1 00:00:22,440 --> 00:00:24,442 [distant traffic noise] 2 00:00:39,415 --> 00:00:40,875 [FAA traffic controller] American 11, 3 00:00:40,958 --> 00:00:43,711 heavy traffic's orbiting north of the field at 3,500 feet, 4 00:00:43,795 --> 00:00:46,964 maintain 3,000, runway four right. 5 00:00:47,048 --> 00:00:48,382 Cleared for takeoff. 6 00:01:01,062 --> 00:01:04,023 [woman] What a beautiful, beautiful Tuesday morning it was. 7 00:01:05,650 --> 00:01:09,445 The sky was clear, it was blue, not a cloud in the sky. 8 00:01:10,029 --> 00:01:11,447 They call it "severe clear." 9 00:01:12,740 --> 00:01:17,370 About eight o'clock, American Flight 11 was fully fueled. 10 00:01:17,453 --> 00:01:19,163 It was bound for Los Angeles. 11 00:01:19,247 --> 00:01:22,208 It left Boston Logan Airport. We know it was hijacked. 12 00:01:22,291 --> 00:01:24,043 [ominous music plays] 13 00:01:26,170 --> 00:01:29,090 [FAA man] American 11, climb maintain level three five zero. 14 00:01:33,719 --> 00:01:36,639 American 11, climb maintain level three five zero. 15 00:01:38,724 --> 00:01:40,560 American 11, Boston. 16 00:01:42,311 --> 00:01:43,187 [tone beeps] 17 00:01:43,271 --> 00:01:44,772 [FAA man 2] This is Athens. 18 00:01:44,856 --> 00:01:47,733 [FAA man] This is Boston, I turned American 20 left. I was gonna climb him, 19 00:01:47,817 --> 00:01:49,277 he will not respond to me now at all. 20 00:01:49,360 --> 00:01:51,112 [FAA man 2] Looks like he's turning right. 21 00:01:52,864 --> 00:01:54,699 [Bouchat] Traffic controllers lost contact, 22 00:01:54,782 --> 00:01:58,786 but the hijackers used the Hudson River as its guide down to New York City. 23 00:02:00,246 --> 00:02:02,874 [Ong] Number Three in the back. The cockpit's not answering. 24 00:02:02,957 --> 00:02:05,209 Somebody's stabbed in business class. 25 00:02:05,293 --> 00:02:08,171 And I think there's Mace that we can't breathe. 26 00:02:08,254 --> 00:02:10,548 I don't know. I think we're getting hijacked. 27 00:02:12,592 --> 00:02:14,010 [man] What is your name? 28 00:02:14,093 --> 00:02:15,845 [Ong] Okay. My name is Betty Ong. 29 00:02:16,721 --> 00:02:19,182 I'm Number Three on Flight 11. 30 00:02:19,265 --> 00:02:20,933 Our first class passengers are-- 31 00:02:21,017 --> 00:02:25,688 Our first class galley flight attendant, and our purser has been stabbed. 32 00:02:27,064 --> 00:02:30,151 And we can't get to the cockpit, the door won't open. 33 00:02:31,110 --> 00:02:33,487 [woman] Have you guys called anyone else? 34 00:02:33,988 --> 00:02:37,783 [Ong] No. Somebody's calling medical and we can't get a doc-- 35 00:02:37,867 --> 00:02:38,784 [signal beeps] 36 00:02:40,077 --> 00:02:42,079 [ominous music plays] 37 00:02:47,543 --> 00:02:50,796 In 2001, I was working in the World Trade Center 38 00:02:50,880 --> 00:02:53,341 in the South Tower, Tower 2. 39 00:02:53,424 --> 00:02:55,259 I was located on the 101st. 40 00:02:55,885 --> 00:02:59,263 We were there about four or five years, I think, in that building. 41 00:03:01,849 --> 00:03:05,353 I started working at the hotel in 1981. 42 00:03:05,436 --> 00:03:06,979 It was called Vista International 43 00:03:07,063 --> 00:03:09,857 and then it became Marriott International Hotel. 44 00:03:10,441 --> 00:03:13,736 I was hotel engineer. Basically maintained the whole building. 45 00:03:16,530 --> 00:03:17,949 And on the morning of September 11, 46 00:03:18,032 --> 00:03:20,493 I arrived there about six o'clock, as I usually do. 47 00:03:21,285 --> 00:03:23,913 Usually about eight o'clock, we have departmental meetings, 48 00:03:23,996 --> 00:03:27,541 which is a brief meeting of what's going to be on the agenda for the day. 49 00:03:28,334 --> 00:03:31,712 And for this particular meeting, my boss told us 50 00:03:31,796 --> 00:03:34,548 that there were some guests that was staying at the hotel, 51 00:03:34,632 --> 00:03:36,550 and they had some issues with their room. 52 00:03:36,634 --> 00:03:40,096 My boss wanted us to really focus on these two guests. 53 00:03:40,596 --> 00:03:45,059 The two ladies, their names were Faye and Leigh Gilmore, from Chicago. 54 00:03:46,394 --> 00:03:47,812 Leigh had MS. 55 00:03:48,646 --> 00:03:50,398 It was very crippling to her. 56 00:03:50,481 --> 00:03:52,400 That confined her to a wheelchair. 57 00:03:52,483 --> 00:03:53,567 [no audible dialogue] 58 00:03:53,651 --> 00:03:57,280 [Frederick] She advocated for people who had disabilities. 59 00:03:59,365 --> 00:04:02,201 And I told my boss that I would go to the room 60 00:04:02,285 --> 00:04:03,786 and make sure that the guest was happy 61 00:04:03,869 --> 00:04:06,789 and make sure the guest had everything they needed for that day. 62 00:04:08,457 --> 00:04:10,459 [dial tone buzzes] 63 00:04:12,169 --> 00:04:15,339 [man] American Airlines Emergency line, please state your emergency. 64 00:04:15,423 --> 00:04:17,717 [woman] Hey. This is Nydia at American Airlines calling. 65 00:04:17,800 --> 00:04:20,261 I am monitoring a call in which Flight 11, 66 00:04:20,344 --> 00:04:25,141 the flight attendant is advising our reps that the pilot, everyone's been stabbed. 67 00:04:26,475 --> 00:04:28,352 -[operator] Flight 11? -[woman] Yeah. 68 00:04:30,271 --> 00:04:32,148 [operator] Uh, we contacted Air Traffic Control. 69 00:04:32,231 --> 00:04:35,026 They are going to handle this as a confirmed hijacking, 70 00:04:35,109 --> 00:04:37,570 so they're moving all traffic out of this aircraft's way. 71 00:04:37,653 --> 00:04:38,571 [woman] Okay. 72 00:04:38,654 --> 00:04:40,448 [operator] He turned his transponder off, 73 00:04:40,531 --> 00:04:43,617 so we don't have a definitive altitude for him. 74 00:04:44,243 --> 00:04:47,246 Uh, we're just going by-- They seem to think that-- 75 00:04:47,330 --> 00:04:50,708 They have him on a primary radar. They seem to think that he is descending. 76 00:04:51,542 --> 00:04:53,544 [ominous music plays] 77 00:04:58,299 --> 00:05:00,468 [woman] I entered the lobby, 78 00:05:00,551 --> 00:05:06,182 and to get to my 82nd floor, I had to take two elevators. 79 00:05:07,683 --> 00:05:13,022 So, first was the express elevator to 78th floor, and then to 82nd. 80 00:05:13,105 --> 00:05:15,149 And I came to my office 81 00:05:15,232 --> 00:05:20,237 and I was so lucky, because I had my desk just by the window 82 00:05:20,321 --> 00:05:23,074 on the east side of the tower. 83 00:05:23,157 --> 00:05:27,703 So I saw from my window the East River, all bridges, 84 00:05:27,787 --> 00:05:31,123 and far, far away, towards Europe. 85 00:05:34,168 --> 00:05:37,880 The Division Chief was my title in the Law Department 86 00:05:37,963 --> 00:05:40,424 of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. 87 00:05:41,926 --> 00:05:46,764 And the Trade Center was built in the mid-late '60s, early '70s 88 00:05:46,847 --> 00:05:48,808 by the Port Authority, and so when it was finished, 89 00:05:48,891 --> 00:05:50,684 they put their headquarters there. 90 00:05:51,852 --> 00:05:54,605 It was a Japanese man who was the main architect. 91 00:05:54,688 --> 00:05:56,482 Ironically, he was afraid of heights. 92 00:05:57,441 --> 00:06:00,694 And yet he built these two behemoth buildings. 93 00:06:02,238 --> 00:06:05,199 The power brokers in New York wanted to build this center 94 00:06:05,282 --> 00:06:08,452 for commerce and world trade, including the Rockefellers. 95 00:06:08,536 --> 00:06:11,330 So they came up with the "World Trade Center." 96 00:06:13,499 --> 00:06:16,460 When they were first built, architecture critics didn't like them. 97 00:06:16,544 --> 00:06:18,504 Common joke was, 98 00:06:18,587 --> 00:06:21,215 "Welcome to New York, home of famous buildings, 99 00:06:21,298 --> 00:06:23,300 beautiful buildings, like the Empire State Building 100 00:06:23,384 --> 00:06:26,846 and the Chrysler Building, and the boxes they came in." 101 00:06:29,348 --> 00:06:31,767 But they grew on people, so to speak, 102 00:06:31,851 --> 00:06:33,519 and they were much beloved. 103 00:06:34,770 --> 00:06:36,355 On a given Monday through Friday, 104 00:06:36,439 --> 00:06:41,026 you might have 70, 80 thousand people just in that little 16-acre spot. 105 00:06:41,110 --> 00:06:43,112 So it was kind of like a city within a city. 106 00:06:45,489 --> 00:06:46,991 [man] I was the assistant commissioner 107 00:06:47,074 --> 00:06:49,869 at the New York City Department of Investigation. 108 00:06:49,952 --> 00:06:51,954 We were doing an operation on the day of the attack. 109 00:06:52,037 --> 00:06:55,416 We were at the World Trade Center meeting up with, 110 00:06:55,499 --> 00:06:58,627 basically a bad guy to take a bribe who didn't want to pay his taxes. 111 00:06:59,545 --> 00:07:01,881 We had a team of investigators who were wired up, 112 00:07:01,964 --> 00:07:03,716 and they were gonna meet him there. 113 00:07:09,263 --> 00:07:11,182 [Boston FAA] Is that American 11 trying to call? 114 00:07:11,265 --> 00:07:12,933 [man] Put that phone up on that HAM-- 115 00:07:14,226 --> 00:07:17,521 [Atta] We have some planes. Just stay quiet and we'll be okay. 116 00:07:17,605 --> 00:07:19,440 We're returning to the airport. 117 00:07:20,900 --> 00:07:22,943 [Boston FAA] American 11, are you trying to call? 118 00:07:23,027 --> 00:07:25,821 [Atta] Nobody move. Everything will be okay. 119 00:07:26,363 --> 00:07:30,701 If you try to make any moves, you will endanger yourself and the airplane. 120 00:07:30,784 --> 00:07:32,036 Just stay quiet. 