What FRONTLINE Aired Two Days After 9/11 | Hunting bin Laden (full documentary) | FRONTLINE (PBS)

NARRATOR: Late Tuesday afternoon, just hours  after the destruction of the World Trade Center,   and the attack on the Pentagon, the CIA and  FBI briefed political leaders in Washington   that their search for the terrorists was  focusing on one name above all others. And as the rapidly unfolding investigation   has identitied the hijackers, federal  officials now say the suicide bombings   were carried out by followers of that  man…Islamic militant, Osama Bin Laden. LARRY JOHNSON: In the history  of terrorists no one has come up   with the vision of destruction and the  willingness to carry it out like him. NARRATOR: For years this one man has taunted,  threatened and frustrated the United States.   But who is he? The U.S. government has tried to  link him to nearly every act of Islamic terrorism   against Americans in the 90s: from the 1993 attack  on the World Trade Center, to the bombings of U.S.   military installations in Saudi Arabia, to the  1998 bombings of two US embassies in Africa.

Pres. BILL CLINTON: The United States launched an   attack this morning on one of the most  active terrorist bases in the world. NARRATOR: He has survived retaliation. REPORTER: Did you kill bin Laden?  Is bin Laden dead, do you know? NARRATOR: and eluded the  US counterintelligence net. SANDY BERGER: We have no idea  where bin Laden's whereabouts- NARRATOR: To re-emerge this week, his  followers named as the chief suspects,   in the worst terrorist attack in history. JUDITH MILLER: I think the enormity  of the strike, designed to amaze the   world, a strike to astonish the world.  I think that’s always one of his goals. NARRATOR: Tonight… America’s long  frustrating hunt for Osama bin Laden. This special edition of FRONTLINE,   a co-production with the New York  Times, is anchored by Bill Moyers. BILL MOYERS: Good evening. The search for the victims continues tonight.  The grieving has hardly begun. It’s not possible   now even to imagine the consequences still  to come from the vicious, coldblooded, and   devastatingly successful terrorism that virtually  brought America to a standstill this week.

Who did it? Who could inspire, direct, and link  such a complex operation Who had the resources,   the network, the money, and  the motive to pull it off? So far the most conspicuous suspects are  followers of Osama Bin Laden. This is a   familiar name because bin Laden had already  become the symbol of hatred toward America. Two years ago FRONTLINE investigated the  world of Osama Bin Laden. Two bombs had   struck another pair of American targets.  We’re updating that FRONTLINE report,   because once again Americans want  to know, who is this man, bin Laden? NARRATOR:   The bombers set off in the morning  for downtown Nairobi. Their target,   the United States embassy,  was located at one of the   busiest intersections in the city. Their  truck was carrying 2,000 pounds of TNT.   Two hundred and thirteen people  died, five thousand were wounded.

Four minutes later, 600 miles  away in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania,   another bomb. Another 11 people died, another 85  wounded. The question was why, and to what end? U.S. ambassador to Kenya, Prudence Bushnell: PRUDENCE BUSHNELL, U.S. Ambassador to  Kenya: For two nights after the bombing,   I was plagued with the question: What's the  point? Really, what is the point? And since   then I have heard what the point is, because  Mr. Bin Laden explained the point. The point,   he says, is, "I hate Americans,  and I'm going to kill you." If that's the point, it certainly is the wrong  point, but it's the point of one man, one   renegade, somebody who certainly doesn't have his  feet in the kind of reality I deal with every day. NARRATOR: Osama bin Laden, the man  the U.S. government calls a renegade,   is today the most wanted man on earth, with a   $5 million bounty on his head. But who is  this man? Is he just one lone renegade?

AHMED SATTAR: The American  government don't get it. LOWELL BERGMAN: They don't get it? AHMED SATTAR: They don't get it. No. NARRATOR: Ahmed Sattar is a close  associate of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman.   Five years ago the sheik was arrested, tried  and convicted for conspiring to blow up the   Statue of Liberty, the United Nations  headquarters and the Holland Tunnel. AHMED SATTAR: You can kill Osama  bin Laden today or tomorrow. You   can arrest him and put him on trial in  New York or in Washington or whatever.   Is this will end the problem? No.  Tomorrow he will get somebody else. It's not a secret, but the American  government, you know, has one enemy,   is the Islamic movement all over the world,  whether it's armed struggle or peaceful- or by   peaceful means. I mean, you can see it.  You can see it from Algeria to Afghanistan.

LOWELL BERGMAN: The United States is at war? AHMED SATTAR: Yes, to a certain extent. Yes. LOWELL BERGMAN: With Islam. AHMED SATTAR: Yes. NARRATOR: For the vast majority of  Muslims, Islam is a religion of peace.   But in mosques around the world, many  clerics talk about Islam being under   attack and about how they must unite and  fight back. It is what Muslims call jihad,   the obligation to defend Islam  from any and all enemies. Facing the house of Allah in Mecca, devout  Muslims around the world submit to their god   five times a day. Mecca is at the heart  of Islam, in Saudi Arabia, the land of   the two holy mosques of Mecca and Medina.  It is also the homeland of Osama bin Laden.

