hello i'm brian williams. in 2012, nbc news was given the opportunity to take television cameras inside the white house situation room to talk about the decisions and the military action that resulted in the death of osama bin laden. as we reach the anniversary of that history-making mission, we present for you now a special rebroadcast of "inside the situation room." >> we have been preparing for months. we had seen mock-up of the compound. we had looked at helicopter flight patterns. >> president said to go. and we looked at him and he said, it's a go. >> and in that situation, you just -- you do some praying. >> what were you watching?

>> we were able to monitor in real time what was taking place. >> the mood was tense. >> we could see the helicopters. we could see our guys moving. >> what we saw the helicopter spinning, we said, that's not the plan. >> we were all holding our breath. >> and everyone went, like, whoa. >> we thought about there was a failure here, it would have disastrous consequences. >> when we got the message that they had killed bin laden, it wasn't over. >> the only thing that i was thinking about was i really want to get those guys back home safe. this was the longest 40 minutes of my life. >> good evening. tonight i can report to the american people and to the world that the united states has conducted an operation that killed osama bin laden, the leader of al qaeda. >> usa!

usa! usa! usa! >> the news came out of nowhere, no one in this country was expecting it just as no one inside the bin laden compound was expecting u.s. navy s.e.a.l.s to arrive by helicopter. one image from that night has come to symbolize the mission, the photograph taken at the height of the raid, by veteran white house photographer pete souza. >> there it is. there you are. >> here i am sitting right here. >> that's an intense look on your face, and everyone is intently watching that screen. >> this is, if i'm not mistaken, pete this picture was taken right as the helicopter was having some problems. but you may not remember. >> i can't say for sure. >> that's what it feels like because i remember hillary putting her hand over her mouth at that point. >> when you look at it -- >> yeah. >> what does it conjure up inside you? >> well, that's the way i usually look when my husband

drags me to an action movie. it was just an extraordinary experience and a great privilege to be part of. >> when you see it now, what comes back? >> we were all just really concentrating, our entire focus was on listening to the play by play. as you can see, the president is sitting right behind me. i remember turning and looking and it was just this, no emotion. >> what comes to mind first? is it a sensation? is it a memory? >> just tension. more than anything else, just tension. and there is no other way to describe it. >> the picture was actually years in the making. when he was president, bill clinton spent 75 cruise missiles trying to kill bin laden. then after 9/11, president george w. bush vowed to hunt him down. >> and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear

all of us soon. >> and back when he was a candidate, barack obama pledged to step up the mission. >> we will kill bin laden, we will crush al qaeda, that has to be our biggest national security priority. >> the focus for this administration was on getting bin laden. that was a piece of unfinished business that went to the honor as well as the security of our country. >> leon panetta was cia director back in the summer of 2010, when the first big break materialized. the cia tracked a man believed to be bin laden's courier to a walled off compound in abaao abbottabad pakistan, a tall man was taking walks in the courtyard. analysts gave him a nickname, the pacer, but the imagery was never good enough to know for sure if it was bin laden. >> ultimately it was a 50/50 proposition if this was bin

laden. >> still it was the best intelligence breakthrough since the u.s. came close to bin laden but lost him in tora bora in 2001. >> when the intel community began to pick up information and when they began to get more of a sense that maybe there was something there, at first it was only within the white house. i was brought in in january and we began these intensive meetings. >> a series of top secret meetings started up inside the situation room, or sit room as it is known in white house parlance. at one of the meetings, admiral william mccraven, the head of joint special operations command outlined the possible raid on the suspected bin laden compound. >> i had 100% faith in the navy s.e.a.l.s themselves. bill mccraven, head of special forces, had worked with us for months to think through every possible scenario. he's a guy who inspires a lot of confidence and he's a no