121 00:07:32,536 --> 00:07:34,330 [ominous music plays] 122 00:07:35,331 --> 00:07:38,209 [man] Hi, Boston Center, T.M.U. We have a problem here. 123 00:07:38,292 --> 00:07:41,545 We have a hijacked aircraft headed towards New York, 124 00:07:41,629 --> 00:07:43,214 and we need you guys to-- 125 00:07:43,297 --> 00:07:47,343 We need someone to scramble some F-16s or something up there to help us out. 126 00:07:47,426 --> 00:07:49,303 [Powell] Is this real-world or exercise? 127 00:07:49,386 --> 00:07:51,472 [Boston ATC] No. This is not an exercise, not a test. 128 00:07:51,555 --> 00:07:53,807 [Powell] Okay. Hey, uh, hold on one second. Okay? 129 00:07:53,891 --> 00:07:54,725 [Boston ATC] Yes. 130 00:07:55,601 --> 00:07:57,937 [Powell] Hey, hey, hey, hey. 131 00:07:58,020 --> 00:07:59,897 -Hey, seriously. Big time. -[man] What? 132 00:08:02,066 --> 00:08:03,025 [woman] What? 133 00:08:03,108 --> 00:08:04,985 -[people exclaim] -What was that? 134 00:08:05,069 --> 00:08:07,613 [woman 2] Is that real-world? Real-world hijacking. 135 00:08:09,281 --> 00:08:11,283 [sirens blaring distantly] 136 00:08:14,286 --> 00:08:17,373 [Glogowski] Quarter to nine in my office, 137 00:08:17,456 --> 00:08:19,583 there was absolute silence. 138 00:08:23,087 --> 00:08:26,215 Everybody was working on their machines. 139 00:08:28,467 --> 00:08:30,761 And all of a sudden, 140 00:08:30,844 --> 00:08:35,057 the silence was broken by tremendous blast. 141 00:08:36,892 --> 00:08:38,894 [man] And can I get your autograph also? 142 00:08:38,978 --> 00:08:41,230 [airplane engine roaring overhead] 143 00:08:43,899 --> 00:08:45,776 [loud crash] 144 00:08:46,652 --> 00:08:47,861 [man 1] What the hell was that? 145 00:08:48,904 --> 00:08:50,531 [man 2] Sounded like a plane crash. 146 00:08:50,614 --> 00:08:51,907 [siren whoops] 147 00:08:57,329 --> 00:08:59,540 -Yo! Close to ya. -[man 1] Come to us! Come to us! 148 00:09:00,457 --> 00:09:01,375 Come to us! 149 00:09:03,502 --> 00:09:04,628 Come to us! 150 00:09:06,088 --> 00:09:08,549 Hey, Beth! What is that? 151 00:09:09,842 --> 00:09:12,595 Something-- Somebody hit the World Trade Center? Or the-- 152 00:09:12,678 --> 00:09:14,430 [man 1]  It's the Trade Center. Trade Center. 153 00:09:16,390 --> 00:09:17,600 [man 3] Holy shit! 154 00:09:18,267 --> 00:09:19,101 Shit! 155 00:09:22,104 --> 00:09:23,981 [reporter 1] This just in, you are looking at, 156 00:09:24,064 --> 00:09:26,191 obviously, a very disturbing live shot there. 157 00:09:26,275 --> 00:09:27,693 That is the World Trade Center, 158 00:09:27,776 --> 00:09:30,070 and we have unconfirmed reports this morning 159 00:09:30,154 --> 00:09:32,656 that a plane has crashed into one of the towers. 160 00:09:32,740 --> 00:09:33,907 [reporter 2] We're looking-- 161 00:09:33,991 --> 00:09:36,285 There's no doubt there was a huge explosion and fire. 162 00:09:36,368 --> 00:09:39,038 Lots of black smoke coming from that building. 163 00:09:39,121 --> 00:09:40,289 Black smoke, again, 164 00:09:40,372 --> 00:09:43,876 would indicate that the fire is nowhere near under control. 165 00:09:43,959 --> 00:09:45,836 [sirens blaring] 166 00:09:45,919 --> 00:09:49,256 [Kern] I was up in my office, at that point, on the 62nd floor. 167 00:09:50,507 --> 00:09:54,094 At 8:46, there was suddenly a loud bang and a crash, 168 00:09:54,178 --> 00:09:57,598 and the building started shaking, which I had never felt before. 169 00:09:57,681 --> 00:10:00,225 Now, the engineers tell me the buildings were designed 170 00:10:00,309 --> 00:10:03,062 to sway in the wind in hurricane-force winds. 171 00:10:03,145 --> 00:10:06,565 They had to. They couldn't be rigid, because they were too tall. 172 00:10:07,066 --> 00:10:10,402 But this was different, this was like shaking so much so 173 00:10:10,486 --> 00:10:13,405 that a couple of my co-workers lost their footing 174 00:10:13,489 --> 00:10:15,199 and, like, fell to their knees. 175 00:10:16,075 --> 00:10:20,037 And the shaking seemed to go on for, like, 20 or 30 seconds. 176 00:10:21,664 --> 00:10:23,415 When the shaking stopped, 177 00:10:23,499 --> 00:10:27,711 I yelled to everybody to get out and head for the stairs. 178 00:10:27,795 --> 00:10:30,547 Don't waste time waiting to find out what happened. 179 00:10:31,215 --> 00:10:33,175 Get out first, find out later. 180 00:10:35,135 --> 00:10:37,096 [reporter] Thousands, tens of thousands of people 181 00:10:37,179 --> 00:10:39,556 actually work inside those two buildings 182 00:10:39,640 --> 00:10:41,892 in the heart of New York's Financial District. 183 00:10:44,019 --> 00:10:46,355 [Bouchat] I sat on the south side of the South Tower, 184 00:10:46,438 --> 00:10:49,983 I was as far away as you could be, and I heard boom. 185 00:10:50,651 --> 00:10:52,653 It was a very faint boom. 186 00:10:53,153 --> 00:10:56,365 My co-workers who sat on the west and the north side of the building 187 00:10:56,448 --> 00:10:59,076 actually felt the heat of the airplane parts 188 00:10:59,159 --> 00:11:01,120 as they went past their windows, 189 00:11:01,203 --> 00:11:03,455 and they said paper on their desk became charred. 190 00:11:03,956 --> 00:11:06,709 [interviewer] Did you have any desire, at that point, to evacuate? 191 00:11:06,792 --> 00:11:08,544 No. Thought hadn't entered my head. 192 00:11:08,627 --> 00:11:10,879 In fact, my mother asked me, "Are you leaving?" 193 00:11:10,963 --> 00:11:13,006 Because Mom is asking, I said, "Sure." 194 00:11:14,341 --> 00:11:16,802 [Green] We all thought that basically it was some knucklehead 195 00:11:16,885 --> 00:11:18,762 who's driving some Cessna or some little thing 196 00:11:18,846 --> 00:11:20,889 who just went out of the way and hit the building. 197 00:11:20,973 --> 00:11:25,102 We didn't realize at first that it was a 757. 198 00:11:27,771 --> 00:11:32,234 [Bouchat] I was packing my bag, and I noticed Jim Berger walk past, 199 00:11:32,317 --> 00:11:35,487 and he had earlier heard me say that a bomb had gone off, 200 00:11:35,571 --> 00:11:37,823 and he came by to tell us that he had heard 201 00:11:37,906 --> 00:11:41,952 that it was actually a plane that had gone into the North Tower. 202 00:11:42,035 --> 00:11:42,870 Tower One. 203 00:11:44,955 --> 00:11:47,332 It went into the core of the building, straight in. 204 00:11:47,416 --> 00:11:51,170 So if you were at the 92nd floor or above, there was no escape, 205 00:11:51,253 --> 00:11:53,255 there were no stairs to come down. 206 00:11:55,257 --> 00:11:57,259 [phone line rings] 207 00:11:58,427 --> 00:12:00,471 [firefighter] Fire Department 408. Where's the fire? 208 00:12:00,554 --> 00:12:03,724 [man] Yeah. Hi. I'm on the 106th floor of the World Trade Center. 209 00:12:03,807 --> 00:12:05,142 We just had an explosion up here. 210 00:12:05,225 --> 00:12:07,269 [firefighter] Okay. 106th floor? 211 00:12:07,978 --> 00:12:10,355 -What building? One or Two? -[man] That's One World Trade. 212 00:12:10,439 --> 00:12:13,525 [firefighter] Keep the windows open if you can and just sit tight. 213 00:12:13,609 --> 00:12:15,903 It's gonna be a while because there's a fire downstairs. 214 00:12:15,986 --> 00:12:17,988 [man] We can't open the windows unless we break them. 215 00:12:18,071 --> 00:12:19,823 [firefighter] Okay. Just sit tight. 216 00:12:19,907 --> 00:12:22,201 All right. Just sit tight. We're on the way. 217 00:12:22,284 --> 00:12:23,911 [man] All right. Please hurry. 218 00:12:27,623 --> 00:12:30,584 [Bouchat] And what had started as a beautiful, beautiful day 219 00:12:30,667 --> 00:12:32,252 was now turning brown. 220 00:12:32,336 --> 00:12:34,588 There was paper swirling outside our window. 221 00:12:36,006 --> 00:12:39,051 And at that point it's when Jim said, "Time to go home." 222 00:12:39,134 --> 00:12:41,720 And we thought, "This is great. It's not even 9:00 a.m. 223 00:12:41,804 --> 00:12:42,971 and we were headed home." 224 00:12:43,055 --> 00:12:46,391 As I headed to the elevators, Jim went down the corridor. 225 00:12:46,475 --> 00:12:48,435 He was doing another sweep of the floor. 226 00:12:48,519 --> 00:12:51,104 He went to make sure everybody knew that it was time to go 227 00:12:51,188 --> 00:12:52,397 and there was nobody left. 228 00:12:53,148 --> 00:12:54,733 Jim did not make it out. 229 00:12:55,901 --> 00:12:57,903 [sirens wailing] 230 00:13:01,031 --> 00:13:05,577 [reporter] At this point, we do not have official injury updates to bring you. 231 00:13:05,661 --> 00:13:10,958 We are only now beginning to put together the pieces of this horrible incident. 232 00:13:12,793 --> 00:13:14,378 [Frederick] The building shook. 233 00:13:14,962 --> 00:13:16,421 So we didn't know what that was. 234 00:13:16,505 --> 00:13:18,715 Automatically, the alarms went off. 235 00:13:18,799 --> 00:13:22,761 And when the alarms go off, all the elevators, everything is disabled. 236 00:13:24,847 --> 00:13:27,057 We knew it was bad. We knew something was wrong. 237 00:13:28,433 --> 00:13:32,437 So as I stood in the lobby, I noticed a lady coming toward me. 238 00:13:32,521 --> 00:13:34,606 She came from the Twin Towers. 239 00:13:35,816 --> 00:13:38,694 And she was very, very badly burned, and I said, "Oh my God." 240 00:13:39,278 --> 00:13:42,865 Somebody yelled, screamed to get a towel to cover her up 241 00:13:42,948 --> 00:13:45,492 because her skin was, like, really peeling bad. 242 00:13:46,285 --> 00:13:48,620 And I found out later that she was burned from the fuel. 243 00:13:48,704 --> 00:13:50,747 [interviewer] Must've come down the elevator shaft. 