The country is ruled by a monarchy that bin  Laden says is a corrupt and repressive puppet   of the United States. FRONTLINE wanted  to come here to inquire about bin Laden,   but reporters with cameras are not welcome, and  anyone who speaks out here risks their freedom.   So we went to London to talk  to exiled Saudi dissidents. London is home to half a million Muslims and  sanctuary for Islamic dissidents from all over   the world. A prominent Saudi physician, Saad  al-Fagih, heads the Movement for Islamic Reform   in Arabia. He says he opposes the use of violence,  but he knows a lot about bin Laden and his views. SAAD AL-FAGIH, Saudi Dissident: He's  a product of a new social structure,   new social feelings in the Muslim world where you  have strong hostility not only against America,   but also against many Arab and Muslim  regimes who are allying to America.

LOWELL BERGMAN: Who are the bin Ladens? SAAD AL-FAGIH: The bin Laden family  is very interesting. His father came   from a family from Hetremout, South Yemen,  who are famous to be successful merchants   and businessmen by talent- probably by  their genes as successful businessmen. NARRATOR: So successful were the bin Ladens that  they amassed a multi-billion dollar fortune in the   construction business. It helped that the father  had close ties to the king, who, says al-Fagih,   issued a decree that all government contracts  had to go to the bin Laden construction company. Osama bin Laden is the 17th son of 52  children, presumed to be heir to a $300   million fortune. But Osama bin Laden wasn't all  that interested in money or the family business. LOWELL BERGMAN: Some people have told  us that in the 1970s he was lost.   He didn't really have a career or  direction until he went to Afghanistan. SAAD AL-FAGIH: Exactly. He was  a student in the university,   and then he was taken by the  news of Afghanistan, and he moved   there. Even the first three or four years in  Afghanistan, nobody noticed that he was there.

NARRATOR: For Muslims, the war in  Afghanistan against godless communist   Soviet invaders was a religious duty, a  holy war or jihad. Thousands of Muslims   flocked to Afghanistan from all over the  world. Saad al-Fagih came as a surgeon. LOWELL BERGMAN: What was the  attraction to go to Afghanistan? SAAD AL-FAGIH: Well, it was a golden  opportunity to live the life of jihad   because you could not practice jihad in Saudi  Arabia. You cannot practice jihad in the Gulf.   You cannot practice jihad in Arab, any other  country. So the only way to practice actual   jihad in its full-scale sense is you carry a  weapon and fight the enemy, the enemy of Islam. NARRATOR: For Americans, the Afghan  war was a chance to weaken the Kremlin.   The U.S., along with its chief  ally in the region, Saudi Arabia,   pumped in $6 billion of not-so-covert guns and  ammunition in order to defeat the Russians.

Milt Bearden was the CIA field officer charged  with overseeing the agency's operations. LOWELL BERGMAN: How important was the Afghan war   as an event for the Arabs  and for the United States? MILT BEARDEN, CIA, 1964-1994: It's a very big  deal. A small Islamic nation of 15 million people   stood up to the Soviet Union with assistance  from others and forced that entity called   the Soviet Red Army to withdraw. It's the  first of a great moment in resurgent Islam. NARRATOR: This is bin Laden in Afghanistan. At age   22 he came here and used his family name and  influence to help raise money for the cause. MILT BEARDEN: Bin Laden actually  did some very good things. He put a   lot of money in a lot of right places in  Afghanistan. He never came on the screen   of any Americans as either a terrific  asset or someone who was anti-American. NARRATOR: Bearden was familiar with the  Arabs that came to Afghanistan. He says   the idea that Osama bin Laden led a force of  freedom fighters through bloody and heroic   battles with the Soviets is pure myth, as is the  idea that bin Laden was a creation of the CIA.

LOWELL BERGMAN: What you  knew of Osama Bin Laden at   the time was as a fund-raiser, not as a fighter? MILT BEARDEN: Oh, not as a fighter.  There were no Arabs who had what I   would call major role in fighting the  war. I think there was one battle,   one battle in the spring of '87 that  bin Laden was engaged in, and that's it. SAAD AL-FAGIH: That's not true. He was involved  to the bone in fighting in Afghanistan. NARRATOR: Al-Fagih and members of the  Saudi opposition tell of a different   bin Laden. They recount a leader among soldiers. SAAD AL-FAGIH: And people who work with him  or live with him like him a lot because he's   having the two characters for people to be  liked- the charisma, the aura, on one side,   and also the humbleness and being simple and being  generous and soft on the other side. The people   who lived with him very closely, they told  me that you are taken by his personality,   and you are forced to have strong  affection towards him, and respect.

