1 00:00:02,654 --> 00:00:04,526 [siren wails] 2 00:00:04,613 --> 00:00:07,050 - Car bombs exploded outside the U.S. embassies 3 00:00:07,137 --> 00:00:09,748 in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. 4 00:00:09,835 --> 00:00:12,142 - It was an attack against the U.S. embassy. 5 00:00:12,229 --> 00:00:14,449 It's the purview of the FBI to go over there. 6 00:00:14,536 --> 00:00:17,278 It was decided that we will be going. 7 00:00:17,365 --> 00:00:18,540 - We knew we were walking into something 8 00:00:18,627 --> 00:00:21,456 that I don't think any of us had ever seen before. 9 00:00:21,543 --> 00:00:23,023 - There were tons of calls coming in, 10 00:00:23,110 --> 00:00:25,982 but this one lead comes in, said I've got an individual 11 00:00:26,069 --> 00:00:28,332 here who sort of stands out. 12 00:00:28,419 --> 00:00:30,595 - He's a surviving suicide bomber. 13 00:00:30,682 --> 00:00:33,511 He's supposed to be dead, and he has no exit strategy. 14 00:00:33,598 --> 00:00:36,471 I said, "Write down the first number you called 15 00:00:36,558 --> 00:00:39,126 when you got back to the hotel," and he writes it. 16 00:00:39,213 --> 00:00:41,954 - The last phone call made from this location 17 00:00:42,042 --> 00:00:44,870 is half hour before the bomb goes off. 18 00:00:44,957 --> 00:00:46,350 And I'm like, "Holy crap. 19 00:00:46,437 --> 00:00:48,222 We got to find that house." 20 00:00:51,138 --> 00:00:54,010 - Osama bin Laden, you're gonna hear a lot of talk about him. 21 00:00:54,097 --> 00:00:55,577 - The embassy bombings was 22 00:00:55,664 --> 00:00:59,059 al-Qaeda's first major attack against the West. 23 00:00:59,146 --> 00:01:01,017 - Terrorism is one of the greatest dangers 24 00:01:01,104 --> 00:01:04,194 we face in this new global era. 25 00:01:04,281 --> 00:01:06,153 - The bomb techs were like, "This place is loaded 26 00:01:06,240 --> 00:01:07,850 with TNT powder. 27 00:01:07,937 --> 00:01:10,244 This is where the bomb was made. 28 00:01:10,331 --> 00:01:12,202 - We had about 14 photographs in there 29 00:01:12,289 --> 00:01:14,248 of people we thought were involved. 30 00:01:14,335 --> 00:01:15,771 - This isn't a needle in a haystack. 31 00:01:15,858 --> 00:01:17,642 This is a needle in a pile of needles. 32 00:01:17,729 --> 00:01:18,904 - And I said, "We will not stop 33 00:01:18,991 --> 00:01:20,428 until we get each and every one of you." 34 00:01:20,515 --> 00:01:22,560 - I wanna know why all these people had to die. 35 00:01:22,646 --> 00:01:24,084 Why did these people have to die? 36 00:01:28,479 --> 00:01:29,959 [dramatic music] 37 00:01:30,045 --> 00:01:33,180 - In the FBI, we make a lot of headlines. 38 00:01:33,267 --> 00:01:36,096 ♪ ♪ 39 00:01:36,183 --> 00:01:37,880 Drug busts, 40 00:01:37,967 --> 00:01:40,491 mob stings, 41 00:01:40,578 --> 00:01:42,276 terrorist takedowns. 42 00:01:42,363 --> 00:01:44,452 - Get down! Get down! 43 00:01:44,539 --> 00:01:46,758 - We understand why people want to tell stories about us. 44 00:01:46,845 --> 00:01:47,803 - Mark it. 45 00:01:47,890 --> 00:01:49,326 - Freeze! - FBI. 46 00:01:49,413 --> 00:01:51,023 - FBI! - Action! 47 00:01:51,110 --> 00:01:53,025 - But they don't know the half of it. 48 00:01:53,113 --> 00:01:54,636 [indistinct radio chatter] 49 00:01:54,723 --> 00:01:56,768 What really goes down, 50 00:01:56,854 --> 00:01:59,075 we save that for each other 51 00:01:59,162 --> 00:02:01,121 when we're talking agent-to-agent. 52 00:02:01,208 --> 00:02:04,080 ♪ ♪ 53 00:02:04,167 --> 00:02:07,344 This is "FBI True." 54 00:02:12,567 --> 00:02:15,483 [ominous music] 55 00:02:15,570 --> 00:02:19,835 ♪ ♪ 56 00:02:19,922 --> 00:02:22,011 - We know that a devastating attack had taken place 57 00:02:22,098 --> 00:02:25,362 at our embassies, and the embassies are gone. 58 00:02:25,449 --> 00:02:27,669 - The worst international terrorist incident 59 00:02:27,756 --> 00:02:29,236 on African soil. 60 00:02:31,542 --> 00:02:36,634 - 224 people died, including 12 Americans. 61 00:02:36,721 --> 00:02:38,027 - We have split into two teams, a Nairobi team 62 00:02:38,114 --> 00:02:39,594 and a Dar es Salaam team. 63 00:02:39,680 --> 00:02:41,291 - I remember saying to myself, 64 00:02:41,378 --> 00:02:44,512 "He's a surviving suicide bomber. 65 00:02:44,599 --> 00:02:47,471 He's supposed to be dead, and he has no exit strategy." 66 00:02:47,558 --> 00:02:49,473 He had to call somebody. 67 00:02:49,560 --> 00:02:51,867 - There's only two places in the whole country of Kenya 68 00:02:51,954 --> 00:02:54,174 that call the 578 number in Yemen. 69 00:02:54,261 --> 00:02:56,567 - So you're looking at the data information, 70 00:02:56,654 --> 00:03:02,704 and the last number to call the Yemen number 71 00:03:02,791 --> 00:03:04,140 comes from this location... - Comes from this house. 