244 00:13:50,831 --> 00:13:51,790 Elevators. Yes. 245 00:13:54,626 --> 00:13:58,005 For some reason, the ladies popped into my head, and I said to myself, 246 00:13:58,088 --> 00:14:01,592 "You know, maybe I should go and see if they're up there, 247 00:14:01,675 --> 00:14:02,759 'cause I'm not sure." 248 00:14:02,843 --> 00:14:04,887 Being that the elevator's disabled, 249 00:14:04,970 --> 00:14:09,433 I went to the freight elevator, got on, used the key, went upstairs. 250 00:14:09,516 --> 00:14:13,604 As I open the door, they were there. Three ladies waiting. 251 00:14:16,773 --> 00:14:18,275 They were stuck up there. 252 00:14:18,817 --> 00:14:22,738 One of the ladies, she bolted and ran back in her room and locked the door. 253 00:14:22,821 --> 00:14:24,531 -[interviewer] She was scared. -Scared. Yeah. 254 00:14:25,908 --> 00:14:28,660 So I ran after her and I banged on the door and I told her, 255 00:14:28,744 --> 00:14:30,954 "Excuse me, miss. I don't know what's going on." 256 00:14:31,038 --> 00:14:33,749 "I know it's something bad. I don't know. I'm scared myself." 257 00:14:33,832 --> 00:14:35,125 "We got to leave." 258 00:14:35,208 --> 00:14:37,628 She started crying. She told me, "Okay. I'll come with you." 259 00:14:39,838 --> 00:14:42,215 [interviewer] You eventually-- You got them to safety. 260 00:14:42,716 --> 00:14:45,385 From there, did you know what happened to them? 261 00:14:45,469 --> 00:14:46,303 No. I did not. 262 00:14:46,386 --> 00:14:48,388 [dramatic music plays] 263 00:14:50,265 --> 00:14:53,143 [reporter 1] Planes, typically, are not that close to these buildings. 264 00:14:53,226 --> 00:14:56,229 Wind speeds at this point, not tremendous at all. 265 00:14:56,730 --> 00:14:59,191 -Flying conditions, near perfect. -[reporter 2] Picture-perfect. 266 00:15:00,108 --> 00:15:01,860 [Kern] There were already people pouring in 267 00:15:01,944 --> 00:15:04,321 from every floor above us into the stairwells. 268 00:15:04,404 --> 00:15:06,823 I decided I was going to stand at the entrance 269 00:15:06,907 --> 00:15:09,701 and count the people from my division 270 00:15:09,785 --> 00:15:12,579 and make sure all nine got into the stairwell. 271 00:15:13,121 --> 00:15:17,209 I was the Division Chief, so I felt they were my responsibility. 272 00:15:17,709 --> 00:15:22,172 And the stairs were very crowded, so they weren't moving fast at all. 273 00:15:23,799 --> 00:15:25,258 At the 20th floor… 274 00:15:25,926 --> 00:15:30,806 is where we first saw a firefighter going up as we were going down. 275 00:15:30,889 --> 00:15:33,475 That meant the rest of the trip we had to go single file, 276 00:15:33,558 --> 00:15:37,062 because now Port Authority police and firefighters 277 00:15:37,145 --> 00:15:40,607 were coming up the other side to try and get the building evacuated. 278 00:15:41,650 --> 00:15:43,568 I was glad to see the firefighters. 279 00:15:44,069 --> 00:15:47,155 -[horns honking] -[emergency sirens blaring] 280 00:15:50,909 --> 00:15:55,497 [man] This is Central. Be advised, from our location I see heavy smoke 281 00:15:55,580 --> 00:15:58,250 coming from the building of the World Trade Center. 282 00:15:58,333 --> 00:16:01,837 Send me just about anything that you got in this direction, Kate. 283 00:16:03,296 --> 00:16:07,342 [man] The morning of September 11th, I wasn't actually supposed to be on duty. 284 00:16:07,426 --> 00:16:11,054 I had worked a 24-hour shift Sunday night, 285 00:16:11,138 --> 00:16:13,849 Monday day, September 11th being Tuesday. 286 00:16:18,228 --> 00:16:19,730 The captain of Engine 24, 287 00:16:19,813 --> 00:16:22,190 he had asked me to pick up the shift for him. 288 00:16:22,274 --> 00:16:24,276 [dramatic music plays] 289 00:16:28,363 --> 00:16:30,032 The lobby glass was broken. 290 00:16:30,115 --> 00:16:34,745 We walked in and we could see cracks in the marble, 291 00:16:34,828 --> 00:16:38,874 and I could see some dead bodies near the elevators. 292 00:16:38,957 --> 00:16:43,545 This was the jet fuel that had come down the elevator shafts. 293 00:16:44,254 --> 00:16:47,424 The order was, basically, we were gonna have to walk up and fight this fire 294 00:16:47,507 --> 00:16:49,509 and get as many people as we can. 295 00:16:49,593 --> 00:16:51,720 And we started going up single file. 296 00:16:52,387 --> 00:16:56,808 And we had lots of civilians coming down single file, very orderly. 297 00:16:56,892 --> 00:17:01,396 Eventually we got a guy from the 90th floor that had seen fire. 298 00:17:01,480 --> 00:17:06,568 So, that's when I knew we had a very long climb to go. 299 00:17:08,695 --> 00:17:11,990 [Bouchat] I made it very quickly down to the 78th floor Sky Lobby. 300 00:17:12,491 --> 00:17:14,034 It was packed with people. 301 00:17:15,118 --> 00:17:17,537 About 400 were waiting on that lobby 302 00:17:17,621 --> 00:17:20,415 to catch the express elevator to the bottom. 303 00:17:21,541 --> 00:17:23,502 I believe I got into one of the last elevators 304 00:17:23,585 --> 00:17:25,295 that made it to the lobby level. 305 00:17:26,379 --> 00:17:29,508 [reporter] It's obviously-- Something devastating has happened. 306 00:17:29,591 --> 00:17:31,635 And again, unconfirmed report 307 00:17:31,718 --> 00:17:33,970 that a plane has crashed into one of the towers there. 308 00:17:34,054 --> 00:17:35,055 We are efforting… 309 00:17:36,556 --> 00:17:38,683 -[man 1] Can you look out your window? -[man 2] Yeah. 310 00:17:38,767 --> 00:17:40,393 [man 1] Can you see a guy at 4,000 feet, 311 00:17:40,477 --> 00:17:42,854 about five east of the airport? Looks like he's… 312 00:17:42,938 --> 00:17:43,897 [man 2] Yeah. I see him. 313 00:17:43,980 --> 00:17:46,108 [man 1] Is he descending to the building also? 314 00:17:46,191 --> 00:17:48,860 -[man 2] He's descending really quick too. -[man 1] Well, that's… 315 00:17:48,944 --> 00:17:52,739 [man 2] 4,500 feet, now. He just dropped 800 feet in, like, one sweep. 316 00:17:52,823 --> 00:17:54,324 [man 1] That's another situation. 317 00:18:00,831 --> 00:18:03,917 [Bouchat] We came up to street level, and I was with three of my co-workers. 318 00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:06,128 We found each other on the elevator. 319 00:18:06,211 --> 00:18:09,381 And as we stepped off onto Liberty Street… 320 00:18:10,382 --> 00:18:14,511 we took about ten steps and Ingrid yelled, "Run." 321 00:18:14,594 --> 00:18:18,140 She doesn't remember why she said it, but we ran down Liberty Street 322 00:18:18,223 --> 00:18:20,892 towards Church Street in Zuccotti Park. 323 00:18:22,102 --> 00:18:23,895 And the time was 9:03. 324 00:18:24,479 --> 00:18:26,439 [sirens wailing] 325 00:18:26,940 --> 00:18:32,445 I know that now, because at 9:03 is when United 175 crashed into the South Tower. 326 00:18:32,529 --> 00:18:34,364 [airplane engine roaring] 327 00:18:34,447 --> 00:18:36,408 [explosion] 328 00:18:41,621 --> 00:18:43,248 [Dries] Oh my God! 329 00:18:43,331 --> 00:18:44,666 [woman screams] 330 00:18:44,749 --> 00:18:46,585 Oh my God! 331 00:18:46,668 --> 00:18:48,795 [reporter 1] Oh my goodness. There's another one. 332 00:18:50,130 --> 00:18:52,007 Oh my goodness. There's another one. 333 00:18:52,090 --> 00:18:53,925 [reporter 2] This seems to be on purpose. 334 00:18:54,009 --> 00:18:56,595 -[man 1] Another one hit the building. -[man 2] Wow. 335 00:18:57,220 --> 00:19:00,432 -[man 1] Another one just hit it hard. -[man 2] Another one hit the World Trade. 336 00:19:00,515 --> 00:19:03,810 -[man 1] The whole building came apart. -[man 2] Holy smokes. 337 00:19:04,811 --> 00:19:05,896 Come on! Come on! 338 00:19:05,979 --> 00:19:07,981 [loud clamoring] 339 00:19:10,859 --> 00:19:11,860 Come on! Come on! 340 00:19:16,114 --> 00:19:17,449 Are you with me, John? 341 00:19:21,203 --> 00:19:22,287 [man] I don't know. 342 00:19:22,370 --> 00:19:24,581 [woman] Get down, everybody! Get down! 343 00:19:24,664 --> 00:19:26,625 -[man 1] What happened? -[man 2] What's happening? 344 00:19:26,708 --> 00:19:28,627 [woman] Waiting for another explosion! 345 00:19:28,710 --> 00:19:30,712 [overlapped shouting] 346 00:19:32,422 --> 00:19:33,298 [man 1] Get back! 347 00:19:33,381 --> 00:19:34,799 [man 2] Let's just get back. 348 00:19:34,883 --> 00:19:36,343 [horn blaring] 349 00:19:36,968 --> 00:19:38,261 [officer 1] Come on! Let's move! 350 00:19:38,345 --> 00:19:40,555 -Let's move! Let's go! Move it! -[officer 2] Come on! 351 00:19:40,639 --> 00:19:42,641 Move it! Come on! 352 00:19:42,724 --> 00:19:44,351 [firefighter 1] Second plane just-- 353 00:19:44,434 --> 00:19:46,436 [radio crackles and cuts out] 354 00:19:49,731 --> 00:19:51,233 [firefighter 2] DC01, go. 355 00:19:52,484 --> 00:19:54,986 [firefighter 1] Second explosion in Number Two World Trade Center 356 00:19:55,070 --> 00:19:55,904 on the upper floors. 357 00:19:55,987 --> 00:19:59,241 It's Number Two World Trade Center, explosion on the upper floors. 358 00:20:09,960 --> 00:20:11,753 [reporter] Now it's obvious, I think, 359 00:20:11,836 --> 00:20:15,840 that there's a second plane just crashed into the World Trade Center. 360 00:20:15,924 --> 00:20:17,926 I think we have a terrorist act 361 00:20:18,009 --> 00:20:21,721 of proportions that we cannot begin to imagine at this juncture. 362 00:20:24,683 --> 00:20:26,601 [Kern] You could hear people gasping. 363 00:20:27,185 --> 00:20:29,229 It just felt like the world was falling apart. 364 00:20:31,147 --> 00:20:34,818 [Bouchat] Your brain is just trying to make some sense of something 365 00:20:34,901 --> 00:20:36,861 that was-- made no sense. 