-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com good afternoon. it is 3:00 on the east coast of the united states. i'm anderson cooper in new york and i'm coming to you live from ground zero. in the words of the president barack obama, it is a good day for america. osama bin laden is dead. i am joined in washington by cnn's wolf blitzer who was on the air breaking the news last night and before we go to wolf, we are learning more in hour about the covert operation that took bin laden out in pakistan. here is a brand new image of the compound. it is a satellite image and the united states officials are making a point of saying today that bin laden was hiding behind a woman, using a woman as a human shooeield in the moments before he was shot in the head by operation personnel.

and we will hear more about how this mission went down, but wolff, what is the latest coming out of the white house right now? >> well, anderson, they are providing a lot more details. john brennan, a former high ranking official of the cia just spent nearly an hour, and about 45 minutes answering reports' questions and providing a wealth of detail. we are scrutinizing all of that information and we are getting a whole lot more coming in not only from the white house, but the pentagon and the state department and the u.s. intelligence community and around the world, and pakistani officials are saying one thing, and afghani officials are saying another thing. let's go to the white house with our correspondent dan lothian, and you were just in the briefing with john brennan, and he is blunt talking, and straight talking guy, and we learned a lot more about this operation. >> we did, wolf. i should point out that i have attended many briefings with him over the past few years on counterintelligence situations, and i have never seen him this animated and certainly not providing this kind of detailed

information in public. in fact, during the briefing, i was exchanging e-mails with a senior administration official who said quote, i have never seen a briefing anything like this. he laid out, as you pointed out a details of this operation dating back years, and the patience of following a lot of the intelligence to get to that compound. what is interesting though is that he and other officials have pointed out is that u.s. forces did not know 100% that osama bin laden was inside that compound. there was described by officials a lot of circumstantial, strong circumstantial evidence, but again, not 100% guarantee that he would be in there. one thing that he did show was a lot of emotion talking about the tense moments leading up to the actual shooting and killing of osama bin laden. officials back here at the white house and in the situation room had been monitoring in realtime

the entire mission. we were not able to find out if that meant that they could see it on video or if they could hear it via audio, but what we do know is that they were following step-by-step as it was playing out in realtime, and a very tense situation that he described how a lot of people there were holding their breaths, and that many of the counter intelligence experts have never been in quite a tense situation like this, and he described that, quote, the minutes passed like days. he said a lot of people were quote, holding their breath. so that the administration laying out, wolf, all of the hard work from the intelligence community that ended with the killing of osama bin laden. >> there's no doubt, dan, that this was a very risky operation, and that there was a collective nervousness obviously when one of those helicopters, and two helicopters went in with the special operations forces of the navy s.e.a.l.s, and the cia

operatives and one of the helicopters went down, and there was -- there was a lot of nervousness, and tell our viewers what happened. >> that is right. well, the helicopter has what they describe as mechanical problems, and mr. brennan saying that was what he viewed as the most tense moment throughout as all of this was playing out, because he says that when you plan an operation like this, you always hope that you can accomplish it through step one or the a-operation, but sometimes you have to go through the backup plan and in this case when the second helicopter was not operational they had to go to plan, but they were still successful in getting all of those involved in the mission out of there, but as you poind ou out this was a tense situation and the gutsiest call that this president or any president in their words has had to do. >> well, a gutsy call for the president, the commander in chief, to make this decision, because the risks were enormous.

dan lothian, thanks very much. enanderson, i can tell you from my own reporting that a lot of the officials in the situation room when they heard that the helicopters had been disabled it brought back images of when another president jimmy carter sent helicopters to bring back diplomats held as hostages in iran, and we know what happened with those helicopters and ended in terrible failure and brought back horrible, horrible memories officials who had gathered with the president in the situation room. >> and also, more reason than that, the blackhawk down situation in somalia and one of those helicopters destroyed by special forces so it did not fall into the wrong hands and some of the equipment inside would not be stripped down and apparently a u.s. special forces personnel also destroyed the helicopter that went down in pakistan. wolf, i want to bring in cnn

correspondent kaj larsen in los angeles, and you worked as a journalist in and around tora bora and that was the last time that there was a definite locator on osama bin laden, and how was it that he was able to slip away back then? >> well, it is so interesting, anderson, about the terrain at tora bora is that it is really incredibly mountainous and rugged an easy for him to slip out of the backdoor so to speak and walk to pakistan. what is interesting with tora bora and i saw it when i was there and in the cave is that it gave a lot of people this the general public that bin laden was burrowed away in a cave in some where in the frontier in pakistan but most officials believed the opposites, because of the logistics of being a village or hamlet which of course turned out to be true. >> from the operational standpoint, how difficult for special forces is this kind of

operation? i mean, how long would they have to prepare for a sight-specific operation like this? >> well, the beauty of the special operations forces in the united states military is that they really truly are the tip of the spear. when you combine that with the intelligence analysts working in the support structures behind them, so they could execute this raid very quickly if necessary. i think that because of the high value nature of the target here, this was a meticulously planned. they allegedly have built a mock-up of the compound, and they would have dirt dived and rehearsed this mission going through the house, time and time again until their moves were completely in sync and they were ready to execute probably most amazing about the story is that the total time on target which is significant number from an operational perspective was somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 minutes, and exceptionally fast and exceptionally well executed. >> and they are able to provide realtime video for policy makers

back, and i understand that president obama among others was able to watch realtime video. >> they were. from the operator's perspective, that is a double-edged sword, because you could be watching, but there is nothing that you can do to impact events on the ground, but technology has gone to the point where they can observe in realtime exactly what is happening and a mission of this ip credible strategic importance that almost was certainly happening. >> and we are learning hour by hour more e d ietails, and kaj, thank you. we have en soob it in have seen special operation forces operating in realtime and that was the case in this operation, and imagine being in the situation room watching it happen half of the world away. incredible. >> yeah, that operation lasted they say 40 minutes on the ground, but then those helicopters they had to take not only bin laden's body, but all

of the american troops, the special operations forces, the intelligence operatives and fly them out of pakistani air space to afghanistan and did not inform the pakistani government of what was going on until all of them, according to john brennan, briefing us, until all of the helicopters and the american troops with bin laden's body were out of pakistan. they clearly did not trust the pakistanis enough to give them that kind of information. let's go to the scene right now. "time" magazine contributor is in abottabad, pakistan, right now which is where the big compound where bin laden was hiding out. omar, set the scene for us. you are joining us on the phone, and this is only an hour or hour and a half drive from the capital of pakistan, islamabad. and he was not a cave, but in a mansion for all practical purposes. >> well, wolf, it is longer that