NARRATOR: When the Soviets  withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989,   victory over the Red Army left bin Laden  and his followers extremely confident. AHMED SATTAR: Well, we can do  things. We can achieve things. NARRATOR: Ahmed Sattar says the war was  an inspiration to Muslims everywhere. LOWELL BERGMAN: You mean if you can defeat  what Ronald Reagan called the "evil empire"- AHMED SATTAR: Yes. If I can defeat the  evil empire, I can defeat anybody else. NARRATOR: Said Aburish is a  Palestinian-born author living   in London. He says the war in Afghanistan  did much more than just boost confidence. SAID K. ABURISH, Journalist/Author: What happened  is the people who went to Afghanistan became   radicalized. You know, they assumed a political  role above and beyond the original purpose of   facing the Russians. They wanted to go back  home and have a say about how things were   being done in their own countries. And that  is really what happened to Osama bin Laden.

NARRATOR: Bin Laden returned to Saudi  Arabia and, the story goes, he had a dream. SAAD AL-FAGIH: When he came back to Saudi Arabia  in 1989, he had a prophecy that Saddam's going to   invade Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, and he made this  public, not only through secret, confidential   letters to the king, but he was talking about it  in the mosques. And then his prophecy was correct. NARRATOR: In 1990, after Iraq invaded  Kuwait and threatened Saudi Arabia,   the king turned to the United States  for help. Bin Laden protested. SAAD AL-FAGIH: He said, "You don't need Americans.  You don't need any other non-Muslim troops. We   will be enough. And I can convince even Afghanis  to come and join us instead of Americans." LOWELL BERGMAN: Well, you agree with that, right? SAAD AL-FAGIH: Well, I'm not only- not only I.  A very broad spectrum in Arabia agree with that,   that we don't want American forces. We don't   want a single American soldier  to step foot in our country.

NARRATOR: The arrival of American troops was  bad enough, but when the troops did not leave   the holy lands of Islam after the Gulf war ended,  Muslims all over the world took notice. Continued   U.S. presence was a religious affront, not  unlike the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. AHMED SATTAR: The people especially in  the Arab and Islamic world look at you   same way they looked at the British  and the French occupation forces. LOWELL BERGMAN: How can you say that?  We sent our troops to defend you. AHMED SATTAR: Well, you know, yes, we  really appreciate it very much you send   your troops to defend us. Nobody asked  for the American troops to go there.   You went there to protect your own interest. You  went there to protect some corrupted regimes that   are working against their own people. So do  not give me that you were there to protect the   people. Your policy in this area has nothing,  and I mean nothing, to do with the people.

NARRATOR: Muslim fundamentalists say  that America's alliance with King Fahd   is akin to America's disastrous alliance  with the Shah of Iran. When King Fahd,   like the Shah, is forced from power, they say,  Americans will be on the wrong side of history. OPPOSITION DEMONSTRATOR: We are here to  ensure that the decadent, corrupt, vile,   violent, syphilitic family in the  house al Saud be taken out forever! NARRATOR: In London we spoke to another  prominent leader of the Saudi opposition,   Mohammed Masari. Masari, who has had close  ties to some of bin Laden's top people,   agrees the Saudi leadership lacks credibility. MOHAMMED AL-MASARI, Saudi Dissident: There's  no planning for the future which will guarantee   a reasonable survival after the end of the oil  age. The oil age is coming to an end sooner or   later. In 40, 50 years, there will enough energy  resources that oil will become less significant   than it is today. Nothing is prepared because we  have a ruling group, a ruling class or clique,   call it whatever you want, which does not  have any vision of the reality of the future.   It's absolutely incapable and inept leadership.

NARRATOR: Already, critics of the Saudi  government point out the king has managed   to turn the world's largest oil  producer into a debtor nation. SAID ABURISH: They have not used their income  wisely, and they have squandered all of their   reserves. And as a result, at this moment in time,  the country is not only broke, they are heavily   in debt. There have been very many attempts  to overthrow that government and to rebel. SAUDI OPPOSITION LEADER: [subtitles] The state is  plunging into a grave crisis. Some reports talk   about $160 billion in debt, but even if it's  one tenth of that there'll be consequences. NARRATOR: This tape of Saudi  opposition leader speaking to a   crowd of supporters was smuggled out  of Saudi Arabia by Saudi activists.   In the early '90s, bin Laden was  known to have made similar protests. SAID ABURISH: Osama bin Laden is the  product of these movements. And Osama   bin Laden is much more interesting than most  of them because Osama bin Laden belongs to a   family which is part of the establishment,  the ruling establishment of Saudi Arabia.   And therefore it is an indication of how  bad things have got, when a member of the   establishment becomes a radical Islamist  against the regime. Osama bin Laden's first  

demand is that the American troops in Saudi  Arabia should leave the holy soil of Islam. NARRATOR: For his open opposition to the  government, bin Laden had his passport taken   away. But dissent inside the royal family over  the direction of the kingdom was creating a base   of influential support for Saudi dissidents.  Bin Laden was able to arrange an escape. In Washington practically no one had  heard of Osama bin Laden. The CIA knew   only that he was a vocal opponent of the  Saudi regime and of U.S. troop presence,   troops U.S. officials felt were a necessary  defense against possible future attacks from Iraq. FRANK ANDERSON, CIA, 1968-1995:  American forces are in Saudi Arabia   helping to protect Saudi interests,  as well as American interests. NARRATOR: Frank Anderson was with  the CIA from 1968 to 1995 and was   considered one of the agency's leading  authorities on the Arab Middle East.