366 00:20:36,945 --> 00:20:38,530 It was so unbelievable. 367 00:20:39,823 --> 00:20:42,701 [Kern] And that was just the beginning. 368 00:20:45,412 --> 00:20:48,290 [air traffic controller] Third aircraft hijack, heading towards Washington. 369 00:20:48,373 --> 00:20:51,543 Scramble Langley, head them towards the Washington area. 370 00:20:52,585 --> 00:20:54,796 [dramatic music plays] 371 00:21:45,847 --> 00:21:47,849 [ominous music plays] 372 00:21:52,562 --> 00:21:54,856 [man] The September 11, 2001 attacks 373 00:21:54,939 --> 00:21:57,108 were the most consequential terrorist attacks 374 00:21:57,192 --> 00:21:58,568 in the history of mankind. 375 00:22:01,404 --> 00:22:06,284 It's hard, I think, to reimagine the sense of profound upheaval… 376 00:22:06,785 --> 00:22:11,956 dislocation, chaos, uncertainty that existed on September 11th 377 00:22:12,040 --> 00:22:14,000 in the hours after the attacks. 378 00:22:14,084 --> 00:22:18,046 I mean, no one knew who had attacked us, why they had attacked us, 379 00:22:18,129 --> 00:22:20,465 or what attacks were coming next. 380 00:22:21,466 --> 00:22:25,720 And this led to perhaps the main question of that era, 381 00:22:25,804 --> 00:22:27,931 which was, "Why do they hate us?" 382 00:22:31,893 --> 00:22:35,522 The attacks on the Twin Towers were just an opening salvo 383 00:22:35,605 --> 00:22:39,484 in a sustained day of attacks against targets 384 00:22:39,567 --> 00:22:42,654 representing the symbols of American power. 385 00:22:45,532 --> 00:22:47,117 It was an operation carried out 386 00:22:47,200 --> 00:22:50,703 by acolytes or followers of Osama bin Laden. 387 00:22:52,914 --> 00:22:58,253 Terrorism, I think, can best be defined as violence or the threat of violence 388 00:22:58,336 --> 00:23:01,297 designed to achieve fundamental political change. 389 00:23:03,174 --> 00:23:06,886 All terrorists see themselves as reluctant warriors 390 00:23:06,970 --> 00:23:10,723 cast on the defensive against predatory aggressors. 391 00:23:11,391 --> 00:23:14,602 So they feel they have no choice but to use violence. 392 00:23:16,438 --> 00:23:18,606 That was precisely bin Laden's conceit, 393 00:23:18,690 --> 00:23:21,317 that terrorism could change the course of history. 394 00:23:26,072 --> 00:23:30,452 But the path to 9/11 began decades before, 395 00:23:30,535 --> 00:23:32,454 really, at the heart of the Cold War 396 00:23:32,537 --> 00:23:35,915 with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. 397 00:23:36,916 --> 00:23:39,335 That's really where it all started. 398 00:23:39,419 --> 00:23:41,504 [dramatic music plays] 399 00:23:49,262 --> 00:23:51,556 I don't think anyone fully understood 400 00:23:51,639 --> 00:23:54,809 that this was a remarkable turning point in history. 401 00:23:57,395 --> 00:23:59,522 And no one could have ever foreseen 402 00:23:59,606 --> 00:24:01,733 that this would become such a pivotal event 403 00:24:01,816 --> 00:24:05,695 that would have such an effect, not only on the rest of the 20th century, 404 00:24:05,778 --> 00:24:08,823 but would determine the course of at least the opening decades 405 00:24:08,907 --> 00:24:10,658 of the 21st century as well. 406 00:24:11,493 --> 00:24:15,038 [reporter 1] Soviet troops fought pitched battles in the streets of Kabul, 407 00:24:15,121 --> 00:24:16,873 the capital of Afghanistan, today. 408 00:24:16,956 --> 00:24:19,959 [reporter 2] The Soviet Union has sent tanks and helicopter gunships 409 00:24:20,043 --> 00:24:21,628 to help crush the Muslim rebels. 410 00:24:23,213 --> 00:24:28,468 I am a former CIA officer involved in the Afghan resistance 411 00:24:28,551 --> 00:24:30,303 against the Soviet occupation. 412 00:24:31,054 --> 00:24:33,097 The American people, at that time, 413 00:24:33,181 --> 00:24:36,935 would have been scrambling to get their world atlas 414 00:24:37,018 --> 00:24:39,270 to find out where the hell Afghanistan was. 415 00:24:39,354 --> 00:24:41,022 And why do we care? 416 00:24:41,523 --> 00:24:45,985 Well, we cared, at least in Washington, 417 00:24:46,069 --> 00:24:47,987 because the Soviet Union, 418 00:24:48,071 --> 00:24:51,366 the other side of the equation of a Cold War 419 00:24:51,449 --> 00:24:56,287 that had been running for decades at that time, since 1948, 420 00:24:56,371 --> 00:25:00,500 for, you know, at a cost of, you know, $10 trillion or more, 421 00:25:01,084 --> 00:25:05,296 had moved outside its borders in a very flagrant way. 422 00:25:05,380 --> 00:25:08,132 And so the choice was, for any American president, 423 00:25:08,216 --> 00:25:10,510 any American administration, 424 00:25:10,593 --> 00:25:12,554 you have to do something, you have to respond. 425 00:25:14,055 --> 00:25:17,058 The Soviet leaders have openly and publicly declared 426 00:25:17,141 --> 00:25:21,646 that the only morality they recognize is that which will further their cause, 427 00:25:21,729 --> 00:25:23,064 which is world revolution. 428 00:25:26,109 --> 00:25:27,485 [Bearden] Ronald Reagan comes in 429 00:25:27,569 --> 00:25:30,405 and he brings in a new director of Central Intelligence, 430 00:25:30,488 --> 00:25:31,948 and that's Bill Casey. 431 00:25:32,448 --> 00:25:34,826 Bill Casey called me up to his office and said, 432 00:25:34,909 --> 00:25:38,705 "I want you to go to Afghanistan. I'll give you a billion dollars a year." 433 00:25:38,788 --> 00:25:40,498 "I don't want you to get these guys to win." 434 00:25:40,582 --> 00:25:43,376 "We don't want to just fight to the last Afghan." 435 00:25:43,459 --> 00:25:46,421 "We want you to go and drive these guys out." 436 00:25:46,504 --> 00:25:49,048 "And if a billion isn't enough, I'll give you more." 437 00:25:49,132 --> 00:25:51,759 The pressure was on from that moment forward. 438 00:25:51,843 --> 00:25:54,596 Absolutely no backing down. 439 00:25:56,764 --> 00:26:02,270 By 1985, there was possibly a million Afghans had been killed, 440 00:26:02,353 --> 00:26:06,482 1.5 million had been wounded or maimed, 441 00:26:06,566 --> 00:26:09,944 a million had been driven into exile into Iran, 442 00:26:10,570 --> 00:26:12,947 and two million across the border into Pakistan. 443 00:26:14,449 --> 00:26:18,036 Of a population of about 13 million at the time, 444 00:26:18,119 --> 00:26:21,914 that's like a third have either been killed, wounded, or driven into exile. 445 00:26:23,833 --> 00:26:27,420 The decision was made. We're going to go into this thing. 446 00:26:27,503 --> 00:26:30,340 So let's get on with it and make it go away. 447 00:26:32,342 --> 00:26:37,180 The United States was giving literally billions of dollars in the crucial years, 448 00:26:37,263 --> 00:26:40,725 '84, '85, '86, to the mujahideen. 449 00:26:41,601 --> 00:26:43,394 [no audible dialogue] 450 00:26:44,354 --> 00:26:48,149 [Rashid] The mujahideen were essentially the Afghans who rose up 451 00:26:48,232 --> 00:26:50,318 on the basis of Islam 452 00:26:50,401 --> 00:26:53,363 to free their country from Soviet occupation. 453 00:26:54,697 --> 00:26:59,744 Jihad was essentially the Muslim struggle against oppression, dictatorship, 454 00:26:59,827 --> 00:27:04,916 authoritarianism, and non-Muslims who wanted to conquer Muslim territory. 455 00:27:07,794 --> 00:27:10,129 [Bearden] One has to imagine the challenges 456 00:27:10,213 --> 00:27:13,925 of delivering tens of thousands of tons of ordnance, 457 00:27:14,008 --> 00:27:18,805 and money, and other things to the Afghans in this war. 458 00:27:19,889 --> 00:27:25,186 On the Afghan side, we had seven separate party leaders. 459 00:27:25,978 --> 00:27:30,692 They were representing both ethnic and tribal groups 460 00:27:30,775 --> 00:27:36,447 and separated by being fundamentalist or moderate. 461 00:27:37,031 --> 00:27:42,120 The four fundamentalists included Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, The Dark Prince. 462 00:27:42,203 --> 00:27:45,873 Always wore a black turban, and everybody in the world, uh, 463 00:27:46,332 --> 00:27:49,585 other than some of his commanders, absolutely hated him. 464 00:27:51,921 --> 00:27:55,216 [reporter] One man in particular appears to have a reasonably strong following. 465 00:27:56,384 --> 00:27:58,803 His name is Gulbuddin Hekmatyar… 466 00:27:59,595 --> 00:28:02,849 a 33-year-old former engineering student from Kabul University. 467 00:28:03,933 --> 00:28:05,393 [no audio] 468 00:28:05,476 --> 00:28:07,895 [Rashid] He developed a very nasty reputation. 469 00:28:07,979 --> 00:28:10,106 He spent time at Kabul University. 470 00:28:10,982 --> 00:28:13,401 There was a very strong rumor, I remember, 471 00:28:13,484 --> 00:28:16,487 that he was responsible for starting the trend 472 00:28:16,571 --> 00:28:19,282 to throw acid into girls' faces, 473 00:28:19,365 --> 00:28:21,868 because women at that time were not covered up. 474 00:28:22,910 --> 00:28:26,831 They were in skirts and dresses and going to the university. 475 00:28:28,374 --> 00:28:30,042 [dramatic music] 476 00:28:37,717 --> 00:28:42,346 Hekmatyar sentenced me to death because I was writing against him. 477 00:28:46,309 --> 00:28:49,687 [Hekmatyar, in Arabic] A time came that we had no choice but to pick up arms. 478 00:28:49,771 --> 00:28:54,525 We were facing war and had no choice but to pick up arms. 479 00:28:55,443 --> 00:28:57,069 The Soviets wanted Afghanistan 480 00:28:57,153 --> 00:28:59,739 to turn into another one of their satellite states. 