nonsense guy. >> i remember the moment in the sit room, someone said, this sounds really dangerous, we're going to expose our guys and what do we know is going to happen? and he said, with all due respect, we have done this hundreds of times. >> the planning picked up speed and by april 21st, 2011, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff at the time, admiral mike mullen, attended a dress rehearsal with a team of navy s.e.a.l.s at a mock compound they had set up in the nevada desert. >> i met that night every single member of the night of the rehearsal, every single member that was on that mission. and i got to look each of them in the eye, they showed me in their execution of rehearsal and also in that steely eyed glare that they give you that they were ready to go. >> did they suspect anything when the chairman of the joint chiefs came to watch them practice and drill? >> i never asked that question. i certainly suspect that they

did. >> when did they learn exactly what their mission was and who their target was? >> actually you have to ask bill mccraven that. but they're not idiots. i mean, they knew certainly how critical this was, they knew who they were and who they were working with. >> one week after the rehearsal, the launch window opened up, a favorable forecast and a moonless night, essential for an attack by air. they knew it could be months before the next opportunity. on thursday, april 28th, the president gathered the small core of planners in the situation room to debate the choices one last time. >> you had a couple of options, do nothing, an air raid with no evidence of after action, no proof of death, or this, you were against this mission as they launched it, correct? >> as i pointed out early on, there was no consensus. the president got us all down, in the situation room, and he said, okay, basically roll call.

>> what was your vote? >> my recommendation was to go forward. >> why would you recommend that over others in the group? >> i felt the risk was manageable. the evidence to me was compelling enough to take the risk. i thought that we could get them in and get them out no matter what happened, whether he was there or not. >> secretary of defense robert gates recommended an air strike with no forces inserted on the ground. cia director panetta supported a raid by special forces. so did secretary of state clinton. vice president biden wanted to wait on further proof that bin laden was indeed there. >> how contentious did it get among members of your team? there was not consensus. >> it was never contentious because i think everybody understood both the pros and the cons of action. there were doubts that were voiced inside the situation room, but they weren't doubts

that were going through my own head. people who are advocating action understood that if this did not work, if we proved to be wrong, there would be severe geopolitical consequences and most importantly we might be putting our brave navy s.e.a.l.s in danger. >> at the meeting, the president did not indicate which way he was leaning. >> as we're walking out and we walked up together as we walked out of the room, he said, you know, time to make a decision. and i know it sounds trite, the president is all alone, all alone. >> the president said he would have an answer for the team in the morning. he walked back to the residence portion of the white house, had dinner with his family, and then went to his study after they went to bed. >> how does one spend that night knowing that decision is due in the morning? >> well, there is no doubt that

you don't sleep as much that evening. as you do on a normal night. i stayed up late and woke up early. by that point, though, i felt as if i had examined every aspect of the operation, we had been preparing for months now, at that point you have some serenity in knowing that you made the best possible decision that you can, and, you know in that situation, you just -- you do some praying. >> in a moment, the president reaches a decision, and then is forced to give the appearance of business as usual. >> yeah, the correspondents dinner was a different story. that was a little bit of acting going on there because my mind was elsewhere. ♪

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friday morning, marine one was idling on the south lawn preparing to take the president on the first leg of a trip to survey the extensive tornado damage in tuscaloosa, alabama. before walking out the door to the chopper in a scene that was captured by the white house photographer, the president met with four members of his staff, chief of staff bill daly, national security adviser tom donilon, his deputy dense mcdonough and counterterrorism chief john brennan. they were that morning the four

most important irish men on this side of the atlantic. so judging by this photo, we are all approximately in our positions if i play the part of bill daly, the president is not here, it is 8:20 a.m., how is it you knew to be here with the president that morning? >> we had arranged to meet with him, here, prior to his going to tuscaloosa, alabama, to get his final decision. >> and he was touring storm damage, so he's in casual clothing, his ride is idling out the back door, he comes to you, stands in this grouping and says what to the best of your recollection? >> my recollection is that he said it is a go, we're going to do the assault, we're going to do the raid, complete the orders and let's go. >> i recall being here that morning working up some briefing points for him, and i think tom started in, the president said, got it, it is a go. and we looked at him and he said, it's a go. let's get it going. >> i think this was just the last check, as tom said he had