72 00:03:04,227 --> 00:03:06,751 - That you're showing me right now. 73 00:03:06,838 --> 00:03:08,710 - We get there, and it's this big, beautiful-- 74 00:03:08,797 --> 00:03:10,146 they called it Embassy Row. 75 00:03:10,233 --> 00:03:11,713 This is where all the diplomats lived, 76 00:03:11,800 --> 00:03:15,499 and it's 43 Rundu Estates. 77 00:03:15,586 --> 00:03:18,981 And you can see this is the gate, big black gate, 78 00:03:19,068 --> 00:03:20,504 you know, iron-wrought gate, and we start talking. 79 00:03:20,591 --> 00:03:22,202 This is basically the caretaker 80 00:03:22,289 --> 00:03:24,029 of the property, the gardener. 81 00:03:24,116 --> 00:03:25,988 So I'm like, "Excuse me. Who lives here?" 82 00:03:26,075 --> 00:03:27,511 "Oh, well, nobody lives here." 83 00:03:27,598 --> 00:03:28,904 Now I'm like, "Crap. We got the wrong house." 84 00:03:28,991 --> 00:03:31,950 He goes, "Well, there were some people who lived here, 85 00:03:32,037 --> 00:03:33,517 a bunch of Arab guys." 86 00:03:33,603 --> 00:03:35,954 "Where are these guys?" "Oh, they left." 87 00:03:36,041 --> 00:03:37,608 Well, "when did they leave?" 88 00:03:37,695 --> 00:03:40,567 "The day of the big attack on the embassy, 89 00:03:40,655 --> 00:03:42,874 they left in two trucks. They never came back." 90 00:03:42,961 --> 00:03:44,702 I'm like, "Okay. 91 00:03:44,789 --> 00:03:47,618 Do you mind if we take a look around?" 92 00:03:47,704 --> 00:03:50,404 So we're able to bring special agent bomb technicians. 93 00:03:50,491 --> 00:03:52,710 They come over. As soon as they opened it up, 94 00:03:52,797 --> 00:03:54,451 the bomb techs were like, 95 00:03:54,538 --> 00:03:56,845 "This place is loaded with TNT powder. 96 00:03:56,932 --> 00:03:59,064 This is where the bomb was made." 97 00:03:59,151 --> 00:04:04,809 ♪ ♪ 98 00:04:04,896 --> 00:04:08,378 - So Abby, while this is going on, what's your role? 99 00:04:08,465 --> 00:04:10,685 - Now we know this is where they built the bombs. 100 00:04:10,772 --> 00:04:12,426 And so we're going around the neighborhood, 101 00:04:12,513 --> 00:04:14,123 knocking on doors with our Kenyan counterparts 102 00:04:14,210 --> 00:04:16,343 and saying, "Do you know this individual?" 103 00:04:18,432 --> 00:04:20,651 - I basically have a real sit-down with him 104 00:04:20,738 --> 00:04:22,914 the next morning, armed with a tremendous amount 105 00:04:23,001 --> 00:04:24,829 of information. 106 00:04:24,916 --> 00:04:27,267 In our initial discussions with this person, 107 00:04:27,354 --> 00:04:28,616 we're just calling him Khalid 108 00:04:28,703 --> 00:04:31,923 like it is on the paper in the hospital. 109 00:04:32,010 --> 00:04:33,838 So I start to lay out the stuff in front of him. 110 00:04:33,925 --> 00:04:36,276 Okay, we know that you lied to us about your clothes 111 00:04:36,363 --> 00:04:37,929 and the belt, et cetera. 112 00:04:38,016 --> 00:04:39,627 I put all the phone information right in front of him. 113 00:04:39,714 --> 00:04:43,326 And when he saw the picture of the house, 114 00:04:43,413 --> 00:04:45,807 that's when he said-- he's like, "Oh." 115 00:04:45,894 --> 00:04:48,070 He's like, "You guys got me." 116 00:04:48,157 --> 00:04:49,637 I said, "I don't care who got you or don't got you. 117 00:04:49,724 --> 00:04:51,552 "I wanna know why all these people had to die. 118 00:04:51,639 --> 00:04:52,988 Why did these people have to die?" 119 00:04:53,075 --> 00:04:55,947 [dark music] 120 00:04:56,034 --> 00:04:57,993 ♪ ♪ 121 00:04:58,080 --> 00:05:00,169 And he said, "Oh, you wanna blame that on me? 122 00:05:00,256 --> 00:05:02,432 "That's your fault. That's the American government's fault. 123 00:05:02,519 --> 00:05:04,739 "All your policy, all your views, 124 00:05:04,826 --> 00:05:07,611 that's what made us have to do this." 125 00:05:07,698 --> 00:05:09,831 And that's when I was like, "Oh, boy." 126 00:05:09,918 --> 00:05:11,572 You know, what did we really stumble into here? 127 00:05:11,659 --> 00:05:13,530 And then that's when he said, "Listen. 128 00:05:13,617 --> 00:05:16,707 "I want a promise from you all. 129 00:05:16,794 --> 00:05:19,188 "I'll tell you everything about Osama bin Laden. 130 00:05:19,275 --> 00:05:21,233 I'll tell you everything about al-Qaeda." 131 00:05:21,321 --> 00:05:22,757 "I want to stand trial in America 132 00:05:22,844 --> 00:05:25,716 because America is my enemy, not the Kenyans." 133 00:05:25,803 --> 00:05:27,152 And in my head, I said to myself, "Holy cow. 134 00:05:27,239 --> 00:05:28,457 "I've heard of bin Laden. 135 00:05:31,113 --> 00:05:33,332 But this al guy, this al-Qaeda guy, 136 00:05:33,420 --> 00:05:34,595 we gotta find him too. 137 00:05:34,682 --> 00:05:36,336 I don't know if anybody knows about him. 138 00:05:36,423 --> 00:05:38,207 It proved that I didn't know a lot about terrorism, 139 00:05:38,294 --> 00:05:40,209 but the embassy bombings was 140 00:05:40,296 --> 00:05:43,299 al-Qaeda's first major attack against the West. 141 00:05:43,386 --> 00:05:45,823 It was the vanguard mission. 