481 00:28:59,822 --> 00:29:01,324 That was their mandate. 482 00:29:02,033 --> 00:29:05,787 This is where I started my struggle to rescue the country. 483 00:29:05,870 --> 00:29:09,081 It was all for the sake of my religious duties. 484 00:29:09,165 --> 00:29:13,002 My motivations were my beliefs, and defending them. 485 00:29:15,463 --> 00:29:16,798 Soviet troops arrived. 486 00:29:16,881 --> 00:29:20,551 Some considered the presence of Soviet forces in Afghanistan 487 00:29:20,635 --> 00:29:24,514 a danger to their own freedom and sovereignty. 488 00:29:24,597 --> 00:29:29,060 The entire world felt danger. All regional countries felt danger. 489 00:29:29,143 --> 00:29:35,441 Iran, Pakistan, and Gulf countries were all feeling danger. 490 00:29:35,525 --> 00:29:38,110 Europe, America, and the West in general felt danger. 491 00:29:39,737 --> 00:29:43,574 They did not think that Afghans would be able to resist. 492 00:29:43,658 --> 00:29:47,370 But, contrary to their expectations, the resistance began here. 493 00:29:51,082 --> 00:29:53,334 [Bearden] You're not interviewing these people 494 00:29:53,417 --> 00:29:56,420 so that one of them might marry your sister. 495 00:29:56,504 --> 00:29:58,631 They do what was needed. 496 00:30:00,216 --> 00:30:02,093 You had to work through that system, 497 00:30:02,176 --> 00:30:04,470 then the goods would flow to the commanders 498 00:30:04,554 --> 00:30:07,473 who were doing the actual fighting including Ahmad Shah Massoud. 499 00:30:07,557 --> 00:30:10,017 I gave him $250,000 a month. 500 00:30:13,896 --> 00:30:18,192 Pretty soon, these shipments were coming in to Karachi Port 501 00:30:18,276 --> 00:30:22,613 and moving through the system and into Afghanistan. 502 00:30:23,197 --> 00:30:27,034 The American effort moved from a 100-year-old design 503 00:30:27,118 --> 00:30:28,244 of an Enfield rifle 504 00:30:28,327 --> 00:30:32,498 up until we were having crates of AK-47s, 505 00:30:33,082 --> 00:30:38,045 82-millimeter mortars, 107 and 122-millimeter rockets, 506 00:30:38,129 --> 00:30:41,173 free-flight rockets that everybody loves so much, 507 00:30:41,257 --> 00:30:43,342 recoilless rifles. 508 00:30:43,426 --> 00:30:45,136 [gunshot echoes] 509 00:30:45,219 --> 00:30:47,513 [dramatic music plays] 510 00:30:49,765 --> 00:30:52,226 [Rashid] I remember very well in '88 511 00:30:52,310 --> 00:30:55,062 crossing the border and going into Afghanistan briefly 512 00:30:55,146 --> 00:30:57,648 for a quick trip with some foreign correspondents, 513 00:30:58,190 --> 00:31:03,321 and seeing a huge column of fighters coming out of Afghanistan, 514 00:31:03,404 --> 00:31:04,614 heading into Pakistan, 515 00:31:04,697 --> 00:31:08,242 saying that they were going for R&R, rest and recuperation. 516 00:31:08,326 --> 00:31:11,412 And I remember very well being quite shocked 517 00:31:11,495 --> 00:31:16,709 to find that these were mostly Arabs, and Indonesians, and Filipinos, 518 00:31:16,792 --> 00:31:18,628 and people from all over. 519 00:31:20,713 --> 00:31:25,384 [Hekmatyar, in Arabic] During a certain point, 520 00:31:25,468 --> 00:31:29,931 a group of young Arabs joined the jihad. 521 00:31:30,014 --> 00:31:31,891 Their number was not big. 522 00:31:32,767 --> 00:31:34,852 They were a limited number of young men. 523 00:31:36,854 --> 00:31:40,691 Their countries of birth did not take the matter seriously. 524 00:31:42,151 --> 00:31:46,989 The West did not mind that they came and took part in this war. 525 00:31:47,907 --> 00:31:50,618 There were a very small number of them. 526 00:31:51,202 --> 00:31:53,913 They also had one or two outposts. 527 00:31:56,082 --> 00:31:58,542 They called them al-Qaeda. 528 00:31:59,919 --> 00:32:01,921 [intense music plays] 529 00:32:10,721 --> 00:32:15,017 [Rashid] Osama bin Laden was a member of a very modern family, the bin Ladens, 530 00:32:15,101 --> 00:32:19,730 who were very big contractors and businessmen in Saudi Arabia. 531 00:32:20,856 --> 00:32:25,820 But he had this desire to do something for Islam and to wage jihad. 532 00:32:30,866 --> 00:32:34,954 And he arrived in Peshawar with a lot of construction equipment, 533 00:32:35,037 --> 00:32:39,333 which his family owned, and he helped the mujahideen build tunnels 534 00:32:39,417 --> 00:32:43,337 and ammunition dumps and things like that. 535 00:32:43,421 --> 00:32:47,883 He was venerated very, very quickly and supported by all those 536 00:32:47,967 --> 00:32:51,387 who were supporting the Afghan war against the Soviets. 537 00:32:54,056 --> 00:32:57,852 [Bearden] Osama bin Laden was in Afghanistan. 538 00:32:58,477 --> 00:33:01,689 He formed something that would be al-Qaeda, 539 00:33:01,772 --> 00:33:05,776 which was just a collection of his guys. 540 00:33:05,860 --> 00:33:10,614 It never became a big issue for CIA or anybody else. 541 00:33:10,698 --> 00:33:12,700 [no audible dialogue] 542 00:33:14,785 --> 00:33:16,787 [marching band playing] 543 00:33:20,332 --> 00:33:22,793 [Hoffman] In the 1980s, we were consumed with the Cold War, 544 00:33:23,711 --> 00:33:26,172 and with the threat from the Soviet Union. 545 00:33:32,428 --> 00:33:37,266 But behind the scenes, I think very poorly understood and underappreciated, 546 00:33:37,349 --> 00:33:40,519 what was occurring was a fusion of politics and religion. 547 00:33:40,603 --> 00:33:43,439 [speaking Arabic] 548 00:33:43,522 --> 00:33:45,524 [reporter] In the mosques throughout the countryside, 549 00:33:45,608 --> 00:33:47,318 teachers call people to join the fighting… 550 00:33:47,818 --> 00:33:50,404 telling them why jihad is obligatory for them. 551 00:33:51,447 --> 00:33:55,659 [Hoffman] We failed to appreciate how these calls on Muslims 552 00:33:55,743 --> 00:33:58,454 from throughout the world to come fight in Afghanistan 553 00:33:58,537 --> 00:34:02,708 and also to give financial support to the mujahideen, to the holy warriors, 554 00:34:02,792 --> 00:34:05,294 was really transforming the nature of terrorism. 555 00:34:08,464 --> 00:34:11,926 [Rashid] In those days, the Afghans were lobbying for the stinger missiles. 556 00:34:12,510 --> 00:34:16,972 And so were American politicians and CIA officials. 557 00:34:17,515 --> 00:34:19,809 And, finally, President Reagan agreed 558 00:34:19,892 --> 00:34:22,895 to give them a limited number of stinger missiles, 559 00:34:22,978 --> 00:34:28,526 which were the state-of-the-art missiles to shoot down Soviet planes. 560 00:34:28,609 --> 00:34:30,736 They were trained to shoot these planes down 561 00:34:30,820 --> 00:34:33,280 as they were landing at Soviet airports. 562 00:34:34,448 --> 00:34:37,159 [Bearden] I brought stingers in, and in September 563 00:34:37,243 --> 00:34:38,994 we sent out our first team. 564 00:34:39,078 --> 00:34:42,123 Just a hunter-killer group outside of Jalalabad, 565 00:34:42,206 --> 00:34:45,334 waiting for a flight of Soviet MI-24 Deltas 566 00:34:45,417 --> 00:34:48,546 to come in from Kabul flying to Jalalabad. 567 00:34:48,629 --> 00:34:52,049 And our guys popped up and boom, boom, boom. 568 00:34:52,133 --> 00:34:56,762 The gunner fired and went just like an arc across the sky, 569 00:34:56,846 --> 00:34:59,140 trailing that white plume behind it, 570 00:34:59,223 --> 00:35:02,726 and popped the first helicopter, and then boom, boom, boom. 571 00:35:03,310 --> 00:35:07,356 So after that, the morale of the Afghan resistance 572 00:35:07,439 --> 00:35:10,818 went from patiently waiting for martyrdom 573 00:35:10,901 --> 00:35:14,530 to, you know, "Patience, my ass. Let's go out and make some trouble." 574 00:35:15,114 --> 00:35:16,073 It worked. 575 00:35:16,157 --> 00:35:20,494 The Soviets never had a good day from when we got the stinger in 576 00:35:21,162 --> 00:35:22,496 until they left. 577 00:35:22,580 --> 00:35:24,957 That was it. The war changed. 578 00:35:25,040 --> 00:35:30,045 [reporter 1] The last Soviet soldiers left Afghanistan after nine years of war. 579 00:35:30,129 --> 00:35:32,715 Nine years of occupation and death. 580 00:35:32,798 --> 00:35:35,259 At least 15,000 Soviets were killed, 581 00:35:35,342 --> 00:35:38,804 along with many thousands of Afghan rebels and civilians. 582 00:35:38,888 --> 00:35:42,183 [reporter 2] On the tanks, the soldiers waved and smiled and shouted. 583 00:35:42,766 --> 00:35:45,311 They were leaving and they were relieved. 584 00:35:46,020 --> 00:35:50,691 [Bearden] I actually had gone in that morning to be on Afghan soil 585 00:35:50,774 --> 00:35:52,610 for when the Soviets left. 586 00:35:52,693 --> 00:35:55,946 It was purely symbolic, but I was there. 587 00:35:56,030 --> 00:35:59,867 They left, I came back, turned out my light that night, 588 00:35:59,950 --> 00:36:05,706 and that was my message to the KGB, a little over a kilometer away: 589 00:36:05,789 --> 00:36:07,750 "Game over, guys. You lost." 590 00:36:10,044 --> 00:36:13,839 [Rashid] It became a kind of common assessment in the Muslim world 591 00:36:13,923 --> 00:36:16,926 that Muslim armies, led by the brave mujahideen, 592 00:36:17,009 --> 00:36:19,845 had actually defeated the Soviets. 593 00:36:23,224 --> 00:36:25,893 [Hekmatyar, in Arabic] My tears flowed. 594 00:36:28,187 --> 00:36:31,690 Even when I was praying, I was still crying. 595 00:36:31,774 --> 00:36:38,656 For two days, I kept crying. 596 00:36:39,657 --> 00:36:44,078 It was like I had achieved one of my biggest dreams unexpectedly, 597 00:36:44,161 --> 00:36:48,457 and before it was supposed to happen. 