an hour, because it takes two to three hours to get there off of the road that is dizzying and snakes northwards. abottabad is a garrison town, and named after a british colonial officer. it has got a very heavy, as you mention, military presence there, and it has the equivalent of west point there, and there are installations along the way like the ordnance factory. the neighborhood he was staying in is actually quite discrete. from what i was speaking to residents of abottabad, they described it as a well healed neighborhood, a neighborhood populated by retired army officers, doctors, and the like. it didn't draw many suspicions from people at all. however, i did speak to a construction worker who says that his home was barely five minutes away and he has passed the house and familiar with that

house. he says that he was not sure of who lived there. he was suspect about who owned it. he said it was owned by a pashtun man known as akbar, and throughout the rest of the town, there is a great deal of incrk d incredulity, and nobody knew it was bin laden, but whoever lived there was living within the bounds of the compound, and yet they said he could live there for a number of years, because it is a part of pakistan that is largely undisturbed by either suicide bombings or the dramatic events of any kind. so for them to have gone through the raid last night and then deal with the world's media standing up today, it is a startling experience. >> given the location of this mansion, this compound where bin

laden was hiding out and all of the retired and the active duty pakistani military who were living in the city of abottabad, is it conceivable that there was no s a ss a sises and th s and- provided by pakistan authorities to bin laden? >> well, wolf, the pakistan intelligence agencies pride themselves on being very efficient, and almost describing powers of omnipotence to themselves. the fact that bin laden could have been hiding as you said in such a, in what is not a remote part of pakistan, and we are not talking about a back corner of the region or somewhere up in the mountains, but as we discussed just mere hours away from the capital. so for him to be unnoticed signals two things. either the pakistani intelligence agencies are far,

far more incompetent than they claimed to be or they knew he was there. and judging by the reaction of people in abottabad, they are going by the latter. >> i suspect that the u.s. authorities believe the same thing. omar, thank you very much. omar is a contributor for our sister publication "time" magazine, and he happens to be in awbottabad where osama bin laden was found and killed yesterday. anderson, what i am hearing the strain in the u.s./pakistani relationship is significant, because as you well know that the pakistanis hate the fact that the u.s. didn't trust them enough to give them so-called actionable intelligence and let them get the job done, but it was the u.s. to do it, because they did not trust the pakistanis and they felt that bin laden would slip away if they shared at all, so it is causing a sensitive break in the

u.s./pakistani relationship which is so critical. >> yes, i believe so, because they say that the u.s. intelligence have a lot of explaining to do, and the cliche of bin laden living in a cave somewhere in north waziristan and to find out he was a drive away from islamabad is extraordinary. for years pakistani officials have denied categorically that bin laden was even in pakistan at all, and just as they said that al zawahiri or anybody else is there, and hard for them to deny given that he was found so close to islamabad. we are also getting breaking news right now on how the u.s. tracked down the man who eventually led forces to bin laden. it is a fascinating story, and new details on that ahead. stay tuned. we will be right back. [ male announcer ] in 2011, at&t is at work, building up our wireless network all across america.

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>> all right. we are watching what is going on right now. and anderson cooper is at ground zero in new york city, and i'm here in washington, d.c. and gloria borger is getting important information from the u.s. officials. the key was this so-called courier going back and forth to the compound and papparently ha no telephone or internet service, and that silence raise sod many questions for the

intelligence community. >> in is a story that goes back for years, wolf. we have learned according to my sources that the courier was a protege of khalid sheikh muhammad, and when intelligence officials interview detainees about some of the names of the couriers who might actually be aiding osama bin laden, some of the detainees conceivably ksm held out on them, and by holding out, the intelligence agency figures, you know, this guy is probably something, and the problem is that, wolf, they only knew his nickname. they didn't know his real name, but it was considered high-value information so they press and trailed him in classic espionage, and classic work, and they learned his name from a different part of the world and they tracked him around. they could not follow him around and they had a sighting of him, so they set up an elaborate surveillance effort that led them in august of 2010 to that compound and one of my sources

said to me, when we saw that compound, we said, wow. this is different. and then leon panetta the cia director said to them, i want a body count of everybody who lives there, and who they are and where they are sleeping. it was a courier and his family and the courier's brother and his family and then the question was, there was a third family up on the top floor, and seemed like it could have been osama bin laden's family, but they weren't sure. one hypothesis was that it was osama's family without osama, but they weren't sure, so in tend, t the end the analysis by the cia was that it was an 80% probability that it was osama bin laden in the compound, but they didn't know for sure. >> and one of the 2i7stips of ak of phone service and internet service and why would an expensive home like this be

without basic services. and other was the garbage was burned internally. >> and here is another thing that my sources said, that we suspected that osama bin laden would be in there because he was in the construction business, and this was really well constructed, and they thought, well, maybe he had something to do with this. >> and the initial indications of august 2010 they began to suspect something was going on there. >> yes, absolutely. that is when they discovered the compound, but this went on for years before, but the question is that they did get high value information from detainees, but maybe because the detainees were holding out on certain things, and in using what they were holding out on, they knew that it was important. >> and that is what happens. >> intelligence work. >> absolutely. >> and i think that it is clear that a very, very risky operation. >> very risky. >> they could have sent a

predator drone over, and they did not want to do that. >> the president did not want to do that or the cia director, because he clearly wanted evidence. he did not want to drop a bomb, but they wanted the know the target they had struck. >> they wanted the body. >> yes, in fact, they got it. gloria, good reporting. anderson, i have to tell you everyone, and i have spoken to a lot of political-types here in with washington, and obviously, the democrats, but republicans and conservatives are praising president obama on this day for having the guts to go ahead to give the authorization for this very risky military operation. >> yeah, we have also video from inside of the compound, and we will show you that coming up taken moments after bin laden was killed. you can clearly see a pool of blood next to a bed, and we will show you that next, a and we will talk to jill dougherty of the state department for new details about the role that pakistan played in the operation and what it means for our relationship with that country,

and you and i talked about that a little bit, wolf. with le ha we will have more of that with jill dougherty right after the break. [ male announcer ] you know mom. we know diamonds. together we'll make this mother's day one she'll never forget. that's why only zales is the diamond store. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] with amazing innovation, driven by relentless competition, wireless puts the world at your command. ♪

and welcome back. we are live at ground zero. it is really interesting atmosphere here today. work continues on the rebuilding here at ground zero, but for several blocks, there are hundreds or thousands of people throughout the day coming down

here and want to be here at least for a little bit today, and a lot of people just talking with each other on the street, taking pictures. i want to show you video from abc news on the aftermath of the raid in that compound in pakistan. the bed was left blood dirks and we are told that osama bin laden was using one of the women, his wife, as a human shield. this according to the authorities and i want to bring in jill dougherty at the state department. what is the latest we are hearing about pakistan's involvement or/or lack of involvement in the operation? >> well, that is the biggest question, anderson. did they actually know that osama bin laden was living in that compound, because obviously, that raises questions if they did, why didn't they go after him? and the pakistani ambassador to the united states is saying we did not know. if the we had, we would have gotten him. but also we had a presser here