LOWELL BERGMAN: What they're saying is "It's  despoiling our holy hand to have American troops,   infidel troops, in the land of Mohammed."  This becomes a religious violation. FRANK ANDERSON: And as a Christian,  it's difficult for me to get into a   Muslim theological argument, but it's bad  Islam. I reject bin Laden's criticism,   as do most Muslims I know reject his criticisms. NARRATOR: In 1991 Osama bin Laden came  here, where the White and Blue Niles meet,   to the ancient city of Khartoum in the  Sudan. Across the Red Sea from Saudi Arabia,   the Sudan is one of the poorest countries in the  world. But in 1989, radical Muslims backed by the   Sudanese army formed a government dedicated to  transforming the country into an Islamic utopia.

In the early '90s, the Sudan was attracting  Muslims from all over, including many of the   newly radicalized veterans of the Afghan  war. President Bashir remembers bin Laden. GEN. OMAR HASSAN AHMED AL-BASHIR,  President, Sudan: [through interpreter] Yes,   I met him in Khartoum after he came here. LOWELL BERGMAN: What kind of person is he? Pres. OMAR HASSAN AHMED AL-BASHIR: [through  interpreter] He's a very normal person who is   very religious. He believes in Islam and, where  possible, the establishment of an Islamic state.   The time that he spent in Afghanistan led   him to believe that this might be  achieved through military means. NARRATOR: In the Sudan, bin Laden set up a  host of businesses, among them a tannery,   two large farms and a major road construction  company, and he reportedly paid for 480 Afghan   vets to come work with him. The Sudan liked  this wealthy Saudi who was enthusiastic about   investing in their fledgling Islamic  state. When bin Laden finished a   major road construction project, President  al-Bashir treated him like a national hero.

But the FBI and the CIA were wary. They had pegged  the Sudan as a haven for Islamic terrorists,   and the CIA was picking up some  evidence, although inconclusive,   that bin Laden was now sending money  to Islamic militants around the world. LARRY C. JOHNSON, U.S. State Dept.  1989-1993: The intelligence that   was being created pointed increasingly to  him as someone that had to be dealt with. NARRATOR: Larry Johnson, a former CIA officer,   was deputy director of the State Department's  Office of Counterterrorism from 1989 to 1993. LOWELL BERGMAN: So we shouldn't  take as credible their claim that   when they had Osama in Khartoum, he  was basically building roads and- LARRY C. JOHNSON: No, absolutely  not. I think that's- you know,   that's ridiculous because the fact of the  matter is that if he was absolutely up to   charitable works and constructive public  projects, he wouldn't have been an issue. NARRATOR: Then came a seismic event,   the World Trade Center bombing. This was the  first act of Islamic terrorism on U.S. soil.   The FBI investigation of the bombing conspiracy  led in many directions. One led to Egyptian   veterans of the Afghan war, including Sheik Omar  Abdel Rahman. Another eventually led to this man,   Ramsi Yousef, who investigators believed at the  time had a financial link to Osama bin Laden.

LARRY C. JOHNSON: And when Ramsi Yousef  was captured in Pakistan in 1995,   in the end of January, first of February, then  more information started to come out about Osama. NARRATOR: The information was tenuous  and incomplete, but it was enough to   lead investigators to wonder if bin Laden  might be an answer to their questions. LARRY C. JOHNSON: And it turned out that-  because there had been confusion before.   Why was the World Trade Center taking place?  Who was doing it? There were lots of theories,   not very good intelligence. And so the  intelligence community actually started   generating the picture that Osama  bin Laden was this, if you will,   sort of the new face of terrorism. And  there's that "A-ha" moment, that "Oh,   we do have a problem. We've actually got someone  who doesn't like us and is wanting to kill us." NARRATOR: Over the next year, it would appear that  bin Laden was, at the very least, inspiring acts   of terrorism. First, in August, 1995, bin Laden  wrote an open letter to King Fahd of Saudi Arabia   calling for a campaign of guerrilla attacks in  order to drive U.S. forces out of the kingdom.

Three months later, a bomb exploded at a U.S.  military installation in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,   killing five American servicemen. There was  no hard evidence that bin Laden was involved.   The four men arrested for the act confessed  on Saudi T.V. that they had read communiqués   from Osama bin Laden and Mohammed Masari. U.S.  investigators wanted to interrogate the men,   but the Saudis ordered their heads cut off. Twenty-five days after the beheadings, another  bomb tore through a U.S. military post in Dhahran,   Saudi Arabia, killing 19 more  American soldiers. But again,   the FBI has never been able to  determine if bin Laden was involved. Washington, though, had seen enough. Even before  the second bomb attack, President Clinton had   signed a top-secret order that authorized the CIA  to use any and all means to destroy bin Laden's   network. The U.S. and Saudi governments also began  to pressure the Sudanese to expel bin Laden in   order to deny him a base of operations. Sudanese  minister of information is Gazi Salah al-Din.