598 00:36:49,875 --> 00:36:55,047 I achieved my biggest dream 599 00:36:56,298 --> 00:36:59,551 that the last occupier soldier had left the country. 600 00:36:59,635 --> 00:37:02,471 I did not expect that it would happen that soon. 601 00:37:02,554 --> 00:37:06,517 I was sure. I believed that the Soviets will be defeated in the country. 602 00:37:06,600 --> 00:37:07,851 But not this soon. 603 00:37:09,186 --> 00:37:10,813 That is how I felt. 604 00:37:14,066 --> 00:37:17,361 [Bearden] Hekmatyar believed that sooner or later I'd have him killed. 605 00:37:18,112 --> 00:37:21,240 The last meeting I had with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar… 606 00:37:21,865 --> 00:37:23,742 you know, he said, "You've come here to kill me." 607 00:37:24,702 --> 00:37:26,161 And I said, 608 00:37:26,245 --> 00:37:30,499 "No, engineer. I'm not going to kill you… today." 609 00:37:31,792 --> 00:37:33,502 [fanfare playing] 610 00:37:34,378 --> 00:37:37,298 [Hoffman] Remember what it was like in the United States in the early 1990s. 611 00:37:37,381 --> 00:37:38,841 We were triumphant. 612 00:37:38,924 --> 00:37:40,926 President Bush, the first President Bush, 613 00:37:41,010 --> 00:37:43,429 was inaugurating what was gonna be a new world order 614 00:37:43,512 --> 00:37:45,097 that would spread democracy 615 00:37:45,180 --> 00:37:48,058 and the magnificence of the Western liberal state 616 00:37:48,142 --> 00:37:50,394 and capitalism throughout the world. 617 00:37:51,061 --> 00:37:52,479 So we weren't paying attention. 618 00:37:52,563 --> 00:37:55,983 I mean, we were fixated on the world through our eyes. 619 00:37:56,066 --> 00:38:00,779 One that was democratic, that was also materialistic as well. 620 00:38:02,823 --> 00:38:06,452 We failed to understand and to comprehend the power of religion. 621 00:38:06,535 --> 00:38:11,206 So we didn't understand what had happened in Afghanistan was not the closing act 622 00:38:11,290 --> 00:38:14,626 but a prelude to something far more serious and more consequential. 623 00:38:15,753 --> 00:38:19,131 Especially after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. 624 00:38:19,757 --> 00:38:21,550 Iraq invaded Kuwait this morning, 625 00:38:21,633 --> 00:38:25,679 a perfectly executed invasion that caught the world by surprise. 626 00:38:25,763 --> 00:38:27,306 The attack coming just hours 627 00:38:27,389 --> 00:38:31,435 after Iraq broke off talks with Kuwait over disputed oil fields. 628 00:38:32,061 --> 00:38:34,897 [Hoffman] The United States and United Kingdom, amongst other countries, 629 00:38:34,980 --> 00:38:39,026 immediately responded to Saddam Hussein and Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, 630 00:38:39,109 --> 00:38:43,697 by dispatching warships and ground forces to protect Saudi Arabia 631 00:38:43,781 --> 00:38:46,492 and to safeguard the rest of the Arabian Peninsula 632 00:38:46,575 --> 00:38:50,579 from any attempt by Iraq to expand its control 633 00:38:50,662 --> 00:38:53,082 over the world's oil supplies. 634 00:38:57,044 --> 00:38:58,587 [man] When I came to the FBI, 635 00:38:58,670 --> 00:39:04,343 terrorist groups were something that I was studying. 636 00:39:04,426 --> 00:39:09,098 I was really interested in groups like Hamas, groups like Hezbollah, 637 00:39:09,181 --> 00:39:12,101 groups like PIJ, Palestinian Islamic Jihad. 638 00:39:12,184 --> 00:39:17,231 And this weird guy who gives all these different interviews. 639 00:39:17,731 --> 00:39:20,359 [interviewer] What are your future plans? 640 00:39:23,070 --> 00:39:26,281 [interpreter] You'll see them and hear about them in the media. 641 00:39:27,449 --> 00:39:28,450 God willing. 642 00:39:31,120 --> 00:39:33,038 [Soufan] Who is he? What's his intention? 643 00:39:33,122 --> 00:39:36,750 And when you talk to people in the US government at the time, 644 00:39:36,834 --> 00:39:39,378 most of them tell you, "Ah, he's just a financier." 645 00:39:39,461 --> 00:39:42,881 "He finances Islamic causes around the world." 646 00:39:42,965 --> 00:39:45,175 But there was something more sinister to him. 647 00:39:47,803 --> 00:39:53,475 Osama bin Laden had a lot of difficulties trying to explain to his followers 648 00:39:53,559 --> 00:39:57,146 his religious justification of fighting the United States. 649 00:39:57,229 --> 00:40:01,024 After all, the United States gave the mujahideen aid, 650 00:40:01,108 --> 00:40:05,446 helped the Afghani people defeat the Soviet communists. 651 00:40:07,281 --> 00:40:09,575 When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, 652 00:40:09,658 --> 00:40:13,203 it was a wake-up call for people like Osama bin Laden. 653 00:40:13,287 --> 00:40:15,581 They said, "See? We told you." 654 00:40:15,664 --> 00:40:19,418 "The United States wanted to invade Muslim lands." 655 00:40:19,501 --> 00:40:23,213 "They wanted to invade the lands of the two holy places, 656 00:40:23,297 --> 00:40:27,676 to steal the oil and steal the wealth of the Muslims." 657 00:40:30,137 --> 00:40:32,806 [Hoffman] This solidified in Osama bin Laden's mind 658 00:40:32,890 --> 00:40:35,309 that the United States was no different from the Soviet Union 659 00:40:35,392 --> 00:40:38,604 and was, through the ruse of protecting Saudi Arabia, 660 00:40:38,687 --> 00:40:42,191 attempting to subjugate Muslim peoples 661 00:40:42,274 --> 00:40:46,737 and also to seize control of the Muslims' most precious natural resource: 662 00:40:46,820 --> 00:40:50,782 its oil and natural gas reserves in that region of the world. 663 00:40:51,283 --> 00:40:54,912 He portrayed himself as the lone man, 664 00:40:54,995 --> 00:40:57,748 the person deeply devoted to his religion 665 00:40:57,831 --> 00:41:02,085 who was standing up against this cultural tide of homogeneity, 666 00:41:02,169 --> 00:41:05,380 of Western influence and dominance, and saying, "Enough!" 667 00:41:05,881 --> 00:41:09,426 "We have our own beliefs, our own way of living, 668 00:41:09,510 --> 00:41:12,513 and we reject that, and you are trying to impose it on us." 669 00:41:12,596 --> 00:41:15,766 "Therefore, we have no choice but to fight and to strike back." 670 00:41:17,518 --> 00:41:22,689 [Soufan] He decided to declare jihad on the United States. 671 00:41:24,316 --> 00:41:28,904 He thought that this is his opportunity to wake up the Muslim world, 672 00:41:28,987 --> 00:41:34,409 and they need to start thinking about defeating the other remaining superpower. 673 00:41:39,039 --> 00:41:41,041 [dramatic music plays] 674 00:41:42,501 --> 00:41:44,878 [police sirens wailing distantly] 675 00:41:50,384 --> 00:41:52,511 [David Dinkins] At approximately 12:15 p.m. 676 00:41:52,594 --> 00:41:55,764 there was a large explosion at the World Trade Center, 677 00:41:55,847 --> 00:41:58,016 which caused the collapse of several floors 678 00:41:58,100 --> 00:42:01,186 in the basement of the parking level beneath Tower One. 679 00:42:01,270 --> 00:42:03,480 [reporter] They stream from the stairway by the hundreds. 680 00:42:03,564 --> 00:42:07,776 The joyful end of a two-hour journey down the smoke-filled staircase, 681 00:42:07,859 --> 00:42:09,987 staggering, coughing. 682 00:42:10,070 --> 00:42:13,949 Five are known dead at this point, more than 200 hurt in the blast 683 00:42:14,032 --> 00:42:17,160 that rocked the nation's second tallest building. 684 00:42:18,537 --> 00:42:20,414 [Hoffman] The first World Trade Center bombing 685 00:42:20,497 --> 00:42:22,165 was really independent of al-Qaeda, 686 00:42:22,249 --> 00:42:25,419 even though al-Qaeda had been formed five years before. 687 00:42:26,128 --> 00:42:29,339 That's not to say it was completely unconnected to al-Qaeda. 688 00:42:29,423 --> 00:42:32,593 Al-Qaeda was not involved in any active sense. 689 00:42:32,676 --> 00:42:36,388 Al-Qaeda, at that stage, was still plotting and planning. 690 00:42:38,432 --> 00:42:42,102 It was an operation carried out by acolytes or followers 691 00:42:42,185 --> 00:42:44,730 of the Blind Sheikh, Abdel-Rahman, 692 00:42:44,813 --> 00:42:49,026 who bin Laden counted as one of his spiritual mentors as well. 693 00:42:50,652 --> 00:42:52,029 [Soufan] Omar Abdel-Rahman, 694 00:42:52,112 --> 00:42:55,157 he was able to escape Egypt and come to the United States, 695 00:42:55,240 --> 00:43:00,037 because people in the US government believed that this guy is on our side. 696 00:43:00,120 --> 00:43:04,458 This guy fought against the Soviets, helped to defeat the Soviets. 697 00:43:05,375 --> 00:43:09,963 So there is no way he is gonna have any animosity towards the United States. 698 00:43:10,047 --> 00:43:11,673 They were wrong. 699 00:43:14,217 --> 00:43:16,303 [Hoffman] We know that Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, 700 00:43:16,386 --> 00:43:20,641 the mastermind behind the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, 701 00:43:20,724 --> 00:43:23,769 had sought to topple one tower onto the other 702 00:43:23,852 --> 00:43:26,772 with a view of killing 60,000 people. 703 00:43:26,855 --> 00:43:29,483 He was thinking on a vastly different scale 704 00:43:29,566 --> 00:43:31,652 than terrorists had thought before. 705 00:43:32,152 --> 00:43:34,154 And so was his uncle, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. 