with hillary clinton, and i asked if this undermines any cooperation, and she said that pakistan helped the united states to help us to lead us to bin laden, and also to the compound where he was hiding and other officials on background say, they could not have done it without this general anti-terror cooperation, but i think that is where you have to define it. and it is unclear. yes, general information and probably some that led them to it, but the crunch times comes when that operation took place, john brennan, the president's adviser just about an hour ago said that the united states did not tell pakistan about it specifically until the u.s. team was out of there. so, that gives you the picture. they didn't trust them enough to tell them the detailings of it, be it that i have a relationship

in general. >> but, jill, there are concerns for years about pakistan's intelligence service and the isi in particular, and their relationships with extremist groups, and members of the taliban and other extremist groups, so it is understandable that the u.s. officials would have serious concerns about whether or not to tell pakistani officials. i just talked to former pakistani president pervez musharraf who for years has been denying that osama bin laden has been in pakistan and just as he continues to deny the head of the taliban mullah omar or number two ayman al zawahiri are there in pakistan. so what are the other officials saying about this, because while musharraf says he is upset or does not approve of u.s. operation in pakistan territory without informing pakistani officials or having them involved, he does think that this was a successful operation. have we heard publicly from the

spak st pakistani officials? >> well, the government was saying that it was good, that it was good for both the united states and for pakistan that this happened. musharraf seems to be taking a more negative approach. but certainly, and i have heard this from the u.s. officials that they have heard what they wanted to hear from the pakistanis who were in general supportive and complimentary of the operation saying that it helped both sides. >> we did hear from senator carl levin today who said that the pakistani military and their government have some explaining to do and questions they need to answer, and so we will see if there is any more information about this. jill, appreciate your reporting on how more of what the operation looked like, how it went down, and we are going to talk to the former cia operative who will join us ahead. also, more than six hours before we learned that bin laden learned he was killed a man in

pakistan tweeted about the top secret operation going on, and he had no idea really what was going on, but he knew something was going on, and we will hear from him and brooke baldwin is all over this story, and she will show us his tweets right after this. i'm supposed to reach, or... tdd# 1-800-345-2550 it's beach homes or it's starting a vineyard. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 come on ! tdd# 1-800-345-2550 just help me figure it out tdd# 1-800-345-2550 in a practical, let's-make- this-happen kind of way. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 a vineyard ? schwab real life retirement services is personalized, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 practical help that's focused on making your retirement real. open an account today and talk to chuck tdd# 1-800-345-2550 about setting up your one-on-one consultation. tdd# 1-800-345-2550

welcome back to the continuing coverage. we are following the fall-out and it is enormous from the death of osama bin laden. yesterday, in pakistan, in a city, and not in a cave, and not in some rural area, but in a

city in pakistan, about a two-hour drive outside of the islamabad, the capital of pakistan. we are watching all of this unfold. anderson cooper is with us, and a lot of reaction coming in from washington and all over the world, but i suspect that cia operatives those directly involved and we may never know their specific names, but they were instrumental along with the navy s.e.a.l.s in getting this job done. >> well no, doubt about it. clearly from the description of the operation, there was a fair amount of human intelligence, human involvement in this operation, and in addition to signals intelligence and other kinds of intelligence, but i want to bring in bob barre who brings us in by phone from irvine, california. bob, in terms of cia involvement in an operation like this, how does it work? how it is coordinated? and because it does seem like a lot of human intelligence was

involved in staking this place out over many, many months. >> oh, absolutely. i mean that the s.e.a.l.s did not fly in there blind. they had eyes on the doctrine and that is military doctrine, and doctrine for the cia to have eyes on up to the raid for weeks at a time. you to make absolutely sure that the target has not moved, and that military has not moved in for instance and that the rest of it. so they have had this thing covered with both intercept, human sources, informants and probably people inside of the pakistani army, almost undoubtedly, and to do a raid like this is enormously risky for the white house, and they had to be 100% sure that everything was ready. this was not done by chance, you can count on that. >> it is amazing to me, bob, that bin laden would stay in one location for that amount of time if they learned about this location back in august, that means me was there for a

significant ament of time and the image that americans had was that he was constantly on the move or living in one of the tribal areas to the north. were you surprised at the location he ultimately was killed in? >> well, anderson, i have to be frank about this. i have spent enough time in pakistan to know that the police know everything about foreigners. you cannot build a compound, and this thing has been there since 2005 and put razor wire around it and just go out to be a very visible presence and not have the intelligent service know about it. i think that somebody, at some level in the pakistani military was harboring him, and bin laden thought he was being protected by pakistan. there is no other explanation that can come to mind at this point. >> i agree with you on this, i don't know how someone can build a compound with huge walls, wire, and not arouse suspicion in a place like pakistan where

people on the street monitor everything that you do. >> you can't. it is impossible. it is impossible. you will get a nong dooknock onr if you are a foreigner, and they will check it out. it is very inefficient police service in areas that they control right next to the military garrison, and for all that the pakistanis knew it was indian spies or something, and they had to check it out. bin laden until proven otherwise was being protected of somebody in pakistan and i'm convinced of it now. >> what does this do for cooperation between the united states and the pakistani military services and pakistan services going forward? >> well, it is a disaster. if you look at afghanistan we know that the haqqani forces are being protected by sii, and you have to look they are on the

other side, and we are paying them billions of dollars every year, but they are fighting on the wrong side. >> thank you, bob baer, for being with us this afternoon. wolf joining us now in d.c. wolf, it is an interesting atmosphere here at ground zero today. people coming from all over the city, and tourists, and construction workers and people who just work in the area, and just kind of want to spend some time down here to i d aday and e the people milling around with pictures, and it is like this often around ground zero, but it is a special atmosphere today. a lot of people coming here. the streets are clogged and people just want to be here, wolf. >> so many people thought they never would be able to appreciate this day based on what happened yesterday. they want to remember it for the rest of their lives, and there is obviously a great place the be at ground zero right now. anderson we will get back to you in a few moments. brooke baldwin is joining us from the cnn center, and brooke,

there was somebody from the city where osama bin laden was hiding out who was tweeting about this operation even as it was going on. tell the viewers what you know. >> well, it is an interesting facet to the story that speaks to the pervasiveness of social media in a world event like this. these are some of the most read tweets around the world today and this is all coming from the i.t. consultant living in abottabad in the neighborhood where they found osama bin laden and he provided the first accounts of the raid that went by in the nearby compound. i want to blow through a couple of the tweets for you. this is happening 1:00 in the morning pakistan time, and that is a full seven hours before president obama announced that osama bin laden had been used. this twitter, and you can follow him now and be one of the 66,000 followers. go to at really virtual. one of the first tweets, helicopter hovering above in abottabad at 1:00 a.m. is a rare