Dr. GHAZI SALAH AL-DIN ATABANI, Minister of  Information, Sudan: We could feel that there   was a big case in the making against  him. We both became convinced that   it was in the interests of both of us,  Sudan and bin Laden, that he should leave. MOHAMMED AL-MASARI, Saudi Dissident:  They started putting pressure on him   that he should keep a low profile, stated  frankly "You should shut up." And I remember   discussing with several of his people that-  I told him "Believe me, Sudan is not a good   place to stay. One day they will sell you to the  Saudis." I said it in very frank way. "I suggest   you look for another place. Sooner or later  they will either sell you or kick you out." Pres. OMAR HASSAN AHMED AL-BASHIR: President,  Sudan[through interpreter] Actually,   when we were asked to send bin Laden out  of the country by the Saudis and others,   we told them that it would be better to keep  Osama bin Laden in Khartoum because here he   wouldn't conduct any activity. He was busy with  his own business, and we could keep an eye on him.   The Saudis in their contacts with us  never mentioned that they accused Osama   bin Laden of anything. The only thing  they asked us was to just send him away.

MILT BEARDEN, CIA, 1964-1994: So off he goes to  Afghanistan, which I commented is probably the   best move since the Germans put Ilyich Lenin in  a boxcar and sent him to St. Petersburg in 1917. LOWELL BERGMAN: You mean by letting him  leave or forcing him to leave, you incited- MILT BEARDEN: By forcing him to leave,  we left an area where perhaps we could   have controlled or monitored him more  closely and to see what he was doing. MOHAMMED AL-MASARI: He was forced out of the  area into Afghanistan in the high mountains,   as we say, the Hindu Kush, the high mountains.  Not a place for much of intellectual political   activity. So being disillusioned by the  Sudanese, who pretended to be at least   a model of a modern Islamic government, he  decided, "No. Now it's time to go to war." NARRATOR: Bin Laden moved back to  Afghanistan along with 200 of his   followers in the spring of 1996.  That summer he issued a fatwah,   or religious decree, calling for war on Americans.  [www.pbs.org: Read bin Laden's calls to war] OSAMA BIN LADEN: [through interpreter] The call  to wage war against America was made because   America has spearheaded a crusade against Islam,  sending thousands of its troops to the land of the   two holy mosques, meddling in Saudi affairs  and politics and supporting its oppressive,   corrupt and tyrannical regime. These are the  reasons behind singling out America as a target.

NARRATOR: In Washington, the CIA and FBI had  joined forces and established a special bin   Laden room at CIA headquarters, where agents were  working full-time tracking bin Laden's money and   whereabouts. Estimates of his wealth range from  $300 million - which assumes he has received   his full inheritance - to much lower figures.  Mohammed Masari knew bin Laden's accountant. MOHAMMED AL-MASARI: With his limited  resources, this again- face facts. We are   speaking about a man who has maybe a couple  of millions, or $10 million, $20 millions,   but not the $200 million. This is nonsense.  This is just imagination, fantasy running away. NARRATOR: The CIA was also tracking bin Laden  associates, who they believed had set up cells   or operating units around the world. One man they  were interested in was a Lebanese-born American   citizen named Wadih el Hage. El Hage had worked  as bin Laden's personal secretary in the Sudan.   El Hage also had connections to several of the men  convicted in the World Trade Center bombing case.

When investigators caught up with  el Hage, he had moved from the Sudan   to this neighborhood on the outskirts  of Nairobi, Kenya. In August of 1997,   the FBI and the CIA decided to  come here and search his house. MOTHER-IN-LAW: There was a  knock on the outer gates and- NARRATOR: El Hage's mother-in-law  was in Nairobi visiting her daughter. MOTHER-IN-LAW: -opened the gates,  and they came into the house. NARRATOR: She agreed to talk to us  only if we obscured her identity. MOTHER-IN-LAW: We were just frightened to death. LOWELL BERGMAN: And Wadih wasn't there? MOTHER-IN-LAW: He was not there. NARRATOR: At the time of the  raid, Wadih was in Afghanistan. LOWELL BERGMAN: When the FBI and the  police came in, what did they say? MOTHER-IN-LAW: They were very pleasant, but the  police said they were looking for stolen property,   and they searched the whole house.  Of course, Wadih, being how he is,   he had all these little papers all over the  desk- his notebooks and other personal papers,   his little ledgers, his address books.  They scooped them all up and took them,   every single one. And they came out of  one of the bedrooms with Wadih's P.C.