made up his mind overnight, told us it was a go and that we then had to implement his direction. >> once the president had made that decision, we knew instantly what our timeline was, and what was going to move, when it was going to move and admiral mccraven would just check in and say, here's what we are in the timeline and this is -- and it is -- and basically in that execution, in his feedback, i could tell that it was being well executed. >> did you seek anyone's counsel? >> i didn't. and the reason was because this had to be such a close hold operation. there were only a handful of staff in the white house who knew about this. the majority of my senior staff didn't know about it. my secretary didn't know about it. my personal aide didn't know about it. >> first lady? >> the first lady didn't know about it. >> your husband didn't know.

>> no. >> mrs. obama didn't know. these are big time washington diplomatic security secrets. >> yes. this was such an important secret to keep, no one in the state department knew, the same i think except for those with need to know in the pentagon or the cia, and certainly the white house. so i just felt a personal responsibility to keep it close, but that meant i was basically, you know, having to consult with myself to be honest. >> keeping this secret also meant going on about the business of the presidency. touring that awful storm damage in alabama, while knowing at that very moment u.s. navy s.e.a.l.s were already on the move, halfway around the world. >> you had to go to tuscaloosa. >> yeah. >> you had to go have fun at the correspondents dinner. seth meyers makes a joke about osama bin laden. >> people think bin laden is

hiding in the hindu kush, but did you know every day from 4:00 to 5:00, he hosts a show on cspan? >> how do you keep an even keel, even when we look back on the videotape of that night? there is no real depiction that there is something afoot. >> you know, when i go down to tuscaloosa, i'm very much present there because the tragedy and the devastation that had happened to the folks there, i think, consumed all my attention. so that wasn't difficult to focus on. the correspondents dinner was a different story. that was a little bit of acting going on there because my mind was elsewhere. >> i ran into many friends and acquaintances that night who subsequently remarked after the fact that pretty good poker

player. didn't give anything up. >> we didn't want to have any sense, anywhere, that something was up, that we had had any sort of mass cancellations with the dinner. i did run into one correspondent who said you're leaving, you're leaving early, where are you going? and i said, i got this thing tomorrow. >> i can't remember if you went to that correspondents dinnedin but here is the president going to tuscaloosa, correspondents dinner, you have to laugh it up, you've got to live a little bit of a lie for the public good. >> well, that's exactly true. i did not go. i had a -- one of chelsea's friends got married, i went to the wedding, i went to the reception, i was at the reception, and it was so ironic, all these smart young people who work in all kinds of enterprises, one of them came up and said, do you think we'll ever get bin laden? i said, i don't know. i have no way of knowing, but i can tell you this, we'll keep trying. i thought, and so i'm leaving now.

>> simultaneously seth meyers at the hilton is making a bin laden joke. >> i know it. and i really got home, i couldn't sleep, i couldn't sleep the next night, it was -- i don't have trouble sleeping, but those were two tough days. >> it is almost in a sport you've taken the shot, and now you don't know yet whether the shot is going to go in or not. >> in a moment, they have taken the shot, and then something goes wrong. >> when we saw the helicopter spinning, the way it was, we said, that's not the plan. david. what's going on? oh hey! ♪ that's it? yeah. ♪ everybody two seconds! ♪ "dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance..." through the tuition assistance program, every day mcdonald's helps more people go to college. it's part of our commitment to being america's best first job.