142 00:05:45,909 --> 00:05:48,783 [tense music] 143 00:05:48,870 --> 00:05:50,524 ♪ ♪ 144 00:05:50,611 --> 00:05:52,874 He said, "Okay, first thing I have to say, my name isn't 145 00:05:52,961 --> 00:05:55,529 Khalid Salem bin Rashed, and I'm not from Yemen. 146 00:05:55,616 --> 00:05:59,402 "My real name is Mohamed Rashed Daoud al-'Owhali. 147 00:05:59,489 --> 00:06:03,711 I'm a very wealthy man from Saudi Arabia." 148 00:06:03,798 --> 00:06:05,669 - What are you thinking? - It was very surreal. 149 00:06:05,756 --> 00:06:09,020 And he went into incredible detail. 150 00:06:09,107 --> 00:06:11,806 They had been planning this since 1994. 151 00:06:11,893 --> 00:06:13,590 This wasn't something they put together on a napkin 152 00:06:13,677 --> 00:06:14,896 a couple nights before the attack. 153 00:06:17,638 --> 00:06:19,204 "Here's how I got to the camps," 154 00:06:19,291 --> 00:06:21,119 all the different training he did. 155 00:06:21,206 --> 00:06:22,512 "Then I met with bin Laden," 156 00:06:22,599 --> 00:06:25,167 and then boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. 157 00:06:25,254 --> 00:06:26,821 And then he's in Nairobi. 158 00:06:26,908 --> 00:06:30,128 What his role was to get the truck as close 159 00:06:30,215 --> 00:06:33,088 to the embassy as possible, how he had guns and grenades, 160 00:06:33,175 --> 00:06:36,700 and help get the truck as close as it could. 161 00:06:36,787 --> 00:06:38,615 But because he's outside of the truck 162 00:06:38,702 --> 00:06:39,834 when the bomb goes off... 163 00:06:39,921 --> 00:06:42,532 [siren wails] 164 00:06:45,622 --> 00:06:48,190 Instead of dying, he ends up in the hospital. 165 00:06:48,277 --> 00:06:50,540 And he has no escape plan. 166 00:06:50,627 --> 00:06:52,020 - So you guys are doing this interview. 167 00:06:52,107 --> 00:06:54,152 Abby's going out there and doing leads. 168 00:06:54,239 --> 00:06:55,893 - That's when we're narrowing down, 169 00:06:55,980 --> 00:06:58,983 this is an al-Qaeda operation, all the al-Qaeda hierarchy. 170 00:06:59,070 --> 00:07:01,159 So I think the people back in New York believe 171 00:07:01,246 --> 00:07:03,118 that this is an attack by bin Laden. 172 00:07:03,205 --> 00:07:05,947 He had already said he was gonna attack America. 173 00:07:06,034 --> 00:07:08,689 - Osama bin Laden--you're gonna hear a lot of talk about him-- 174 00:07:08,776 --> 00:07:11,779 he's this Saudi very wealthy millionaire 175 00:07:11,866 --> 00:07:13,998 who's been hiding out in Afghanistan. 176 00:07:14,085 --> 00:07:17,959 - FBI investigators and Kenyan police in Nairobi, 177 00:07:18,046 --> 00:07:21,092 they have in custody one suspect. 178 00:07:21,179 --> 00:07:24,313 He's not considered the mastermind of this bomb, 179 00:07:24,400 --> 00:07:27,621 but they do believe that he is quite a player in this. 180 00:07:27,707 --> 00:07:30,624 He was arrested entering Pakistan. 181 00:07:30,711 --> 00:07:32,495 He told Pakistani officials 182 00:07:32,582 --> 00:07:35,846 that he was an associate of Osama bin Laden. 183 00:07:35,933 --> 00:07:37,805 - There was that individual who the Pakistanis had. 184 00:07:37,892 --> 00:07:39,328 Tell us about him. 185 00:07:39,415 --> 00:07:42,505 - The Pakistanis had captured somebody 186 00:07:42,592 --> 00:07:47,249 who had left Nairobi on the day before the bombing. 187 00:07:47,336 --> 00:07:48,772 And they were holding him with a bad passport, 188 00:07:48,859 --> 00:07:50,774 and then somebody said, "Wait a minute." 189 00:07:50,861 --> 00:07:54,648 The guy's name was Mohamed Saddiq Odeh. 190 00:07:54,735 --> 00:07:55,866 He was questioned 191 00:07:55,953 --> 00:07:59,000 by the Pakistani intelligence services. 192 00:07:59,087 --> 00:08:01,829 And they told me that he had made some admissions 193 00:08:01,916 --> 00:08:03,744 that they were concerned about 194 00:08:03,831 --> 00:08:07,661 and that they were gonna send him back to us, to Nairobi. 195 00:08:07,748 --> 00:08:12,361 And Pat D'Amuro asked me to be the lead interviewer. 196 00:08:12,448 --> 00:08:14,406 - So how does the interview start? 197 00:08:14,494 --> 00:08:16,670 Was it in a room when he was brought in? 198 00:08:16,757 --> 00:08:21,239 - It was at the CID, Nairobi police. 199 00:08:21,326 --> 00:08:25,026 I just go through my normal getting-to-know-you routine, 200 00:08:25,113 --> 00:08:26,767 you know? "Where were you born? 201 00:08:26,854 --> 00:08:29,509 What were your parents' names? Where did you go to school?" 202 00:08:29,596 --> 00:08:32,467 He goes, "Oh, I went to school in Jordan." 203 00:08:32,554 --> 00:08:34,338 And I go, "Well, did you go to university?" 204 00:08:34,426 --> 00:08:37,342 He says, "Yes, I went to the university in Manila." 