706 00:43:37,699 --> 00:43:40,202 [Soufan] At the very beginning, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed 707 00:43:40,285 --> 00:43:42,579 really wanted the World Trade Center down. 708 00:43:43,163 --> 00:43:46,416 Ramzi Yousef, his relative, when he got caught, 709 00:43:46,917 --> 00:43:50,671 they put him on a helicopter, bringing him to New York so he can go to jail. 710 00:43:51,755 --> 00:43:54,007 They showed him the World Trade Center 711 00:43:54,091 --> 00:43:56,301 and they said, "See? It's still up." 712 00:43:57,469 --> 00:44:01,056 And he said, "If I had more money, it won't be." 713 00:44:01,807 --> 00:44:03,809 [Hoffman] What underscored, I think, 714 00:44:03,892 --> 00:44:08,230 how serious the 1993 World Trade Center attack was, 715 00:44:08,313 --> 00:44:11,566 was the fact that it was not an isolated one-off phenomenon. 716 00:44:11,650 --> 00:44:15,779 Because the following June, in June 1993, another plot was uncovered. 717 00:44:19,783 --> 00:44:22,828 [man] Most of my career, I was an NCIS special agent. 718 00:44:24,371 --> 00:44:27,582 Went through the ranks up to the deputy assistant director level. 719 00:44:27,666 --> 00:44:30,293 And in that capacity, my primary responsibility 720 00:44:30,377 --> 00:44:32,504 was threat warnings for the Navy, Marine Corps. 721 00:44:34,005 --> 00:44:36,675 The cell that I was working against 722 00:44:36,758 --> 00:44:41,221 was seeking to assassinate Hosni Mubarak, the president of Egypt, 723 00:44:41,304 --> 00:44:43,223 and blow up the Holland and Lincoln tunnels, 724 00:44:43,306 --> 00:44:44,891 plant bombs in those tunnels. 725 00:44:44,975 --> 00:44:48,186 They were going to shoot the guards at the federal building, 726 00:44:48,270 --> 00:44:49,521 26 Federal Plaza, 727 00:44:49,604 --> 00:44:53,316 drive a truck underneath with explosives in it to blow up the Federal Building… 728 00:44:54,151 --> 00:44:58,071 and looking at other landmarks in New York City to attack us. 729 00:44:59,239 --> 00:45:02,951 [reporter] Members of a joint terrorism task force seized barrels of evidence 730 00:45:03,034 --> 00:45:05,036 and arrested eight people in New York and New Jersey. 731 00:45:05,120 --> 00:45:08,999 The suspects are said to be linked to Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman. 732 00:45:09,082 --> 00:45:11,877 [Soufan] They took the cell down at the last minute. 733 00:45:12,669 --> 00:45:19,259 And there is CCTV videos that were put on trial as evidence, as exhibits. 734 00:45:19,342 --> 00:45:21,428 And you see one guy praying… 735 00:45:22,012 --> 00:45:26,725 and next to him, one guy literally mixing the bomb. 736 00:45:26,808 --> 00:45:29,060 So they stopped them at the last minute. 737 00:45:31,313 --> 00:45:35,776 [Fallon] We wound up bringing to justice ten suspects. 738 00:45:36,985 --> 00:45:38,779 [ominous music plays] 739 00:45:39,529 --> 00:45:42,365 [Soufan] The FBI and other folks in the intelligence community 740 00:45:42,449 --> 00:45:44,743 start focusing on this jihadi threat. 741 00:45:44,826 --> 00:45:49,164 And Osama bin Laden, by then, was based in Sudan. 742 00:45:49,998 --> 00:45:55,670 He was openly declaring jihad and declaring war on the United States. 743 00:45:56,338 --> 00:45:59,049 [Bearden] The Sudanese come to the Americans, say, "You want him?" 744 00:45:59,132 --> 00:46:04,054 And we said, "We don't have enough on him to do anything, so no, we don't want him." 745 00:46:04,137 --> 00:46:08,809 The Sudanese then came and said, "How about he goes to Afghanistan? 746 00:46:09,476 --> 00:46:11,478 And the Saudis and Americans said… 747 00:46:12,646 --> 00:46:14,147 "What a wonderful idea!" 748 00:46:14,773 --> 00:46:18,318 "That's so far away. What kind of trouble can he get into there?" 749 00:46:18,401 --> 00:46:20,403 [dramatic music plays] 750 00:46:27,077 --> 00:46:30,747 [Bearden] After we left Afghanistan in 1989, 751 00:46:30,831 --> 00:46:33,375 all of those parties that we dealt with, 752 00:46:33,458 --> 00:46:37,170 the Seven Sisters, began jockeying for position. 753 00:46:37,254 --> 00:46:40,841 In effect, we walked away. 754 00:46:41,341 --> 00:46:45,178 There was probably no thought given 755 00:46:45,262 --> 00:46:49,599 to aftercare in the case of a victory, 756 00:46:49,683 --> 00:46:51,309 and it was a failed state. 757 00:46:53,645 --> 00:46:55,647 [speaking Arabic] 758 00:46:58,859 --> 00:47:03,697 [Rashid] And so what we saw was the withdrawal of the Soviets in '89, 759 00:47:04,197 --> 00:47:07,450 and with no political settlement inside Afghanistan, 760 00:47:07,534 --> 00:47:09,536 it immediately led to the civil war. 761 00:47:11,913 --> 00:47:14,541 Kabul was utterly destroyed in the civil war. 762 00:47:18,503 --> 00:47:20,046 [Soufan] When he went to Afghanistan, 763 00:47:20,130 --> 00:47:24,634 there was a new group in Afghanistan that was winning the battle 764 00:47:24,718 --> 00:47:29,723 that took place after the Soviets pull out among all the mujahideen 765 00:47:29,806 --> 00:47:31,975 and all the different warlords. 766 00:47:33,351 --> 00:47:35,353 That group was called the Taliban. 767 00:47:35,437 --> 00:47:37,439 [ominous music plays] 768 00:47:40,358 --> 00:47:42,861 [Rashid] They emerged as this force which would do good, 769 00:47:42,944 --> 00:47:46,072 and do better, and bring peace to Afghanistan, 770 00:47:46,156 --> 00:47:48,241 which essentially, in the beginning, they did. 771 00:47:51,202 --> 00:47:55,415 Because when they came to Kandahar, they drove out all the petty warlords. 772 00:47:56,708 --> 00:48:00,545 [man] Afghanistan in the 1990s was-- It's hard to describe. 773 00:48:01,421 --> 00:48:06,134 It was another world. It was completely and utterly destroyed. 774 00:48:07,260 --> 00:48:10,138 The Taliban didn't let foreigners in very often. 775 00:48:11,306 --> 00:48:15,894 I got lucky. I got a visa and I drove in. I drove to the capital. 776 00:48:15,977 --> 00:48:18,980 All the roads are blown up, cratered. 777 00:48:19,064 --> 00:48:22,025 There are Soviet armored vehicles, 778 00:48:22,108 --> 00:48:26,529 tanks overturned, broken, rusty everywhere. 779 00:48:26,613 --> 00:48:28,281 Like, all along the road to Kabul. 780 00:48:28,365 --> 00:48:32,285 You know, the war had ended ten years before and nobody cleaned it up. 781 00:48:32,911 --> 00:48:35,205 I went to my hotel. The windows were gone. 782 00:48:35,288 --> 00:48:37,332 There was no running water. There was no electricity. 783 00:48:38,792 --> 00:48:40,126 You just didn't see women. 784 00:48:40,210 --> 00:48:42,837 Women were not allowed to walk unaccompanied… 785 00:48:43,463 --> 00:48:47,592 you know, either by their husband or a male member of their family, alone. 786 00:48:48,259 --> 00:48:50,178 And so occasionally you would see a woman, 787 00:48:50,261 --> 00:48:53,264 and if she were outside, she had a head-to-toe burqa on 788 00:48:53,348 --> 00:48:54,975 so you couldn't see her face. 789 00:48:55,058 --> 00:48:58,311 And girls were banned from going to school. 790 00:49:01,856 --> 00:49:05,568 The Taliban were kind of the meanest, toughest guys in town. 791 00:49:05,652 --> 00:49:07,362 They brought the civil war to an end, 792 00:49:07,445 --> 00:49:10,073 but they had imposed this kind of draconian, 793 00:49:10,156 --> 00:49:13,118 medieval kind of peace on the society. 794 00:49:13,702 --> 00:49:14,869 The first night I got there, 795 00:49:14,953 --> 00:49:18,415 there was a knock on my door from one of the Taliban guys, and he said, 796 00:49:18,498 --> 00:49:23,503 "We would like you to come tomorrow to an amputation and an execution." 797 00:49:25,588 --> 00:49:29,801 So I and a couple other reporters, we went to the Kabul sports stadium, 798 00:49:29,884 --> 00:49:33,138 and they brought us down to the midfield on the soccer field. 799 00:49:33,763 --> 00:49:35,640 I mean, the amputation was a kind of warm-up act, 800 00:49:35,724 --> 00:49:39,185 and they did that, and cut off the guy's hand 801 00:49:39,269 --> 00:49:40,478 right in front of everybody. 802 00:49:40,562 --> 00:49:42,647 But then they brought the guy in to be executed, 803 00:49:42,731 --> 00:49:46,359 and it was, you know, it was like-- It was like something out of a nightmare. 804 00:49:51,489 --> 00:49:53,700 He was blindfolded. They set him on midfield. 805 00:49:53,783 --> 00:49:57,037 He apparently had murdered someone in an irrigation dispute. 806 00:49:57,120 --> 00:49:59,039 The family of the victim was there. 807 00:49:59,122 --> 00:50:00,999 His family was there. 808 00:50:01,082 --> 00:50:04,544 And his family, they were sobbing and they were begging for mercy. 809 00:50:04,627 --> 00:50:06,755 "Please spare him. Please spare him." 810 00:50:06,838 --> 00:50:09,424 And the family of the victim was saying, "No, no, no." 811 00:50:09,507 --> 00:50:14,971 And the Taliban handed a rifle to the brother of the victim. 812 00:50:15,472 --> 00:50:17,182 And he walked out to midfield, 813 00:50:17,265 --> 00:50:21,311 and all the while they're reading the Qur'an into a loudspeaker. 814 00:50:22,187 --> 00:50:25,315 The brother takes the rifle and shoots the guy. 815 00:50:25,815 --> 00:50:29,277 I mean, he kind of falls over, they cart him off, and that was it. 816 00:50:31,196 --> 00:50:33,198 And that's what it was like there. 817 00:50:38,369 --> 00:50:41,581 [man, in Arabic] The rule of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan 818 00:50:41,664 --> 00:50:42,957 in Afghanistan 819 00:50:43,041 --> 00:50:48,046 lasted almost for about seven years from beginning to end. 820 00:50:48,129 --> 00:50:53,843 The people of Afghanistan have some good memories of that period. 821 00:50:53,927 --> 00:50:58,932 I personally have the memory of security in my mind. 822 00:50:59,015 --> 00:51:03,186 Security prevailed throughout Afghanistan. 