he went into action. >> narrator: in 20 years, he'd chased a lot of bad guys, but nobody like ramzi yousef. >> yousef is one of the most dangerous people on the planet, very smart. getting him and incapacitating him was a significant public safety issue, and john o'neill recognized that, was not about to take no for an answer anywhere before he was taken into custody. (telephone dialing) (telephone rings) >> white house. >> o'neill put together an arrest team that managed to catch ramzi ahmed yousef in pakistan, just before he moved into afghanistan, which would've been beyond our reach. it was a pretty intense couple of days, but it worked. >> narrator: for the next six years, o'neill and his agents would follow the bloody and complex trail from ramzi yousef to osama bin laden. >> the picture was still fuzzy-- i mean, it was by no means sharp-- that there was an emerging global islamic fundamentalist terrorist network that was becoming more and more engaged in the objective of attacking american targets. >> when yousef fled from the trade center bombing in 1993, among the places he went,

. >> reporter: kelley won a jury conviction against the attack's ringleader, ramzi yousef, who was sentenced to life in prison. >> cold-blooded, indeed. and he could, you know, look at you and smile, and rip your heart out at the same time. >> reporter: in the mid-1990s, kelley's colleagues in the southern district of new york also convicted omar abdel rahman, the blind sheik from egypt, and nine other islamic extremists for a conspiracy to carry out attacks on new york city landmarks like the george washington bridge and the united nations headquarters. >> i think the most memorable, historically significant thing about it for me is the degree to which it indicated what was coming. >> reporter: michael mukasey was the judge who presided over the trial and used his discretion to sentence abdel rahman to life behind bars. >> it was not a great ordeal or a tough call. >> reporter: but mukasey worries the public disclosure of evidence at that trial aided america's enemies. >> the government was required to serve a list of unindicted co-conspirators that it knew about, and they did. one name on

this included planning and financing for 9/11 and the safe harbor of al qaeda operative ramzi yousef who was convicted for organizing the 1993 world trade center bombing. because of this, following the september 11 attacks, u.s. special forces were deployed to southern philippines in support of operation enduring freedom. with an annual cost of less than new f-35, the joint special operations task force in the philippines partnered with local forces and trained, advised, and assisted our allies in the fight against al qaeda-linked groups. up until the mission was officially ended under this administration, operations and efforts to assist philippine forces in dismantling terror networks were hailed as a success. the threat of terrorism from extremist groups in the philippines, like abu sayef were largely reduced but the success from u.s. support in the region has been short lived. just as we are witnessing throughout the globe, previously weak or splintered terrorist networks in the southeast asia, they're banding together beneath the flag of isis. yet the administration's plans to d

secretary carter, did you know that khalid shaikh mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and ramzi yousef who masterminded and planned the 1993 world trade center attacks utilized the philippines as a safe haven for their planning and training? yes or no. >> senator earnsst, i'll try to answer your questions yes or no it. depends on whether they lend themselves to that. in this case, no i was not an aware. >> yes, did he use it as a safe haven during that planning and training. general dunford, did you know that "operation enduring freedom" covered the philippines in order to train and assist those local forces in the philippines against al qaeda linked terrorist organizations? >> yes, i did, senator. >> thank you, general. and for both of you, are you both aware that isis released a video this year encouraging fighters that can't get into ge syria to head to the philippines? >> i am, yes. >> i am as well and i was in manila last week, senator. >> wonderful. thank you, general. just like we're witnessing in the middle east and we heard much of the discussion today focused on the middle ea