02,398 --> 01:20:04,466
People were saying this story
is not going to hold.

1650
01:20:04,700 --> 01:20:08,070
If you wait till morning,
it will come out somewhere else.

1651
01:20:08,304 --> 01:20:11,607
And the downside of that is
bigger than this one.

1652
01:20:11,840 --> 01:20:14,176
And so he started to weigh,

1653
01:20:14,410 --> 01:20:16,712
do I go with this,
do I go with that?

1654
01:20:16,945 --> 01:20:19,615
They were passing around
photos at the table.

1655
01:20:19,848 --> 01:20:23,585
But when he looked
at the photo,

1656
01:20:23,819 --> 01:20:26,822
I thought I saw a change
in his demeanor

1657
01:20:27,056 --> 01:20:29,992
that he‐‐ I think he felt
when he saw it himself

1658
01:20:30,225 --> 01:20:32,328
and he saw the similarities,

1659
01:20:32,561 --> 01:20:34,863
that the 95% became higher.

1660
01:20:35,097 --> 01:20:37,966
He said we'll go at 10:30
or something like that.

1661
01:20:38,200 --> 01:20:39,768
So the speechwriters
get cranking,

1662
01:20:40,002 --> 01:20:42,071
everybody gets cranking and
then we're all waiting

1663
01:20:42,304 --> 01:20:44,473
for the president's speech.

1664
01:20:49,845 --> 01:20:51,347
‐ Good evening.

1665
01:20:51,580 --> 01:20:54,249
Tonight, I can report
to the American people

1666
01:20:54,483 --> 01:20:56,752
and to the world
that the United States

1667
01:20:56,985 --> 01:21:00,255
has conducted an operation
that killed Osama bin Laden,

1668
01:21:00,489 --> 01:21:01,724
the leader of al‐Qaeda,

1669
01:21:01,957 --> 01:21:04,893
and a terrorist who's
responsible for the murder

1670
01:21:05,127 --> 01:21:10,599
of thousands of innocent men,
women and children.

1671
01:21:10,833 --> 01:21:12,368
It was nearly ten years ago

1672
01:21:12,601 --> 01:21:15,471
that a bright September day was
darkened by the worst attack

1673
01:21:15,704 --> 01:21:17,973
on the American people
in our history.

1674
01:21:18,207 --> 01:21:22,044
The images of 9/11 are seared
into our national memory.

1675
01:21:24,113 --> 01:21:26,315
‐ So we had left the White House
and we were walking down

1676
01:21:26,548 --> 01:21:30,252
the open portico,
and we heard this noise

1677
01:21:30,486 --> 01:21:34,223
before we went outside and
none of us knew what it was.

1678
01:21:34,456 --> 01:21:38,694
(all chanting)
USA, USA, USA, USA!

1679
01:21:38,927 --> 01:21:43,198
USA! USA! USA! USA!

1680
01:21:43,432 --> 01:21:47,669
‐ "USA, USA, CIA, CIA."

1681
01:21:47,903 --> 01:21:52,341
I never thought I would ever
hear a crowd yelling "CIA"

1682
01:21:52,574 --> 01:21:57,513
and I think everyone
at the CIA

1683
01:21:57,746 --> 01:22:01,350
just felt a tremendous
amount of pride

1684
01:22:01,583 --> 01:22:05,421
that we had been able
to work on the operation

1685
01:22:05,654 --> 01:22:07,990
and do it successfully.

1686
01:22:08,223 --> 01:22:09,558
(Clinton)
And it was thrilling.

1687
01:22:09,792 --> 01:22:14,062
And it was just the kind
of response one would hope for,

1688
01:22:14,296 --> 01:22:17,699
particularly from young
Americans who might not have

1689
01:22:17,933 --> 01:22:20,936
been born or were toddlers
at the time of 9/11.

1690
01:22:21,170 --> 01:22:23,705
(chanting indistinctly)

1691
01:22:23,939 --> 01:22:26,508
(Clapper) It was closure for
the country, for the families,

1692
01:22:26,742 --> 01:22:29,311
certainly closure for the
intelligence community.

1693
01:22:29,545 --> 01:22:31,180
I also think it had
a profound impact

1694
01:22:31,413 --> 01:22:33,682
on al‐Qaeda as a movement,

1695
01:22:33,916 --> 01:22:40,856
just the symbolism of this
almost semi‐mythical figure,

1696
01:22:41,089 --> 01:22:44,359
Osama bin Laden,

1697
01:22:44,593 --> 01:22:48,764
and his demise,
hugely important message.