event. and tweeting, take away helicopter before i take out my giant swatter. and the next tweet, as his windows begin to rattle, a huge window shaking bang here in abottabad and i hope it is not the start of something nasty. two hours later, and two hours later with the help of some others that he has been conve e conversing on, on twitter and he tweets, two helicopters down, and one down and could be the training accident their jscenar say it was, and then multiple hours later when the president addressed the nation and the world and he is realizing that it is the end of the world wide manhunt of osama bin laden, and he is tweeting, now i'm the guy who live blogged the osama raid without knowing it. so in the course of 24 hours of@really virtual, and his name began to trend on twitter and he

jumped tens of thousands of followers in 24 hours. live blogging the whole thing, wolf. >> yeah, it is amazing the kind of information that you can pick up on twitter, because it moves so quickly. >> so quickly. >> and it goes indeed all over the world, and you can find out stuff, and who would have thought, i mean, i had not read the tweet in those hours before we all learned of what happened, i would have assumed that some pakistani military helicopters were engaged in some sort of operation, and one of the helicopters went down and maybe a little firefight or training exercise or maybe going after some elements that they considered untrendily, but who would have thought they were u.s. helicopters. >> who would have thought? >> and sometimes it is a lot more dramatic than fiction to be true. movies will be made of this no doubt i have about that. thank you very much, brooke. anderson, as we watch all of this unfold, based on my experience and i'm sure your experience as a reporter, we are

only beginning to get the tip of the iceberg about the details. we are in the coming days, maybe in the coming hours, but certainly in the coming days wx will learn a whole lot more? >> yes. we should be cautious, because oftentimes the story that is put forward frankly by the u.s. officials early on, you know, it does not necessarily turn out to be fully accurate. you think back to the jessica lynch situation in the war in iraq, and sometimes the stories in the early hours that it is put forward over time changes. there is that caveat, but right now, we are relying on the information that the u.s. officials are telling us, and very difficult to get independent or confirmation on the ground at this point, but in the hours and the days and the weeks ahead, whoep e hope to ge more complete picture of what happened on the ground in the 30 to 45 minutes that the u.s. special forces were on the

ground conducting the operation. news of osama bin laden's death comes as welcomed relief for a number of people, and many of the families of the victims of 9/11, and we will hear from some of them shortly. plus, we will talk to a first responder at the world trade center on 9/11 and that is coming up as well, and our coverage continues live from washington and ground zero and all around the world. we will be right back. ♪ that airline is gonna nail that frequent flyer with restrictions when he tries to use his miles. ♪ that's a lot of red tape! step on it!

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i want to bring in -- welcome back, we are live at ground zero, and i want to bring in james ryder who is retired from the new york police department and he was one of the first responders at the world

trade center on 9/11 and what is it like for you being here on this day now? >> it is emotional in a lot of different ways. i could not identify the emotion i had yesterday until a little while ago and maybe an hour ago. >> what was it? >> several different emotions. there is happiness, relief, closure, and frustration and madness. this man killed a lot of people, and these people keep on dying, and now that he is gone, there is a seps nse of peace, but we e on with more death, because there are a still a lot of people who are sick. >> and a lot of people being some of them first responders who came here to work at great personal risk to themselves and now suffering the consequences. >> yes, breathing difficulties and cancers and losing of limbs and family members and post-traumatic stress, and it is difficult. >> you see them as victims of bin laden just like those who died here? >> absolutely. >> you work with an organization to help? >> e yes, the feel good organization helps the first responders. our mission is to make sure that

the droga bill is pass and is transparent and that the $4 billion for that bill is paid for and used for the responders who are sick and dying. >> when you heard that bin laden was found not in some cave in north waziristan, but in a compound that seemed to have been built for him near pakistani military building not far from the capital of pakistan, does that just -- does it sound fishy to you? >> it sounds like he is as arrogant as i always thought he was. it is not about him or his children or his wife. they are all just shields for him. that is is all they are. he is a pompous arrogant son of a gun, and now he is dead. >> one of the things that president obama was citing last night is the number of muslims that osama bin laden killed and he tried to be the standard bearer, when he killed a lot of

muslims. >> that is my point, he is a arrogant son of a gun, and he let his own family members die as shields instead of worrying about himself, but he will find out in the bottom of the ocean, there is no arrogance. >> the war continues though, and the threat, do you believe that the threat from al qaeda continues? >> absolutely. 20 years in the nypd i know what security is and why it is needed. we are in a different world since 9/11 and there are many people in the country who don't believe in freedom, and he is only one of them. he was the head of the snake, and now we have to deal with the rest of it. >> and we thank you for what you do here and for what you do for the first responders. >> thank you, anderson, for everything that you do. >> that is very nice. thank you. and we will have more on this day, stand by.

>> by decapitating the head of the snake known as a cadl qaeda is going to have important reverberations throughout the network of al qaeda. >> but could this really be the end of al qaeda or someone within the network who is going to step up and be the next osama bin laden? we have paul cruikshank standing by to help us. this mother's daye'll make one she'll never forget. that's why only zales is the diamond store. and i was a pack-a-day smoker for 25 years. i do remember sitting down with my boys, and i'm like, "oh, promise mommy you'll never ever pick up a cigarette." i had to quit. ♪ my doctor gave me a prescription for chantix, a medication i could take and still smoke, while it built up in my system. [ male announcer ] chantix is a non-nicotine pill proven to help people quit smoking. it reduces the urge to smoke.

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. welcome back. we're coming to you live from ground zero. wolf blitzer is in washington. i want to bring in paul to discuss what happens with al qaeda now. al qaeda right now, do we know what happens? in terms of the actual organization -- >> they are in full crisis mode right now and al qaeda provides the key strategic direction. >> even now? >> even now. he was telegraphing them in all of these messages, telling people where to attack, which country, and when. al qaeda otherwise would be -- and now with a danger that al qaeda could fracture, this is a

real crisis for al qaeda now. bin laden was an inspiration for recruits and for recruits joining this group and there will probably be less recruits. >> there is al qaeda-affiliated groups, groups which look up to al qaeda, and then in yemen in the last few years has taken on a more active role than the original al qaeda. >> that is bin laden's legacy. and also there is this home-grown movement around the world. home-grown cells not connected to al qaeda or any other group who want to launch attacks. that's bin laden's legacy. >> we know that according to u.s. officials at least, the way bin laden was gotten was through this courier that they had been tracking, trying to identify.

do we know how much connection there was between bin laden and his number two? >> they believe zarwari were even perhaps living close together i think we should watch out for that in the next few weeks. >> they have taken some items from the compound that may be priceless value. >> and there are still fighters in the afghan region and western mill. >> translator:s coming back to launch attacks.