NARRATOR: And from el Hage's personal computer,  the FBI downloaded and translated a letter   written by one of el Hage's associates.  It showed that the author was afraid the   cell was under surveillance. "There are many  reasons that lead me to believe that the cell   members in East Africa are in great danger.  My recommendation to my brothers in East   Africa was not to be complacent regarding  security matters and that they should know   that now they have become America's primary  target." [www.pbs.org: Read el Hage's letter] NARRATOR: The FBI and the CIA believed that they  had uncovered a significant terrorist threat,   and they reported their findings to the embassy  and to the State Department. But without more   evidence, they couldn't arrest el Hage. Instead  they encouraged him and his family to leave. LOWELL BERGMAN: But before they leave, they say  it would be a good idea if you left the country? MOTHER-IN-LAW: Yes. And they offered  to put her on the next flight- LOWELL BERGMAN: This was the FBI or this was the- MOTHER-IN-LAW: The FBI. They said,  "It might not be safe for you here." LOWELL BERGMAN: Did they mention anybody's  name, like Osama bin Laden or any- any- MOTHER-IN-LAW: No. I don't remember that. If  they had, it went over my head. I didn't hear it.

NARRATOR: The raid was intended to disrupt  the cell, but other associates of bin Laden   disappeared into the Muslim communities  of East Africa where, according to U.S.   government sources, U.S. intelligence is virtually  non-existent. East Africa is home to a majority   Muslim population. Most live in poor and volatile  communities with little political representation. We spoke to a leader of the Muslim  community in Dar Es Salaam, Maoulid Hadji. MAOULID HADJI, Local Muslim Leader: The  journalists here, they are Christians.   The judges here, all of them, they are Christians.  Policemen, commissioners of policemen, all of them   are Christians. The principal secretaries  wherever you go, all over the ministries,   they are Christians. District commissioners,  all of them, the majority, they are Christians. LOWELL BERGMAN: So there is  anger growing in the community. MAOULID HADJI: Of course. NARRATOR: Hadji's complaints are not isolated. In  early 1998, rioting between Muslims and Tanzanian   police caused the U.S. embassy there to go  on high alert. This footage was censored by   Tanzanian T.V. for fear that unrest would  spread. To the north, in Nairobi, Kenya,   U.S. Ambassador Prudence Bushnell was complaining  to the State Department about local unrest there   and that her embassy was vulnerable because  of its location in a crowded downtown area.

PRUDENCE BUSHNELL, US AMBASSADOR  TO KENYA: For many reasons,   I was uncomfortable with the  location of the building.   Ninety-seven was a year of great political  unrest in Kenya, and we had tear gas seeping   through the embassy walls. The security issues  included the possibility of terrorist attack. NARRATOR: The possibility o a terrorist attack  was very real in Nairobi. In the fall of 1997,   in addition to the discovery of the bin Laden  cell, this man, Mustapha Ahmed, said he knew   of a plot to detonate a truck bomb in the basement  of the embassy building. In the midst of all this,   Ambassador Bushnell asked the State Department  to move her embassy, but she was turned down. By the spring of 1998, the CIA had developed  a secret plan to send commandos to snatch bin   Laden from his mountain retreat in Afghanistan.  In Afghanistan, bin Laden was escalating his   war on America. In May of 1998, he staged  a media event for ABC News and the world.

Bin Laden had invited ABC's John Miller  to interview him. Bin Laden - adept   at using the world's media - made  his own videotape of the meeting,   which was provided to FRONTLINE  by a bin Laden associate. JOHN MILLER, ABC News: Mr. bin Laden, to  Americans you're an interesting figure,   a man who comes from a background  of wealth and comfort who ended   up fighting on the front lines. Many  Americans would think that's unusual. NARRATOR: Bin Laden had just issued a new fatwah  calling for the killing of Americans anywhere   at any time. He told Miller that America is  oppressing Muslims and plundering their oil.   "We believe," he said, "that the worst  thieves in the world today and the   worst terrorists are the Americans. Nothing  will stop you, except perhaps retaliation."

Around the time of that interview, the director  of the CIA, fearing too many U.S. casualties,   called off the commando raid on bin Laden's  camp. At the same time as that fatwah,   a man believed by the FBI to be a Bin Laden  associate moved into this upscale section   of Nairobi. The U.S. government charges that he  began planning a bomb attack on the U.S. embassy.   They believe that the bomb was constructed in  the garage. A month later in Dar Es Salaam,   several other men rented this house and  started planning for a bomb attack there. The bombs went off exactly eight  years to the day after U.S. troops   were ordered into Saudi Arabia. Of the  213 deaths in Nairobi, 12 were Americans.   In Dar Es Salaam, 11 Tanzanians were killed.  Ten of them were Muslims. Within days,   the FBI had mobilized the largest deployment  of personnel in the agency's history.

