FRONTLINE

(helicopter whirring) >>

NARRATOR

By the evening of 9/11, President George W. Bush finally arrived at the White House. >> President Bush is back at the White House, he's about... >> He was flown by Marine One, the Marine helicopter, to the South Lawn... >> He'd been on the move since he'd been told about the attack that morning. >> There he is, the president, coming back from a trip that has taken him first to Florida today... >> I whispered into his right ear, "A second plane hit the second tower. America is under attack." >> The Secret Service took over. >> Where is the president of the United States? Pretty soon the country needs to know where he is. >> The president kept out of Washington for hours. >> They are still quite worried about his own security. >> The president was in parts very much in a bubble. He was evacuated from Florida, he was on Air Force One, flying around the country. >> President Bush was flown secretly today from Florida, first to Louisiana... >> When the country saw the president, a couple of times that day, he seemed unready. He looked like he was the hunted, not the hunter. (static hissing) >> Nearly 3,000 people were dead. In the days ahead, Bush would be haunted by the question of what he could have done to prevent it. >> Remember, it was the worst terrorist attack ever on the United States, and it happened on his watch. As president, you do feel a certain responsibility when something as serious as that happens while you're the commander-in-chief. >> The president now, just a few moments away from addressing the nation from the Oval Office. >> George W. Bush, live in the White House, about to make his comments. >> That night, the nation waited to hear from him. >> Well, it's a critical time for him. The nation is being tested. The new president is being tested, as well. (slams) >> He would lay out a stark vision of the new world after 9/11. >> Now we go to the Oval Office and President Bush. >> America was targeted for attack because we're the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world. And no one will keep that light from shining. Today, our nation saw evil, the very worst of human nature. >> George Bush, in his mind, I think, did understand that something very evil had happened-- and it had happened. It was an evil act, 9/11. It killed thousands of civilians. >> Tonight, I ask for your prayers for all those who grieve and I pray they will be comforted by a power greater than any of us, spoken through

the ages in Psalm 23

"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me." >> But, once you define yourself as good and the other side as bad, it's a slippery slope, because you start thinking anything you do for your cause is good, and we wound up doing some very evil things in the name of goodness. >> All right. Sad day. ("Star-Spangled Banner" playing) >>

NARRATOR

In those early days, around the world, the lines between good and evil seemed clear. (bell tolling) >> The world rallied around America. NATO invoked Article 5 for the first time in its history, "An attack on one is an attack on all." (group singing) >> Well, it's good to know that at times like this, America is not without friends. >> And even in parts of the Muslim world, a real outward expression of, of pain and sympathy for the United States. >> God bless you, God bless you, God bless you. >> In Tehran this week, demonstrators held a candlelight vigil for victims of the attacks... >> There was a great outpouring of, actually, of love for America, of support and of solidarity. (man chanting) >> And outside the American Embassy in Moscow, where people bowed their heads and wept. >> The Americans had been attacked. There was no excuse, no explanation possible, and the world, in a sense, was on revenge mode. We had to kill the murderers. >> The C.I.A. knew the culprit. They told the president it was Saudi extremist Osama bin Laden, the founder of the Islamic militant group Al-Qaeda. (gun fires) >> We had been projecting a spectacular attack by Al-Qaeda. Here it was. We had the names of some of the people involved that we recognized. They were Al-Qaeda. >> Bin Laden was operating out of Afghanistan. The C.I.A. said they could use their fast attack forces to take him out. >> We'd spent years working on this stuff. Where everybody else is looking for their maps on Afghanistan, we're ready to rock, ready to roll. >> The president liked the sound of it. The C.I.A.'s director of counterterrorism, Cofer Black, would take the lead and set the tone for what was to come. >> There was a before 9/11, and there was an after 9/11. After 9/11, the gloves come off. >> My last meeting with Cofer, he basically said to me, "Your job is to find bin Laden, kill him, and bring his head back on ice." (laughs): And I said, "Well, that's about the clearest, direct, most direct order I've ever received as a C.I.A. officer." And I said, "I'll do my best. We'll, we'll try to get the job done." >> Two weeks after the 9/11 attack, the small C.I.A. strike force arrived in Afghanistan. They needed to deal with the extremists in charge of the country and harboring bin Laden, the Taliban. >> My team, seven officers, including myself and three air crew, flew in on the 26th of September. When I began to distribute money, $200,000 here, $250,000 for this, I think it was, they were convinced that we, we were sincere. >> The American dollars bought the cooperation of the Taliban's enemies, rival militias and warlords. >> I remember immediately realizing the horrific choice that was being made. >> (shouting) >> We got into business right away with the warlords who had been running and ruining Afghanistan for many years. These were brutal killers, and they were up against the Taliban, which were also brutal killers. >> Devastating American air bombardments did their part to weaken the Taliban. >> We dropped these massive bombs called daisy cutters on Taliban troop positions in the northern part of the country. (explosions) Essentially let Afghan forces to rise up in different parts of the country and, and push out the Taliban regime. >> Within weeks, the Taliban had been driven from the capital city, Kabul. >> There is jubilation in the cities that we have liberated. (gunshots) And the sooner Al-Qaeda is bought to justice, the sooner Afghanistan will return to normal. >> But for all the celebrating, the truth was that the C.I.A.'s primary target, Osama bin Laden, had vanished. The mastermind of 9/11 was believed to be hiding in the mountain stronghold of Tora Bora. A small contingent of American forces joined Afghan fighters there. >> Those of us on the ground, you know, a few dozen international reporters, we far outnumbered the number of American Special Forces and, and C.I.A. who were on the ground there. There was a bigger journalistic contingent at Tora Bora than there was American fighting force. (explosions) >> U.S. and allied forces bombed Tora Bora, but couldn't get bin Laden. (explosions) The C.I.A. team leader wanted hundreds of U.S. Special Forces on the ground. >> I asked for, you know, ground support. And I knew that we needed U.S. Rangers-- the longer we waited, the further he fell back to the border. >> The military did not send in the reinforcements. >> It was a catastrophic mistake. Because of miscommunication, some bureaucratic infighting, the most elite of U.S. troops weren't dispatched there. We didn't send in the Navy Seals or the Army's Delta Force. >> Bin Laden and his besieged Al-Qaeda forces slipped over the border to Pakistan, an early and ominous sign that the war would not be so easy. >> The fact that he was allowed to survive... The fact that he could then claim to have escaped the most technologically advanced military in the history of mankind, fed into a defeated organization's narrative that served to breathe new life into them and enabled them to survive Operation Enduring Freedom, the defeat of the Taliban, and the routing of Al-Qaeda. >> With bin Laden still on the run and Afghanistan in tatters, a new reality set in. America was now embroiled in a country ravaged by years of war. >> Afghanistan is a devastated country. Many of the buildings in the capital, Kabul, have been destroyed. >> The women and men of Afghanistan, all of them are suffering right now. >> Their faces out of a Dickens novel, many without shoes and socks. >>...terrorist car bomb left a square in downtown Kabul a bloody shambles, at least 15 dead. >> Fears remain that the Afghan people's suffering is far from over. >> President Bush and the presidents that followed would struggle to come to terms with America's role in Afghanistan. >> There was never the political will and therefore the ability to invest the amount of money and boots on the ground and attention that it would have taken to have a more definitive resolution of that conflict. >> It would become the longest war in American history.