and the threat may go up in the short term but in the long term, this is a very desize i have break through. >> paul, i appreciate your time. thank you for being with us. there is a lot more to talk about ahead. we will speak with john boehner at the top of the hour. wolf this is a remarkable day. i was home when the i heard that the president was going to be giving a press conference and i was watching you as you broke the news. i think you had a an inkling of what was going on but you didn't want to speculate? >> i suspected what was going on but when i was driving to work just before 10:00 p.m. eastern,

they said he would be in the white house at 10:30 p.m. eastern. as i was driving in and trying to get ahold of sources, they were aing it had nothing to do with gadhafi or libya or with another part of the world. then they were telling me, you better get there, you better get there quickly, this is huge. you don't want to miss this. and i said, well, maybe they got gadhafi. they said this is way, way bigger than that at which point my initial suspicion had nothing to do with libya, it was bin laden. but in our business you can't say maybe this or maybe that. we waited for multiple sources to confirm it. it's one of those deals, anderson, that you have a gut instinct and feeling of what is going on and officials are being coy. at 10:30 on a sunday night in a surprise development, the president of the united states does not alert the network

television pool cameras to get ready in the east room for a ten-minute address unless it's something really, really huge and obviously, anderson, that is what happened. >> yeah. well, you can hear all of the construction behind me here at ground zero right now. it continues to be a regular work day. nearly ten years after 9/11. we're going to find out how far along the rebuilding effort has come. we'll be right back.

well, nearly ten years since bin laden attacked here at ground zero, the work continues and it's a significant time for the rebuilding effort. president of world trade properties joins us right now. where is the construction stand at this point? >> anderson, construction is going 100 miles an hour. across the street from here, you can see the memorial which is going to open on the tenth anniversary of the attacks of 9/11. just a few months from now. as part of that, a museum will open in 2012 and then all around us there are many more buildings under construction. that is 25 stories up and is

going to open up in 2013. one world trade is going to open in 2013 and, of course, directly to the right of that, seven world trade has been opened for five years and it's a great success. >> and then the foundations for two more structures are being built? >> that's right. there are two more big skyscrapers under construction below grade that you can't see but also a huge, huge train station that is going to be the center. >> you've heard the frustration of people saying ten years on, why isn't there something that people can come to and visit? >> well, actually, we've sometimes shared that frustration and felt that new yorkers wanted and deserved to have the world trade center rebuilt but it's a very complicated site. there's a subway that runs through the site that has maintained service even as all of the construction is taking place around it. all of the utilities had to be

maintain g maintain. >> when do you think it will all be completed? >> i think in the next few years, 2016 bit latest but surely by 2015 the whole thing is done and you've got a fully populated finished site which is going to be a show piece for new york city. >> thank you for all of your hard work. it's amazing even on a big news day like this, it's going full on. >> they are working their hearts out. >> wolf, a lot more to cover. we are reporting now, for the next hour, live from ground zero and my colleague, wolf blitzer, is in washington, d.c., as more details emerge this hour on the death of bin laden, killed by united states special forces. let's listen to john, president and deputy national security tea. >> if we had the opportunity to

take him alive, the individuals involved were able and he prepared to do that. the concern was that bin laden would oppose an inside capture operation. indeed he did. it was a fire fight. he, therefore, was killed in that fire fight and that's when the remains were removed. >> there was also a tense situation for officials monitoring the events. it's one of the most anxiety-filled periods in their lives. what we've heard in the last few hours and i'm sure in the hours ahead we'll hear even more. >> john brennan really knows his sufficient. he knows counterterrorism but intelligence and worked his way up through the ranks of the cia we're waiting for john boehner.

he's getting ready to speak to the news media up on capitol hill on the death of osama bin laden. in the meantime, as we wait for boehner, we'll have his comments. you'll see and hear them live here on cnn let's bring in ed henry. the president was out today and spoke about how happy he was but all of the details of what exactly happened, he left to john brennan. >> reporter: he really did, wolf. this is kind of a smooth behind-the-scenes player and does not get emotional but he really opened up, described these dramatic, tense moments yesterday afternoon here in the white house situation room as the president and a handful of his top aides were in realtime keeping up with what is happening on the ground in pakistan with the forces. they were not sure whether the fire fight would end well. number one, whether they would

be able to kill or capture bin laden and whether or not u.s. special forces, military officials would be able to get out alive. thankfully they were all able to survive this and kill osama bin laden. but in the words of john brennan, minutes felt like days as the president and his top aides sat in the situation room and tried to get a handle on it. also interesting, when you take a step back but how this is going to affect our relations with afghanistan, it's been sometimes a rocky relationship. this is where osama bin laden was hiding out just outside of islamabad. bottom line, john brennan said that he has a support system and pakistani government and still remains to be seen. but he made it clear that the u.s. is very concerned about

that. and before they conducted this operation, that suggests that there is still some issues there, wolf, to say the least. >> he went one step further actually and also said that the u.s. would discuss this with the government of pakistan until the u.s. helicopters and all of the u.s. troops and the body of bin laden were out of pakistani air space. they didn't want the pakistanis to know anything that was going on. that was a pretty dangerous decision because pakistani military forces could have scrambled, launched jets to take out those helicopters and how worried u.s. officials are that they couldn't trust the pakistanis, i'll be speaking, by the way, in the situation room with the ambassador of the united states. we've got a lot of tough questions for him to answer about this. ee will be coming in and

answering those questions. there's still a lot of unanswered questions, those questions only just beginning. anderson, as we await john boehner, the speaker of the house, i assume he will praise the president. let's continue with our supporters. >> i want to bring in barbara starr at the pentagon. u.s. forces were in that compound for 40 minutes. actually, john boehner is about to speak. let's listen in. >> good afternoon, everyone. the tragic events of 9/11 ten years ago remind us that we're all americans and that what unites us as americans is far greater than what divides us. and last night's news i think unified our country in much the

same way. the death of osama bin laden is an important moment in the war against extremism and terrorism. it's important for people all around the world that have been subject to the terror of al qaeda and osama bin laden. and to the families who lost loved ones on september 11th, 2001, we will never forget what you lost. and for those who fought and died in the war against terror, and their loved ones, we honor your sacrifice. and to those who seek to destroy freedom by preying on innocent human life, we will not rest until we bring you to justice. our fight for freedom and liberty around the globe continues. we face a complex and dangerous threat even today. it's important that we remain vigilant in our efforts to

protect the american people. this makes our engagement in places like spak stan more important, not less. i want to congratulate and thank the hardworking men and women of the united armed services and all of those involved in the intelligence community. i want to commend president obama and president bush for all their efforts to bring osama bin laden to justice. >> good afternoon nearly ten years ago, president bush stood before the nation after 9/11 and pledged to the american people that we will not tire, falter, or fail in our quest to defeat those who intend to do us harm through acts of terror. last night, we heard president obama tell a very changed nation