In Washington the question was how to respond.  Because of some early breaks in the case,   two men were arrested for the bombing almost  immediately. Wadih el Hage was arrested a month   later for lying to the FBI. But while CIA and  FBI agents pored through intelligence reports,   at least eight key suspects, including bin Laden  remained at large. And this secret FBI- Justice   Department document obtained by FRONTLINE reveals  that there are two other men sought by the U.S.   who have not yet been publicly identified. One  man is cited as a possible tactical mastermind. With almost all of the suspects still at large,  top administration officials were formulating   another plan. Over a period of one week after  the bombings, a small group of U.S. officials   met at the Old Executive Office Building.  The president's National Security Adviser,   Sandy Berger, and his aide, Dick Clark, argued  that relying on law enforcement to track down   the bombers and bring them to trial would not  be enough. They pushed for a military response.

The Justice Department asked  them to delay their decision   until they had more information,  but the president's men prevailed. Pres. BILL CLINTON: Today we have  struck back. I ordered our armed   forces to strike at terrorist-related facilities- NARRATOR: In Afghanistan, approximately 70  cruise missiles hit three alleged bin Laden   training camps. An estimated 24 people were  killed. But if they wanted to kill bin Laden,   they failed. In the Sudan, approximately 13  cruise missiles hit a pharmaceutical plant.   The night watchman was killed. In the streets of Khartoum, President  al-Bashir led an anti-U.S. march. Suddenly,   it appeared that America was transformed from  a victim of terror to an aggressor nation.

HELEN THOMAS, UPI: [Sandy Berger  briefing] Are we absolutely sure   that this pharmaceutical plant in  Sudan was producing nerve gas and- NARRATOR: In the days following the bombing,  the president's national security adviser,   Sandy Berger, faced questions about the missile  strikes, especially the attack in the Sudan. LOWELL BERGMAN: The response that we  hear in the Muslim world is that the   United States is willing to bomb, for  instance, the Sudan, a Muslim country,   without warning, without really solid knowledge  that there was something going on at this point. SAMUEL R. BERGER, National Security  Adviser: Well, I believe we had solid   knowledge that this facility was associated  with chemical weapons. Bin Laden was working   with the Sudanese in developing chemical  weapons. The military industrial corporation   of Sudan was involved in its chemical  weapons facility- its chemical weapons   enterprise. And I think- I think  we took the appropriate action. LOWELL BERGMAN: At the time, we said that  the plant was producing chemical weapons,   and it had a financial link to bin Laden.  That's no longer our position, right?

SAMUEL R. BERGER: I think that there may have been  some individuals who said the camp was producing- LOWELL BERGMAN: I think you  did, actually, at the time. SAMUEL R. BERGER: I don't think- I think- NARRATOR: Last September, Mr.  Berger stated clearly that the   plant was producing a chemical  used to make lethal VX nerve gas. SAMUEL R. BERGER: [at press conference]  -which we know with great certainty   produces essentially the penultimate  chemical to manufacture VX nerve gas. NARRATOR: Now Berger says the plant was merely  somehow associated with chemical weapons. SAMUEL R. BERGER: I don't think that-  I think that is not necessarily the   case. I think it is certainly true that the  plant was associated with chemical weapons. NARRATOR: There are two problems with the  government's case. First, a test on a soil   sample that the administration says proves  that the plant was involved in chemical   weapons production is, according to many experts,  inconclusive. Despite repeated tests by others,   there have been no independent confirmations  of the government's soil test. Second, the   administration has failed to demonstrate a solid  financial link between the plant and bin Laden.

LOWELL BERGMAN: Mr. Berger and others have said,   "Rest assured we have the intelligence.  It's there. We're comfortable with it." MILT BEARDEN: "Trust us." Look, if you've got  intelligence sources and methods to protect,   don't worry about it. Bite the bullet, lay  the intelligence on the table. If you've   got to move somebody out for safety, do that,  but lay it on the table now. Let us see it.   This is not going to go away. The doubts  are not just lingering, they're growing. LOWELL BERGMAN: Doubts about? MILT BEARDEN: Why did we strike? Why did we commit  an act of war against a sovereign state with whom   we have diplomatic relations, commit such an  act without a single warning ahead of time? NARRATOR: After the missile strikes,   anger spread from the Sudan to  countries across the Muslim world. [Anti American protesters] Anyone who can make Americans  react with cruise missiles,   the people seemed to be saying,  must really be somebody.   In Mombassa, the heart of  Kenya's Muslim community,  

we spoke to the chairman of the council  of imams in Kenya, Sheik Ali Shee. LOWELL BERGMAN: What is Osama bin Laden's  image in the Islamic community here? SHEIK ALI SHEE, Chairman of the  Council of Imams: He's a hero. LOWELL BERGMAN: A hero? His friends  have blown up two embassies.   He's declared war on America. And  people in East Africa think he's hero? SHEIK ALI SHEE: Not in East Africa,  everywhere. We take him as a hero for   Islam because he has declared his loyalty  to Islam. But he's not a terrorist at   all. He's defending Islam. When the  issue of aggression come to Islam,   then he stand to defend Islam. When he stands  to defend Islam, then he's called a terrorist. NARRATOR: In October 1998, the US Attorney's  office in New York filed an indictment   against Osama bin Laden and members of his  organization, charging them with concealing   the activities of co-conspirators  through establishing front companies,   providing false travel documents and engaging  in coded correspondence. The government also   charged bin Laden with killing members of the  American military stationed in Saudi Arabia,   and with killing United States embassy officials  in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. But it would be   two years before anyone stood trial. All the  while bin Laden remained free in Afghanistan.