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on sunday morning, may 1st, 2011, at 11:00 a.m., members of the national security team started arriving in the situation room for what they knew would be a long haul. the navy s.e.a.l.s were waiting for night fall to launch the attack and everyone knew a mistake at this stage of the game would mean scrubbing the whole mission. and so nothing, including the provisions for the situation room was left to chance. is it true you ate costco food as to not draw any attention and multiple pizzerias were

contacted as to prevent any one large order from drawing attention to the gathering, mr. mcdonough, can you confirm those food details for me? >> as a big fan of costco, i can confirm that we did eat costco that night. frankly throughout the day. >> did we declassify that? >> that's a good question. that's a good question, boss. >> the president played golf that morning, nine holes on the grounds of nearby andrews air force base. back at the white house at 2:00 p.m., he headed downstairs to join the others in the situation room. this is the lower hallway, the part nobody gets to see of the house where you get to live and work. and you have worn a path to the situation room. i saw these. this is unbelievable. these are the -- >> these are the folks. >> this is the drama of -- >> as it was unfolding. >> of that night. >> yeah. >> all of the different scenes and vignettes. >> yeah. >> i mean, when you see it now,

i imagine that was as tight as things ever get in this building. >> it was tense. it was -- it was a tough night, but i tell you, everybody operated just the way you would hope they operated. we're in the situation room. >> they open it for you? >> once and a while. >> upon entering the situation room, everyone has to surrender their electronics. they're placed in a metal lined wooden box that was once a cigar humidor. it is a bright but sparse series of rooms with low ceilings and suede covered walls for sound insulation. and in every room, digital clocks reclock s read out the time zones including the president's location at any given moment. that sunday at 2:30 p.m. eastern time, the situation room was notified the first wave of helicopters was wheels up from

gentlem jalalabad, carrying navy s.e.a.l.s, a translator and trained military dog named cairo. >> the mood was tense. but it was one that was for all intents and purposes because of the president's decision it was out of our hands. so it was up to those great professionals in our military to execute this mission. >> they were accustomed to operating in the dark. they were accustomed to landing in compounds where they weren't sure what was behind closed doors. these guys were all trained to do that. and a lot of them had as much gray hair as you and me. and, you know if you passed them on the street, you might -- if they were in civilian clothes you might think they were accountants or doctors or, you know, worked at home depot, you wouldn't know. >> on the big monitor, admiral mccraven, the head of special operations appeared from afghanistan. while leon panetta appeared from

cia headquarters nearby in langly, virginia. the two men provided a kind of split screenplay by play narration of the mission as it unfolded. the president has always sat here at the head of the table, no mistaking that. and that day as the meeting went on, as all of the participants were watching the video screen at the other end of the room, at one point the president got up from here, went out here, and into the small lobby of the situation room, and then turned left into this small conference room, a room that was never built for as many people as ended up in here that day. the president took his chair in the corner, all the other participants filled in, and here's what they were watching. it is a room with two flat screen tvs, in one of them was the incoming video feed live from a drone parked above that compound, showing the military action in progress.

what made you get up and come in here? >> what happened was we were monitoring the situation in there, but most of the information was being fed from this room. and once the helicopters had taken off, it was going to be several minutes before they actually started approaching the compound. we're talking about a fairly long flight. and the question was, mr. president, want to wait in here and we'll keep you updated, give you an update? i said, no i would like to be where it is that we're getting that information real time. which was right next door. i said, i don't know about you guys, i'm going to come in here and let's make sure we know exactly what's going on. >> in the small conference room in the big chair at the head of the table, beneath the presidential seal, the president himself found air force general brad webb, who was receiving and translating more information on the mission. as an experienced combat veteran

in that region, webb was a good man to have at the table. >> he started to get up and people were starting to go through the protocol and figuring out how to rearrange things, i said, you don't worry about it, you just focus on what you're doing, i'm sure we can find a chair and i'll sit right next to you. that's how i ended up in this folding chair. >> what were you watching? >> we were able to monitor in real time what was taking place. >> the visualization that we were able to see on the screen in that small sit room, you know, was certainly somewhat hazy, but totally intelligible to us. >> in the immediate air space over the compound, the blackhawks were on final approach to landing and then trouble. one of the helicopters crashed, up and over a stone wall, the mishap was blamed on a bad downdraft and unusually warm surface temperatures which affect lift and maneuverability. the mission was off to a tense