that we did not fail. i think what this tells all of us is that success and convict industry timvictory sometimes ts a lot harder than we would like and sometimes brings about more tragedy than we absolutely would even believe. but it is our commitment to do all we can to support those in our armed services and our intelligence community and this president in his quest and theirs to defend the american people against the spread of radical islam and the threats that it continues to pose to our country. >> good afternoon. september 11th. >> i want to break away from the republican leadership. kevin mccarthy is going to make a statement. the republicans very pleased

that bin laden is dead. cnn has now confirmed that u.s. officials are bracing for some sort of audiotape. we think it's an audiotape, not necessarily a videotape, but we'll know soon enough. bin laden, apparently before he was killed, left some sort of tape to be played upon his death to the world, especially to his supporters. his supporters call this a martyr tape. when there are suicide bombers out there, they usually record something before they go ahead and kill themselves and then after the suicide attack they release this videotape or audiotape, whatever it is so their supporters supposedly will be inspired by this. we're now told that the so-called martyr's tape by bin laden is about to be formally released. we'll monitor it. we'll share it with you. we'll tell you what we know but obviously bin laden for years probably was waiting for some sort of attack, waiting for some sort of effort that the u.s. and

others would make to kill him so he had this tape ready to go. it's going to be an interesting development in this very, very fascinating saga. anderson? >> wolf, we're just getting new information about what was found inside the compound. we'll have a live report from the pentagon coming up next. >> today, we are reminded that as a nation there's nothing we can't do. when we put our shoulders to the wheel, when we work together, when we remember the sense of unity that defines us as americans there's another way to minimize litter box odor: purina tidy cats. tidy cats premium line of litters now works harder to help neutralize odors in multiple-cat homes. and our improved formula also helps eliminate dust. so it's easier than ever to keep your house smelling just the way you want it. purina tidy cats. keep your home smelling like home.

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welcome back. we are live from ground zero. the breaking news from just a few moments ago that wolf blitzer was reporting that we've confirmed there is some sort of a tape, what supporters of bin laden would call a martyr tape that he had taped in advance to be released if and when he was killed. we're not sure whether it's an audiotape or videotape. we'll try to get more details on that. also, a u.s. official saying that the u.s. code name for bin laden was geronimo. barbara starr is standing by at

the pentagon. osama bin laden had a code name "geronimo." what do we know about that? >> well, very little, anderson. that is just coming to light as facts continue to unfold every hour since this all emerged last night. i think what people are watching very carefully, anderson, is to learn more about how the attack itself unfolded against that compound. what is so extraordinary, really is the fact that everybody got out safely in terms of the u.s. troops you know, you'll recall over the years there was the failed mission in iran to rescue the hostages, the failed mission in somalia. u.s. forces rerevamped how they did business. it's all about training and practice. they practiced in a mock-up against this compound. this was about getting out of pakistan safely once you got your target and that's what they

achieved here. very few details really coming to light but this helicopter assault by all accounts really went off absolutely flawlessly because everybody did get out. they found osama bin laden basically in an upstairs room in this compound. that's when the fire fight broke out. to put a fine point on it, that's when geronimo met his fate. anderson? >> barbara, there are facts that we don't know at this point. do we know how many u.s. forces were actually involved in the operation? >> well, you know, that's a really good point. because if you start counting the team and the backup, it was fairly extensive. we don't know exactly how many but certainly not insignificant number of navy s.e.a.l.s on the ground and helicopters flying overhead as support helicopters and what we know is that there were a number of aircraft overhead at some distance, fixed

wing fighter jets, predators, drones monitoring the situation. other helicopters to engage in search and rescue. everybody was ready to move in with significant fire power and force if something had gone wrong and that's what john brennan was talking about when he watched that one helicopter go to mechanical failure, it's fair to say everybody took a deep breath because they didn't know what was coming next and they had everything to move in and engage in a very significant military operation with significant force to get the team out if they had to, anderson. >> do we know how many people were killed inside the compound and was anybody taken alive? >> no. no one was taken alive. there were a number of women and children there that were basically taken to a safe area while the u.s. troops were there. and they were left behind. they were deemed to be

noncombatants. we know bin laden is dead and a woman said to be his wife is dead. the woman was said to be used as a human shield by bin laden, hiding behind a woman as u.s. forces basically came through the door. and that fire fight erupted, anderson. >> do we know for a fact that he was using her for a shield or that she was trying to protect him of her own accord? >> we don't know but u.s. officials have described her as being used as a human shield. so i think there was probably some indication in this final end game. she really wasn't doing this of her own volition. it may have been a combination of both. these are people that he was living with on this very secure

compound. >> did they take any documentation that might be of value and was the courier, was that person killed as well? >> i think the courier was. i think that's the assessment at this point. but you raised something very significant. they wanted to get in and out very fast, 40 minutes on the ground but indeed they gathered a significant amount of intelligence, basically computer material, other material on the -- in that compound and the cia is establishing a task force to review all of this intelligence material to see if they can find any of the other information to tell them where these other al qaeda and taliban leaders are hiding. that's something that they want to move on very quickly if there are clues in everything that they gathered up. >> all right. barbara, thanks. let's go to wolf in washington.

>> thanks very much, anderson. i want to bring in a former lieutenant ed o'connell. he spent 20 years in the military as an intelligence officer with chief targeting for the u.s. military central command and worked for tommy franks. this looks like a very, very risky but sophisticated operation. how much rehearsal goes into something like this? >> oh, extraordinary. probably talking about months now. unlike what we had in bora, this was more of a preplanned situation. where you had target intelligence packages that we call tips, for instance, of showing people what door to turn, what door to go into, what wall to climb so quite a bit of operation. >> torabo are ra was the last time that the u.s. was suspected

of closing in on bin laden. ten years later they finally get him. why did torabora fail and this mission succeed. >> i think there we had very difficult terrain. remember, we're at 15,000 feet. so to move the delta on site there to another location to chase bin laden and his overwatch people was very difficult. this was quite different terrain. this was an urban setting. there you had a number of rat mines, as you called them. very difficult to track. also very difficult to pick up signals intelligence, which is all we really had to track bin laden. i think what happened in tora bora, we got into a tangled web of good intentions. we had task force 11 who took

over at some point. you also had cia members in there. everyone thought his death was imminent. i think we had a little bit of overconfidence at the time and then, of course, he slipped away. >> these u.s. military i assume that's the way that flew in. would they have u.s. military insignia, would they be painted like u.s. military helicopters, would they be neutral, or would they pretend to be pakistani helicopters, based on your experience? >> i think they were probably blacked out. you would probably black out the insignia before you went in on the mission or you would have some deception going. but i think that we didn't want to get too tricky here. this has been prerehearsed so it

was clear cut in that way. >> there were two helicopters going into the compound. one of them failed but we're sold there was a third helicopter that assisted in getting the military personnel and bin laden's body out of there. that was smart to have a backup. they may have had more than one backup helicopter? >> absolutely, wolf. we learned a lot from desert one which was a failed iranian hostage mission and we learned a lot from roberts ridge, which was some problems that we had earlier on which was after tora bora. we always want to have helicopters in reserve and not knowing the exact details, but i can tell you we probably had a couple operation points outside the perimeter of the compound.