205 00:08:39,562 --> 00:08:40,823 He goes, "Yeah, and I used to go to the Islamic Center 206 00:08:40,911 --> 00:08:42,304 in Manila." I said, "Oh, yeah, 207 00:08:42,390 --> 00:08:44,001 so who'd you meet there?" 208 00:08:44,087 --> 00:08:45,481 We talked about one guy. 209 00:08:45,568 --> 00:08:48,702 He made me listen to tapes from Abdullah Azzam. 210 00:08:48,789 --> 00:08:51,531 He was the guy who rallied the whole Muslim world 211 00:08:51,618 --> 00:08:55,447 to go fight in jihad, and that goes on. 212 00:08:55,535 --> 00:08:56,971 And he took Bay'ah, you know, Bay'ah, 213 00:08:57,058 --> 00:08:59,190 meaning he swore allegiance to bin Laden. 214 00:08:59,277 --> 00:09:00,888 - Mm-hmm. - He gave us 215 00:09:00,975 --> 00:09:03,891 a tremendous amount of detail about everything. 216 00:09:03,978 --> 00:09:06,937 They had a real bureaucracy in al-Qaeda, you know? 217 00:09:07,024 --> 00:09:08,243 It's not what you think. 218 00:09:10,854 --> 00:09:13,117 He tells me about "When I got to Peshawar, 219 00:09:13,204 --> 00:09:16,077 "to Pakistan, I went to this camp first. 220 00:09:16,164 --> 00:09:18,906 They sent me to a second camp in Afghanistan." 221 00:09:18,993 --> 00:09:21,299 After fighting in Afghanistan... 222 00:09:21,386 --> 00:09:22,300 - [speaking indistinctly] 223 00:09:22,387 --> 00:09:24,520 [high-pitched ringing] 224 00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:28,698 - He gets to Kenya. 225 00:09:28,785 --> 00:09:30,570 He's told to go there by the number three guy 226 00:09:30,657 --> 00:09:33,398 in al-Qaeda at the time. 227 00:09:33,485 --> 00:09:38,099 The only drawback to Odeh 228 00:09:38,186 --> 00:09:40,623 was that everything he talked about was, 229 00:09:40,710 --> 00:09:42,843 "Well, I was in the group. 230 00:09:42,930 --> 00:09:45,628 I was kind of observing from afar." 231 00:09:45,715 --> 00:09:47,238 - It's like the "I was wit him, but I wasn't really wit him." 232 00:09:47,325 --> 00:09:49,719 - Yeah, exactly. [laughter] 233 00:09:49,806 --> 00:09:54,245 And I wanted to show him how... horrible... 234 00:09:54,332 --> 00:09:58,467 [hopeless music] 235 00:09:58,554 --> 00:10:00,295 What it looks like at the end. 236 00:10:00,382 --> 00:10:02,514 This is what happens when high explosives goes off 237 00:10:02,602 --> 00:10:04,734 close to human beings, you know? 238 00:10:04,821 --> 00:10:06,997 And I knew that there was a picture 239 00:10:07,084 --> 00:10:10,044 of a mother that was holding a child, 240 00:10:10,131 --> 00:10:12,829 and they were burned to-- they were charred. 241 00:10:15,310 --> 00:10:17,442 So as I took the picture out and I was starting to bring it, 242 00:10:17,529 --> 00:10:21,142 he saw it, and he just turned his whole chair to the side 243 00:10:21,229 --> 00:10:23,535 and put his head down. I said, "No, no, no, no, no. 244 00:10:23,623 --> 00:10:26,626 You wanted this. This is what you wanted to do." 245 00:10:26,713 --> 00:10:28,105 - That's right. - "Now you're gonna see 246 00:10:28,192 --> 00:10:30,586 the results of your actions," you know? 247 00:10:30,673 --> 00:10:31,979 - Mm-hmm. - And he turned away. 248 00:10:32,066 --> 00:10:37,985 ♪ ♪ 249 00:10:38,072 --> 00:10:39,943 I went behind him, and I kind of did grab him 250 00:10:40,030 --> 00:10:42,772 by the shoulders and a little bit by the hair 251 00:10:42,859 --> 00:10:44,339 and made him look at it. 252 00:10:44,426 --> 00:10:47,081 Became an issue at trial later, but I didn't care. 253 00:10:47,168 --> 00:10:52,216 But I know he looked at it, and he seemed to break. 254 00:10:52,303 --> 00:10:55,785 I think he did have some regret because he said, 255 00:10:55,872 --> 00:10:57,613 "You know, I think we failed because there were 256 00:10:57,700 --> 00:10:59,876 "so many Kenyan casualties. 257 00:10:59,963 --> 00:11:03,053 I don't even think bin Laden was happy with this." 258 00:11:03,140 --> 00:11:04,968 He said that more than once to me. 259 00:11:05,055 --> 00:11:07,014 - And what does that feel like to hear somebody saying-- 260 00:11:07,101 --> 00:11:10,234 - Well, I liked it, number one because it shows that-- 261 00:11:10,321 --> 00:11:12,584 it's a quasi-admission of guilt, 262 00:11:12,672 --> 00:11:14,499 and it showed that he had foreknowledge 263 00:11:14,586 --> 00:11:18,808 and that he knew that al-Qaeda had done this. 264 00:11:18,895 --> 00:11:21,593 [dramatic music] 265 00:11:21,681 --> 00:11:24,727 - Good afternoon, terrorism is one of the greatest dangers 266 00:11:24,814 --> 00:11:28,513 we face in this new global era. 267 00:11:28,600 --> 00:11:33,127 We saw its twisted mentality at work last week 268 00:11:33,214 --> 00:11:38,262 in the embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. 269 00:11:38,349 --> 00:11:42,397 Today, we have struck back. 270 00:11:42,484 --> 00:11:43,920 - The United States has launched 271 00:11:44,007 --> 00:11:45,835 simultaneous air and missile strikes 272 00:11:45,922 --> 00:11:47,794 on what President Clinton described 273 00:11:47,881 --> 00:11:51,101 as terrorist-related facilities in Afghanistan and Sudan. 