start. >> and so what you see there is the very first thing that was needed to happen in order for the mission to be a success as we were told didn't happen. a helicopter didn't make it in the right spot. and everyone went, like, whoa. >> the plan was very precise in terms of how they were going to approach the compound and how guys were going to be lowered into the compound. when we saw the helicopter spinning the way it was, we said, that's not the plan. >> you're watching drone video, you can see a flash, you can see there has been an event, the rotors stop turning. >> right. >> so you're worried about the s.e.a.l.s on the chopper. >> just the shock of the moment. all of us sitting there and i would predict our military and defense colleagues for a minute were kind of holding that breath again. >> when we come back, a mission in jeopardy is brought back on

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for fewer interruptions from the amazing things you do every day. live claritin clear. every day. the navy s.e.a.l.s swooped in, they knew they didn't want to spend more than about 40 minutes on the ground in the compound. they also knew they just lost a potential ride out of there, while there were three other choppers, one of their best had crashed and was a total loss. >> the most concerning part of the whole operation was when we saw the helicopter not landing the way it was supposed to. and that was a touch and go moment. >> we were all holding our breath, waiting for word as to whether we were going to get our guys out safely. >> for at least one elder statesman in that picture that day, this mission dredged up an awful but always present reminder of desert one, the

failed attempt to rescue the iranian hostages back in 1980, when eight u.s. special operators were killed. >> bob gates who in that photo was off to my left, bob gates had been in that same room when desert one happened, and so my first glance was at him. >> if this had failed, and spectacular fashion, it would have blown up your presidency. i think by all estimates would have been your waterloo and perhaps your watergate, consumed by hearings and inquiries. how big did the specter of jimmy carter, desert one, hang in the air here? >> i thought of it. but i will tell you that there are moments in your presidency where you really do put politics aside. certainly we thought about the fact that if there was a failure here, it would have disastrous

consequences for me politically. we knew the examples of the carter presidency, and we understood what happened there. but i tell you the only thing that i was thinking about throughout the entire enterprise was i really want to get those guys back home safe. >> as they watched the attack play out from the situation room, they could see the blackhawk pilot had managed a kind of controlled crash landing, but still that helicopter was the first casualty of the mission and we later learned it wasn't just any helicopter when the first pictures of the wreckage emerged hours later, aviation websites went wild. this, it turns out, was the stealth version of the blackhawk the u.s. had been rumored to be developing for years, designed for near silent invisible operation. in the coming days, neighborhood children were seen picking

through the pieces of what just hours earlier had been among the mighty u.s. military's best kept secrets. back inside the situation room, listening to admiral mccraven's play by play of the mission, you'd never know something had gone wrong. >> that room had tremendous confidence because indeed the officer commanding the operation, admiral mccraven, didn't have a change in intonation of his voice. >> mccraven apparently didn't change his style of speech, he said we have amended the mission, didn't miss a beat. >> did not miss a beat. he is a cool customer. >> but right then, another wrinkle, one of bin laden's neighbors was up and watching all the action and he just happened to be an enthusiastic twitter user who in his own way broke the news of the raid to the wider world via the twitter-verse. helicopter hovering above at 1:00 a.m. as a rare event. that had been something the national security team had not

planned for. and now the part of history that happens 140 characters at a time, you're watching this, and a guy is on twitter saying, hey, you don't often see these kinds of flashes and helicopter traffic here in abbottabad at 1:00 in the morning. >> right. >> unbelievable, but it happened. >> yes, people were waking up, they were -- this was in a neighborhood, this was not isolated with, you know, hundreds of acres around it. there were other houses nearby. and people were starting to come out on to their roofs, trying to figure out what was happening. >> the president knew the 40 minute timer on the commando operation on the ground was running down. >> at this point, i think all of us understand that we're a long way to go before the night is done. and i -- i said that this was the longest 40 minutes of my life. >> we could see the helicopters,