and there's no doubt in my mind we had a gun shift. >> this was happening at 1:00 a.m. and 40 minutes on the ground. i assume all of the u.s. personnel had night equipment so to see what was going on. they had the advantage certainly of surprise coming in as they did, having the helicopters come in at 1:00 a.m., although the helicopters, as you know, ed, they are very, very noisily. >> absolutely, wolf. probably had hh 53s but very noisy. so you have to minimize the surprise time. so you've got a very short window that you're operating in. almost when you're over the walls or near the walls you're going to start hearing tremendous reverb from the blades. so absolutely a very difficult

mission and precise situation. >> i know what john brennan said that they did have a contingency plan to bring bin laden out alive. although my suspicion has always been they didn't want to bring him out alive or take him to guantanamo and start a trial for osama bin laden and give him a lot of possibility. that if there was any opportunity to kill him and kill him in a fire fight, that was the goal. but based on your experience at tora bora, what do you think? >> i think you're absolutely right. i think the mission was, one, to kill him if we had positive i.d. we learned a lot from saddam. i remember them bringing saddam back and forth and all of the international mean yeah. it turned into quite a bit of circus.

also, we were afraid of making him a martyr. in my view, though, that's a little bit of fall tea reasoning. we're seeing a double scoop of history almost you have the sophisticated people around the world that are not going to fall for the propaganda machine that we call al qaeda anymore. so really fascinating events taking place. >> ed co'connell, thank you ver much for joining us. >> thanks, wolf. >> anderson, we have been reporting that there is a tape, a videotape or audiotape of bin laden prepared maybe years ago that was going to be released upon his death. he's now dead and we're told that the tape is going to be released. here's an ethical question that journalists are indeed going to have. i'm getting a lot of appeals to

us from my twitter followers and others, please, please, cnn, don't play that tape. don't let bin laden and al qaeda have the satisfaction of playing that tape. report about it, but we don't want to see him or hear him. we've had enough of him. we certainly don't want to let people be energized, fanatics be inspired by his words if they are released. it's just an ethical question that i think most news organizations are going to be facing in the coming minutes and hours. do we play the tape or just report about the tape. there's no clear answer, anderson. >> well, i can tell you my answer and on any program that i'm associated with, i would not play that tape. i see no reason to do it. obviously throughout much of the world that tape will be played and if people want to hear that tape, they can get it. they will not be hearing it from me. he's a mass murderer and i don't

think we should play it. the former president musharraf criticizes the u.s. for the raid. you'll hear that in a moment. >> al qaeda is something in the past and we're hoping to bury the rest of al qaeda along with bin laden.

i want to talk about what effect this operation will have on the u.s. relationship with pakistan. a short time ago i spoke with

president musharraf. he's the one who insisted all along that he was in afghanistan all of these years. >> mr. president, for years intelligence officials have been saying that bin laden was in pakistan. you have been denying that for years now saying that he was in afghanistan. do you now admit that you were wrong? >> no, i don't think i would deny it. i was asked and my first response was that i don't know where he is. >> actually, sir, that is not true. you said he was in afghanistan. >> i asked what intelligence you had. i said he could be in afghanistan or pakistan. i never said no that he was not in pakistan. >> actually, sir, that's not true. you said in interviews that you believed he was in afghanistan,

that he was not in pakistan. >> no, i always put a doubt in that, that i don't know. that i never had that information. anyone who said he was in pakistan also did not have intelligence. it was, guess what -- >> we'll have more of my interview tonight. a special two-hour show tonight at 10:00. mike, thanks for being with us. as you ji guest the information and details that have come out in the last hour, what stands out to you about this operation on the ground? >> well, the amount of work that goes into this, basically leading up to those few minutes that actually take place on the ground came from information from the detain ees and incredibly labor intensive to

run those leads to the ground and then the planning and training and the s.e.a.l.s and others, if they are not doing their training, this is what they live for. >> it does seem that human intelligence still plays a crucial role. we don't know the full details but given that there were no computers or phone lines, they must have had eyes on the ground for a long period of time watching this compound. >> well, sure, that's a very good assumption.

but once you get sufficient information to do that risk versus gain and say we have incredible information, then you've got to go everything from surveillance to setting up observation posts to get that and then the clock is ticking and we want to train for the op and we don't want to take a chance of losing him. it's a very tense time, from the moment of actual visual confirmation to the time when you make your move. >> we heard the president using the term actionable intelligence and we heard president bush say it and candidate obama said it. that if you have actionable intelligence about the location of president obama, they would act whether or not pakistan was

part of that deal. what is actionable intelligence? what kinds of things would they look for to guarantee this is the real deal? >> if you have a detainee in a detention center and that individual indicates a nickname or alias who may be in a circle around bin laden, then that's actionable intelligence. you take that out and try to corroborate it with a variety of sources in other parts of the world. you determine, do you keep working it or throw it away and look for other bits and pieces. i don't want to oversimplify it, but it's almost a forensic effort. this effort that peals apart and you got something here and now we develop the scenarios to take

out the target. >> a lot of people have -- i've been getting a lot of tweets. people are wondering how is it possible that someone in pakistani intelligence or in the military did not know osama bin laden was in this location, given that this compound was built, huge walls, wire, the guy is a foreigner in that country. i've been in pakistan a number of times. there's a lot of surveillance out on the streets. people are curious of anybody who is building a compound. i just don't understand how they didn't know about this. >> they knew. the short answer, you're absolutely right. in a place like pakistan, anything going on is more interesting than what is going on in people's lives during the course of the day. we know that the government and isi, military intelligence, they keep a very close watch on what goes around. and also this area is a secure

zone. it's a militarized zone. so it is just simply not believable to think that some elements, certain elements, people were aware that minute they chose to protect him. >> can i not get enough of the details of this operation and look forward to the days and probably years ahead thank you for being with us. just fascinating to find out how the nuts and bolts work. some day a book will be written about this operation but this

was months and months in the making and it's incredible that it was able to be pulled off like it was, wolf. >> and in the end they went in, it was extremely risky. the president gave the go ahead knowing that it could succeed or fail. it took guts on his part. he made the right call, obviously. we're going to hear, by the way, from the pakistani ambassador to the united states at 6:00 p.m., in about one and a half hours from now. at the top of the hour in "the situation room," retired army general colin powell who was secretary of state on 9/11. he'll be joining me in "the situation room" as well. we have good questions for both of them. one lawmaker says pakistan has explaining to do. what did they know about this raid, if anything, and how many

terror attacks may be hiding and nav navy s.e.a.l.s were hiding in the compound. i want you to hear how one victim of 9/11 is reacting to the news. >> i said, i have to come out here and celebrate, tell them that they got him. losing weight clicked for me

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dana bash has been on capitol hill. how he sees the potential for striking back, what did you learn? >> reporter: wolf, members of congress in both parties say that they are concerned about potential retaliation. as for the house intelligence chairman, wolf, mike rogers, he says that he doesn't believe that there were specific plans in place to trigger an attack should osama bin laden die or be killed. every single day they are planning some event and now that bin laden has been killed, it's no different. >> what about pakistan? i'm hearing and i suppose you are as well some real frustration up on capitol hill, not only democrats, republicans, liberals, conservatives, what are they saying about pakistan's role in all of this?