274 00:11:51,188 --> 00:11:53,147 - The American pledge to retaliate 275 00:11:53,234 --> 00:11:55,323 has been delivered with a vengeance. 276 00:11:55,410 --> 00:11:57,542 For those caught up in the military strikes, 277 00:11:57,629 --> 00:12:00,067 the effects have been devastating. 278 00:12:00,154 --> 00:12:03,026 [somber music] 279 00:12:03,113 --> 00:12:09,729 ♪ ♪ 280 00:12:13,036 --> 00:12:15,256 - So there's a group of us that sort of peel off 281 00:12:15,343 --> 00:12:17,562 from Nairobi and we head down to Mombasa... 282 00:12:21,305 --> 00:12:23,264 And go to the immigration office. 283 00:12:23,351 --> 00:12:25,179 The great thing about Kenya identification documents 284 00:12:25,266 --> 00:12:27,442 is, they have photograph, they have fingerprints. 285 00:12:27,529 --> 00:12:29,531 So we're gonna have really good photos to take around 286 00:12:29,618 --> 00:12:32,055 and show other people to try to continue to build the case. 287 00:12:32,142 --> 00:12:34,492 So we go down to Mombasa. I go to the immigration office. 288 00:12:34,579 --> 00:12:37,147 It's this dusty, old concrete building 289 00:12:37,234 --> 00:12:41,021 where the notes are handwritten in this huge book. 290 00:12:41,108 --> 00:12:44,024 I find Odeh's name. So it says, "Mohamed Saddiq Odeh, 291 00:12:44,111 --> 00:12:45,895 mother, Miriam," as I recall. 292 00:12:45,982 --> 00:12:47,810 It said his tribe. And so I said, "Great. 293 00:12:47,897 --> 00:12:48,768 Please go pull these documents." 294 00:12:48,855 --> 00:12:50,465 And as I'm looking at the book, 295 00:12:50,552 --> 00:12:52,772 I see below his name another name, 296 00:12:52,859 --> 00:12:55,949 Mustafa Elbishy, same mother, same tribe, 297 00:12:56,036 --> 00:12:58,299 same--you know, same particulars. 298 00:12:58,386 --> 00:12:59,474 And so I said, "Well, I don't know what that is, 299 00:12:59,561 --> 00:13:00,910 "but pull him too. 300 00:13:00,997 --> 00:13:02,477 He must be associated with Odeh." 301 00:13:02,564 --> 00:13:04,305 And so we grabbed his photograph and fingerprints, 302 00:13:04,392 --> 00:13:06,133 and we start using that 303 00:13:06,220 --> 00:13:07,917 to build the picture about who was who. 304 00:13:08,004 --> 00:13:10,093 We ended up identifying basically 305 00:13:10,180 --> 00:13:12,792 the operational support cell network 306 00:13:12,879 --> 00:13:15,142 that supported both Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. 307 00:13:15,229 --> 00:13:17,405 We started building this photo book of these subjects. 308 00:13:17,492 --> 00:13:20,147 We had about 14 photographs in there of people 309 00:13:20,234 --> 00:13:22,236 we thought were involved after we learned 310 00:13:22,323 --> 00:13:23,715 that they were meeting there. 311 00:13:23,803 --> 00:13:24,760 They were talking to each other. 312 00:13:24,847 --> 00:13:25,761 They were buying trucks. 313 00:13:25,848 --> 00:13:27,589 They were buying vehicles. 314 00:13:27,676 --> 00:13:29,504 They were headed north when they needed to head north, 315 00:13:29,591 --> 00:13:30,940 and they were headed south when they needed 316 00:13:31,027 --> 00:13:32,333 to head south. People we thought 317 00:13:32,420 --> 00:13:35,466 were involved in either supporting Osama bin Laden 318 00:13:35,553 --> 00:13:38,905 or were witnesses to what was going on in preparation 319 00:13:38,992 --> 00:13:41,646 for these attacks--once we gathered that information, 320 00:13:41,733 --> 00:13:44,084 Steve had preceded me down to Tanzania. 321 00:13:47,827 --> 00:13:49,176 We had nobody directly indicted 322 00:13:49,263 --> 00:13:51,308 for their involvement in the Dar case. 323 00:13:51,395 --> 00:13:53,310 In Kenya, obviously, great success, right? 324 00:13:53,397 --> 00:13:55,356 We already had two people in custody. 325 00:13:55,443 --> 00:13:57,532 But in this case, Dar was-- at that point, we had nobody. 326 00:13:57,619 --> 00:13:59,926 So when I get down there, I see a bunch of things that-- 327 00:14:00,013 --> 00:14:02,363 from the crime scene itself. 328 00:14:02,450 --> 00:14:05,018 And so one of the things that they located 329 00:14:05,105 --> 00:14:08,282 pretty early on was the VIN number of the truck. 330 00:14:08,369 --> 00:14:09,892 The VIN number of the truck gives us the documents 331 00:14:09,979 --> 00:14:11,502 of who had the truck last, 332 00:14:11,589 --> 00:14:13,635 and that starts really sort of revealing 333 00:14:13,722 --> 00:14:14,854 everything from there. 334 00:14:14,941 --> 00:14:16,638 And we recovered a cell number. 335 00:14:16,725 --> 00:14:20,250 And this phone led us to--it was an operational cell phone 336 00:14:20,337 --> 00:14:22,209 that the group shared amongst themselves. 