1698
01:22:52,501 --> 01:22:54,269
‐ It was important for us
to get bin Laden,

1699
01:22:54,503 --> 01:22:59,274
but not because we thought it
would dramatically change

1700
01:22:59,508 --> 01:23:01,643
the nature of the war
at the time.

1701
01:23:01,877 --> 01:23:06,415
I think what was important was
this was about justice.

1702
01:23:06,648 --> 01:23:09,651
It wasn't revenge,
it was about justice.

1703
01:23:13,522 --> 01:23:16,959
‐ We had discussed this before
the raid ever took place,

1704
01:23:17,192 --> 01:23:21,463
if we got him and he got his
remains, what do we do with him?

1705
01:23:21,697 --> 01:23:24,299
We don't wanna...

1706
01:23:24,533 --> 01:23:28,170
have him some place that
will become a shrine

1707
01:23:28,403 --> 01:23:33,909
for terrorists, there's an
obligation to offer the remains

1708
01:23:34,142 --> 01:23:36,812
to his family back
in Saudi Arabia.

1709
01:23:37,045 --> 01:23:39,314
And my recollection,
I'm a little vague on this,

1710
01:23:39,548 --> 01:23:41,483
but my recollection is

1711
01:23:41,717 --> 01:23:43,719
they didn't want anything
to do with it.

1712
01:23:43,952 --> 01:23:48,824
And so the decision was made
that his remains would be taken

1713
01:23:49,057 --> 01:23:51,193
to a ship and buried at sea.

1714
01:23:51,426 --> 01:23:55,230
‐ One of the clear discoveries
from all of the information that

1715
01:23:55,464 --> 01:23:58,967
was gathered at the compound was
that bin Laden was still very

1716
01:23:59,167 --> 01:24:05,440
active and trying to continue
the planning effort on future

1717
01:24:05,674 --> 01:24:09,111
attacks in this country,
that he continued to try

1718
01:24:09,344 --> 01:24:12,881
to exert leadership
over al‐Qaeda.

1719
01:24:13,115 --> 01:24:17,352
‐ I think that
the bin Laden operation

1720
01:24:17,586 --> 01:24:22,024
is a good example of

1721
01:24:22,257 --> 01:24:26,595
government at its best, not just
a military action at its best.

1722
01:24:26,828 --> 01:24:30,198
You've got all these different
agencies who set egos aside.

1723
01:24:30,432 --> 01:24:33,068
You have people who are
staying focused on mission,

1724
01:24:33,302 --> 01:24:37,806
a reminder that we're able
to work together

1725
01:24:38,040 --> 01:24:40,475
for the common good
when we put our minds to it.

1726
01:24:40,709 --> 01:24:44,546
And it's something we should try
more often.

1727
01:24:49,885 --> 01:24:51,920
‐ We jumped on a plane,
19 hours later,

1728
01:24:52,154 --> 01:24:54,056
you land back in the States.

1729
01:24:54,289 --> 01:24:56,858
I can remember turning on
my phone for the first time

1730
01:24:57,092 --> 01:24:59,261
and I probably had
a hundred text messages

1731
01:24:59,494 --> 01:25:02,130
from family and friends and
everybody who'd seen the news.

1732
01:25:02,364 --> 01:25:05,467
And literally the next morning
was trash day,

1733
01:25:05,701 --> 01:25:07,269
and I'm taking my trash out

1734
01:25:07,502 --> 01:25:09,504
and my neighbor lady
across the street,

1735
01:25:09,738 --> 01:25:10,973
she knew I was a SEAL,

1736
01:25:11,206 --> 01:25:12,774
she didn't know what I did
or what I was involved in,

1737
01:25:13,008 --> 01:25:14,343
but she had put
two and two together

1738
01:25:14,576 --> 01:25:16,011
that I was out of town
and now I'm back.

1739
01:25:16,244 --> 01:25:18,513
And I don't know if she knew
I was involved or not.

1740
01:25:18,747 --> 01:25:20,882
I'm taking my trash out.
I see her come out of her house,

1741
01:25:21,116 --> 01:25:23,719
no trash cans,
but she's crying.

1742
01:25:23,952 --> 01:25:25,220
She walks all the way
down her driveway,

1743
01:25:25,454 --> 01:25:27,189
walks across the street,
gives him a bear hug,

1744
01:25:27,422 --> 01:25:28,657
looks at me in the eyes
and says, "You never know

1745
01:25:28,890 --> 01:25:30,726
what your neighbors do
for a living, do you?"