>> reporter: they are very upset. i mean, it's not even subtle at all. members of congress in both parties again, wolf, making clear that they believe -- because as we've been reporting, that because of this compound was so big, it had been there for so many years and centralized pakistani military, it was very hard to imagine that they didn't know and that perhaps the pakistani military and intelligence were protecting bin laden. take a listen. >> i hope that he will follow through, the president of pakistan will follow through and ask tough questions of his own military and intelligence. they've got a lot of explaining to do. >> this tells us, once again, that unfortunately pakistan at times is playing a double game. and that's very troubling to me. >> reporter: wolf, i can tell you that members of congress in both parties are saying that

they still have a lot of information that they need to gather but what pakistan did or did not know, but there is something that members of congress have and that is a tool and the power of the perks. one question floating around here is whether or not congress could try to stop funding for pakistan. so far we're hearing from both parties, that is premature to talk about, it's such a complex relationship, as you well know, there are parts of the pakistani government that are helpful, parts that are not, and historically troubled and problematic. but as joe lieberman just told me coming over here, there is going to be talk about that but he said part of the issue is that you don't want to make pakistan an enemy, wolf? >> given the fact that it has an arsenal of nuclear bombs, that's always of concern. dana, thanks very much. dana bash up on the hill. i want to remind our viewers that the pakistani ambassador to the united states in our 6:00 p.m. hour will be joining me in

"the situation room." lots at stake here, anderson. i don't think we can over emphasize what is going on. >> it's a remarkable day, remarkable turn of events. and it's still a developing story. i've talked to the former pakistani president, perez musharraf, and asked him whether he feels he should -- that he was wrong for years saying that osama was in afghanistan, not in pakistan. that is at 10:00 live from ground zero. wolf, i'm going to let you go. at the top of this hour, coming up, i'll speak live to a woman who lost her husband on september 11th right here at ground zero. he was in the north tower. find out her reaction to this dramatic development. we'll be right back.

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welcome back. we're reporting live from ground zero as we will at 10:00 tonight on a special two-hour edition of "ac 360." terry strata joins me now. her husband tom died on 9/11. thanks for being with us. where were you when you heard the news? >> last night i was in bed watching the news, watching television when it came across. >> and what went through your

mind? >> a lot of mixed emotions. it's been a very long time and feels good that such an evil person is gone. thrilled that no more americans were killed during this mission but some mixed emotions. it was hard to hear that he was gone and buried all at the same time. kind of feel a little bitter that he got a proper muslim burial when we were robbed of that. >> would you have wanted him to be captured alive or not? >> yes, i think i would have. >> really? >> yes. i think seeing him would have helped me and our children -- not that we don't believe it, but there's just a satisfaction of seeing it. we haven't seen anything to really verify that it happened. we know it did but there's something about seeing it. >> right. it's almost like seeing suddam hussein, it gives you -- it seems more real if you see their body or some evidence of it. >> yes.

there was a lot of satisfaction seeing him come out of that hole and seeing what he looked like. and i think the children need to see that to get the kind of closure that they talk about, you know, that we never had. >> i always hear that word. i lost a brother and dad, not on 9/11 but years ago. to me, there's no such thing. if you lost somebody, time helps but it never closes. >> right. it's an open wound forever and, you know, it's an overused word. >> to me it's like a tv word. >> exactly. there was some satisfaction in knowing that he heard the helicopters coming and he knew we were coming closer and i have a lot of satisfaction knowing that the last thing he saw was a u.s. military with a gun in his face. >> what -- this is actually the first time you have been down here at ground zero. >> yes, it is. >> how is that for you? >> it was very emotional to come here. i've avoided it. we've lived here for six years.

we were here in '93 when the twin towers were attacked and i haven't wanted to come back but it's difficult. >> well, i appreciate you being here with us on this day and thanks for talking to me. >> thank you. >> i wish your family the best. >> thank you. coming up next, we'll talk to more people and also look at which al qaeda terrorist were take bin laden's place. a a al qaeda is not going away. what about the other high value targets still being south by the united states? that's next.

and we continue to be live from ground zero.

let's bring in paul. this is a major development in the history of al qaeda and in the war against al qaeda and extremism. but the battle goes on. you have now al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. how powerful are they? >> well, they are quite powerful now in terms of the most operational group in terms of counterterrorism officials believe they are the most dangerous group. >> and behind them is really this american cleric who has been behind the recent attacks in the united states. >> and it's become more and more operational, more operational, an inspirational figure attracting western troops and launch against the united states and understands the american vulnerability. that you don't have to have 9/11

attacks to hurt the united states. smaller attacks because of the psychological effect they can have. >> and that's the concern with the political situation in yemen where you have the president who has been allied and tried to fight quite frankly on two ends of the country, he's now going to be leaving the country or stepping down at some point. >> absolutely. it may give the group an opportunity and given the history of al qaeda, they could take advantage of that. >> he is likely to assume the command? >> he's not somebody with bin ladens charisma. he's a divisive and polarizing

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here's now a look back at the more than decade-long search for osama bin laden. >> today we've had a national tragedy. two airplanes have crashed into the world trade center in an apparent terrorist attack on our country. >> i can hear you. the rest of the world hears you. and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of

us soon. whether we bring our enemies to justice or justice to our enemies, justice will be done. >> turn over osama bin laden and destroy the bases and let us have access that the bases have been destroyed. >> as for the taliban, they can surrender or face the consequences. >> they just got to meet my conditions and when i said no negotiation, i meant no

negotiation. >> and if we have osama bin laden in our sights and the pakistani government is unable or unwilling to take them out then i think that we have to act and we will take them back. we will kill bin laden, we will crush al qaeda. >> are we ever, ever going to find been laden? >> yeah, of course, absolutely. >> you're confident based on -- >> because we've got a lot of people looking for him. you can't run forever. >> for over two decades, bin laden has been al qaeda's leader and symbol and has continued to plot attacks against our country and our friends and allies. the death of bin laden marks the most significant achievement in our nation's effort to defeat