337 00:14:22,296 --> 00:14:26,691 That phone connects this group to the 43 Rundu house in Kenya, 338 00:14:26,778 --> 00:14:28,606 and it connects it to the family 339 00:14:28,693 --> 00:14:30,478 of a gentleman named Khalfan Khamis Mohamed 340 00:14:30,565 --> 00:14:33,307 in Dar es Salaam. 341 00:14:33,394 --> 00:14:35,526 Mike Forsee, who was another case agent on the case, 342 00:14:35,613 --> 00:14:38,965 was able to locate the nephew of Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, 343 00:14:39,052 --> 00:14:41,228 who said, "I'll take you to the location 344 00:14:41,315 --> 00:14:43,491 where my uncle wanted me to pick up these items." 345 00:14:43,578 --> 00:14:45,362 Khalfan Khamis Mohamed had called his nephew, 346 00:14:45,449 --> 00:14:47,147 and he said, "I'm getting ready to leave. 347 00:14:47,234 --> 00:14:48,452 Take these items to the family." 348 00:14:48,539 --> 00:14:52,282 One of the items that he had was a flour grinder. 349 00:14:52,369 --> 00:14:54,458 And so he said, "Get this. Give it to my sister. 350 00:14:54,545 --> 00:14:55,938 "Tell her to clean it really good because 351 00:14:56,025 --> 00:14:57,418 we've used it for unclean things." 352 00:14:57,505 --> 00:15:00,508 Well, the unclean things was they used this flour mill 353 00:15:00,595 --> 00:15:02,423 to grind the TNT into a fine powder 354 00:15:02,510 --> 00:15:04,947 that they used for the bombing in the vehicle. 355 00:15:05,034 --> 00:15:08,081 [dramatic musical sting] 356 00:15:13,129 --> 00:15:16,350 [dark music] 357 00:15:16,437 --> 00:15:20,093 ♪ ♪ 358 00:15:20,180 --> 00:15:21,485 - Mike calls me. He says, "Hey, Abby, 359 00:15:21,572 --> 00:15:23,096 you want a late birthday present?" 360 00:15:23,183 --> 00:15:24,271 I said, "Yeah, what do you got?" 361 00:15:24,358 --> 00:15:27,187 He said, "I found the bomb factory." 362 00:15:27,274 --> 00:15:28,579 He then brought me there. 363 00:15:28,666 --> 00:15:30,581 We all looked around the location. 364 00:15:30,668 --> 00:15:33,280 It had high walls. It was fully enclosed. 365 00:15:33,367 --> 00:15:35,630 It had a gate where you could pull a truck into. 366 00:15:35,717 --> 00:15:39,068 And sitting on a windowsill was an electric blasting cap. 367 00:15:39,155 --> 00:15:41,331 [tense music] 368 00:15:41,418 --> 00:15:43,203 So we're like, "Bingo. We got it." 369 00:15:43,290 --> 00:15:44,726 [laughs] "We got it." 370 00:15:44,813 --> 00:15:51,428 ♪ ♪ 371 00:15:56,607 --> 00:15:57,826 So then we're starting to set leads with, 372 00:15:57,913 --> 00:15:59,393 you know, various countries 373 00:15:59,480 --> 00:16:01,786 and say, "Is this person in your country? 374 00:16:01,873 --> 00:16:03,266 Has he traveled to your country?" and what have you. 375 00:16:05,877 --> 00:16:08,010 As the year went on, we got a break. 376 00:16:08,097 --> 00:16:09,925 The Tanzanian police called up and they said 377 00:16:10,012 --> 00:16:11,492 Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, 378 00:16:11,579 --> 00:16:14,190 he had obtained an alias from a school friend, 379 00:16:14,277 --> 00:16:18,107 and he went and traveled by bus over land 380 00:16:18,194 --> 00:16:19,413 and ended up in South Africa. 381 00:16:19,500 --> 00:16:25,462 ♪ ♪ 382 00:16:25,549 --> 00:16:27,812 - I don't know what his alias is. 383 00:16:27,899 --> 00:16:29,771 And we got to South Africa. The South African folks 384 00:16:29,858 --> 00:16:31,991 we worked with from the Home Affairs office-- 385 00:16:32,078 --> 00:16:34,167 and they come in the room and they dump 386 00:16:34,254 --> 00:16:36,604 a whole box of these 3x5 cards. 387 00:16:36,691 --> 00:16:38,475 This isn't a needle in a haystack. 388 00:16:38,562 --> 00:16:40,303 This is a needle in a pile of needles. 389 00:16:40,390 --> 00:16:43,480 And then literally the second card I pick up 390 00:16:43,567 --> 00:16:46,440 is the card I'm gonna show you right now. 391 00:16:46,527 --> 00:16:48,311 And I said, "Oh, this guy is from Tanzania." 392 00:16:48,398 --> 00:16:50,879 And I can then see the photo. I'm like, "Holy cow. 393 00:16:50,966 --> 00:16:54,535 That's KKM." 394 00:16:54,622 --> 00:16:56,406 And they drop his immigration file in front of us, 395 00:16:56,493 --> 00:16:58,365 and they said, "He has to come back 396 00:16:58,452 --> 00:17:00,758 "to this location every six weeks 397 00:17:00,845 --> 00:17:02,630 and get a new stamp." 398 00:17:02,717 --> 00:17:04,414 So I'm like, "Well, when was the last time he was here?" 399 00:17:04,501 --> 00:17:06,242 And they look at the stamp-- Tuesday. 400 00:17:11,160 --> 00:17:13,467 - So you're now basically undercover on surveillance, 401 00:17:13,554 --> 00:17:14,945 waiting for this guy to come back, 402 00:17:15,034 --> 00:17:16,557 'cause he could come back before six weeks... 403 00:17:16,644 --> 00:17:18,340 - Right. - Or after six weeks. 