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

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

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Airing just two days after 9/11, this documentary offered vital context on U.S. efforts to track Osama bin Laden, his terrorist network and his role in earlier attacks on Americans. (Aired 2001) This journalism is made possible by viewers like you. Donate to FRONTLINE now: https://bit.ly/47DFzCb And support your local PBS station here: https://www.pbs.org/donate In the hours after 9/11 — the worst terror attack on the U.S. in history — the CIA and FBI briefed political leaders in Washington, D.C. that their search for the terrorists responsible was focusing on one name above all others: Osama bin Laden. With opening and closing commentary from legendary journalist Bill Moyers, FRONTLINE’s “Hunting bin Laden,” which aired two days after the 9/11 attacks, captured the shock, grief and horror that gripped the U.S. when the twin towers fell — and documented the emergence of one central question: Why did U.S. intelligence agencies fail so tragically to “connect the dots” and uncover this enormous operation in time? Built on an investigation into bin Laden and his militant Islamist network that FRONTLINE had aired two years earlier, and featuring new interviews conducted in the hours after 9/11, “Hunting bin Laden” was a collaboration with The New York Times. Director and producer Martin Smith and correspondent Lowell Bergman pieced together how bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi Arabian exile then believed to be hiding in Afghanistan, had eluded the U.S. while building a terror network and calling for the killing of Americans. The documentary traced how the U.S. responded when bin Laden’s ideology emerged in connection with several major acts of Islamist 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 U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. It also raised tough questions about the evidence used to justify Washington’s retaliatory missile strikes in Sudan, a country where bin Laden was once based, following those embassy bombings. At the time “Hunting bin Laden” aired, the search for survivors in the wake of the 9/11 attacks was ongoing. As Moyers noted, a connection between bin Laden and the attacks had yet to be officially established. “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?” Moyers asked. “Not only our security as a nation is at stake, but our values as a people.” “Hunting Bin Laden” was a FRONTLINE co-production with The New York Times and Rain Media, Inc. It was produced and directed by Martin Smith. It was written by Martin Smith and Lowell Bergman. The correspondent was Lowell Bergman. The executive editor of FRONTLINE was Louis Wiley Jr. The executive producer of FRONTLINE was David Fanning. Explore additional reporting on “Hunting Bin Laden”: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/ #Documentary #OsamaBinLaden #9/11 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/PBSfrontline Sign up for our newsletter: https://frontline.org/newsletter Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontlinepbs Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/frontline Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/frontlinepbs.bsky.social FRONTLINE is produced at GBH in Boston and airs nationwide on PBS. The editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, with major support from Ford Foundation, and Fialkow Family Foundation. Additional support for FRONTLINE is provided by the Abrams Foundation, Park Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Heising-Simons Foundation, and the FRONTLINE Trust, with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and Corey David Sauer, and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen, and from Laura DeBonis and Scott Nathan. CHAPTERS: 01:59 - Introduction From Legendary Journalist Bill Moyers 02:56 - The 1988 U.S. Embassy Bombings in Kenya & Tanzania 04:40 - Who Was Osama bin Laden? 20:48 - Bin Laden in Sudan & Afghanistan 29:14 - Inside the CIA & FBI’s Efforts to Track bin Laden 37:55 - Why the U.S. Bombed Afghanistan & Sudan in 1998 50:52 - Closing Words From Bill Moyers 51:36 - Credits

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Source: PBS Frontline

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description: Airing just two days after 9/11, this documentary offered vital context on U.S. efforts to track Osama bin Laden, his terrorist network and his role in earlier attacks on Americans. (Aired 2001) This journalism is made possible by viewers like you. Donate to FRONTLINE now: https://bit.ly/47DFzCb And support your local PBS station here: https://www.pbs.org/donate In the hours after 9/11 — the worst terror attack on the U.S. in history — the CIA and FBI briefed political leaders in Washington, D.C. that their search for the terrorists responsible was focusing on one name above all others: Osama bin Laden. With opening and closing commentary from legendary journalist Bill Moyers, FRONTLINE’s “Hunting bin Laden,” which aired two days after the 9/11 attacks, captured the shock, grief and horror that gripped the U.S. when the twin towers fell — and documented the emergence of one central question: Why did U.S. intelligence agencies fail so tragically to “connect the dots” and uncover this enormous operation in time? Built on an investigation into bin Laden and his militant Islamist network that FRONTLINE had aired two years earlier, and featuring new interviews conducted in the hours after 9/11, “Hunting bin Laden” was a collaboration with The New York Times. Director and producer Martin Smith and correspondent Lowell Bergman pieced together how bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi Arabian exile then believed to be hiding in Afghanistan, had eluded the U.S. while building a terror network and calling for the killing of Americans. The documentary traced how the U.S. responded when bin Laden’s ideology emerged in connection with several major acts of Islamist 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 U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. It also raised tough questions about the evidence used to justify Washington’s retaliatory missile strikes in Sudan, a country where bin Laden was once based, following those embassy bombings. At the time “Hunting bin Laden” aired, the search for survivors in the wake of the 9/11 attacks was ongoing. As Moyers noted, a connection between bin Laden and the attacks had yet to be officially established. “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?” Moyers asked. “Not only our security as a nation is at stake, but our values as a people.” “Hunting Bin Laden” was a FRONTLINE co-production with The New York Times and Rain Media, Inc. It was produced and directed by Martin Smith. It was written by Martin Smith and Lowell Bergman. The correspondent was Lowell Bergman. The executive editor of FRONTLINE was Louis Wiley Jr. The executive producer of FRONTLINE was David Fanning. Explore additional reporting on “Hunting Bin Laden”: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/ #Documentary #OsamaBinLaden #9/11 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/PBSfrontline Sign up for our newsletter: https://frontline.org/newsletter Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontlinepbs Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/frontline Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/frontlinepbs.bsky.social FRONTLINE is produced at GBH in Boston and airs nationwide on PBS. The editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, with major support from Ford Foundation, and Fialkow Family Foundation. Additional support for FRONTLINE is provided by the Abrams Foundation, Park Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Heising-Simons Foundation, and the FRONTLINE Trust, with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and Corey David Sauer, and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen, and from Laura DeBonis and Scott Nathan. CHAPTERS: 01:59 - Introduction From Legendary Journalist Bill Moyers 02:56 - The 1988 U.S. Embassy Bombings in Kenya & Tanzania 04:40 - Who Was Osama bin Laden? 20:48 - Bin Laden in Sudan & Afghanistan 29:14 - Inside the CIA & FBI’s Efforts to Track bin Laden 37:55 - Why the U.S. Bombed Afghanistan & Sudan in 1998 50:52 - Closing Words From Bill Moyers 51:36 - Credits
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What FRONTLINE Aired Two Days After 9/11 | Hunting bin Laden (full documentary) | FRONTLINE (PBS)

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