[millennium celebrations] NARRATOR: During this period ,US  intelligence officials now suspect   bin Laden was plotting a series of attacks to  coincide with worldwide celebrations of the   millennium. New York Times reporter Judith  Miller has covered bin Laden since 1993. JUDITH MILLER, The New York Times:  The Islamists were going ring in the   century in their own inimitable fashion by  setting off explosions in several capitals,   on the border of Israel, Jordan, Seattle. NARRATOR: The new year came without incident,   but the thwarting of the millennium plots  may have lured America into complacency. JUDITH MILLER: The millennium bombing attacks  failed and we completely forgot about them,   so people didn't really study  the lessons of them. And   my efforts and the efforts of my newspaper  to pursue it ran into a lot of indifference, NARRATOR: What had happened was that on  December 14, 1999 an Algerian man coming   across the US Canadian border near Seattle was  caught with 100 pounds of explosives and timing   devices…. The next day, in Amman, Jordan, 13  men were arrested and charged with plotting to   blow up the Radisson hotel in Amman and biblical  tourist sites in the area. For the time being it   seemed America's defenses were working. A few  officials, however, were extremely nervous.

JUDITH MILLER: a small group of FBI and  White House officials in the Clinton   white house were absolutely convinced that  what they were seeing in the millennium   attempts would be a prescription for the future. NARRATOR: In October of 2000, terrorists bombed  USS Cole in Yemen, 17 US sailors were killed. JUDITH MILLER: The lesson of the  Cole is that he is relentless,   that he learns from his mistakes, that  he is patient, that he doesn't give up. [world trade center as seen  from the court room…..] NARRATOR: In January of 2001, the trial  opened in the East African embassy bombing   case. Through key witnesses from high  up within bin Laden's organization,   investigators got their best glimpse  yet of how his network functions. LARRY C. JOHNSON, US State Department, 1989-93:  When you put together the entire picture,   starting with the World trade Center running  through the attacks in Dharan Saudi Arabia up   to and including the bombings of the US embassies  in East Africa and finally with the USS Cole…Once   you see that the same person is at least popping  up with a relationship in each of those acts   though...He may not have been the one to place the  explosive. Where he may not be the one to come up   with the original idea. He's not a suspect  because he looks the villain. He's is a   suspect because he is the "where's Waldo"  of terrorism. Every picture he pops up where   there is a terrorist incident of some  significance against the United States.

NARRATOR: Investigators also began to understand  that bin Laden was working with other major   terrorist organizations… Most notably with  Ayman Al Zawahiri of the Egyptian Jihad,   who is charged with killing American  tourists in Luxor, Egypt in 1995. In 2001, Bin Laden surfaced again, in a videotape  that circulated widely in the Islamic world. On   the tape, he read a victory poem about the USS  Cole bombing. Then he issued a new call to arms   against America. "With limited capabilities  and with our faith," Bin Laden said., "we   can defeat the greatest military power of modern  times. America is much weaker than it appears." JUDITH MILLER: Actually these warnings from Bin  Laden himself are very rare. The people I know   in law enforcement and intelligence that I know  were rattled by this warning but they didn't know   what to do about it. I know people at the  white house, last July 4th who didn’t;   sleep for days. They were so worried about what  might be coming our way. And at the end of the   holiday, people were talking about dodging  bullets, about how lucky we were this time.

NARRATOR: Among all the questions  whirling in the chaos of September 11,   there is one that may endure the longest.  Why did the intelligence agencies of the   world's last superpower fail so tragically  to uncover this enormous operation in time JUDITH MILLER: We're spending over 10 billion  dollars a year on counter terrorism. Every eye   and ear of the US government was trained on this  part of the world-- Afghanistan, on these networks   in Europe, in the middle east. This is really  hard work. And I don’t think it serves anybody’s   interest at this at this point to try and blame,  start playing the blame game. It’s only going to   be a waste of time and energy that we desperately  need focused on what is going to be a long term   effort to root out these networks, which are even  in our country, and to really fight terrorism.

BILL MOYERS: It has to be said, and said again:   Osama Bin Laden is only a suspect  in the terrorist attacks this week. But The existence of men like bin Laden –  their hostility to America their grievances,   real or imagined confront  us with a great challenge. It's going to be difficult to prove who is  waging this terrorist war across political   boundaries and apparently beyond any  state's control. So how do we bring the   guilty to justice without making martyrs  of them? And can we distinguish between   those who commit the crimes and the innocent  who share their culture but not their cause.   Not only our security as a nation is at  stake, but our value as a people a long one For FRONTLINE, I'm Bill Moyers. Good night.