we could see the disembarking from the helicopters, we could see our guys moving. it was an intense experience for all of us, because it was real time, visually until we lost the visual connection inside the building. >> as the s.e.a.l.s worked their way to the top of the staircase, a fire fight was under way. finally the people in the situation room heard the prearranged s.e.a.l. team code name for osama bin laden, geronimo. >> we knew that was the call sign. when we heard that, they felt they had identified geronimo, that was the first moment, and then geronimo kia. >> kia, killed in action. after more than a decade of efforts to find him, osama bin laden was believed to be dead. >> when that call went out, you know, that was certainly the team's view that they had

successfully captured or killed him. and as best they could tell, he was the right guy. >> you say capture or kill, everybody does, were you really going to capture this guy? >> absolutely. >> what -- put him in the back of a blackhawk? >> absolutely. and, you know, there had been provisions made for that outcome. >> but we also understood it was not likely he was going to be giving himself up in that way, and that there was a strong possibility that he would end up being killed if, in fact, he was in the compound. >> let's be blunt about the bottom line job description of those on this team, there is one guy walking around this country who put a laser sight spot in the middle of his forehead and pulled the trigger. >> when i talk to the team about that, specifically, their response is, we all did it. >> but there was one guy who put a laser sight on his forehead and pulled the trigger. and he knows it was his m-4 or

whatever weapon they were using. >> they will tell you they all did it. >> when we got the message that they believed they had killed bin laden, it wasn't over. even though that was an amazing sense of, for me, satisfaction, i'll be just be very honest with you, i mean, i felt like that was absolutely the right thing to have happened. >> the s.e.a.l.s rapped up bin laden's body and gathered his computers and papers. before they left, they tried to destroy the crippled stealth helicopter with grenades designed to burn up the electronics on board, but they didn't destroy everything. back in the situation room, it got even more tense as they knew this was the tricky part, flying out over pakistan after launching a spectacular attack and then getting safely back into afghan air space, and during all of it, vice president

biden was nervously holding on to a rosary ring. >> during all this period, i'm going like this with the rosary and it got to the point where we knew the mission had been successful in that bin laden was on board, but then an hour flight back. and before they get to the border, i go like this to put it back in my pocket and i feel a tap on my shoulder. >> i lean down and said, mr. vice president, not yet. keep it going. because as important as killing -- capturing or killing bin laden was, it was more important to get him out and so we were a long way, even as we got bin laden, his body in that helicopter, we were a long way from completing that mission at that point. >> finger rosary, a rosary ring part of military planning officially? >> no, no. >> the s.e.a.l. team landed safely in afghanistan, they sent graphic photos back to confirm the dead man in their possession was bin laden.

>> how did that feel to look at that image? >> you know, it -- i think it is wrong to say that i did a high five, because, you know, the picture of a dead body and -- but understanding the satisfaction for the american people, what it would mean for 9/11 families, what it would mean for the children of folks who died in the twin towers, who never got to know their parents, i think there was a deep seeded satisfaction for the country at that moment. >> wasn't so much a high five moment as a kind of looking around and just feeling together as almost one body, that, okay, it's over. >> in a moment, the exhausted team inside the situation room must now go about the careful

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this is rare videotape that was captured by white house staff members. it shows what happened after the president and his team left the situation room. >> good job, national security team. thank you. proud of you. you guys did a great job. >> they did. >> relief and congratulations were brief because there was another round of work to be done, revealing the secret had to be handled carefully. >> what is it like to call pakistan and say, we just flew

50 guys into your country, out of your country, we're out of your air space, we took out bin laden, who was living in your midst? >> we were concerned about this from the start, what made it easier for my perspective was they were on notice. since 2007 when i was campaigning for this office, i had said that if we get bin laden in our sights, we're going to go after him. i had repeated that to pakistanis face to face. >> a process begins where you have to start calling presidents, domestic, foreign, committee chairs, cabinet members, all the people you wouldn't want to read about it in the paper the next day. >> we began to do exactly as you described, create the list, who was going to call who, obviously the president called former presidents, asked me where to find my husband. bill didn't know anything. i hadn't talked to anybody about it. so the first he heard was when president obama called him.