823 00:51:03,770 --> 00:51:10,527 Certainly no Afghan could have killed another person at that time, 824 00:51:10,610 --> 00:51:13,238 because of their personal animosities. 825 00:51:15,782 --> 00:51:18,576 [reporter] The Muslim extremists, known as the Taliban militia, 826 00:51:18,660 --> 00:51:23,123 have not only trampled on women's rights and banned most modern pleasures… 827 00:51:24,415 --> 00:51:28,169 since taking over most of Afghanistan, they have made it a haven 828 00:51:28,253 --> 00:51:30,463 for some of the world's most dangerous terrorists. 829 00:51:31,131 --> 00:51:33,133 [men singing in Arabic] 830 00:51:35,260 --> 00:51:36,177 [gunshot] 831 00:51:37,595 --> 00:51:40,014 [Rashid] Osama bin Laden had done a great deal 832 00:51:40,098 --> 00:51:42,934 for their ostensible leader, Mullah Omar, 833 00:51:43,017 --> 00:51:45,228 in strengthening Mullah Omar's position. 834 00:51:45,728 --> 00:51:50,066 Now what, of course, Mullah Omar may have made him promise to do 835 00:51:50,150 --> 00:51:54,112 was not to launch any attack on the Americans from Afghan soil. 836 00:51:54,195 --> 00:51:58,199 It was well known that Osama wouldn't be sitting idly by doing nothing. 837 00:51:59,576 --> 00:52:01,578 [Hoffman] On the eighth anniversary of the deployment 838 00:52:01,661 --> 00:52:03,872 of the first US troops to Saudi Arabia, 839 00:52:03,955 --> 00:52:09,294 bin Laden launched simultaneous attacks against the US embassies in East Africa. 840 00:52:09,377 --> 00:52:11,254 [ominous music plays] 841 00:52:11,337 --> 00:52:13,339 [police sirens wailing] 842 00:52:19,470 --> 00:52:21,472 [crying] 843 00:52:21,556 --> 00:52:23,349 [indistinct shouting] 844 00:52:34,027 --> 00:52:37,280 [Hoffman] The fact they were simultaneous attacks just ratcheted up that threat 845 00:52:37,363 --> 00:52:40,700 that terrorists could strike at more than one place at one time. 846 00:52:42,785 --> 00:52:47,457 [Bill Clinton] These acts of terrorist violence are abhorrent. They are inhuman. 847 00:52:47,957 --> 00:52:51,377 We will use all the means at our disposal… 848 00:52:52,128 --> 00:52:54,881 to bring those responsible to justice… 849 00:52:55,548 --> 00:52:58,426 no matter what, or how long it takes. 850 00:53:03,514 --> 00:53:07,060 [Soufan] We knew that al-Qaeda is not just going to pack and go home. 851 00:53:07,143 --> 00:53:08,895 They're going to try to do something else. 852 00:53:10,063 --> 00:53:12,565 We had intelligence that said they were planning 853 00:53:12,649 --> 00:53:15,276 to bomb a few hotels in Jordan. 854 00:53:15,360 --> 00:53:18,821 Also, they were planning to assassinate the Pope, John Paul II, 855 00:53:18,905 --> 00:53:21,324 when he was doing baptism on the Jordan River, 856 00:53:21,407 --> 00:53:27,497 and attack pilgrims coming from Israel to Jordan on the land border. 857 00:53:27,580 --> 00:53:33,253 So that was a huge plot, and literally we took the whole cell down. 858 00:53:35,046 --> 00:53:39,384 [interviewer] Do you expect, worry, that there will be an incident of terrorism 859 00:53:39,467 --> 00:53:41,803 before the first of the year? 860 00:53:42,971 --> 00:53:47,850 We are on a heightened state of alert, and we're doing a lot of work on this. 861 00:53:48,476 --> 00:53:51,104 But I would say to the American people 862 00:53:51,187 --> 00:53:54,482 they should go on about their business and celebrate the holidays as they would. 863 00:53:54,565 --> 00:53:56,567 [ominous music plays] 864 00:53:58,194 --> 00:54:02,532 [anchor] Pentagon officials tell NBC News that at least four US sailors were killed, 865 00:54:02,615 --> 00:54:04,993 and as many as 30 more wounded 866 00:54:05,076 --> 00:54:10,081 when a suicide bomber attacked the US Navy Destroyer USS Cole. 867 00:54:10,707 --> 00:54:12,542 [Fallon] A small boat, a skiff, 868 00:54:12,625 --> 00:54:17,255 with two al-Qaeda members in it, came about midship of the USS Cole, 869 00:54:17,338 --> 00:54:20,174 when it was at a fuel dolphin in Aden, Yemen. 870 00:54:21,175 --> 00:54:23,052 Midship is about the midway point, 871 00:54:23,136 --> 00:54:25,847 which happened to be where the cafeteria was. 872 00:54:26,347 --> 00:54:28,808 A huge explosion, it did quite a bit of damage, 873 00:54:28,891 --> 00:54:33,646 and 17 sailors were killed that day in Aden, Yemen. 874 00:54:40,987 --> 00:54:44,532 The system was already blinking red that summer with threat warnings. 875 00:54:46,200 --> 00:54:50,788 We were anticipating some type of attack somewhere. 876 00:54:50,872 --> 00:54:53,916 We didn't know in what form it would come. We didn't know where it would be. 877 00:54:54,959 --> 00:54:56,878 You're getting so much data. 878 00:54:56,961 --> 00:55:00,715 So, you know, if you get one thread of intel, 879 00:55:00,798 --> 00:55:03,217 it could be an anomaly, could be fabricated, could be false, 880 00:55:03,301 --> 00:55:05,928 could be some overheard conversation, 881 00:55:06,012 --> 00:55:08,348 and it might not be validated. 882 00:55:08,431 --> 00:55:13,478 What we were seeing was a tremendous amount of intelligence 883 00:55:13,561 --> 00:55:17,482 that would be indications and warnings that there was something going on. 884 00:55:18,775 --> 00:55:21,819 [Hoffman] In any government, there's always bureaucratic rivalries. 885 00:55:21,903 --> 00:55:24,030 They often have deep historical roots. 886 00:55:24,113 --> 00:55:28,451 They're often played out on very personal levels. 887 00:55:28,534 --> 00:55:32,288 Countering terrorism was something done by a multiplicity of agencies 888 00:55:32,872 --> 00:55:34,040 that did it well, 889 00:55:34,123 --> 00:55:37,710 but didn't necessarily feel the need to cooperate with one another. 890 00:55:40,880 --> 00:55:44,092 You have to think about the late 1990s in the United States. 891 00:55:44,175 --> 00:55:47,845 We were enmeshed in following every muscle movement 892 00:55:47,929 --> 00:55:50,807 of the Monica Lewinsky and President Clinton scandal. 893 00:55:50,890 --> 00:55:55,269 This was a time when the profound fissures between Republicans and Democrats 894 00:55:55,353 --> 00:55:57,814 were developing in many different ways. 895 00:55:57,897 --> 00:56:00,817 So we were very absorbed with what was going on in the United States, 896 00:56:00,900 --> 00:56:03,152 and oblivious to some of these turf rivalries 897 00:56:03,236 --> 00:56:07,448 between agencies or personal enmities between key individuals. 898 00:56:07,532 --> 00:56:13,454 And all along, you have in the background bin Laden carefully, meticulously, 899 00:56:13,538 --> 00:56:16,332 slowly putting together all the pieces 900 00:56:16,958 --> 00:56:21,504 to implement what would be a history-changing terrorist operation. 901 00:56:22,004 --> 00:56:24,382 [ominous music plays] 902 00:56:36,561 --> 00:56:40,565 [man] We have several situations going on here. It's escalating big-time. 903 00:56:50,741 --> 00:56:52,452 [dispatcher] American dispatch, Jim McDonald. 904 00:56:52,535 --> 00:56:55,121 [man] Indianapolis Center, did you get a hold of American 77? 905 00:56:55,204 --> 00:56:57,123 [dispatcher] No. But we have an unconfirmed report 906 00:56:57,206 --> 00:56:59,250 that a second airplane hit the World Trade Center. 907 00:57:01,627 --> 00:57:04,380 You know we lost American 11 to a hijacking? 908 00:57:05,965 --> 00:57:09,135 -[man] American 11? -[dispatcher] Yes. We were hijacked. 909 00:57:09,844 --> 00:57:11,804 It was a Boston-to-LA flight. 910 00:57:12,388 --> 00:57:15,475 And 77 is a Dulles-LA flight. 911 00:57:19,854 --> 00:57:22,064 [air traffic controller] American 77 was over… 912 00:57:22,148 --> 00:57:24,150 was just west of Charleston, West Virginia. 913 00:57:24,317 --> 00:57:26,402 We now believe that aircraft may have been hijacked. 914 00:57:29,739 --> 00:57:31,908 [Nasypany] He's heading towards Washington. 915 00:57:31,991 --> 00:57:35,203 Foxy, scramble Langley. Head them towards the Washington area. 916 00:57:35,286 --> 00:57:36,120 [man] Roger that. 917 00:57:37,705 --> 00:57:40,082 [man] Indy, Indianapolis Center was working this guy. 918 00:57:40,166 --> 00:57:41,000 [woman] What guy? 919 00:57:41,083 --> 00:57:43,085 -[air traffic controller] American 77. -[woman] Okay. 920 00:57:43,169 --> 00:57:45,338 [air traffic controller] At flight level three five zero, 921 00:57:45,421 --> 00:57:47,423 however, they lost radar with him, 922 00:57:47,507 --> 00:57:49,967 they lost contact with him, they lost everything, 923 00:57:50,051 --> 00:57:52,929 and they don't have any idea where he is or what happened. 924 00:57:53,513 --> 00:57:57,475 [man] Our latest report the aircraft VFR six miles southeast of the White House. 925 00:57:57,558 --> 00:57:59,352 [woman] Six miles southeast of the White House? 926 00:57:59,435 --> 00:58:01,604 [Boston ATC] Yep. East. He's moving away? 927 00:58:01,687 --> 00:58:03,689 [man] Yep. Aircraft is moving away. 928 00:58:03,773 --> 00:58:05,858 -[woman] Moving away from the White House? -[man] Yeah. 929 00:58:07,693 --> 00:58:10,530 [Nasypany] The White House. Get the fighters there. Jesus, Fox. 930 00:58:13,991 --> 00:58:19,705 [woman] So there were approximately 16 of us in this staff meeting, 931 00:58:19,789 --> 00:58:21,332 and when it got to me, 932 00:58:21,415 --> 00:58:25,878 there was the loudest noise I had ever heard. 933 00:58:25,962 --> 00:58:27,213 And it got dark. 934 00:58:27,296 --> 00:58:29,173 [ominous music plays]