404 00:17:18,428 --> 00:17:20,604 - So I'm there working with our South African folks, 405 00:17:20,691 --> 00:17:22,258 Abby, we're all working in concert. 406 00:17:22,345 --> 00:17:23,825 We're all trying to help each other. 407 00:17:23,912 --> 00:17:26,045 And he finally shows up, 408 00:17:26,132 --> 00:17:28,917 and a very quick-witted South African immigration officer 409 00:17:29,004 --> 00:17:31,137 we work with-- his name was Salli-- 410 00:17:31,224 --> 00:17:35,358 Salli sees him, and KKM is actually leaving, 411 00:17:35,445 --> 00:17:37,099 because he said, "Oh, that's a big mess. 412 00:17:37,186 --> 00:17:38,492 "I don't know what the hell this big crowd is. 413 00:17:38,579 --> 00:17:39,710 I'll come back another time." 414 00:17:39,797 --> 00:17:41,495 And Salli goes up to him and bumps him 415 00:17:41,582 --> 00:17:43,105 and basically says, "Hey, listen. 416 00:17:43,192 --> 00:17:45,586 For 25 rand, I can get you to the front of the line," 417 00:17:45,673 --> 00:17:47,240 and he does, and he brings him in the elevator. 418 00:17:47,327 --> 00:17:50,286 ♪ ♪ 419 00:17:50,373 --> 00:17:51,809 - Where were you? - I'm in the elevator 420 00:17:51,896 --> 00:17:53,594 with Salli. 421 00:17:53,681 --> 00:17:55,465 And I know we gotta go to the top floor 422 00:17:55,552 --> 00:17:57,206 because that's where the office is. 423 00:17:57,293 --> 00:17:59,295 And he starts walking down the hallway, 424 00:17:59,382 --> 00:18:01,080 and South Africans were supposed to grab him. 425 00:18:01,167 --> 00:18:03,299 I'm like, "If he takes six more steps, 426 00:18:03,386 --> 00:18:05,475 he could run that way. He could run that way." 427 00:18:05,562 --> 00:18:06,563 And it was kind of one of these things. 428 00:18:06,650 --> 00:18:08,609 Like, wait. There's nobody else up here. 429 00:18:08,696 --> 00:18:09,827 And I thought he was gonna take off, 430 00:18:09,914 --> 00:18:11,394 so I just run around, tackle him. 431 00:18:13,570 --> 00:18:15,833 I said, "I know your name is Khalfan Khamis Mohamed. 432 00:18:15,920 --> 00:18:17,748 "It isn't whatever's on this piece of paper, 433 00:18:17,835 --> 00:18:19,968 and we know everything about you so don't even try to lie." 434 00:18:20,055 --> 00:18:21,839 And as I said the word "lie," the elevator door opened, 435 00:18:21,926 --> 00:18:23,406 and it's Abby. 436 00:18:23,493 --> 00:18:25,539 [soft music] 437 00:18:25,626 --> 00:18:27,149 - I see Khalfan standing against the wall. 438 00:18:27,236 --> 00:18:29,282 I look at him, and I'm elated. 439 00:18:29,369 --> 00:18:31,458 And Steve and I literally run 440 00:18:31,545 --> 00:18:33,199 and nearly knock each other down. 441 00:18:33,286 --> 00:18:34,939 We were like--just hugged each other. 442 00:18:35,026 --> 00:18:36,898 We couldn't believe that we had actually pulled this off. 443 00:18:36,985 --> 00:18:37,725 - Amazing. - And boom, we're off 444 00:18:37,812 --> 00:18:38,726 to the races. 445 00:18:38,813 --> 00:18:42,164 ♪ ♪ 446 00:18:42,251 --> 00:18:44,514 - The South Africans did their interview of him. 447 00:18:44,601 --> 00:18:47,343 It was immigration violations in their country 448 00:18:47,430 --> 00:18:48,431 that they could hold him on. 449 00:18:48,518 --> 00:18:50,259 And then we came in afterwards 450 00:18:50,346 --> 00:18:51,304 and conducted our interview. 451 00:18:51,391 --> 00:18:52,696 - Then he doesn't stop talking for, 452 00:18:52,783 --> 00:18:54,655 I don't know how many days. 453 00:18:54,742 --> 00:18:56,483 - And he was sort of bragging about what he had done. 454 00:18:56,570 --> 00:18:58,137 At some point, I asked him a question. 455 00:18:58,224 --> 00:19:00,922 I said, "He's killed innocent people." 456 00:19:01,009 --> 00:19:02,706 In Dar es Salaam, they killed no Americans. 457 00:19:02,793 --> 00:19:04,230 They only killed local people, 458 00:19:04,317 --> 00:19:05,970 and so I said, "Was that a success? 459 00:19:06,057 --> 00:19:07,363 You know, you didn't kill any Americans." 460 00:19:07,450 --> 00:19:08,886 He said, "Yeah." He said, "Because you've spent 461 00:19:08,973 --> 00:19:12,760 all your time looking for me." 462 00:19:12,847 --> 00:19:16,198 And Steve had shared a Swahili saying with me. 463 00:19:16,285 --> 00:19:18,766 It was... [speaking Swahili] 464 00:19:18,853 --> 00:19:20,420 So I said to Khalfan, I said, "Khalfan"... 465 00:19:20,507 --> 00:19:21,943 [speaking Swahili] 466 00:19:22,030 --> 00:19:23,553 "You know what that means, right?" 