>> you place a call to george w. bush 43 on whose watch the attack happened, and what was that like? >> well, you know, i think that it was an it was an important symbol of who we are as a people we get into these partisan fights but we know who and what our values are. >> as we learn here for the first time, admiral mullen had called hiss pakistani mill stair counterpart, about those crashed pieces of the stealth helicopter and how important that was to the united states. >> how much did you worry this was going to end up in the wrong hands? >> i felt obligated to let him know what had happened. in part of that conversation was about the helicopter and i said we need that back. >> a friend of might have been

in the military said, 48 hours after that explosion, we expected pieces of that plane to be coming to china for their full inspection. >> for a president who hadn't been able to breathe a word to even his own family, he gets a chance to check in with his wife and daughters. >> the first lady is at dinner? >> she's at denver ainner, and probably going to have to miss dinner, turns out we had a very important thing to announce. >> then it became necessary to explain it to your young daughters? >> i think malia and tasha were fully unable to absorb 9/11, but on the other hand, they have grown up in the shadow of 9/11 and terrorism.

>> the reason i'm call is -- >> deep inside the white house even as the call was going outand a speech was being finalized, just outside the white house gates. >> as we are walking out on the way to make the formal announcement people had already started to gather because the news was trickling out spontaneo spontaneously. at first i couldn't figure out what the noise was. >> we couldn't figure out what it was. then we were able to decipher, usa, usa. it was just an astonishing moment. >> when somebody says well, you know, throngs of people have begun to gather outside the

gates. and that i think is, again, was a reminder of what this meant to the country and how important it will be. >> it is obvious they, the white house wants to call attention on this crowning achievement, militarily. how will you know if it's turning to politics? >> i do worry a great deal that this time of year, that this somehow gets spun into election politics. i can assure you that those of us that risk our lives, the last thing they would want is to be spun into that. so i'm hoping that doesn't happen. >> you got him, but what did it get you, what did it get us? are we demon strapably

functional. what's the net effect now that you have a year's clarity behind you? >> even before we had bin laden, we had al qaeda on its heels. and by getting bin laden, we capped off that two-year campaign that was important, that makes us safer. did it completely diminish all risk of terrorism? absolutely not. but all told, a year later r we better off? are we safer because we got bin laden? absolutely. >> and i also think it sent a message, brian, to the whole world, you attack innocent americans, we will follow you to the gates of hell and i think it sends a strong message about our capacity and about our will. >> of all the things that you've witnessed in your official life, where does this day rank?

>> it was both a professional responsibility that i had as secretary of state, and it was personally so important to me. i was at ground zero the next day, and, i mean, i will never forget what it was like flying over that and watching those burn i burni burning and all the bodies buried there. it was probably the most impactful combination of personal and professional responsibility that i have ever had. >> back home, days later, the president got to meet the s.e.al.s. that had conducted himself with so much modesty. the controlled crash landing prevented disaster and saved all the s.e.a.l.s.

>> they presented me with the flag that had gone on that mission, signed by all of them on the back. and i think it's fair to say that will probably be the most important possession that i leave from this presidency. >> most important day of your presidency? >> most important single day of my presidency, the most intense concentrated day that i have had as president of the united states. >> since this first aired, two members of s.e.a.l. team 6 have -- i'm brian williams, thanks for being with us.

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due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. i've been down since 1993 for shooting my mom. >> an inmate with a haunted past forged a brotherhood not often seen in prison. >> they wake me up at 5:00. we have to be at work at 6:00. >> a more sinister brotherhood attempts to spread its influence. >> brotherhoods don't normally get on cameras. i really got tired of seeing rats in dropout speaking for the ariabrhe