467 00:19:23,640 --> 00:19:24,815 And he just sort of looked at me. 468 00:19:24,902 --> 00:19:26,991 And I said, "Little by little, we fill the cup." 469 00:19:27,078 --> 00:19:28,384 I said, "We will not stop 470 00:19:28,471 --> 00:19:32,171 until we get each and every one of you." 471 00:19:32,258 --> 00:19:35,522 - These are the people that were indicted in that case 472 00:19:35,609 --> 00:19:38,220 and actually captured-- every one of these people, 473 00:19:38,307 --> 00:19:41,658 whether they were or would be suicide bomber or bomb maker, 474 00:19:41,745 --> 00:19:44,574 you name it, administrative people, part of this cell. 475 00:19:44,661 --> 00:19:46,185 There's only one person who was not captured 476 00:19:46,272 --> 00:19:48,317 or killed yet. 477 00:19:48,404 --> 00:19:50,667 Saif al-Adel is the only one left 478 00:19:50,754 --> 00:19:54,236 out of this original group that we indicted back in 1999. 479 00:19:54,323 --> 00:19:57,152 And you know, presumably, he is now, 480 00:19:57,239 --> 00:20:01,287 you know, the senior man left for al-Qaeda. 481 00:20:01,374 --> 00:20:04,290 [foreboding music] 482 00:20:04,377 --> 00:20:11,427 ♪ ♪ 483 00:20:33,884 --> 00:20:36,409 - Yeah, well, I can absolutely say, as an FBI agent, 484 00:20:36,496 --> 00:20:38,062 you guys did an amazing job. 485 00:20:38,149 --> 00:20:40,674 - After the whole case was over, my boss grabbed me. 486 00:20:40,761 --> 00:20:42,763 He's like, "I've got good news for you and bad news for you." 487 00:20:42,850 --> 00:20:45,896 He goes, "The good news is, you and your team 488 00:20:45,983 --> 00:20:49,248 "have helped solve the murder of 224 people. 489 00:20:49,335 --> 00:20:50,640 "That's the good news. 490 00:20:50,727 --> 00:20:52,251 "The bad news is, you've only been in the FBI 491 00:20:52,338 --> 00:20:53,730 "for five years, and this is probably gonna be 492 00:20:53,817 --> 00:20:55,732 the biggest case you ever get to work on," 493 00:20:55,819 --> 00:20:58,213 which at the time was obviously true, 494 00:20:58,300 --> 00:21:00,955 but we never stopped working that case. 495 00:21:01,042 --> 00:21:03,349 I worked the embassy bombing case from the day it happened 496 00:21:03,436 --> 00:21:05,002 until the day I retired. 497 00:21:05,089 --> 00:21:06,439 - Of all the cases that you've worked, Abby, 498 00:21:06,526 --> 00:21:07,875 how does this rank? - I mean, 499 00:21:07,962 --> 00:21:09,833 the success of this case, 500 00:21:09,920 --> 00:21:12,401 it's probably one of my proudest. 501 00:21:12,488 --> 00:21:14,316 - What about you, John? - Yeah, when I look 502 00:21:14,403 --> 00:21:16,100 at the accomplishments done by this team, 503 00:21:16,187 --> 00:21:18,320 I see this picture of us in front of the embassy, 504 00:21:18,407 --> 00:21:20,540 this ragtag team from New York 505 00:21:20,627 --> 00:21:22,063 with no embassy to work out of, 506 00:21:22,150 --> 00:21:23,804 nothing, zero, no supplies. 507 00:21:23,891 --> 00:21:26,502 Then you go to years later when they're all convicted. 508 00:21:26,589 --> 00:21:31,072 It was just an amazing amount of work and professionalism. 509 00:21:35,468 --> 00:21:37,165 - Two commercial jetliners crashed 510 00:21:37,252 --> 00:21:39,341 into the World Trade Center here in New York City 511 00:21:39,428 --> 00:21:42,518 and sent the giant Twin Towers, filled with workers, 512 00:21:42,605 --> 00:21:43,954 crumbling to the ground. 513 00:21:44,041 --> 00:21:46,957 [somber music] 514 00:21:47,044 --> 00:21:53,964 ♪ ♪ 515 00:21:58,142 --> 00:22:00,188 - One of my biggest disappointments is the number 516 00:22:00,275 --> 00:22:03,409 that we got--what we call now the al-Qaeda switchboard-- 517 00:22:03,496 --> 00:22:06,325 about 18 months prior to 9/11, 518 00:22:06,412 --> 00:22:10,677 our services saw that two of the future 9/11 hijackers, 519 00:22:10,764 --> 00:22:12,200 Al-Hazmi and Mihdhar, 520 00:22:12,287 --> 00:22:14,333 were going to come to the United States, 521 00:22:14,420 --> 00:22:18,685 and those services did not notify the FBI. 522 00:22:18,772 --> 00:22:21,557 - And here's the big miss. The hijackers get to the U.S, 523 00:22:21,644 --> 00:22:25,779 and then from California, they also call that number. 524 00:22:25,866 --> 00:22:31,567 ♪ ♪ 525 00:22:31,654 --> 00:22:33,439 - The FBI was never notified 526 00:22:33,526 --> 00:22:36,267 that these two individuals were here, 527 00:22:36,355 --> 00:22:43,057 and them being on our own turf, we would have--I'm 100% sure 528 00:22:43,144 --> 00:22:45,886 that both of these individuals would have been the subjects 529 00:22:45,973 --> 00:22:47,670 of full-field investigations. 530 00:22:47,757 --> 00:22:49,237 - I agree. - Everything would have been 531 00:22:49,324 --> 00:22:51,370 monitored, everything from their telephone traffic 532 00:22:51,457 --> 00:22:53,850 to their computer traffic to surveillance. 533 00:22:57,811 --> 00:23:00,379 There is no doubt that we would have figured out 534 00:23:00,466 --> 00:23:02,859 that they were part of another cell. 535 00:23:05,122 --> 00:23:07,821 It would be hard to imagine what would have happened 536 00:23:07,908 --> 00:23:09,344 if we had been on top of that. 537 00:23:09,431 --> 00:23:12,260 ♪ ♪ 538 00:23:17,874 --> 00:23:20,790 [dramatic music] 539 00:23:20,877 --> 00:23:30,147 ♪ ♪